Austin Cindric wins Enjoy Illinois 300 after passing teammate who ran out of gas (2024)

The sick feeling of trying but failing to reach a gas station with the fuel gauge on empty overcame Ryan Blaney with fewer than two laps remaining in Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.

When his final fumes were exhausted at World Wide Technology Raceway, Blaney’s misfortune paved the way for teammate Austin Cindric to get his first win since the start of the 2022 season at Daytona.

Cindric took advantage to surge from 20th place in the NASCAR Cup series standings into a playoff spot despite what had been a streak of 12 races without a top 10 finish.

Cindric also was dealing with a fuel shortage but made it last long enough to catch Blaney and Christopher Bell, who slowed late in the race after leading 80 laps.

“I didn’t know we were close on fuel and was kind of shocked, to be honest,” Cindric said. “Either way, it’s crazy to think the two best cars had an issue at the end of the race and the third-place car wins. That’s the way I see it. It’s not like I went out and took the lead away, but we were in position and it was our best-executed race this year with probably the best speed.”

Team Penske did not have a win this season entering the race, but for a while, all three team members were in contention. They occupied the top three spots through two-thirds of the race and were hanging around until the end of the 240 laps on the 1¼-mile track.

Cindric, who qualified second, outlasted them all to win the third running of the NASCAR event, beating season points leader Denny Hamlin, who was nearly four seconds behind, and Brad Keselowski.

It wasn’t until the race was over that Cindric discovered his teammate ran out of gas. But had he known, he wasn’t going to pull over to lend a hand. Cindric needed this win.

Walter Czarnecki, executive vice president of Penske Corp., was asked if Cindric had been racing for his spot on the team recently.

“He’s a fellow who’s been frustrated but he’s coming along, and in the last five or six races we’ve seen a lot of progress,” he said. “He’s never lost his desire or intensity. When the (Nos.) 12 and 20 cars were putting on a show, I was watching Austin, and he was patient. This is a reaffirming situation for him today. We never lost faith in Austin Cindric.”

Cindric won the Xfinity Series championship in 2020 and was second in 2021 before starting his first full Cup series season by winning the Daytona 500. He also won at Daytona in his Xfinity car the previous year.

The bar was high as he went on to be named the 2022 rookie of the year. But more wins did not follow.

“I’m a very internally motivated person,” Cindric said. “This isn’t fun if I’m not winning, so as you can imagine, it hasn’t been very fun for a while. I don’t want to find myself in a position to be OK with 10th. It’s not good enough to drive at Team Penske. No one has to tell me that.”

The race’s pecking order at one point was Cindric followed by teammates Blaney and Joey Logano. It’s a group that had one top 10 finish in the previous six races. Logano ended up fifth, and Blaney dropped to 24th as failed fuel management cost him.

Keselowski also was a benefactor of Blaney’s misfortune and a late fade by Bell after starting the day ninth in the standings.

“The shorter, flatter tracks have been a weak spot for us,” Keselowski said. “So it’s good to get a good run and finish that one. ... We got behind early and fell to the back. This is not a forgiving track, so to get back up there to the top three (was good).”

Defending race champion Kyle Busch wrecked midway through the race and finished 35th, ending a run of good fortune at the track. He was second in the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 in 2022.

Michael McDowell could not live up to his track-record qualifying mark and pole position start as he sputtered to 25th.

Cindric knows well how those drivers feel, having finished 20th or worse in 11 of the season’s first 15 races. At Charlotte the previous week, he was 20th, Logano was 14th and Blaney was 39th.

“It was the last thing in our heads,” Cindric said. “It’s easy to get down. But this team has an incredible ability to be consistent, whether it’s the Indy 500 or this weekend. I went to bed (Saturday) knowing I’d be really, really disappointed if one of us didn’t win.”