Saturday, February 13th, 2021
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
Austin Cindric took up where he left off in 2020.
The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion held off Brett Moffitt and Harrison Burton in a two-lap NASCAR Overtime dash to win Saturday's action-filled Beef. It's What's For Dinner. 300 at Daytona International Speedway, the season-opener.
Cindric, who locked up the Xfinity title by winning in his last outing at Phoenix Raceway in November, picked up his first victory on the 2.5-mile Daytona oval and the ninth of his career in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
"What an awesome race," said Cindric, who will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday's Daytona 500. "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, (spotter) Coleman (Pressley) 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."
The runner-up result was a career-best for Moffitt, who previously had one top five in the series, a fifth at Talladega.
"Once the 22 (Cindric) got up front, every time I got within a car length, I'd just push him farther forward," said Moffitt, who chased Cindric in overtime time after taking over second place from Burton, the third-place finisher.
Jeb Burton, Harrison's cousin, ran fourth, despite sustaining minor damage to the nose of his No. 10 Chevrolet in a three-car incident that caused the ninth caution on Lap 114 of a scheduled 120 and set up the overtime.
AJ Allmendinger was fifth, followed by Brandon Brown, Myatt Snider, Brandon Gdovic (first career top 10), Daniel Hemric and Jason White.
With 15 laps left, contact between the Joe Gibbs Racing cars of Ty Dillon and Daniel Hemric rewrote the story of the race. Dillon moved up the track between cars running in the inside and outside lanes, but when he tried to complete a pass of Hemric, he turned across the nose of Hemric's No. 18 Toyota and spun, igniting a chain-reaction wreck that eliminated a handful of potential race winners and probable championship contenders.
Destroyed were the JR Motorsports cars of Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry and the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of Justin Haley, who was trying to win his fourth straight Xfinity Series superspeedway race—an achievement only Dale Earnhardt Jr. had accomplished previously.
"The 18 (Hemric) hit me so hard in the left rear, it drove me up the track," said Dillon, who is racing in the Xfinity Series after four full seasons at the NASCAR Cup level.
Allgaier saw it differently. "He wrecked the whole field," Allgaier said. "He had to make a statement...Unfortunately, guys were trying to make moves—veterans who should know better—and making bad decisions."
On Lap 75, nine circuits after a restart to begin the final stage, the pit window opened, and all hell broke loose off Turn 4 as Cindric slowed at the front of a group of cars headed for pit road. Michael Annett was turned sideways across traffic in a nine-car wreck that wiped out Annett's No. 1 Chevrolet and the No. 9 of JR Motorsports teammate Noah Gragson, the defending race winner.
The cars of Bayley Currey, Gray Gaulding and Colby Howard also suffered race-ending damage.
"I got wrecked coming to pit road," Annett said. "I waved them off 10 friggin' times."
Stage 1 winner Brandon Jones saw his fortunes change dramatically coming to the checkered flag to end Stage 2. Jones steered his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota up the track to side draft the outside lane, but when he returned to the bottom lane, his attempted block on Myatt Snider's Chevrolet came too late, and Jones spun across the nose of Snider's car.
After a wild slide through infield grass soaked by rain earlier in the day, Jones rocketed back onto the track and slammed nose-first into the outside wall. Cody Roper's Camaro smashed into Jones' car at high speed, and the spinning Toyota clipped the Chevrolet of Alex Labbe. All three cars were destroyed, and NASCAR red-flagged the race to clear the debris from the track.
Moffitt won the second stage, with Dillon and Cindric second and third behind him.
Only 22 of the 40 cars that started the race were running at the finish of a race that featured nine cautions for a total of 43 laps.
ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Los Gatos, CA | Dec 16, 1981 | 42 | Chevrolet | Ellsworth Advisors | Kaulig Racing | |
2 | 4 | Landon Cassill | Cedar Rapids, IA | Jul 7, 1989 | 35 | Chevrolet | Blue Emu | JD Motorsports | Tommy Machek |
3 | 91 | Mario Gosselin | St. Marie, Quebec, Canada | Oct 20, 1971 | 52 | Chevrolet | AP Sport Regimen / Sleep Well | DGM Racing | Dexter Bean |
4 | 23 | Jason A White | Richmond, VA | Jun 5, 1979 | 45 | Chevrolet | A-Game Energy | RSS Racing | Paul Clapprood |
5 | 66 | Timmy Hill | Port Tobacco, MD | Feb 25, 1993 | 31 | Ford | VSI Racing / Ripper Magoos / Draft Kings | Motorsports Business Management | Timothy Goulet |
6 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | Riverton, IL | Jun 6, 1986 | 38 | Chevrolet | BRANDT | JR Motorsports | Jason Burdett |
7 | 1 | Michael Annett | Des Moines, IA | Jun 23, 1986 | 38 | Chevrolet | PFJ American Heart Association | JR Motorsports | Travis Mack |
8 | 02 | Brett Moffitt | Grimes, IA | Aug 7, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Fr8Auctions | Our Motorsports | Joe Williams |
9 | 54 | Ty Dillon | Lewisville, NC | Feb 27, 1992 | 32 | Toyota | Bass Pro Shops | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle |
10 | 10 | Jeb Burton | Halifax, VA | Aug 6, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Nutrien Ag Solutions | Kaulig Racing | Bruce Schlicker |
11 | 0 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Mooresville, NC | Jun 22, 1989 | 35 | Chevrolet | ForeverLawn | JD Motorsports | Kase Kallenbach |
12 | 52 | Gray Gaulding | Colonial Heights, VA | Feb 10, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | Panini America | Means Motorsports | Tim Brown |
13 | 17 | Cody Ware | Greensboro, NC | Nov 7, 1995 | 28 | Chevrolet | Jacob Companies | Rick Ware Racing | Jason Miller |
14 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Tucker, GA | Jun 20, 1987 | 37 | Ford | CMR Construction & Roofing | RSS Racing | Kevin Starland |
15 | 47 | Kyle Weatherman | Wentzville, MO | Aug 28, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Axe Crossbows | Mike Harmon Racing | Ed Jewett |
16 | 18 | Daniel Hemric | Kannapolis, NC | Jan 27, 1991 | 33 | Toyota | Poppy Bank | Joe Gibbs Racing | Dave Rogers |
17 | 13 | Chad Finchum | Knoxville, TN | Sep 22, 1994 | 30 | Ford | Ted Russell Ford Lincoln | Motorsports Business Management | Mike Hillman Sr |
18 | 78 | Jesse Little | Sherrills Ford, NC | Apr 15, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Shriners Hospitals 4 Children | BJ McLeod Motorsports | Adam Brooks |
19 | 03 | Tyler Reddick | Corning, CA | Jan 11, 1996 | 28 | Chevrolet | Quartz Hill Records | Our Motorsports | Daniel Johnson |
20 | 74 | Bayley Currey | Driftwood, TX | Oct 29, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | Running 4 Heroes | Mike Harmon Racing | Patrick Drake |
21 | 11 | Justin Haley | Winamac, IN | Apr 28, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | LeafFilter Gutter Protection | Kaulig Racing | Alex Yontz |
22 | 36 | Alex Labbe | Saint-Albert, Canada | Apr 29, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Larue Snow Blowers / Prolon Controls | DGM Racing | BJ Tucker |
23 | 22 | Austin Cindric | Columbus, OH | Sep 2, 1998 | 26 | Ford | Verizon 5G | Team Penske | Brian Wilson |
24 | 68 | Brandon Brown | Woodbridge, VA | Sep 14, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Larry's Hard Pink Lemonade | Brandonbilt Motorsports | Doug Randolph |
25 | 19 | Brandon Jones | Atlanta, GA | Feb 18, 1997 | 27 | Toyota | Menards / Jeld-Wen | Joe Gibbs Racing | Jeff Meendering |
26 | 90 | Caesar Bacarella | Parkland, FL | Dec 18, 1975 | 48 | Chevrolet | TVA | DGM Racing | Eddie Troconis |
27 | 25 | Chris Cockrum | Conyers, GA | Dec 24, 1986 | 37 | Chevrolet | Advanced Communications Group | ACG Motorsports | Jeff Spraker |
28 | 20 | Harrison Burton | Huntersville, NC | Oct 9, 2000 | 24 | Toyota | DEX Imaging | Joe Gibbs Racing | Jason Ratcliff |
29 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Spartanburg, SC | Jan 16, 1985 | 39 | Chevrolet | All South Electric | Jeremy Clements Racing | Mark Setzer |
30 | 07 | Joe Graf Jr | Mahwah, NJ | Jul 12, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | Bucked Up Energy | SS Green Light Racing | Jason Miller |
31 | 92 | Josh Williams | Port Charlotte, FL | Aug 3, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Alloy Employer / Sleep Well | DGM Racing | Ryan London |
32 | 5 | Matt Mills | Lynchburg, VA | Nov 14, 1996 | 27 | Chevrolet | J.F. Electric | BJ McLeod Motorsports | David Ingram |
33 | 2 | Myatt Snider | Charlotte, NC | Dec 30, 1994 | 29 | Chevrolet | TaxSlayer | Richard Childress Racing | Andy Street |
34 | 9 | Noah Gragson | Las Vegas, NV | Jul 15, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / TrueTimber Camo BRCC | JR Motorsports | Dave Elenz |
35 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Las Vegas, NV | Feb 24, 1999 | 25 | Ford | Monster Energy | Stewart-Haas Racing | Richard Boswell |
36 | 61 | Robby Lyons II | Clearwater, FL | Jan 22, 1989 | 35 | Toyota | CSM Masonry | Hattori Racing Enterprises | Patrick Magee |
37 | 44 | Tommy Joe Martins | Como, MS | Dec 7, 1986 | 37 | Chevrolet | AAN Adjusters | Martins Motorsports | Buddy Sisco |
38 | 15 | Colby Howard | Simpsonville, SC | Oct 28, 2001 | 22 | Chevrolet | Linder / Project Hope Foundation | JD Motorsports | Wayne Carroll Jr |
39 | 126 | Brandon Gdovic | Pittsburgh, PA | Feb 28, 1992 | 32 | Toyota | Toyota Racing | Sam Hunt Racing | Eddie Troconis |
40 | 77 | Ronnie Bassett Jr | Winston-Salem, NC | Dec 21, 1995 | 28 | Chevrolet | Jerry Hunt / East Coast Wings | Bassett Racing | Nathan Kennedy |
41 | 6 | Ryan Vargas | La Miranda, CA | Sep 23, 2000 | 24 | Chevrolet | Swann Communications | JD Motorsports | Ricky Viers |
42 | 99 | Stefan Parsons | Cornelius, NC | Jun 15, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | Sokal Digital | BJ McLeod Motorsports | Keith Wolfe |
43 | 31 | Will Rodgers | Maui, HI | Oct 8, 1994 | 30 | Chevrolet | Bommarito Automotive Group | Jordan Anderson Racing | Tyler Young |
44 | 48 | Danny Bohn | Freehold Township, NJ | Jun 29, 1988 | 36 | Chevrolet | North American Motor Car | Big Machine Racing | Patrick Donahue |
45 | 8 | Josh Berry | Hendersonville, TN | Oct 22, 1990 | 33 | Chevrolet | Filter Time | JR Motorsports | Taylor Moyer |