By: Mitchell Breuer

There has been no one better in the last five NASCAR Xfinity Series races than Austin Cindric.

His numbers speak themselves; four wins, three of those coming at ovals he previously did not have victories, and a worst finish of second in a race where he led 131 of 175 laps.

“My career has really been about making myself as versatile as possible between the different cars I’ve driven, different tracks I’ve driven on, so take a diverse schedule like NASCAR has between superspeedways, short tracks, road courses, mile-and-a-half tracks and to be able to say we have an opportunity to win on those types of racetracks at this point in the year, whatever track it may be, is a lot of fun,” Cindric said during a Zoom press conference Tuesday.

The hot streak itself comes in a season where Cindric had already proven to be a legit championship contender and is the latest signal of his growth since his start in NASCAR.

One person who has seenthis improvement first-hand is his crew chief, Brian Wilson, who has worked with the 21-year-old for the majority of his Xfinity career.

“I think everybody has seen it,” Wilson said. “That’s one of the things about competing in NASCAR is every week you get to check up on where you are and how you compete.  Early on, I’d say he would admit that he wasn’t where he wanted to be and it was a challenging year for him, but seeing the progress and seeing the work that he’s putting in behind the scenes has been great and I’m proud to be a part of seeing him get to this point where we’re contending every week.”

One big thing Cindric has done to improve according to Wilson is take more time outside of the track to learn as much as he can during the week.

“He makes sure he takes notes on what he’s been doing and what he’s tried inside the car,” Cindric said. “He does a lot of debriefs to give us feedback on what we need to do better in the car, and I think what you’re seeing is just a product of all that homework that he’s done.  That’s helped us build a notebook on what he needs to be able to give him the fast race cars that he can feel comfortable making the moves that he needs toget the wins.”

While the victories have been nice, the No. 22 team is focused on winning the title, and not just the one at the end of the season either.

Recently, Cindric overtook Chase Briscoe to become the new leader of the points standings and while there are still eight races left before the playoffs, he is focusing on the regular season championship and the extra bonus points it could bring into the final stretch.

“I think that’s my number one focus,” Cindric said.  “That’s been my number one focus since the start of the year.  I’ve entered the playoffs with no playoff points, some playoff points and kind of been there in-between, but I’ve never had a lot of playoff points.  Winning the regular season championship gives you the equivalent of three wins in playoff points, and that’s a big deal for me.  That’s a big deal for our team to be able to approach the playoffs with a solid approach, so, for me, that’s the first box to be checked.  I think we’re going to have to be on our game from now until when the playoffs start to contend with the 98 for that because those guys have been on it this year as well.  That’s exciting.  That’s fun to know that you’re going to have to be on the limit to be able to beat your competitors and that’s’ what makes it fun.  There are definitely a lot of challenges still left and a lot of racetracks still left, but definitely that’s the number one goal.”

Cindric will look to build on his current 11-point lead this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway road course, where he will be one of the drivers that actually has experience at the track heading into Saturday’s race.