Quaker State 400: Atlanta Motor Speedway
Hampton, Ga. – September 8, 2024
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 MENARDS/QUAKER STATE FORD MUSTANG
START: 5TH STAGE ONE: 2ND STAGE TWO: 1ST FINISH: 10TH POINTS: 7TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric led a race and career-high 92 laps in Sunday’s Quaker State 400, but ultimately placed 10th in the Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang after diligently working to recover from an issue on pit road. The speed of Cindric’s Blue Oval was on full display all weekend, as the 26-year-old driver qualified inside the top 10 for the fourth consecutive time at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Cindric had a constant presence among the frontrunners in the opening stint, finishing second in Stage 1 to secure nine valuable points. He pitted for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment and restarted second with teammate Ryan Blaney behind him. Cindric quickly jolted to the lead, where he remained until a caution for debris slowed the field on Lap 115. The yellow flag allowed the Team Penske car to pit for fuel only ahead of the restart, in which Cindric lined up as the leader. He cruised on to his fifth career Stage win by taking the checkered flag first at the end of the second segment, securing more valuable points. Happy with the balance of the car, he returned to pit road for four fresh tires and fuel; however, an unfortunate issue with the left front led to a loss of position and Cindric was scored 19th for the restart. He meticulously maneuvered his Ford Mustang up through the pack over the dramatic final segment to record a 10th-place finish.
CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “I’m just glad a Team Penske car won it. We’ve come to so many of these speedways with cars that are capable of winning races and I’m proud of Joey [Logano] and the guys to get it done. Obviously, Ryan [Blaney] and I worked really well together to get a ton of points to start. We just got off cycle there with a bad pit stop and just really took a long time to get back up to the front of the field. I feel like I could have made some better decisions on the last couple of restarts, but a solid effort all around with all of the challenges of pack racing.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 DENT WIZARD FORD MUSTANG
START: 2ND STAGE ONE: 1ST STAGE TWO: 2ND FINISH: 3RD POINTS: 1ST
RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney wheeled the No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang to a third-place finish in the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Sunday at Atlanta, moving the 12-team to the top of the drivers points standings. After starting from the outside of row one, Blaney made the move to take over the lead on lap 30 and paced the field for the remainder of the first 60-lap stage for his fourth stage win of the season. He restarted Stage 2 from the inside of row two behind teammate Austin Cindric as the two pushed their way to the front of the field at the start of the run. The caution flag flew on lap 114 as the leaders pitted for fuel only, setting up a restart with 41 laps left in the second segment. Blaney continued to work with Cindric up front, culminating in a second-place finish in Stage 2 for the Dent Wizard Ford. With fuel mileage playing a major role in the final stage, teams began to vary their strategies as Blaney continued to run inside the top-10. On lap 205, the No. 17 got loose underneath Blaney off the exit of turn two and made contact with the left rear of the No. 12, sending him sliding across the track and into the door of the No. 19 to bring out the caution. The 12-team made a pair of stops on pit road under yellow for repairs to the right rear and left side door without losing a lap as Blaney got back on track to take the green from the tail end of the field. Without any concerns about making it to the end on fuel, Blaney began his charge through the field to make it back inside the top-10 with 16 laps to go. After a caution for debris set up a restart with five to go, Blaney worked his way through three-wide battles to get to the bumper of teammate Joey Logano before pushing him to the lead. The final caution of the afternoon flew with two to go to set up a green-white-checkered finish as Blaney lined up to restart behind Logano on the inside of row two. With another pair of teammates lined up in the outside lane, the Team Penske duo prevailed as Blaney pushed Logano clear of the No. 99 and to the eventual race win as the 2023 Cup Series Champion took the checkered flag third, marking his second-consecutive top-five and fifth-straight top-10 finish at Atlanta.
BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “Yeah, honestly I can’t believe we got back up where we did. The 12 boys did a really good job fixing it. I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did. From my seat, I got drilled in the left rear, the door I guess is where it hit me. The right rear got off the fence. I didn’t know how damaged we were. I was kind of able to carve up through traffic, could kind of get through the middle pretty good. So yeah, really proud of the effort. [I] had a thought of going three-wide on the frontstretch. I’m like, man, it’s going to be tight, we already have a good day going, great points, all that stuff. Yeah, third, a really good day. Appreciate Dent Wizard doing what they do. Menards, Advance Auto Parts, DEX Imaging, Discount Tire. Move on to Watkins Glen. Proud of the effort by everybody and congrats to the 22 team. Joey [Logano] did a great job all day.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 AUTOTRADER FORD MUSTANG
START: 7TH STAGE ONE: 4TH STAGE TWO: 12TH FINISH: 1ST POINTS: 5TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano locked himself into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with a dramatic win in the opening race the postseason Sunday at Atlanta, parking the No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang in victory lane for his 34th-career victory. Sunday’s win is Logano’s 32nd with Ford, placing him fourth on the manufacturers all-time wins list, while also marking his eighth season with multiple Cup Series victories. Logano opened the 400-mile event with a fourth-place finish in Stage 1 before handling issues in traffic throughout Stage 2 resulted in a 12th-place result in the second segment. After restarting the final stage from 15th, Logano was scored 18th at the time of the caution on lap 175, prompting teams to hit pit road with the fuel window looming. Crew chief Paul Wolfe made the call for fuel only as the field lined up with 79 laps remaining, but another caution on lap 205 altered the strategy yet again as Logano was told to hold off on going hard until 10 laps to go. Logano found success running the top lane as he charged into the top-five with 27 to go before he was told he no longer needed to save fuel with 14 laps left, allowing him to jump to fourth on the leaderboard prior to a caution for debris with 11 to go. Logano lined up from the outside of row two for the ensuing restart and worked his way to the front with teammate Ryan Blaney on his back bumper as the two navigated three-wide battles prior to the caution with two laps remaining, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. Logano and Blaney lined up as the first two cars on the inside row coming to the green with teammates in the Nos. 99 and 1 lined up on the front of the outside row, but the Team Penske duo prevailed as the Autotrader Ford cleared the No. 99 heading into turn one on the white flag lap and kept it out front the rest of the way, culminating in Logano’s second points-paying win of the 2024 season and second-career victory at Atlanta (2022 Spring). Logano’s 34th-career Cup Series victory moves him into a tie for 25th on the series’ all-time wins list with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr.
LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “They just give me really fast cars on superspeedways and we always find ourselves towards the front of them, we just end up wrecking more times than not. So, to be able to finally capitalize on a fast race car and win here in Atlanta again, I lived right over there in condo 805 for a long time, waking up dreaming of just racing on this racetrack, so pulling into Victory Lane here is always a special one. We had such a really good team here today. It’s awesome to get Autotrader into Victory Lane and the JL Kids Crew are here today, so it’s really cool to finally win with them here.”
“We all talked about how wild card this round could be. We knew that the Penske cars would be strong on the superspeedway style type racetracks. We’ve been all year long. Unfortunately we’ve been caught up in every possible wreck on these type of tracks. It’s nice to finally capitalize on the laps led, being towards the front, having a teammate lined up behind me there. He scored a ton of points today, too, being up there. A good day for Team Penske all the way through. A really special day for Penske to be able to score some good points and set themselves up pretty good for the Round of 12.”
The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continues the Round of 16 at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, September 15. Coverage of the Go Bowling at The Glen begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
