South Point 400
Las Vegas, Nevada – October 4, 2026
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 AUTOTRADER FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 7TH STAGE 1: 5TH STAGE 2: 2ND FINISH: 4TH POINTS: 9TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse team turned in a strong performance Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning a fourth-place finish in the South Point 400. The result marked Cindric’s best career finish at Las Vegas and his second consecutive top-five finish. Cindric took the green flag from the seventh position and settled inside the top 10 during the opening run. After initially reporting that the Autotrader Ford was slightly tight through the center, the balance began to build free as the run progressed. The No. 2 team made wedge and air pressure adjustments during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 36 before making another trip down pit road under caution on Lap 44. The adjustments helped Cindric make progress late in the opening segment, as he raced his way to a fifth-place finish in Stage 1 to collect valuable stage points. A lengthy pit stop during the stage break dropped the No. 2 Ford to 25th for the ensuing restart, but Cindric quickly began working his way back through the field. Following a caution for debris on Lap 92, the No. 2 team elected to take two tires and fuel. Cindric restarted 23rd on Lap 98 and had climbed to 13th by Lap 107. As varying pit strategies played out later in the stage, Cindric assumed the lead and ultimately crossed the line second at the conclusion of Stage 2. He pitted for four tires and fuel during the stage break and exited pit road third. Cindric remained a fixture inside the top five throughout the final stage and reported that he was happy with the balance of the Autotrader Ford while running fourth on Lap 203. Following his final green-flag pit stop on Lap 218, Cindric continued his strong run to take the checkered flag in the fourth position. The fourth-place result marked Cindric’s best finish in a Cup Series race at Las Vegas and his second consecutive top-five finish following a runner-up effort last weekend at Kansas Speedway.
CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “Yeah, obviously we overcame a bit today, but to come up with a solid finish in our Autotrader Ford Mustang. I feel like we had a car that was pretty good and close to capable of winning today. There was a lot of deja vu from last week with the leaders fighting for the win and still giving us a shot there, but I’m just proud of everybody on the 2 car. We were able to bring two really fast cars two weeks in a row and we’re really starting to execute really well throughout this stretch.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/DURACELL FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 20TH STAGE 1: 3RD STAGE 2: 4TH FINISH: 5TH POINTS: 5TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Dark Horse Mustang crew continued their steady improvement on NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) intermedia circuits with a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is Blaney’s sixth fifth-place finish as the 1.5-mile desert oval and his seventh top-five overall. The 2023 NCS Champion started the race from the 20th position and early on Blaney radioed that he needed more overall grip on a day when temperatures hovered near 100 degrees. Yet he made steady improvement as he drove to the front from the drop of the green flag. Blaney would take the lead during the first pit cycle before coming down pit lane on Lap 41 for four tires, fuel and slight adjustments. The No. 12 Ford responded well to the air pressure adjustments called by crew chief Jonathan Hassler as handling moved slightly to each side of balanced throughout the race, but his driver was able to score points in both stages. Blaney had considerable speed over the long run, but he gave up too much time over the first several laps of a stint to make up the difference. After resuming the lead during pit cycles again, Blaney came to pit lane for the final time on Lap 221 and after cycling back to seventh in the order, he was able to make it back to grab the top-five finish.
BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “I definitely felt decent. Our long run pace was good, but not enough to overcome the short run pace that I would lose. The 19 got really far away there and start of the third stage I lost a couple of more spots. I then found a little bit and ran along and just tried to get a tire advantage and kind of got back to right around where we were. Overall, it was a good day. Our mile-and-a-half program is definitely getting better. Three cars in the top 10, that’s a really good day for our group, so I appreciate Team Penske for continuing to work on it, Ford Racing, Menards, Duracell, everybody who puts a lot into our program. We’ll keep digging and keep locking in and go at it week to week.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 23RD STAGE 1: 12TH STAGE 2: 6TH FINISH: 10TH POINTS: 4TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Dark Horse Mustang closed out Team Penske’s trio of top-10 finishes with his 10th-place result in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS). The four-time LVMS winner started from the 23rd position and he could not make much movement early in the 267-lap event. After making their first pit stop of the day on Lap 36, crew chief Paul Wolfe called Logano down pit lane again under a Lap 45 caution period to continue to make improvements to the handling. When the race resumed, Logano began his march forward. A Lap 88 restart provided one of the strongest moments of the race when Logano powered from eighth to fourth in the first two corners back under the green flag. Like his teammates, Logano’s strength was his long-run speed and the hole dug by the lack of short-run speed proved too big to challenge for a top-five finish. As the series heads to a home game next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Logano maintains his hold on the fourth position in the Chase standings.
LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “It was okay. We got up there and got some stage points in the second, so that was okay. I saw the front for a second, but we either have short run or long run speed – pick which one you want, but you can’t have them both. That’s kind of where it seemed we were, and then we just got lucky because the rear gear was smoking hot. I was probably too aggressive with some stuff there, but it worked out that we made it. I feel lucky we made it.”
The NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship continues next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Catch coverage of the Bank of America 400 beginning at 3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
