CHASE BRISCOE
Las Vegas Advance
No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Las Vegas 400 (Round 3 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 3
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● After finishing 10th in the season-opening Daytona 500, Chase Briscoe had momentum rolling into the year’s second race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver was on the cusp of his second career NASCAR Cup Series win last Sunday at Atlanta, consistently running among the top-five, oftentimes running side-by-side for the lead. But Briscoe’s bid for victory came undone 21 laps short of the finish when a struggling racecar ahead of him bunched up the cars around Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Mustang, sending Briscoe spinning into the outside retaining wall. After qualifying ninth and running strong throughout the race, Briscoe was left with just a 31st-place finish.

● The Las Vegas 400 this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will mark Briscoe’s seventh career NASCAR Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile oval. His best finish is a fourth-place drive in October 2022, but the track has proven to be challenging otherwise with Briscoe scoring just one other top-15 result – 14th in September 2021.

● In the City of Lights, Briscoe was lights out at Las Vegas when it came to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In five career Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas, Briscoe won twice and had two other finishes of 11th or better. In fact, Briscoe left Las Vegas in the best way possible. In his final two Xfinity Series starts at the track, he won both times by sweeping the slate of races in 2020, leading 253 of the 400 laps available (63.3 percent).

● In his lone NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start at Las Vegas in September 2017, Briscoe was strong and consistent, qualifying third, leading 40 laps, and then finishing third.

● Mahindra Ag North America is in its third year as the anchor sponsor for Briscoe and the No. 14 team after extending its partnership with Stewart-Haas during the offseason. The multiyear agreement with the NASCAR team co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and industrialist Gene Haas continues to feature Mahindra Tractors, a brand of Mahindra Ag North America, on Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Mustang for the majority of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The red-and-black No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang made its debut in the 2022 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum and then won in just its fifth race as a primary sponsor when Briscoe drove to victory on March 13, 2022 at Phoenix Raceway. The win secured Mahindra Tractors’ place in the NASCAR Playoffs and earned Briscoe the honor of being the 200th Cup Series winner in NASCAR history. Houston-based Mahindra Ag North America is part of Mahindra Group’s Automotive and Farm Sector, the No. 1 selling farm tractor company in the world, based on volumes across all company brands. Mahindra offers a range of tractor models from 20-75 horsepower, implements, and the ROXOR heavy-duty UTV. Mahindra farm equipment is engineered to be easy to operate by first-time tractor or side-by-side owners and heavy duty to tackle the tough jobs of rural living, farming and ranching. Steel-framed Mahindra Tractors and side-by-sides are ideal for customers who demand performance, reliability and comfort. Mahindra dealers are independent, family-owned businesses located throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang

Will Las Vegas be the first true test as to where teams stack up in relation to one another?

“For sure. Vegas is going to be where you finally figure out, not only as a manufacturer but certainly as a race team, where you’re going to stack up for the next couple of months and where you’ve got to get better. I would say Vegas is certainly the racetrack where 90 percent of the garage has circled as the one they’re most looking forward to in order to see if what they did in the offseason will come to fruition.”

Do teams already have an idea of where they are in relation to one another, or is it truly an unknown since each of the races we’ve run so far this year have been anomalies – the shortest of short tracks via the Busch Light Clash and two superspeedway races at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway?

“I think this is definitely going to be the first true test to see where you stack up. Daytona, Atlanta and the Clash – they’re such niche racetracks and not really what we do week in and week out. There might be a few small correlations over to Vegas, just how it does down the straightaway in the draft, but 99 percent of what we do at Vegas will come down to how the manufacturer did behind the scenes during the offseason, coming up with the new body and how the teams did applying the new offsets and deltas. I would say Vegas is the one I had circled the whole offseason. I’m just excited for what we have, what we think we have. You never know until you get there, so it’s going to be entertaining, for sure.”

You talk about what you think you have. Is it safe to say you spent a lot of time in the simulator to prepare for Las Vegas?

“Yeah, we spent a ton of time in the simulator. Literally, all the way back in November I was already running the sim stuff for what we have for Vegas. We’ve put a lot of emphasis on Vegas – Vegas and Phoenix, truthfully – just trying to hit the ground running. From the simulator and even from what it says on paper, or when we look at the computer screen when we look at the sim stuff, this Ford Mustang Dark Horse body should be dramatically better than what we had last year. But, like I’ve said, until you go and do the real thing, you don’t know where you’re going to stack up or where the other manufacturers are, either. Hopefully, we can go there and be the best Ford, and hopefully the Fords will be the best among all the manufacturers.”

Have you been able to detect any subtleties in the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse compared to what you actually felt in the car last year at Las Vegas?

“Just in the simulator, it does everything better this year. It gets through the corner better, gets down the straightaway better, and just handles better overall. I know that we started in November with running what we had just ran during the season at Vegas, and when we put the new body on the car, it was nearly two- to three-tenths faster. So it should be way better, but ‘should’ is always the big question mark. Hopefully, everything our tools are telling us will be accurate, and if it is, I think it’s going to be a good season for us.”

You enjoyed a fourth-place run at Las Vegas in October of 2022, but it’s been tough sledding there since. What does it take to have a good day at Las Vegas?

“That’s been a place where, in the Xfinity Series, I was able to have pretty good success. And then in the Cup car in 2022 I was able to run pretty good there. So I feel like I know what I need to get around that racetrack and it’s always been a racetrack that I’ve really enjoyed going to and just feel comfortable at. It was definitely a tough road last year. We just couldn’t ever seem to get the balance of the car quite right. Hopefully, this year we can get back to the winning ways we had in Xfinity and the up-front running we had there in 2022, and if we do that, we’ll obviously be in the mix. So, that’s what we’ve got to go there and do. It’s just a matter of putting all of those things together and, hopefully, all of our tools and everything will lead us down the right direction and we can unload really quick and just put our whole weekend together.”

When your car isn’t right, what do you do behind the wheel to get the best finish possible?

“At Vegas you at least have some options if your car isn’t running good. There are some tracks you go to where it’s really hard to do anything, it’s so one-lane, or one groove is really more dominant than the other. At Vegas, depending on the weather, you can definitely move around and try different things, more so in turns one and two than three and four. In three and four, it seems like the bottom has become the place to be. Vegas is very rough compared to a lot of the tracks we go to, so how you hit the bumps and things like that, you can kind of manipulate your car and manhandle it in certain ways to get it to do what you want it to do, to a certain extent.”

You were lights-out at Las Vegas in the Xfinity Series, winning two races there – swept them in 2020 – and two other finishes of 11th or better. What made those Xfinity Series races so good and productive at Las Vegas?

“Our car was just really good there. I think you’ll continue to see that with Stewart-Haas on the Xfinity side. They’ve always had a really good package at Vegas. Look at Riley (Herbst) getting his first win there last year. Our cars always drove really well there, so it always made my job really easy. It was really good for us to be really good at Vegas, truthfully, in the Xfinity stuff. It always started your season. It was one of the first races, so to be able to go there and win early was always good. And, obviously, it was always in the playoffs where you could set yourself up for a Championship 4 run. For us in 2020, it was important to be good there, just to get ourselves into the playoffs early, but then also to be able to try to go to the Championship 4. It’s the same this year. It has the same amount of significance in the Cup Series. You go there early in the year trying to set the groundwork for the summer, and also you go there in the playoffs to try to set yourself up for a Championship 4 run.”

Talk about the difference between the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series, both in terms of the cars but also in terms of the caliber of talent through the field.

“The cars are definitely different, more so now than ever with the NextGen car. But for sure the biggest thing when it comes to Cup racing and how it differs from Xfinity is the competitive side of things. If you’re driving for one of the top teams in the Xfinity Series, you can have a bad day on pit road or even make mistakes on the racetrack and you’re still going to be able to recover for a top-10 day, or right around there. The number of cars that can win is a lot smaller, where on the Cup side, there are 30 cars that can go win and 20 of those cars are typically pretty close on speed, so you can’t afford to have a little mistake. You’re not going to be able to go to the back of the field and drive back through the field. When you look at the Cup Series, every team is incredibly strong, and then every racecar driver in the field has won at every level that they’ve been at. On the Xfinity side, you don’t have that many guys who are incredible racecar drivers capable of winning any weekend in any series that they go run. I think that’s the one thing that stands out most about the Cup Series – it’s probably the most competitive racing series in the world when it comes to not only the number of teams that can win, but the number of drivers who can win.”

No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Chase Briscoe

Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: Richard Boswell

Hometown: Friendship, Maryland

Car Chief: J.D. Frey

Hometown: Ferndale, California

Engineer: Mike Cook

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Spotter: Joey Campbell

Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala

Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Dakota Ratcliff

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal

Hometown: Holland, Michigan

Jack Man: Dylan Moser

Hometown: Monroe, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Corey Coppola

Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams

Hometown: Plymouth, Wisconsin

Tire Specialist: Keith Eads

Hometown: Arlington, Virginia

Shock Specialist: Brian Holshouser

Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina

Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips

Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri

Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable

Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Dale Lackey

Hometown: Taylorsville, North Carolina

NOAH GRAGSON
Las Vegas Advance
No. 10 Fanttik Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Las Vegas 400 (Round 3 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 3
● Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Noah Gragson is a Las Vegas native and the Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Cup Series race this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway serves as a homecoming for the 25-year-old racer. After beginning his 2024 campaign with a strong ninth-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, where he was the highest-finishing Ford driver, Gragson is seeking a rebound at Las Vegas. In the series’ prior race last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gragson was caught up in a 16-car accident on just the second lap of the 260-lap contest, leaving him with an undeserved 36th-place finish and dropping the Stewart-Haas Racing pilot from 15th in the championship standings to 27th.

● Gragson’s racing career began on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway campus, specifically at The Bullring located just outside turns one and two of the 1.5-mile oval. The Bullring is a .375-mile asphalt oval that hosts a variety of racing series, from Bandoleros and Legend Cars to Late Models, the NASCAR Southwest Series and the ARCA Menards Series West. It was in Bandoleros – a small, spec-series racecar that puts out 30 horsepower via a Briggs & Stratton 570cc Vanguard engine – where a 13-year-old Gragson made his first laps on his road to the NASCAR Cup Series.

● With only 41 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, Gragson is still relatively new to the Cup Series, but he is not new to NASCAR. Gragson spent 2015 and 2016 in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, known today as the ARCA Menards Series. He then ran the full NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule in 2017 and 2018 before graduating to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In four fulltime seasons (2019-2022) in the stepping-stone division to the elite Cup Series, Gragson won 13 races and finished among the top-10 in points each year, earning the series’ most popular driver award in his final season. Gragson made it to the Championship 4 twice, finishing third in 2021 and second in 2022 with a series-high eight victories.

● Gragson won twice in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in October 2017 and Kansas Speedway in May 2018 – and finished second in the 2018 championship, where he picked up the Truck Series’ most popular driver award. Those Truck Series results were a continuation of the kind of talent Gragson showcased in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. Gragson raced in this developmental league, regionally split into two divisions – K&N Pro Series East and K&N Pro Series West – for two years (2015-2016), winning six races between the two entities and narrowly missing out on the 2015 West title by a scant seven points, but handily securing the rookie-of-the-year title.

● The Las Vegas 400 will mark Gragson’s third career NASCAR Cup Series start at Las Vegas. Gragson earned a solid 11th-place finish in October 2022 during his Las Vegas Cup Series debut when he drove for Hendrick Motorsports in place of the injured Alex Bowman. In Gragson’s return to Las Vegas last March, he finished 30th driving for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB.

● In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Gragson proved to be a strong bet at Las Vegas. In eight career Xfinity Series starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Gragson never finished worse than sixth. In fact, his sixth-place drive in September 2019 – which came in just his second Xfinity Series start at Las Vegas – was his only finish outside of the top-five. Even though Gragson never won an Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas, he finished second three times (September 2020, March and October 2022). And with two other third-place results, Gragson’s average Xfinity Series finish at Las Vegas is a stout 3.4 with 142 total laps led.

● Gragson has also made three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts at Las Vegas with a best finish of 12th in March 2018. Gragson led laps in each Truck Series race he competed in at Las Vegas, pacing the field for 12 laps in September 2017, another 12 laps in March 2018, and then 33 laps in September 2018.

● Joining Gragson at Las Vegas is Fanttik, the trailblazing and award-winning brand in the automotive accessories industry. After making its debut at Las Vegas with Gragson, Fanttik will return as a primary sponsor with Gragson’s Stewart-Haas teammate in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Cole Custer. The reigning Xfinity Series champion will wheel the No. 00 Fanttik Ford Mustang in the May 25 Xfinity Series race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Fanttik Ford Mustang

What does it mean to race in your hometown of Las Vegas?

“It’s exciting to go back to Vegas. It feels different. For me, it’s always been special and I feel like it’s a different special because it’s home for me. I probably don’t get excited about the things that other people who aren’t from there get excited about just because it’s normal, but I get excited just because I get a ton of support from the hometown crowd and a lot of friends and family come out to the race. I try to go out there a couple of days ahead of time and spend time with my friends and family before it’s time to get to work. And I enjoy the Vegas track, regardless of it being in Vegas, and have always run well there, which is a good thing. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to get to our true test of where we’re at in speed on the kind of track that we’re going to race on the majority of the year.”

Will Las Vegas be the first true test of where teams stack up in relation to one another?

“Yeah, definitely Vegas is our first true test of where we stack up. A majority of the schedule is mile-and-a-halves, short tracks, you’ve got Vegas and Phoenix, those two especially. But Vegas will be our first test as to where we’re at as a company, speed-wise.”

You’ve literally grown up at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway complex, beginning with Bandoleros at the Bullring to today at the 1.5-mile oval. What’s it been like to have so many career moments at your hometown track?

“It’s special. Outside of turns one and two is the Bullring. It’s a three-eighths-mile short track. That’s where I ran my first-ever racecar, a Bandolero, when I was 13 years old. I kind of got a late start, but I always remember pulling into the pits and being at that track where you can see the banking on the big track not far away, just across the street, on the other side of the parking lot. That was always the goal, to get any kind of laps on the big track, whether it be in the NASCAR Experience ride-along cars, I always thought that would be cool to do one day. And then to actually be able to race a real stock car around there with a race team, getting over there in the Truck Series. Cut my teeth in Bandoleros, Legend Cars, Late Models, ran all those things at the Bullring. I had a lot of wins and a lot of good memories there, and to be at the big track now, it’s something I’d always dreamed of when I first started, and now it’s a reality, so it’s very special.”

You’re competing in the NASCAR Cup Series after successfully climbing the NASCAR ladder. What was it like racing in all the different feeder series on the way to your ultimate goal of racing in Cup?

“I love the feeder series up into the top-three series of NASCAR. You’ve got the K&N Series back in the day, and then the ARCA Series, racing Super Late Models, that’s what we grew up doing, Legend Cars, Bandoleros. Every next step was always what I was eyeing. If I’m in Bandoleros, I’m eyeing to get to a Legend Car one day, hopefully. Then you get to a Legend Car and you’re like, ‘Man, I’m good at this,’ and then you start winning in that and you feel good and look at Super Late Models or K&N and start winning in that. I kind of got a late start compared to most guys. I started when I was 13 years old where they start in karts when they’re 4, 5, 6 years old. So having the support from friends and family and my team, and then my own drive, as well, I was always driven to be the best that I could be. Those days, I miss them, they’re fun. Those are the real fun days because you’re just going and racing and having fun with your team.”

What are you most looking forward to this year?

“I’ve yet to be at a lot of the tracks in a Cup car. None of the guys have been at Iowa in a Cup car. Most have not been at Indy on the oval. I’ve never been to Bristol in a Cup car. We’ve won a couple races in an Xfinity car there. It’s a fun racetrack and I’m excited for that. The Brickyard on the oval, I ran one race, finished third in 2019 in the Xfinity race. That’s it. And then Iowa is one of my favorite tracks ever. I absolutely love that place. It’s an incredible racetrack, the way it’s shaped, and it just puts on some good two- and three-wide racing that’s really exciting for the fans. I’m excited for all of them, all the new changes on the schedule, and I’m just grateful to be back.”

What are your long-term career goals?

“I just want to win races. I love winning races. I love that feeling of getting out after a long day behind the wheel, being able to look up at the crowd and they’re all cheering you on. You’re not looking at somebody else getting cheered on – that’s the worst. I like winning races, I want to be a winner in the Cup Series and I want to have multiple wins.”

Your team owner, Tony Stewart, said that you’ve helped bring a new energy to the shop this year. Was Stewart-Haas Racing a place where you immediately felt comfortable?

“It’s been a lot of fun to get to know everyone and every day is something new. There are over 300 employees at Stewart-Haas. It’s a big organization and every day you’re meeting somebody new and getting to know them. I’ve been going to lunch with a lot of the guys and I’ve just been having a lot of quality time with them. It’s a great organization. It’s nice, and we have everything under one roof – pit stop practice, a gym to go work out, our trainer is there – everything that we need, other than the simulator at Ford. I think we have to make an 11-minute drive down to Ford, so it’s not far at all. It’s been really good. I’ve been spending pretty much from 7 a.m. until 4 or 5 at night every day there at the shop, and I’m enjoying my time a lot. I really fit in with the atmosphere. There’s a lot of energy in the air at Stewart-Haas.”

What makes Stewart-Haas feel like home for you?

“It’s a good group of people. It’s great to be wanted and appreciated, and the atmosphere over there, there are just a lot of good people who enjoy coming to work every day. It’s a great work environment. I know when I wake up in the morning, I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t wait to go see everybody at the shop today and go work alongside them and continue to develop these relationships.’ It’s just a place that suits me.”

You’ve driven for Kyle Busch in the Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the Xfinity Series, and now Tony Stewart in the Cup Series. That’s an all-star lineup of NASCAR talent and experience. Does that bring added pressure?

“It’s really just about the desire and the want to succeed. There are a lot of people who are a part of this. No matter who the driver is, there are hundreds of people behind those drivers who allow us to go race, and everybody in those race shops, everybody who supports them from a close relationship standpoint – management, logistics – there’s a lot that goes into it. Yeah, the drivers get all the credit, but I put a lot of pressure on myself at the end of the day to be successful for all those people who work hard to give us the opportunity to go race. For us drivers, it’s a privilege to be able to go out there and race, and I’ve regained my love for this sport, where I might’ve lost appreciation over the past handful of years than what I had as a kid. I’ve rediscovered that love for racing, and I’m just grateful to be back and get to work.”

How do you balance all that you’ve learned in the last seven months with still being yourself?

“There’s a balance to that, obviously, and that’s one of the things that I’ve been working on – just balancing life, and how I balance work life from my time to relax. Everything is about balance, no matter what it is. Being a leader of a race team is about knowing how my words influence others, but it’s also about my body language and just being more self-aware. That’s been a big part of finding myself in this process. It’s not always going be perfect and I’m not perfect, by any means, but I continue to try and learn and grow each and every day to become better than I was yesterday.”

No. 10 Fanttik Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Noah Gragson

Hometown: Las Vegas

Crew Chief: Drew Blickensderfer

Hometown: Decatur, Illinois

Car Chief: Jerry Cook

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engineer: James Kimbrough

Hometown: Pensacola, Florida

Spotter: Andy Houston

Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder

Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa

Rear Tire Changer: Trevor White

Hometown: Arlington, Texas

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard

Hometown: King, North Carolina

Jack Man: Sean Cotten

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Fuel Man: James “Ace” Keener

Hometown: Fortuna, California

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Chris Trickett

Hometown: Grafton, West Virginia

Mechanic: Beau Whitley

Hometown: Carmel, Indiana

Tire Specialist: Jacob Cooksey

Hometown: Westbrookville, New York

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller

Hometown: Monroe, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: John Casper

Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Matt Murphy

Hometown: Augusta, Georgia

AMBETTER HEALTH 400 – ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Hampton, Ga. – February 25, 2024
Atlanta Motor Speedway Oval Decal

AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 MENARDS/KNAUF INSULATION FORD MUSTANG

START: 8TH STAGE ONE: 18TH STAGE TWO: 1ST FINISH: 4TH POINTS: 3RD

RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Menards/Knauf Insulation Ford Mustang, orchestrated an impressive run in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400, leading 32 laps en route to his first top-five finish of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season with a fourth-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Among a contingent of fast Fords in qualifying, Cindric took the initial green flag from the eighth position. Under caution on Lap 25, Cindric alerted the No. 2 team a really loose condition on the Menards/Kanuf Ford Mustang. Crew chief Brian Wilson called Cindric to pit road for two right-side tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Cindric restarted 17th, but continued to face a loose condition behind the wheel of his Ford Mustang. He returned to pit road under caution on Lap 53 for four fresh tires and additional adjustments for the one-lap sprint to conclude Stage 1. After staying out at the Stage break, the 25-year-old racer fired off from the ninth position to kick off the second segment, and cycled to the race lead following the pit sequence on Lap 139 with teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney in tow. Cindric maintained his place atop the leaderboard, claiming the win in Stage 2, the third Stage win of his Cup Series career. After another trip down pit lane for a four-tire service stop, Cindric jetted off from the 10th position for the beginning of the final segment on Lap 171. With 50 laps remaining, Cindric made a glorious four-wide move to take the lead, charging to the point of the pack. The 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion survived multiple cautions late in the Stage, and lined up fifth for the final restart with five laps to go, ultimately recording a strong fourth-place finish. Cindric currently sits third in the point standings heading into the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “It’s really unfortunate to have two weeks in a row where I feel like Team Penske has brought three of the best race cars to the racetrack and not come home with a win. Obviously, we got really close with the 12. It was fun to lead laps and win the stage. I got in a real tight aero spot while I was following Ryan [Blaney] and washed up the track a bit. He was, honestly, in a really tough spot with the runs that were coming from behind. I thought he was going to be able to hold on, but the first win for the Mustang Dark Horse has to wait another race, but I’m really proud of the effort. It should be a really great points day for us, so that puts us on the right side of things heading into Vegas.”

RYAN BLANEY No. 12 BODYARMOR ZERO SUGAR FORD MUSTANG

START: 6TH STAGE ONE: 2ND STAGE TWO: 3RD FINISH: 2ND POINTS: 5TH

RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 BODYARMOR Zero Sugar Ford Mustang came up one spot short in what was the third-closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway as Blaney, Kyle Busch, and race-winner Daniel Suárez crossed the finish line three-wide. Ultimately, the photo finish had Blaney scored second by 0.003 seconds as he secured his fifth-career top-five finish at Atlanta while leading 31 laps on the day. Blaney put together a strong points day in the 400-mile event with finishes of second and third in the first two stages, respectively. After avoiding a multi-car incident in turn four that unraveled right in front of him to bring out the caution on lap 219, Blaney and teammate Austin Cindric forged their way to the front using the top lane as BODYARMOR Zero Sugar Ford Mustang took the lead with 30 laps to go. The final caution of the night flew with 12 to go with Blaney scored second in the running order at the last timing loop, resetting the field to take the green with five laps remaining. After restarting from the outside of row one, Blaney powered his way past the No. 99 of Suárez on the backstretch and began to protect the runs from both lanes behind him as the laps ticked off. On the final lap, Blaney led the field into turn three as a three-wide battle formed in the center of the corner with all three vying for the win coming into the trioval. Blaney held his line down low as no one had a clear advantage at the line, but he ultimately came up inches short of his second-career win at Atlanta.

BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “What a cool finish. Appreciate the fans for sticking around. That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that, race a clean, three-wide finish to the end. Proud of the BODYARMOR Zero Sugar team. This Ford Mustang was fast. I can’t complain; I’ve won them by very, very little, too, so I can’t complain too much when I lose them by that much.”

JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG

START: 2ND STAGE ONE: 12TH STAGE TWO: 28TH FINISH: 28TH POINTS: 33RD

RACE RUNDOWN: After starting at the tail-end of the field and serving a pass-through penalty on the opening lap Sunday stemming from a rules infraction assessed by NASCAR prior to the start of the Ambetter Health 400, Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team managed to stay on the lead lap when a multi-car incident in the trioval unfolded while Logano was on pit road. While the caution allowed crew chief Paul Wolfe to take on an alternate fuel strategy, Logano raced his way into the top-10 by lap 50 before crossing the line 12th at the conclusion of Stage 1. Wolfe kept Logano on track while a majority of the leaders pitted at the stage break, allowing the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang to restart from the outside of row one before making the pass for the lead out of turn four on lap 99 – the first of 27 laps Logano led on the afternoon. He and teammate Ryan Blaney began the green flag pit cycle on lap 127 with fuel-only stops before the Team Penske trio took over the top three spots in the running order at the completion of the cycle with the laps winding down in Stage 2. On the final lap of the stage, Logano made contact with the No. 17 off the exit of turn two and sustained significant right-front damage after getting turned into the outside wall. Logano made several trips to pit road as the No. 22 team worked to make repairs, allowing him to rejoin the field eight laps down en route to a 28th-place finish.

LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “Yeah, I just made a mistake. I thought I could fill the gap in front of the 17 coming off turn two and once I realized I couldn’t get up there, I tried turning back down but once it started packing air on my right rear I couldn’t turn down. I got tight and it got me in the wall.”

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 on Sunday, March 3. Coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

RICK WARE RACING
Ambetter Health 400
Date: Feb. 25, 2024
Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 2 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway (1.54-mile oval)
Format: 260 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/100 laps/100 laps)
Race Winner: Daniel Suárez of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Michael McDowell of Front Row Motorsports (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Austin Cindric of Team Penske (Ford)

RWR Race Finish:

● Kaz Grala (Started 33rd, Finished 14th/ Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
● Justin Haley (Started 31st, Finished 20th/ Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)

RWR Points:

● Justin Haley (Tied for 27th with 29 points)
● Kaz Grala (30th with 24 points)

RWR Notes:

● Grala earned his first top-15 in his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at Atlanta.
● Haley earned his fourth top-20 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series start at Atlanta.
● Haley’s best Atlanta finish remains seventh, earned in July 2022.

Race Notes:

● Daniel Suárez won the Ambetter Health 400 to score his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory and his first at Atlanta. His margin of victory over second-place Ryan Blaney was .003 of a second. It was the closest finish in Atlanta Motor Speedway history, the closest finish at any 1.5-mile racetrack, and the third-closest in the NASCAR Cup Series since the inception of electronic scoring in 1993.
● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 65 laps.
● Only 22 of the 37 drivers in the Ambetter Health 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Kyle Busch leaves Atlanta as the championship leader with a one-point advantage over second-place William Byron.

Sound Bites:

“We had a really good ending to a very tough day. The No. 15 N29 Capital Partners team overcame a lot of adversity to leave Atlanta with a top-15 finish and we learned a few things we’ll be able to apply to some upcoming intermediate races. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone at RWR and the way we handled everything that was thrown at us today.” – Kaz Grala, driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang

“I’m not really sure what we could’ve done any differently. It felt like we were caught up in every situation that happened from the start, so I’m glad we were able to finish and get a decent result for Rick and everyone at RWR. Even with a roughed-up Grady Health Mustang, we were still able to run in the top-10 for a bit and show that we’ve got the speed to do more. Still a lot of positives to take away – we got both RWR cars in the top-20, which is great for the organization, but definitely a tough day.” – Justin Haley, driver of the No. 51 Grady Health Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Las Vegas 400 on Sunday, March 3, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.