NASCAR powerhouse might not be back in 2022
By Asher Fair
With doubts about Team Penske returning full-time in 2022, the NASCAR Xfinity Series could lose a perennial championship contender.
With Austin Cindric set to move to the NASCAR Cup Series ahead of the 2022 season after spending each of the last four seasons in the Xfinity Series, doubts have been cast on the idea of Team Penske continuing to run their #22 Ford at the sport’s second highest level.
Cindric earned 13 victories, all in the last three seasons, during his time with the team in the Xfinity Series, and he advanced to the Championship 4 in both 2020 and 2021.
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He won the series championship in 2020 and finished just shy of doing the same in 2021, losing out to Daniel Hemric in a photo finish and placing second. In both 2020 and 2021, he led the #22 team to the owner championship.
But the perennial championship-contending team may very well opt not to return to the Xfinity Series in a full-time capacity next season.
According to Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass, Team Penske have not made any official confirmation about no longer fielding a full-time entry in the Xfinity Series next year, but there has been no indication that they will replace Cindric behind the wheel of the #22 Ford.
Nothing official out of Penske but I have heard no plans about running a full-time Xfinity car next year. https://t.co/cdcRYlma20
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) December 9, 2021
Despite the fact that Cindric was the team’s first full-time Xfinity Series driver since Sam Hornish Jr. in 2013, Team Penske had still run a full-time entry in the series from 2014 to 2017 (and in 2018, when Cindric competed part-time for both Team Penske and Roush Fenway Racing).
Not since the 2008 season have the team not fielded a full-time entry in the series, and not since the 2004 season have they not competed in the series at all.
Whether or not they would run a part-time entry in 2022, if indeed they are not back in a full-time capacity, remains to be seen.
As for Cindric, he hopes that his journey is only getting started.
The initial plan was for Cindric to replace Matt DiBenedetto behind the wheel of the #21 Ford at the Team Penske-affiliated Wood Brothers Racing after the 2020 season.
But DiBenedetto’s late-season performance in 2020 led to Team Penske changing their minds and keeping DiBenedetto in that seat, as well as Cindric in the Xfinity Series, for another year.
In conjunction with this announcement, it was announced that Cindric would instead be taking over for DiBenedetto in 2022, but this didn’t play out exactly as anticipated.
With Brad Keselowski leaving Team Penske to become a driver and co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing (now RFK Racing with his arrival), Cindric was instead promoted to the Team Penske Cup Series team to drive the #2 Ford in 2022.
Harrison Burton is set to replace DiBenedetto instead, after spending the last two seasons in the Xfinity Series competing for Joe Gibbs Racing.
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The 2022 Xfinity Series season is scheduled to begin on Saturday, February 19 with the Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. 300 at Daytona International Speedway (5:00 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1), and the 2022 Cup Series season is scheduled to begin on Sunday, February 20 with the 64th annual Daytona 500 at the same venue (2:30 p.m. ET, Fox).