DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – If anyone was ever born into a racing family, it was Austin Cindric.
His father is Tim Cindric, the team president of Team Penske. His grandfather on his father’s side is Carl Cindric, who was a longtime engine builder with the famed Herb Porter at Speedway Engines in Indianapolis.
His mother is the former Megan Trueman, whose father was the great sports car and CART team owner Jim Trueman.
At 23 years old, Cindric never knew his grandfather on his mother’s side. Trueman died of cancer 10 days after Bobby Rahal won the 1986 Indianapolis 500 driving his car. Rahal remembered Trueman after Cindric’s win and Rahal reflected on Sunday’s big moment for the family.
“Great stuff,” Rahal told SPEED SPORT. “I can’t imagine how proud Jim Trueman would be.”
The man who has played a grandfatherly role to young Cindric has been Roger Penske, the famed team owner that is also Cindric’s boss.
“Jim was a great guy,” Penske recalled. “I remember when they won the Indy 500 with Bobby Rahal, he was very sick at that point, and I went over to tell him, ‘Congratulations.’
“What did he say? ‘Now I can put Jim Trueman 500 on my airplane.’
“That’s the last time I talked to him, think about that.
“We go way back, and I’m sure he’s looking down today and thinking, wow, what a wonderful day and what a great thing for my grandson.”
Cindric’s father joined Team Penske as president after the 1999 season. At that time, Cindric was just one year old.
He grew up around the race team and his favorite driver was Helio Castroneves. He used to spend his days during the Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Racing4Kids Daycare Center under the Tower Terrace grandstands while his father oversaw Team Penske’s Indy 500 effort.
When Castroneves won the first of his four Indy 500s in 2001, the Cindric’s posed for a family photo with the winning driver at the famed Yard of Bricks the morning after Castroneves’ victory.
Young Cindric nearly knocked over the Borg-Warner Trophy.
Sunday was Penske’s 85th birthday and Cindric gave him the best birthday present of all – a Daytona 500 victory.
“I don’t know if I ever won a race on my birthday before, but I got a big cake, though, didn’t I?” Penske quipped. “I go back when he was playing with his toys in his bedroom in Reading, (Pennsylvania) so I’ve seen him grow up as a young man. He’s been focused, he’s been a student of the game, is a smart young man.
“I think he works with the team well. He’s in the shop all the time. And he’s a team player, and he understands his position. Probably one of the tougher meetings I had with him was when we decided not to put him into Cup, had him run another year and then he won the championship, and he took it like a man, and you could see that, as far as I was concerned. He said, ‘You make the call. I’m going to make it happen.’ That’s exactly what he did.
“He’s a mature man at his age, and there’s no question you could see his driving ability today.”
Young Cindric got to know his grandfather on his father’s side, but not his maternal grandfather.
In many ways, Penske has filled that role in Cindric’s life.
“He’s a lot more than just my boss, when I think of it,” Cindric said of Roger Penske. “Next to my parents, he’s probably been the most influential person on my life, whether leading by example or the way he treats people, the way he runs his business and how he is with his family.
“If I can be half the man Roger Penske is, I’d say I’ve lived a good life.
“Think of an amazing opportunity. A lot of people talk about I get the opportunities that I do, and I’ve become successful because of who my father is and what he’s done in his life, and I think it’s the exposure to those people have meant more to me, have meant more to my career, as far as leading and doing things the right way, than any other advantage anyone else can have.
“I feel really blessed to be able to do that and utilize that experience in my life from a young age, to be able to put myself on the front of the biggest stage and obviously have a great time doing it.”
Penske has been impressed with Tim Cindric as the man who runs the race team operation since the end of 1999, but also how Tim and Megan have raised a tremendous family.
“I think both Tim’s son and Austin’s brother, really have done a great job,” Penske continued. “They’ve gone their own individual ways, but he’s been part of the family. He moved to North Carolina when we put the teams together. Tim was a big part of that, and he gets a lot of credit as really the team manager, certainly with Mike Nelson and Travis Geisler and all the crew chiefs.”
While Cindric and the crew celebrated the victory in wild style, Tim Cindric watched from the background. Obviously, he was very proud that his son had won one of the biggest races in the world, but he has made sure he watches his son’s career from afar.
As he told SPEED SPORT in a magazine feature several years ago, he never wanted to be a “Little League Dad” – someone who gets too involved and vocal about the athletic career of a son or daughter.
“I always kid Tim,” Penske said. “I say, ‘You’ve got to be a little more excited.’
“Well, he was excited today, really. And Megan, Austin’s mother, to see them, big hug, and to see their son go across the finish line and win the Daytona 500, I guess you’d be pretty excited. And I know Tim and Megan were, so it was great to see that.
“He even got out of his cool, calm way today. I think he said, I’m going to really celebrate; my boy won the Daytona 500.”