Race report
NASCAR O'Reilly Pocono
Austin Cindric holds off Ty Gibbs for Pocono Xfinity win
Austin Cindric held off a late charge from Ty Gibbs to come away with his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the 2021 season.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jun 27, 2021, 7:15 PM
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Cindric, the reigning series champion, emerged from a final round of green-flag pit stops with a more than 3-second lead over Gibbs.
In the final two laps, Gibbs’s No. 54 Toyota came to life and he closed to Cindric’s rear bumper but couldn’t attempt a pass before Cindric claimed the win Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
Cindric’s victory comes a week after a disappointing 32nd-place finish at Nashville. It’s also his 12th win of his career.
“I went from a 3-second lead to a half-second lead at the end. These things are never easy,” Cindric said. “I had to avoid two wrecks today. I’m so excited to see all these people back at the race track and excited to get back to Victory Lane.
“This track was on our kill list since last year and there’s a few more of those. So we’ll keep putting our heads down, we’ve got to keep getting better, we’ve got a lot of tough competition and a lot of racing left.”
Justin Allgaier finished third, Noah Gragson was fourth and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were Daniel Hemric, who battled through two pit road speeding penalties, Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton, Josh Berry and Myatt Snider.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, a handful of cars elected to pit but Gibbs stayed out and remained in the lead.
On the restart on Lap 45, Gibbs was followed by Gragson and Snider.
Riley Herbst spun in Turn 2 and hit the wall on Lap 46 to bring out a caution.
The returned to green on Lap 50 with Cindric out front followed by Gibbs, Gragson and Jeb Burton.
With 35 laps remaining, Allgaier was among the first of the lead-lap cars to pit under green for their final stop for tires and fuel to make it to the finish of the race.
Cindric, Gragson and Snider all soon followed.
With 20 laps to go, the top four cars – led by Hemric – still had to make a final pit stop. Cindric ran fifth, the first car that had completed its final pit stop of the race.
Hemric’s challenge for the lead went up in smoke when he was penalized for the second time in the race for speeding on pit road. He was forced to serve a pass-through penalty.
Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 75, Cindric moved back to the lead. He was followed by Gibbs and Allgaier.
With 10 laps remaining in the race, Cindric had built up a 3.2-second lead over Gibbs with Allgaier in third, 5.1 seconds behind the leader.
Stage 2
Gibbs held off Gragson in a two-lap shootout to take the Stage 2 win.
Jones was third, Snider fourth and Herbst rounded out the top-five.
Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, most of the lead-lap cars pit but Allgaier stayed out and inherited the lead.
On the restart on Lap 25, Allgaier was followed by Haley, Sam Mayer and Snider. Harrison Burton lined up 10th.
As the field exited Turn 1 on the restart, Mayer turned Justin Haley, who slammed the inside wall hard, then drifted back onto the track and was hit again by Ryan Vargas.
Haley got out of his car but immediately laid down on the track and NASCAR red-flagged the race. Haley eventually walked under his own power to the ambulance.
The red flag was lifted after nearly six minutes. Allgaier remained the leader when the race returned to green on Lap 29. He was followed by Snider, Hemric and Harrison Burton.
Hemric went to the inside of Allgaier and came away with the lead on the frontstretch on Lap 32.
On Lap 35, Harrison Burton got loose while racing with Allgaier, spun and backed into the outside wall to bring out a caution.
Several of the lead-lap cars pit with Cindric the first off pit road. Hemric was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart the race from the rear of the field. Gibbs remained on the track and took over the lead.
The race resumed on Lap 39 with Gibbs out front followed by Snider and Gragson.
Stage 1
Harrison Burton held off teammate Hemric to take the Stage 1 win, his second stage victory of the 2021 season.
Allgaier was third, Cindric fourth and Allmendinger rounded out the top-five.
Harrison Burton started on the pole and took early command of the race.
On Lap 11, Josh Williams spun and wrecked in Turn 1 after contact with Santino Ferrucci to bring out a caution.
The race returned to green on Lap 18 with Harrison Burton still in front followed by Hemric and Allgaier.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Laps Led 1 22 
Austin Cindric Ford 90 1:54'52.493 26 2 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 90 1:54'52.824 0.331 0.331 11 3 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 90 1:54'58.000 5.507 5.176 10 4 9 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 90 1:55'01.651 9.158 3.651 1 5 16 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 90 1:55'06.999 14.506 5.348 6 18 Daniel Hemric Toyota 90 1:55'09.611 17.118 2.612 18 7 19 Brandon Jones Toyota 90 1:55'14.326 21.833 4.715 8 10 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 90 1:55'16.951 24.458 2.625 9 31 Josh Berry Chevrolet 90 1:55'22.904 30.411 5.953 10 2 Myatt Snider Chevrolet 90 1:55'23.027 30.534 0.123 11 02 Brett Moffitt Chevrolet 90 1:55'23.951 31.458 0.924 12 1 Michael Annett Chevrolet 90 1:55'27.937 35.444 3.986 13 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 90 1:55'33.846 41.353 5.909 2 14 26 Santino Ferrucci Toyota 90 1:55'35.561 43.068 1.715 15 68 Brandon Brown Chevrolet 90 1:55'36.639 44.146 1.078 16 36 
Alex Labbé Chevrolet 90 1:55'42.937 50.444 6.298 1 17 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 90 1:55'48.868 56.375 5.931 18 8 Sam Mayer Chevrolet 89 1:54'58.728 1 Lap 1 Lap 19 48 Jade Buford Chevrolet 89 1:55'02.158 1 Lap 3.430 20 44 Tommy Joe Martins Chevrolet 89 1:55'03.396 1 Lap 1.238 21 4 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 89 1:55'10.615 1 Lap 7.219 22 0 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 89 1:55'17.957 1 Lap 7.342 23 5 Matt Mills Chevrolet 89 1:55'28.703 1 Lap 10.746 24 15 Colby Howard Chevrolet 89 1:55'30.448 1 Lap 1.745 25 61 Austin Hill Toyota 89 1:55'34.976 1 Lap 4.528 26 47 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 89 1:55'38.476 1 Lap 3.500 27 90 
Loris Hezemans Chevrolet 89 1:55'46.779 1 Lap 8.303 28 17 Carson Ware Chevrolet 88 1:54'55.254 2 Laps 1 Lap 29 78 Jesse Little Chevrolet 88 1:54'55.896 2 Laps 0.642 30 99 Mason Massey Toyota 88 1:55'27.762 2 Laps 31.866 31 74 Jesse Iwuji Chevrolet 88 1:55'49.321 2 Laps 21.559 32 07 Joe Jr. Chevrolet 88 1:55'49.719 2 Laps 0.398 33 66 David Starr Toyota 87 1:53'18.354 3 Laps 1 Lap 34 23 Blaine Perkins Chevrolet 78 1:45'51.947 12 Laps 9 Laps 35 98 Riley Herbst Ford 45 1:08'29.693 45 Laps 33 Laps 36 52 Joey Gase Chevrolet 42 1:03'01.048 48 Laps 3 Laps 37 20 Harrison Burton Toyota 36 53'47.564 54 Laps 6 Laps 21 38 11 Justin Haley Chevrolet 24 34'27.179 66 Laps 12 Laps 39 6 Ryan Vargas Chevrolet 24 34'29.407 66 Laps 2.228 40 92 Josh Williams Chevrolet 11 12'00.147 79 Laps 13 Laps
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