The term “sophomore slump” used to get tossed around quite a bit in NASCAR Cup Series circles.
Drivers like Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin dazzled in their rookie campaigns only to log a less-than-stellar second season, so Austin Cindric might be in the process of joining elite company after 2023 didn’t go his way.
His lone top-5 came at Talladega while his four additional top-10s served as a painful reminder that the young driver still had much to learn at the Cup Series level to attain championship-level success like his teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.
Cindric’s third season in the No. 2 didn’t get off on the right foot as he missed the show for the season-opening Busch Clash exhibition race in Los Angeles, but a fourth-place qualifying spot for the Daytona 500 was backed up by a runner-up placement.
Rolling off the grid sixth for the 66th running of the Great American Race, Cindric linked up with his Penske teammates to take their new Ford Mustangs Dark Horse to the front of the field in the second stage where the No. 2 collected great stage points.
When the Big One kicked off in front of him, the 25-year-old racer came out the other side of the crash unscathed and in great position to become a two-time Daytona 500 champion.
Cindric put himself in second coming to the white flag with William Byron ahead of him and Corey Lajoie behind him. As the field dove into the trioval, Lajoie’s continued swipes at Cindric’s bumper unsettled the Discount Tire Ford at the same time as Ross Chastain made an ambitious move to the middle of Byron and Cindric as the world’s smallest gap emerged.
The result was both Cindric and Chastain spinning into the infield with wrecked race cars while Byron cruised to victory under caution.
Austin quickly collected himself for the next week in Atlanta where he notched a stage 2 victory en route to a fifth-place result. Just as quickly, Cindric fell down the points standings in the following three races where a lap 6 crash at Phoenix was bracketed by poor showings at Las Vegas and Bristol.
As much as Cindric and Penske would’ve liked to have put the bad runs behind them, the No. 2 team failed to get back into the top-10 until June. A stage win at Talladega couldn’t save him from the Big One that popped off on the final lap.
On the morning of Memorial Day, Austin Cindric sat 20th in points with the next race coming at Gateway where he logged back-to-back top-15s in the track’s first two events.
The Freightliner Ford lined up on the outside of the front row for the Enjoy Illinois 300. The third-year driver rode in the top-5 for much of the event, collecting major points in both stages.
With 20 laps remaining, Austin rode in third as Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell dueled for the victory ahead of him, but suddenly, Bell’s Toyota started to slow. An engine problem for the second-place car allowed Cindric to breeze by Bell to assume the silver-medal spot.
Unfortunately for Cindric, Ryan Blaney was several seconds ahead and scooting away to certain victory. It would take an abject miracle for him to catch his Penske teammate.
To Blaney’s dismay, that miracle would present itself coming to the white flag.
Like Bell before him, Blaney’s car struggled to get out of turn 4 under power, giving Cindric an opportunity to pass his ailing teammate right before the finish line. One final lap around the 1.25-mile facility remained where the Columbus, Ohio native came around turn 4 to claim his second career Cup Series victory.
In addition to snapping his 85-race winless streak that dated back to the 2022 Daytona 500, Austin punched his ticket to the postseason for just the second time in his career, meaning he would beat 2023’s awful 24th-place points finish.
Playing with house money for the rest of the regular season, the No. 2 team found little in the way of success, finishing the next six races in 15th or worse and collecting no stage points.
A seventh-place effort at Indianapolis would be his third and final top-10 finish before entering the postseason after poor results at the final four races of the regular season.
Entering the postseason below the cutoff line, Cindric logged identical results in the first two races of the Round of 16 in Atlanta and Watkins Glen: qualified 5th, finished 10th. Atlanta also saw the Penske pilot notch his third stage victory of the season enhancing his Playoff Point count.
He tacked on a respectable 13th-place performance in the Bristol night that pushed him into the Round of 12 where contact with Kyle Busch towards the end of stage 2 relegated the No. 2 team to 34th.
Cindric’s fourth stage victory of 2024 looked to be a step in the right direction in terms of making the next round, but a bad push from “Bad” Brad Keselowski led to the biggest crash in NASCAR’s modern era. In all, 28 cars were involved with Cindric’s Discount Tire machine ending a once-promising day in 32nd.
A strong, admirable showing at the Roval the following week did not change his fate as he would miss out on the Round of 8. Uninspiring results at Vegas and Homestead gave way to a shocking fourth-place effort at Martinsville in the penultimate race.
While teammates Logano and Blaney contended for a title at Phoenix, Cindric eased into a 13th-place finish that put a bookend on a season where he ended the year 11th in the final standings, a career best.
What Went Wrong
Cindric was far from a title contender in the regular season, only accumulating three top-10s in the entire regular season.
The two of the three first-round Playoff tracks played into Austin’s skillset on superspeedways and road courses while his two teammates are traditionally strong at Bristol, giving Cindric a leg up into the world’s fastest half-mile.
His tangle with Kyle Busch on a stage 2 restart in Kansas as well as getting wrecked out of the lead in Talladega put him in a must-win scenario entering the Roval, which he was unable to overcome.
Something to keep an eye on going into 2025 is the fact that Cindric performed spectacularly at Martinsville, the track that caps off the Round of 8. Granted, he would need to be better than both Blaney and Logano at the Paperclip, but the great run showed that Cindric is most certainly on the upswing in his career.
Looking Ahead to 2025
Austin enters 2025 with a Ford program that was on the rise at the end of the season as teammates Logano and Blaney finished 1-2 at the Phoenix finale and in the points standings.
Cindric still has a ways to go to enter title contention, but his third full-time campaign displayed a lot of strength when the races really mattered, claiming four of his seven top-10s in the final 10 races.
At this point in his career, the 26-year-old driver’s best chances to make the postseason reside on the superspeedways of Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta, but it’s not because he isn’t capable of winning elsewhere.
Cindric has grown into one of the best and most mature superspeedway racers on the entire circuit, consistently racking up stage points and running up at the front in the closing laps.
In fact, Cindric’s run at this year’s Daytona 500 and the following race in Atlanta should give him confidence through the remainder of the regular season where additional trips to Atlanta and Daytona (as well as a single trip to Talladega) stand between the No. 2 team and the postseason.
Other places Cindric might contend include Gateway, Phoenix, and New Hampshire. There’s an exceptionally outside shot for Cindric to land his Ford in the Championship Round if he can progress through the earlier rounds and their more normal race tracks.
Races Austin Could Win: Atlanta summer, Sonoma, New Hampshire
(Top Photo Credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
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