No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – Austin Cindric
Start: 6th
Race Finish: 16th
Stage 1 Finish: 13th
Stage 2 Finish: 21st
Laps Led: 0
Point Standings: 13th (-38)
Race Rundown: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Discount Tire team set out for their first Southern 500 outing together at the historic Darlington Raceway, recording a 16th-place finish. Cindric showed the power of his Ford Mustang from the start of the weekend by topping the practice charts and advancing to the final round of qualifying to notch a 6th-place starting spot. Cindric navigated the latter part of the 115-lap opening segment with a free-handling Discount Tire Mustang, finishing 13th. At the break, Cindric received a four-tire service with an air-pressure adjustment and jetted off for the onset of Stage 2. The 24-year-old driver pushed through the second segment, working to navigate the short runs. As Stage 2 concluded, Cindric crossed the line 21st and headed to the attention of the pit crew for a big swing of adjustments to aid the handling of the car. The team continued to make adjustments during pit stops over the final stretch of the crown jewel event. Ultimately, the NASCAR Cup Series rookie finished 16th and heads to Kansas Speedway 13th in the playoff standings.
Cindric’s Thoughts: “We didn’t take ourselves out of it tonight and that was certainly goal number one. I just wish we would have made more progress in the car tonight. We really struggled on the short runs and really got my lunch money taken on restarts and felt like we could hang with the rest of them on the long runs, but anytime we’d try to fix that we’d kind of just hurt the rest. It’s certainly something to learn for tonight and those restarts and I lost track position really kept killing us, but we didn’t take ourselves out of it. We were able to come away with more points than a lot of guys, so I’ll take it, but I’m certainly not satisfied with it.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
