Gateway 2022 Cup Series Winners & Losers

By: Tom Luttermoser   Photos Via AP/ Jeff Roberson & Kurt Busch Twitter
Winners

Ford - Ford placed 3/5 of the Top-5 finishers yesterday at the inaugural Gateway 300 mile race, topping it all off with Joey Logano's 2nd race victory of the Season. Austin Cindric scored his first stage win of the season and the Fords scored a combined 38 Stage points (not the most.. That's Toyota with 43, but still a decent number). Most impressive was Ford's strength throughout the race. They led 1 more lap than the Toyota's... But, still the most in the field. Better than the 4 laps led by Chevrolet. Michael McDowell led a career high 34 laps on older tires was probably one of the more impressive runs of the race.

Kurt Busch - 23XI has shown speed in both the 23 & 45 cars this season scoring 8 Top-10 finishes, 5 Top-5s, 1 victory & 170 laps led and 3 Stage wins. Kurt Busch owns most of those stats with 2 Stage wins, 139 Laps led, 4 Top-5s & 6 Top-10s. Kurt continued that with his 3rd place finish and 2nd stage win of the season at Gateway. Although the 45 has speed, the team could be a true contender with some consistency. 

Team Penske - Winner Joey Logano scored only 4 stage points but obviously snagged the win after passing Kyle Busch late in the race. Austin Cindric scored his first stage win of the season and Ryan Blaney snagged 10 stage points as well for a combined 24 points for the trio.

Michael McDowell - Michael led a career high 34 laps on older tires at Gateway, it was probably one of the more impressive runs of the race. Though he finished P18, He had a very impressive run spending majority of the race in or near the Top-10

Losers

Chase Elliott - Chase Elliott entered this race with an already shrinking points lead after the last 2 races. Finishing 21st after starting 16th... Running himself up to the Top-10 he was the odd man out on the outside of a 3-wide situation with Ross Chastain resulting in a spin and some lighter damage. This compounded over a car that was clearly not that good in the first place, Chase fell into the 30+ positions for most of the remaining laps to rebound a bit on some late race restarts.

Chevrolet - Chevrolet had arguably their worst race of the season with only 3 Top-10's and leading only 4 laps via Erik jones in his 43 machine. Toyota and Ford shared the domination of laps led with 120 & 121 respectively. They really didn't show up in the stages either collecting only 29 stage points between 6 drivers, all of whom only scored points in a single stage each. Ross Chastain clearly had the fastest Chevrolet but due to the clear elephant in the room was hindered very heavily. Erik Jones was the highest finishing Chevrolet in 7th.

Denny Hamlin - Denny ran in the Top-10 for the first 47 laps until contact with Ross Chastain caused the 11 car into the wall and broke the right rear toe link. His day went to crap as he fell back into the top 35 finishing 11 laps down in 34th. He did however give us plenty of entertainment as he, for several laps, held Chastain behind him almost forcing him into the DVP. Denny also retaliated against Ricky Stenhouse Jr after Ricky dumped Denny's 23XI owned 23 car of Bubba Wallace.