On Sunday, Austin Cindric will drive a No. 2 Freightliner Ford inspired by the iconic black-and-gold paint scheme that NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace used to sweep the 1993 races at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Team Penske announced Monday.
The throwback in honor of Team Penske’s 60th anniversary comes just in time for North Wilkesboro’s return to the NASCAR Cup Series calendar, hosting a points-paying race for the first time since 1996 on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champion and grand marshal of Sunday’s Window World 450, dominated the short tracks in 1993. Driving Team Penske’s No. 2 car some 33 years later, Cindric pays tribute to the man who built the foundation of Team Penske’s modern-day NASCAR program with a mosaic of photos across the scheme, accentuated by the names of Team Penske employees on the rear decklid.
“I think when you think of the No. 2 car, you think of Rusty Wallace. That’s the first thing you think of,” Cindric told NASCAR.com. “And obviously it’s the car, the team, the driver that really built Team Penske’s NASCAR program into what it is today, or at least a great foundation for it. So to be able to go through our 60th anniversary of Team Penske and to not have anything about Rusty Wallace, I think, would be a miss. …
“Actually talked to him (Wednesday). He’s all excited about how much he loved that car. Like, ‘Oh man, that’s a badass car!’ Like, all right, good, we’re gonna run it again. So it was cool to talk to him about that, and I think it’s gonna be great to have it out there, and most importantly, do my part in representing those colors well.”
In addition to the familiar colors will be the names of every current Team Penske employee. But four particular names will stand out: Mike Wingate, Jeffrey Thousand, Gary Brooks and Dave Munari. Each of those four worked on Wallace’s 1993 ride at Team Penske. More than three decades later, they’re still making a difference inside the shop walls in Mooresville, North Carolina.
“When you walk in the employee entrance at Team Penske, there’s a big board that has the 10-year and 20-year-plus employees on the board, and there’s a lot of names on that board,” Cindric said. “And I don’t think there’s too many race teams that have the success and the history that Team Penske has, but there’s not too many race teams that have that kind of tenure, that kind of workforce that can really provide championship-level experience. But also through the years and through the changes and how everything’s gone, I mean, those guys that you mentioned, I know most all of them. I see them every day. Those guys are still playing a very active role in the race shop, building our race cars. So as much as they are part of the furniture here, they are definitely still part of the workforce to make things happen and make these Ford Mustangs go fast.”
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The quartet of employees remembers their 1993 campaign with Wallace fondly, and for good reason. Wallace earned a career-high 10 wins that year, sweeping races at both North Wilkesboro and Rockingham Speedway en route to a runner-up finish in the points standings.
Munari, then a fabricator and windshield cleaner on the No. 2 car, remembers the April race at North Wilkesboro particularly well for a radio conversation between Wallace and crew chief Buddy Parrott.
“Wilkesboro was the worst for traffic, but Rusty could really get through traffic,” Munari said in a teleconference. “I’ll tell you a little funny story about the Wilkesboro race, the spring race. Buddy Parrott was the crew chief, and we’d run 30 laps. We’re leading the race. Buddy said, ‘Rusty, come in here and pit for four tires.’ He said, ‘Buddy, are you crazy? We’ve only run 30 laps!’ He said, ‘I said get in here.’ We come in, change four tires. Rusty went out and just about lapped the second-place car. That’s how much tires meant. So we run about 20 laps, and Rusty goes, ‘Hey, Buddy, is it time to put tires on yet?’ “
Together, Munari, Wingate, Thousand and Brooks represent a key quality of Team Penske’s long-tenured success: long-tenured employees. Each has remained with the company for more than half of Team Penske’s entire existence. For a company celebrating 60 years on the track, that says plenty.
“We have an owner that loves racing,” Thousand said. “And with that being said, he’s going to give us all the resources that we need to perform. Not to say (you don’t have your) typical ups and downs with racing, but we knew from the get-go with Roger supporting Team Penske that what we needed, we were going to get.”
Brooks had previously worked for Ranier Racing in 1980 and 1981, J.D. Stacy’s team in 1982 and ’83 and Precision Products Racing from 1984 through 1990 before joining Penske in 1991.
“When I first came to work here, just getting a chance to go to work for Roger Penske meant a whole lot to me. I always wanted to do that,” Brooks said. “I worked for other teams, and whenever they (Penske) would show up, you’d sit there and see them unload the stuff they had and the equipment they had, and whatever. It was like, man, look at that. These guys have got it going on over there. So that’s what enticed me to actually just want to be here and take the job, and then it’s just caliber of the people. Everybody tries to do their best at whatever you’re doing, and that always makes you still try to do the best that you can do at whatever it is you’re doing. And it doesn’t matter what job it is. It takes everybody to make the whole thing click. And just being part of that, being a part of the camaraderie of all the guys, they work hard to do whatever, it’s just part of it, and I enjoy being here.”
Cindric is still seeking his first win of 2026 but knows the short tracks and superspeedways are where Team Penske has generally excelled. He’s not relying on past success heading into Sunday night’s feature race, but he will be using those notes to prepare for an important showing as driver of Team Penske’s flagship car — a No. 2 entry that represents the brunt of Team Penske’s success, including a combined 82 wins between Wallace (37), Brad Keselowski (34), Kurt Busch (eight) and Cindric (three) to pair with Keselowski’s 2012 Cup Series championship.
“For me, the biggest win is getting the employees involved and it being a home race in a lot of sense,” Cindric said. “I mean, you think of Charlotte being a home race, but this is still very much a home race to have this all in-house and be able to thank the people that really make Team Penske what it is.”