Sunday night time’s race was the primary for the sequence on the .875-mile quick monitor, which has hosted Xfinity, Truck, ARCA and IndyCar sequence occasions up to now.
In a race the place groups had been cautious of tire put on – and a number of other paid the worth by hitting the wall after flats Blaney and his No. 12 Penske Ford group mastered the technique.
On the ultimate warning of the race, Blaney was first off pit street and took simply two new right-side tires. The race – which had eight cautions – ended with an 84-lap green-flag run and Blaney was by no means critically challenged for the lead.
William Byron and Chase Elliott – who each took 4 tires on the ultimate cease – tried to run Blaney down however to no avail. Blaney edged Byron by 0.716 seconds on the checkered flag to safe his first win of the yr.
Blaney led 4 instances for a race-high 201 laps on his method to the eleventh win of his profession and second for Penske within the final three races. It was Blaney’s teammate, Austin Cindric, who received at Gateway two weeks in the past when Blaney ran out of gasoline on the ultimate lap whereas main.
Elliott ended up third, Christopher Bell – who began from the rear of the sphere in a backup automotive – was fourth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the highest 5.
Finishing the top-10 had been Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski.
Stage 1
Blaney handed Kyle Larson with 9 laps remaining and held on to win Stage 1 by 0.260 seconds, his second stage win of the 2024 season. Suarez completed third, Byron fourth and Berry fifth.
A.J. Allmendinger was the primary to expertise a tire challenge within the race, hitting the Flip 1 wall on lap 52 after the right-front went down on his No. 16 Chevrolet. He retired from the race after 54 laps.
Stage 2
Larson got here from thirty third to first and held off Berry by 1.762 second to assert the Stage 2 win, his eighth of the 2024 season.
Larson pit beneath warning on lap 86 when he thought he had a tire happening, nevertheless it confirmed no issues. Elliott was third, Blaney fourth and Bubba Wallace rounded out the highest 5.
Simply after a spherical of inexperienced flag pit stops started, Ross Chastain had a right-front tire go down and tagged the wall, however he was capable of nurse his No. 1 Chevrolet to pit street. He rebounded to complete nineteenth within the stage.
Stage 3
Following the break between Phases 2 and three, many of the lead lap automobiles elected to pit with Keselowski first off pit street due to a two-tire cease. Chris Buescher stayed out and inherited the lead because the race returned to inexperienced with 132 laps remaining.
On lap 220, Suarez acquired free on the frontstretch and acquired into the left-rear of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, who shot up the monitor and into the facet of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota.
Larson was capable of proceed however had extreme injury and was knocked out of competition of a race he appeared more likely to win. Buescher led the best way on the restart on lap 228.
Buescher then hit the wall with a flat tire and despatched everybody down pit street on lap 263 for brand new tires and gasoline to make it to the top of the race.
Blaney was first off pit street with two new tires and led the best way on the restart with 84 laps remaining. Berry was fourth, the primary automotive on 4 new tires.
With 50 laps to go, Blaney remained within the lead with an almost one-second benefit over Byron and Elliott third.
Byron remained lower than a second behind Blaney with 25 laps remaining and Elliott closing to problem for the runner-up place.
