Austin Cindric Looks Better, But Other Fords More Likely to Win
10 months agoAfter a wildly disappointing 2023, Austin Cindric started off 2024 with a strong 4th-place qualifying run for the Daytona Duel races and backed it up by following Christopher Bell for a second-place in the Duel race. While the previous generation of Fords dominated the drafting tracks the past couple of years, and the new Mustang Dark Horse dominated in qualifying, their race performance on Thursday night was relatively lackluster compared to the Toyotas and Chevys. The front-row starters of Joey Logano and Michael McDowell (both in Fords) faded to midpack, but they were probably more focused on conserving their equipment to save their front-row starting positions, so we might not know just how quick the Fords are yet. Cindric did have strong finishes in both 2022 races here at Daytona, but more recent history indicates Ford's best shots to win the Daytona 500 are likely his Penske teammates, Michael McDowell, and the RFK cars.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference