Austin Cindric's Daytona 500 winning car joins 'Glory Road' at NASCAR Hall of Fame

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NASCAR Hall of Fame has officially entered its next generation.

Austin Cindric, driver of Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford, helped unveil the white and black Discount Tire Mustang used to win the 2022 Daytona 500 on the hall’s “Glory Road” exhibit on Tuesday morning, the first Next Gen car to be displayed in the prestigious main floor of the hallowed grounds.

Last year’s season opener served as the first points-paying race of the newest era of NASCAR Cup Series racing, introducing the Next Gen car to the fray just in time for Cindric’s rookie campaign. The end result was team owner Roger Penske’s third triumph in the “Great American Race” and the first for the storied No. 2 car.

MORE: Relive the 2022 Daytona 500 | Cup Series schedule

Gone were the layers of colorful confetti that once laminated the machine, but the signatures of all the crew members who worked on the vehicle that February day in 2022 still donned the rear bumper panel, signifying this was, in fact, the same car Cindric wheeled to Daytona glory.

“It’s really cool that as a company, Roger really appreciates the history,” Cindric said Tuesday. “And as far as you know, making this car look showroom-ready for an opportunity like this, it’s really special. Obviously special for us to be part of it. Awesome to kind of get the entire team here. I think we’re only missing one member of the crew that won that race. So otherwise, pretty special. Pretty hard to replicate moments like that, so good to enjoy.”

The allure of a Daytona 500 victory hasn’t yet worn off for Cindric, nor will it any time soon. That his car sits in the Hall of Fame merely 14 months into his full-time Cup career takes him aback.

“I mean, I probably would have guessed it would have been something that like flipped or wrecked or some example of that and probably not the Daytona 500 winning car,” Cindric said. “But it’s certainly what’s possible when you go out for Roger Penske and have a team like I have, so those are the things that are really important about having success in the sport.”

Michael Nelson, team president of NASCAR operations, has been a member of Team Penske since 1998. Seeing one of the latest iterations of the team’s success — an inaugural win with a new vehicle platform — prompted some reflection.

“I think there’s a bit of pride and, you know, just a sense of accomplishment by being here,” Nelson told NASCAR.com. “You know, it really started to set in when I walked in to see the car. And people come from all over the world to learn about NASCAR in this building, right? And to have one of our race cars here is just an immense honor.”

Through his years at Team Penske, Nelson has also seen Cindric grow from a child into a winning NASCAR Cup Series competitor. As the son of team president Tim Cindric, Austin Cindric has spent his life around Team Penske.

“I think some things have changed for him, but some things really haven’t,” Nelson said. “I mean, you could see the dedication, determination, hard work from the very beginning, even at the early stages. But the cars have changed, right? But, you know, I’ve known for a long time this is really what he’s wanted to do. And he was determined to do it.

“He’s a hard worker, very intelligent young man. And, you know, I’ve seen him mature in terms of his race-craft, and you know, the experience in all these different types of cars has helped him. But there was something there from the beginning.”

In his own words, Cindric’s sophomore year has been up and down. In seven starts, the Mooresville, North Carolina, native has two top-10 finishes (sixth at both Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas) and an 11th-place run at Atlanta, but his other four results are 23rd place or worse.

“I’d say it feels normal,” Cindric said of being a second-year Cup driver. “Like I feel like I’m going into work every day. It doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going Cup racing, I gotta figure this out.’ The guys I’m racing against, yeah, I still feel like I have a lack of experience some days, but I definitely know what I bring to the table. I know what I have to work on.

“And there’s been some frustrating moments already throughout the year. You know, you start the year off getting put in the wall three races in a row and trying to figure out how to just get things going. And then you have two really good weeks, and then you have another really bad week. So just the ups and downs — it’s so hard now more than ever, I think, to find consistency in the Cup Series.

“That’s where you see drivers and organizations right now really having the most success, just being able to be in the game every week. That’s harder than y’all might think. So I respect that but I want to be there for sure.”

As a whole, Team Penske has been hit or miss in 2023. In 21 combined starts across its three entries with defending series champion Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Cindric, the organization has one win (Logano, Atlanta), three top fives and nine top 10s. There has been speed, but not quite the results to show for it. Logano’s average finish is 13.6, Blaney’s 14.7 and Cindric’s 18.1.

“It’s been a little bit up and down, I think,” Nelson said. “You know, I’m encouraged by our performance. We were really close to winning the Daytona 500. We won the race at Atlanta. You know, we’ve had some execution issues that probably have prevented us from showing what we have at times. That’s our biggest challenge right now is trying to minimize mistakes, whether it be on pit road or on the race track.

“The cars are a little different this year with some of the changes, so we’re adapting to that as well. And this past weekend in Richmond, no practice, right? So yeah, I think we’re OK, we’re on track. We just haven’t achieved exactly what we wanted to so far. I feel good about where we’re going.”