After qualifying in the 14th position for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at Auto Club Speedway, Austin Cindric was battling a tight machine before making contact with the outside wall costing him to lose two laps to the leaders. In the lucky dog position, Cindric had to make an unscheduled pit stop after cording a right front tire forcing him to settle with a 28th-place finish in his LTi Printing Ford.
“There are a lot of positives to take out of this weekend,” Cindric said. “Unfortunately none of them happened on Saturday and that’s the day that counted. We have to figure out why we had a fifth-place car in practice and a 15th-place car in the race.
You get caught up with guys racing way too hard and putting you in bad spots and at the end of the day that’s what cost us a lead lap finish. This race had so much potential for us. I learned a lot about this track and what I need to do the next time I come back. I feel comfortable knowing we have speed, but at the end of the day I brought it home with a bunch of battle scars on it. We’ll move on and I’ll be in the 12 car at Texas and see what I can do there.”
After steadily running in the top-15 for a majority of stage one, the Mooresville, N.C native dropped a few positions late due to an extremely tight condition. When the caution flagged waved on lap 31 right before the end of the stage, the clean-up took longer than anticipating resulting in the stage to end under caution.
In the middle of stage two, Cindric made contact with the outside wall forcing him to bring his Ford in under green flag conditions. When the green-checkered flag waved ending stage two, the Rookie of the Year contender was scored in the 25th position, two laps down to the leaders.
After a series of cautions in the final stage, Cindric was scored in the lucky dog position before a corded right front tire sent him to the outside wall bringing out the final caution of the day ultimately ending his day forcing him to settle with a 28th – place finish at the two-mile track.
The No. 60 team will team will return to action on Friday, April 7 with Chase Briscoe behind the wheel at Texas Motor Speedway. Coverage will begin at 3:00 p.m.. (EST) on Fox.
RFR PR/Photo Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
