Cindric holds off Briscoe in overtime for Kentucky victory (Update)
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| Austin Cindric, driver of the #22 Snap-On Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shady Rays 200 |
Austin Cindric won a two-lap overtime duel at Kentucky Speedway racing door-to-door with his good friend and former teammate Chase Briscoe to earn his career-first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory on an oval track.
Cindric, who led 41 laps on the night, ultimately finished 0.952-seconds ahead of rookie Riley Herbst and Ross Chastain to take the victory in Saturday’s Shady Rays 200 – the first of a doubleheader week that will include a second Xfinity Series Kentucky race, the Alsco 300 on Friday night.
Briscoe, a five-race winner and the Xfinity Series championship leader, finished fourth followed by Michael Annett. Anthony Alfredo finished sixth, followed by Justin Haley, Kyle Weatherman, Ryan Sieg and Brett Moffitt. It was a career-best finish for Weatherman.
Noah Gragson, who led a race-best 88 of the 136 laps and for the first time in his career, swept the opening two stage wins, finished 11th. He and JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier were running among the Top-5 on the restart and were poised to challenge for the trophy, but they made contact racing hard on the 1.5-mile high-banked oval and it cost them both better finishes. Allgaier was involved in an accident on the last lap and finished 20th.
[adinserter name=”GOOGLE AD”]Briscoe, who led five laps and ran among the top five for most of the night, solidified his championship lead on a night he insisted was a true challenge for his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing team.
“Thought we were gonna have a chance [to win] on both restarts but that last one just got real loose, but overall felt like this was our worst night of the year from the speed and balance standpoint and we were still able to race Austin for the win and end up fourth,” Briscoe said.
Cindric, who was elated with the victory – dramatically planting the checkered flag in the infield – joked about having to hold off Briscoe.
“I love the guy but he’s won enough, geez” Cindric joked of Briscoe, who passed him last weekend for victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
“Those restarts were a lot tougher than I was thinking they would be,” he said, adding, “I’m just so happy. Thank you to [team owner] Roger [Penske]. I believe this is a championship team.”
Friday night’s race will feature a partial inversion of Thursday night’s finishing order. The top 15 finishers will start in reverse order, which puts rookie Myatt Snider on the pole for the Alsco 300.