Austin Cindric 'incredibly frustrated' after crash ends incredible Talladega drive

Austin Cindric may have driven one of the best races of his NASCAR career on Sunday.

The 2022 Daytona 500 winner led 29 laps in Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega and continued his hot start to the playoffs by winning Stage Two.

With four laps to go, Cindric led the field down the backstretch — until disaster struck in the form of 'The Big One', which collected Cindric and 27 of his peers in the largest crash in Cup Series history.

"Obviously incredibly frustrated," Cindric said to NBC Sports. "We had a great shot to win the race. Really proud of my team (for the) full execution of the day. We were able to get that stage win and put ourselves in position at the front of that green flag pit cycle and have another shot."

Cindric continued to wax poetic about his team even despite the disappointment.

"I'm proud of the team," he said. "(They) brought some really fast race cars every single race of the playoffs and (we're) going to have bring another next week and do my job."

Cindric will enter Oct. 13's Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Roval 29 points below the cut line — the exact same deficit he faced going into Sunday's race at Talladega.

The good news? Cindric has proven to be a solid road-course racer, winning several road-course races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and has had several good runs at road courses over the course of his Cup Series career.

The Charlotte Roval will be the best test of Cindric's young career so far. With a strong team under him, he has a chance to make the Round of 8 for the first time in his career, but only if he can step up and deliver a clutch victory.

He very well could've delivered that victory on Sunday, if not for the cruel hand of fate getting in his way.