DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was Roger Penske’s 85th birthday Sunday and Austin Cindric gave his team owner the biggest gift of all – a victory in the 64th Daytona 500.
Cindric was the leader on the final lap of the race and was able to hold off a charge from Bubba Wallace at the checkered flag to win his first NASCAR Cup Series race in his eighth start. He becomes the ninth different driver to win their first Cup race in the Daytona 500.
Cindric defeated Wallace in a side-by-side battle to the checkered flag by .036 seconds.
“Oh, my God. Do you know what makes it all better? A packed house. A packed house at the Daytona 500,” Cindric said after emerging from his car. “I’ve got so many people to thank. First and foremost Roger Penske, happy birthday. Oh, my gosh. Appreciate Ryan (Blaney) being a great teammate. Obviously he wants to win this one, but I’m so pumped for Discount Tire, Menards, Ford. Everybody works so hard with this Next Gen car, through this whole process, and damn, I am so excited.
“This makes up for losing a championship last race I did,” Cindric continued. “I’m surrounded by great people. That’s all there is to it. I know there’s going to be highs and lows, being a rookie in a field of drivers this strong. I’m just grateful for the opportunity, excited to climb the mountain we’ve got ahead of us on the 2 team.”
Chase Briscoe was third followed by another Team Penske car driven by Ryan Blaney. Aric Almirola completed the top-five.
Wallace finished second in the Daytona 500 for the second time in his career.
“Congrats to Austin. What could have been, right?,” Wallace said. “Just dejected, but the thing that keeps me up is just the hard work that we put into our speedway stuff and the hard work from everybody at 23XI, proud of them, can’t thank them enough. I knew this was a big move last year for me to go out and be competitive, and we’re showing that.
“Our Toyota teammates did good work until they got picked off 1, 2, 3, throughout the race, so we just had to survive,” Wallace continued. “This one sucks when you’re that close, but all-in-all, happy for our team, happy for our partners, and on to California.”
Ford drivers swept seven of the first nine positions.
There were 13 different leaders in the first major race for the Next Gen car. Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing led six times for 67 laps. Blaney led once for 36 laps and Kyle Busch led four times for 28 laps.
Cindric led four times for 21 laps, including the most important two laps of his career.
With 10 laps to go of the scheduled 200-lap distance, the lead pack charged down the frontstraight. Chris Buescher’s Ford momentarily slowed, and Harvick hit the brakes. Kyle Larson ran into the back of Harvick, sending Harvick’s car into the side of Noah Gragson’s car.
That sent cars scattering and slamming into the wall.
“It’s disappointing. I had a run there on the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick). I didn’t realize how close he was to the No. 17 (Chris Buescher),” Larson said. “I got to him right as he was getting to him and it got him out of shape. I hate that I did that. It’s so hard see in front of him, especially on the straightaway like that.”
“I didn’t realize how close he was to him and it just got him all jacked up. I hate that it ended our day, as well as a bunch of others.”
NASCAR officials issued the red flag to stop the race with nine laps to go so track crews could clean up the debris.
Stenhouse was the leader as the cars came to a stop just before the start/finish line. He was the only Chevrolet in the top nine.
The red flag was rescinded after 5 minutes and 32 seconds and the yellow flag waved as the field started to move in preparation for the finish.
The race restarted with six laps to go and Stenhouse immediately lost the lead to Cindric.
The field never made it back to complete that lap when Stenhouse got turned into the wall coming out of turn four. Buescher was also involved in the crash and the yellow flag waved on lap 195. Wallace was also involved in the crash, which ripped the right-front fender from his Toyota.
Cindric the leader on the restart on lap 199 and had a target on the back of his No. 2 Ford. With Blaney acting as his wingman, Cindric held the lead to the white flag. Coming out of turn four on the final lap Blaney got a run on his teammate and attempted to move high to pass him.
The two made contact, with Blaney bouncing off the wall. That slowed Cindric’s momentum, opening the door for Wallace to get a run on the bottom as they roared towards the finish line.
It wasn’t enough as Cindric beat Wallace to the checkered flag to become the second youngest Daytona 500 winner in history at 23 years old.
The son of Team Penske President Tim Cindric gave team owner Penske a birthday he’ll always remember.