Austin Cindric picked up right where he left off in 2020 – out front and hoisting a trophy. The 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion won the season-opener at the Daytona International Speedway in an overtime thriller last Saturday and is absolutely a favorite to win again when the series returns to the track’s 3.61-mile road course on Saturday for the Super Start Batteries 188 at Daytona Presented by O’Reilly (5 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Cindric has proven to be the reigning road course master of the series – winning four times on four different circuits (Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Road America and Daytona RC). He is the defending Daytona Road Course winner leading 21 of 52 laps there last August.
Not only does the 22-year-old return to Florida this week as defending Xfinity Series race winner, he is coming off a stellar NASCAR Cup Series debut last weekend too – starting 39th and finishing 15th in his very first Daytona 500.
With his win in the Xfinity Series opener last Saturday, Cindric said he’s checked an important box.
“One of my extracurricular goals for the year was to win on a superspeedway,” Cindric said. “To get that knocked out early was really satisfying. It is a different discipline. To be able to control the race, how we did and the speed in our car, I was really proud of that effort. We haven’t had that kind of speed at speedways in the past. It shows the effort my guys have put in during the off-season. We keep stepping up both individually and as a group. Nothing is guaranteed though, so it is back to work.”
He will have plenty of legitimate competition in this weekend’s field. Veteran A.J. Allmendinger, a former IndyCar racer, is always a favorite on road courses. He won at the Charlotte ROVAL last year and is now competing fulltime in the series driving the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
Other road course “ringers” include former NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year and IMSA winner Andy Lally, who finished fifth at the Daytona road course in 2020. Road course stars Miguel Paludo and Preston Pardus are also entered.
The starting lineup for Saturday’s race includes a front row of Brett Moffitt – a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series road course winner – and Austin Cindric.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
