San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Cindric caps Penske sweep in Xfinity Indianapolis win
Austin Cindric took the lead early in the third stage at Indianapolis and held on Saturday for his NASCAR Xfinity Series-leading sixth victory of the season.
He beat pole-winner AJ Allmendinger by 2.108 seconds. Justin Haley was third.
It’s Cindric’s first victory at the Brickyard — and the second in 31⁄2 hours for Team Penske. Will Power won the IndyCar race earlier Saturday on the track’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
“I can’t even begin to put into words what it means to win at Indianapolis,” Cindric said. “It’s a racers dream, man. It’s not the win. It’s getting here, being able to compete, and the guys here know what that means.”
Cindric, the son of Tim Cindric, Penske’s president, will try to make it three in a row in the Brickyard 200 on the same course Sunday. In IndyCar, Will Power took the lead, then watched it shrink over the final half of the race before holding on to win this season’s second Indianapolis Grand Prix.
The Australian, who started second, beat Romain Grosjean by 1.1142 seconds for his first win of the season.
Power led 56 of 85 laps and earned his 38th career victory, breaking a tie for fifth with Al Unser.
Grosjean, the Swiss-born driver from France who won the pole in the season’s other road race at Indy, matched his second-place finish from May’s race on the same course. Americans Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi were third and fourth, while pole winner Pato O’Ward, of Mexico, wound up fifth.