With his big win to kick off the season at Daytona, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric became just the second driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win the championship and the season-opener the following year; joining Randy LaJoie who accomplished the feat in 1997. Now, Cindric has the opportunity to become the only driver in series history to win a championship and then the first two races of a NASCAR Xfinity Series season the following year.
And, lucky for Cindric, the series heads back to Daytona this weekend, but this time will race on the 3.61-mile, 14-turn road course. Last season was the first time in history that the NASCAR Xfinity Series raced on the Daytona Road Course and Cindric made history by winning the event from the pole by a massive 7.108-seconds over second place Brandon Jones. It was one of Cindric’s six victories en route to the title last season.
Cindric led 21 of 52 laps in a race that saw seven lead changes and seven cautions for eight laps. This weekend, Cindric will look to stay undefeated at the Daytona Road Course in The Super Start Batteries 188 At Daytona Presented by O’Reilly (5 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The race will be broken up into three stages: Stage 1 will end on Lap 15 and Stage 2 will end on Lap 30. The race will be 52 laps total for 187.72 miles.
Brett Moffitt will start on the pole this weekend with Cindric joining him on the front row. Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton and Daniel Hemric will round out the top-five starting positions.
