| Austin Cindric won the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday marking his second career NASCAR Cup Series win, first of the season, and first at Gateway. This win also marked Ford’s 730th NASCAR Cup Series win and second at WWTR after Team Penske’s Joey Logano won the inaugural race in 2022. |
| “Congratulations to Roger, Tim, Brian, Austin and everyone at Team Penske on the win at Gateway,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Austin started on the front row and carried that momentum throughout the long green flag runs to be in the right position to win at the end.” |
| “Honestly, I’m heartbroken for the 12 team. I don’t know what happened to them at the end of the race, but they deserved to win this race. Ryan has been a hell of a leader on this team. This weekend was a great weekend for everybody involved. To have two cars in the fight and an eventual one-two there, like I said, I’m heartbroken for those guys, but this is huge for me. This is huge for this team. I’m so glad I was able to get a win with Brian as my crew chief in the Cup Series. You never know when it’s gonna happen again. I just drove my butt off and hoped for the best,” commented Cindric. |
| Ford Performance drivers started the Enjoy Illinois 300 1-2-3 with Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell on the pole along with Team Penske teammates Austin Cindric in P2 and Ryan Blaney in P3. McDowell led most of the first stage of the race before Christopher Bell made a pass during the closing laps. Stage 2 ended with Christopher Bell winning the stage as hard-charging Austin Cindric was just one second behind him. A cycle of green flag pit stops and different pit strategies shuffled the field in the final stage of the race. The three Team Penske cars of Cindric, Blaney and Logano did not pit in the break between the second and third stages, putting them in position to compete for the win at the end. Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney battled for the lead until Bell slowly started to fall back. Blaney took the lead and maintained it until coming to the white flag but slowed after running out of fuel. Teammate Austin Cindric passed him at the start-finish line to lead the final lap and win over second-place Denny Hamlin by 3.844 seconds. |
| Four Ford Performance drivers finished in the top 10: RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski finished in P3, Team Penske’s Joey Logano in P5, and Rick Ware Racing’s Justin Haley in P9. |
| The NASCAR Xfinity Series raced at Portland International Raceway on Saturday. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer finished in P6 while teammate Riley Herbst finished in P10. The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series both compete this weekend at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. |
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