Austin Cindric nearly erased a sizable deficit in the closing laps before settling for second Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Cindric started 11th but quickly established his No. 2 Team Penske Ford as one of the strongest long-run cars in the field.
Cindric finished third in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2 before losing time during the final green-flag pit sequence. He was 4.6 seconds behind Kyle Larson once the stops cycled through, but steadily closed the margin, passed Chase Briscoe and reached Larson’s rear bumper area before running out of laps. The final margin was just 0.565 seconds.
The runner-up finish and strong stage results gave Cindric 52 points, second-most in the race. He sits ninth in the Chase standings with 2,142 points, 140 behind
Larson. Cindric remains a long way from the championship lead, but Kansas provided the type of high-point performance needed to keep his chances alive.
This article originally appeared on Motorsports Wire: Austin Cindric's strong run at Kansas raises stock in Chase standings
