Straight Talk Wireless 400 – Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead, Fla. – March 23, 2025
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 MENARDS/DURACELL FORD MUSTANG
START: 8TH STAGE 1: 5TH STAGE 2: 7TH FINISH: 19TH POINTS: 21ST
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric showed strong pace and versatility throughout the early goings of Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, ultimately bringing the No. 2 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang home in 19th place after a speeding penalty forced him to rally from the rear of the field in the final stage. Cindric made his first trip to pit road on Lap 33 for four tires and fuel. A caution on Lap 70 found the No. 2 team in 12th, with Cindric noting the car was too tight to run the higher lanes. He pitted again for four tires and fuel before a five-lap dash to the end of Stage 1, where he charged to a fifth-place finish, earning six stage points. Kicking off Stage 2 from fifth, Cindric made a green-flag pit stop on Lap 121 for four tires and fuel with just over 40 laps remaining in the segment. He maintained solid short-run speed and felt good about his adaptability through different lines. He wrapped up the stage in seventh and pitted again under caution for service. The 26-year-old driver restarted the final stage in sixth, but radioed that he needed to be freer with 62 laps remaining in the race. A caution on Lap 207 found the No. 2 Ford in ninth, but Cindric reported the car was the tightest it had been all day. After pitting for tires and fuel, the team was assessed a speeding penalty, sending Cindric to the rear for the restart. He worked his way back through the field to finish 19th.
CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “I feel like it was one of my best Homestead Cup races. Without the speeding penalty it could’ve been a really awesome points day. I thought we had a lot of versatility in our Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang. I thought it was important for keeping track position. My No. 2 guys did a really solid job on pit road today. We had a lot of the right pieces to execute, and I dropped the ball on my end on the pit road speed; a hundredth of a mile per hour, so that stings. A little to clean up, but proud of the effort.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 DENT WIZARD FORD MUSTANG
START: 6TH STAGE 1: 1ST STAGE 2: 3RD FINISH: 36TH POINTS: 10TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Despite leading a race-high 124 laps Sunday, Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 team fell victim to an engine failure while running third with 60 laps to go, resulting in a 36th-place finish. The Dent Wizard Ford Mustang was the class of the field for the first two stages at Homestead-Miami as Blaney commanded the opening 80-lap segment to pick up his second stage win of the season in Stage 1. After taking the restart from the outside of row two, Blaney quickly regained the lead less than 10 laps into the run before hitting pit road on lap 118 during the green flag pit cycle. As Blaney made his way through lapped traffic with under 15 laps remaining in Stage 2, the Nos. 24 and 11 began to close in on the lead to set up a battle for the stage win, culminating in a third-place result for the Dent Wizard Ford. Blaney took the green flag for the final stage from eighth before moving his way into a three-car race for the lead with the Nos. 23 and 5 as the final green flag pit cycle closed in, but as he came off of turn four with 60 laps to go, a plume of smoke came billowing out of the No. 12 Ford, signaling the end of the afternoon due to an engine failure.
BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “I didn’t have any warning. It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We had a really fast Dent Wizard Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps. We lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit road, but got back to third and it was a great race between me and Bubba [Wallace] and [Kyle] Larson. I’m sure Denny [Hamlin] was going to get back into it. It was going to be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so, but it just didn’t really work out for us. We’ll continue to keep fighting. I appreciate the 12 guys for just giving me a hot rod. It was an incredibly, incredibly fast race car today. We’ll keep our heads up. It’s just one of those things where it’s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we’re bringing fast cars and that’s all you can ask for.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG
START: 12TH STAGE 1: 10TH STAGE 2: 29TH FINISH: 14TH POINTS: 11TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano came away with a 14th-place finish Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the No. 22 team rallied back from a lap down in Stage 2 to pick up a top-15 result. Logano took the green flag from 12th and worked his way into the top-10 during the opening run before starting the first green flag pit cycle of the 400-mile event on lap 32. The Shell-Pennzoil Ford cycled back into the 10th spot during the ensuing run and maintained the position through the end of Stage 1. As Logano was exiting his pit stall following a four tire stop during the stage caution, the No. 21 made contact with the right front of the No. 22, sending him spinning towards the inside wall of pit road. The No. 22 assessed the damage immediately after as Logano drove back to his stall before an additional stop prior to the restart saw him take the green flag from the tail end of the field. Due to his track position, Logano was forced to stretch the ensuing run longer than the leaders, resulting in losing a lap after hitting pit road on lap 127. Logano ultimately fought his way into the free pass position by the end of the second segment and rejoined the lead lap prior to restarting the final stage. Logano worked his way back into the top-15 with under 50 laps remaining before taking the checkered flag 14th to cap off the afternoon.
LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “A hard-fought day for us – especially after having to work our way back from going down a lap in the second stage. It felt like we had top-10 speed once we got back into a rhythm towards the end of Stage 2 but just didn’t have enough laps left to make back the track position down the stretch.”
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the paperclip at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 30. Live coverage of Sunday’s race begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1 with in-car camera angles available all race long through MAX Driver Cam.
