The NASCAR Xfinity Series held their season opener at Daytona International Speedway Saturday evening and if you wanted excitement it did not disappoint. Neither did Austin Cindric, reigning Xfinity Series Champion. He drove his No. 22 Penske Ford into Victory Lane. Not only did he win the race but he did it from the pole position but it was also his first-ever superspeedway win.
“Oh my goodness what an awesome race!” he exclaimed, “ What a really fast ride, the 5G Mustang. Unbelievable effort by team Penske,” he smiled and said, “ I’m gonna try to do it again tomorrow!”
Brett Moffitt tried his best to catch Cindric, but in the end, he just wasn’t able to get there. He brought his No. 02 Our Motorsports Chevy home in second place.
“Once the 22 got up front, anytime I got within a car’s length, it just pushed him further forward,” said Moffitt, “Everyone on this team has worked very hard to make a small team into a successful team in a short amount of time.”
Driving home in third place was Harrison Burton in his No.20 Joe Gibbs Toyota. Jeb Burton and A.J. Allmendinger would round out the top five. Brandon Brown, Myatt Snider, Brandon Gdovic, Daniel Hemric, and Jason White finished sixth through 10, respectively.
Stage 1 only had a handful of cautions and most were single-car incidents. When it came down to the end of the stage Brandon Jones beat everyone to the line, winning the stage.
Stage 2 had no caution laps and they pretty much all stayed in their line until it was the last lap of the stage which Moffitt would win. On the last lap a couple of cars got together as the stage was ending.
Stage 3 is where you got your money’s worth.
A few laps after the start Ty Dillon spun and caught Justin Allgaier. Lap 75 saw several cars get tangled together. Justin Currey, Noah Gragson, Michael Annett, along with a few others, were caught up in it with 14 cars in total either wrecked or with some damage. ‘The Big One’ didn’t happen until 11 laps to go and that net tangled a lot of fish. Allgaier, J. Burton, Brandon Jones, Chad Finchum, Daniel Hemric, included, just to name a few. The stage went into overtime and Cindric took the checkered flag to win the race.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will head to the Daytona Road Course, on Saturday, Feb. 20, for the second race of the season.
Official Results:
1. Austin Cindric
2. Brett Moffitt
3. Harrison Burton
4. Jeb Burton
5. AJ Allmendinger
6. Brandon Brown
7. Myatt Snider
8. Brandon Gdovic
9. Daniel Hemric
10. Jason White
11. Joe Graf Jr.
12. Caesar Bacarella
13. Stefan Parsons
14. Ty Dillon
15. Kyle Weatherman
16. Matt Mills
17. Jesse Little
18. Ryan Vargas
19. Danny Bohn
20. Timmy Hill
21. Josh Williams
22. Jeremy Clements
23. Landon Cassill
24. Tommy Joe Martins
25. Robby Lyons
26. Riley Herbst
27. Josh Berry
28. Justin Allgaier
29. Justin Haley
30. Chad Finchum
31. Ryan Sieg
32. Noah Gragson
33. Bayley Currey
34. Gray Gaulding
35. Colby Howard
36. Michael Annett
37. Jeffrey Earnhardt
38. Brandon Jones
39. Cody Ware
40. Alex Labbe
