Although it was his second start in the Daytona 500, he realized he had a car that was capable of winning the race.
“I’ll be honest, I knew I had the car to do it, but there’s so many things that have to play out correctly in putting yourself in position,” he said. “I think we learned throughout the race with myself, my spotter, and Jeremy as well, is doing the right strategy, the right calls and setting up the right lanes to be able to put ourselves in position.
“Sometimes that’s all you can hope for, and sometimes you have to force people to help you. I definitely didn’t expect any help throughout the day. I did get some from the Fords, and I think Ford’s done an incredible job with this new car, and I think it’s obviously shown the first couple races.
“I’m just proud to be able to do it, proud to be able to hold off those runs at the end of the race. And it means the world to me to sit here and be able to say I’m a Daytona 500 winner.”
Cindric had a car capable of winning the race, but he had to earn it. During the green-white-checkered overtime finish, the young driver had to know when to stay in line before starting to block. First, he drifted down to the low line to stop Wallace’s momentum, but then Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney made his bid at the end on the top.
Cindric went back to that lane to block Blaney, who had to hit the brakes and scrape the wall coming out of turn four.
Cindric then pinched Wallace low and was able to keep three feet of his car ahead of the front of Wallace’s front of his Toyota in a dramatic, side-by-side finish.
“Once I crossed the start-finish line for the white flag, everyone behind me bailed,” Cindric recalled. “Everyone started lifting. Everyone was trying to get their runs, and I was probably 20 percent throttle for most of the last lap, just trying to stay relatively close to where I could at least defend something or be able to be close enough to be able to get to the tri-oval
“I knew if I got to the tri oval and I was nose ahead, I would get it. I actually learned that Thursday night. But for me, yeah, just holding off the wolves, it’s the race that means everything to everybody. Once you come off of (turn) four, all gloves are off, and everybody wants it.
“I felt like I had a really good chance to lose it, and to lose it means you’ve got a shot to win it. Being on the front row for the last couple restarts of the Daytona 500, you can’t really envision a better case scenario for you as a driver. That red flag, you definitely have time to reflect, and you can either reflect on what you’re going to do when you succeed or how you’re going to succeed, and I definitely lived in the moment there trying to figure it out.
“I know there’s a lot of people that want this really bad, and he’s definitely one of them and he’s worked hard for it and puts himself in position a lot of these races.
“It was really cool he came up to me many victory lane and congratulated us. Definitely a hard worker, as well, but definitely means a lot to pull it off like that.”
Today, Cindric is NASCAR’s newest star and by winning its biggest race, has earned the accolades from some of racing’s all-time greats.
Mario Andretti called Cindric’s race “a brilliant drive.”
“He’s a legend,” Cindric said of Andretti. “The last time I saw Mario Andretti I think was before the season started last year. I looked him in the eye, I said, do you have any advice for me? He says, ‘Whatever you do, stand on it. That’s it. Stand on it.’
“I can’t think of any better advice you can give a race car driver than telling him to stand on it.
“Mario is an absolute legend. He’s an icon. I think he’s a household name and someone that definitely has made his name in this sport and a lot of other forms of motorsports. It’s cool to check off one thing that he’s done.”