The 2020 Xfinity champion, aged 23, came within a whisker of successfully defending his crown in the second-tier series last year and made the dream start to life as a Cup Series full-timer last weekend by beating Bubba Wallace to the flag in the biggest race of the season.
PLUS: How Penske’s rookie sensation opened NASCAR’s new era in style
From this, it may be deduced that a NASCAR career was long destined for the son of Team Penske president Tim Cindric. But that was hardly the case.
Sure, Cindric had plenty of racing lineage in his family. His maternal grandfather was the late sports car and CART team owner Jim Trueman, who won the 1986 Indianapolis 500 with driver Bobby Rahal. His father, Tim, joined Team Penske following the 1999 season and Austin spent numerous months of May while growing up at the Brickyard watching Roger Penske’s cars racking up Indy 500 wins.
Yet when Cindric began his own driving career, it was open-wheel racing and sportscars to which he initially…
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