Who is Austin Cindric?
The Daytona 500 ended after 3 hours with a dozen cars behind the wall and 25 of the 40 cars in the field caught up in accidents.
Several recognizable racers were in the running for the victory.
Keselowski was ninth, and Busch, Keselowski, and McDowell were all sixth. Wallace was one spot short of glory for the second time. The winner? Those casual Daytona 500-only NASCAR viewers probably never heard of a racer. They have now.
Who is Austin Cindric? He is the Daytona 500 champion in 2022. If you haven't heard of him before Sunday night, don't be embarrassed or confused. Since he was a kid, NASCAR fans have been hearing about him. For the rest of you, here is what you need to know about how he has made himself known.
Cindric is funny because he didn't pack an extra pair of underwear and now he has to go do media for a few days. The last underwear sentence was 1.2 seconds flat. He loves his mom and she is the most important person in his life. After I wrecked out for the third race in a row, she tucked me in still in my firesuit and made brownies for my crew.
He's a contender for the NASCAR Cup Series rookies of the year. He is a rookies. He was making his eighth Cup start. Ever. Only nine of the 64 drivers listed on the award have accomplished something like that before, and he will be the only one to do it.
Last fall, Cindric came within.03 seconds of winning a second consecutive title, but he was disqualified. He earned 13 wins and finished in the top 10 in the majority of his starts. That is good. Very good.
Cindric has been a good driver. He has been so good that he has been able to outrun the rest of the field.
Tim Cindric is the president of Team Penske. Austin Cindric drives for that team. Jim Trueman, Austin's maternal grandfather, died of cancer two weeks before the 1986 Indy 500 and 12 years before Austin was born. Carl Cindric was a Gasoline Alley staple, building legendary Offenhauser engines.
You can see a glimpse of Austin Cindric in photos taken in the Indy 500 winner's circle in the early 2000s. He nearly knocked over the Borg-Warner trophy during a photo session with Castroneves.
He wasn't escorted into a top-shelf ride by his father, and dad tried to talk him out of racing.
Tim Cindric said that he always told his son that racing was not the road he wanted him to take. When he was in high school, I told him that he would have to find his own way in racing if he went to college.
Roger Penske confirmed that the story was true. He saw Austin playing with race cars in his bedroom. Austin earned his first win in the Bandolero Series when he was preteen. Penske and Czarnecki were not there for the first win, but they showed up the next week and Austin won again.
I have known him his whole life and seen him grow up. Penske said that anyone who knows him also knows that he is not in the business of just putting people in race cars. They have to perform. He has done something. Someone else would have done it if we had not put him in one of our cars.
Austin Cindric said that the boss was not just that, his boss, and that he had been the most influential person in his life outside of his parents. It is how he treats his family. I learn a lot from him. To earn his trust to drive his cars is the greatest compliment I could ever have.
Cindric drove sports cars. He won a race in the Truck Series. He wasn't great after he got a shot in the Xfinity Series, if you had come to him after he spun out in front of the entire field at Watkins Glen.
He tried 54 times to win a race. He won 12 times in the next 81 races. When Keselowski left Team Penske to become a driver-owner with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, Penske decided to put Cindric in the famous No. 2 Ford.
Cindric is batting in that car.
Jeremy Bullins, Cindric's crew chief, said that he has had a lot of opportunities. He won. He studies. He works hard.
It brings to mind a great quote of many years ago from Richard Petty, who got his first Cup Series ride via his NASCAR Hall of Fame father, Lee, and then went on to put his own son and grandson in cars raced under the family banner. You can either drive it or not.
Austin can drive it. They already knew that if they follow motorsports or make their living in it. Roger Penske did the same. The world knows it.
When asked if he was intimidated by those who whispered about advancement because of his last name, Cindric said he was not. I only think about racing. I do not have much of a social life. If there is anything left to prove, I just go to the race shop.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
