TC Daily Pit Stop: Austin Cindric Steals Gateway Victory; Blaney Runs Out of Fuel Late; Busch, Larson Tangle in Turn 1
TC Daily Pit Stop: Monday, June 3, 2024
Austin Cindric Inherits Gateway Victory After Blaney Runs Out of Fuel
Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway is exactly the reason you don’t start engraving the trophy until the checkered flag flies.
With 20 laps remaining, Austin Cindric was sitting in third place and having one of the best afternoons of his NASCAR Cup Series career, when the racing gods looked down and blessed the No. 2 Ford Mustang.
First, it was Coca-Cola 600 winner Christopher Bell, the dominant driver of the afternoon, who began reporting an engine issue shortly after reaching Ryan Blaney and engaging in a tight-knit battle for what would have been the victory.
Now, they say lightning is never supposed to strike the same place twice, but if you ask Austin Cindric, that theory was disproven Saturday in Madison, Illinois.
As the field crossed under the white flag, race-leader Ryan Blaney ran out of gas on the fronstretch, allowing the No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse to blast into the race-lead, and complete the final 1.25-mile circuit to pick up the win.
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Video: Heartbreak for Ryan Blaney, as His Gas Tank Runs Dry With Two Laps to Go
There’s a reason why we run every lap of a NASCAR race, no matter how sure a finish seems. And unfortunately, for Ryan Blaney, that means sometimes we are first-hand parties to watching heartbreak play out on racing’s biggest stage.
Blaney, who took the lead with 19 laps remaining in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, looked to have the race sewn up when his prime competitor for the race win, Christopher Bell, suffered engine issues with under 20 laps left in the race.
But as Blaney, the defending Series champion, was attempting to close out his first win of the 2024 season, his Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric was quickly closing the gap. This forced Blaney to mash the gas pedal more, and in the end, his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang ran out of go-go juice as he was coming off of Turn 4 to take the white flag.
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Video: Kyle Larson Crashes Into Kyle Busch on Final Lap of Stage 2
Kyle Busch is done for the day after a crash with Kyle Larson on the final lap of Stage 2 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
From the replay on the FS1 race broadcast, it appears that the incident began a half lap earlier than it ended. The two made contact on the exit of Turn 4, and Busch seemed to take exception to that contact, and doored Larson down the frontstretch.
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