AVONDALE, Ariz. — Austin Cin­dric charged on fresh tires to his first NASCAR cham­pi­onship with a gut­sy over­time dri­ve Sat­ur­day to win the Xfin­i­ty Series finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Cin­dric was already head­ed toward the win when title-favorite Chase Briscoe spun with six laps remain­ing. It brought out a cau­tion that forced Cin­dric and Team Penske into a bold race-decid­ing strat­e­gy call.

Cin­dric hand­ed con­tender Justin All­gaier the lead by pit­ting for new tires. a call that dropped Cin­dric to third for the two-lap over­time shootout. Cin­dric didn’t once sweat the deci­sion because he’d played loose head­ed into the finale after a dis­ap­point­ing playoffs.

“You’d think I’d be ner­vous this entire week­end, but giv­en how impor­tant this race was for me and my team I was hap­py to be here, hap­py to be rac­ing for a cham­pi­onship and that men­tal­i­ty has paid off,” Cin­dric said. “I’ve been points rac­ing for the last six weeks and I got to dri­ve my (butt) off for one day.”

All­gaier had tak­en new tires on the pre­vi­ous pit stop — he and Cin­dric were on oppo­site strate­gies — and All­gaier restart­ed as the leader. He chose the top lane and Cin­dric chose to start up there, too, right behind Allgaier.

Cin­dric had to first wres­tle with Noah Grag­son, Allgaier’s JR Motor­sports team­mate, for posi­tion before he got his shot at All­gaier. Grag­son moved to the lead and then Cin­dric bounced off All­gaier as the two took the white flag.

Cin­dric cleared All­gaier and, even though he didn’t have to win the race to win the title, he chased down Grag­son for extra measure.

It was Cindric’s sixth win of the sea­son but first of what had been an under­whelm­ing play­offs. He wasn’t as strong as Briscoe dur­ing the play­offs but quick­ly showed Sat­ur­day the No. 22 Ford was legitimate.

Cin­dric led 72 laps and was in con­trol until Briscoe’s spin. His vic­to­ry gave Team Penske one cham­pi­onship on the week­end with a shot for one more. Brad Keselows­ki and Joey Logano race in the Cup Series’ final four Sunday.

“This thing came to life lap one,” said Cindric.

Cin­dric cel­e­brat­ed by stand­ing atop his Ford bold­ly wav­ing the cham­pi­onship ban­ner. The 22-year-old is not mov­ing up to Cup next sea­son because of Penske’s long-term plan­ning. He’ll run a hand­ful of Cup races, com­pete for a sec­ond Xfin­i­ty Series title, and move to Wood Broth­ers Rac­ing to dri­ve the No. 21 in Cup in 2022.

He’s the son of Team Penske Pres­i­dent Tim Cin­dric, but said he’s come a long way on his own mer­it. Cin­dric before this sea­son was win­less on ovals — a road course ace, if you will — but his Pheonix vic­to­ry was his fourth oval win of the season.

“When I start­ed rac­ing Ban­dolero and Leg­ends cars I got a lot tougher because I wasn’t very good,” Cin­dric said. “I guess to any kid out there that’s try­ing to make a career at this, it’s about the hard work you put in. It’s not about where you start, it’s how you fig­ure it out along the way.”

Cin­dric was the Xfin­i­ty Series reg­u­lar-sea­son cham­pi­on but Briscoe took con­trol of the title race behind a series-high nine wins this sea­son. He had a good car ear­ly but fad­ed and fin­ished ninth. Briscoe, who is mov­ing to Cup next sea­son with Stew­art-Haas Rac­ing to dri­ve Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Ford, was overt­ly embar­rassed to have spun late in the race.

“I’ve got a lot to do to get a lot bet­ter here, that’s for dang sure,” Briscoe said. “It’s nice to know that I’m going to the Cup Series and all these things, but it sucks to run fourth in the cham­pi­onship after the year that we had, but that’s how it works.”

All­gaier, try­ing to win his first cham­pi­onship, fad­ed to fifth on old­er tires in over­time. Justin Haley, in a Chevro­let for Kaulig Rac­ing, fin­ished eighth. It moved Briscoe to fourth among the cham­pi­onship contenders.

Haley, like Cin­dric, has delayed his move to the Cup Series because of the delay of NASCAR’s new car. They don’t see the val­ue in rac­ing as rook­ies in a lame-duck sea­son for a car that will be obso­lete in 2022.

All­gaier led a race-high 76 laps and had made his play the pit sequence before the last yel­low. He pit­ted for new tires that time while Cin­dric stayed on the track. All­gaier was not able to chase down Cin­dric and need­ed Cin­dric to pit to inher­it the lead for overtime.