2024 Enjoy Illinois 300 Explained

Type:	CUST
Description:	Race 15 of 36 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series
Race Name:	Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter
Details Ref:	^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] ^[8]
Year:	2024
Location:	World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois
Course Mi:	1.25
Course Km:	2.01
Distance Laps:	240
Distance Mi:	300
Distance Km:	480
Avg:	133.889mph
Pole Driver:	Michael McDowell
Pole Team:	Front Row Motorsports
Pole Time:	32.468
Most Driver:	Christopher Bell
Most Team:	Joe Gibbs Racing
Most Laps:	80
Car:	2
First Driver:	Austin Cindric
First Team:	Team Penske
Network:	FS1
Announcers:	Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick
Ratings:	2.46 million
Radio:	MRN
Booth Ann:	Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace
Turn Ann:	Dave Moody (1 & 2) and Kurt Becker (3 & 4)

The 2024 Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on June 2, 2024, at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois. Contested over 240 laps on the 1.25-mile (2.01 km) paved oval motor racing track, it was the 15th race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. Austin Cindric won the race. Denny Hamlin finished 2nd, and Brad Keselowski finished 3rd. Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano rounded out the top five, and Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Justin Haley, and Kyle Larson rounded out the top ten.

Report

Background

thumb|left|World Wide Technology Raceway, the track where the race was held.World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly Gateway International Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park) is a motorsport racing facility in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, close to the Gateway Arch. It features a 1.25-mile (2 kilometer) oval that hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the NTT IndyCar Series, a 1.6miles infield road course used by the SCCA, Porsche Club of America, and various car clubs, and a quarter-mile drag strip that hosts the annual NHRA Midwest Nationals event.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1			Chevrolet
2			Ford
3			Chevrolet
4	Josh Berry (R)		Ford
5			Chevrolet
6			Ford
7			Chevrolet
8			Chevrolet
9			Chevrolet
10			Ford
11			Toyota
12			Ford
14			Ford
15			Ford
16			Chevrolet
17			Ford
19			Toyota
20			Toyota
21			Ford
22			Ford
23			Toyota
24			Chevrolet
31			Chevrolet
34			Ford
38			Ford
41			Ford
42			Toyota
43			Toyota
45			Toyota
47			Chevrolet
48			Chevrolet
51			Ford
54			Toyota
71	Zane Smith (R)		Chevrolet
77	Carson Hocevar (R)		Chevrolet
99			Chevrolet
Official entry list

Practice

Joey Logano was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 32.603 seconds and a speed of 138.024mph.^[9]

Practice results

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time
1	22				32.603	138.024
2	12				32.604	138.020
3	54				32.627	137.923
Official practice results

Qualifying

Michael McDowell scored the pole for the race with a time 32.468 of and a speed of 138.598mph.^[10]

Qualifying results

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	34			Ford	32.318	32.468
2	2			Ford	32.620	32.577
3	12			Ford	32.663	32.613
4	20			Toyota	32.681	32.687
5	45			Toyota	32.657	32.707
6	11			Toyota	32.582	32.726
7	6			Ford	32.673	32.753
8	23			Toyota	32.669	32.775
9	54			Toyota	32.698	32.814
10	8			Chevrolet	32.704	32.842
11	24			Chevrolet	32.705	—
12	22			Ford	32.774	—
13	5			Chevrolet	32.734	—
14	48			Chevrolet	32.822	—
15	7			Chevrolet	32.735	—
16	1			Chevrolet	32.897	—
17	9			Chevrolet	32.742	—
18	3			Chevrolet	32.899	—
19	19			Toyota	32.815	—
20	77	Carson Hocevar (R)		Chevrolet	32.915	—
21	51			Ford	32.817	—
22	43			Toyota	32.971	—
23	14			Ford	32.837	—
24	47			Chevrolet	32.999	—
25	16			Chevrolet	32.916	—
26	17			Ford	33.051	—
27	10			Ford	32.932	—
28	31			Chevrolet	33.077	—
29	4	Josh Berry (R)		Ford	32.971	—
30	21			Ford	33.165	—
31	99			Chevrolet	32.985	—
32	41			Ford	33.225	—
33	42			Toyota	33.013	—
34	15			Ford	33.335	—
35	38			Ford	33.021	—
36	71	Zane Smith (R)		Chevrolet	33.420	—
Official qualifying results

Race

The Final Lap

Ryan Blaney was leading the final lap of the race with his teammate Austin Cindric in 2nd, about to make it a Team Penske 1-2 finish, but sadly, Blaney ran out of gas, making Cindric lead the final lap and win the first points race for Team Penske, and Blaney falling back to finish in 24th. Cindric's win would mark his first win (and second in his career) since the 2022 Daytona 500.

Race results

Stage results

Stage OneLaps: 45

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	9
3	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	8
4	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	6
6	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	5
7	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	4
8	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	3
9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	2
10	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	1
Official stage one results

Stage TwoLaps: 95

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	9
3	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	8
4	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	7
5	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	5
6	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	6
7	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	4
8	77	Carson Hocevar (R)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	3
9	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	2
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage results

Stage ThreeLaps: 100

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	2	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	240	56
2	6	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	240	42
3	7	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	240	40
4	5	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	240	36
5	12	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	240	39
6	18	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	240	33
7	4	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	240	50
8	20	77	Carson Hocevar (R)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	32
9	21	51	Justin Haley	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	240	28
10	13	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	27
11	9	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	240	30
12	16	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	240	25
13	17	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	32
14	26	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	240	23
15	11	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	27
16	35	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	240	21
17	23	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	240	24
18	28	31	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	240	19
19	36	71	Zane Smith (R)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	18
20	24	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	240	17
21	8	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	240	16
22	27	10	Noah Gragson	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	240	15
23	31	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	240	14
24	3	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	240	29
25	1	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	239	21
26	22	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Toyota	239	11
27	33	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Legacy Motor Club	Toyota	239	10
28	14	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	239	9
29	32	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	239	8
30	25	16	Derek Kraus	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	239	7
31	30	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	239	6
32	15	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	239	5
33	34	15	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	238	4
34	19	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	237	3
35	10	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	139	2
36	29	4	Josh Berry (R)	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	109	1
Official race results

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 16 among 10 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 5 for 32 laps
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 3 seconds
• Average speed: 133.889mph

Media

Television

Fox Sports covered the race on the television side. Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled the pit road for the television side. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio

MRN has the radio call for the race and was also simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace called the race for MRN from the booth when the field races down the front straightaway. Dave Moody called the race from turns 1 & 2 while Kurt Becker called the race from turns 3 & 4. Pit Road for MRN was manned by lead pit reporter Steve Post, Brienne Pedigo and Kim Coon.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Denny Hamlin	534
1	2	Kyle Larson	513 (–21)
1	3	Chase Elliott	507 (–27)
2	4	Martin Truex Jr.	490 (–44)
	5	William Byron	488 (–46)
	6	Tyler Reddick	473 (–61)
	7	Ty Gibbs	465 (–69)
3	8	Christopher Bell	437 (–97)
	9	Brad Keselowski	437 (–97)
2	10	Alex Bowman	417 (–117)
1	11	Ross Chastain	417 (–117)
	12	Ryan Blaney	405 (–129)
	13	Bubba Wallace	371 (–163)
1	14	Chris Buescher	368 (–166)
1	15	Chase Briscoe	358 (–176)
1	16	Joey Logano	354 (–180)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	1	Toyota	545
1	2	Chevrolet	542 (–3)
	3	Ford	513 (–32)

• Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

. – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2024 schedule . Jayski.com. . October 3, 2023.
2. News: NASCAR Cup Series 2024 schedule announcement: New additions, race dates, plus the complete calendar. Taranto, Steven . October 4, 2023 . April 21, 2024 . CBS Broadcasting Inc.
3. News: NASCAR unveils 2024 Cup schedule as Atlanta, Watkins Glen move to playoffs . October 4, 2023 . April 21, 2024 . National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC.
4. Web site: Entry List. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. May 28, 2024. May 28, 2024.
5. Web site: Practice Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. June 1, 2024. June 1, 2024.
6. Web site: Qualifying Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. June 1, 2024. June 1, 2024.
7. Web site: Enjoy Illinois 300 Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. June 2, 2024. June 2, 2024.
8. Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. June 2, 2024. June 2, 2024.
9. Web site: Utter. Jim. Gateway NASCAR Cup: Penske drivers top Saturday practice. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. June 1, 2024. Madison, Illinois. June 1, 2024.
10. Web site: Utter. Jim. Gateway NASCAR Cup: McDowell beats Cindric to pole position. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. June 1, 2024. Madison, Illinois. June 1, 2024.