NASCAR: Team Penske rotating drivers for 2022?
By Randy Smith
With Austin Cindric set to move up to the NASCAR Cup Series, Team Penske may have more than one replacement for the #22 Ford.
Going into the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, it wasn’t a secret that this would be reigning series champion Austin Cindric’s final year in the series.
It had already been announced in the fall of 2020 that Cindric would be moving up to the Cup Series full-time in 2022, originally replacing Matt DiBenedetto behind the wheel of the #21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing.
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However, plans changed slightly when Brad Keselowski was named the driver of the #6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. With Keselowski leaving Team Penske, this opened up a spot behind the wheel of the the #2 Ford.
From there, the question of who would fill these respective cars arose, and it was quickly answered.
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Cindric was announced as the replacement for Keselowski behind the wheel of the #2 Ford, and fellow Xfinity Series driver Harrison Burton was announced as the replacement for DiBenedetto behind the wheel of the #21 Ford.
Now with an opening in the #22 Ford in the Xfinity Series, Team Penske may have more than one driver in mind to replace Cindric in the Xfinity Series. According to a report from The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, Team Penske may rotate their Cup Series drivers in the #22 Ford for the 2022 season.
This is not something new in the Xfinity Series, as several teams already run cars with a rotation of drivers, and those drivers can include Cup Series drivers.
Joe Gibbs Racing might be the most prominent example of rotating Cup Series drivers in the Xfinity series, with the #54 Toyota being used as a rotational ride.
Most notably, Kyle Busch has been known to run his maximum allowable total of five races per year, with other drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Christopher Bell all getting time in the car, as well as some non-Cup Series drivers.
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So while Team Penske still may have to think outside the box for additional drivers, considering the fact that their three-driver Cup Series team would not make up the entire Xfinity Series schedule, Penske may already have a plan on who all will replace Cindric in the #22 Ford for 2022.