Austin Cindric details his experience during wild final laps at Gateway

"To take you back to around 10 (laps) to go, there was some blood in the water because the lapped cars were racing the snot out of Ryan (Blaney). Unfortunately, the 34 had just come out of pit road, so I had traffic too," Cindric explained. "I thought there might be a chance if he got slowed up or couldn't get by the 99. Obviously, I'm giving everything I have to stay in touch. As I got to the end of the race, I said, 'I don't need these tires for the end of the race, I don't need these tires for a restart.'"

Cindric then described the chaotic final lap from his point of view, as he passed Blaney coming to the white flag. 

"I saw him slow into (turn) three - my spotter picked up on it in the middle of three and four," Cindric said, "and I thought, 'Okay, maybe there's that four to five upshift into (turn) three, maybe he didn't get the upshift right.' That's the only thing I could figure that would make him that slow."

The Gateway winner went on to discusses the race's end game.

"You pass him on the front straightaway, everyone knows what that means," Cindric said. "At that point, you just focus on hitting your marks and you win the race. You focus on being able to do a burnout and victory lane celebration."

According to Cindric, going winless for 85 Cup Series races had a big effect on his celebration. 

"It was like my first win all over again, it's been so long," he quipped. "Even standing on the roof of my car, I almost fell over in victory lane. But overall, yeah, just an incredible range of emotions in a very short amount of time."

Cindric's St. Louis triumph proved why NASCAR races are truly never over until the checkered flag flies and apparently, that long winless streaks prove dangerous in victory lane.