AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 10TH STAGE 1: 8TH STAGE 2: 18TH FINISH: 12TH POINTS: 9TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse team delivered a solid, steady performance in Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, finishing 12th in the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Cindric rolled off 10th and managed a loose condition in the opening segment, rallying to an eighth-place finish and banking valuable Stage points in the crown jewel event. The balance shifted to the tight side in Stage 2, but adjustments helped the team move in the right direction as Cindric crossed the line 18th while reporting improvement in the handling. In the final stint, the car continued to trend in a positive direction, allowing Cindric to hold his ground and secure a 12th-place finish under the lights at the track “Too Tough To Tame.” The result keeps him ninth in the NASCAR Playoffs standings, 12 points above the elimination line with two races remaining in the Round of 16.

CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “It was a decent night. We got a little behind in Stage 2 – had a bad pit stop and kind of got pinballed around on a few restarts and had to hit the full reset button. We really drove our way up through under green through the duration of Stage 3. I thought Brian made some good adjustments and I feel like we got a somewhat of a representative finish. I wish we would have been able to hold onto the track position we qualified with, but getting Stage points early was good.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/DUTCH BOY FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 12TH STAGE 1: 10TH STAGE 2: 31ST FINISH: 18TH POINTS: 7TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse team faced an up-and-down night in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs opener at Darlington Sunday night that ended in an 18th-place result. After starting 12th, Blaney settled into 10th on the leaderboard for the opening run of the night and, following a pair of green flag pit cycles, he went on to complete the pass for 10th with four laps remaining in the segment to cap off Stage 1. Following a caution on lap 152 while running ninth, Blaney found himself on the wrong end of contact between the Nos. 20 and 77 on pit road as the No. 77 slid in front of the 12 team’s stall, forcing Blaney to delay his exit and miring him back to 20th in the running order for the ensuing restart. He worked his way back up to 13th by the time the caution flag flew on lap 203 but the following restart altered the 12 team’s night as the No. 8 got loose in front of Blaney and the No. 3 made contact with his rear bumper, sending the Menards/Dutch Boy Ford spinning towards the inside wall on the frontstretch. After a pair of trips to pit road to remedy a flat right front tire and damage to the splitter, Blaney rejoined the field without losing a lap but came away with a 31st-place finish in Stage 2. The 12 team continued to make adjustments on each subsequent stop to offset the damage, allowing Blaney to climb back into the top-20 prior to lap 300, but an untimely caution while Blaney was on pit road trapped them a lap down. After taking the wave around to rejoin the lead lap prior to the final restart of the night with 48 laps to go, Blaney picked up seven positions over the course of the final run to salvage an 18th-place finish. Blaney enters the second race of the Round of 16 in seventh in the playoff standings, 22 points above the elimination line.

BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “There were multiple instances, one on pit road. We had to start in the back and then getting spun off turn four killed the splitter, and then we came from the back to 19th and then the caution came out as soon as we got to pit road and sent us all the way back again. Just about everything that could go wrong tonight went wrong. At least we recovered to where we did, which is ok, I guess. It just wasn’t a smooth night.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 14TH STAGE 1: 16TH STAGE 2: 13TH FINISH: 20TH POINTS: 13TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse team came away with a 20th-place finish in Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington to open the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Logano battled handling issues throughout the opening 115-lap segment but managed to maintain track position over the course of two green flag pit cycles, resulting in a 16th-place finish in Stage 1. After falling outside the top-20 during the opening laps of Stage 2, Logano battled his way back inside the top-15 before the caution flag flew on lap 210, setting up a 16-lap run to the end of the stage that saw the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford cross the line 13th in Stage 2. As Logano continued to battle inside the top-20 over the course of the final run of the night, a caution on lap 312 set up one last restart with 48 to go before ultimately settling for a 20th-place finish. Logano enters the second race of the Round of 16 in 13th in the playoff standings, three points below the elimination line.

LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “We just had no grip. There isn’t much to say outside of that. It wasn’t good enough. This has been a good track for us in the past, but I don’t know. Some of our cars were decent at times, but not like we have been here. It’s a bit of a head scratcher to try to understand. It’s obviously not the day we wanted.”
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to World Wide Technology Raceway for the second race of the Round of 16 on Sunday, September 7. Coverage of the Enjoy Illinois 300 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Team Penske PR