Austin Cindric Wins on Daytona's High Banks in the NASCAR Xfinity Series

Jared C. Tilton - Getty Images

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -RIS -In a battle of the last survivor, reigning Xfinity champion Austin Cindric won the Beef, It’s What’d for Dinner 300 with crafty moves on the final overtime lap. Cindric had been up front all day, starting on the pole.  Cindric led the final laps of a two-lap overtime shootout following a late caution in the race, titled the “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300.”

“What an awesome race.  What a really fast Verizon 5G Ford Mustang.  Unbelievable effort by everyone at Team Penske.  Obviously, coming off a lot of momentum winning that championship last year, but nothing is guaranteed and keep working hard.  Congrats to my man Coleman up on the roof.  He puts in just as much effort or more as I do.  I’m proud of him and we’ll try to go do it again tomorrow, I guess.”

Cindric held off Brett Moffit to win the Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway. It was the first Xfinity Series win at Daytona for legendary team owner Roger Penske.

The Big One occurred a few laps earlier when part-time Xfinity driver Ty Dillon attempted to clear Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Hemric in the inside lane. Dillon wiggled, then crashed at the front of the pack, taking out over 10 other drivers with 16 laps left in the 122-lap race.

Penske’s Cindric and JGR’s Burton missed the wreck at the front of the pack, and restarted in first and second, respectively. Cindric held his lead in the final laps, while Brett Moffitt raced up to second. Burton finished third.

Cindric also raced his way into the Daytona 500 lineup as an Open car for Penske with his qualifying time. It’s a promising start for the young driver.

Cindric ran near the front throughout the race but trailed leader Harrison Burton when a big crash erupted with six laps remaining. Cindric beat Harrison to the caution flag when the crash occurred, putting him in the lead for the final overtime restart.

Cindric pulled into the lead on the final restart and blocked a move for the lead by Burton on the final lap. Moffitt finished second, followed by Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton and AJ Allmendinger..

The race was marred by several big crashes. The last one, caused by Ty Dillon, took out several of the top cars, including those driven by contenders Justin Haley, Daniel Hemric, Justin Allgaier, Riley Herbst and Josh Berry.

Cindric’s love for Daytona International Speedway was evident in post-race comments he made at media representatives.

“The thing that’s really cool about winning tonight is that I’ve won on the road course here.  I’ve won on the superspeedway, and I won the rallycross race they had here, so anything with four wheels, man, Daytona I guess is a decent place.  I walked out of here on Wednesday night pissed off that we didn’t qualify in on time and luck has been in a good spot ever since, so really proud of the effort and continue on to next week.”

Cindric will get his chance to love more on DIS next week when the Xfinity series runs the road course there on February 20th.

Unofficial Results: 40th Annual Beef It's What's for Dinner 300, February 13, 2021, Daytona International Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Pts, Status, Tms, Laps, Playoff Pts
1) 1, Austin Cindric, 22 Verizon 5G Ford, 122, 4, 3, 55, Running, 4, 28, 5
2) 15, Brett Moffitt(i), No. 02 Fr8Auctions Chevrolet, 122, , 1, 0, Running, 1, 6,
3) 8, Harrison Burton, No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota, 122, 8, , 37, Running, 1, 28,
4) 7, Jeb Burton, No. 10 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet, 122, , , 33, Running, , ,
5) 31, AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Ellsworth Advisors Chevrolet, 122, , , 32, Running, , ,
6) 14, Brandon Brown, No. 68 Original Larry's Hard Lemonade Chevrolet, 122, 10, 5, 38, Running, 1, 1,
7) 11, Myatt Snider, No. 2 TaxSlayer Chevrolet, 122, , 8, 33, Running, , ,
8) 39, Brandon Gdovic, No. 26 Toyota Racing Toyota, 122, , , 29, Running, , ,
9) 12, Daniel Hemric, No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota, 122, 6, , 33, Running, , ,
10) 40, Jason White, No. 23 A-Game Energy Ford, 122, , , 27, Running, , ,
11) 18, Joe Graf Jr., No. 07 Bucked Up Energy Chevrolet, 122, , , 26, Running, , ,
12) 38, Caesar Bacarella, No. 90 AP Sport Regimen Chevrolet, 122, , , 25, Running, , ,
13) 36, Stefan Parsons, No. 99 Sokal Digital Chevrolet, 122, , , 24, Running, , ,
14) 32, Ty Dillon, No. 54 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, 122, 3, 2, 40, Running, 1, 2,
15) 34, Kyle Weatherman, No. 47 Axe Crossbows Chevrolet, 122, , , 22, Running, , ,
16) 27, Matt Mills, No. 5 JF Electric Chevrolet, 122, , , 21, Running, , ,
17) 24, Jesse Little, No. 78 Shriners Hospital 4 Children Chevrolet, 122, , , 20, Running, , ,
18) 21, Ryan Vargas #, No. 6 Swann Communications Chevrolet, 122, , , 19, Running, , ,
19) 28, Danny Bohn(i), No. 48 North American Motor Car Chevrolet, 122, , , 0, Running, , ,
20) 37, Timmy Hill, No. 66 VSI Racing Ford, 121, , , 17, Running, 2, 4,
21) 17, Josh Williams, No. 92 Alloy Employer/Sleep Well Chevrolet, 120, , , 16, Running, , ,
22) 16, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 All South Electric Chevrolet, 120, , 7, 19, Running, , ,
23) 33, Landon Cassill, No. 4 Blue Emu Chevrolet, 114, , , 14, Accident, , ,
24) 22, Tommy Joe Martins, No. 44 AAN Adjusters Chevrolet, 114, , , 13, Accident, , ,
25) 23, Robby Lyons II, No. 61 CSM Masonry Toyota, 105, , , 12, Accident, , ,
26) 4, Riley Herbst, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford, 105, 2, , 20, Accident, 1, 12,
27) 9, Josh Berry #, No. 8 FilterTime Chevrolet, 104, , 10, 11, Accident, , ,
28) 2, Justin Allgaier, No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet, 104, 7, , 13, Accident, 1, 8,
29) 3, Justin Haley, No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, 104, , 4, 15, Accident, 2, 7,
30) 26, Chad Finchum, No. 13 Ted Russell Ford Lincoln Ford, 104, , , 7, Accident, , ,
31) 13, Ryan Sieg, No. 39 CMR Construction and Roofing Ford, 81, 9, 6, 13, DVP, 2, 23,
32) 5, Noah Gragson, No. 9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/BRCC Chevrolet, 76, 5, 9, 13, Accident, , ,
33) 30, Bayley Currey(i), No. 74 Running 4 Heroes Chevrolet, 75, , , 0, Accident, , ,
34) 35, Gray Gaulding, No. 52 Panini America Chevrolet, 75, , , 3, Accident, , ,
35) 20, Colby Howard, No. 15 Linder/Project Hope Foundation Chevrolet, 75, , , 2, Accident, , ,
36) 10, Michael Annett, No. 1 PFJ American Heart Association Chevrolet, 74, , , 1, Accident, , ,
37) 25, Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 0 Forever Lawn Chevrolet, 74, , , 1, Accident, , ,
38) 6, Brandon Jones, No. 19 Menards/Jeld-Wen Toyota, 60, 1, , 11, Accident, 1, 3, 1
39) 29, Cody Ware(i), No. 17 Jacob Companies Chevrolet, 60, , , 0, Accident, , ,
40) 19, Alex Labbe, No. 36 Larue Industrial Snow Blowers Chevrolet, 60, , , 1, Accident, , ,
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 34 Mins, 12 Sec
Race Length: 122 Laps, 305 Miles
Average Speed: 118.677 MPH
Margin of Victory: 0.104 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 19, 98, 54, 22, 9, 18, 7, 20, 39, 68

Stage 2 Top 10: 02, 54, 22, 11, 68, 39, 51, 2, 9, 8

Race Comments: Austin Cindric won the Beef. Its What's For Dinner. 300 at Daytona International Speedway, his ninth victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Failed to Qualify: (5) 25 Chris Cockrum, 77 Ronnie Bassett Jr., 91 Mario Gosselin, 03 Tyler Reddick(i), 31 Jordan Anderson #.

Caution Flags: 9 for 42 laps;
Laps: 5-7 (No. 36 Spin Turn 4 [None]);
12-14 (No. 92 Stopped On Track [None]);
21-23 No. 92 Incident Turn 4 [None]);
32-36 (Stage 1 Conclusion [92]);
62-65 (No. 19, 36, 17, 2 Incident Frontstretch / Stage 2 Conclusion [Red: 00:13:47] [47]);
76-83 (No. 1, 6, 9, 0, 13, 39, 74, 52, 15 Incident Frontstretch [92]);
101-103 (No. 90, 47 Incident Frontstretch [92]);
106-112 (No. 54, 18, 7, 98, 11, 10, 68, 66, 23, 13, 8, 48, 51, 61 Incident Turn 3 [90]);
115-120 (No. 4, 10, 44 Incident Frontstretch [54]).

Lead Changes: 16 among 11 drivers:
A. Cindric 1-2;
J. Allgaier 3-10;
A. Cindric 11-17;
R. Herbst 18-29;
B. Jones 30-32;
R. Sieg 33-35;
B. Brown 36;
R. Sieg 37-56;
B. Moffitt(i) 57-62;
T. Hill 63;
T. Dillon 64-65;
A. Cindric 66-74;
J. Haley 75-78;
T. Hill 79-81;
J. Haley 82-84;
H. Burton 85-112;
A. Cindric 113-122.

Mobil 1 Driver of the Race: Brett Moffitt, No. 02
Sunoco Rookie of the Race: Ryan Vargas, No. 6