Even after the departure of former team president Tim Cindric following Team Penske's IndyCar attenuator scandal at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, their second major "cheating" scandal in as many years, team owner Roger Penske insisted that Austin Cindric's NASCAR Cup Series seat was safe.
By comparison, Penske remained non-committal about the future of Will Power on the IndyCar side, and as it turns out, Power was let go at the end of the 2025 season before signing a deal with Andretti Global for 2026.
Bottom line, Cindric was never going anywhere for 2026, especially after clinching his third playoff spot in four years by winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April. Penske wasn't kidding.
However, that win, the subsequent playoff berth, and yes, even the flat-out rumor rejection by Penske weren't enough to keep some from speculating.
Austin Cindric isn't going anywhere
Any time a driver with any sort of family/team connection has a Cup Series ride, fans assume it was nepotism that got him that ride. While the connections certainly almost never hurt, Tim always made it a point to leave Austin's NASCAR business to others within the organization to avoid the potential spread of that narrative. Once Austin landed the ride, it was always up to him to keep it.
And as we already discussed, Cindric is a three-time race winner. He won the Daytona 500 in his first start as a full-time driver back in 2022, and while fans are always quick to discredit superspeedway wins, especially since Cindric also won at Talladega, he won at an intermediate track in Gateway last year as well.
Yes, teammate Ryan Blaney ran out of fuel on the last lap, but Cindric was competitive all day and took advantage of the opportunity to move from P2 to P1. Even running that high is pretty good for a driver supposedly only good on drafting tracks.
But whatever was left of that rumor can officially be put to bed after Saturday night's race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Cindric, one of the most common picks of NASCAR fans to be eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs, ran strong all night after entering the evening well above the round of 12 cut line with back-to-back respectable results at Darlington Raceway and Gateway.
Then disaster struck, and a fire resulted in a pit stop which mired him several laps down, leaving him in 30th place by the time the checkered flag flew. He had been in the running for a potential top five result.
He still managed to advance to the round of 12, something he has done in all three of his playoff appearances so far.
Sure, he's not a series champion like teammates Blaney and Joey Logano. But Team Penske could do far worse than who they currently have behind the wheel of the No. 2 Ford.
And let's not forget that Logano won last year's championship after a one-win regular season in which he placed 15th in the standings. Cindric had the exact same stats this year.
As long as the modern playoff format exists, the playoffs are where it counts, and if Cindric can manage to work his way through the round of 12 to the round of 8, the presence of Talladega in the semifinal round makes him an intriguing upset pick to go all the way to the Championship 4.
The Mobil 1 301 is scheduled to get the round of 12 underway on Sunday, September 21, with live coverage set to be provided by USA Network from New Hampshire Motor Speedway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!