Longtime NASCAR owner Roger Penske didn't seem overly concerned when Rochester Hills native Brad Keselowski announced he was leaving Team Penske at the end of the 2021 season to become owner/driver for Roush/Fenway/Keselowski Racing.
After all, Penske had confidence 23-year-old Austin Cindric would do just fine replacing Keselowski in the No. 2 Ford Mustang.
That's saying a lot, since Keselowski won 34 races in his 12-year career with Team Penske, earning Penske his first NASCAR Monster Cup series title 10 years ago.
Penske watched Cindric grow up. Cindric's father, Tim Cindric, has been president of Team Penske since 2006 and team strategist of Josef Newgarden in the IndyCar series.
Racing is in Austin Cindric's blood. His grandfather, the late Jim Trueman, was car owner for Bobby Rahal when he won the 1986 Indianapolis 500.
Cindric showed why Penske had confidence in him by winning the Daytona 500 on Sunday in the famed No. 2 that Rusty Wallace made famous in the '90s, winning the Super Bowl race of the series, something Keselowski wasn't able to do.
"It's a dream come true, a race that everybody wants to win, and to be able to do it in front of a sellout crowd, on Roger's (85th) birthday and my family there, and obviously my first race in the 2 car with Discount Tire, I couldn't think of a more perfect day," said Cindric, who won the Xfinity Series championship in 2020 and finished second in the series last season.
"Mr. Penske's confidence in me has really been a catalyst for my career. He surrounds me with great people and that's what it takes in this sport to really be successful, so I'm just grateful for that confidence and being able to execute in the moment, that's what it's really about. I've obviously known him my entire life and to be able to deliver for him in the faith he's put in me it's certainly gratifying."
Back to that "being able to execute in the moment, that's what it's really about," moment. The Daytona 500 had multiple wrecks in the final 10 laps, which Cindric had to maneuver each time to reach Victory Lane.
In fact, when NASCAR went to overtime to end the race with a two-lap shootout, Cindric was in the lead with Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney right behind him and Keselowski and Bubba Wallace in contention as well.
"It's your race to lose and at the same time you have to be on absolute defense understanding when the runs are going to come and how to defend them," Cindric said. "I was in a fortunate position and able to work with Ryan Blaney and being able to coordinate the restart to where we could both be in first and second and give ourselves both a shot to win the race for Roger coming off of Turn 4 on the final lap.
"The way he was able to execute that and play his role to perfection and be able to kind of put us both in position, and for me it was at that point just managing lanes, so it was best case scenario."
Cindric was running second, behind Ricky Stenhouse and ahead of Blaney, Keselowski and Wallace when the caution came out following a multi-car wreck with 10 laps remaining.
When racing resumed with six laps left, Cindric was running on the inside with Blaney pushing hard behind him, and the two pushed by Stenhouse and Keselowski, who were working on the outside, for the lead.
Keselowski pushed Stenhouse's rear bumper hard on the outside, resulting in Stenhouse losing control of his No. 47 machine and starting another multi-car pileup.
The two-lap overtime watched Cindric take the lead, then make a late block on Blaney, squeezing Blaney into the outside wall, and beating Bubba Wallace to the finish line by less than a car length.
No doubt, Blaney wanted the win just as badly as Cindric, just like Team Penske teammates Keselowski and Joey Logano were going for the Daytona 500 win last year when Logano, who was holding the lead on the final lap, blocked Keselowski sending them into a wreck and opening the door for Michael McDowell to reach Victory Lane.
"Well, I can tell you it was the same situation as Brad and Joey last year, but I think as a team, as an organization, as drivers we certainly learned from that and I'd say that was at the top of my mind heading into the weekend, to prevent that from ever happening again," Cindric said. "Being able to execute that that well and finding a way to pull it off, I think that shows what type of teammate Ryan is because what happened last year shouldn't happen. It's just a perfect way to cap things off.
"Obviously, he wants to win the race just as bad as I do, and so does everybody else who was behind me on the last lap, so you know coming off of Turn 4 we both had a shot to do it and I was able to hold off the run he had at the end."
Cindric became the first rookie to win the Daytona 500 since Trevor Bayne won it for the Wood Brothers back in 2011.
Cindric said the majority of the No. 2 team remained the same after Keselowski's departure, with him learning things on the go.
"I thought Jeremy (crew chief Bullins) did a great job giving me the information I needed. Doug Campbell, my spotter, was on it all day and it certainly showed, so just proud to do my part, but that's what it takes at the Cup series level. You can't just outdrive and outthink your competition, you have to be able to execute and without those three pieces it's not possible. It's so much fun to be able to do that, especially kind of my first try with that group, definitely shows the strengths of the team."
"The 2 crew pretty much remained unchanged other than the driver. I'm definitely the guy in that work environment. We had some testing in the Next Gen car to get familiarized, but just a lot of talking before the year to getting to know each other before putting ourselves in a race situation, not a whole lot to go off of, but Jeremy has been doing this for a long time.
"He's a pro, so for me to integrate within that team is pretty important getting that information down and obviously I'd say that first attempt was an overwhelming success, but there's still going to be challenges and things to learn with new people, still a great way to start things off."
The NASCAR Cup series will continue Sunday with the running of the Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
