TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Cindric walked into Talladega Superspeedway’s media center for post-race interviews still savoring the spoils of his just-earned win, and it was more than conspicuous. If the racing fire suit wasn’t enough of a giveaway, the giant horseshoe-shaped wreath of flowers that was placed around his neck in Victory Lane made it obvious.
The tradition of floral festivities began with Talladega’s earliest winners. It lasted all of three races, but archivist-minded promoters brought it back for the track’s 50th anniversary in 2019. Each triumphant driver since has worn the wreath, fashioned out of 33 yards of ribbon and more than 300 carnations. Cindric became the latest keeper of that celebration custom Sunday evening. Where he broke with tradition was how long he planned to wear it.
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“Your concept of ‘a little bit of time’ is different than mine,” Cindric said, once told that the wreath rarely leaves Victory Lane with the driver after the team photos. “I’m going to try to walk on the plane with this thing.”
Cindric had plenty of reason to relish the moment a little longer after winning Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 — cashing in on a successful late-race strategy, providing his engine supplier with a milestone win and making up for a pair of near-misses at drafting-style tracks earlier this season. His third Cup Series victory may also help to dull the perception that perhaps he’s a third wheel on a Team Penske roster stacked with NASCAR champions.
While it’s true that three-time champ Joey Logano and 2023 title-holder Ryan Blaney are among his teammates, after Sunday, it’s also true that for the third time in the last four years, he’s the first Team Penske driver to clinch an all-important berth in the Cup Series Playoffs.
“I mean, I think certainly anytime you can have an example set and try at a bare minimum to not just meet that example. I want to be better. I want to be the best, right?” Cindric said. “Just being as good in my mind, as farfetched as it might be as a two-, three-year Cup driver to say I want to be better than the champion. That’s how you have to think. I commit way too much of my time. I ask a lot out of the people I work with. I try to reciprocate with that. The ‘as good’ is not good enough in my mind.
“Is it a motivator? Perhaps. I look at it as an example, as a competitive advantage for us to be able to have that type of example in-house.”
Any other needed motivation could have stemmed from the opportunities that fizzled in the season’s other drafting-type races. Cindric was the leader at the drop of the white flag in the Daytona 500, where he led a race-best 59 of the 201 laps before a final-lap crash eliminated him. A week later, he was squeezed into the outside wall in a late-race contest for the lead with Kyle Larson at Atlanta Motor Speedway, leaving him 28th.
Sunday at Talladega, Cindric gained the upper hand on a run-long strategy and his final fuel-only pit stop — a well-executed 3.2-second heater, fastest of the field — that put him at the front of the field. Once there, he kept his momentum and had a countermove for each of the last-gasp challenges, ending his superspeedway dismay and making sure that the hard work he’s invested in trying to be the best would finally pay off.
“I’ve known Austin for a really long time, since he was a kid. Watched him grow and develop over time, the amount of work he’s put in, in multiple series,” said Michael Nelson, president of Team Penske’s NASCAR operations. “Once getting into the Cup Series, the amount of effort that he’s put in and everything that he’s gone through. I know he was really frustrated to not have won a couple of these races so far. Yeah, it’s really rewarding to see people go through, put the work in and achieve something that they set out to do.”
That logic applies for Brian Wilson, the No. 2 team’s crew chief and another colleague with a long-running relationship with his 26-year-old driver.
“I think the first time I crew-chiefed him was about 10 years ago. I’ve seen him grow quite a bit,” Wilson said. “I think he’s the type of guy that he takes all information in, he really retains it, he wants to study it. I think the type of driver he is really fits the way that Team Penske operates. We’re data-driven, really. We love to provide things for him to be able to study. I think he’s really done a great job applying it.”
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The Talladega triumph ended up being a major source of pride for Team Penske, which had reached the quarter-mark of the season without visiting Victory Lane. The organization had an extra week to stew on it, carrying that 0-for-9 mark into an off weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series. Maybe that’s why the winner’s circle seemed especially crowded and jubilant, all at once.
But it was also a milestone for Roush Yates Engines, Ford’s power supplier, which achieved its 200th points-paying Cup Series win at one of its historical strongholds. Doug Yates, the group’s current president and CEO, shared a beaming smile in the middle of that raucous Victory Lane bash with a host of well-wishers in the late-afternoon sun. One called out: “Hey Doug, I owe you a beer!” Yates gave an approving nod.
Doug’s father, Hall of Famer and engine-building maestro Robert Yates, had always held Talladega in high regard. Even in the restrictor-plate and speed-limiting era, the 2.66-mile track has always been a venue where his powerplants could seemingly make a difference. He celebrated Davey Allison’s first Cup Series victory here in 1987, his first win as a car owner in 1989 (with Allison again) and his final victory as a team owner with Dale Jarrett in 2005 — all at Talladega.
“It’s really special,” Doug Yates said. “You know, I was kind of getting little chills and choked up when you said that. I mean, my dad loved this place.”
Cindric now has his own passion for the series’ largest oval. He wore that pride draped on his shoulders for longer stretches than most Sunday, noting that the flowers smelled especially sweet.
That red-white-and-blue wreath was a must-have accessory for Cindric, who set his season on the right course on one of the sport’s biggest stages. Just don’t call the U-shaped flower arrangement a lucky horseshoe.
“I don’t believe in luck. I believe in the law of averages. My faith continues to be restored,” Cindric said. “Sometimes I have to have more patience in the law of averages. You keep swinging the bat the right way, eventually you’re going to hit a homer.”
