Austin Cindric emerged as the surprise winner of the NASCAR Cup series race Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway when teammate Ryan Blaney ran out of gas while leading on the final lap.

Blaney, the reigning NASCAR Cup series champion, appeared to be on his way to his first win of the season after fighting off a challenge from Christopher Bell, who had his own car trouble in the closing laps.

Cindric, who had pitted just one lap after Blaney, took advantage of the situation and notched his second career victory. The other came in the 2022 Daytona 500.

Denny Hamlin came in second, recording his sixth straight top-5 finish. Brad Keselowski was third, followed by Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano.

The three Penske cars — Cindric, Blaney and Logano — did not pit in the break between the second and third stages, and that put them in position to go for Team Penske’s first win of the year.

Bell, the winner of last week’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, had been the dominant car for much of the day in suburban St. Louis, leading 80 of the 240 laps.

Blaney and Bell dueled for the lead for several laps before Bell — just after finally squeezing ahead of Blaney briefly — let up and reported motor issues to his crew. Bell wound up seventh, getting a push by teammate Martin Truex Jr. on the straightaways in the final laps.

Blaney settled for 24th, coasting around as the last finisher on the lead lap.

Pole sitter Michael McDowell led the first 40 laps before Bell maneuvered his way inside to take the lead for the first time.

Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson were battling side-by-side for seventh on the final lap of Stage 2 when they got together in an incident that took the defending race champion out.

After the two rubbed on the front stretch, Larson tried to dive inside Busch going into Turn 1, but he got loose in the process. Larson’s car slid up the track and forced Busch into the wall. Busch’s race was over, but Larson was able to pit and return to the race in 29th place.

NASCAR races at Sonoma next weekend.