The Team Penske star is not going anywhere despite the winless season he is experiencing so far.
All three cars from Team Penske are racing in the Chase currently. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney round out the top 5 with a fourth and fifth place in the driver standings. Whereas Austin Cindric is placed ninth among the Chase drivers. Here’s where the distinction starts coming in, however. Blaney and Logano have both won multiple races this season. They are also among the strongest contenders for the championship. But what about Austin Cindric?
For starters, Cindric qualified for the NASCAR Chase solely on the basis of consistency and points finishes alone. He is yet to win a race this season, unfortunately. This situation created a lot of rumors around his contract with Penske. The community started theorizing that Cindric was going to become a free agent last year and his performance this season is not enough to secure him a place at Penske for the next season. So it felt apt that Austin Cindric just dropped in and ended the rumors once and for all.
Cindric stays firm as teammates hail his presence in the Penske garage
In a media session before the sixth race of NASCAR Chase took place, Austin Cindric confirmed to multiple reporters that he is going to be the one behind the No. 2 Penske Ford once again. Cindric has been racing with the team for nearly four years at this point. His full-time debut in NASCAR couldn’t have been better, as he won the Daytona 500 race in the No. 2 car in 2022. For the past two seasons, Cindric has steadily raced in the Playoffs and won a race in both seasons. Although, he is yet to do the same this year.
The Chase calls for a different type of mindset, and Cindric is certainly utilizing it properly. His consistent finishes place him above drivers like Carson Hocevar and Chase Elliott, who have won races but lost multiple points to DNFs. While that is a testament to Cindric’s racecraft, a win would still look good in the upcoming races. It’s up to Cindric to ensure that it happens and shut the haters from questioning his worth in Team Penske.
“Austin, I think, has been an incredible asset to our group,” said Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion after this announcement. “It’s been fun to work with him since ’22, really, when he went full time. Brings a lot of knowledge for how young he is. He brings a lot of good ideas. I enjoy his insight in our meetings and things like that.”
In the past few races, Cindric has steadily placed in the top 5 and come really close to winning the race in Kansas. Now that the Chase is about to end and confirm the real champion of this year, there is a high chance that Cindric will be among the fated winners of the remaining races this year.
