NASCAR announced on Wednesday that Team Penske's Austin Cindric had been docked 50 points and fined $50,000 for retaliating against Kaulig Racing's Ty Dillon by right-hooking him on the front straightaway during Sunday's Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
The penalty dropped the driver of the No. 2 Ford from a 10th place tie in the point standings to 34th, though it actually ended up being 35th since the 100-point penalty issued to Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe earlier in the year ended up being rescinded later in the day.
However, the qualifying order for this coming Sunday afternoon's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway was published before the penalty was issued, and based on Cindric's metric score, it appears that his point standing from before the penalty is what was used to determine the order.
Did Austin Cindric dodge a small bullet?
The metric to determine the qualifying order consists of four variables: the car's rank in the owner standings (35%), the driver's finish in the most recent race (25%), the car's finish in the most recent race (25%), and the rank of the driver's fastest lap in the most recent race (15%).
Cindric is set to qualify 15th, but had his 35th place in the standings been used, he would be lined up to qualify eighth.
Given the fact that drivers who qualify later in the session tend to have better track conditions, this could end up being a small benefit for Cindric. We have seen NASCAR revise qualifying orders before, but no such edit has been made to reflect this week's penalty decisions at this time.
Qualifying for Sunday's 312-lap race around the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) Avondale, Arizona oval is scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 8 beginning at 3:15 p.m. ET, with live coverage set to be provided by Amazon Prime Video.
The Shriners Children's 500 is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 from Phoenix Raceway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 9. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action!