Track: Road America
Race: Johnsonville 180
Date: August 25, 2018
No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang – Austin Cindric
Start: 8th
Stage 1: 11th
Stage 2: 37th
Finish: 37th
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 15/45
Laps Led: 2
Driver Points Position (behind first): 10th (-262)
Owner Points Position (ahead of second): 1st (+25)
Notes:
Austin Cindric and the No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang started Saturday afternoon's NASCAR XFINITY Series race at 14-turn Road America road course in Wisconsin from the eighth position. Unfortunately in qualifying, Cindric flat spotted his left front and left rear tires, forcing the team to change them before the beginning of the race and start from the tail of the field.
As first 10-lap segment got underway, Cindric wasted little time in his charge to the front. After taking the green from the 36th-position, Cindric was in the top-15 by lap six and in the top 10 by lap eight. Unfortunately, a bump from behind by another competitor coming to the end of stage one relegated Cindric to an 11th-place finish.
Fill-in crew chief Jeremy Bullins kept the No. 22 Menards/Richmond Mustang on the track between stages and Cindric was able to grab the lead shortly after the start of stage two.
The 19-year-old driver paced the field for two laps before losing power coming out turn nine. The Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang coasted to a stop and Cindric was forced to retire from the event with a blown engine.
The 27th-place finish dropped Cindric to 10th in the drivers point standings. The No. 22 team still leads the Owners' point standings, 25 markers ahead of the No. 7 from JR Motorsports.
Quote: "Yeah, unfortunately, we just blew up. At least we blew up in the lead. We had a really fast Menards Ford Mustang and it's unfortunate obviously. We have to look back and see what happened. It wasn't a missed shift in the race and there was a lot of debris on the track, so maybe we got some debris caught up in the car. It's unfortunate, these Richmond/Menards guys work really hard to bring really fast race cars every time and it just wasn't meant to be today. So we'll go on and watch the race and have a little fun here at one of the best tracks in the U.S."