NASCAR: 5 race winners who could be in trouble
By Asher Fair
Race winners who could be in trouble: No. 4 – Austin Cindric
Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric started the first-time winner trend by winning the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, winning his first race behind the wheel of the #2 Ford as Brad Keselowski’s replacement at Roger Penske’s team.
Keselowski, despite being a superspeedway ace and a former Cup Series champion, never managed to win the “Great American Race” in 12 starts for “The Captain”.
Aside from the Daytona 500, however, it has been somewhat of a struggle for Cindric in his rookie year, and he is actually somewhat fortunate to find himself ahead of three other one-race winners in 14th place in the point standings.
He has just four other top 10 finishes this year, and three of them have come in the three road course races that have been contested thus far. His only other top 10 oval finish is a seventh place finish at Nashville Superspeedway.
He has been considerably behind teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano throughout his rookie season, with Blaney sitting in second place in the point standings, despite not having any wins, and Logano sitting in sixth as one of just five drivers with multiple victories.
The positive for Cindric has been his performance as of late. He has actually climbed several spots in the standings with three consecutive top seven finishes after starting the year with just two top 10 finishes in 15 events.