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Ryan Blaney caps off dominant run with inaugural Cup Series victory at Iowa

The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney made Iowa Speedway his “Field of Dreams” for the day after he muscled through to a dominant win in the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday, June 16.

The 30-year-old Blaney from High Point, North Carolina, led four times for a career-high 201 of 350-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Kyle Larson and led for the first time on the second lap following an early lap skirmish with Larson.

With mixed strategies and tire wear ensuing throughout the event, Blaney, who spent the majority of the event running towards the front and won the first stage period, cycled back into the lead following a two-tire pit stop call during a late caution period with 92 laps remaining. Once he muscled away from the field during the event’s final restart period with 84 laps remaining, he proceeded to weave his way through lapped traffic and fend off a late charge from William Byron and his four fresh tires to triumph for the first time in the 2024 Cup Series season and place both himself and his No. 12 Team Penske Ford team into Playoff contention.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, June 15, Kyle Larson notched his fourth Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 20th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 136.458 mph in 23.084 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ryan Blaney, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 136.311 mph in 23.109 seconds.

Prior to the event, Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars after both wrecked their primary cars during Friday’s practice session.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As they continued to duel for the lead through Turns 3 and 4, Larson managed to edge Blaney to lead the first lap. Blaney, however, would assume the lead from Larson during the following lap amid contact with Larson through Turns 3 and 4 and proceeded to lead during the next two laps while the field behind continued to fan out and jostle for early spots.

On the third lap, the event’s first caution period flew after rookie Carson Hocevar got into the rear of teammate/rookie Zane Smith, which got Smith loose and resulted in him getting into teammate Corey LaJoie as LaJoie and his No. 7 Gainbridge/Iowa Hawkeyes Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry spun into the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2. During the event’s first caution period, some drivers, including LaJoie, Erik Jones, Michael McDowell and Kaz Grala pitted while the rest, led by Blaney, remained on the track.

When the event restarted under green on the ninth lap, Larson managed to muscle ahead of Blaney and reassume the lead. With Larson ahead of the field with the lead by the Lap 10 mark, Chase Briscoe overtook Blaney for the runner-up spot as teammate Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick battled in the top five ahead of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, William Byron and Daniel Suarez.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson extended his advantage, leading by more than a second over Blaney, while Briscoe, Reddick and Kyle Busch trailed in the top five. Behind, Josh Berry occupied sixth place ahead of Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, William Byron and Justin Haley while Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton were racing in the top 15 ahead of AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman. Meanwhile, Noah Gragson was mired in 21st ahead of Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Corey LaJoie while Todd Gilliland, Martin Truex Jr., Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith and Christopher Bell were in the top 30 on the track.

Ten laps later, Larson stretched his advantage, leading by more than three seconds over Blaney while third-place Briscoe trailed by nine seconds. As Reddick and Berry occupied the top-five spots on the track, Suarez, Byron, Busch, Haley and Logano trailed in the top 10 while Truex, Wallace and Hamlin drifted back to 25th, 27th and 33rd, respectively. In addition, Keselowski, who started in the top five, was mired in 14th behind Ty Gibbs while Cindric and Bell, were up to 23rd and 24th, respectively, after starting at the rear of the field in backup cars,

Another 10 laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to three seconds over Blaney while Briscoe, Berry and Byron trailed in the top five by 10 seconds. By then, Hamlin, who was mired in 34th place, was lapped by the leaders while Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex, Michael McDowell, Cindric, Allmendinger, Wallace and Austin Dillon were mired outside the top 20 on the track.

At the Lap 50 mark, Larson was mired in lapped traffic and had his advantage shrink to one-and-a-half seconds over runner-up Blaney while third-place Berry and fourth-place Byron trailed by nine seconds. With Briscoe trailing by 10 seconds in fifth place, LaJoie, who was involved in an early spin, was up to 19th place on four fresh tires while Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek and Stenhouse, all of whom were running within the top 30, were lapped by Larson.

A lap later, the event’s second caution period flew when AJ Allmendinger, who was racing in the mid-pack region, ran his No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry straight into the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 after he blew a right-front tire. It marked his second wreck of the weekend at Iowa Speedway after he wrecked out of Saturday’s Xfinity Series event due to a blown right-front tire.

During the event’s second caution period, nearly all of the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for fresh tires and fuel while Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first and was followed by Blaney, Byron, Berry, LaJoie, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Wallace and Logano, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Justin Haley was penalized for equipment interference.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 58 featured Larson navigating his way past both Suarez and Keselowski for nearly a lap as he led the proceeding lap. With Larson continuing to lead by the Lap 60 mark, Blaney assumed the runner-up spot while Suarez was trying to fend off Berry, Byron, LaJoie, Keselowski, Logano, Busch and a bevy of competitors for third place. Blaney would then assume the lead from Larson on Lap 61 while Suarez retained third place ahead of Berry, Byron and LaJoie. Despite Ty Gibbs scraping the outside wall entering the backstretch, the event remained under green flag conditions.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 70, Blaney, who was battling a potential cool suit issue amid the warm temperatures, fended off a late challenge from Larson to capture his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Suarez settled in third place while Byron, Berry, Logano, LaJoie, Keselowski, Elliott and Busch were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Suarez and including Keselowski and LaJoie, pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Daniel Hemric was penalized for speeding on pit road.

The second stage period started on Lap 77 as Blaney and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out as Larson rocketed ahead of Blaney to reassume the lead. With Larson leading, teammates Byron and Elliott battled for third place along with Logano while Busch was in sixth place ahead of Bowman, Chastain, Briscoe and McDowell. Meanwhile, Bell was up to 11th place while Berry was back in 12th.

Then on Lap 80, the caution returned after John Hunter Nemechek and Noah Gragson, both of whom were fighting outside the top 20 on the track, made contact entering Turn 4. Nemechek sent Gragson spinning sideways but Gragson managed to quickly straighten his No. 10 Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry without hitting the wall and continue. During the caution period, Larson, who radioed tire concerns, surrendered the lead to pit for fresh tires for his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry as Blaney returned atop the leaderboard.

With the event restarting under green on Lap 86, Blaney and Byron dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Blaney managed to clear Byron and muscle ahead through the backstretch. As Elliott got sideways entering the backstretch, Logano charged to the runner-up spot and began to intimidate teammate Blaney for the lead while Byron, Busch, Chastain and Bowman trailed in the top six. With a multitude of competitors jostling for spots within the mid-pack region, Blaney retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Logano just past the Lap 90 mark while Byron and Busch tried to close in.

At the Lap 100 mark, Blaney was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Logano followed by Byron, Berry and Elliott as Busch, Chastain, McDowell, Bowman and Suarez occupied the top 10. Behind, Briscoe was in 11th ahead of a hard-charging Larson while Wallace, Reddick and Ty Gibbs were battling in the top 15 ahead of Bell, LaJoie, Keselowski, Cindric and Hocevar. Meanwhile, Gragson was trapped in 23rd place behind Preece and Austin Dillon while Truex, Stenhouse, Haley, Gilliland, Nemechek, Hamlin and Buescher were mired in the top 30.

Fifteen laps later, Blaney stretched his advantage to lead by a second over teammate Logano while Byron, Elliott and Berry trailed by within two seconds in the top five. By then, Larson, who was aggressively weaving and carving his way through the field, had returned to the top-10 mark as he was running in eighth place ahead of teammate Bowman and Suarez while Busch and Chastain occupied sixth and seventh, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell, Wallace, Briscoe, Gibbs and Keselowski trailed in the top 15 while McDowell, who was running in the top 10, was pinned two laps down in 35th place after he pitted his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse to replace a flat right-front tire.

Another 10 laps later, Blaney stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Logano just before Byron overtook Logano for the runner-up spot, with Elliott and Chastain trailing by within three seconds in the top five on the track. Blaney led by one-and-a-half seconds over Byron just past the Lap 130 mark and by a second at the Lap 140 mark. By then, Busch, who was running in the top 10, had pitted his No. 8 zone/Kwik Trip Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry under green on Lap 135.

By Lap 150, Blaney continued to lead by more than a second over Elliott as Byron, Logano and Larson followed suit in the top five. By then, Hamlin was mired a lap down for a second time in 27th place while Bell was up to sixth place as he had Berry, Chastain, Bowman and Wallace following suit.

Ten laps later, LaJoie and Austin Dillon made contact while battling within the top-20 mark that sent Dillon up the track towards Turns 3 and 4 but he kept his No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry running straight as he then ran into the rear of LaJoie to express his displeasure over the contact. Amid the contact, Blaney retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Elliott while Byron, Larson and Bell trailed in the top five by nearly five seconds.

Then as Byron pitted his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry under green from third place on Lap 165, trouble struck for Chastain as he went up the track through Turns 1 and 2 with a flat right-front tire to his No. 1 Busch Light For the Farmers Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. Chastain, though, managed to limp his car to his pit stall without drawing a caution as LaJoie, Briscoe, Truex and Berry also pitted during the proceeding laps. Not long after, Truex was penalized for speeding on pit road.

By Lap 172 and with more green flag pit stops ensuing amid tire wear concerns within the field, Blaney surrendered the lead to pit his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry under green. Elliott, who led the proceeding lap, pitted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry during the following lap along with teammate Bowman, Gibbs, Grala and Austin Dillon before Larson pitted as Erik Jones limped his No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE entry to pit road with a flat tire.

As the event surpassed its halfway mark on Lap 175, more names including Logano, Gragson, Nemechek and Reddick would pit while Bell, who last pitted on Lap 54, cycled into the lead. Bell would then pit his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE entry on Lap 180 before Suarez and Haley pitted during the next scheduled lap. This moved Keselowski into the lead.

Then on Lap 181, the caution flew after Hemric made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2. During the caution period, select names led by Keselowski and including Wallace, Hocevar, Gilliland, Buescher, Hamlin, Suarez, Haley and Hemric pitted while the rest led by Stenhouse, who pinned many competitors a lap down by remaining on the track during the previous green flag run, remained on the track.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 188, Stenhouse and Byron battled for the lead for nearly a lap until they nearly wrecked entering Turn 4, which allowed Larson to zip by both and return to the lead. With Larson leading, Berry moved his No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry up to second place followed by Wallace and Elliott while Stenhouse was trying to fend off fifth place from a multitude of competitors. Larson would proceed to lead just past the Lap 190 mark while he was being intimidated by Berry.

By Lap 200, Larson extended his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Berry, who had Elliott pressuring him for the runner-up spot, while Blaney and Wallace occupied the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who was lapped twice, was up to sixth place followed by Buescher, Gilliland, Keselowski and Stenhouse while Byron was back in 12th place behind Haley. In addition, Busch was in 14th while battling Hocevar, Bell was in 17th behind Suarez and Bell, Logano was in 18th while trying to overtake Bell and Chastain, the first competitor a lap down, was mired in 19th. In addition, Reddick was in 24th and Briscoe was mired in 29th in front of Truex.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 210, Larson captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Berry fended off Elliott to retain second place ahead of Blaney and Wallace while Hamlin, Buescher, Gilliland, Keselowski and Haley were scored in the top 10. By then, 18 of 36 starters were scored a lap down while 19th-place Chastain was the recipient of the free pass for being the first competitor scored a lap down during the caution period.

During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Larson pitted while Buescher and Gilliland remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Keselowski exited pit road first after he only opted for a two-tire pit stop while Larson, Berry, Elliott, Suarez, Wallace, Hamlin, Blaney, Byron and Haley followed suit.

With 132 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Buescher and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Buescher maintained the lead ahead of Gilliland and Berry while Keselowski slipped to fourth. Then entering the frontstretch, the caution quickly returned after Larson, who was pinned in the middle of a three-wide battle with Keselowski and Suarez, got sideways after Suarez hit Larson, which resulted in Larson getting loose and coming across the path of Hamlin’s No. 11 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.

Both wrecked against the outside wall, with Larson spinning across the frontstretch while the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Larson. The incident would cost Larson multiple laps as his pit crew went to work to repair the damage in his pit stall. With Larson then being assessed an additional two-lap penalty for having too many crew members over the pit wall, he would take his No. 5 Chevrolet to the garage for repairs but was granted permission to return to the track following his repairs due to meeting the minimum speed under the Damaged Vehicle Policy.

With the next restart period occurring with 123 laps remaining, Buescher and Berry dueled for the lead for a full lap as Berry, who was racing up the outside lane, led the proceeding lap before Buescher, who had Berry slide in front of him during the previous lap, slid in front of Berry in retaliation to reassume the lead during the next lap. Berry, however, kept intimidating Buescher for the lead while Busch, Gilliland, Keselowski and Byron trailed closely in the top six with 120 laps remaining. Berry would then muscle away from Buescher during the proceeding five laps while Byron carved his way up to third place as he was being trailed by Keselowski, Elliott, Blaney, Gilliland, Busch, Suarez and others.

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Berry was leading by two seconds over a side-by-side battle between Blaney and Byron while Elliott and Buescher trailed in the top five ahead of Keselowski, Suarez, Logano, Haley and Busch. Meanwhile, Bowman occupied 11th place ahead of Chastain, Gilliland, Stenhouse and Bell while Wallace, Hocevar and McDowell occupied the remaining 18 competitors scored on the lead lap as Hamlin, who was in 19th, was lapped for a third time.

Nine laps later, the caution returned after Buescher, who was running in fifth, scrubbed his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse against the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 after he lost a tire. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Berry returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Blaney exited pit road first after he opted for a two-tire pit stop along with teammate Logano and Stenhouse while Berry, the first competitor who opted for four fresh tires, followed suit in fourth ahead of Elliott, Byron, Suarez, Busch, Haley and Bowman.

The start of the next restart period with 84 laps remaining featured Blaney battling and having enough momentum to clear teammate Logano to lead the next lap while Stenhouse, Byron and Berry followed suit in the top five. As the field behind jostled for late positions, Busch, who was racing in the top 10, scrubbed the backstretch’s outside wall and he would pit under green with 80 laps remaining, which dropped him out of the lead lap category. Shortly after, Busch’s chances of making the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs took another hit after he took his car to the garage and retired due to another mechanical issue to his No. 8 Chevrolet. Amid Busch’s issues, Blaney retained the lead while Stenhouse and Byron overtook Logano to move into second and third, respectively.

With 60 laps remaining, Blaney continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Byron while Elliott, Stenhouse and Logano trailed in the top five. Blaney would stabilize his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Byron with 50 laps remaining while Elliott, Stenhouse and Logano continued to race in the top five.

With 35 laps remaining, Blaney retained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over Byron while third-place Elliott trailed by a second-and-a-half. As Stenhouse and Logano continued to race in the top five, Bell trailed in sixth place by seven seconds while Berry, Suarez, Chastain and Bowman were in the top 10, with Haley situated in 11th place ahead of Keselowski, McDowell, Gilliland and Truex.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Blaney, who nearly had his steady advantage extinguished while mired in lapped traffic, most notably Ty Gibbs, extended his advantage back to nine-tenths of a second over Byron while Elliott, Byron’s teammate, trailed by a second as he started to close in on Byron for the runner-up spot. Behind, Bell moved up to fourth place ahead of Stenhouse and Logano while McDowell, who was racing in the top 15, pitted under green a few laps earlier to address a flat tire for the second time within the event. Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek would also pit under green as Blaney maintained the lead by a second over Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet with 15 laps remaining.

Under the final 10 laps of the event, Blaney, who was mired in more lapped traffic despite proceeding to lap Wallace and Gragson, maintained his lead by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Byron as Elliott continued to trail by a second in third place. Blaney, who would close in and lap Truex, would then have his advantage shrink to six-tenths of a second as Byron continued to close in on Blaney with five laps remaining.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader by seven-tenths of a second over Byron. With Byron unable to close the deficit even narrower, Blaney was able to cycle his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford smoothly around the Iowa circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.

With the victory, Blaney, who nearly won at World Wide Technology Raceway until he ran out of fuel while leading on the final lap two races ago, notched his 11th Cup Series career win and his first since winning at Martinsville Speedway in late October 2023. By becoming the 10th competitor overall to record a victory through the first 17 events of the 2024 Cup season, Blaney has guaranteed himself a spot into the 2024 Playoffs as he will commence his pursuit to defend his series’ title.

As an added bonus, Blaney, who racked up the second victory of the season for Team Penske and the third ever for the Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car, is the first competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series. He claimed his first Craftsman Truck Series career win at Iowa in September 2012 and would win an Xfinity event at the 7/8-mile short track in August 2015.

Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Man, what a cool way to win here,” Blaney, who had 80 family members rooting for him in the grandstands, said on USA Network. “This place, it means a lot to me. It means a lot to my mom. We had a lot of people here tonight cheering us on. They wheeled us to that [win]. Overall, [I] really appreciate the whole No. 12 boys. Our car was really fast all night. We got a little bit better through the night with two [fresh] tires. It was a good call there. I didn’t know how well [the car] was going to hold on. I started to struggle a little bit at the end, but had to definitely hang on. So proud of the effort. It makes up a little bit from a couple weeks ago. I’m looking forward to seeing [the family members]. It’s always good to have family. I’ve been super lucky to have family that supported me through my career. It’s great that they’re still supporting me just as much as they did day one. It’s a cool weekend. Really cool to win the first Cup race here. I can’t wait we come back with many more years.”

Byron, who recorded his first Xfinity Series victory at Iowa in June 2017, settled in second place for his sixth top-five result of the season while teammate Elliott, who notched his first ARCA Menards Series East victory at Iowa in 2012, ended up in third place for his seventh top-five result of 2024.

“[Me and Blaney] were pretty even,” Byron said. “He was on two tires, so I think I had just a little bit fresher tires and was able to work the bottom [lane] through lapped traffic okay. [I] Felt like I was making marginal gains through [Turns] 1 and 2, but my tires were getting hot down there and I would just start sliding the rears around a little bit on entry. Really good effort by our team. We definitely need to put together some consistent runs and this is a good start. We’d love to be winning tonight, but Ryan [Blaney] and those guys were good, so congrats to them.”

“[The event] was a lot of surprises that [I] wasn’t really sure what to expect with the tire,” Elliott said. “The racetrack changed a lot, I thought, throughout the day. The lanes changed a lot. We were able to move around. I thought it was actually a much better race than I was anticipating being with the repave. I thought all of that was really good. Ultimately, really proud of our NAPA team and just continuing to put together solid days. Just need a little bit more to set the pace and be up there leading laps like I feel like we can. It’s nice to be in the fight and have a shot there in the closing laps.”

Christopher Bell rallied from starting at the rear of the field in a backup car to finish fourth followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as Joey Logano, rookie Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski finished in the top 10.

There were 17 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 49 laps. In addition, 14 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 17th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Chase Elliott leads the regular-season standings by eight points over teammate Kyle Larson, 38 over Denny Hamlin, 54 over William Byron, 61 over Martin Truex Jr., 64 over Tyler Reddick and 90 over Ryan Blaney.

Results.

1. Ryan Blaney, 201 laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. William Byron

3. Chase Elliott, one lap led

4. Christopher Bell, seven laps led

5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., four laps led

6. Joey Logano

7. Josh Berry, 32 laps led

8. Alex Bowman

9. Daniel Suarez, four laps led

10. Brad Keselowski, five laps led

11. Ross Chastain

12. Todd Gilliland

13. Justin Haley

14. Carson Hocevar

15. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

16. Noah Gragson, one lap down

17. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

18. Chris Buescher, one lap down, 16 laps led

19. Austin Dillon, one lap down

20. Harrison Burton, one lap down

21. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

22. Tyler Reddick, one lap down

23. Michael McDowell, one lap down

24. Denny Hamlin, two laps down

25. Ty Gibbs, two laps down

26. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down

27. Ryan Preece, two laps down

28. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

29. Daniel Hemric, two laps down

30. Austin Cindric, three laps down

31. Zane Smith, three laps down

32. Erik Jones, three laps down

33. Kaz Grala, five laps down

34. Kyle Larson, 36 laps down, 80 laps led, Stage 2 winner

35. Kyle Busch – OUT, Water Pump

36. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ annual visit to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, for the USA Today 301. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 23, and at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

June 17, 2024
Logano notches third Cup pole position of 2024 at Sonoma
For the first time in 13 years, Joey Logano will lead a NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag from the pole position in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, commenced the weekend in Sonoma, California, by being the 25th fastest during the series’ lone practice session on Friday, June 7. He then rallied by being the second fastest in his group qualifying session behind Tyler Reddick, where both were among 10 fast competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying during the event’s qualifying sessions on Saturday, June 8.

During the final round of qualifying, Logano managed to both claim and retain the top-starting spot with a record-setting lap at 97.771 mph in 73.273 seconds, which was enough to remain atop the scoreboard ahead of Tyler Reddick and teammate Ryan Blaney.

With his accomplishment, Logano claimed his third Cup Series’ Busch Light Pole Award of the 2024 season and his first since doing so at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in early March. Logano had also started on pole position in this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and in the non-points All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in mid-May, where he won the latter’s event.

Logano’s pole at Sonoma was one that left the driver of the No. 22 AutoTrader/Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry smiling amid a season where he has recorded two top-five results and three top-10 results, including a fifth-place run at Gateway’s World Wide Technology Raceway a week ago, during the previous 15 events on the 2024 Cup Series schedule. With 11 events remaining in this year’s regular-season schedule, Logano is 14 points below the cutline to make the 2024 Playoffs and is also pursuing his first points-paying victory of the season.

“It’s nice to see some Penske cars running good again and the Fords as well,” Logano said on FS2. “Proud of the race team. We made a lot of changes overnight. We worked on [the car]. It’s nice you have practice where you can actually go back and think about it overnight and look at a lot of data and try to figure out smart decisions. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the engineers, everyone did a good job at executing that. Got ourselves a pole on a road course with the AutoTrader Mustang. It’s an intense lap out there. You’re just on the ragged edge there the whole time, but excited and have a good starting spot. Got to capitalize on it now.”

Reddick, the driver of the No. 45 Monster Energy/23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry, posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 97.661 mph in 73.356 seconds and will share the front row with Logano. Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion and Logano’s teammate at Team Penske will occupy third place and start alongside Chase Elliott. Kyle Larson, the 2021 Sonoma winner who scrubbed the tire barrier in the Chute and sustained left-side damage to his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, posted the fifth-fastest qualifying lap. He will share the third row with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron.

Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs will start in the top 10 while road-ringers AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell will occupy 11th and 12th place on the starting grid.

Notably, Carson Hocevar was the highest-starting rookie in the field in 13th place while Christopher Bell will line up in 15th place. In addition, Bubba Wallace will start in 18th place, reigning Sonoma winner Martin Truex Jr. will line up in 21st place, Denny Hamlin will occupy 25th place on the starting grid and Gateway winner Austin Cindric will start in 28th place ahead of Kyle Busch.

Supercar stars Will Brown and Cam Waters will start 24th and 31st, respectively, for their first career starts in NASCAR’s premier series. Brown is piloting the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry for Richard Childress Racing while Waters is driving the No. 60 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

With 38 competitors registering for the event, all 38 made the starting lineup.

Qualifying position, best speed, best time
1. Joey Logano, 97.771 mph, 73.273 seconds
2. Tyler Reddick, 97.661 mph, 73.356 seconds
3. Ryan Blaney, 97.566 mph, 73.427 seconds
4. Chase Elliott, 97.562 mph, 73.430 seconds
5. Kyle Larson, 97.542 mph, 73.445 seconds
6. William Byron, 97.518 mph, 73.463 seconds
7. Daniel Suarez, 97.513 mph, 73.467 seconds
8. Alex Bowman, 97.420 mph, 73.537 seconds
9. Ross Chastain, 97.390 mph, 73.560 seconds
10. Ty Gibbs, 97.113 mph, 73.770 seconds
11. AJ Allmendinger, 97.076 mph, 73.798 seconds
12. Michael McDowell, 97.011 mph, 73.847 seconds
13. Carson Hocevar, 97.076 mph, 73.798 seconds
14. Todd Gilliland, 96.944 mph, 73.898 seconds
15. Christopher Bell, 96.981 mph, 73.870 seconds
16. Austin Dillon, 96.829 mph, 73.986 seconds
17. Corey LaJoie, 96.923 mph, 73.914 seconds
18. Bubba Wallace, 96.819 mph, 73.994 seconds
19. Noah Gragson, 96.808 mph, 74.002 seconds
20. Zane Smith, 96.804 mph, 74.005 seconds
21. Martin Truex Jr., 96.804 mph, 74.005 seconds
22. Harrison Burton, 96.752 mph, 74.045 seconds
23. Chase Briscoe, 96.744 mph, 74.051 seconds
24. Will Brown, 96.752 mph, 74.045 seconds
25. Denny Hamlin, 96.614 mph, 74.151 seconds
26. Chris Buescher, 96.691 mph, 74.092 seconds
27. Justin Haley, 96.555 mph, 74.196 seconds
28. Austin Cindric, 96.516 mph, 74.226 seconds
29. Kyle Busch, 96.456 mph, 74.265 seconds
30. Ryan Preece, 96.193 mph, 74.475 seconds
31. Cam Waters, 96.334 mph, 74.366 seconds
32. Josh Berry, 96.180 mph, 74.485 seconds
33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 96.280 mph, 74.408 seconds
34. Daniel Hemric, 96.098 mph, 74.549 seconds
35. Brad Keselowski, 96.166 mph, 74.496 seconds
36. Kaz Grala, 95.669 mph, 74.883 seconds
37. John Hunter Nemechek, 95.695 mph, 74.863 seconds
38. Erik Jones, 95.260 mph, 75.205 seconds
The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway is set to occur on Sunday, June 9, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
June 8, 2024
Cindric benefits from Blaney’s last-lap misfortune for a wild Cup victory at Gateway

In a season mired with only a single top-five result and nine results outside the top 20 through 14 races, Austin Cindric achieved good fortunes under the Gateway Arch, racing his way into Playoff contention after taking advantage of teammate Ryan Blaney running out of fuel on the final lap to win the third annual running of the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday, June 2.

The 2022 Daytona 500 champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, led three times for 53 of 240 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Michael McDowell and raced competitively towards the front. As the event quickly became a race of execution in pit strategy within the field, Cindric, who accumulated a bevy of stage points during the event’s two stage periods and led for the first time on Lap 97, made his final pit service with 63 laps remaining under green flag conditions, one lap after teammate Ryan Blaney pitted. Cindric then spent the remainder of the event navigating his way around the Gateway course and methodically climbing the leaderboard as more front-runners pitted. Amid his drive back to the front, he was also trying to keep pace with Blaney, who would prevail in a late battle of his own against Christopher Bell.

Then after being initially poised for a runner-up result behind Blaney with two laps remaining, Cindric struck gold after Blaney ran out of fuel and quickly fell off the pace through the frontstretch. Having the lead to his advantage for a final lap, Cindric was able to have enough fuel and horsepower within his No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to cycle back to the frontstretch and claim his second NASCAR Cup Series career victory in his 94th series start along with his first win in two years.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, June 1, Michael McDowell achieved his third Cup pole position of this season and of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 138.598 mph in 32.468 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Austin Cindric, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 138.134 mph in 32.577 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, McDowell jumped his No. 34 Siteman Cancer Center Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane and he led the field through the first two turns and through the backstretch. With Christopher Bell navigating his way into the runner-up spot and the field behind fanning out to multiple lanes, McDowell proceeded to lead the first lap from Bell. Behind, Ryan Blaney was up to third place while teammate Austin Cindric dropped to fourth place as he was racing in front of Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski.

The following lap, Wallace, who was battling Keselowski for seventh place, bumped into the side of Keselowski as Keselowski got loose and briefly went up the track through Turns 1 and 2, but he managed to keep his car running straight despite dropping out of the top 10 on the track. Then prior to the third lap, the event’s first caution period flew after John Hunter Nemechek and Cody Ware both spun in Turn 2.

During the next restart period on the seventh lap, McDowell and Bell dueled for the lead through the first two turns until McDowell just managed to clear Bell’s No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE through the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes for a second time, McDowell retained the lead by a narrow margin over Bell as Team Penske’s Blaney and Cindric battled for third place in front of Toyota drivers Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Wallace. William Byron and Keselowski would trail in the top 10 along with Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson while McDowell led the Lap 10 mark by three-tenths of a second over Bell.

Through the first 15 scheduled laps, McDowell was leading by half a second over Bell followed by Blaney, Cindric and Hamlin while Reddick, Gibbs, Byron, Wallace and Logano were scored in the top 10. Behind, Larson occupied 11th place ahead of Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch while rookie Josh Berry, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., rookie Carson Hocevar and Austin Dillon trailed in the top 20.

Shortly after, the event’s second caution period flew after Cody Ware was involved in a second two-car spin in Turn 2, with his latest one including Kaulig Racing’s Derek Kraus. During the caution period, select names led by Keselowski and including Busch, Truex, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry pitted while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who pitted, was penalized for speeding while Keselowski pitted for a second time to address a loose wheel to his No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 22, McDowell and Bell battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns until McDowell managed to muscle ahead from Bell from the outside lane. McDowell proceeded to lead the proceeding lap from Bell as he had both lanes in his control while Blaney was trying to fend off Cindric, Hamlin and a hard-charging Byron for third place. Behind, Wallace and Logano battled fiercely for ninth place in front of Alex Bowman, where Wallace blocked Logano through the frontstretch before Logano prevailed and overtook Wallace from the inside lane through the first two turns. Amid the early battles, McDowell retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Bell by the Lap 25 mark.

Through the first 30 scheduled laps, McDowell continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Bell followed by Blaney, Cindric and Hamlin as Byron, Gibbs, Reddick, Logano and Chase Elliott trailed in the top 10. Wallace, Larson, Bowman, Erik Jones and Ross Chastain trailed in the top 15 while Ryan Preece, Todd Gilliland, Carson Hocevar, Justin Haley and John Hunter Nemechek followed suit in the top 20. Meanwhile, a bevy of top names including Kyle Busch, Truex, Berry, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Keselowski and Daniel Suarez trailed the lead outside the top 20 on the track.

Just past the Lap 35 mark, the top three competitors on the track were separated by less than half a second as runner-up Bell and third-place Blaney slowly began to close in on McDowell for the lead. At the same time, however, Blaney would start to challenge Bell for the runner-up spot while fourth-place Cindric trailed by two seconds. Bell would then make two different attempts to overtake the leader McDowell from the inside lane through the Lap 40 mark, which he prevailed after running McDowell up the track through Turns 1 and 2. As McDowell tried to fight back from the outside lane, Bell maintained both his racing line on the inside lane and the lead during the proceeding lap.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Bell, winner of last weekend’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. McDowell held off Blaney to retain second followed by Cindric and Hamlin while Byron, Gibbs, Reddick, Logano and Elliott were scored in the top 10 on the track. By then, all but one of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Bell pitted while the rest led by Todd Gilliland, including those who pitted during the second caution period, among which included Kyle Busch, Berry, Austin Dillon and Stenhouse, remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Ryan Preece exited pit road first with two fresh tires ahead of Truex while Bell, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with McDowell, Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Blaney, Hamlin, Gibbs and Keselowski.

The second stage period started on Lap 54 as Gilliland and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Gilliland and Busch briefly dueled for the lead until Busch rocketed his No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through the first two turns. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes and jostled for spots through the backstretch, Busch led Gilliland and teammate Austin Dillon back to the frontstretch. Behind, Berry occupied fourth place while Stenhouse was in fifth ahead of Bell, Preece, Truex, Cindric and Elliott.

Just past the Lap 56 mark, Gilliland dropped from second to seventh on the track. This enabled Dillon to move his No. 3 DOW/Rivers are Life Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot behind teammate Busch while Berry, Stenhouse, Bell and Truex followed suit. Preece would then move into eighth place while Briscoe and Cindric battled fiercely for 10th place. With a multitude of battles ensuing around the circuit and between those with fresh tires versus those with none, Busch maintained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Dillon by Lap 60.

At the Lap 70 mark, Bell, who was charging his way to the front on four fresh tires, overtook Busch to move back into the lead. Behind, Dillon trailed in third place by a second and a half while Truex and Berry followed suit in the top five as they trailed the lead by three seconds.

Ten laps later, Bell was leading by more than a second over Busch followed by Dillon, Truex and Berry while Elliott, Stenhouse, Cindric, Blaney and Preece were racing in the top 10 ahead of Hamlin, Larson, Wallace, Briscoe and Gibbs. Meanwhile, McDowell, who restarted 10th at the start of the second stage period, was down in 16th ahead of Logano, Keselowski, Gilliland and Bowman as Byron, Chastain, Reddick, Haley and Buescher trailed outside the top 20.

Another 10 laps later, Bell extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Busch as Dillon, Truex and Berry continued to run in the top five. Elliott, Stenhouse, Cindric and Blaney also continued to race from sixth to ninth, respectively, while Hamlin occupied 10th place in front of Larson, Wallace, Preece, Gibbs and Briscoe.

Then during the next lap, select names including Richard Childress Racing’s Busch and Dillon pitted under green along with Gilliland. Berry, who was running fourth, pitted his No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse under green during the proceeding lap along with Stenhouse, Haley and Derek Kraus while Bell continued to lead. Soon after, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced on Lap 94 as Larson pitted his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the top 10 and only for two fresh tires. The leader Bell, along with Hamlin, Chastain, Reddick, Elliott, Erik Jones and Nemechek would pit during the proceeding laps as Berry was penalized for speeding on pit road.

By Lap 100, Austin Cindric was one of many who had yet to pit and was leading by nearly a second over teammate Blaney as Wallace, Preece and Gibbs followed suit in the top five. Gibbs would then pit under green along with Wallace, Byron, McDowell, Preece, Daniel Suarez, Buescher and Bowman over the next five laps while Cindric continued to lead.

Then on Lap 109, Truex, who pitted earlier under green, pitted his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE for a second time after he lost his left-rear tire. Amid Truex’s issues, the event remained under green flag conditions as Truex lost two laps in the process. The caution, however, flew on Lap 111 after Berry lost a left front tire and slid dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 4 as his event came to an end. By then, 17 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while a multitude of names led by the leader Cindric, many of whom were anticipating a caution, have yet to pit as part of their strategic move. During the caution period, a majority of the lead lap field by Cindric, including those who have to pit, pitted while the rest, led by Bell and including Elliott and Larson, remained on the track.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 119, Bell and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bell rocketed ahead from the outside lane through the backstretch. Bell would maintain the top spot and lead the halfway mark on Lap 120 while Busch was trying to close in on Elliott for the runner-up spot. In addition, Cindric battled Larson for fourth place in front of Blaney as the rest of the field behind jostled for spots.

By Lap 130, Bell stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Cindric, who was battling Elliott for the spot. Behind, Blaney occupied fourth place in front of a side-by-side battle between Busch and Logano while Keselowski, Larson, Briscoe and Hocevar were in the top 10 ahead of Dillon, Harrison Burton, Hamlin, Daniel Hemric, Gibbs, Zane Smith, Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Byron and Reddick.

Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew after Larson, who was battling fiercely with Busch amid close-quarters racing and contact through the frontstretch for seventh place, got loose and slid up the track into Busch, with Busch sliding and hitting the outside wall hard while Larson continued to slide sideways towards the outside wall. The incident between Busch and Larson, which ended Busch’s strong run in the garage and spoiled his bid to win for two consecutive years at Gateway, concluded the second stage period on Lap 140 as Bell captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season as he also swept both stages of the day. Cindric settled in second ahead of Blaney, Elliott and Keselowski while Logano, Briscoe, Hocevar, Dillon and Hamlin were scored in the top 10.

During the stage break, mixed strategies ensued within the field as some led by Bell pitted while the rest led by Cindric, including his Team Penske teammates Blaney and Logano, remained on the track.

With 92 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Cindric and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, the field quickly fanned out through the frontstretch as Briscoe attempted to make a three-wide move on both Cindric and Blaney for the lead through the first two turns. Cindric, however, muscled his No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane through the backstretch while Blaney and Logano muscled back ahead of Briscoe into the top three. Hocevar then battled Logano for third place while more jostling of spots ensued within the middle of the pack during the following lap. Amid the battles and as Bell was trying to navigate his way back towards the front, Cindric retained the lead with 90 laps remaining.

Down to the final 80 laps of the event, Cindric was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Blaney while teammate Logano trailed in third place by two seconds. Behind, Hocevar retained fourth place ahead of Hamlin and a hard-charging Bell as Briscoe, Dillon, Chastain and Keselowski trailed in the top 10 ahead of Reddick, Hemric, Haley, Zane Smith and Elliott. Meanwhile, Stenhouse occupied 16th place ahead of Byron, Buescher, Burton and Gragson while Gilliland, Preece, Larson, Wallace and Gibbs occupied the top 25 in front of Erik Jones, Bowman, Suarez, McDowell and Nemechek.

Fifteen laps later, Cindric maintained the lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Blaney while teammate Logano continued to trail in third place by five seconds. As Hocevar surrendered fourth place to pit under green, Bell cycled his way up to fourth place, where he trailed the lead by six seconds, while teammate Hamlin moved up to fifth place.

Another lap later, however, pit strategies amongst the front-runners started to occur as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse from the runner-up spot before the leader Cindric, Hamlin and Zane Smith pitted another lap later. Logano would then pit his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse along with Dillon, Briscoe and Byron with 63 laps remaining as Bell returned atop the leaderboard. With Stewart-Haas Racing’s Preece and Gragson pitting not long after, Bell was leading Keselowski by more than four seconds as Reddick, Haley and Chastain followed suit in the top five with 60 laps remaining.

With less than 50 laps remaining, Bell, who has yet to pit, continued to lead by more than five seconds over Keselowski as Reddick, Haley and Chastain continued to race in the top five. Meanwhile, Blaney and Cindric, both of whom managed to pit and remain on the lead lap ahead of Bell, were mired back in 18th and 20th, respectively. Bell would then pit from the lead with 47 laps remaining along with Reddick and Chastain as Keselowski cycled into the lead. With Haley, LaJoie and Stenhouse pitting not long after, Keselowski, who has yet to pit, continued to lead by more than nine seconds over Elliott as Larson, Gibbs, Gilliland, Wallace, McDowell, Bowman, Erik Jones and Nemechek trailed in the top 10 with 40 laps remaining. By then, Blaney, Cindric and Bell, all of whom had enough fuel to complete the event’s scheduled distance, had cycled their way just outside the top-10 mark.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Keselowski retained the lead by 11 seconds over Larson before he pitted a lap later. By then, Elliott had pitted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Larson cycled into the lead. Then as Gibbs also pitted a few laps later, Blaney cycled his way up into the runner-up spot while Bell, Wallace and Cindric followed suit. As Blaney and Bell battled for the runner-up spot and potentially for the victory, Larson, who has yet to pit, retained the lead by 13 seconds with 25 laps remaining.

Then with 24 laps remaining, Larson surrendered the lead to pit, which moved Blaney into the lead by a mere margin over Bell as Bell continued to pressure Blaney for the position. Behind the two leaders, Cindric was up to third place while Wallace and McDowell were in the top five. Amid Bell’s continuous challenges through the turns and from the inside lane, Blaney managed to prevail through the straightaways from the outside lane as he led with 20 laps remaining.

Bell then led the following lap after he moved in front of Blaney through the straightaway, but Blaney responded with a crossover move on Bell through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. Bell then pulled a crossover move of his own underneath Blaney, who barely slipped up the track, through the backstretch, but Blaney moved in front of Bell to block him and remain ahead of him as he returned to the lead with 18 laps remaining. Bell then slowly began to fall off the pace through the backstretch as he reported an engine issue to his car, which allowed Cindric to catch up and overtake him for the runner-up spot with 16 laps remaining while Blaney pulled away with the lead.

With 10 laps remaining, Blaney retained the lead by two seconds over teammate Cindric. Behind, Hamlin navigated his way up to third place while Bell, who was trying to nurse his car to the finish, settled in fourth while Keselowski trailed in fifth place by eight seconds. Keselowski and Reddick would catch and overtake Bell for positions while Blaney stabilized his advantage of less than two seconds over teammate Cindric, who was trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, with five laps remaining.

Then as Blaney was about to cycle his way back to the frontstretch to start the final lap of the event, he quickly fell off the pace after he ran out of fuel, which allowed Cindric to zip by him with the lead through the frontstretch. As Blaney was trying to coast his No. 12 Ford around the circuit for a final time, Cindric was able to cruise his No. 2 Ford around the Gateway circuit smoothly for a final time as he returned to the frontstretch with enough fuel underneath his tank and victorious for the second time in his career.

With the victory, Cindric, who notched the second victory in three races for the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car, became the 142nd competitor overall to achieve multiple victories in the Cup Series and he snapped an 85-race winless drought since he notched his first Cup career victory in the 2022 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

In addition to becoming the ninth competitor to win through the 2024 season’s first 15-scheduled events and guaranteeing himself a Playoff berth for this season, Cindric also delivered the first Cup victory of the season for Team Penske and the first ever for crew chief Brian Wilson, who celebrated an Xfinity Series championship with Cindric in 2020 and was moved to the No. 2 team from the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team midway into the 2023 season.

Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Honestly, I’m heartbroken for the No. 12 team,” Cindric said. “I don’t know what happened to them at the end of the race, but they deserve to win this race. Ryan’s [Blaney] been a hell of a leader on this team. This weekend was a great weekend for everybody involved, but to have two cars in the fight, an eventual one, two [finish] there. Like I said, I’m heartbroken for those guys, but this is huge for me. This is huge for this team. I’m so glad I was able to get a win with [crew chief] Brian [Wilson] as my crew chief in the Cup Series. You never know when it’s going to happen again. Just drove my butt off and hope for the best.”

“[The win]’s everything, it’s absolutely everything,” Cindric added. “The funniest thing about it is that this Freightliner Ford Mustang’s probably one of the best-looking cars on the racetrack. I have had terrible races every single time with this car and it’s great to win with a great paint scheme. Great to win front of an amazing crowd. This racetrack does an amazing job of putting on events. Just proud to be able to do it. Proud to bring it home for these [No. 2] guys. They deserve it.”

As Cindric celebrated on the frontstretch, teammate Blaney was left dejected on pit road after ending up in 24th place in the final running order as he continues to seek his first Cup victory of the 2024 season.

“No, I didn’t think so [of running out of fuel],” Blaney said. “[I] Never thought in my mind we were short, but one of those things. Proud of the No. 12 boys. [I] Had my work cut out for me holding off Christopher [Bell]. That was a fun battle. Yeah, one lap short. That stinks, but congrats to the No. 2 team. They did a good job all day, so it’s a props for them, Austin [Cindric]. Proud for Team Penske and Ford. Really happy with our showing today. I don’t know what I got to do to get some luck on our side. Gosh, [I] wrecked the last two points races and thought we had a great shot to win today. Ended up bad. Appreciate the effort, just got to keep sticking with it.”

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin piloted his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE into the runner-up spot while Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano came home in the top five.

Austin Dillon settled in sixth place followed by Bell, who had enough power to finish despite leading a race-high 80 laps, while rookie Carson Hocevar, Justin Haley and Kyle Larson finished in the top 10.

There were 16 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 32 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 15th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 21 points over Kyle Larson, 27 over Chase Elliott, 44 over Martin Truex Jr. and 36 over William Byron.

Results.

1. Austin Cindric, 53 laps led

2. Denny Hamlin

3. Brad Keselowski, 17 laps led

4. Tyler Reddick

5. Joey Logano, one lap led

6. Austin Dillon

7. Christopher Bell, 80 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

8. Carson Hocevar

9. Justin Haley

10. Kyle Larson, seven laps led

11. Ty Gibbs

12. Ross Chastain

13. Chase Elliott

14. Chris Buescher

15. William Byron

16. Todd Gilliland, six laps led

17. Chase Briscoe

18. Daniel Hemric

19. Zane Smith

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

21. Bubba Wallace

22. Noah Gragson

23. Daniel Suarez

24. Ryan Blaney, 20 laps led

25. Michael McDowell, one lap down, 40 laps led

26. Erik Jones, one lap down

27. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down

28. Alex Bowman, one lap down

29. Ryan Preece, one lap down

30. Derek Kraus, one lap down

31. Harrison Burton, one lap down

32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

33. Cody Ware, two laps down

34. Martin Truex Jr., three laps down, one lap led

35. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident, 15 laps led

36. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 9, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

June 2, 2024
Newgarden inks new multi-year contract extension with Team Penske

Josef Newgarden has inked a new multi-year contract extension to continue to pilot the No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, beginning in 2025.

The news comes as the two-time IndyCar Series champion from Hendersonville, Tennessee, is coming off his second consecutive triumph in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he led 13 of 200 laps and overtook Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward on the final lap en route to the victory. As a result, Newgarden is the first competitor in 22 years to win back-to-back Indianapolis 500s, a feat last made by Helio Castroneves between the 2001 and 2002 seasons, and he delivered the record-setting 20th Indy 500 victory for team owner Roger Penske.

“Driving for Roger Penske and this iconic team is a dream that I never thought I would realize,” Newgarden said in a statement. “I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve been given during my time at Team Penske. I have a great amount of respect for the individuals that comprise our group, incluidng the partners who support us. Our time together has been filled with hard work, teamwork and dedication; and I’m so excited that we will continue on for many more years to come. I’m sure we can achieve much more in the future. I still believe we haven’t reached our full potential together just yet.”

Newgarden, who first competed in IndyCar in 2012, was announced as a Team Penske competitor for the 2017 season in early October 2016. Three races into the 2017 season, he secured his first victory as a Penske competitor at Barber Motorsports Park. He would proceed to claim three additional victories and a total of nine podiums while contending for the driver’s championship throughout the 17-race schedule. With a runner-up finish in the season-finale event at Sonoma Raceway, Newgarden claimed the title by 13 points over teammate Simon Pagenaud and became the first American competitor to win an IndyCar championship since Ryan Hunter-Reay made the last accomplishment in 2012.

In the six-plus years that follow since winning his first championship during his first season with Team Penske, Newgarden recorded a second IndyCar title in 2019 after beating Pagenaud for a second time, this time by 25 points. He also achieved his first Indianapolis 500 victory in 2023 after overtaking and fending off the 2022 Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson during a one-lap dash to the finish. As a result, he became the 75th competitor overall and the first American competitor since Alexander Rossi made the last accomplishment in 2016 to win the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” event at Indianapolis.

To date, Newgarden has recorded 27 victories, 17 poles, 43 podiums, 3,432 laps led and an average-finishing result of 7.7, all while competing for Team Penske. With his three other victories occurring between CFH Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing between the 2015 and 2016 seasons, Newgarden sits in 13th place on the all-time IndyCar wins list at 30.

“Josef Newgarden is a true winner, and we are excited that he will continue as a part of Team Penske for years to come,” Roger Penske added. “What he did Sunday in the Indianapolis 500 shows how Josef consistently delivers for our team and our partners on the track, and he is just as impressive off the track as well. We are proud to have Josef continue with our organization as his skill and passion embody what it means to be a Team Penske driver.”

Newgarden is currently ranked in seventh place in the 2024 driver’s standings, where he trails the points lead by 61 points. His second Indy 500 victory rallies him and the No. 2 team from their disqualification from winning the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for violating the sport’s push-to-pass regulations in February, an issue that also affected Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin.

With his future set, Josef Newgarden’s quest to win a third NTT INDYCAR Series championship in 2024 continues with this weekend’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the Streets of Detroit, Michigan, where he is set to start in third place after posting the third-fastest qualifying lap at 97.145 mph in one minute, 0.9607 seconds. The event is scheduled to commence on Sunday, June 2, and air at noon ET on USA Network.

June 1, 2024
Newgarden executes final lap pass on O’Ward for second consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory

A year after becoming the 75th competitor overall to win the Indianapolis 500, Josef Newgarden doubled down as a two-time champion of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing after winning the rain-delayed 108th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 26, following a final lap overtake on Pato O’Ward.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion from Hendersonville, Tennessee, led six times for 26 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started alongside his two Team Penske teammates, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, on the front row. Leading for the first time at the halfway mark on Lap 100, Newgarden withstood a series of pit strategies amongst his rivaled competitors and on-track chaos to remain in race-winning contention in the closing stages.

Then after swapping track positions with Scott Dixon and Arrow McLaren’s duo of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi in the closing laps, Newgarden, who reassumed the lead from Rossi with seven laps remaining, was left to duel against a hard-charging O’Ward for the victory. Despite regaining the lead from O’Ward with five laps remaining, Newgarden then lost the lead to O’Ward at the start of the final lap, but managed to gain a draft to overtake him and reclaim the lead exiting the backstretch. The pass was enough for Newgarden to muscle away and claim the checkered flag to become the first competitor in 22 years to repeat as an Indianapolis 500 champion.

Following a two-day qualifying session that occurred between May 18-19 and that determined the starting lineup for the main event, Scott McLaughlin achieved his first Indianapolis 500 pole position after posting the fastest four-lap average-qualifying speed at 234.220 mph in two minutes, 33.7017 seconds. McLaughlin shared the front row with his two Team Penske teammates and former Indy 500 champions Will Power (233.917 mph in two minutes, 33.9007 seconds) and Josef Newgarden (233.808 mph in two minutes, 33.9726 seconds), which marked the first time three Team Penske entries swept the front row for the 500 since 1988.

The only competitor who did not qualify for the event was rookie Nolan Siegel, who wrecked his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Dallara-Honda entry while attempting to race his way into the field during last Sunday’s qualifying session.

During the pace laps and warmup session, early trouble struck for Callum Ilott, who pitted due to a mechanical issue to his No. 6 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet, though he was able to return to the track and remain on the lead lap for the event’s start.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced amid a four-hour delay due to heavy precipitation, pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin launched ahead from teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden along with the rest of the field to lead through the first two turns.

Shortly after, however, the event’s first caution period flew after Tom Blomqvist hit the rumble strips in Turn 1, spun and came across the path of Marcus Ericsson as Ericsson, who started on the final row in this year’s Indy 500, nearly got airborne as he wrecked his No. 28 Delaware Life/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda both into Blomqvist’s No. 66 Arctic Wolf/Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda and across the outside wall. Amid the wreckage, Pietro Fittipaldi, who was trying to avoid the wreckage involving Ericsson and Blomqvist, made contact with Ilott as he spun his No. 30 5-Hour Energy/Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara-Honda in between the first two turns before he backed his car against the outside wall. The carnage was enough to take Ericsson, Fittipaldi and Blomqvist out of contention while Ilott continued.

During the caution period, Marcus Armstrong’s second career start in the Indianapolis 500 came to an early end due to the New Zealander losing power and having smoke spewing out of his No. 11 Ridgeline Performance Lubricants/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda during the caution laps, which forced him to pit and retire.

As the event restarted under green on the ninth lap, McLaughin fended off teammates Power and Newgarden for a second time through the frontstretch to retain the lead as the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes. In the midst of the field fanning out, Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion who was piloting the No. 17 HendrickCars.com/Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet as part of his ‘Double Duty’ effort that included competing in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway later in the day, lost a bevy of spots while running in the top 10 and was getting overtaken by oncoming competitors after missing a gear to launch at the start as he also made slight contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay. The field continued to scatter, fan out and jostle for early spots through the backstretch while McLaughlin retained the lead ahead of his two Team Penske teammates at the Lap 10 mark.

Through the first 15 scheduled laps, McLaughlin was leading by less than a tenth of a second over teammate Power and nearly half a second over teammate Newgarden while Santino Ferrucci and Alexander Rossi were in the top five. Behind, Rinus VeeKay occupied sixth place ahead of Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood while Alex Palou, Takuma Sato, Helio Castroneves, Kyle Larson and Ryan Hunter-Reay were in the top 15. Behind, Scott Dixon, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter, Sting Ray Robb and rookie Kyffin Simpson trailed in the top 20.

Six laps later, the caution returned after Katherine Legge, who started on the final row, had smoke billowing out of her No. 51 e.l.f/Dale Coyne Racing Dallara-Honda as her fourth bid to win the Indy 500 came to an end. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by McLaughin pitted for service while the following names that included Sting Ray Robb, Conor Daly, Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal remained on the track as part of an early strategic plan. Following the pit stops, McLaughlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammates Power and Newgarden while Ferrucci, Rossi, Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Herta, Palou and Sato followed suit in the top 10.

During the next restart period on Lap 26, Daly overtook Robb from the outside lane through the frontstretch to assume the lead. Robb would retain second through the first two turns and through the backstretch while McLaughlin settled in fourth place as he was running in between Lundgaard and Rahal while Ferrucci was trying to crack the top five amid more jostling of spots within the field. The event’s third caution flew a lap later after Linus Lundqvist, who was running in the middle of the field, got loose and hit the outside wall in Turn 1, which knocked him and his No. 8 American Legion/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda team out of contention.

With the event restarting under green on Lap 32, McLaughlin muscled his No. 3 Pennzoil/Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet past Daly’s No. 24 Polkadot/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports Dallara-Chevrolet through the frontstretch to reassume the lead. Behind, Ferrucci made his way into the runner-up spot followed by Daly, Robb and Lundgaard as the field fanned out to multiple lanes just past the backstretch before navigating through Turns 3 and 4 to complete the following lap. Daly would then overtake Ferrucci to claim the runner-up spot by Lap 34 before overtaking McLaughlin through the frontstretch to reassume the lead two laps later.

Just past the Lap 40 mark, Daly was leading by two-tenths of a second over McLaughlin while third-place Ferrucci trailed by seven-tenths of a second. Robb and Rossi trailed in the top five within a second as Newgarden, Herta, Lundgaard, Palou and O’Ward were scored in the top 10 ahead of Rosenqvist, Larson, Dixon and Rahal while Power dropped to 15th.

Towards Lap 38, Robb, who was running in the top five, pitted his No. 41 Goodheart/A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Honda under green. Daly would surrender the lead to pit under green during the following lap as McLaughlin cycled back into the lead as he was being pursued by Ferrucci, Ross, Herta and Newgarden.

At the one-quarter mark on Lap 50, McLaughlin continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Ferrucci while Rossi, Herta and Newgarden continued to trail in the top five. Behind, Palou occupied sixth place ahead of Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Larson and Rasmussen while Dixon, VeeKay, Power, Sato and Augustin Canapino were in the top 15. Meanwhile, teammates Lundgaard and Rahal were mired back in 25th and 26th, respectively, after both pitted a few laps earlier.

Five laps later, the event’s fourth caution flew after Felix Rosenqvist, who was running in the top 10, pulled his No. 60 SiriusXM/Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda off the track in the backstretch and retired due to an engine failure, which marks the third Honda engine failure in the event. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by McLaughlin returned to pit road for service while Daly and Robb remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid a tight squeeze amongst the leaders, Rossi exited in first place by a hair over McLaughlin as Herta, Newgarden, Palou, Ferrucci, Rasmussen, Larson, VeeKay and Power followed suit in the top 10.

The start of the next restart period on Lap 64 featured the field fanning out through the frontstretch and prior to reaching the start/finish line as McLaughlin made a bold three-wide move beneath Daly and Robb to move into the lead entering the first turn. Robb would then return to the top of the leaderboard two laps later after he overtook McLaughlin through the frontstretch. Robb would retain the lead by the Lap 70 mark and by four-tenths of a second over McLaughlin while Daly, Herta and Newgarden trailed in the top five.

Then on Lap 85, the caution flew after Herta, who was running second and was deemed a potential favorite of the event, got loose and spun backwards into the outside wall in Turn 1, where he damaged the front wing of his No. 26 Gainbridge/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda. Despite sustaining minimal damage to his entry, Herta would have his car towed to the garage, where he would return to the track following extensive repairs and being multiple laps down.

During the exchange of pit stops as nearly the entire field led by McLaughlin pitted during the caution period, Kyle Kirkwood ran into the rear of Ilott, which cause Ilott to overshoot his pit stall and into Ed Carpenter’s pit stall, which caused Carpenter to jam on the brakes and stall his car while waiting for Ilott to be pushed back into his respective stall.

With the race restarting under green on Lap 91, Rinus VeeKay, who was among a handful of competitors who did not pit and inherited the lead, was quickly overtaken by Lundgaard for the lead entering the first turn. Behind, Newgarden muscled his way up to fourth place as he settled behind Robb while Ferrucci and Daly battled for fifth place in front of McLaughlin, Palou, Rossi and Larson.

Seven laps later, VeeKay pitted his No. 21 askROI/Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara-Chevrolet under green. Lundgaard would also pit his No. 45 Hyvee/Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara-Honda another three laps later as Newgarden proceeded to lead the halfway mark on Lap 100. By then, Ferrucci moved up to second as McLaughlin, Robb and Daly cycled up into the top five ahead of Palou, Larson, Rossi, Castroneves and Rasmussen.

Six laps later, the event’s sixth caution flew after Ryan Hunter-Reay, who gained a draft to overtake Scott Dixon through the backstretch for 17th place, got blocked and forced into the backstretch’s grass amid contact with Dixon, which resulted with Hunter-Reay doing a full 360 spin through the grass and the racing surface, but managing to straighten his car through the grass without coming back across oncoming traffic as Hunter-Reay limped his damaged No. 23 VensureHR/Four Sixes Racing Beef/101 Studios/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara-Chevrolet back to his pit stall, where he would retire.

The following restart period with 87 laps remaining did not last long as Marco Andretti, who was battling for a top-20 spot, slipped sideways and backed his No. 98 Mapei/Andretti Global Dallara-Honda into the outside wall in Turn 1 as his 19th bid to win his first Indianapolis 500 came to a late end.

The ensuing restart period with 82 laps remaining generated a different outcome as McLaughlin muscled ahead with the lead of a tight battle involving teammate Newgarden, Ferrucci, Rossi, Palou, Larson, Castroneves, Canapino and Rasmussen entering the first turn. With Newgarden retaining second, McLaughlin also retained the lead by four-tenths of a second with 80 laps remaining.

At the three-quarters mark with 75 laps remaining, McLaughlin retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Rossi followed by Newgarden, Ferrucci and Palou while Larson, Rasmussen, Castroneves, Canapino and Rahal were in the top 10. Behind, Dixon was in 11th ahead of Simpson, VeeKay, O’Ward and Daly while Power, Sato, Robb, Ilott and Kirkwood were mired in the top 20.

Two laps later, Newgarden cycled his No. 2 Shell Powering Progress/Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet past teammate McLaughlin to reassume the lead through the frontstretch. Newgarden, however, would then pit under green with 70 laps remaining before McLaughlin pitted during the following lap. During McLaughlin’s pit service, the following names that included Larson, Canapino, Simpson and Ilott also pitted. Amid the pit stops, however, Larson, who had methodically driven his way into the top five prior to pitting, was assessed a drive-through penalty for speeding while entering pit road. Larson, who smoked his front tires when he was penalized for speeding, would serve the penalty with nearly 65 laps remaining as more names pitted under green.

Back on the track, O’Ward, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Dixon. O’Ward would then pit from the lead with 63 laps remaining, which moved Dixon into the lead ahead of VeeKay, Daly, Sato, Robb, Kirkwood, Lundgaard and Carpenter as McLaughlin led a large group of competitors who recently pitted, among which included Rossi, Palou, Newgarden and Ferrucci. During the next two laps, Rossi navigated past McLaughlin and Palou to move into 10th place while scored the first competitor who recently pitted.

With less than 60 laps remaining, Dixon pitted under green as Daly cycled into the lead. Daly would then pit with nearly 55 laps remaining, which enabled Robb to assume the lead ahead of Lundgaard and O’Ward while Dixon and Daly trailed by more than 35 seconds in the top five.

Then with 54 laps remaining, the caution flew after Power, who was racing within the top 20 and battling Rasmussen, slipped sideways and spun backwards into the outside wall in Turn 1, which he slapped and destroyed the right side of his No. 12 Verizon Dallara-Chevrolet.

Down to the final 45 laps of the event, Dixon briefly led the field back to green flag racing conditions before he was placed in the middle of an Arrow McLaren sandwich through the frontstretch as Rossi overtook both teammate O’Ward and Dixon into the lead. Behind, Newgarden, who restarted eighth, rocketed his way up to fourth place as he was ahead of Palou, VeeKay, McLaughlin and Daly as Rossi retained the lead. During the following lap, teammate O’Ward overtook Rossi to assume the lead with Dixon retaining third. With McLaughlin mired in seventh, Rossi and O’Ward traded spots for a second time through the frontstretch as the former reassumed the lead. O’Ward and Rossi swapped positions for a third time through the frontstretch with 42 laps remaining as Rossi returned to the lead.

With 35 laps remaining, Rossi, who kept swapping the lead with his Arrow McLaren teammate O’Ward through the frontstretch, reassumed the lead while third-place Dixon trailed by within seven-tenths of a second. Behind, Newgarden and Palou trailed in the top five ahead of McLaughlin while VeeKay, Daly, Ferrucci and Kirkwood were scored in the top 10.

Three laps later, however, Rossi surrendered his back-and-forth trade for the lead with teammate O’Ward to pit his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Dallara-Chevrolet under green. Another two laps later, Dixon made his move beneath O’Ward to move his No. 9 PNC Bank/Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda into the lead as Sato and Robb peeled off the track to pit under green. Newgarden, McLaughlin and Daly would pit during the next lap before Dixon, Canapino, O’Ward, Castroneves and Lundgaard pitted with 38 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Dixon emerged ahead of Newgarden, Rossi and O’Ward while Kirkwood, who was among nine front-runners who has yet to pit, was leading.

With 25 laps remaining, Dixon overtook Newgarden through the frontstretch to reclaim the top spot as the competitor who recently pitted despite being scored in seventh place. By then, Kirkwood was still leading ahead of Ilott, Rahal, Carpenter, Larson and Simpson, all of whom have yet to pit under green. Dixon and Newgarden would spend the next five laps gaining drafts and swapping spots over one another through the frontstretch as they moved up the leaderboard into fourth and fifth. Meanwhile, Larson, who cycled into the lead a lap earlier after Ed Carpenter pitted, was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Simpson with 20 laps remaining as Newgarden, Rossi and Dixon moved up into the top five.

Four laps later, Larson surrendered the lead to pit under green. Once Simpson pitted during the next lap, Newgarden cycled into the lead as he held a three-tenths of a second advantage over a hard-charging Rossi, with Dixon and O’Ward also trailing by within seven-tenths of a second. Rossi would then overtake Newgarden from the outside lane through the frontstretch to lead with 13 laps remaining. Behind, O’Ward overtook Dixon for third place while Rossi was trying to muscle away with the lead.

Down to the final 12 laps of the event, Newgarden rocketed past Rossi from the inside lane through the frontstretch to reassume the lead while O’Ward was trying to close in on teammate Rossi for the runner-up spot. With Dixon trailing in fourth place by more than a second and Rossi trying to close back towards Newgarden’s rear bumper, Newgarden continued to lead by two-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining.

With nine laps remaining, Rossi gained another draft on Newgarden to reassume the lead through the frontstretch. As Rossi led by three-tenths of a second during the next lap, O’Ward was trying to fend off Dixon for third place while Kirkwood, Palou and McLaughlin trailed from fifth to seventh, respectively.

Then with seven laps remaining, Newgarden reclaimed the lead while O’Ward seized an opportunity to rocket past teammate Rossi through the frontstretch as he assumed the runner-up spot. O’Ward then made his move beneath Newgarden to assume the lead through the frontstretch with five laps remaining before Newgarden reassumed the top spot during the proceeding lap. Newgarden would proceed to retain the lead by a narrow margin over O’Ward during the next two laps.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, O’Ward made his move to the outside lane and overtook Newgarden to assume the lead, where he retained it through the first two turns. Then while trying to muscle away as he swerved his car to the left and right to not give Newgarden any drafting momentum, the latter was able to gain enough momentum to make a bold move to the outside lane entering Turn 3 and zip by O’Ward. With the lead back within his grasp and O’Ward losing ground, Newgarden was able to muscle away with the lead for two final turns and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim his second consecutive checkered flag at the Greatest Spectacle of Racing in Indianapolis, Indiana.

With the victory, Newgarden became the 21st competitor overall to win the Indianapolis 500 multiple times and the first to win the event in back-to-back seasons since Helio Castroneves made the last accomplishment between 2001 and 2002. The 2024 Indy 500 victory marks Newgarden’s 30th of his NTT IndyCar Series career and the first of the season, which made him the fourth winner through the season’s first five events on the schedule.

The victory served as a redemptive moment for Newgarden and his No. 2 Team Penske team as they were disqualified from winning the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg due to violating rules involving their use of the push-to-pass system. The disqualification also affected their teammate Will Power, who initially finished third in the event. Earlier this month, Team Penske suspended several key members from their organization, including managing director Ron Ruzewski and team president Tim Cindric.

“[The critics] can say whatever they want after this point. I don’t care anymore,” Newgarden said on the frontstretch on NBC. “I’m just so proud of the team. They crushed it. They came here with the fastest cars. We worked our tails off, Team Chevy brought it. [Race engineer] Luke [Mason], Tim [Cindric], they’re not here today, but they’re a huge part of this. I’m just so proud of everybody for Team Penske. That’s the way I wanted to win the [race] right there.”

“I knew we could win this race again and [it was] just a matter of getting it right,” Newgarden added in Victory Lane. “There’s no better way to win a race than that. I got to give it up to Pato [O’Ward] as well. He’s an incredibly clean driver. It takes two people to make that work, so it’s not just a good pass. It’s also someone that you’re working with that’s incredible clean. He could’ve easily won this race too, but it just fell our way. I just went for it. I said, ‘Alright, the car’s good enough. You guys have done your job Let me drive to the front.’ [The team] backed me the entire way. You can’t win this race without a great car. It’s the best car in the field, so hats off to the team. It’s always a team win. Today epitomizes the team victory. It’s a team win on the pole, it’s a team win today. I’m thankful for Roger Penske. He’s stood by me. He’s the man, he’s a legend. There’s no one that I’ve ever met that cares more about the fan and the experience than that man. I promise you, he cares so much about this place and I’m thankful for him.”

In addition, Newgarden, who achieved his second Indy 500 victory following a last-lap pass for a second consecutive season after overtaking Marcus Ericsson for the win a year ago, had the honors of bestowing the record-setting 20th Indianapolis 500 victory to team owner Roger Penske, who is also the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“It’s a dream come true,” Penske said. “You think about all these fans that were here today. [They] Waited five hours to see that race. Unbelievable finish. I never saw one car get ahead by a couple of seconds. For me, it’s a job we love to do. We love to win. I think this puts away a lot of the things we talked about who we are and where we are. We’re winners.”

As Newgarden fought back tears of joy and relief in Victory Lane, O’Ward, who led 12 laps and was striving to become the first Mexican competitor to win the Indy 50, fought back tears of disappointment on pit road after settling in the runner-up spot in the 500 for a second time in three seasons.

“It’s hard to put it into words,” O’Ward said. “I’m proud of the work that we did today. We recovered. We went back, we went forward, we went back. Some people were driving like maniacs. We had so many near race-enders and [we were] just so close again. So close. I put that car through things I never thought it was going to be able to do. Somehow I came out the other side of the corner. It’s just so painful when you put so much into it and [we were] two corners short. [This track] owes me nothing. I much rather have finished the race rather than compared to last year, but it’s always a heartbreak whenever you’re just so close, especially when it’s not the first time. You just don’t know how many opportunities like that you have.”

Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner, came home in third place followed by Alexander Rossi, both of whom led 12 laps apiece, while Alex Palou, the 2024 Sonsio Grand Prix winner and two-time series champion, finished fifth.

“[The finish] was like a win, obviously,” Dixon said. “We had some ups and downs through the race. We definitely just didn’t have the speed today, unfortunately. It was just one of those days where I feel like everybody gave each other pretty good room. We had some incidents here and there, but it was wild to watch. Obviously at the end there, when you’re going for third place, you see the first two mixing it up. You hope they’re going to crash into each other, unfortunately, but that’s just the way it goes.”

“The fuel number I had to hit, I couldn’t lead.” Rossi added. “Just an amazing effort for the whole Arrow McLaren organization and Team Chevy. It was an amazing month. It’s really hard when you come away from this event not thinking you should’ve changed anything and still, the result isn’t there. I look back and there’s nothing to this month that I would’ve done any differently. The car was great. When you can’t win with that, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

“I didn’t have a perfect day, but almost,” Palou added. “Strategy wasn’t the best in our case, but [it] still was good. We tried. We gave everything we had. [We] Didn’t have the ultimate speed today and had fun passing some cars. Pretty happy to finish P5. Not the best result, obviously here, but it was a good race.”

Pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Kirkwood, Santino Ferrucci, Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly completed the top 10 in the final running order.

Notably, Kyle Larson finished 18th in both his first career start in the NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. In addition, Takuma Sato finished 14th ahead of Graham Rahal, Sting Ray Robb, who led 23 laps as part of his strategic moves, finished 16th ahead of Ed Carpenter and Helio Castroneves ended up 20th,

There were 52 lead changes for 18 different leaders. The event featured eight cautions for 47 laps. In addition, 21 of 33 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the fifth event of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, Alex Palou leads the championship standings by 20 points over Scott Dixon, 26 over Will Power, 49 over both Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta, 52 over Scott McLaughlin and 61 over Josef Newgarden.

Results.

1. Josef Newgarden, 26 laps led

2. Pato O’Ward, 12 laps led

3. Scott Dixon, 12 laps led

4. Alexander Rossi, 12 laps led

5. Alex Palou, one lap led

6. Scott McLaughlin, 64 laps led

7. Kyle Kirkwood, two laps led

8. Santino Ferrucci, eight laps led

9. Rinus VeeKay, eight laps led

10. Conor Daly, 22 laps led

11. Callum Ilott, one lap led

12. Christian Rasmussen, one lap led

13. Christian Lundgaard, four laps led

14. Takuma Sato

15. Graham Rahal, one lap led

16. Sting Ray Robb, 23 laps led

17. Ed Carpenter, three laps led

18. Kyle Larson, four laps led

19. Romain Grosjean

20. Helio Castroneves

21. Kyffin Simpson, three laps led

22. Agustin Canapino, one lap down

23. Colton Herta – OUT, Contact

24. Will Power – OUT, Contact

25. Marco Andretti – OUT, Contact

26. Ryan Hunter-Reay – OUT, Contact

27. Felix Rosenqvist – OUT, Mechanical

28. Linus Lundqvist – OUT, Contact

29. Katherine Legge – OUT, Mechanical

30. Marcus Armstrong – OUT, Mechanical

31. Tom Blomqvist – OUT, Contact

32. Marcus Ericsson – OUT, Contact

33. Pietro Fittipaldi – OUT, Contact

Next on the 2024 NTT INDYCAR Series schedule is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the Streets of Detroit, Michigan. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 2, and air at noon ET on USA Network.

May 27, 2024
Logano dominates for second All-Star triumph at North Wilkesboro

Joey Logano erased his difficult start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season by capping off a dominant run with a big victory in the 40th annual running of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, May 19.

The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, led all but one of 200 scheduled laps in an event where he took care of business a day earlier by qualifying on the pole position for the main event. From the drop of the green flag to the checkered flag, Logano managed through the event’s tire options and repaved surface, including the use of optional tires for grip, to keep his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry out in front amid four restarts and several challenges between his fellow competitors. Amid a 42-lap dash to the finish, Logano managed both his optional tires, the track’s racing surface and the clean air to fend off Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson to claim his second checkered flag in the All-Star event and cash in a million dollars.

The starting lineup for the main event was determined through a combined session of on-track qualifying and the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge that occurred on Saturday, May 18, where each competitor eligible for the All-Star Race took the green flag, ran one full lap around the circuit, pitted within a designated pit stall for four-tire pit stop with a mock fuel delivery included during the second lap and raced back to the checkered flag once returning to the track.

The overall qualifying time was evaluated by the total time from the green flag to the checkered flag, where the competitor who posted the fastest lap time between the three times would achieve the pole position. The event’s two 60-lap Heat events that would determine the rest of the starting lineup for the All-Star Race aside from the pole sitter was scheduled to occur on Saturday but was canceled due to on-track precipitation.

At the conclusion of the qualifying and Pit Crew Challenge sessions, Joey Logano claimed his first All-Star pole position after posting the fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 29.75 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Brad Keselowski, who clocked in the second-fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.14 seconds.

Christopher Bell, whose No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota pit crew achieved this year’s Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge after delivering the fastest four-tire pit service during Bell’s qualifying run in 13.223 seconds, qualified in third place with a three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.17 seconds and he started alongside Daniel Suarez, who posted the fourth-fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.20 seconds.

Prior to the event, Kyle Larson, who qualified an impressive fifth place for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 while driving for Arrow McLaren, started at the rear of the field due to a driver change after Kevin Harvick practiced and qualified Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry while Larson was preparing for the Indy 500.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane as he led the field through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Kyle Busch, who started towards the middle of the pack, hit the outside wall after making contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. amid a three-wide battle.

Then as Logano proceeded to lead the first lap, Busch retaliated by bumping and sending Stenhouse hard into the outside wall in Turn 2 as his event came to an early end. Following the incident, however, Stenhouse nursed and parked his damaged No. 47 Icy Hot Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into Busch’s pit stall before he climbed out and exchanged words with Busch’s crew chief Randall Burnett before being directed to the infield care center.

During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Daniel Suarez pitted to have the soft “red” tires on their respective entries removed for prime “yellow” tires while the rest led by Logano and including Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Blaney remained on the track.

When the event restarted under green on the 10th lap, Logano retained the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as Keselowski and Reddick battled for second in front of Blaney and Buescher. Behind, Christopher Bell, the first competitor racing on the fresh prime tires, was in sixth ahead of Suarez, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch as Logano proceeded to lead the Lap 15 mark.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Logano was leading by four-tenths of a second over Reddick followed by Buescher, Blaney and Keselowski while Bell, Suarez, Chastain, William Byron and Denny Hamlin were racing in the top 10. Behind, Chase Elliott occupied 11th place ahead of Truex, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Busch while Bubba Wallace, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Noah Gragson trailed behind, with last-place Gragson trailing the lead by more than seven seconds.

Ten laps later, Logano extended his advantage to more than a second over Buescher followed by Blaney, Reddick and Keselowski, with all the top-five front-runners separated by more than three seconds and still racing on the option “red” tires. Behind, Bell, the first competitor racing on the primary “yellow” tires in his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE, trailed in sixth place by more than three seconds while Suarez, Chastain, Byron and Hamlin continued to run in the top 10.

Another 10 laps later, Logano stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Buescher while third-place Blaney trailed by more than two seconds. As Keselowski and Reddick trailed in the top five, Bell, Suarez, Chastain, Hamlin and Byron trailed in the top 10, respectively, while Elliott, Gibbs, Truex, Larson and Busch followed suit in the top 15 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Gragson and Allmendinger.

At the Lap 50 mark, Logano continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Buescher, with Blaney and Keselowski trailing in third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell cracked the top five on his primary tires while Reddick fell back to sixth place on his optional tires. Suarez, Chastain and Hamlin followed suit from seventh to ninth, respectively, while Elliott occupied 10th place ahead of teammate Byron and Gibbs.

Fifteen laps later, Logano retained the lead by a second over Buescher as Blaney, Keselowski and Bell trailed in the top five. Behind, Reddick occupied sixth place ahead of a battle between Hamlin and Suarez while Chastain and Elliott continued to run in the top 10.

A few laps later, trouble struck for Byron, who nursed his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to pit road under green due to a flat tire and for a bent toe link after hitting a bump and the outside wall. Amid Byron’s issues, which pinned the Charlotte native multiple laps down while his pit crew made repairs on pit road, Logano, who was beginning to approach lapped traffic, was leading by less than half a second over Buescher, who was starting to close in on Logano for the top spot, by the Lap 75 mark.

Just past the Lap 80 mark, Logano, who was still trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, retained the lead by half a second over Buescher while third-place Blaney trailed by a second. Keselowski, Bell and Reddick continued to run in the top six ahead of Hamlin, Chastain, Suarez and Elliott while Logano, who was trying to lap Wallace, was still leading by the Lap 90 mark.

On Lap 100, which marked the halfway point of the event, a designated All-Star caution was flown. At the moment of caution, Logano, who was unable to lap Wallace but survived through the event’s first half on the optional tires, retained the lead ahead of Buescher, Keselowski, Blaney and Bell while Reddick, Hamlin, Chastain, Suarez and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, McDowell, who was running in 16th place behind Wallace, emerged as the first competitor swho was scored a lap down and he was the recipient of the free pass.

During the caution period, the field led by Logano made a mandatory four-tire pit stop. Following the pit stops, Logano retained the lead after beating both Buescher and Bell off of pit road first while Keselowski, Blaney, Hamlin, Chastain, Elliott, Suarez and Reddick followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, nearly the entire field led by Logano opted to change for a fresh set of optional tires while Gibbs and Reddick only opted to change for primary tires.

When the race restarted under green with 92 laps remaining, where Logano and Bell occupied the front row, Logano maintained a slight advantage over Bell through the first two turns and the backstretch, with both still battling dead even back to the frontstretch and for the following lap. Logano and Bell would continue to battle dead even for the lead with 90 laps remaining, with the former trying to pin and stall the latter’s momentum through the turns and straightaways.

Then with 88 laps remaining, Bell got loose underneath Logano, which sent both competitors up the track through Turns 3 and 4 amid contact. This allowed Hamlin to ignite a three-wide battle for the lead through the frontstretch. With Hamlin trying to emerge ahead through the first two turns from the inside lane, Logano fought back from the outside lane as he retained the lead by a narrow margin over Hamlin while Bell was trying to fend off Blaney for third place. In addition, Buescher was in fifth while Larson was up to sixth place.

With 83 laps remaining, the caution flew after Gibbs, winner of the 2024 All-Star Open, was bumped twice by Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering Turn 1 while racing for 12th place, which sent Gibbs’ No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE spinning towards the outside wall in Turn 1. Gibbs would drop out of the lead lap category as he had issues trying to re-fire his car amid the incident while Suarez and Reddick pitted for tire options during the caution period.

As the event restarted under green with 77 laps remaining, Logano muscled away from Hamlin and the field from the outside lane through the first two turns and through the backstretch. As the field behind battled for late spots, Logano maintained a steady advantage of two-tenths of a second over Hamlin’s No. 11 Mavis Toyota Camry XSE with 75 laps remaining while Blaney, Bell, Buescher and Larson followed suit in the top six.

With 65 laps remaining, Logano stabilized his narrow advantage to three-tenths of a second over a side-by-side battle between Hamlin and Blaney for the runner-up spot. Behind, fourth-place Bell and fifth-place Buescher both trailed by a second as sixth-place Larson trailed by two seconds, with Keselowski, Wallace, Elliott and Reddick racing in the top 10.

With 50 laps remaining, a second designated All-Star caution was flown. At the moment of caution, Logano was the leader ahead of teammate Blaney, Hamlin, Bell and Buescher while Larson, Keselowski, Wallace, Elliott and Reddick were scored in the top 10 followed by McDowell, Gragson, Chastain, Busch, Truex, Suarez, Gibbs and Allmendinger.

During the caution period, some led by Larson and including Wallace, Elliott, Chastain, Truex, McDowell, Gragson, Busch and Suarez pitted for fresh optional “red” tires while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.

Down to the final 42 laps of the event, the event restarted under green as teammates Logano and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Logano retained the lead while Blaney, who got loose entering the first turn, was quickly overtaken by Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Blaney would then be challenged by Buescher for third place along with Larson as Hamlin started to challenge Logano for the lead with 40 laps remaining.

Over the next two laps, Larson, racing on fresh optional tires, overtook both Blaney and Buescher to move his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into third place. By then, Logano retained the lead ahead of Hamlin as Larson started to close in on the two leaders. Larson would then have issues trying to overtake Hamlin for the runner-up spot through the corners while Logano retained the lead with less than 35 laps remaining.

With 25 laps remaining, Logano was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin while third-place Larson trailed the lead by a second. Behind, Buescher retained fourth ahead of Blaney while Wallace was up to sixth place followed by Chastain, Elliott, Truex and Busch.

Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Logano extended his advantage to a second over Hamlin while third-place Larson, who was starting to fade on his fresh tires, trailed by more than two seconds as he was also trying to fend off Buescher to retain third place. Blaney, Wallace, Chastain, Elliott, McDowell and Truex followed suit in the top 10 as Logano was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin with 10 laps remaining.

With five laps remaining, Logano retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin as third-place Larson trailed by four seconds followed by Buescher and Blaney.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin. Despite Hamlin’s late effort in keeping Logano as close as he could in front of him, he could not narrow the gap as Logano, who was out front in clean air, was able to cycle around the North Wilkesboro circuit smoothly for a final time and back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second.

With the victory, Logano joins Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte and Davey Allison as competitors to win the All-Star Race twice as this marks his first time winning the All-Star event since 2016. He also recorded the fifth All-Star victory for Team Penske and the 14th overall for the Ford nameplate, with the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car winning for a second consecutive weekend.

Logano’s All-Star victory capped off a strong day of motorsports competition for team owner Roger Penske, whose three-car operation in the NTT IndyCar Series swept the front row for next Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 as Scott McLaughlin captured his first Indy 500 pole over teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden. For Logano, the victory served as a momentous boost for the former Cup Series champion, who came into the event with a single top-two result registered to his racing stats along with being winless through the first 13 events on the 2024 schedule.

Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“How about that, Wilkesboro?! That was awesome!” Logano exclaimed on the frontstretch on FS1. “What an incredible Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. It was so fast. Man, we came here and tested [in March]. We ran over 800 laps at the tire test. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] really put me to work, really figured out what it was going to take to win the race. The [No. 22] boys executed a fantastic stop. Fantastic weekend, great execution. It’s been a while since we’ve won a race. I wish this one counted for points, but a million bucks will work as well…Man, it feels good. Feels great.”

As Logano celebrated on the frontstretch, tempers ignited in the garage area and towards the transport haulers as Stenhouse, who waited for Busch, who ended up 10th and was still displeased over the opening lap incident, confronted the latter as harsh words were exchanged. As the conversation continued, Stenhouse then swung a fist towards Busch as a fight ignited between both competitors and their respective crew members before they were separated.

Denny Hamlin, the 2015 All-Star Race winner, settled in second place for the second time in his career followed by Chris Buescher, who achieved his first top-five result in the All-Star event. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson capped off an eventful run between his Indianapolis 500 qualifying trials to campaigning for another All-Star victory by finishing fourth while Blaney rounded out the top five.

Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in the final running order.

There were two lead changes for two different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 17 of 20 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Joey Logano, 199 laps led

2. Denny Hamlin

3. Chris Buescher

4. Kyle Larson

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Bubba Wallace

7. Ross Chastain

8. Chase Elliott

9. Michael McDowell

10. Kyle Busch

11. Noah Gragson

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Ty Gibbs

14. Tyler Reddick

15. Daniel Suarez

16. Brad Keselowski, one lap led

17. Chistopher Bell

18. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down

19. William Byron, 14 laps down

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 26, during Memorial Day weekend and air at 6 p.m. ET on FOX.

May 19, 2024
Parker Kligerman to make 100th Xfinity career start at Darlington

In his third full-time season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Parker Kligerman is primed to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s Xfinity event at Darlington Raceway, the driver of the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet Camaro will make his 100th career start in the Xfinity circuit.

A native of Westport, Connecticut, Kligerman made his inaugural presence in the Xfinity Series at Kansas Speedway in October 2009. By then, he was competing on a full-time basis in the ARCA Racing Series for Cunningham Motorsports, where he would achieve nine victories and a runner-up result in the final standings, and was a development competitor for Team Penske. Driving the No. 22 Penske Dodge, Kligerman notched his first career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 172.778 mph in 31.254 seconds and would lead the first seven laps before settling in 16th place in the final running order. He returned for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, where he piloted the No. 42 Team 42 Racing Dodge to a 25th-place finish.

In 2010, Kligerman made a total of 12 starts in the Xfinity Series between Team Penske and Team 42, with his first start occurring at Auto Club Speedway in February and finishing 22nd despite failing to qualify for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. After notching his first career top-10 result at Bristol Motor Speedway in August by finishing ninth, the Connecticut native then notched a season-best eighth-place result at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal during the following event. Ultimately, he recorded a total of six top-15 results between his two part-time rides. He would make a total of four Xfinity starts for Team Penske between 2011 and 2012, where he would notch three top-10 results and finish as high as seventh, which occurred at Chicagoland Speedway in July 2012.

In 2013, Kligerman, who had scored his first Craftsman Truck Series victory at Talladega in October 2012 while driving for Red Horse Racing, joined Kyle Busch Motorsports to pilot the No. 77 Toyota Camry on a full-time basis. Commencing the season by finishing fifth at Daytona while dodging a harrowing multi-car wreck on the frontstretch, Kligerman would record a total of three top-five results, 13 top-10 results, 45 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.1 throughout the 33-race schedule before settling in ninth place in the final standings. By then, he notched a career-best third-place result at Road America in June and a fourth-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in March. At Michigan International Speedway in June, Kligerman led 13 laps and was in the position of achieving his first career victory amid a late pit strategy and gamble before pitting for fuel with 14 laps remaining and ending up in 25th place while two laps down.

With Kyle Busch Motorsports ceasing its Xfinity Series program after the 2013 season, Kligerman would move up to the NASCAR Cup Series to compete for Swan Racing and contend for the 2014 Rookie-of-the-Year title. The driver, however, would be released by Swan Racing after the team sold its operations to Xxxtreme Motorsport following the first eight scheduled events. A year later and after he joined NBC Sports Network as an analyst, he made a single Xfinity start for Obaika Racing at Darlington Raceway, where he finished 21st. Another two years later, he competed at Road America for Precision Performance Motorsports, where he finished 10th.

In 2022, Kligerman made a total of three starts in the Xfinity Series, with his first start occurring at Circuit of the Americas for Emerling-Gase Motorsports, where he finished 12th. He remained with the team as he competed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, where he ended up 37th after being eliminated in an early incident. His third and final start of the season occurred at Talladega Superspeedway during the Xfinity Series Playoffs, where he piloted the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet Camaro to a sixth-place finish.

In late October 2022, Big Machine Racing announced that Kligerman will be driving the team’s No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro on a full-time basis for the 2023 Xfinity season. He commenced the season with a 23rd-place finish at Daytona after being involved in a final lap wreck amid an overtime shootout. After finishing 10th, 11th and 15th, respectively, during his next three starts, Kligerman was in contention of achieving his first victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway until he got turned approaching the finish line and wrecked, but managing a fourth-place finish. Kligerman and the No. 48 Big Machine Racing team would proceed to notch six top-five results and 12 top-10 results during the remaining 21 regular-season events, with their best result being a runner-up finish at Road America in late July.

By virtue of the results and the consistency, including a seven-race consecutive streak of top-nine results between July and August and a fourth-place finish during the regular-season finale at Kansas Speedway in September, Kligerman managed to claim the 12th and final berth to the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs over Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst.

Commencing the 2023 Playoffs with a 31st-place result at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kligerman rallied during the following two events at Texas Motor Speedway and at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course by finishing second and sixth, respectively. The results, however, were enough for the Connecticut native to not transfer into the Round of 8 by four points. Nabbing two top-10 results during the final four events on the schedule, Kligerman settled in a career-best 10th place in the final driver’s standings. By then, he had achieved career-high stats in top fives (8), top 10s (18) and an average-finishing result of 13.2 as a full-time competitor.

Remaining at Big Machine Racing for the 2024 season, Kligerman has achieved three top-10 results through the first 10 events on the schedule. He is currently ranked in ninth place in the current 2024 driver’s standings and trails the series points lead by 133 points.

Through 99 previous starts in the Xfinity Series, Kligerman has achieved one pole, 12 top-five results, 41 top-10 results, 107 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.9 as he continues his pursuit for both his first Xfinity race victory and championship.

Parker Kligerman is scheduled to make his 100th Xfinity Series career start at Darlington Raceway for the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project 200 on Saturday, May 11, with the event’s broadcast time to commence at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.

May 8, 2024
Newgarden to make 200th IndyCar career start at Long Beach

With a new season of NTT INDYCAR SERIES competition underway, Josef Newgarden is primed to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on the Streets of Long Beach, California, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion, two-time IndyCar champion and driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet will reach career start No. 200 in the IndyCar circuit.

A native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, Newgarden’s racing career commenced through karts before ascending through the open-wheel ranks including Skip Barber, Formula Ford, GP3 Series and Indy Lights. He claimed the 2011 title and made his inaugural presence in the IndyCar Series at the start of the 2012 season, where Sarah Fisher Hartman signed him. Driving the No. 67 Honda for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, Newgarden started 19th and finished 11th in his IndyCar debut. He would achieve a front-row starting spot at the Streets of Long Beach and notch a total of five top-15 results and an average-finishing result of 18.2 through 14 starts before settling in 23rd place in the final standings with 200 points.

The following two seasons, Newgarden remained at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and competed in the team’s No. 67 entry in all but one event, where he piloted the No. 21 entry during the 2013 Indianapolis 500. Throughout both seasons, he achieved his maiden podium result in the form of a runner-up finish during the 2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore at the Streets of Baltimore before notching another runner-up result at Iowa Speedway in 2014. After finishing in 14th place in the final driver’s standings with 348 points, he ended up one spot better, 13th, in 2015 with 406 points.

In 2015, Newgarden, who competed in a Chevrolet for CFH Racing following a merged partnership between Sarah Fisher and Ed Carpenter and finished no higher than seventh during the season’s first three events, captured his maiden IndyCar victory in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park in April after leading a race-high 46 laps. He finished in the top 10 twice during his next five series’ starts before notching his second career victory in the Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place in June. Managing two runner-up results and his maiden pole position at the Milwaukee Mile throughout the final six events on the schedule, Newgarden climbed his way up to seventh place in the final driver’s standings with 431 points. By then, he had racked up four podium results, including two victories, 345 laps led and an average-finishing result of 10.8.

The following season, owner Sarah Fisher withdrew from IndyCar and Newgarden’s team was rebranded to Ed Carpenter Racing, with the Tennessee native piloting the No. 21 Chevrolet. Newgarden would achieve a front-row starting spot for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 along with two podiums and six top-10 results through the first nine-scheduled events before notching his first victory of the season at Iowa Speedway in July.

A month before the victory at Iowa, he was involved in a harrowing accident on Lap 42 when Conor Daly, whom Newgarden was battling with, got loose underneath Newgarden entering Turn 4 and shot back across the track as he sent Newgarden pinned against the wall before the latter rolled upside-down and made another head-on contact into the wall after being pushed by Daly’s car. Amid the wild wreck, Newgarden, who survived the wreck, suffered a broken hand and clavicle, but would not miss any events. Managing a runner-up result at Watkins Glen International and three top-10 results during the final five events on the schedule, Newgarden ended up in fourth place in the final standings with 502 points and an average-finishing result of 9.9.

The 2017 season was a breakthrough year for Newgarden, who departed Ed Carpenter Racing and replaced two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya to drive the No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske. After commencing the season by finishing eighth at the Streets of St. Peterburg followed by a third-place run at the Streets of Long Beach, Newgarden captured his first victory as a Penske competitor at Barber Motorsports Park in April after leading the final 14 laps. He would then record two runner-up finishes and five top-10 results during his next eight starts before notching a dominant victory at the Streets of Toronto in July.

After winning for a second consecutive week at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in late July, Newgarden assumed the points lead for the first time in his career. He would retain the points lead following a runner-up result at Pocono Raceway, a dramatic victory at World Wide Technology Raceway in August and an 18th-place finish at Watkins Glen between August and September.

Then during the season-finale event at Sonoma Raceway, which marked his 100th career start in the IndyCar circuit, Newgarden, who led a race-high 41 laps and came into the event with a four-point lead in the standings, finished in second place behind teammate Simon Pagenaud and clinched his maiden IndyCar Series championship by 13 points over Pagenaud and 21 over four-time champion Scott Dixon. As a result, Newgarden became the first American-born competitor to win an IndyCar title since Ryan Hunter-Reay made the last accomplishment in 2012 and he delivered the 15th IndyCar title for car owner Roger Penske. In addition to winning his first IndyCar championship, Newgarden notched a career-high nine podiums, including his four victories, 390 laps led and a career-best average-finishing result of 6.1.

Entering the 2018 season as the reigning champion, Newgarden finished seventh in St. Petersburg before claiming his first victory of the season during the following scheduled event at Phoenix Raceway. Despite winning at Barber Motorsports Park two races later, the Tennessee native would lose the points lead in May and would spend the remainder of the season flirting within the top five in the standings. Ultimately, he would notch his third victory of the season at Road America in June and a total of 13 top-10 results and a career-high four poles throughout the 17-race schedule before settling in fifth place in the final standings with 560 points and an average-finishing result of 7.1.

Newgarden commenced the 2019 season by winning the season opener at St. Petersburg, where he led 60 laps before notching two podiums and four top-four results during the following five events. He would then win the first of a Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader feature at The Raceway on Belle Isle, Michigan, in June before proceeding to win at Texas the following weekend and at Iowa in July. To go along with a total of seven podiums and 14 top-10 results throughout the 17-race schedule, Newgarden, who led the championship standings in all but one event, secured his second IndyCar championship following an eighth-place finish in the season-finale Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and edging teammate Simon Pagenaud for the title by 25 points. With his championship, Newgarden led 490 laps and achieved an average-finishing result of 5.6.

Throughout the 2020 season which was shortened to 14 events amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Newgarden won four races: Iowa Speedway in July, World Wide Technology Raceway in August, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and the season-finale event at St. Petersburg in October. Despite finishing in the top 10 in all but two events, notching a career-high average-finishing result of 5.2, leading 455 laps and never dropping below the top five in the standings, Newgarden fell short of winning his third IndyCar title by 16 points over Scott Dixon, who notched his sixth title.

In 2021, which marked his 10th season as an IndyCar competitor, Newgarden commenced the season with a 23rd-place finish at Barber Motorsports Park after being involved in a multi-car wreck on the opening lap. He would rally by finishing in the runner-up spot three times and accumulate six top-10 results during his next eight starts before achieving his first elusive victory of the season at Mid-Ohio in July, where he led all but seven of 80 scheduled laps. Three races later, he would fend off a hard-charging Pato O’Ward to win at World Wide Technology Raceway in August and draw himself into championship contention. Despite finishing no lower than seventh during the final three events on the schedule, Newgarden, who recorded an average-finishing result of 7.3 and six podiums, including his two season victories, ended up in the runner-up spot in the final driver’s standings for a second consecutive season as he fell short of winning the title by 38 points to Alex Palou.

Newgarden commenced the 2022 season by rallying from finishing 16th at St. Petersburg to notch back-to-back victories at Texas and the Streets of Long Beach. After finishing no higher than 13th during his next three events, which dropped him from first to fifth in the standings, he rallied by finishing fourth at Belle Isle before scoring his third victory of the season at Road America.

Despite winning the first Iowa Speedway doubleheader feature in July and at World Wide Technology Raceway in August, Newgarden, who dealt with inconsistent results and no additional podiums outside of his victories throughout the season, managed to climb his way up to the runner-up spot in the standings on the strength of five top-eight results during the final five events on the schedule. Despite finishing in the runner-up spot during the finale at Laguna Seca, he settled in the runner-up spot in the final standings for a third consecutive season and missed the title by 16 points over teammate Will Power amid a year where he won a career-high five races, six podiums, three poles, led 527 laps and ended up with an average-finishing result of 8.2.

This past season, Newgarden rallied from finishing 17th at St. Petersburg before prevailing in a late battle against Pato O’Ward to win at Texas in early April. Then four races later, the Tennessee native triumphed for the first time in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after overtaking reigning Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson on the final lap amid a one-lap shootout. The Indy 500 victory, which marked Newgarden’s 12th attempt to accomplish the feat, made Newgarden the 75th different competitor to win the event as he became the first American competitor to win the event since Alexander Rossi made the last accomplishment in 2016.

In addition, Newgarden delivered the 19th Indy 500 victory for Roger Penske. Following the Indy 500 victory, he would win both Iowa doubleheader events in July and rack up seven top-10 results during the final 11 events on the schedule. After finishing 21st during the finale at Laguna Seca, however, Newgarden concluded the season in fifth place in the final standings with 479 points. Overall, he notched four victories, five podiums, a career-high 602 laps led and an average-finishing result of 9.5 throughout the 2023 campaign.

This season, which marks his 13th season in IndyCar competition, Newgarden is coming off a season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg victory after he led a race-high 92 of 100 laps, which marks his 30th career win and third in St. Pete. Despite finishing in eighth place in the non-points $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club, the Tennessee veteran leads the IndyCar standings by 13 points over Pato O’Ward as he commences his pursuit for both a second Indy 500 victory and a third IndyCar title.

Through 199 previous IndyCar starts, Newgarden has achieved two championships, 30 victories, 53 podiums, 18 poles, 4,075 laps led and an average finishing result of 9.6.

Josef Newgarden is scheduled to make his 200th NTT INDYCAR Series career start in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach at the Streets of Long Beach, California, on Sunday, April 21. The event’s broadcast is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

April 18, 2024
Ryan Blaney scores Busch Light Pole at Bristol
Ryan Blaney captured the Busch Light Pole Award at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday evening with a lap time of 15.356 seconds at 124.954 mph in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. It is his first pole at Bristol and the 10th of his career.

Qualifying was challenging as the resin on the inside lane of the concrete track seemed to deteriorate quickly, providing significantly less grip from start to finish during the session.

“Proud of this whole Menards group”, Blaney said. “Our Ford Mustang was fast all day – really good in Round 1 [of qualifying] and made some adjustments for the second round. The track really caught everybody by surprise, honestly. The time fall-off and grip loss behind the wheel was incredible, it was huge. So it was, like, who could not mess up a lap and still put a decent time down?

“That was fun, it was fun working through it. I wish I could do it over again and try to make our car even better because I think there was still some more out there. Proud of everybody at Menards, Ford, Advance Auto Parts, DEX Imaging, Wabash, Wurth and everybody that makes it possible. It’s cool to get our first pole of the year and excited to get going tomorrow.”

“The track kind of caught everybody by surprise,” Blaney said. “The time fall-off and the grip loss behind the wheel was incredible. It was like, ‘Who can not mess up a lap and still put a decent time down?’ Great to get our first pole of the year, and ready to go tomorrow.”

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry was second fastest in the No. 4 Ford (124.792 mph) and will start beside Blaney on the front row, claiming his best Cup Series career start.

“It means a lot,” Berry said after qualifying. “Obviously being at Bristol that’s really cool, but anywhere at this point it would mean a lot. These guys have been working really hard and they kept me jacked up and we’ve been putting in the work trying to get better. We just need a mistake-free day tomorrow. If we do that, we’ll be in contention.”

Denny Hamlin was third quickest (124.178 mph) in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, followed by Team Penske’s Joey Logano (123.746 mph) in the No. 22 Ford and Chase Elliott (122.882 mph) in the No. 8 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Chase Briscoe, Michael McDowell, William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10 in the qualifying session.

The green flag for the Food City 500 is set for 3:47 p.m. ET Sunday and will be televised on FOX with radio coverage provided by PRN and SiriusXM Radio.

Starting Lineup for the Food City 500
1. 1. Ryan Blaney
2. 2. Josh Berry (R)
3. 3. Denny Hamlin
4. 4. Joey Logano
5. 5. Chase Elliott
6. 6. Chase Briscoe
7. 7. Michael McDowell
8. 8. William Byron
9. 9. Bubba Wallace
10. 10. Kyle Larson
11. 11. Martin Truex Jr.
12. 12. Christopher Bell
13. 13. Harrison Burton
14. 14. Kyle Busch
15. 15. Erik Jones
16. 16. Zane Smith (R)
17. 17. Brad Keselowski
18. 18. Corey LaJoie
19. 19. Ty Gibbs
20. 20. Daniel Hemric
21. 21. Austin Cindric
22. 22. Noah Gragson
23. 23. Tyler Reddick
24. 24. Todd Gilliland
25. 25. Ryan Preece
26. 26. John Hunter Nemechek
27. 27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
28. 28. Daniel Suarez
29. 29. Alex Bowman
30. 30. A.J. Allmendinger
31. 31. Austin Dillon
32. 32. Justin Haley
33. 33. Kaz Grala (R)
34. 34. Chris Buescher
35. 35. Carson Hocevar (R)
36. 36. Ross Chastain
March 16, 2024
Allmendinger to make 100th Xfinity career start at Atlanta

In his return as a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, AJ Allmendinger is set to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro will make his 100th career start in the Xfinity circuit.

A former Champ Car competitor from Los Gatos, California, Allmendinger made his inaugural appearance in the Xfinity circuit at Auto Club Speedway in September 2007. By then, he was also competing in his first full-time season in the Cup Series for Red Bull Racing. Driving the No. 42 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing, Allmendinger started 18th and finished 36th in his Xfinity debut after being involved in a multi-car wreck just shy of the halfway mark. He would then compete in six of the remaining eight Xfinity events on the 2007 schedule with CGR, where he would record a season-best 13th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway in November.

After making a single Xfinity start for Gillett Evernham Motorsports at Phoenix in 2008, where he finished 12th, Allmendinger spent the years 2009 to early 2012 competing in the Cup Series between Richard Petty Motorsports and Team Penske. After being suspended by NASCAR indefinitely for failing a drug test and being released by Team Penske before eventually being reinstated by NASCAR towards the end of the 2012 season, the Californian was re-hired by Team Penske to pilot the team’s No. 22 Ford Mustang at Road America and at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2013.

At Road America in June, Allmendinger, who started on the pole position for the first time in his career, led a race-high 29 laps and muscled through two overtime restarts to score his first Xfinity career win. Two months later, he led a race-high 73 laps and outlasted an overtime shootout to claim his second consecutive Xfinity victory at Mid-Ohio and achieve both road course victories of the season for Team Penske. Allmendinger’s pair of road course victories would eventually contribute to Team Penske’s No. 22 team claiming the 2013 Xfinity owner’s championship by a single point over Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 team.

Following the 2013 season, Allmendinger spent the years 2014 to 2018 competing as a full-time Cup competitor for JTG-Daugherty Racing, where he would achieve both his first Cup victory at Watkins Glen International and first Playoff berth in 2014. During the five-year span, he made a single Xfinity start at Watkins Glen in August 2018, where he piloted GMS Racing’s No. 23 entry to a runner-up result.

In 2019, Allmendinger joined Kaulig Racing to compete in select events in the team’s No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro entry. His first Xfinity start of the season occurred at Daytona International Speedway in July, where he initially finished in third place as part of a 1-2-3 finish for Kaulig Racing, a team that won for the first time in NASCAR with Ross Chastain recording the victory over Justin Haley. During the post-race inspection process, however, Allmendinger was demoted to last place after his car failed the inspection process that involved the engine vacuum test. A month later, he settled in a strong runner-up result behind Austin Cindric at Watkins Glen but was relegated to last place for a second time after his car failed post-race inspection, this time for his car being too low on both rear corners. He would proceed to finish third at Mid-Ohio and 24th at Road America after being involved in a late restart incident. Then at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October, he led 20 laps and muscled away from the field during a three-lap shootout to claim his third Xfinity career win and the second ever for Kaulig Racing.

For the 2020 season, Allmendinger returned to Kaulig Racing on a part-time Xfinity basis, but this time in the team’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro entry. After failing to qualify for the season opener at Daytona and finishing 10th during his first start of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway in June, he scored his fourth Xfinity career victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which would also mark his first win on an oval circuit, after leading the final 37 laps. He would then notch four top-five results and finish no lower than seventh during his next five starts before ending up with back-to-back DNFS at Daytona and Talladega, both due to last-lap accidents. Allmendinger then achieved his second Xfinity victory of the season and the fifth of his career at the Charlotte Roval in October after leading 12 laps and fending off both Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric during an overtime shootout and amid wet conditions. The Californian would make his 11th and final Xfinity start of the season at Martinsville Speedway in late October, where he ended up 26th.

Nearly a month after the 2020 season concluded, Allmendinger was announced as a full-time competitor of Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 entry. After notching a fifth-place result at Daytona before finishing no higher than 14th during the following two events, he notched his first victory of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March after leading 44 laps and beating Hemric by nearly a second. Nine races later, he recorded his second victory of the season at Mid-Ohio in June following a two-lap restart, where he beat teammate Justin Haley by eight-tenths of a second. Another nine races later, he won for the third time in 2021 at Michigan International Speedway after leading a race-high 70 laps and beating Brandon Jones by a tenth of a second.

Then four races later, Allmendinger battled and edged Austin Cindric at the finish line during an overtime shootout to win the regular-season finale at Bristol Motor Speedway in September before both wrecked across the frontstretch. Amid the carnage, Allmendinger, who claimed his fourth Xfinity win of the season, also achieved the regular-season championship before embarking on his first series appearance in the Playoffs. After winning for a third consecutive time at the Charlotte Roval in October and transferring from the Round of 12 to 8, he then notched three consecutive top-seven results to grab a Championship 4 spot for the season-finale event at Phoenix in November. Contending for his first NASCAR Xfinity title, Allmendinger was involved in a late spin and ended up in 14th place on the track and in a career-best fourth place in the final standings. Despite falling short of winning the title, Allmendinger capped off the 2021 season with a career-high five victories, a pole, a career-high 18 top-five results, 22 top-10 results, 422 laps led and an average-finishing result of 9.2.

Remaining as a full-time Xfinity competitor for Kaulig Racing in 2022, Allmendinger commenced the season by finishing second at Daytona after being overtaken by Austin Hill on the final lap prior to a caution-ending wreck. After finishing no lower than ninth during his next four starts, Allmendinger claimed his first Xfinity win of the season at Circuit of the Americas in March after leading a race-high 27 laps. Eight races later and seven additional top-10 results later, the Californian won the series’ inaugural event at Portland International Raceway amid slick conditions. He would proceed to win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August and record 10 additional top-10 results during the final 12 regular-season events before locking up his second consecutive regular-season title.

Despite notching back-to-back victories at Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Roval, respectively, during the Playoffs and transferring from the Round of 12 to 8, he was unable to transfer to the Championship 4 round after finishing 22nd, third and 16th, respectively, throughout the Round of 8. With his championship hopes of the 2022 season evaporated, Allmendinger capped off the season in fifth place both during the finale and in the final standings. In addition, Allmendinger, who notched a career-high five victories for a second consecutive season, achieved a career-high five poles, 17 top-five results, a career-high 28 top-10 results, 348 laps led and a career-best average-finishing result of 6.6.

As Allmendinger moved up to the Cup Series on a full-time basis for Kaulig in 2023, he also competed in select Xfinity events with Kaulig, beginning at Circuit of the Americas in March. During the event, he led a race-high 28 of 46 laps from pole position and fended off William Byron to defend his race-winning title in Austin and notch his 16th career victory in the series. He would proceed to finish in the runner-up spot during the inaugural Xfinity event at Sonoma Raceway before rallying from an early spin to win at Nashville Superspeedway, both occurring in June. Allmendinger’s final two Xfinity starts of the season occurred at Road America in late July and Indianapolis in August, where he finished ninth and third, respectively.

Scaling back to the Xfinity Series for this season, Allmendinger is coming off a 10th-place run in this year’s season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway as he reignites his bid for his first series title. He is currently ranked in a tie with Chandler Smith for seventh place on the 2024 Xfinity driver’s standings.

Through 99 previous Xfinity starts, Allmendinger has notched 17 victories, 11 poles, 50 top-five results, 69 top-10 results, 1,272 laps led with an average-finishing result of 9.3.

Allmendinger is scheduled to make his 100th Xfinity Series career start at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the RAPTOR King of Tough 250. The event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, February 24, and air at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.

February 21, 2024