Practice report
NASCAR O'Reilly Indianapolis
Austin Cindric tops Xfinity practice at Indy Road Course
Reigning Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric led the way on Friday in the series’ only practice session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
Jim Utter
Edited: Aug 14, 2021, 4:07 AM
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Cindric, who already has five wins on road courses in his NASCAR career, topped the practice 50-minute session with a best single-lap speed of 95.154 mph.
It’s the second consecutive season the Xfinity Series has competed on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. Chase Briscoe won last year’s inaugural race while Cindric led half the 42 laps but ended up fifth.
“I got a fast Ford Mustang,” Cindric said. “As much as I’d like to tell you that practice matters, it certainly doesn’t – we haven’t had it all year. But a solid day so far for us.
“I think we have a lot of good data points on this (new) tire from COTA, Road America, Mid-Ohio. I think we’ve had to do a bit of homework on this time – it’s thrown us a bit of a loop.
“I’d like to think we’re reeling back in on it but we probably won’t know until (Saturday).”
Sam Mayer, fresh off a solid 10th-place finish last weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in just his fifth series start, ended up second-fastest in the session (94.965 mph).
“For a road course, that was pretty close,” said Mayer, 18. “This is the best car I’ve had so far this year and obviously, we have a lot of speed.
JR Motorsports put a really good piece together and I just need to go out there and finish the deal. We need to go out there and qualify up front, hopefully lead a couple laps and lead the last one.
“Hopefully we can keep this momentum up. We need this change in luck for sure.”
Justin Haley ended up third-fastest, Kevin Harvick was fourth and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson, Jeb Burton, last weekend’s race winner Ty Gibbs and Alex Labbe.
There were no serious incidents in the practice. Michael Annett went off course in Turn 7 on his second lap. He made it back to the garage but never returned to the track.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 22 
Austin Cindric Ford 14 1'32.276 95.154 2 8 Sam Mayer Chevrolet 17 1'32.459 0.183 0.183 94.965 3 11 Justin Haley Chevrolet 17 1'32.601 0.325 0.142 94.820 4 99 Kevin Harvick Toyota 12 1'32.689 0.413 0.088 94.730 5 16 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 6 1'32.708 0.432 0.019 94.710 6 98 Riley Herbst Ford 19 1'32.931 0.655 0.223 94.483 7 9 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 16 1'32.967 0.691 0.036 94.446 8 10 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 13 1'33.157 0.881 0.190 94.254 9 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 15 1'33.160 0.884 0.003 94.251 10 36 
Alex Labbé Chevrolet 10 1'33.195 0.919 0.035 94.215 11 19 Brandon Jones Toyota 18 1'33.201 0.925 0.006 94.209 12 31 Sage Karam Chevrolet 13 1'33.281 1.005 0.080 94.128 13 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 17 1'33.313 1.037 0.032 94.096 14 02 Brett Moffitt Chevrolet 13 1'33.359 1.083 0.046 94.050 15 20 Harrison Burton Toyota 17 1'33.384 1.108 0.025 94.025 16 18 Daniel Hemric Toyota 22 1'33.421 1.145 0.037 93.987 17 2 Myatt Snider Chevrolet 8 1'33.498 1.222 0.077 93.910 18 24 Will Rodgers Toyota 14 1'33.581 1.305 0.083 93.827 19 90 Preston Pardus Chevrolet 14 1'33.783 1.507 0.202 93.625 20 78 Andy Lally Chevrolet 15 1'33.883 1.607 0.100 93.525 21 92 Josh Williams Chevrolet 13 1'33.904 1.628 0.021 93.504 22 07 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 15 1'33.941 1.665 0.037 93.467 23 68 Brandon Brown Chevrolet 11 1'33.959 1.683 0.018 93.449 24 15 Mike Skeen Chevrolet 10 1'33.970 1.694 0.011 93.438 25 48 Jade Buford Chevrolet 14 1'34.003 1.727 0.033 93.406 26 44 Tommy Joe Martins Chevrolet 13 1'34.089 1.813 0.086 93.320 27 66 Matt Jaskol Toyota 13 1'34.149 1.873 0.060 93.261 28 23 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 13 1'34.156 1.880 0.007 93.254 29 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 6 1'34.236 1.960 0.080 93.175 30 0 Spencer Pumpelly Chevrolet 15 1'34.270 1.994 0.034 93.141 31 47 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 17 1'34.291 2.015 0.021 93.120 32 4 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 15 1'34.354 2.078 0.063 93.058 33 33 
Loris Hezemans Toyota 18 1'34.377 2.101 0.023 93.035 34 61 Austin Hill Toyota 13 1'34.457 2.181 0.080 92.957 35 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 15 1'34.501 2.225 0.044 92.913 36 74 Bayley Currey Chevrolet 19 1'34.637 2.361 0.136 92.780 37 17 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 9 1'34.922 2.646 0.285 92.501 38 42 
Giorgio Maggi Chevrolet 17 1'34.923 2.647 0.001 92.500 39 13 Stephen Leicht Toyota 11 1'34.947 2.671 0.024 92.477 40 52 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 15 1'35.019 2.743 0.072 92.407 41 26 Kris Wright Toyota 13 1'35.124 2.848 0.105 92.305 42 6 Ryan Eversley Chevrolet 14 1'36.043 3.767 0.919 91.422 43 5 
Kyle Tilley Chevrolet 14 1'36.889 4.613 0.846 90.623 44 1 Michael Annett Chevrolet 2 1'52.344 20.068 15.455 78.156
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