Enjoy Illinois 300: Austin Cindric wins Gateway thriller as Ryan Blaney runs out of fuel

“I never thought in my mind we were short [on fuel],” Blaney said. “It’s one of those things. I’m proud of the 12 boys. The Menards/Richmond Ford was fast. I had my work cut out for me holding off Christopher (Bell), that was fun. I don’t know what happened to him, but just one lap short.

“That stinks, but congrats to the 2 team. They did a good job all day. Props to them, Austin. I’m proud for Team Penske and Ford. I’m really happy with our showing today. I don’t know what I’ve got to do to get some luck on our side. I’ve wrecked the last two points races and thought we had a great shot to win today and I ended up bad, so I just appreciate the effort. We just have to keep sticking with it.”

The other driver who seemed to be heading to Victory Lane before having late-race issues with his car was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, the winner of last week’s race at Charlotte. Bell swept both Stage 1 and Stage 2, but had engine trouble and wound up seventh after leading a race-high 80 laps.

“I have no idea what happened with our DEWALT Camry – some sort of motor issue, and I’m surprised that it made it to the end,” Bell said. “Glad we were able to salvage something out of it – but you don’t get race cars like that very often – whenever you do, you need to take advantage of them, so that is disappointing.”

Results from the 2024 Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway are listed below.

Denny Hamlin finished in the top five for the fifth consecutive race. His second-place finish helped him keep control as the NASCAR Cup Series points leader.

“We had a top-five car – we didn’t have the best today, but the Yahoo Camry was in the mix, and was able to capitalize on some others misfortune there,” Hamlin said. “We were going to have a top-five day regardless, but proud of the team. They did a great job on pit road – Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) and the team brought a great car, just wasn’t quite enough.”

Team Penske’s Joey Logano finished in fifth, which makes him the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all three Cup Series races at Gateway. He won in 2022 and finished third in 2023 at the Illinois track.

Austin Dillon, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley all finished inside the top 10. For Hocevar, it was a career-best finish, bringing home the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in eighth. For Haley, it was the first time in the history of Rick Ware Racing that the team had two top-10 finishes in a three-race span, according to statistician Trey Ryan.

Brad Keselowski’s third-place finish makes it the sixth time in 2024 where he’s finished inside the top three. It is also the third consecutive time after finishing second at Charlotte and first at Darlington.

The other two Arrow McLaren drivers failed to finish the race after a monstrous multi-car wreck on Lap 73. It started with Pato O’Ward, who spun tail first into the outside wall of Turn 1.

O’Ward reported that his rear locked up to cause the spin after running in sixth. Stuck broadside in one of the narrowest parts of the track, and with a delayed yellow flag, Marcus Ericsson had nowhere to go and wedged himself next to the stranded O’Ward. 

Pietro Fittipaldi and Santino Ferrucci also had nowhere to go as both drivers ramped off the nose of O’Ward before Nolan Siegel would make a huge impact, destroying his car and pushing teammate O’Ward to the middle of the track. Toby Sowery was also involved.

“I am so surprised IndyCar didn’t call a yellow,” O’Ward said. “You’re just calling for a massive shunt. They had a solid five seconds to call yellow and tell everyone that was coming.”