Austin Cindric earned the victory in Saturday’s Henry 180 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on the historic 4-mile Road America road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
The 21-year-old managed to hold off traffic on numerous restarts both early and late in an elongated afternoon of competition that included wet and dry conditions and 13 dramatic lead changes.
Cindric took his No. 22 Team Penske Ford to the lead for good on a restart with three laps remaining having to hold off hard-charging veteran road course ace A.J. Allmendinger, ultimately winning by a 1.318-second margin. It marks Cindric’s fourth win in the last five races, making him the 11th different Road America winner in the last 11 races on the track.
“I had a lot of fun,” Cindric said of racing head-to-head with so many of his championship challengers on the day.
Chase Briscoe, a five-time winner in 2020 who is second to Cindric by 11 points in the driver standings, finished third on Saturday followed by Kaz Grala and IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Series star Andy Lally.
Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain, Preston Pardus, Ryan Sieg and Michael Annett rounded out the top 10. It was a career-best finish for Pardus, who also had a top-10 finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last month.
The race included “alternative pitting” strategies, ever-changing weather – rain and lightning – in addition to the typical challenges and tactics the series’ road course venues present.
An assortment of short caution periods interrupted the early portion of the race and eventually lightning forced a red flag that lasted 93 minutes, 16 seconds.
From the very first lap, Cindric proved himself the driver to beat. He dove to the lead in turn 1 after the green flag dropped and led the opening eight laps before cars were called to pit lane because of lightning. After more than an hour of stoppage, teams had to strategize whether to change their slick tires to rain tires in light of the changing weather conditions.
Justin Haley got around Cindric on the ensuing re-start and held onto the lead to win Stage 1 – his second stage victory of the season. He was involved in a collision late in the race and rallied to an 11th-place finish.
Allmendinger, along with his Kaulig Racing teammates Ross Chastain and Justin Haley, had to overcome a strategy setback needing an additional pit stop to complete their fuel and tire needs. That left Grala and veteran Justin Allgaier out front to start the final stage.
The race affected the championship standings with six races remaining to set the 12-driver Playoff field. Brandon Brown holds the 12th position with Jeremy Clements 53 points behind and Myatt Snider 73 points behind.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Road America – Elkhart Lake, WI
Henry 180 – August 8, 2020
1. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 45.
2. (33) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 45.
3. (7) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 45.
4. (6) Kaz Grala, Chevrolet, 45.
5. (23) Andy Lally, Chevrolet, 45.
6. (9) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, 45.
7. (11) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 45.
8. (37) Preston Pardus, Chevrolet, 45.
9. (16) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 45.
10. (1) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 45.
11. (4) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 45.
12. (13) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 45.
13. (22) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 45.
14. (8) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 45.
15. (21) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 45.
16. (3) Harrison Burton #, Toyota, 45.
17. (30) Josh Bilicki, Toyota, 45.
18. (36) Tommy Joe Martins, Chevrolet, 45.
19. (19) Jade Buford, Chevrolet, 45.
20. (24) Rc Enerson, Chevrolet, 45.
21. (32) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 45.
22. (15) Stephen Leicht, Toyota, 45.
23. (5) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 45.
24. (20) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 45.
25. (26) Joe Graf, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 45.
26. (35) Jesse Iwuji(i), Toyota, 45.
27. (28) Kody Vanderwal #, Chevrolet, Engine, 43.
28. (14) Jesse Little #, Chevrolet, 43.
29. (18) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, Accident, 42.
30. (12) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, Accident, 41.
31. (17) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, Accident, 41.
32. (29) Myatt Snider #, Chevrolet, Accident, 41.
33. (27) Scott Heckert, Toyota, 41.
34. (34) Vinnie Miller, Chevrolet, Engine, 10.
35. (10) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, Engine, 7.
36. (31) Chad Finchum, Toyota, Transmission, 5.
37. (25) Bayley Currey(i), Chevrolet, Engine, 0.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 61.83 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 56 Mins, 37 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.318 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 15 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Annett 0;A. Cindric 1-11;J. Haley 12-14;J. Bilicki 15-17;P. Pardus 18;J. Bilicki 19;N. Gragson 20;A. Labbe 21;A. Allmendinger 22-30;K. Grala 31-32;J. Allgaier 33;A. Cindric 34-39;P. Pardus 40-43;A. Cindric 44-45.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Austin Cindric 3 times for 19 laps; AJ Allmendinger 1 time for 9 laps; Preston Pardus 2 times for 5 laps; Josh Bilicki 2 times for 4 laps; Justin Haley 1 time for 3 laps; Kaz Grala 1 time for 2 laps; Justin Allgaier 1 time for 1 lap; Noah Gragson 1 time for 1 lap; Alex Labbe 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,22,98,10,02,7,1,99,6,07
Stage #2 Top Ten: 16,10,11,99,02,21,68,6,1,78
Top 10 in Points: 1. Austin Cindric – 771 (4 Wins); 2. Chase Briscoe – 760 (5 Wins); 3. Ross Chastain – 708; 4. Noah Gragson – 697 (2 Wins); 5. Justin Haley – 636 (1 Win); 6. Harrison Burton – 608 (2 Wins); 7. Justin Allgaier – 598; 8. Michael Annett – 543; 9. Brandon Jones – 523 (2 Wins); 10. Ryan Sieg – 436.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2020/8/927543/cindric-edges-allmendinger-for-road-america-xfinity-win