Austin Cindric Goes Back-to-back at Kentucky Speedway

After 500 total miles over the course of two days at Kentucky Speedway, Austin Cindric collected his second win of the season and managed to win both races of the two day showdown. The last driver to win consecutive nights in the same series was Richard “The King” Petty. Over the races in the Bluegrass State, Cindric was able to gather 114 points for his wins. Not only this, but the two wins add on to his seven top-five finishes throughout the season.

“Well, I hope I laid enough rubber down to make up for Watkins Glen last year. That was pathetic, so i’m just so excited. I really want to give credit to my team. What we did was really impressive, because we ran one setup last night and won the race. Then, we came with another setup and won the race again,” Cindric told the FS1 program. 

Chase Briscoe finished second by a margin of 2.262 seconds, after grabbing a fourth-place finish on Thursday. Justin Haley captured a third-place finish, followed by Ross Chastain and Justin Allgaier.

Notably, Anthony Alfredo finished sixth, just as he did in the Shady Rays 200. Additionally, Daniel Hemric grabbed the ninth position, marking the first time the No.8 has finished a race since Homestead.

Before Cindric grabbed the checkered flag, the 300-mile race began with rookie Myatt Snider leading the field to the green; the top-fifteen finishers from Kentucky-1 were inverted to decide the starting lineup. However, racing under green didn’t last long as the first caution appeared on lap 3 for Ryan Sieg’s spin. The competition caution came out on lap 20. The first stage came to a close on lap 45 with Noah Gragson claiming the stage win, just as he did the day before; this marks his eighth stage win of the season.

The second stage of the race remained caution free. After 90 laps of racing, it was Cindric who grabbed the stage two win. 

The last incident-related yellow flag of the race materialized for Brandon Jones’ spin with 22 laps to go. Harrison Burton and Noah Gragson made contact late in the race. Though there was no caution, fists did fly once the race concluded. 

The Xfinity Series will be back in action on Saturday, July 18 at Texas Motor Speedway. Catch all of the coverage on NBCSN at 3 PM ET.

Kaylee Hiner