NASCAR will not penalize Austin Cindric for Gateway incident
Austin Cindric will not be penalized for a late-race incident in the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Gateway.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s VP of Competition, appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Sawyer said officials reviewed the incident and “deemed it as hard racing.”
Entering turn one on lap 220, Cindric went three-wide with Austin Dillon to his left and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to his right.
Stenhouse appeared to move down slightly, Cindric reacted and Dillon moved up. That caused Cindric to clip Dillon’s right-rear quarter panel and sent him into Stenhouse.
The wreck knocked Dillon and Stenhouse out of the race. Meanwhile, Cindric finished 13th.
Some industry members, including Denny Hamlin, pointed out Cindric’s SMT data at the time of the incident. This comes as NASCAR suspended Chase Elliott after an independent review of SMT data also publicly published by Hamlin himself after Elliott wrecked him in the Coca-Cola 600.
After NASCAR said they won’t penalize Austin Cindric, he issued this statement and video on Twitter:
