Goodyear 400 – Darlington Raceway
Darlington, S.C. – April 6, 2025
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 FREIGHTLINER FORD MUSTANG
START: 6TH STAGE 1: 8TH STAGE 2: 22ND FINISH: 11TH POINTS: 21ST
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang team showed strong speed throughout the weekend at Darlington Raceway, starting Sunday’s Goodyear 400 from the sixth position after an impressive qualifying effort. Cindric quickly worked his way up to third in the opening laps and reported no major issues with the car’s balance, securing valuable stage points with an eighth-place finish in Stage 1. An ill-timed caution during a green-flag pit cycle in Stage 2 shuffled the running order and left Cindric 22nd at the conclusion of the segment. With consistent speed and the steady adjustments from crew chief Brian Wilson over the course of the day, the No. 2 team battled back for a solid 11th-place finish.
CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “We had a good starting spot with our Freightliner Ford Mustang. Unfortunately, that caution came out during the pit cycle and trapped us a lap down. We spent the whole race trying to recover from that. We had good speed on short runs and fell off pretty hard on long runs. Brian (Wilson) and the guys never gave up on adjustments and we had a much better balance by the end of the race. Overall, a good way to end the day, after something that’s out of our control.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/DUTCH BOY FORD MUSTANG
START: 9TH STAGE 1: 7TH STAGE 2: 4TH FINISH: 5TH POINTS: 7TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney was four laps away from notching his first win of the 2025 season at Darlington Raceway, but a late-race caution that set up a green-white-checkered finish saw the No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang settle for a fifth-place result. Blaney and the No. 12 team brought one of the fastest cars on the long run as he was able to fight his way through the field in the opening two stages to come away with a seventh-place effort in Stage 1 before crossing the line fourth in Stage 2. Blaney restarted the final segment from 16th place with 100 laps remaining and methodically worked his way back up to fifth in the running order with 55 laps left on the board. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the call to run long during the pit cycle before calling Blaney to pit road for a four tire stop with 47 laps remaining. Despite facing a 15-plus second deficit to the leader, Blaney erased the margin with several-lap fresher tires than the leaders to get to the back bumper of the No. 45 with five laps to go. Immediately after Blaney made the pass for the lead out of Turn 2, the caution flag flew as all the leaders hit pit road prior to the green-white-checkered restart. Blaney made it off pit road fourth and was unable to get back to the front from the inside of row two, settling for a fifth-place finish.
BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “I’m proud of the effort that we had. I’m obviously disappointed in the result. I thought we had a good shot at winning the race. We did the last run perfectly. I thought our pit call was fantastic and our car was fast enough to stay. It had a lot of speed in it late, but a late yellow and then lost the lead off pit road. We didn’t even get to start on the front row and you’re not going to go from fourth to first in a green-white-checkered here, so it just wasn’t meant to be, but proud of the effort.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG
START: 18TH STAGE 1: 11TH STAGE 2: 2ND FINISH: 13TH POINTS: 9TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano came away with a 13th-place finish Sunday at Darlington Raceway. After rolling off from 18th starting position, the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang worked its way into the top 10 during the latter stages of the opening segment before crossing the line 11th in Stage 1. Logano continued to keep top 10 pace throughout Stage 2 as the No. 22 team opted to run long in the green flag pit cycle, vaulting him to second in the running order before the caution flew on lap 138 to set up a front row position for the ensuing restart with 42 laps left in the stage. Logano maintained his pace for the remainder of the run following the four tire stop under caution to pick up a second-place finish in Stage 2. After taking the green flag with 100 laps remaining, Logano settled into fifth in the running order before being called to pit road early in the cycle, allowing him to reach second on the leaderboard with 45 laps to go. As tire falloff became a factor in the late stages of the run, Logano fell to sixth when the caution flag flew with four laps to go, setting up one final round of pit stops prior to the green-white-checkered finish. An issue on the stop resulted in Logano taking the green flag from 11th before taking the checkered flag 13th following the two-lap shootout.
LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “It was a hard-fought day for our 22 crew. Our strategy calls kept putting us in contention in the first two stages and during the final green flag run. We just didn’t have enough to keep pace on the final run there, but I thought we could maintain in the top 10 if we ran it out to the end. It didn’t fall our way on that final cycle, but we’ll keep moving forward.”
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 13. Live coverage of the Food City 500 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1 with in-car camera angles available all race long through MAX Driver Cam.
