KANSAS CITY, Kan. — For the first 80 laps of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway, Austin Cindric seemingly had a horse that could compete.
In the opening stage, the 26-year-old from Mooresville, N.C. drove from 17th to seventh, continuing to flex his muscle after a strong round of 16. Cindric finished no worse than 13th in the first three races, including back-to-back 10th-place results at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l. It put him in a low-pressure situation at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway to advance.
But during the first stage break at Kansas, things started to spiral downhill for the No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse team. After coming down pit road for service, Cindric detected a loose wheel, forcing him to make a second stop and restart in the back.
He worked his way back up to 13th as his afternoon suddenly had promise again, but with nine to go in Stage Two, Cindric’s day went completely sideways. Racing down the backstretch with Kyle Busch, the two made contact and Cindric slid into the inside wall, suffering significant front-end damage.
The Team Penske driver limped his machine back to pit road for repairs and ultimately finished 34th, four laps off the pace.
“It was a really frustrating result. I thought the team did a really great job with adjustments overnight and we had a really fast car today and just took ourselves out of it on pit road,” Cindric said. “Obviously we had some contact on the back straightaway and I took us out of the race, really.
“That is unacceptable for the position we are in and especially with the speed we have had in the car. I am pretty bummed about all that.”
Cindric now sits last in the standings, dropping to 29 points below the cutline after entering just -4. It puts him at a significant deficit ahead of two wild cards – Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Although, he seemingly thrives in some of the more unpredictable races.
A sportscar driver years ago, Cindric instantly has an upper hand for the ROVAL – which just got reconfigured. And he’s always been strong at drafting tracks, recording two top 10s in five races this year including a fourth at Atlanta in the spring. His first career victory came in the 2022 Daytona 500.
Cindric certainly knows what the next two weeks have in store. It’ll require flawless performances to advance to the round of 8.
“I think the next two weeks are weeks we can go have great races, but we definitely won’t be able to get this one back,” he said. “It makes our goals a little more clear going into Talladega and the ROVAL.”