CONCORD, N.C. – Austin Cindric showed off his road-course prowess by racing to the pole position for the Drive for the Cure 200 during qualifying on Saturday at the new Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
Cindric turned a lap of one minute, 17.781 seconds (105.527 mph) during his run around the 17-turn, 2.28-mile layout in the second and final round. The NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie and playoff contender is seeking his first victory later this afternoon with the No. 22 MoneyLion Ford.
“This is the playoffs, man; you’ve got to put it all together when it counts,” said Cindric. “I wish we got points for qualifying, because then we’d be in better shape, but we’ve got 55 laps to score points today.
“I’m just so proud of all these Team Penske guys, because we unloaded with a car so close (to what we needed) that we’ve barely had to tune on it all weekend. We’ve been where we needed to be right off the truck and I’m really grateful for that. The lap was good, and hopefully we can convert it into a win.”
Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric, who is the only driver this weekend running double duty, came close to Cindric’s mark but ended up second-fastest with a time of 1:17.924 (105.333 mph) in the No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet.
Tyler Reddick was third, ahead of road-course aces Justin Marks and Alex Labbe. The Canadian rookie was second in the opening round before fading slightly on his second run, but still recorded his best-ever Xfinity Series qualifying effort.
Cole Custer, Matt Tifft, Ty Majeski, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Ryan Truex and Justin Allgaier filled out the first six rows of the grid and all advanced through both rounds of qualifying.
Despite making a second run to attempt to bump his way into the top 12, playoff driver Christopher Bell was the first driver below the cut line to advance and will start 13th (/103.779) in the No. 20 GameStop Toyota.
Other championship contenders starting deep in the field include Ryan Reed (15th), Ross Chastain (16th), Elliott Sadler (17th) and Brandon Jones (22nd).
Tanner Berryhill crashed at the entrance to turn one on his qualifying lap and failed to record a time. As such, he was the lone driver who missed the 40-car starting field.
The Drive for the Cure 200 is scheduled to take the green flag at 3 p.m.
To view the full starting lineup, advance to the next page.
