MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Most know by now that when Austin Cindric won last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, it ended a drought of 85 races for the Team Penske driver on the NASCAR senior circuit.
But it also put to rest another dubious streak for Cindric, whose first Cup Series triumph came in the 2022 Daytona 500. Cindric noted this week that 2023 was the first year since 2011 he had not won a race of any kind.
“That (2023) is the first year since 2011 that I haven’t won a race. That’s a long time,” Cindric said. “That’s a really long time whether if it’s just one or two a year or multiple or whatever it is. I commission artwork every year to send out to all of my supporters, family, friends, it’s kind of a collage of all the race cars I drove.
“I started it back in 2015 when I was racing in IMSA and rallycross and stock cars and to kind of just illustrate, literally, the different experiences I got to do throughout the year. Usually, the centerpiece of this artwork is the most prominent race win I have, and last year I called my guy, Steve, and I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t even know what to do. This is a tradition. Everybody expects this every year and I want to do this, and I want to have these to line them up throughout my career, but I don’t even know what to put in the center of this.’
“I did the Bristol Dirt Race because it was different and it was going away, so we put a dirt NASCAR Cup car because that’s as weird as last year felt for me and that’s just what we did because I ran well in the heat race. That’s all I’ve got.”
Though, he’s disappointed he hasn’t won more Cup Series races, Cindric is a realist.
“From a goal-setting standpoint, look, I didn’t expect to get into the Cup Series and go out here and win a ton of races right away against some guys that have been doing this for over a decade,” said Cindric, who is now in his third Cup Series season. “I’m definitely a realistic person, but I definitely expect myself and the level in which I prepare for these races, I would say the hardest thing over the last handful of years for me to do, and a lot of it is a weekly self-check for me because there is a different way to prepare for a race, to prepare if you’re gonna run from 10th to 25th versus 10th to first, whether if that’s studying restarts, how different drivers drive, what decisions to make in traffic. Those are the types of things that my preparation has had to be a much wider spectrum of preparation because the racing is so different throughout the Cup Series field.”
Cindric said there were some similarities between his first Cup Series victory in the Daytona 500 and last week’s triumph.
“I think both wins I wouldn’t say came as a surprise, but I definitely wasn’t the favorite going into the race by any means for either of them,” Cindric explained. “I think what makes this past weekend special is just in a lot of ways I feel like with the group of guys that I’m with and the team that I’m with it’s kind of a different experience in general.
“One of the coolest things about winning the Daytona 500 was a lot of my guys on the team, on the 2 car at that time, had been trying to win that race for decades and to be able to deliver that to those guys and to see that kind of joy.
“And then on the flip side this weekend, there were a lot of guys on my car that that was their first-ever Cup Series win, and to be able to deliver that and I know I’m referencing in relation to how other people are experiencing it, but it is what makes this special for me,” Cindric continued. “I said it after Daytona and I’ll say it again, I know what winning means for me. I know the excitement, the relief, the satisfaction that comes with that for me, Austin Cindric. But to kind of see what it means for other people that I get to see often, but never get to see that excited often is pretty special for me.”