In a display of Team Penske dominance, Joey Logano continued his run of success in even-numbered years, winning the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to open the Cup Series Playoffs on Sunday (Sept. 8). Logano advances to the Round of 12, a huge boost to his bid to become a three-time Cup Series champion.
While one Penske driver celebrated in victory lane, another Penske playoff team rued a potential missed opportunity to make the next round, a chance that was lost on pit road.
Austin Cindric’s Good Day That Could’ve Been Great
Throughout the first two stages on Sunday, Austin Cindric was a fixture at the front of the field in his No. 2 Quaker State Ford. In total, Cindric collected 19 stage points by virtue of his runner-up finish in stage one and taking the green/white checkered flag in stage two.
However, racing is a team sport, and that includes the pit crew. On lap 163, Cindric’s stellar run took a wrong turn when the No. 2 crew had a slow stop on the left front tire. Just like that, Cindric went from the lead to outside the top 20.
While Cindric rallied to 10th and leaves Atlanta in a better position, 24 points above the cut line, the driver of the No. 2 could not help but be a little disappointed.
“I feel like we had a car capable of winning the race today,” Cindric told the media postrace. “I wish we obviously had that pit stop back going into stage three, but overall, really happy with the pace and drivability of the car and the points we gained.”
Atlanta marked the second race in a row that the No. 2 pit crew made a significant mistake, getting penalized for an uncontrolled tire last week. The No. 2 team will have to clean up the execution on its pit stops if they wish to make a deep playoff run.
SVG’s Pit Road Learning Curve
At Daytona International Speedway two weeks ago, Trackhouse Racing announced the Shane van Gisbergen will drive full-time for the team in the Cup Series in 2025, piloting the No. 88 Chevrolet.
A big part of van Gisbergen’s transition to full-time NASCAR racing is executing on pit stops, and that was an issue for the New Zealander on Sunday.
SVG was caught speeding twice on pit road, once after stage one on lap 63 and again on lap 163. Those speeding penalties contributed to a long day in the Peach State for van Gisbergen, finishing two laps down in 32nd in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
Look Ahead to Next Week
The drivers of the NASCAR Cup Series will go road course racing with the running of the Go Bowling at the Glen from Watkins Glen International next Sunday, Sept. 15.
While Watkins Glen has been a staple on the Cup Series schedule for decades, this is the first time that the road course in upstate New York has been a part of the playoffs. It will be interesting to see if that changes the pit strategy dynamic from previous Watkins Glen races.
Fuel mileage tends to be a common theme at The Glen. Look no further than Chase Elliott’s first career win in 2018 for an example of that. Crew chiefs will be crunching numbers up and down pit road to try to stretch fuel as long as possible.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
Did he have Truex’s pit crew?
So it’s the same thing as always it’s NASCAR game you played by their rules you signed their contracts. It doesn’t matter if the contracts are good or bad it always seems to be in favor of NASCAR. Maybe Michael Jordan should go talk to Richard Childress about what it was like in the late 60s and when the drivers wanted to boycott Talladega for safety reasons. Granted there were no charters back then, but NASCAR still ruled and they always will. I really don’t think Danny Hamlin has much leverage with NASCAR considering he’s always criticizing bashing rubbing salt and an open wound and just not playing nice nice with NASCAR. He’s become too vocal and outspoken regardless if it’s right or wrong, his opinions are everywhere all the time now and NASCAR usually doesn’t like that very much.
You are right about Nascar, Bill France ruled with a iron hand. I was at dega when the drivers boycotted the race because the track was coming up. He got a bunch of drive to race. We opted not to stay,but they honored our tickets for they next race.