Austin Cindric collected his third consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series win Saturday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway after Kyle Busch’s car failed post-race inspection.
The left rear on Busch’s No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was ruled by NASCAR to be too low.
The Team Penske driver Cindric, who swept a doubleheader weekend at Kentucky Speedway last week, originally finished less than a second behind Busch, but the finishing order was corrected to show Cindric the winner and Xfinity Series championship leader Chase Briscoe the race runner-up.
Justin Allgaier, who led a race best 98 of the 201 laps, rallied back through the field for a third-place finish after being penalized for a pit road exit violation with 30 laps remaining. The blend line penalty forced him to rally from two laps down making his third place effort that much more impressive.
Sunoco rookie Harrison Burton, a two-race winner in 2020, finished fourth and Michael Annett was fifth. Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones, Kaulig Racing teammates Justin Haley and Ross Chastain and Brandon Brown rounded out the top 10. It marks the ninth consecutive top-10 finish for Chastain and is Brown’s fourth top 10 of the season.
Cindric was dressed in a Texas winner’s tradition white cowboy hat when he showed up for a second media video-conference availability Saturday after being officially declared the race winner. He conceded the Busch DQ wasn’t how he liked to win races but victories are hard to come by at this level.
“Obviously great to get the Money Lion Ford Mustang in Victory Lane no matter how it happens,” Cindric said. “Great points day.”
Cindric – only the ninth driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win three straight races – said he was tipped off to the possibility of a change in finishing order after walking out of his team transporter and saw Busch’s car and team still undergoing inspection in the garage.
“You want to win it on track and I feel like we had a shot to do that today and maybe didn’t execute as well as we should have and that’s what kept us out, but fast race cars and being in position, that’s what counts,” Cindric said.
And, the ace road course racer laughed acknowledging that he now has more NASCAR Xfinity Series oval wins (three) than road course triumphs (two).
“I’ll take it,” he said. “It’s great to be able to capitalize on fast race cars. I said that last week and I’ll say that again. I didn’t think this weekend we were quite as good as what we had in Kentucky but overall being able to run up front all day and get great stage points was great and we’ve just got to keep building on that.”
Justin Allgaier, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet swept the opening two race segments – the sixth time he’s done that in his career. But he’s only turned that early race dominance into a victory one previous time. And it was not to be on Saturday afternoon because of the late race pit road penalty. It’s the second time this season he has led the most laps but not earned the trophy. He led 156 laps at Bristol in June but finished 18th.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Texas Motor Speedway – Fort Worth, TX
My Bariatric Solutions 300 – July 18, 2020
1. (3) Austin Cindric, Ford, 201.
2. (12) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 201.
3. (4) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 201.
4. (7) Harrison Burton #, Toyota, 201.
5. (1) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 201.
6. (2) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 201.
7. (6) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 201.
8. (11) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 201.
9. (8) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 200.
10. (19) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 200.
11. (22) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 200.
12. (21) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 199.
13. (23) David Starr, Chevrolet, 199.
14. (20) Jesse Little #, Chevrolet, 199.
15. (36) Tommy Joe Martins, Chevrolet, 199.
16. (15) Brett Moffitt(i), Chevrolet, 199.
17. (27) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 198.
18. (26) Stefan Parsons, Toyota, 198.
19. (31) Bayley Currey(i), Chevrolet, 198.
20. (17) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, 198.
21. (25) Joe Graf, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 198.
22. (24) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 198.
23. (35) Colby Howard, Chevrolet, 198.
24. (29) Chad Finchum, Toyota, 197.
25. (34) Vinnie Miller, Chevrolet, Suspension, 193.
26. (30) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 193.
27. (10) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, Suspension, 191.
28. (33) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 178.
29. (18) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, Suspension, 130.
30. (9) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, DVP, 125.
31. (16) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 82.
32. (32) Kody Vanderwal #, Chevrolet, DVP, 78.
33. (13) Dexter Bean, Chevrolet, Power Steering, 64.
34. (14) Myatt Snider #, Chevrolet, Accident, 50.
35. (37) Stephen Leicht, Toyota, Transmission, 9.
36. (5) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, DVP, 9.
DQ: (28) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 201.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 126.918 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 22 Mins, 32 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.949 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 39 laps.
Lead Changes: 15 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Annett 0;A. Cindric 1-34;J. Allgaier 35-47;A. Cindric 48-51;J. Allgaier 52-92;A. Alfredo 93-96;R. Chastain 97-99;A. Alfredo 100-104;J. Allgaier 105-114;K. Busch(i) 115-118;J. Allgaier 119-152;A. Cindric 153-158;K. Busch(i) 159;H. Burton # 160-176;C. Briscoe 177-191;K. Busch(i) 192-201.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Justin Allgaier 4 times for 98 laps; Austin Cindric 3 times for 44 laps; Harrison Burton # 1 time for 17 laps; Kyle Busch(i) 3 times for 15 laps; Chase Briscoe 1 time for 15 laps; Anthony Alfredo 2 times for 9 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 3 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,19,22,98,20,9,1,10,21,8
Stage #2 Top Ten: 7,22,19,9,98,20,8,39,1,21
Top 10 in Points: 1. Chase Briscoe – 691 (5 Wins); 2. Austin Cindric – 667 (3 Wins); 3. Noah Gragson – 643 (2 Wins); 4. Ross Chastain – 614; 5. Justin Haley – 550 (1 Win); 6. Justin Allgaier – 545; 7. Harrison Burton – 536 (2 Wins); 8. Michael Annett – 481; 9. Brandon Jones – 448 (1 Win); 10. Riley Herbst – 377.
