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son of Team Penske president Tim Cindric and the grandson of former IndyCar team owner and Red Roof Inn founder Jim Trueman. Cindric graduated from Cannon School on May 18, 2017, hours before he competed in the Truck Series race at the nearby Charlotte Motor Speedway. Cindric started his career in semi-professional legends car and Bandolero racing in North Carolina. After attending the Skip Barber Racing School to gain road racing experience, in 2013 and 2014 he raced in the U.S. F2000 National Championship. In 2014, Cindric began competing in the Global RallyCross Championship Lites, winning the bronze medal in his debut at X Games Austin 2014. In 2015 he made his ARCA Racing Series debut at the #ThisIsMySpeedway 150 at Iowa Speedway, driving the #99 for Cunningham Motorsports; Cindric started and finished fourth in the race. He made his NASCAR debut in the Camping World Truck

Series, driving the #29 Ford F-150 for Brad Keselowski Racing at Martinsville as a substitute for Austin Theriault who was still recovering from his injury at Las Vegas. He ran well and finished on the lead lap. He ran another Truck series race that season and posted a 14th place finish at Phoenix. In 2016 he recorded his first ARCA win at Kentucky Speedway driving the #99 Pirtek Ford. That October, Cindric made his restrictor track debut at Talladega, finishing 20th. In November, BKR announced Cindric would compete full-time in the Truck Series in 2017. His 2017 season started off on a sour note as he was caught up in a crash at Daytona and finished 27th. He posted his first Top 10 at Kansas, followed shortly by his

first Top 5 at Dover. In the middle of the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Cindric grabbed the pole for the season's lone road course race, at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Although he led the most laps that day, differing strategies saw Cindric behind Kaz Grala on the last lap. Cindric, on newer tires, made contact with Grala, causing the #33 to spin. Cindric went on to win and claim a playoff berth in team Brad Keselowski Racing's final season. At Homestead Cindric had a chance to claim the Championship; but finished third in the points. His team

mate Chase Briscoe went on to win the race. At the end of 2017 Brad Keselowski Racing closed it's doors. Keselowski drives for Roger Penske in the Cup series; and Peske has agreed to provide a car for Cindric and Briscoe to share in the Xfinity Series in 2018. Cindric ended up driving full time in the Xfinity Series in 2018 for Jack Roush. Cindric posted seven Top 5 finishes and had 13 Top 10 results. He advanced to the Chase via points and come on strong the last part of the season. In the last nine races of the season, he only had one finish worse than 13th and had six Top 10's during that stretch. Unfortunately, he had a 39th place finish in the third round; and the points he lost was too much to overcome and failed to advance to the final race of the Chase. He ended up eighth in the points. For 2019 Roush shuttered his Xfinity race teams,

but as luck would have it Cindric was picked up by Penske Racing to wheel the #22 Ford in the Xfinity Series. Cindric had consistent runs for Penske as the season kicked off. He crashed out at Las Vegas and finished 22nd; but other than that, he finished inside the top eleven the first 16 races. Cindric is a great road course driver and everyone expected him to be a force to be dealt with when the Xfinity series hit the road course tracks. Sure enough, when they went to Watkins Glen he broke through for his first career win. This made him eligible for the Chase. He followed that up with another win the next race at Mid-Ohio; and then finished second at Elkhart Lake. In the Chase he had great finishes with a second place at Richmond and thirds at the Roval at Charlotte and Dover. He failed to advance to the Championship race at Miami when he finished 25th at Kansas and the points lost was

too much to overcome. He ended the season sixth in points. Cendric returned to the Penske Ford for 2020 and again competed in the Xfinity Series. Cindric had a good season in 2020. It started on a sour note as he crashed out of the opening race at Daytona; but bounced back with a second and third at the next two races. Eight of the first eleven races he finished inside the top ten; with six of those within the top five. Then he kicked it up a notch. He won three races in a row; and five of six. He went through a nine race span will all his finishes in the top five. He ended up winning the regular season championship and pointed his way through each round of the Chase; making it to the Championship race. There, he and Justin Allgaier

battled all race long for the lead. In the end, a late race pit stop saw Cindric get new tires and manage to win the race and the Championship. For the season he had six wins; 19 top five and 26 top ten finishes. He returned to the Xfinity series in 2021; and it had already been announced he will move to Cup in 2022 to drive the #21 Wood Brothers car. Cindric kicked off the season by winning the Xfinity race at Daytona. After three more Top 5 finishes; he won again at Phoenix. He added wins at Dover, Pocono, and the Indy Grand Prix. But AJ Allmendinger came on strong toward the end of the regular season to be the regular season champ. In the playoffs Cindric had no finish worse than eighth. He was second at the Roval, and again at Kansas and Martinsville. In the Championship race at Phoenix; he had a stout car and battled with Daniel Hemric for the win. It all came down to a late race yellow. Cindric

led on the white flag lap with Hemric on his heels. Hemric was still searching for the first career win and entering the final turn Hemric got into the back of Cindric to create a lane do he could attempt to pass. The two banged doors coming out of turn four and Hemric just barely beat Cindric to the line to win the race and the Championship. Cindric also made his first Cup start in 2021. Plans had already been set up for him to drive the #21 Wood Brothers car in 2022. So, he made seven starts in the Cup Series to get his feet wet. His first start came at the season opening Daytona 500 where he found himself leading on lap 72. He continued to battle with the leaders all the way to the final lap. Then a big pileup coming off the final corner collected

him and he settled for a 15th place finish. Being a road course ace he put on a show when NASCAR visited the road courses. At COTA he started third and led the first four laps; and eventually ended up in 25th on the lead lap when the race was called on account of rain. At Elkhart Lake he ran in the front and was leading when a rear end gear failed and knocked him out of the race. At the Indy Grand Prix; he had his best finish of the season when he came home ninth. About mid-season it was announced that Brad Keselowski would be leaving to go be part owner and drive for Jack Roush. This opened up the seat for Cindric to wheel the iconic #2 car in 2022. Cindric kicked off his first season as a full time Cup driver in grand fashion. In February, Cindric won the 2022 Daytona 500

driving for Team Penske. It was only his eighth Cup Series start. Cindric became the ninth driver to win his first Cup Series race in the Daytona 500. At the age of 23, Cindric also became the second-youngest driver in NASCAR history to win the Daytona 500. When they returned to Daytona in August he finished third. Cindric posted a solid season as he only had one race where he finished worse than 24th and didn't have a racing incident. He was strong on the road courses, as he finished second at Indianapolis, fifth at Sonoma and eighth at COTA. He kept his car clean and was only eliminated from four races because of crashes. His win at Daytona put him into the Chase, but was eliminated in the Round of 12 after finishing 21st at the Charlotte Roval. He finished the season 12th in the points standings and won the NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors. For the season he had one win; five top five and nine top

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

AUSTIN LOUIS CINDRIC - 09/02/1998