Kevin Harvick doesn't mince words on Austin Cindric

Austin Cindric was oh so close at both Daytona and Atlanta before disaster struck, but the excellent superspeedway driver was never really in the mix at COTA over the weekend. He struggled.

The No. 2 car was even involved in an early dustup with Ty Dillon, wrecking Dillon after being shoved off the track. He could face penalty for that.

The weekend’s results led Kevin Harvick to make a bold statement on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast this week. No holds barred.

“Austin Cindric was awful,” Harvick said. “He’s the best, one of the best Ford guys.”

Austin Cindric finished P25 at COTA, an noncompetitive result that won’t help him a whole lot in the push for the playoffs. He’ll have to get better going forward.

Worse, there’s the possibility of penalty lingering. Should NASCAR hand out a points penalty, Cindric could come out worse than he went into COTA.

“We saw he and Ty Dillon get together there,” Harvick said. “Ty shoved him out wide in Turn 20, then Austin right-rear hooked him. So it’ll be interesting to see if there’s anything said about that.”

But the bottom line is that Austin Cindric’s great racing from the first two weeks hasn’t amounted to much. He’s had awful luck late in those races at the superspeedways.

He managed to squeak out a P8 at Daytona but ended P28 in Atlanta. Add in this week’s P25 at COTA and it’s been a forgettable start to the season.

“He’s struggled on the road (courses), like when it comes to road courses, I thought this car and his background it was going to propel him to the playoffs on a regular basis,” Harvick’s co-host Mamba Smith said. “For whatever reason it hasn’t been able to translate like a lot of people thought.”