Kyle Petty made sure to take nothing away from Austin Cindric’s enthralling victory during the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Cindric was running P2 when his teammate Ryan Blaney ran out of gas, and some have tried to diminish his win due to that circumstance. Still, someone had to be running in the money-spot when Blaney’s car hit empty, and it was Cindric who was the beneficiary. Petty doesn’t see anything wrong with that.
“Austin Cindric wins the race,” Petty said, recapping the win. “We’ve seen this happen so many times. Gotta put yourself in position. When that first car has an issue, you take advantage of it. It’s a win.
“Nobody remembers who runs out of gas, nobody remembers who runs second. They remember Austin Cindric, race winner.”
Alas, Petty makes some salient points. Cindric shouldn’t be penalized in the court of public opinion due to how he won in Illinois. The Team Penske wheelman put himself in position, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
Still, other drivers and media members will have their opinions, including Denny Hamlin, who believes “the win found” Cindric in Illinois, not the other way around.
“This is the definition of if you just run in the top five wins will find you,” Hamlin said, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “This one where the win found him, but they did a great job of qualifying well and putting themselves in a position to be in the top five all day long.
“He also had to cut his way through the pack at times. When the field did flip that one stage, he had to restart and had to go by guys. It’s not like it was just kinda easy sailing the whole time. … One race out of 25, boom all of sudden you’re a playoff contender now. It’s just crazy how the system works.”
Regardless, Hamlin has been the recipient of some lucky victories over the years, it doesn’t matter how you get them. In Cindric’s eyes, he now has the opportunity to race a little bit looser, especially on road courses like the upcoming Sonoma, where Cindric has been so good over the course of his career.
“It definitely gives us an option. From a points perspective, how many positions can I gain with the guys that are in the Playoffs, as far as getting those Playoff points at the end of the regular season. I think that’s the topic of conversation,” Cindric said. “After that, do we go to a road course next week at Sonoma, go and get Playoffs if we don’t feel like we’re good enough to win the race. Makes those decisions easier to throw some Hail Marys. Past that we have to get better.
“It’s no secret, this is our first win as a company this season. So we still got to be able to go out there and put numbers on the board and continue to grow our program, grow our team to where we are ready for the opportunity. It’s a run in the Playoffs. That is what’s possible. The season is long. The summer is long. A lot can happen, a lot can change. Pretty important next couple months for us to get ready for that.”
Austin Cindric is in the playoffs, and it doesn’t matter how you get there, he’ll now have a shot at the Cup Series title. We’ll see if the wheelman of the No. 2 for Team Penske can deliver the team their third straight Cup Series championship, following in the footsteps of Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
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