Did You Notice? … Austin Cindric now stands alone at Team Penske? His dad, Tim Cindric, was fired Wednesday (May 21) from his role as team president of the NTT IndyCar Series division.
Tim, once looked at as a long-term successor to Penske’s motorsports empire, is now out completely after post-qualifying inspection violations found on Will Power and Josef Newgarden’s cars at the Indy 500.
The moves have left the motorsports community in a state of shock, an earthquake with ripples that will echo well beyond the IndyCar paddock into the NASCAR garage. Austin could be one of those aftershocks.
Last fall, Austin spoke to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic about his dad and what his future might look like at Penske someday.
“I don’t think I’d want to do what my dad does, because that’s a tough job and he’s also really, really good at it,” Austin said. “Do I think I could do well in some form of a management role? Yeah, maybe.
“But do I want to go out and start my own race team? No, because there’s no better race team than Penske Racing, in my opinion. That’s definitely going to be biased by my upbringing, but I’ve seen a lot of pretty incredible stuff, and I can’t imagine trying to duplicate that — because that’s all I would really be trying to accomplish.”
You have to wonder what Austin thinks now, privately, in this moment. He’s gone from a 26-year-old son of the boss a year ago to someone who watched his organization open the door, take the strongest boot in the shop, then use it to kick his dad on the street after 25 years of championship-level performance.
It also removes the label of nepotism at the Penske shop. In talking with sources through the years, no one has ever questioned Austin’s dedication, effort and humility when it comes to the race team.
But what I’ve also heard? To have a driver racing at that level who’s also the son of the boss … is difficult. Even Austin winning the Nobel Peace Prize can’t change the psychology which comes with that dynamic. It can create some eggshell-type moments in team meetings, in particular when that driver is struggling to the level Cindric did throughout most of 2023 and ’24.
A quick review of those results: five top-five finishes, 12 top 10s and a win at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway aided by both Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell’s issues down the stretch. The overall body of work trailed badly behind teammates Joey Logano and Blaney, both of whom won a championship during those years.
Team Penske NASCAR Results: 2023-24
| Driver | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 | Pole | Laps Led | Titles |
| Ryan Blaney | 6 | 20 | 36 | 1 | 1,129 | 1 |
| Joey Logano | 5 | 18 | 30 | 5 | 722 | 1 |
| Austin Cindric | 1 | 5 | 12 | 0 | 289 | 0 |
Here’s a select list of other underfunded or hot-seat drivers who had more top 10s than Cindric during this time period: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell and Daniel Suarez. AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon also had the same number of top-10 finishes. In Allmendinger’s case, he did it even with a partial schedule in 2024.
That type of performance had called Cindric’s future with the team into question, even when his dad was heavily involved. You wonder what might have happened if Blaney didn’t wind up running out of gas last June.
The good news for Cindric is we’ve seen that performance uptick considerably in 2025. An April win at Talladega Superspeedway has been the highlight, but I’d argue he’s had the strongest car overall at all three of the sport’s drafting tracks. His laps led total (226) is fifth most in the Cup Series, ahead of Blaney and just behind Logano. A 17.3 average finish matches Logano in what’s been a tougher-than-average year for Penske overall.
But the fact remains: Cindric’s resume mostly pales in comparison to anyone else in the mythical top tier of NASCAR rides for each manufacturer (11 total: four at Hendrick Motorsports, four at Joe Gibbs Racing, three at Penske). The notable exception is Ty Gibbs, who certainly isn’t going anywhere as the potential future owner of his grandfather’s sprawling NASCAR operation.
It’s going to lead to a number of hungry drivers knocking on Penske’s door and asking if there’s an opening. You don’t see these opportunities pop up that often; we haven’t seen a change in Penske’s lineup since 2022 and Hendrick’s since Jimmie Johnson’s retirement in 2020. As I wrote last week, we’re also at a unique moment as 2025 Silly Season dawns: a number of rising prospects, like Corey Heim and Jesse Love, looking at no space available for their well deserved promotions.
There’s also a realistic question of whether Cindric wants to stay at the same organization that showed his father the door. There will be a sea of leadership shifts and transitions within Penske itself, some of which will inevitably ripple their way into the NASCAR offices. Even at the top, Roger Penske is no spring chicken; at 88 years old, it’s fair to wonder what these firings do to the longterm plan after he steps away. Remember, it’s not just NASCAR/INDYCAR but race teams Penske owns across multiple disciplines along with Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself.
I expect over the next few days, we’ll hear all the right things in public. It’s what happens when there’s an earthquake of this magnitude: so much initial shock that you can’t focus on the future, only support the cleanup process.
But as the smoke clears, additional questions will be asked. Cindric’s on-track performance best be prepared to answer them.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off …
- Christopher Bell now has more trophies this season than any other Cup driver (three wins plus the All-Star Race). He’s got top-three finishes in half the races run. But Bell remains the Jimmie Johnson of this era. His social media following on X is at less than 100,000; by comparison, Kyle Larson’s is over half a million. For a split second last November, we saw his personality come out after NASCAR officials inserted William Byron, not him, into the Championship 4. Was there more behind the curtain or was that simply a one-off? Marketers desperate for a spark here would like to find out.
- We’ll see how it goes for Larson Sunday in the Indy 500. But his second attempt at this race feels different: more pressure from NASCAR to come back to Charlotte/North Wilkesboro, a schedule busy by even Larson standards, not one but two wrecks at Indy since the test session. It just feels like, even with all the recent success, it’s a driver in need of a breather. I just have a hunch 2027 will be a little lighter for him overall.
Follow Tom Bowles at @NASCARBowles
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.