Austin Cindric confirmed he has signed a contract extension with Team Penske, as first reported by Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press.
Cindric will return to the NASCAR Cup Series in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford for the 2024 season. According to Cindric, his status with the team has been in place since the beginning of the season.
“I’m focused on next year big time,” Cindric said during his media availability at Charlotte. “With the changes that we made after the regular season and all that, yeah, pretty focused on hitting the ground running, using these next couple of weeks to really take advantage of that opportunity. Driving for Roger, driving the 2 car, that’s a big deal. That’s a big opportunity. I don’t see myself getting too many other opportunities like that in my racing career.”
The 2022 Daytona 500 champion is currently finishing up his sophomore season with Penske. Cindric has collected just four top-10 finishes on the season, though his best finish of the year came just last week at Talladega where he crossed the line in fifth.
The No. 2 car currently sits at 23rd in the standings.
After winning the Daytona 500 last year, Cindric nearly made the Round of 8 in the Cup Series playoffs, but eventually missed the cut at the Charlotte ROVAL.
Cindric, 25, has 13 Xfinity wins to his name and is the 2020 Xfinity Series Champion.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!