By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Austin Cindric was nearly two laps away from scoring the victory at Talladega Superspeedway, but a miscalculation on fuel cost him the victory.
Once green flag pit stops cycled through in the final stage of the race, it was all about conserving fuel for the leaders. Justin Allgaier, who cycled to the race lead after the stops, was able to be in the middle of a pack, while Cindric was stuck at the end of the draft. At that point, Cindric knew that he had to conserve fuel.
While under the final caution of the race, Allgaier had run out of fuel, which meant trouble for Cindric. The rookie driver knew that it could be bad for him.
“I knew that was bad. I knew it was bad because we pitted at the same time. I thought I had done the best job I could saving fuel, probably more than the 7 did because the 7 had the pressure of being the leader and I knew the next guys were 20-seconds behind me and all I had to do was ride. I tried my best to run 40-percent throttle the majority of that stint. It is just one of those deals,” Cindric stated.
When the field was coming to the green on lap 113, Cindric ran out of fuel. He ultimately finished in the 30th position.