Austin Cindric scored his second Cup Series victory in incredibly surprising fashion on Sunday at Gateway.
Cindric took the lead on the final lap after his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney’s car suddenly slowed after apparently running out of gas. Blaney looked set for an easy win after Christopher Bell’s car suffered an engine problem with less than twenty laps to go.
Cindric has struggled since winning the 2022 Daytona 500. He entered Sunday’s race 20th in the points standings after finishing 24th a season ago with just five top-10 finishes. He hadn’t won in 85 races since winning in his eighth Cup Series start at Daytona two seasons ago.
Blaney cycled into the lead after the pit stop with 64 laps to go in the 240-lap race. He pitted knowing he could make it to the end of the race with a full tank of gas, but his team apparently couldn’t fill that tank completely. As his car sputtered, he radioed to his crew that he was out of gas and drove to the finish in 24th place.
The gamble Blaney’s team took turned out to be a big gamble. The final pit stop was supposed to ensure he would make it to the end of the race on fuel, but also meant he would be running on older tires as the checkered flag approached.
Bell came in later than Blaney and Cindric – who followed a similar strategy to his teammate – and quickly took Blaney down with 30 laps to go. However, he was unable to pass him after the duo fought. Blaney held Bell at bay for several laps before Bell’s engine problems surfaced and it was not inconceivable that he could have held the lead for the remainder of the race if Bell had had a fully functioning engine.
Instead, neither driver achieved victory.
