NASCAR Cup Series star has simple response to | Sports News

When your dad spends three many years as a high-ranking government in motorsports, and also you then finish up working your means into NASCAR’s premier sequence, claims of nepotism are certain to comply with you round.

This has long been the case for Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, who, after profitable the 2020 Xfinity Series and ending second a yr later, went full-time within the Cup Series with Roger Penske’s storied staff.

Austin’s father, Tim, labored with what’s now Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, an IndyCar staple, earlier than taking on as Penske’s Team President in 2006.

Of course, this prompted some to counsel that Austin’s transfer to Penske in 2017, initially on a part-time foundation, was influenced by Tim — one thing the now three-time Cup Series race-winner vehemently denied in a not too long ago resurfaced interview with Frontstretch in 2019.

“I think it’s a double-edged sword. This is such a family sport. You’ve got the Elliotts, Blaneys, Earnhardts, all the Pettys, these are all people—even someone with a pretty similar situation to myself is Cole Custer. It’s a family sport, that’s where the passion is grown,” he admitted.

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“I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in the same house who finds the best drivers in the world to drive the best cars in the world. I’ve been able to learn from those drivers, from those experiences and from being around that my entire life, what I need to do to put myself in the best position, whether that be a Team Penske car or a Sports Car somewhere. That doesn’t come easily. The door isn’t opened for you.”

In reality, Austin, who not too long ago made his Supercars Championship debut in Australia, insisted that Tim made a aware effort not to get overly concerned in his son’s profession, doing his utmost “to stay as far away from my program as possible.”

“From the aspect that I’m his kid, but I’m here to do a job and be representative of all our sponsors,” Austin added. “I don’t take that lightly, I don’t think he does either. I can’t say that from a competition side we’ve interacted that much.

“I’ve got a great support system with guys like Travis Giesler and Mike Nelson on the NASCAR side. He’ll give me his two cents if I’ve done something wrong or whatever, but that relationship has been a fun dynamic.”

Any strategies that Austin’s presence at Penske as of 2025 stay as a result of of Tim are no longer legitimate, provided that the elder Cindric was let go by the company in May, along with IndyCar basic supervisor Kyle Moyer and IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski. This got here after two of their IndyCar entries, these of Josef Newgarden and Will Power, “were found in violation of IndyCar rules” on the Indianapolis 500, as per the sequence.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske mentioned in a assertion. “We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”

Now a free agent, Tim advised Racer in November that he has used his firing as an alternative to “catch up on life.”

“I’ve had some interesting inquiries within and outside of motorsport, but I haven’t committed anything yet to speak of. It’s just the way it is,” he mentioned. “There’s certainly more to life than motorsport. I’m finding out that’s all I’ve done all my life. But I’m open minded to interesting inquiries within and outside of motorsport.”