Since the opening of the museum outside of Daytona International Speedway the winner of the Daytona 500 each year has been a part of the exhibits at the museum. The winning car is taken directly from victory lane to the museum, complete with confetti and any other substance thrown out during the celebration.
In 2022, the Next Gen car made its points racing debut at Daytona. In his rookie season Austin Cindric took his number two Team Penske car to victory and was taken directly to the Racing Museum.
This year that honour went to Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Cindric’s car was returned to Penske. But it is now headed to another museum…the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Cindric was on hand to help unveil the Ford Mustang for the “Glory Road” exhibit. The Team Penske number two car is the first Next Gen car to appear in the Hall of Fame.
The confetti was gone and the car is in pristine condition with the addition of the autographs of every crew member who had worked on the car for the 2022 Daytona 500.
Cindric spoke on the event saying, “it’s really cool that as a company, Roger really appreciates the history. And as far as you know, making this car look showroom-ready for an opportunity like this, it’s really special. Obviously special for us to be part of it. Awesome to kind of get the entire team here. I think we’re only missing one member of the crew that won that race. So otherwise, pretty special. Pretty hard to replicate moments like that, so good to enjoy.”
Still overwhelmed by it all – the Daytona 500 win and his car in the Hall of Fame – Cindric added, “I mean, I probably would have guessed it would have been something that like flipped or wrecked or some example of that and probably not the Daytona 500 winning car. But it’s certainly what’s possible when you go out for Roger Penske and have a team like I have, so those are the things that are really important about having success in the sport.”
Team president of NASCAR operations for Team Penske Michael Nelson stated, “I think there’s a bit of pride and, you know, just a sense of accomplishment by being here. You know, it really started to set in when I walked in to see the car. And people come from all over the world to learn about NASCAR in this building, right? And to have one of our race cars here is just an immense honor.”
Cindric has only been driving in the Cup Series for Team Penske since 2022, but he has grown up a part of the team; his dad Tim Cindric is team president at Team Penske.
Speaking on Cindric, Nelson added, “I think some things have changed for him, but some things really haven’t. I mean, you could see the dedication, determination, hard work from the very beginning, even at the early stages. But the cars have changed, right? But, you know, I’ve known for a long time this is really what he’s wanted to do. And he was determined to do it. He’s a hard worker, very intelligent young man. And, you know, I’ve seen him mature in terms of his race-craft, and you know, the experience in all these different types of cars has helped him. But there was something there from the beginning.”
Speaking on his sophomore year in the Cup Series and the somewhat up and down season so far, Cindric said, “I’d say it feels normal. Like I feel like I’m going into work every day. It doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going Cup racing, I gotta figure this out.’ The guys I’m racing against, yeah, I still feel like I have a lack of experience some days, but I definitely know what I bring to the table. I know what I have to work on. And there’s been some frustrating moments already throughout the year. You know, you start the year off getting put in the wall three races in a row and trying to figure out how to just get things going. And then you have two really good weeks, and then you have another really bad week. So just the ups and downs — it’s so hard now more than ever, I think, to find consistency in the Cup Series.”
He continued, “that’s where you see drivers and organizations right now really having the most success, just being able to be in the game every week. That’s harder than y’all might think. So I respect that but I want to be there for sure. As a whole, Team Penske has been hit or miss in 2023. In 21 combined starts across its three entries with defending series champion Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Cindric, the organization has one win (Logano, Atlanta), three top fives and nine top 10s. There has been speed, but not quite the results to show for it. Logano’s average finish is 13.6, Blaney’s 14.7 and Cindric’s 18.1.
Nelson also spoke on Team Penske’s seasn so far saying,“Iti’s been a little bit up and down, I think. You know, I’m encouraged by our performance. We were really close to winning the Daytona 500. We won the race at Atlanta. You know, we’ve had some execution issues that probably have prevented us from showing what we have at times. That’s our biggest challenge right now is trying to minimize mistakes, whether it be on pit road or on the race track. The cars are a little different this year with some of the changes, so we’re adapting to that as well. And this past weekend in Richmond, no practice, right? So yeah, I think we’re OK, we’re on track. We just haven’t achieved exactly what we wanted to so far. I feel good about where we’re going.”
Feature photo credit: Austin Cindric (51980951400).jpg