NASCAR: 3 possible landing spots for Austin Cindric in 2021
By Asher Fair
Austin Cindric 2021 landing spots: Team Penske (Cup Series)
Team Penske entered the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season with just one of their three drivers under contract for the 2021. That one driver, 2018 champion Joey Logano, had been under contract with the team through at least next year since he signed an extension back in February of 2017.
Just three races into the season, Team Penske re-signed Ryan Blaney to a multi-year extension, and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski commented about his future with the team, which remained in question for several months, before he finally did end up re-signing with the team in early August, but on a deal that is only confirmed through the 2021 season.
Keselowski had been rumored to make the move to Hendrick Motorsports to replace retiring seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson behind the wheel of the #48 Chevrolet due to his past ties to team owner Rick Hendrick.
While that won’t be happening, it is worth noting that Team Penske aren’t a four-car team. With Keselowski possibly only being on a one-year deal, that could potentially open the door for the team to promote Cindric and run four cars in 2021 and then downsize to three again with Cindric in 2022 — or even keep four in 2022 with both Keselowski and Cindric.
It isn’t likely, but with the team not being at maximum capacity as far as their number of cars, it is a possibility.
Keep an eye on this possibility for 2022 especially. With everything considered, a promotion for Cindric to the Team Penske Cup Series team seems to be at least a year away, especially since they have given no indication that they plan to expand to four cars.
However, he may still be promoted to the Cup Series in 2021 elsewhere.