NASCAR Review: Austin Cindric’s Win, Joey Logano’s P5 & Ryan Blaney’s Heartbreak Headline Mixed Results for Team Penske at Gateway

Rahul Ahluwalia | 03/06/2024
NASCAR Review: Austin Cindric's Win, Joey Logano's P5 & Ryan Blaney's Heartbreak headline mixed results for Team Penske at Gateway

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is inching closer to this year’s playoffs, with only eleven races to go until the postseason showdown between the drivers. Last Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway saw a new winner take a trip to victory lane this year.

Team Penske’s Austin Cindric won the 300-mile-long race after misfortunes for prior leaders & contenders. Ryan Blaney & Christopher Bell were seen out of the hunt for P1 after mechanical and operational errors for both teams.

The #2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse driver did not lead any laps during the event and passed an out-of-fuel Blaney on the last lap of the race to win, whereas Bell could not challenge up front due to a loss of engine power.

Blaney was left disheartened after coming excruciatingly close to qualifying for the playoffs last Sunday in Madison, Illinois. The defending Cup Series champion was seen dejected after getting out of his racecar at Gateway. He ultimately was classified in P24 after the race.

The third car from Roger Penske‘s Cup Series stale also managed to bring in a good result at Gateway Motorsports Park as Joey Logano backed up previous strong performances at the track with a P5. The 2023 Cup Series champion has finished in P1 and P3 on two prior visits to the venue.

Joey Logano elaborates on his performance during NASCAR’s visit to Gateway last Sunday

The driver of the #22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Roger Penske, Joey Logano wasn’t able to replicate his success at the WWT Raceway from two seasons ago as he fell short of teammates Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric during the event.

Despite finishing ahead of Blaney, Logano would not have clinched P5 had it not been for the latter running out of fuel. This allowed Penske teammate Austin Cindric to pounce on the opportunity for victory, which Logano was not in position for.

He elaborated on his drive from last Sunday and said, “We were just a few adjustments away of getting our Mustang as good as our teammates were, but not too bad. We were able to grab some points and a Penske car got in Victory Lane, so you’ve got to be happy about that.”

He further stated, “Obviously, we’d rather it be us, but that momentum goes through the whole shop. It’s still a good day. We still scored a bunch of points today with stage points in both stages. A poor qualifying effort, which probably hurt us a little bit on tuning the car and just a little too loose off.”

NASCAR heads to Sonoma Raceway next weekend for much-awaited road course action with the 2024 Toyota/Save Mart 350.

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
austin cindric Joey Logano NASCAR Cup Series Ryan Blaney Team Penske

About the author

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Rahul Ahluwalia

Rahul Ahluwalia is a NASCAR Content Strategist and Journalist at The SportsRush. Hailing from a Journalism and Mass Communication background, Rahul's love for automobiles transformed into his passion for all things racing. With over 1200+ articles under his belt covering a mixture of NASCAR and F1, he has realized his calling in the world of motorsports with actual first hand experience behind the wheel to back it up. He has competed in several autocross events as well as rallycross-style competitions to hone his skills behind the wheel and better understand the mindset of a racecar driver, allowing him to further improve his writing as well. He also has an editorial background with respect to racing and has eye for stories which otherwise go unnoticed. Rahul is also an avid sim racer indulging in various disciplines such as rallying and oval racing during his free time. Having begun his motorsports journey at the start of 2020, he turned his passion into his work allowing him to delve deeper into the ever evolving and world of cars and motorsports. Apart from racing, Rahul also has sound technical knowledge of the automotive industry and automobiles in general. Having grown up playing video games such as Need for Speed, Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo, it is easy to see where the love for racing and machines inculcated in the first place.

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