KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Austin Cindric began the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase 15th in points. Four races later, he’s up to ninth.
His performance at Kansas Speedway on Sunday (Sept. 27) was a main reason why.
Pre-race, Cindric told media members that he wanted to win a race or, ideally, multiple ones, before the completion of the 2026 season. When the checkered flag flew in the Hollywood Casino 400, he wound up 0.565 seconds short of that goal for the first time this season.
Cindric was a top-three car for the entire day, finishing third and second in the first two stages. Over long runs, he appeared to have the fastest car but could never fully close the deficit to Larson, even when second-place man Chase Briscoe hit the wall with a few laps to go as Cindric charged past and within a second of the leader.
Ultimately, the No. 2 car had to settle for second, never quite getting close enough to make a true challenge out front.
“Yeah, if there was any weakness in [Kyle] Larson‘s game today, it didn’t seem like he could roll off completing passes on lapped traffic,” Cindric told media members post-race. “I knew that was going to be our opportunity, and obviously, the No. 19 got past, and those guys went back and forth. That really is what gave us a shot.
“We had the lap time, we had the pace, we were too far back after the pit cycles. So yeah, it gave us a shot, and thought we probably had one of the better long-run speed cars there at the end. Which is great because I didn’t think we had that most of the day. Kudos to the team but sucks coming up that short.”
Cindric scored the second-most points on the day, trailing only victor Larson who dominated the event, leading 235 of the 267 laps.
“It definitely gives us a great notebook to apply next week and hopefully execute in another race of this caliber because this is what we need to keep doing,” Cindric continued. “You know, it’s frustrating feeling like you had a car that could’ve won the race or at least contended and didn’t. So, I guess maybe I’m being a bit hard on myself. Otherwise, a really great day. Super proud of everybody on our No. 2 Discount Tire Ford. Doesn’t happen without the full effort. It was fun to race some of those guys today and show what we’re made of.”
Yes, Larson was undeniably the fastest, scoring a maximum 76 points at Kansas. For Cindric, though, what he needed to win wasn’t on track per se, but rather on pit road.
“Not slide through my stall,” he joked when asked what he could do better. “I slowed up our stop a little bit there [at the end]. Then, we got jumbled up [in terms of] when we pitted and when we didn’t… I think there’s a bunch of little stuff. But when you’re racing guys like Kyle Larson and those guys who are used to doing this week after week (battling for wins) I’m prepared to do this every week. It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. Those little margins are everything.”
Cindric’s runner-up result also matched his best finish since a 2025 Talladega Superspeedway win. Sunday also marks his career-best Kansas finish; he had never so much as sniffed the top 10 or led a lap in 10 previous starts.
Furthermore, it’s Cindric’s first top five at a racetrack between one and two miles in length since the spring event at Darlington Raceway. He wouldn’t term it his best ever effort at an intermediate racetrack, but it sure felt good to run up front.
“I feel like in ’22 and ’23 there was a few [better runs],” he said. “But yeah, I feel like this was the most complete race as a team we’ve been able to do. It showed in the speed in the car. It was awesome; it was a ton of fun. Felt like we could do something with it and we got to do that more often.”
Cindric gained two spots in points on Sunday, up to ninth, albeit 140 points behind Larson.
Now, next up on the Cup schedule are the 1.5-mile racetracks of Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. In his 14-race Cup tenure at those tracks, Cindric has only two career top 10s.
So, how close is he to capturing his fourth career Cup victory at one of those two tracks?
“Half a second away,” he quipped, his margin of defeat today.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
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