Austin Cindric clinches playoff spot with a dramatic win at World Wide Technology Raceway at the expense of teammate
MADISON, Ill. (KMIZ)
As Austin Cindric walked into the media center holding his large Enjoy Illinois 300 trophy a lucky horseshoe dangled off the side. Cindric says that it was given to him by a fan after the race. However, he doesn’t know the back story behind it since it was handed to him as he was driving toward victory lane. His teammate Joey Logano received a similar horseshoe after winning World Wide Technology Raceway's inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in 2022. That makes Ryan Blaney the only driver of Team Penske who has yet to receive a horseshoe.
Blaney could certainly use the luck. The driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang can’t seem to catch a break at the WWT Raceway. During the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300, he looked like the fastest car all day, until a jack broke during one of his pit stops, forcing him to settle for a fourth-place finish. On Sunday he was just 1.25 miles from his first victory of the season before his car ran out of gas on the last lap, handing his teammate Cindric the win. Blaney watched helplessly as he dropped from first place to 24th while his car limped to the checkered flag.
The defending NASCAR Cup Series Champion was trying to snap a 15-race winless streak. But for his teammate Cindric, the winless drought had been even longer. After winning the Daytona 500 during his rookie season, Cindric had gone 85 races without seeing his No. 2 Ford Mustang in victory lane. It had been so long since he had won a race that Cindric joked he didn't even see the other cars congratulating him because he was still worried he needed to drive fast.
“I was like super nervous after taking the checkered [flag],” Cindric said. “Came off turn four, identified that the guy had the checkered flag in his hand, listened to my spotter telling me that I just won the race, and was still terrified that I needed to keep driving fast. That’s how long it’s been since I won a race. I just didn’t want to give it away the dumb way.”
Cindric entered the race 20th in the points, with the win he is now locked into a spot in the playoffs. But the win came at the expense of a fellow Team Penske driver.
“Honestly I’m heartbroken for those guys and I know it might sound cliche to say that, but I really do feel that way,” Cindric said. “Those guys are championship contenders you know a win, five playoff points goes a really long way for those guys.”
While Cindric might have caught a lucky break he turned in a race-winning performance all weekend, qualifying second and leading a career-best 53 laps.
“It’s not like I went out there and took the lead away but we were in position and it was one of our best-executed races so far this year with probably our best speed we’ve shown this year,” Cindric said.
The Ford cars looked fast all weekend with the three fastest times in qualifying. Michael McDowell of Front Row Motorsports broke the track record in qualifying for the fastest pole lap ever recorded at World Wide Technology Raceway. His 32.468-second lap was just enough to beat out Cindric and Blaney who qualified second and third.
McDowell was one of only two drivers to downshift into third gear during his qualifying lap which might have made the difference. It was a lesson that the 39-year-old driver said he learned during last year’s qualifying session.
“I thought with the speed you pick up in qualifying and the extra grip that you had, that extra downshift would probably overslow it and hurt you. So my plan last year was to run fourth in [turns] three and four. I did and lost a tenth and a half in that corner compared to all the guys that downshifted and so studying that, looking at it and highlighting it, I just knew that’s what I needed to do,” McDowell explained on Saturday.
The only other driver to downshift into third gear was Cindric who missed out on the pole by .109 tenths of a second.
It marked McDowell’s third pole win of the season. That is a big accomplishment for Front Row Motorsports given their limited budget compared to some of the larger teams in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was made even more impressive considering McDowell announced he would be leaving the team after seven seasons with FRM to join Spire Motorsports.
“In a way, I’m surprised, in a way I’m not,” Front Row Motorsports General Manager Jerry Freeze told ABC 17 when asked about winning the pole. “He’s certainly part of our family. We kind of knew about his opportunity well before he announced it and we made the pledge to ourselves that we were going to give it our all, all the way to Phoenix.”
Front Motorsports GM Jerry Freeze discusses the 34 car getting on the pole and their chances of making the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/jKzu0sMI6N
— Mitchell Kaminski (@MitchKaminski99) June 2, 2024
McDowell’s view from the front of the field didn’t last long on Sunday. Christopher Bell and the No. 20 team made it apparent very early that they had the best car in the field. Bell led the race five times for a race-high 80 laps. The Joe Gibbs driver needed just 40 laps to go from fourth place to passing McDowell for the lead. He may have been able to take the lead even sooner for two earlier cautions involving Cody Ware. Ware was making just his second start of the season and admitted before the race that getting back into rhythm when running a part-time schedule is difficult.
“It’s definitely drinking from a fire hose being out for so long,” Ware said on pit road before the race. “Not only have the cars gotten a lot faster over the last year but the competition, to me, from front to back has gotten way more competitive.”
Bell cruised to a stage one victory. After restarting ninth in stage two he needed just 15 laps to pick his way through the field and pass Kyle Busch for the lead on lap 70. He held onto that lead until lap 144 after sweeping the first two stages of the race, which earned him two valuable playoff points.
Unfortunately for last year’s winner, Kyle Busch, his day came to an early end on lap 141 when he tried to pinch Kyle Larson down in turn two after the pair of drivers made contact. Larson got loose under Busch and sent the two drivers crashing into the wall. Larson was able to continue. Busch had to take his car to the garage for an early exit.
Cindric led the field to green for the third and final stage while Bell restarted ninth. Blaney chased him in second for 26 laps before pitting. Cindirc’s crew chief Brian Wilson said after the race that he wanted to pit Cindric the same lap as Blaney, however, the 12 team did a good job disguising it which forced them to have to pit a lap later.
When Bell pitted from the lead on lap 193, Blaney cycled to first place. Bell ran him down with just 26 laps to go and the two battled side by side for eight laps. As the two swapped continued to swap positions Bell came over his radio and said his engine was blowing up on lap 221 of 240. Bell quickly began to fade as Blaney extended his lead to over a second. Bell’s teammate Martin Truex Jr., who blew a tire early in the race and was several laps down, was forced to push Bell down the straightways to help his teammate get to the finish.
As all of this was going on Cindric was lurking in third place. After getting gifted second from Bell he closed the gap to 1.1 seconds with five laps to go to put him in a position to win.
“When the 12 and the 20 were putting on such a great show for the spectators here, it was worth the price of admission, as a fan I enjoyed that. I was watching Austin [Cindric] he was patient,” Team Penske executive Walter Czarnecki said. “He didn’t push the issue there were some guys on him and he just hung in there and drove it.”
As they took the white flag, Cindric said he wasn’t aware that Blaney was out of gas.
“Until we were in victory lane I didn’t know we were that close, or maybe they didn’t get full. Obviously they pitted a lap sooner,” Cindric said. “Honestly I didn’t get the impression that we were one lap away from running out. So obviously you kind of have to dig through the data on that one. Just kind of shocked.”
The race provided teams a good opportunity to add to their notebooks for the championship race in Phoenix, as the tracks share some similar characteristics.
“Flatter corners in three and four, high-speed straightaways, I think we might even be using the same tire, so definitely some takeaways,” Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Ford and part owner of RFK racing said after his third-place finish.
Team Penske has now won two of the three races at WWT Raceway. They have also won the last two championships at Phoenix. Cindric’s crew chief, Brian Wilson hopes that trend can continue.
“A lot of the construction is similar [to Phoenix], the bigger gauge tire we’ve been running recently is something that’s carried across a lot of tracks. End of the day when you’re working off of a notebook that’s what you typically do is you see what is common,” Wilson explained. “I definitely hope it crosses over.
For the third consecutive year, the stands were packed with fans. WWT Raceway is quickly earning a good reputation with the drivers who say they were impressed by the sports fans in St. Louis.
Austin Cindric says he was impressed with the sports fans in St. Louis after attending a @stlbattlehawks game the day before the race. pic.twitter.com/RdBd21ND14
— Mitchell Kaminski (@MitchKaminski99) June 2, 2024
“A lot of the midwest races we go to get some pretty diehard NASCAR fans around here so it definitely gets us pumped up to be racing here,” Ware said.
“It’s a great weekend. A lot of fans come out and a lot of passionate racing fans around here,” Tyler Reddick, who finished fourth told ABC 17 after the race. “I spent years racing dirt late models and micro sprints so it’s great.”
“I went to a St. Louis Battlehawks game last night and honestly I was pretty surprised at the turnout,” Cindric joked. “Ninety percent of the people there were all wearing team gear. I’m like ‘I gotta buy a hat to fit in here’. It showed there’s a passion for sports in this place. The facility is always super clean and they are always trying to do innovative new things and the teams and the drivers notice that. I would say my only constructive criticism is maybe more bathrooms in the garage area.”
