NASCAR Crash Course: Austin Cindric, once a relative unknown, is now a Cup Series star (2024)

One year ago, NASCAR Cup Series owner Roger Penske watched his drivers go from 1-2 on the final lap of the Daytona 500 to crashing out on the backstretch. As the white flag flew on the 2022 edition of this race, his cars were in the same position again.

This time, they came back with a trophy, handing Penske an 85th birthday present he'll never forget.

Maybe Austin Cindric just didn't know any better? A rookie running just his eighth career Cup start, his drive in NASCAR Overtime sealed the deal in another wild Daytona finish. Inheriting the lead once Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Brad Keselowski tangled, Cindric faced daunting odds to hold on with teammate Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Keselowski (the former driver of his No. 2) all gunning for him.

One by one, they threw their punches. Cindric, 23, never flinched.

"He's a mature man at his age," Penske said of Cindric. "And you could see it in his driving ability today."

The youngster held serve, leading the final seven laps while no one could quite get alongside him. Teammate Blaney superglued himself to the rear bumper of the No. 2 on the final restart, never allowing those behind a chance to get a run while potentially sacrificing his own shot at winning the race.

"I made the decision," Blaney said. "I wasn't gonna make a move until I was 100 percent sure that one of our two cars was gonna win."

Perhaps that was the result ofthis fiery ending last February, one that owner Penske claimed the organization "talked about a lot" over the past 12 months (code word: never again)? Neither Blaney nor Cindric were the ones involved, but they sure showed they learned from watching that experience.

"That's a hell of a teammate," Cindric's crew chief Jeremy Bullins said of Blaney. "We probably don't win that race without him."

Coming to the line, Blaney finally made his bid to win but Cindric squashed that while doing just enough to hold Wallace off coming underneath him. "Dangit!" Wallace shouted on his radio, his second runner-up 500 finish that he felt could have been one spot better.

"I'm going to be pissed off about this one for a while," Wallace said. "This one sucks when you're that close."

In the end, it was Cindric in victory lane after just his second 500 and his first race replacing a former Cup champion in Keselowski. The son of Team Penske President Tim Cindric, the victory was another step in Austin becoming his own man, away from whispers nepotism got him opportunities in this sport that others didn't.

"We don't have people buy a ride [here]," Penske said of Cindric's place on the team. "We have the drivers that we want to drive for us, and I feel like we could build with him as a person."

Now, Cindric has a crown jewel trophy as a Cup Series rookie former champions like Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. have never won. Suddenly, a relative unknown whose name was misspelled on his Daytona garage (Cendric instead of Cindric) becomes the energetic face of Next Gen NASCAR.

"Do you know what makes it all better?" he said. "A packed house. A packed house [101,000 strong] at the Daytona 500."

What a start.

Traffic Report

Green: Ford -- The Blue Oval crowd starts 2022 red hot, placing seven of their cars inside the top 10. Keselowski's RFK Racing duo swept the Duel qualifying races while his No. 6 car led the most laps (67). Blaney's fourth-place run left him an early heavyweight to challenge for the title while Chase Briscoe's third-place effort was the best of his Cup career. Fords have now won all four races (Clash, Duels, 500) held with Next Gen equipment.

Yellow: Toyota -- There are some bright spots here; a runner-up by Wallace catapulted him out of the blocks while Kyle Busch (sixth) battled back from a long list of problems. But the theme of Daytona Speedweeks for Camrys is what might have been. Martin Truex Jr. won the first two stages and looked poised to break an 0-for-17 drought in this 500 before getting swept up in a wreck. Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin didn't even make it past the first stage while only six entries total left them thin in the pack when drafting partners were needed down the stretch.

Red: Hendrick Motorsports -- HMS had high hopes after sweeping the front row in 500 qualifying.A Sunday contract extension announced for Chase Elliott (through 2027)was supposed to produce added momentum.

Instead? Elliott was the only one (10th) to finish on the lead lap. Pole sitter Larson led just a single circuit, then caused a multi-car wreck that wiped out fellow champion Kevin Harvick. Alex Bowman found himself wounded by the end of the first stage in another crash that TKO'd William Byron. That extends the HMS drought to eight years without a 500 victory despite winning the pole seven of those times.

Speeding Ticket: Tires -- Teams were concerned about how the Next Gen would hold up over a 500-mile race. While early returns are good (not a single mechanical DNF), problems came from an unexpected place: the new tires.

NASCAR confiscated wheels from Keselowski and Penske's teams on Friday, claiming penalties could be forthcoming due to improper adjustments. But both teams claimed they had safety concerns which played out in real time Sunday: multiple drivers had wheels come off on the racetrack, including the No. 50 Floyd Mayweather-owned team wheeled by Kaz Grala.

After the race, Cindric's winning team revealed they removed at least one set of Goodyear-issued wheels due to concerns they might not bolt on correctly. Expect more on this story to filter out over the course of this week.

Oops!

Brad Keselowski's bumper was at the epicenter of a Daytona 500 wreck not once, but twice. Early on, Harrison Burton couldn't handle a push from the No. 6, turning around in turn 2 in front of the field while wiping out Hamlin, Byron, and Ross Chastain.

"I think the 6 was just insistent," Hamlin claimed, "On pushing [Burton] at all costs and eventually turned the 21 around."

That's a 2 out of 10 on the anger scale compared to Stenhouse, whose shot to win the 500 went down in flames after a bad bump draft by Keselowski off turn 4 with six laps remaining.

"I guess the 6 tried to wreck everybody in the field 'til he won," Stenhouse said. "But I guess his other car won that he gave up, so kudos to him."

Keselowski, for his part, claimed he wasn't doing anything out of bounds.

"Whenever somebody spins out," he said, "Obviously there's somebody overaggressive, but in the moment, I didn't [think I was]."