It was a big night for Team Penske at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, with Joey Logano taking the checkered flag and Austin Cindric finishing in third.
Cindric was in need of a strong showing, coming off of a 29th-place showing in Iowa and not having secured a top-10 finish since May. With the No. 2 car sitting on the bubble of the Chase standings in 16th place heading into the race, there was no room for error, and Cindric and his team delivered.
"This was the kick in the ass that this team needed," Cindric said after the race. "The last couple weeks and really months have been a bit of a grind for us. Suffering in silence and succeeding in silence in some ways. Tonight was a good way to drop the mirror in front and be able to remember who we are a little bit and go out and execute a good race."
Cindric added that the strong finish was a team effort that came with help from both Logano and Blaney.
"Joey and Ryan, I couldn't ask for better teammates from those two guys," he said. "It really is a blast to be able to work with those guys, but also learn from those guys. This is a race track that I feel like Joey Logano could finish top-five in my rental car. It's a place where I study him so much."
With his third-place finish, Cindric was able to move to 15th in the points standings with two races to go, jumping Shane van Gisbergen to push the No. 97 car onto the bubble.
NASCAR heads to New Hampshire next weekend with the battle for position heading into the Chase still extremely tight.
