Up to Speed: Do Not Overlook Austin Cindric in the Playoffs

As the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs begin, Austin Cindric is set to compete in the postseason for the third time in four years. Cindric, who turns 27 on Tuesday, Sept. 2, has done a respectable job finding ways to win during the regular season. His latest triumph was at Talladega Superspeedway, beating teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano to score the first victory of the Cup Series season for Team Penske. The win was the third of Cindric’s Cup Series career, and he continues to build a case as one of NASCAR’s best at drafting tracks.

However, Cindric and the No. 2 team have not cracked the code for being a weekly contender at NASCAR’s highest level. He ended the regular season 15th in overall points, 264 behind Blaney in second and 95 behind Logano in 12th. It is due to this inconsistent performance that Cindric has become a popular pick to be eliminated in the Round of 16.

But before you write off the No. 2 team as a playoff pretender, it is worth remembering that Cindric has been in this position twice before, and both times, he avoided a first-round playoff elimination.

In 2022, Cindric won the Daytona 500 as a rookie and put himself into the postseason conversation as soon as possible. Like most rookies, his performance throughout the regular season was uneven, and he began the playoffs with six playoff points, three below the cut line. A newcomer near the bottom of the postseason grid looked like a shoo-in for elimination, but Cindric survived to race into the Round of 12. His results of 16th, 12th, and 20th were not anything spectacular, but he outlasted heavyweights like Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to stay in the game. Cindric even had a chance to advance to the Round of 8, but a spin at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL with two laps to go sealed his fate. Still, not bad for a rookie who everyone expected to drop out of contention quickly.

Last year, Cindric struggled in the early portion of the season, earning just one top 10 through the first 14 races. Then the Cup Series visited World Wide Technology Raceway and Cindric scored a shocking victory. He caught a couple of lucky breaks when Christopher Bell experienced engine issues in the closing laps and Blaney ran out of fuel in sight of the white flag, but Cindric had been a contender all afternoon and was in a perfect position to pounce when the opportunity arose. Unfortunately for the No. 2 team, the victory did not spark any improvement in their week-to-week performance, and Cindric earned just one more top 10 before the regular season concluded. With only seven playoff points, two above the cutoff, it appeared that Cindric’s playoffs would soon be over.

Yet once again, the No. 2 team proved surprisingly resilient. Cindric earned two 10th-place results and a 13th-place finish in the Round of 16 races, including 25 stage points in the first two races. That allowed Cindric to go to Bristol Motor Speedway with a 43-point advantage on the cut line, and the No. 2 team cruised into the Round of 12. Things fell apart quickly after that with crashes in the next two races, and not even a top five at the ROVAL could get Cindric out of the points hole. Nevertheless, Cindric showed that he had some of his teammates’ ability to elevate his game in the postseason.

So, what does Cindric have in store for the 2025 playoffs? His year got off to another difficult start, made even worse by a 50-point penalty for spinning Ty Dillon at Circuit of the Americas. Besides the Talladega win, Cindric’s only other top five so far is a fifth at Richmond Raceway. While he has led more laps in 2025 than he did all of last season, he has largely struggled to earn good finishes in the races where he has been fast. Cindric also had to deal with the awkward situation of his father’s dismissal from his leadership position at Team Penske in the wake of a cheating scandal that enveloped the team’s IndyCar team. Those struggles do not inspire much confidence in Cindric’s playoff hopes.

Yet a funny thing happened at Darlington Raceway in the Southern 500 on Sunday night. Cindric emerged as the top finishing Penske driver. His 12th-place result was not flashy, but he earned a few stage points and stayed out of trouble on a night where pit road gaffes impacted several title contenders. As for his teammates, Blaney spun out in a restart scramble on lap 210 and never fully recovered, battling to 18th in the closing laps. Logano avoided any major issues, but he struggled to a 20th-place finish as his crew chased the handling of the No. 22 all night. Penske affiliate Josh Berry in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford fared worst of all, spinning out on lap 1 and limping to a 38th-place finish.

For now, Cindric is ninth in points with a 12-point advantage on the cutoff. It is not a comfortable position, but his situation could easily improve this weekend with the Cup Series heading back to WWTR. Aside from last year’s win, Cindric’s other finishes at Gateway are 11th and 13th, types of results that have been good enough to keep him in the game through the first round of the playoffs. Bristol will be a bigger challenge; Cindric does not have a top 10 or even a lap led through five starts at Thunder Valley. Maximizing their performance at Gateway is going to be crucial for the No. 2 team, but that is not an unfamiliar position for Cindric or Penske, which has won two of the three Cup Series races held there.

If Cindric can get a top 10 at WWTR, he will have a good shot at advancing to the Round of 12. That may seem hard to believe considering that Cindric has had a weaker regular season than most of his playoff rivals. Yet in very similar situations in 2022 and 2024, Cindric punched above his weight in the postseason and is poised to do so again. Do not be surprised if he is among the 12 remaining playoff contenders when the dust settles at Bristol.