Austin Cindric may not have been the dominant car for the majority of the day in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Drydene 200 at Dover International Speedway, but the Team Penske driver came to life when it mattered most as he powered past JR Motorsports teammates Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry in the final stage to cruise to the win.
Cindric, who is in the middle of defending his series championship in 2020, now has three wins in the 2021 season.
The 22-year old was elated to score the win at The Monster Mile.
“I’m fired up man, I love this racetrack more than anywhere else we go to,” Cindric exclaimed. “I hate to admit it, but I love it. I love coming here. I hate that we took one of them off the schedule, so I’m glad we got it done today. Brian Wilson, and the guys on the CarShop Ford Mustang did an awesome job, great adjustments. So proud to be able to get it done here.”
For Berry, the second-place effort is his second runner-up finish of the weekend as he finished second in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series East race as well. However, this second place finish came with a huge perk, as Berry scored the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.
“Man, it could have been one spot better,” Berry joked. “I don’t know, we were so good today. God, Taylor had this TirePros Chevy so good. That last run, we just fired off a little too free, and got ate up. Me and Justin got racing each other and [Cindric] got away, but we just weren’t quite as good on that last run as the run before. But, I don’t know man, this is my first race here. We ran top-two or three really all day. It’s a lot to be proud of.”
Allgaier held on to finish third, while AJ Allmendinger finished fourth and Ty Gibbs secured another impressive finish as he wound up fifth.
Harrison Burton, Michael Annett, Ryan Sieg, Daniel Hemric and Brandon Brown rounded out the top-10 finishers.
The racing on Saturday was wild.
Even the eventual winner, Cindric, had a nervous moment as he was nearly crashed at the end of Stage 1 after contact with Ty Gibbs. However, Cindric skillfully righted the ship.
Video: Austin Cindric Makes an Absolute Unfathomable Save at End of Stage 1 in Dover
In Stage 2, things got a bit crazy as well when Jesse Little lost control of his No. 78 machine and spun to the inside wall. As that was happening, MBM Motorsports’ Matt Jaskol also turned his No. 13 car around. Jaskol spun into Little, which caused his No. 13 machine to actually catapult on top of Little’s car.
Luckily both drivers were okay after the wild crash.
Video: Matt Jaskol Lands On Top of Jesse Little in Three-Car Accident at Dover
