Austin Cindric may feel bad that his father, Tim, was fired from Team Penske earlier this week due to an alleged IndyCar cheating scandal, but the younger Cindric can’t dwell on it because he has a job to do as the driver of Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford NASCAR Cup car.
Advertisement
“Obviously what happens in Indy, and I’m just as much of a fan and a spectator, but obviously when family’s involved you’ve got to understand it from both sides,” Austin Cindric told reporters in his first comments on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“From every step of the way since I started racing for the team in 2018, I feel like between myself, my pops and Roger (Penske) and most involved, we’ve done a pretty good job at separating personal life and professional life, and I see this as no different,” he added.
While the younger Cindric was professional in his comments, one has to wonder what will be the team dynamic going forward, particularly if his father attends Austin’s races — and what might happen if Austin reaches victory lane in a race his father is at.
“Racing can be a cool industry, it can be an incredibly rewarding industry and past that, it’s not something that I have weighing on me heavily for this weekend,” Austin Cindric said. “And for my pops, I love my dad and that’s kind of about all I have to say on it.”
It’s unclear how long Austin Cindric has on his current contract with Team Penske, but he’s moving forward even if his father won’t be at team headquarters on Monday morning.
“Roger’s (Penske) a class act, that’s why he has the reputation that he has and he’s worked so hard to build,” Austin Cindric said.
When Penske announced the firing of Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer, he made sure every one of his 400-plus employees heard the reason directly from himself.
“(Penske) didn’t just talk to the drivers, he talked to every employee in the building and obviously he’s had to talk to a lot of folks all week,” Austin Cindric said. “So his time is pretty precious, especially this point in the year, and this month, and this week.
“Whether you have the situation or not, he’s still a busy guy. But he recognizes how important all the people involved are and obviously there’s so many that work so hard to have the success that we have as a race team, so it doesn’t surprise me in the least,” Cindric noted.
Austin Cindric’s future remains with Team Penske
While speculation about his future with Team Penske will likely remain, Austin Cindric can’t really do anything about that other than to focus on what he’s been doing ever since he first started racing: the job at hand, to win races and championships. Cindric, who has one win this year (Talladega) and just two other top-10 finishes, is approaching Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 — the longest and most grueling race of the season — just like he’s done in every other race.
“Professionally, I’m in a no different place than I was a week ago,” Austin Cindric said. “I feel like we have a lot of momentum on our team right now on the 2 car. I’ve never felt better, I’ve never had a better start to a season so for me, I’m just more focused on execution really.
Cindric reflected that they’ve had some really fast race cars and good opportunities. He noted that his first three years in Cup were the first time he was actually in meetings with his dad, but that ended at the beginning of this year when his father scaled back to only dealing with the IndyCar part of Team Penske. Austin feels that now there is really only a personal connection to any of the news from this week.
