In the early exchanges of the Shriners Children’s 500 race in Phoenix, Austin Dillon seems to be back on his antics of wrecking. After Derek Kraus spun his car at the tail end of the pack, Austin Cindric tried to steer clear of Kraus’s car, but in his attempts, was caught by the incoming car of Dillon, who rammed him back into Kraus’s car. This caused heavy damage to his rear front tire, which ended the race for Penske’s #2 driver.

However, Cindric has no grievances with his fellow drivers, it seems. In a post-race catchup, the driver instead chose to take the neutral stance, choosing his words very carefully.

Austin Cindric blames the dull qualifying rounds for his early exit at Phoenix

The Penske driver had a nightmare start to his Cup Series race in Phoenix. With just five odd laps in the race, Derek Kraus lost his grip on the track and spun inside the oncoming traffic of cars behind him. While the caution flag was waved, the damage was already done, not for Kraus but for Austin Cindric.

From the initial watch, it looked like the #3 RCR car piloted by Austin Dillon caused the heavy damage for Cindric. However, Dillon was not looking to point fingers at anyone and blamed his poor qualifying run. Speaking after his early exit, the driver said, “Hard to say, I mean I was caught three wide and couldn’t see in smoke and yeah, slipped the left right and broke suspension.”

When asked about Dillon’s involvement in the wreck, he replied, “Kind of hard to tell. At the same time, I felt like I got hit twice and I knew the #3 was on my inside. So I thought he was going to fall, and he came back up. It’s just a product of not qualifying well.”

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And not just the main race. Even during the qualifying rounds on Saturday in Group A, Cindric had a torrid outing with his Ford Mustang. Unable to clock decent timed laps, he found himself at the bottom end of row 17 in the 34th position on the grid for the main event.

Phoenix seems to have been a prickling thorn for Cindric in Cup Series events

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An early DNF is the last thing a driver wants to see after a whole week of preparations, practice, and qualifiers. But unfortunately for Cindric, he had to suffer this fate. While it might come out as bad luck for the Penske driver, the racetrack has not been a happy place for him in his recent outings.

Last season, in the spring race at the venue, he managed a #25 finish. Coming back to the racetrack for the championship race, he ran himself into further trouble, finishing in a mere #35 spot. Same was the case during the 2022 season, as in the spring race he registered a #24 finish. The only decent finish the 25-year-old has managed at Phoenix is a #11 back in the 2022 season, the same year he clinched the Daytona 500 title. So going into the 2024 Cup Series season, it looks like his past horrors have come back to haunt him.

Moving ahead, Cindric will have another shot at dishing out a positive performance at yet another short-track race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Do you think he’ll be able to show promising results the next time?