It's no stretch to say that Austin Cindric has had a rough start to the 2025 season. He was wrecked out of the lead while leading on the final lap of the Daytona 500, and again while leading with three laps to go at Atlanta. COTA provided no relief as Cindric started the race in the back of the pack and frustrations quickly boiled over to an incident that gave NASCAR officials pause to review, resulting in a behavioral penalty for the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford. While he lost points and some cash, he at least avoided a suspension.
Cindric let his emotions get the better of him when Ty Dillon pushed him wide in the early running. He reacted almost immediately, and intentionally turned Dillon to the right on the frontstretch, causing him to impact the outside wall as other cars took evasive action. Historically, these kind of intentional incidents where a driver is right-hooked into the wall lead to suspensions, but Cindric was able to avoid that fate.
As the incident didn't result in a caution, nor was the damage significant due to the low rate of speed, Cindric was spared suffering a one-week vacation. However, NASCAR has chosen to dock Cindric 50 driver points and fine him $50,000. The points penalty drops him from 11th in the championship standings to 36th.
We are four laps in and payback has already happened. Things are wild in Texas today. 👀 pic.twitter.com/MxqWlpbsHU
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 2, 2025
NASCAR has recently taken a very dim view of right-hooking drivers into the wall as a form of retaliation. In 2022, Bubba Wallace was suspended for hooking Kyle Larson into the outside wall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In 2023, Chase Elliott was suspended for doing the same to Denny Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But in 2025, a suspension would be even more impactful due to new playoff waiver rules implemented ahead of the new season. Should a driver miss a race due to a suspension, they could still remain eligible for the playoffs via a waiver but will lose all of their playoff bonus points and forfeit any future playoff points they collect leading up to the playoffs.
In Wednesday's penalty report, NASCAR also suspended two crew members (jackman Brandon Johnson and tire changer Blaine Anderson) from Larson's team after the right-front wheel came off on the track. This is the standard punishment for losing a wheel on track.
