After excelling in sports activities automobiles and in NASCAR’s Xfinity Collection, Cindric burst into the Cup Collection with a dramatic victory within the 2022 Daytona 500 in his rookie season.
He ended that yr twelfth within the sequence standings, a powerful efficiency for many any rookie. His tenure since in Staff Penske’s No. 2 Ford has been rather more tough.
Cindric, 25, struggled by means of his sophomore season and completed twenty fourth within the standings and whereas he had proven the pace to contend for wins this yr, he had been unable to capitalize on it.
That was till Sunday at World Broad Know-how Raceway at Gateway, when Cindric ran within the high 10 almost the complete race and located himself in place to run down his teammate Ryan Blaney for the win within the closing laps of the race.
Cindric was seemingly going to expire of time however coming to the white flag, Blaney out of the blue fell off the tempo and out of gas and Cindric inherited the lead and held on for the win over Denny Hamlin.
Austin Cindric, Staff Penske, Freightliner Ford Mustang
Picture by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Photos
A tricky season out of the blue grew to become one to have fun as Cindric’s win – which snapped an 85-race winless streak – locked him into the 2024 playoffs, the primary Penske driver to take action.
Walt Czarnecki, vice chairman of Penske Company, described Cindric as “a fellow who has been pissed off.”
“He’s come alongside, specifically the final 5 or 6 races we’ve seen quite a lot of progress,” Czarnecki mentioned. “He’s by no means misplaced his need, his depth. I exploit the phrase ‘need’ to win.
“I used to be watching Austin, he was affected person. He didn’t push the difficulty. There have been some guys on him. He hung in there and drove. I’ll let you know; he has not misplaced his need.
“This can be a reaffirming state of affairs, circumstance for him at this time. Actually, we simply talked about it in Victory Lane. We’ve by no means misplaced religion in Austin Cindric, I promise you.”
Though an completed racer on the observe, being the son of Staff Penske president Tim Cindric has offered its share of criticism and naysayers in his NASCAR profession.
Austin, nonetheless, has merely turned that into elevated effort at bettering his craft.
“There could also be an additional measure of stress on Austin, frankly, as a result of we’ve given (his father) the accountability for our race group operations,” Czarnecki mentioned.
“Austin is a driver; his dad is a supervisor. The 2 don’t meet in any respect. Nicely, they meet. Actually, he in all probability holds Austin to a bit bit increased commonplace than all people else.”
Cindric’s crew chief, Brian Wilson, believed Sunday’s efficiency and the win that resulted have been the results of a whole lot of laborious work.
“We’ve had a whole lot of progress this yr. Really feel like we’ve been constructing in the direction of this to have the ability to compete for wins,” he mentioned. “So, to have the ability to get it was an excellent day.”
