NASCAR O'Reilly Series PR

The good news for Austin Cindric was that he overcame a speeding penalty to score a sixth-place finish Saturday afternoon at ISM Raceway, his 23rd top-10 in 32 races this season and his third at the one-mile Arizona speedway. The not so good news: despite the tremendous effort, it wasn’t enough to for the young driver to transfer into the Championship 4 next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Nemechek started the race from the 13th-position and made his way into the ninth-position to finish out Stage One.

COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang – WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE 7? “I kind of struggled with the brake pedal all day. I was just saving my brakes until like 15 to go and I just let it have it there at the end. I got to close in, but I didn’t quite have enough. Our Haas Automation Mustang, I mean that was probably the best we’ve been at Phoenix so far, but we just kind of struggled trying to get the whole run together.”

Christopher Bell led over half of the 200-lap race, swept the stages and will advance to Homestead to battle for the NXS championship next weekend.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to media at ISM Raceway:

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 Ford Performance Ford Mustang – IS IT A MUST-WIN WEEKEND? “We don’t have to win, but obviously a win is gonna get way easier. If you look at Denny, he was 20 points to the good and after Texas he was 20 points to the bad, so I don’t think we have to win. It certainly helps if you win, obviously, but, really, your whole mindset changes after the first stage. "

“We just came from Texas where the No. 11 car did not have the best of luck, but the No. 10 car finished in second place, which is super awesome for our team. We’re going to Phoenix, a short track, this weekend. We had some success at Richmond, which was our latest short track, so I am really excited to get to Phoenix. We only have two races left this year with our LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, so I’m excited that the whole Kaulig Racing team is pumped up. We are going to go finish this season off with a big win.”

Michael Annett is currently sixth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff standings, 28 points out of the Championship 4 prior to this weekend’s race.

John Hunter Nemechek and GMS Racing will utilize chassis no. 216 this weekend at ISM Raceway. This chassis has been ran six times this season by Nemechek at ISM Raceway (start: 13th/finish: 9th), Spring- Richmond Raceway (start: 11th/finish: 7th), Fall- Richmond Raceway (start: 38th/finish: 15th), Spring - Iowa Speedway (start: 6th/finish: 8th), Fall - Iowa Speedway (start: 14th/finish: 3rd), and at Bristol Motor Speedway (start: 9th/finish: 3rd).

Austin Cindric and the No. 22 Discount Tire team led 38 laps and scored a solid third-place finish in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Cindric moved up to seventh in the driver point standings, 96 points behind the series leader Christopher Bell, with one race remaining in the Round of Eight in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.