ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Austin Cindric was in the right place at the right time, taking advantage of teammate Ryan Blaney running out of gas at the white flag to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, giving the Ford Mustang Dark Horse its third win in the last four weeks.

Cindric, who had not won since capturing the 2022 Daytona 500, was part of a Team Penske trio that was strong all day as he led 53 laps.  Overall, Cindric, Blaney and Joey Logano combined to lead 74 laps while Ford as a whole led 137-of-240 laps.

But the race came down to the final stage as Blaney waged a side-by-side duel with Christopher Bell, who led a race-high 80 laps and won the first two stages.  Bell ran Blaney down and passed him briefly, only to see Blaney immediately crossover to the inside and get the lead back. 

Blaney eventually won the duel after Bell reported a possible engine problem. He appeared set to post his first win of the season until he ran out of gas just before beginning the final lap. He coasted around and eventually finished 24th.

That allowed Cindric, who was running second, to inherit the lead and cruise to his second career victory.

Brad Keselowski finished third, giving him three straight top-three efforts, while Logano was fifth and Justin Haley ninth for Rick Ware Racing.

As a result, Cindric joins Keselowski as Ford drivers who have clinched a spot in the playoffs.

Ford will look to keep its winning momentum going next week as the series hits the road for a repaved Sonoma Raceway.  The race is scheduled 3:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on FOX and heard on PRN and SiriusXM radio.

NCS RACE TOP-10 FINISHERS
1st – Austin Cindric
2nd – Denny Hamlin
3rd – Brad Keselowski
4th – Tyler Reddick
5th – Joey Logano
6th – Austin Dillon
7th – Christopher Bell
8th – Carson Hocevar
9th – Justin Haley
10th – Kyle Larson

REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
14th - Chris Buescher
16th - Todd Gilliland
17th - Chase Briscoe
22nd - Noah Gragson
24th - Ryan Blaney
25th - Michael McDowell
29th - Ryan Preece
31st - Harrison Burton
33rd - Cody Ware
36th - Josh Berry

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 1st)
VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND? 
“Honestly, I’m heartbroken for the 12 team.  I don’t know what happened to them at the end of the race, but they deserved to win this race.  Ryan has been a hell of a leader on this team.  This weekend was a great weekend for everybody involved.  To have two cars in the fight and an eventual one-two 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 Brian as my crew chief in the Cup Series.  You never know when it’s gonna happen again.  I just drove my butt off and hoped for the best.”

THIS IS ALL YOU DO.  YOU WORK SO HARD, BUT IT’S BEEN A STRUGGLE.  WHAT DOES A WIN LIKE THIS DO FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM? 
“It’s everything.  It’s absolutely everything and the funny thing about it is this Freightliner Ford Mustang is probably one of the best-looking cars at the racetrack and I’ve had terrible races every single time with this car and it’s great to win with a great paint scheme.  It’s great to win in front of an amazing crowd.  This racetrack does an amazing job putting on events and I’m just proud to be able to do it and proud to be able to bring it home for these guys.  They deserve it.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 24th) 
WAS THERE ANY THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO GET LOW ON FUEL? 
“No, I didn’t think so.  I never thought in my mind we were short.  It’s one of those things.  I’m proud of the 12 boys.  The Menards/Richmond Ford was fast.  I had my work cut out for me holding off Christopher.  That was fun.  I don’t know what happened to him, but just one lap short.  That stinks, but congrats to the 2 team.  They did a good job all day.  Props to them, Austin.  I’m proud for Team Penske and Ford.  I’m really happy with our showing today.  I don’t know what I’ve got to do to get some luck on our side.  I’ve wrecked the last two points races and thought we had a great shot to win today and I ended up bad, so I just appreciate the effort.  We just have to keep sticking with it.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 5th) –
“We weren’t too far off.  We were just a few adjustments away of getting our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang as good as our teammates were, but not too bad.  We were able to grab some points, which we need to do, and a Penske car got in Victory Lane, so you’ve got to be happy about that.  Obviously, we’d rather it be us, but that momentum goes through the whole shop.  It’s still a good day.  We still scored a bunch of points today with stage points in both stages.  A poor qualifying effort, which probably hurt us a little bit on tuning the car and just a little too loose off.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 3rd)
“That was strategy. We got behind early for sure but we kept putting ourselves in position to keep moving forward and I wish I could have gotten second but it was a really hard-fought day for everyone on the Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang. We will take a lot of good momentum from this one for sure.”

WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THAT RUN? 
“It was hot in the there, but it was good for our whole effort.  We were in position early and we had the issue there on pit road.  The guys kept their heads down and recovered.  We had some good strategy and made some good passes on that last restart to start stage three and on the long run we were really strong, so just making it all count where we can.”

YOU STAYED OUT AT ONE POINT.  BEING A TEAM OWNER, WHAT KIND OF CONFIDENCE DOES THAT GIVE YOU TO MAKE THOSE CALLS? 
“Ultimately, I have the steering wheel, so I can always make the call (laughing), but I just felt confident.  Our car wasn’t falling off and I just wanted to keep going and see it out and see if maybe we could catch a yellow.  If not, I felt more good things would happen for us.”

JOSH BERRY, No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Retired Early - Single Car Incident on Lap 109)
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I really don't know what happened. Obviously with what our past has been with the rotors here it kind of makes you think that. I went over and looked at the rotors and it looked like they were still on it so it is either that or a tire.”

YOU WERE HAVING A GREAT DAY UNTIL THE SPEEDING PENALTY, CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THAT?
“Yeah, for where we started we moved up into the top 15 pretty quick. The car was pretty good and I was learning a lot. We pushed the exit on the last section a little too hard and got the penalty there. We were still passing cars though and it would have been another good day.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING BEFORE YOU HIT THE WALL?
“Not really. That is what I mean. I don't know. I looked at it and the rotors look like they are pretty intact. So I don't know. When we get it back to the garage we will look. I am sure it is either that or just the tire went flat.”

NASCAR XFINITY Series (June 1 – Portland)

• Cole Custer finished sixth and Riley Herbst 10th to lead Ford on the 1.967-mile Portland International Raceway road course.
• With his sixth-place finish Saturday, Custer takes the championship lead by 18 points.
• Herbst remains seventh in the driver standings, 97 points behind Custer.
• The series stays on the West Coast with another road course race at Sonoma Raceway next Saturday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). 

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (June 1 – Gateway)

• Four F-150s finished inside the top 10, led by Ty Majeski in fourth at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway Saturday.
• Majeski started on the pole and led 43 laps, earning the wins in Stage 1 and Stage 2.
• Layne Riggs finished fifth, Ben Rhodes 7th and Luke Fenhaus 10th.
• Ty Majeski is the highest-ranked Ford driver in the point standings (4th) while Ben Rhodes is 8th after 12 events.  
• The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is off until June 28, when it will travel to Nashville Superspeedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).