DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Austin Cindric continued his remarkable run in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition Saturday by winning the series’ first event on the Daytona Int’l Speedway road course.
The victory is Cindric’s fifth in the last six series events, matching a record set by two-time series champion Sam Ard during the 1983 season.
“It was a lot of survival there at the end. That’s what makes these races as difficult as they are is to make it to the finish,” said Cindric, who was one of a few drivers in with previous experience on the Daytona road course prior to the UNOH 188.
Saturday’s race was chock full of contact and close racing, but the deciding moment of the race didn’t come until a restart with seven laps to go following a caution for New Zealand’s Earl Bamber, who jumped a curb in the backstretch bus stop section of the course.
The incident left Bamber’s Chevrolet stranded off the track and debris on the race course, requiring a caution flag.
At the time of the caution Chase Briscoe was the leader with two seconds in hand over Cindric, who was giving chase from second before the caution waved. All of the leaders hit pit road during the caution period for new tires, with Briscoe and Cindric getting off pit road first among those that pitted.
Three drivers, Bayley Currey, Kyle Weatherman and Myatt Snider, opted to stay out and restart at the front of the field. That put Briscoe in fourth and Cindric in fifth for the restart.
The ensuing restart was pure chaos. Currey led the field into turn one as Briscoe, Snider and Weatherman went three-wide for second behind them. However, nearly all of the front runners failed to make the corner and ran wide as they raced into the infield.
“I saw it coming, but I was surprised I did it too,” Cindric said.
That opened the door for Brandon Jones, who restarted seventh, to drive by all of those in front of him and emerge with the race lead. Through turn two heading towards the International Horseshoe Briscoe and Preston Pardus both went through the grass and crashed, forcing NASCAR officials to wave the caution flag again.
The damage was terminal for Briscoe, who retired from the race shortly thereafter.
At the front of the field, Jones was now the leader and Cindric was scored second ahead of Justin Allgaier, Snider and road course ace Andy Lally.
Racing resumed with five laps left and Jones got a strong start to retain the lead, with Cindric in hot pursuit. Behind the leaders chaos broke out again entering turn one, with Jade Buford spinning in front of most of the field after restarting sixth. This time the field escaped major harm and the green flag stayed out.
Cindric stayed glued to Jones through the infield, with Cindric trying the outside to pass Jones in the International Horseshoe. The move didn’t work, but Cindric tried the same move again in the West Horseshoe and stayed alongside Jones as they raced towards turn six, giving Cindric the preferred lane.
Coming through turn six Cindric completed the pass on Jones, taking the lead for what would prove to be the final time. He pulled away and beat Jones to the checkered flag by more than seven seconds.
Despite coming away with the victory, Cindric admitted he wasn’t completely happy with the race he’d run.
“I’m not 100 percent proud of my race, so it makes me apprehensive about being super excited,” Cindric said. “I’m pretty hard on myself and usually don’t need too many people to tell me what I’ve done wrong because I’ve probably already thought about it or at least beat myself up over it.”
Cindric said he’d attempted to get a ride for the Rolex 24 in January, but failed to put anything together. He said to be able to come to Daytona and win on the road course in the Xfinity Series’ debut on the circuit made up for that in a small way.
“That was a bummer for me, so to be able to come to this track and do that is a big check in the box for me,” Cindric said.
Behind Cindric and Jones was Noah Gragson, who recovered from a spin while leading the race to finish third. A.J. Allmendinger finished fourth after late-race contact with Allgaier sent Allgaier spinning out of a place inside the top-five. Lally finished fifth, his second-straight top-five finish.
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