Cindric Looks To Carry Momentum Of Darlington Finish Into Martinsville

Through the opening five races of the NASCAR Cup Series season, Austin Cindric and his No. 2 Team Penske group had shown plenty of speed on track. Unfortunately, they hadn't had any results to reflect that fact. At Darlington Raceway, this past weekend, Cindric finally got a good finish in the form of a fifth-place result in the Goodyear 400.

In a Ford Racing media teleconference on Wednesday, Cindric says he feels relieved that his team was finally able to get a finish they deserved, and he hopes they can continue to build upon the top-five run at Darlington.

“Yeah, it was definitely an important day from a points perspective, no doubt, for the team just having a small reward for the job that everyone has done so far to start the year with a lot of fast cars," Cindric explained, "but racing works in a lot of different ways and a lot of things are possible good or bad, so it’s nice to get the monkey off our back a little bit and be able to get a solid race finish under our belts. We’re looking forward to the weekend and trying to continue to build on that and continue building on the speed we’ve had.”

Prior to the excellent finish at Darlington, Cindric had just one top-20 finish through the opening five races, a 19th-place run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In a new championship format, which rewards the top-16 point collectors through the opening 26 races of the season, getting off to a slow start really starts to ratchet up the pressure to perform.

Cindric says while it was tough to hang in there, mentally, that he and his No. 2 team remained patient.

“I think that’s the key," Cindric said. "It is just one race so far, but I think it’s not a surprise to our group, and I think circling back a few weeks, I think you have to look at yourself first and whether if that’s me as a driver, us as a team and I think it would be hard to identify things, especially in the first four weeks of the year that we would regret or feel like we put ourselves in those positions. I think having the patience as a group, we have enough experience, but also enough experience together and enough processes together that you kind of just get lost in the work."

While he was mired 30th in the point standings after the fifth race of the year, Cindric admits that only having prior experience in the previous NASCAR Playoff format allowed him to not overly stress about his ranking in the standings.

"I mean, ignorance is bliss. I’ve never really been in a position like [to] care a ton about points until the playoffs, so I don’t really look at points anyway," Cindric stated, "but you re-watch all these races from early last year and guys that were low in points and ended up being high in points. It’s a long season, and things can go right or wrong. The cream usually does rise to the top, so if I do truly believe that our team has the speed to run well week to week as we’ve had, and as I feel like we should, then there’s no reason to worry."

Cindric vaulted forward nine slots in the NASCAR Cup Series standings to 21st after Darlington, and now sits 30 points behind teammate Joey Logano for the final Chase berth. While Team Penske has a graph tracking the expected points that each of its drivers needs to earn each race to make the Playoffs, Cindric isn't worrying about points. He's focused on results, and results only.

“I can’t say I’ve put a ton of focus into it because that’s an end result," Cindric explained. "My job is to affect the result in the most positive way that I can, so I hope to win every race. There’s a guy in the field that’s trying to do that, but I don’t really know how else to do it. We track those things, and we’ve got a graph. The thing is, it’s a moving target, so as far as what’s going to create a playoff or chase berth or whatever else."

Cindric will now attempt to carry the momentum at Martinsville Speedway, a track that Team Penske has found success in recent years. While Cindric hasn't scored a win at the facility, his teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano have. And Cindric has shown solid results at the 0.526-mile facility, which suggest he could be ready for a career-best day at the track known as the Paper Clip.

In fall 2024, Cindric recorded a fourth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway, and he also has finishes of ninth (fall 2023), 11th (spring 2022), and 15th (fall 2025) on his ledger there. If you remove a 37th-place finish due to an electrical issue that ended his day early in the spring 2025 event at Martinsville, Cindric has recorded an average finish of 12.75 over his other four most recent starts at this track.

Add in the fact that this weekend's race will utilize the same high-horsepower, low downforce package that was used in Darlington, and you can conclude there's a decent chance that Cindric keeps clawing his way forward through the rankings this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

The Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, March 29, and will be televised on FS1 with coverage of the event set to begin at 3:30 PM ET.