Austin Cindric is in victory lane again, as he scored the win in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Call 811 Before You Dig 200 at Phoenix Raceway. Cindric, who held the lead early, often and late, benefitted from wild racing behind him on a late-race restart.
Here is video of the wild last restart of the race:
As Jeb Burton, Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley, Justin Allgaier and more all faltered on the final restart, Cindric remained in the clear and he held off a hard charging 18-year old Ty Gibbs for the win.
With the championship race again coming at Phoenix, does Cindric feel winning on Saturday gives him an advantage for the Playoffs?
“Look, it’s data points,” Cindric said after the win. “You have to work hard the rest of the year to get here, so that’s where my focus is. I have my name on the wall there, and the goal is to be back with the shot to do it again.”
While Cindric didn’t want to seem too confident, there is reason for him to feel so. He led 119 laps and won Stage 1 and eventually the race on Saturday. Cindric also won at the 1-mile speedway last fall to secure the NASCAR Xfinity Series title.
For Gibbs, he has yet to finish outside the top-two in his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. He won his first-ever start at the Daytona Road Course in February, and he missed out by under four-tenths of a second on Saturday.
Following Cindric and Gibbs to the finish line was Brandon Brown in third, who has had a very good start to the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season in his family-owned No. 68 car. This marks Brown’s career-best finish in the Xfinity Series.
Riley Herbst, who has suffered through horrid luck this season, finished fourth and AJ Allmendinger was fifth.
Jeb Burton, Bayley Currey, Justin Allgaier, Brett Moffitt and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
For Currey, it was also a career-best finish for him and the best finish in the history of Mike Harmon Racing.
Allgaier, who finished eighth, lined up with a shot to win on the final restart. Allgaier even worked his way to the outside of Cindric coming out of the dog-leg, and it looked like the No. 7 could potentially grab the lead.
Then, Allgaier missed the mark and slapped the wall. Luckily, Allgaier was able to hold on for a top-10 finish, as it was a rough day for the rest of his JR Motorsports teammates, who all finished 35th or worse.
For all the video highlights, race stories and stats following Saturday’s race, check the Race Information Page:
Christie: A First-Career Win is Coming For Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Hemric
One Response