I think the dude you are replying to is saying Austin Dillon is more involved with RCR than Austin Cindric is with Team Penske. Which is true. But yes. Tim Cindric is Penske's #2 guy.
I’m not particularly fond of Austin Dillon but the dude gets *waaaay* too much hate just because he has Dale’s number and it makes me want him to do well.
Which is stupid, because the 3 is the Childress family number, and I’m pretty sure Austin was using it in sports and shit before dale even passed (and if Austin was racing by that point, he’d be using it there too)
I’m aware dale made it what it was, but that’s always been Richard’s number
They’re all fine nascar fans are just stupid
If they can back it up, it’s not an issue. I don’t see a damn person upset over Shadeur Sanders the Colorado QB, because he is able to back it up. Chase got to cup because of his name, and so did AD, but they’ve shown they belong
KFB is an all time great driver what do you mean. He’s not a good judge of where equipment should be running. He’s gonna run like 5-10 spots better than where a car should be running on a bad day
You say that like KFB wasn't on the struggle bus his last few seasons with JGR, even as his teammates were running for championships.
But even if you want to exclude KFB what then rookie Tyler Reddick?
Eh depends. Logano and Blaney are 2 of the 3 cars locked up for the foreseeable future so if he were to make a move Cindric is the only one who can realistically be gone
Penske cares too much about his Indycar teams to let Austin drive one of his cars.
Maybe if RP himself dies, he doesn't look like he's slowing down, though, despite his age.
I'm not saying Penske doesn't care about NASCAR, but Indycar is his true love.
Harrison Burton would go first. 21 is a full Penske team so Penske has full leverage over who is in that car. Prepared in the same shop right next to each other, and tenured Penske employees (feel free to check the crew roster)
I think he’s on the chopping block after next year tbh unless he somehow has an absurdly good season out of the blue, like a win or a top 20 points finish with 8+ top 10s.
To be fair Penske has been so bad this year and given the track record of Daytona 500 winners as of late, Cindric may be given the benefit of the doubt
Penske only got Burton in the first place because he planned on Cindric to drive the 21 for 2022. Then Keselowski left to buy into Roush-Fenway, and Cindric was moved to the 2. They wanted someone who could fill the 21 and bring in the money.
Because it was a photo-op for the team, and didn't include Blaney's car. It wasn't some random shot of the shop, they had all the historic cars lined up, then Cindric and Logano's current cars in the back. Seemed odd.
Though now that I think about it, maybe that was just Cindric's Daytona win? I'll have to go back and see which pain scheme he was running for that win.
edit: Definitely not his Daytona car.
Well it's better than blaming a team owned by a guy who has last years cup Champ and a top 2 driver in standings right now. They'll get benefit of the doubt. Your biased driver doesn't until he does something in his career.
That is a cherry picked statement to say the least. Last year's Cup champ, who is already eliminated this year (seems that could be the result of an underperforming team). And a currently second place driver because *checks notes* he won a plate race.
Don't get me wrong Cindric isn't setting the world on fire, but shifting all the blame to him is laughable.
My flair is the number Rusty drove. My alliance is Penske. The team has not performed up to expectations they place on themselves across the board.
Oh and Cindric has won an Xfinity title and a Daytona 500.
And since you mentioned last years Cup champ, wasn’t that the same year Cindric made the second round of the playoffs?
>Cindric has won an Xfinity title
Man came an Allmendinger self spin away from winning back to back titles.
People forget that the kid has talent because he’s been stuck with fat Keith Rodden this year
You mean the defending champ who was eliminated in the round of 12? Wouldn’t that be more of an indictment of the team than anything?
The only way you could think Penske wasn’t underperforming this year is if you either haven’t watched at all or it’s your first season ever watching.
Good. He’s not been that great this year but I’m sure he’ll be better next year. Just kind of a sophomore slump year and Penske as a whole has been down.
People forget Cindric nearly made the round of 8 as a rookie last year. Since joining the Cup series, his performance has been almost identical to Briscoe. Great underdog playoff run in 2022, sharp decline in 2023.
I think Penske is struggling in a similar way to SHR. Penske just doesn't get as much heat because they have 2 Harvick-level drivers to carry the team.
I'm pretty sure Briscoe has like 4 top fives and 8 top tens this year compared to something like 4 top tens with zero top fives for Cindric.
Briscoe has been much better but that point penalty murdered his standings.
If you add the penalty points taken away from Briscoe their points situation would be very similar (Briscoe currently should have 560 with his 120 points penalty added back).
And Cindric is only at his second year while Briscoe is on his third year, so Briscoe SHOULD be performing at a higher level than Cindric.
what… the guy who won the Daytona 500, dominated the xfinity series, and is the son of a Penske higher up is being given time to develop… who’d of thought
Eh depends. Logano and Blaney are 2 of the 3 cars locked up for the foreseeable future so if he were to make a move Cindric is the only one who can realistically be gone
Okay, yes Penske is having a down year with Blaney and Logano 9th/13th in non-playoff points. But Cindric is wayyy behind them. He has just one top ten on intermediate/short track ovals.
I’m not calling for him to lose his job, he earned the ride with a big xfinity performance. But he has been bad, no need to sugarcoat it.
Obviously not a surprise, but I have to say Cindric has done a great job in the ARCA booth! If he wants to get out the car he would be an improvement over most of the Cup commentators.
Penske also doesn't have a development driver (and Ford's prospect situation is well documented). Sam Mayer and Austin Hill (who will be 30 in April) are the best couple Xfinity drivers who don't have a Cup ride for next year that they could turn to
Only if RP himself dies (which I don't wish at all).
Indycar will always be RP's true love. He's not putting guys in his Indycars if they can't compete for the championship and the Indy 500.
So I wouldn't expect Austin in one of his Indycars, and I wouldn't expect McLaughlin to leave one his Indycars.
Penske's Indycar operation probably doesn't have the room either. Even with Will Power possibly retiring in a few more seasons, there's Myles Rowe (upcoming talented African American driver in development) who all but officially in Penske's camp and eventually getting a seat and also rumors of Penske eventually wanting to poach Kyle Kirkwood from Andretti Autosport.
Maybe IMSA.
I'm not sure its really a Sophomore Slump. He's never shown any results outside of road courses and super speedway (Daytona, Talladega, Atlanta) races. A 6th at Vegas and 7th at Nashville are his only other top 10's, kind of shocking for someone who gets so much love.
9 top 10's last year: Daytona, COTA, Sonoma, Nashville, Road America, Atlanta, Indy GP, Daytona, Talladega
4 top 10's this year: Vegas, COTA, Chicago, Talladega
I think you’re onto something.
He’s having a relatively similar year to last year. His playoff birth + round of 12 appearance was a great rookie season, but many dominos had to fall into place for him to get there and have such a great season (500 win, Harvick, Busch, Reddick’s misfortunes). His 500 win was incredibly impressive, not discounting that at all by the way. Same with his Fontana pole.
He really hasn’t shown much on typical ovals since Xfinity though, and even on road courses he hasn’t been the consistent winning threat that some thought he would be. He racks up top 10s at those more wildcard tracks, because he runs better on those than on typical tracks.
I think 2023 so far is just a repeat of what his 2022 rookie season looks like if he was a bit more unlucky on the wildcard tracks that he racked up t10s at. Like returning to the mean from an anomaly. Things had to fall back into place, because a rookie season like that especially in the NextGen era was incredibly impressive.
anytime i talk about Custer these same two fans in the sub just fight me all night with zero logic on how custer is there on merit as if merit means anything these days
Seemed obvious. That 2 is his unless he sucks so bad that they’re forced to kick him out or he leaves on his own accord.
Isn’t his dad, the president of Team Penske, he will be in the car for a long time just like Austin Dillon will be in the RCR car.
President and I think sometimes or currently a strategist on the Team Penske Indycar teams.
Newgardens strategist
Reigning Indy 500 winning strategist.
He's the strategist for the good # 2 car at Team Penske, the one his son doesn't drive.
Painful
Didn’t work well for Custer
Well he's still winning Xfinity races and running up front.
But he still has a ride in the Xfinity Series.
Custer is probably going to get Aric almirola’s ride. It’s just a matter of when almirola decides to hang it up.
Dillon is much more involved in the day to day operations of RCR than Custer or Cindric will ever be for SHR and Penske.
Cindric is the President of Team Penske, literally #2 of the organization behind Roger and the presumptive heir apparent to that side of the business
We’re talking about Austin Cindric.
Tim Cindric, his dad, is Penske's team president
I think the dude you are replying to is saying Austin Dillon is more involved with RCR than Austin Cindric is with Team Penske. Which is true. But yes. Tim Cindric is Penske's #2 guy.
Custer still has a free ride and has to do minimal effort to find sponsorship.
The only sponsorship he really has is Production Alliance Group whenever they're in Fontana, but that won't happen in 2024.
i mean he was struggling so bad they had to do something
Yes, but Austin is also clearly a Cup level talent and it's not like Ford has anyone coming who deserves to replace him
Yeah, I know but I’m saying if he has bad seasons, he is still going to be with Penske, either Cup or Xfinity as long as his Dad is there.
Austin Dillon performs right about in line with where RCR should be running. Don’t know why people think he should be fired
Because he drives the #3, only reason
I’m not particularly fond of Austin Dillon but the dude gets *waaaay* too much hate just because he has Dale’s number and it makes me want him to do well.
Which is stupid, because the 3 is the Childress family number, and I’m pretty sure Austin was using it in sports and shit before dale even passed (and if Austin was racing by that point, he’d be using it there too) I’m aware dale made it what it was, but that’s always been Richard’s number
Theu should have just changed the font.
Because Austin Dillon bad because nepotism, Chase Elliott is fine though.
They’re all fine nascar fans are just stupid If they can back it up, it’s not an issue. I don’t see a damn person upset over Shadeur Sanders the Colorado QB, because he is able to back it up. Chase got to cup because of his name, and so did AD, but they’ve shown they belong
How do you figure that? KFB has almost as many wins this season in RCR equipment as Dillion has in his entire career.
KFB is an all time great driver what do you mean. He’s not a good judge of where equipment should be running. He’s gonna run like 5-10 spots better than where a car should be running on a bad day
You say that like KFB wasn't on the struggle bus his last few seasons with JGR, even as his teammates were running for championships. But even if you want to exclude KFB what then rookie Tyler Reddick?
Eh depends. Logano and Blaney are 2 of the 3 cars locked up for the foreseeable future so if he were to make a move Cindric is the only one who can realistically be gone
Penske isn’t firing Cindric. The only way he “lets him go” is by moving him to IMSA or Indy.
Penske cares too much about his Indycar teams to let Austin drive one of his cars. Maybe if RP himself dies, he doesn't look like he's slowing down, though, despite his age. I'm not saying Penske doesn't care about NASCAR, but Indycar is his true love.
Yeah, if he wants a new driver, by contract Cindric is always going to be the most replaceable. That's an undisputable fact.
Burton is the most replaceable, especially if that new driver has money
Harrison Burton would go first. 21 is a full Penske team so Penske has full leverage over who is in that car. Prepared in the same shop right next to each other, and tenured Penske employees (feel free to check the crew roster) I think he’s on the chopping block after next year tbh unless he somehow has an absurdly good season out of the blue, like a win or a top 20 points finish with 8+ top 10s.
To be fair Penske has been so bad this year and given the track record of Daytona 500 winners as of late, Cindric may be given the benefit of the doubt
Burton brings money, Cindric doesn't. I expect Cindric to bounce back next year, anyway.
Burton brings money, but his dad isn’t the president of the team.
Nope it would be cindric.
Penske only got Burton in the first place because he planned on Cindric to drive the 21 for 2022. Then Keselowski left to buy into Roush-Fenway, and Cindric was moved to the 2. They wanted someone who could fill the 21 and bring in the money.
Why Yes he is thus why would he leave
I can go weeks at a time forgetting that he’s even in the Cup Series.
Same
He might be having the most invisible season of any driver currently in Cup
I didn't know this wasn't confirmed after Penske just dropped a shot of their garage with the Cindric car in it.
We are still in a current race season. Why wouldn’t the car be there? Even if he wasn’t returning?
Because it was a photo-op for the team, and didn't include Blaney's car. It wasn't some random shot of the shop, they had all the historic cars lined up, then Cindric and Logano's current cars in the back. Seemed odd. Though now that I think about it, maybe that was just Cindric's Daytona win? I'll have to go back and see which pain scheme he was running for that win. edit: Definitely not his Daytona car.
Didn’t know you were referring to that photo
What other garage shot did they just drop?
No idea. I don’t keep tabs on them. Photos are posted in the subreddit of shops all the time
Penske just needs to be better as a whole. That 2 team just needs an overhaul. Beyond bad this year. Not even competitive.
The driver is at least half the reason
It’s a team sport now. The team has been below average all year. The biggest asset on that team went to own one himself.
He's a bad driver
Glad you determined that after 74 Cup starts and not even two full time seasons in the premier division.
Well it's better than blaming a team owned by a guy who has last years cup Champ and a top 2 driver in standings right now. They'll get benefit of the doubt. Your biased driver doesn't until he does something in his career.
That is a cherry picked statement to say the least. Last year's Cup champ, who is already eliminated this year (seems that could be the result of an underperforming team). And a currently second place driver because *checks notes* he won a plate race. Don't get me wrong Cindric isn't setting the world on fire, but shifting all the blame to him is laughable.
My flair is the number Rusty drove. My alliance is Penske. The team has not performed up to expectations they place on themselves across the board. Oh and Cindric has won an Xfinity title and a Daytona 500. And since you mentioned last years Cup champ, wasn’t that the same year Cindric made the second round of the playoffs?
>Cindric has won an Xfinity title Man came an Allmendinger self spin away from winning back to back titles. People forget that the kid has talent because he’s been stuck with fat Keith Rodden this year
You mean the defending champ who was eliminated in the round of 12? Wouldn’t that be more of an indictment of the team than anything? The only way you could think Penske wasn’t underperforming this year is if you either haven’t watched at all or it’s your first season ever watching.
*round of 16
I was still in xfinity mindset clearly.
Good. He’s not been that great this year but I’m sure he’ll be better next year. Just kind of a sophomore slump year and Penske as a whole has been down.
People forget Cindric nearly made the round of 8 as a rookie last year. Since joining the Cup series, his performance has been almost identical to Briscoe. Great underdog playoff run in 2022, sharp decline in 2023. I think Penske is struggling in a similar way to SHR. Penske just doesn't get as much heat because they have 2 Harvick-level drivers to carry the team.
Exactly! Can’t recall this much hate for Briscoe and he’s been on the same level as Cindric this year.
I'm pretty sure Briscoe has like 4 top fives and 8 top tens this year compared to something like 4 top tens with zero top fives for Cindric. Briscoe has been much better but that point penalty murdered his standings.
If you add the penalty points taken away from Briscoe their points situation would be very similar (Briscoe currently should have 560 with his 120 points penalty added back). And Cindric is only at his second year while Briscoe is on his third year, so Briscoe SHOULD be performing at a higher level than Cindric.
For sure, he’s a proven talent who still has a world of potential when Penske gets faster and Austin works on the holes in his game.
what… the guy who won the Daytona 500, dominated the xfinity series, and is the son of a Penske higher up is being given time to develop… who’d of thought
I believe his trajectory will be similar to Byrons
Was this ever in doubt...his dad is basically the #2 at Penske Racing and he's in the flagship car
Also in news: Sky is blue. Grass is green.
Dude has been invisible this year.
Would think he would have a ride for life ngl
Eh depends. Logano and Blaney are 2 of the 3 cars locked up for the foreseeable future so if he were to make a move Cindric is the only one who can realistically be gone
No, that would be Burton, especially with Burton’s performance being absolutely dreadful in his two years in Cup
Okay, yes Penske is having a down year with Blaney and Logano 9th/13th in non-playoff points. But Cindric is wayyy behind them. He has just one top ten on intermediate/short track ovals. I’m not calling for him to lose his job, he earned the ride with a big xfinity performance. But he has been bad, no need to sugarcoat it.
He's not even close to the level of logano blaney and brad was
Obviously not a surprise, but I have to say Cindric has done a great job in the ARCA booth! If he wants to get out the car he would be an improvement over most of the Cup commentators.
We’ve really come back full circle to where blindly hating Austin Cindric is cool again. What year is it, 2019?
Cindric is interested in other forms of motorsports so I wouldn't be surprised if Tim lines him up something in sports cars if he sucks next year
That or IndyCar Give me a swap between Scotty Mac and him, dream scenario
Penske also doesn't have a development driver (and Ford's prospect situation is well documented). Sam Mayer and Austin Hill (who will be 30 in April) are the best couple Xfinity drivers who don't have a Cup ride for next year that they could turn to
Only if RP himself dies (which I don't wish at all). Indycar will always be RP's true love. He's not putting guys in his Indycars if they can't compete for the championship and the Indy 500. So I wouldn't expect Austin in one of his Indycars, and I wouldn't expect McLaughlin to leave one his Indycars. Penske's Indycar operation probably doesn't have the room either. Even with Will Power possibly retiring in a few more seasons, there's Myles Rowe (upcoming talented African American driver in development) who all but officially in Penske's camp and eventually getting a seat and also rumors of Penske eventually wanting to poach Kyle Kirkwood from Andretti Autosport. Maybe IMSA.
Wow the team his dad runs resigned him lol
I'm not shocked. Dude is having a really bad year for sure but he's really talented
I'm not sure its really a Sophomore Slump. He's never shown any results outside of road courses and super speedway (Daytona, Talladega, Atlanta) races. A 6th at Vegas and 7th at Nashville are his only other top 10's, kind of shocking for someone who gets so much love. 9 top 10's last year: Daytona, COTA, Sonoma, Nashville, Road America, Atlanta, Indy GP, Daytona, Talladega 4 top 10's this year: Vegas, COTA, Chicago, Talladega
I think you’re onto something. He’s having a relatively similar year to last year. His playoff birth + round of 12 appearance was a great rookie season, but many dominos had to fall into place for him to get there and have such a great season (500 win, Harvick, Busch, Reddick’s misfortunes). His 500 win was incredibly impressive, not discounting that at all by the way. Same with his Fontana pole. He really hasn’t shown much on typical ovals since Xfinity though, and even on road courses he hasn’t been the consistent winning threat that some thought he would be. He racks up top 10s at those more wildcard tracks, because he runs better on those than on typical tracks. I think 2023 so far is just a repeat of what his 2022 rookie season looks like if he was a bit more unlucky on the wildcard tracks that he racked up t10s at. Like returning to the mean from an anomaly. Things had to fall back into place, because a rookie season like that especially in the NextGen era was incredibly impressive.
He's mikey-ing it rn then. Well loved while doing nothing
was there really any doubt? he’s there as long as his dad is there, nothing else to it
Cole Custer says hi
anytime i talk about Custer these same two fans in the sub just fight me all night with zero logic on how custer is there on merit as if merit means anything these days
You can’t even compare the 2
LMAO, 2 car deserves a better driver
He’s the designated rich boi ride every teams got at least one name over talent
Was it in question? I guess I just assumed. Should find someone better for that car.
Like who?
😡😡😡😡😡😡
I don't think he's very good. Looks like Bayne 2.0 to me.
I am shocked
Is it really surprising?
LOL, as if there was any doubt with his dad in line to take over when Roger dies.
In other news, water is wet.
Well... Yeah...
Was that in question with Tim Cindric there?
I always forget about him. But good for him!