Austin Cindric

Racing career

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 2013 he finished 17th in points driving for Andretti Autosport with a best finish of seventh in the season finale. In 2014 he switched teams to Pabst Racing Services, finishing 14th in points with a second place podium finish on the oval at Lucas Oil Raceway. He also competed in Historic SportsCar Racing, winning a race in a Porsche 944.

In 2014, Cindric began competing in the Global RallyCross Championship Lites, winning the bronze medal in his debut at X Games Austin 2014. In October, he made his IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge debut for Racers Edge Motorsports at Road Atlanta with David Levine as co-driver, finishing 17th. During the year, he was named a member of the Porsche North American Junior Academy. In 2015, Cindric competed in the Bathurst 12 Hour, the youngest driver to compete in the event, driving the No. 63 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG for Erebus Motorsport; he finished 21st overall and seventh in his class. He began competing full-time in the CTSCC in 2015, driving for Multimatic Motorsports with Jade Buford as co-driver. In July, he won the CTSCC race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, becoming the youngest winner in the series. Afterwards, he made his ARCA Racing Series debut at the #ThisIsMySpeedway 150 at Iowa Speedway, driving the No. 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 No. 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.

In 2016, he drove the No. 6 McLaren for K-PAX Racing in the Pirelli World Challenge, while also joining Martin-McClure Racing for two K&N Pro Series East events and for Brad Keselowski Racing in the No. 2 F-150 at Dover International Speedway. Later in the year, he recorded his first ARCA win at Kentucky Speedway. 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.

In the middle of an average season in 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 No. 33 to spin. Cindric went on to win and claim a playoff berth in team Brad Keselowski Racing's final season. Grala claimed that he got run over, but Cindric marginalized his maneuver by calling it a "last resort" and claiming that it was justified by the need for a playoff spot. The move drew widespread criticism from other drivers, including Justin Allgaier and Christopher Bell.

A week later, Cindric made a Global Rallycross start, in which he collided with Scott Speed coming out of a joker lap. That led to a verbal confrontation from Speed afterwords and again drew the ire of the NASCAR community on social media.

In August 2017, Cindric joined Team Penske's No. 22 car for the Xfinity Series race at Road America.

Personal life

He is 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.

American Open-Wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Racing Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points