Who Is Austin Cindric, the Newest Sensation in NASCAR?

We are talking about none other than Austin Cindric, who took everybody by storm, winning the Daytona 500 in only his eighth Cup Series start, becoming the second-youngest driver in NASCAR history to win the historical race. Without a doubt the kid has talent, so let’s jump in to find out more about our new sensation.

Austin Cindric was born in Columbus, Ohio on September 2, 1998, making him only 23 years old at the time he stepped on the highest podium place in Daytona. The rookie driver is the son of Team Penske president Tim Cindric and the grandson of Jim Trueman, former IndyCar team owner as well as Red Roof Inn founder. As a result, Austin was around racing all of his teenage years, so it’s safe to say that a racing career would have eventually come up.

He started as early as possible in semi-professional racing in North Carolina. After completing the Skip Barber Racing School to improve his racing skills, Austin raced in the U.S. F2000 National Championship at the age of 13. At that age I still thought that Santa Claus was real.

Next year he finished on the podium at Lucas Oil Raceway and also winning a race in the Historic Sportscar Racing. Austin is all about breaking records so in 2015 he became the youngest driver to ever compete at the Bathurst 12 Hour race, finishing 21st overall and seventh in his class at just 17 years old.

The Ohio native made waves in the racing world, so teams took notice. When Austin Theriault was still recovering from his injury, Brad Keselowski Racing took a chance at a young Austin making his NASCAR debut in the Camping World Truck Series a possibility.

He obtained a lot of good results with wins in Arca Racing Series and in World Truck Series, so, as a result, in August 2017 he joined Team Penske for the Xfinity Series race at Road America, racing with the number 22.

At the Kentucky Speedway in July 2020, Cindric made history again, scoring his first oval victories and becoming the first driver to win national series races at the same track on two consecutive days since the legendary Richard Petty (considered by most the greatest NASCAR driver of all time, winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times) did the same thing in 1971.

Cindric went on a winning streak and by the end of the season he won the championship in Phoenix. Again, big names in American motorsport took notice so at the end of 2020 Team Penske announced Cindric would begin racing in the Cup Series on a part time basis, running in a part-time fourth car for Penske, the No.33.

After being involved in a last lap big crash at the 2021 Daytona 500 race, Austin showed his class by leading laps at the Road America and Circuit of the Americas races, and then scoring a top ten finish at the Indianapolis.

In the summer of 2021, he was announced as the driver of the No.2 car for 2022 replacing Brad Keselowski, who joined Roush Fenway Racing as a minority team owner and driver of the No.6 car.

With his historical win, Austin Cindric grabbed a lot of people attention, popularity but also pressure because people will expect a lot more from him now. Still, he has shown in the past that he is very capable of rising for the big occasions and we are thrilled to see what he can do further.