How Cindric took a non-traditional path to NASCAR stardom

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. 

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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 turned. And immediately, he found success.

After attending the Skip Barber Racing School to gain road racing experience, in 2013 and 2014 he raced in the U.S. F2000 Championship – part of the Road to Indy programme. He also competed in Historic Sportscar Racing, winning a race in a Porsche 944 before he was 16 years old.

Aged 17, Cindric drove a GT3 Mercedes at the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hours, the youngest driver to ever compete in the event. He began competing full-time in sportscars that year, racing a GT4-spec Ford Mustang in the Continental Tyre Sports Car Series, and became the championship's youngest-ever winner at Mosport before stepping up to a GT3 McLaren in the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge.

When he wasn't driving sportscars, Cindric began to