DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It wasn’t out of the realm to think Austin Cindric could win a NASCAR Cup Series in his rookie season.
Cindric, 23, won the 2020 Xfinity Series championship with Team Penske. In 2021, he made his Cup debut in the Daytona 500 and led two laps during the race. Cindric made six more starts last season and qualified inside the top-five twice on road courses. At Indianapolis, he earned his first career top 10 on the Grand Prix configuration.
When he was announced as the heir of the famed Penske No. 2, Cindric himself figured he could win as a rookie. But it would come at a road course, right? He thought so. Everyone thought so.
“I’d say haha to whoever thought my first Cup win was going to be on a road course,” Cindric said. “But otherwise — I’ve won more ovals than road courses.
“You think to yourself, all right, it’s the Daytona 500, but you have a chance to win, and what are you going to do with it and put yourself in that situation and look at the characters behind you and try and predict everyone’s next move. I think that’s all you can do, and you have to live in the moment, stay in the game, and I think it’s that simple for me.”
Tim Cindric, Austin’s father, is the president of Team Penske. He’s been in that role since 2006 and seen plenty of success throughout his tenure — whether it’s NASCAR, IndyCar, or IMSA.
It’s easy to think nepotism played a role in Austin’s ascent to the Cup Series with Penske. Especially in his early years with Penske’s Xfinity Series program. Cindric was not successful at first in NASCAR’s second-tier division in 2018, splitting seat time between the Penske No. 22 and the Roush Fenway Racing No. 60. It wasn’t until August 2019 when Cindric won his first Xfinity race at Watkins Glen International.
But since then, he’s become one of NASCAR’s brightest prospects. Perhaps the most improved driver of the last decade, if not longer. Cindric heard the critics yelling that his father was the reason he had his opportunities, but he didn’t let it phase him.
“I’m not an externally motivated person,” Cindric said.
There’s no reason to believe he isn’t telling the truth. His teammates praise his work ethic, and his car owner Roger Penske doesn’t put drivers behind the wheel unless they have the skills to get the job done.
NASCAR embarks on its West Coast Swing, starting with a weekend in Fontana, California, for the first time since 2020. The industry then goes to Las Vegas and Phoenix before returning to the Southeast.
Xfinity Series at Daytona: Myatt Snider’s crash, and another team debut, another victory for Austin Hill
When Austin Hill departed Young’s Motorsports for Hattori Racing Enterprises before the 2019 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series campaign, he started a new chapter of his career with instant success.
Hill won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in his debut with the No. 16 team, which had just won the 2018 championship with Brett Moffitt three months earlier.
Three years later, history has repeated itself as Hill scored the victory in the Xfinity Series opener at the famed speedway on Saturday night. The 27-year-old has competed in several Xfinity races with Hattori over the previous three years, but 2022 marks the first time he is running the whole season for the championship.
So far, so good. He is 1-for-1 with Richard Childress Racing in NASCAR’s second-tier level.
“I won it back in 2019 with a new team; now we’re with RCR, first race with them,” Hill said. “We were able to get the job done.”
When Hill won in 2019, he wasn’t widely known, and Randy Young’s truck team isn’t the juggernaut that GMS Racing or Kyle Busch Motorsports is in the Truck Series. Fans had grown fond of Moffitt, and he was seen as a true talent, while Hill was perceived by some as a pay driver.
But Hill won eight times in three years with Hattori and never finished worse than ninth in the standings during that span. Now he is with a top team in the Xfinity Series, and he has made an immediate impact.
“People are going to take me a lot more seriously,” Hill said.
“We knew he had the talent to win, and this won’t be the last one, I can tell you that,” Richard Childress said.
RCR’s 2021 driver Myatt Snider endured a horrific crash at the end of Saturday’s race. He has a sore left foot but is otherwise OK after going airborne and having the engine ripped out of his No. 31 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet.
All drivers were able to exit their vehicles after this last-lap crash at @DAYTONA. pic.twitter.com/fHzeRlcT2H
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 20, 2022
