Cindric wins race, takes Xfinity Series crown
Austin Cindric’s No. 22 Ford pit crew put on fresh tires, and Cindric did the rest in overtime laps, shooting past Justin Allgaier and Noah Gragson to win the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 and the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
Cindric, in his first championship four appearance in three seasons on the circuit, was a double winner in the 100th race of his career. His big gamble to come to pit road while holding the lead with just two laps to go in the race paid off, even though he allowed Allgaier to move into the lead before the final restart for the chance at higher speed from new tires.
Cindric said he saw Sheldon Creed make a similar call late in the Truck Series final race Friday night, which Creed won, so he figured he’d go for it.
“Amazing effort by this (number 22) team. There was a lot of work put into this race car,” Cindric said. “I’m pretty humbled by the effort, for sure. Talk about a relationship between driver and crew chief.”
Fellow championship finalist Chase Briscoe spun out in lap No. 197 with Cindric leading. That led to a caution flag, and jeopardized Cindric’s chances at the title.
Allgaier stayed on the track, Cindric went to the pits for new tires, and the restart saw Cindric make contact with Allgaier and Gragson. Gragson led for the first of the two final laps, but Cindric passed him on the last one.
“It was embarrassing to spin out,” Briscoe said. “I’ve never felt so little in my life thinking that if he (Cindric) didn’t end up winning, it was going to be costly.”
Only a finish ahead of Allgaier was needed for Cindric to win the championship, but he won the race outright. Cindric will be back in the Xfinity Series next season before moving up to the Cup Series in 2022.
“Those are some tough calls,” Cindric’s crew chief, Brian Wilson, said. “I based it on what I saw in the truck race. It seemed like tires really mattered.”
Allgaier, in his fourth championship four appearance, finished in fifth place. Fellow championship finalists Justin Haley and Briscoe ended up in eighth and ninth. Gragson, who was not in contention for the circuit title, took second place.
“Knew it was going to be a battle at the end,” Allgaier said. “I didn’t feel like we had the best car. I’m probably more bummed that we didn’t finish second.
“When I walk out of this race track this evening, I can tell you 100 percent that I gave 100 percent,” he added.
The race saw eight restarts, three in the first 27 laps. The third incident on the track involved four cars near the back of the pack.
A restart three laps in after Jeffrey Earnhardt’s No. 0 Chevy stalled and was bumped out of the race helped Briscoe, who entered the race with nine wins on the season. The cars went five wide on the track with Briscoe grabbing the lead from Allgaier, who opened with the pole position.
Haley had a different pit crew after a member of his team tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week , which led to the quarantine of four other crew members.
Cindric took his first lead of the race in Lap 83 and won the second stage.
Non-championship four driver Brandon Jones, who won the last Xfinity race in Avondale on March 7, pushed Allgaier for the lead near the midway point of the race. But Cindric passed Jones to move into second place.
Harrison Burton, who took sixth place Saturday, was named the Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year. The 20-yearold won four races this season, including the last two before Phoenix.
Gilliland takes early race
Veteran driver David Gilliland won Saturday’s ARCA Menard’s Series West final race, the Arizona Lottery 100 that was run prior to the Xfinity race. Gilliland, 44, edged Ty Gibbs by just over half a second for his first West Series win since 2012. Fifteen-year-old Jesse Love of Menlo Park, Calif., clinched the series championship with a 14th-place finish.