“Nobody remembers who ran out of gas” – NASCAR legend ridicules Ryan Blaney’s bad luck and praises Penske partner

The NASCAR Cup race at World Wide Technology Raceway ended in dramatic fashion. There were plenty of incidents throughout the track, such as Josh Berry's blowout and Cody Ware's antics, and then there was the drama of the Kyle and Kyle show that ended in tears and heartbreak for the dominant Christopher Bell. The icing on the cake, however, was race leader Ryan Blaney experiencing heartbreak of his own on the final lap and Austin Cindric's unexpected triumph.

What a weekend! While fans are still processing the race, NASCAR insider Kyle Petty recaps and analyzes all the action at Gateway. Petty acknowledged that Bell was the favorite and the win should have been his, but stressed that fate had other plans and decided to break his heart and his car just to be safe.

Austin Cindric took advantage of the opportunity and the defending champion looked like he had a good chance of defending his title. Unfortunately, the No. 12's tank was not up to par with his and he failed. In his analysis, Petty talked about what the World Wide Technology Raceway showed on Sunday.

Kyle Petty sat down for the NASCAR post-race analysis/recap and said: Gateway We saw a lot yesterday. We saw some pace and strategy, and we had some luck too. We saw Christopher Bell was the best in the field. Who says you can't ride with momentum from Charlotte? He rolls into St. Louis at the same speed, he's got it. He runs up front, leads laps, gets it done, but at the end of the race he's nowhere to be seen. Mechanical problems. That's why you have to watch a race to the end.”

“This race is the perfect example. Take the Penske organization, they had the strategy. They put themselves in position with Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric and Joey Logano in the top five and top 10. To take the advantage and win this race if anything happened.”

What Petty was saying was that this race wasn't that easy. Every time it looked like one driver had the upper hand, there was some kind of upset. There was an element of strategy, and Bell played the game pretty well until misfortune struck at the wrong time.

But one man's sorrow is another man's joy, and that was also the case for Ryan Blaney, who was almost aiming for his first win of 2024. Then it was his turn to face the wheel of misfortune, falling from P1 to P24 in less than 24 seconds, with Cindric taking advantage.

Cindric has found out that it's not over until the checkered flag is waved

While Petty noted that this is normal in NASCAR and that it can happen to anyone, he compared it to racing in the past. He said: “It actually happened, remember I just said Christopher Bell had a problem. It comes down to the last lap of the race. Car No. 12, Ryan Blaney, is leading. The commentators, everyone has already given him credit, it's his race. And what happens?”

“He runs out of gas! If you want to see it, go to Inside the Race. Larry Mac and Todd Gordon will explain how much gas they had in the car and why they ran out of gas. It makes no difference, he runs out of gas and Austin Cindric wins the race. We've seen this so many times.”

“You have to put yourself in a position to win. The first car has a problem, you take advantage. It's a win, nobody remembers who runs out of gas and nobody remembers who comes second, they remember Austin Cindric, the race winner.”

With so many problems, Austin Cindric learned a valuable lesson: don't give up. And Blaney could have done it if he had managed his fuel better or the team had added a little extra fuel.

Honestly, running out of gas on the last lap, just a few meters from the finish line, is probably the worst way to lose. Poor Blaney did everything right and Bell's problems were a blessing in disguise. Unfortunately, it was not to be, although teammate Austin Cindric wasn't complaining.

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