Going into Sunday’s Daytona 500, only one rookie driver had ever won The Great American Race.
Austin Cindric rewrote that page of the NASCAR Cup Series history book.
Cindric edged out Bubba Wallace by inches in an overtime finish in the Daytona 500 to score his first career series win in just his eighth series start.
He joins 2011 winner Trevor Bayne as the only two rookies to score a win in the season opener at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. While Cindric is running for Rookie of the Year honors, he did make a start in last year’s race, where he finished 15th.
“Oh, my God,” said the 23-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina. “Do you know what makes it all better? A packed house. A packed house at the Daytona 500.”
Cindric is the 41st different winner of the Daytona 500, and the ninth driver to make the event their first career victory, joining Tiny Lund, Mario Andretti, Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Pete Hamilton, Derrike Cope, Sterling Marlin, Michael Waltrip, Bayne, and Michael McDowell on that exclusive list.
It also marks car owner Roger Penske’s third Daytona 500 win, coming on the same day he celebrated his 85th birthday.
“Oh, my God. I’ve got so many people to thank.” Cindric said. “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.”
Penske said he wasn’t sure if he had ever won a race on his birthday before Sunday.
“I don’t know,” said Penske. “I got a big cake, though, didn’t I?”
Cindric raced his No. 2 Ford Mustang with the leaders all race long, staying in the mix throughout the 201-lap race.
Cindric took the lead from Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. after a lap 194 restart with a shove from his Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney. One lap later, Stenhouse, Jr.’s car spun off the front bumper of Brad Keselowski off turn four, setting off a multi-car crash that gathered up Chris Buescher in the process.
“We put ourselves in the perfect position really for us to come down to leading the Daytona 500 with five laps to go,” said Stenhouse, Jr. “All and all, our No. 47 Kroger/Irish Spring Camaro just got pushed in the wrong spot. We did everything we could today to put ourselves in the right position. We’ve got to be happy about that and move on.”
Bubba Wallace also came away with damage, with contact from Stenhouse, Jr. tearing off the right front fender.
That sent the race into overtime, with Cindric again jumping to the lead with Blaney and Keselowski in tow. With the white flat in the air, Keselowski moved up to challenge Blaney for second with help from Chase Briscoe, allowing Cindric to get away from the battle.
With cars bouncing off the wall behind them, Blaney tried an outside move coming off turn four for the lead. Cindric moved up, pinching Blaney into the wall, and allowing Wallace to power to the inside.
Cindric beat Wallace to the line by inches to take the victory and make history.
“I’m surrounded by great people,” said Cindric, who was the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion. “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.
“But we’re in the playoffs. That’s one good box checked. My gosh, what an awesome group of fans, what an awesome race car. Just really thankful.”
After the contact coming to the checkered flag, Blaney had to settle for a third place finish.
“Yeah, the last lap I got good pushes on the bottom from the 23 (Wallace) and then I was able to get Austin in front and off of four where we were good enough to make a move I got blocked and I ended up getting fenced,” said Blaney. “I’m happy for Roger Penske, winning the 500 on his birthday. I’m happy for (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and everyone that works on that 2 car. It’s just one of those things. It didn’t work out. We still ended up fourth, but I don’t know another perfect position we could have put ourselves in to win the race. It just didn’t work out.”
For Wallace, who finished second in the Daytona 500 in 2018, it was another just miss in the biggest NASCAR race of the year.
“Yeah, first of all, that’s pretty damn cool to win the 500 in I think the first attempt, maybe not,” said Wallace. “But full season for him, so congrats to Austin.
“What could have been, right? Man, need to talk about some happy stuff here. 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 23-11, proud of them, can’t thank them enough.”
Chase Briscoe bounced back from an early race spin and nearly going a lap down at the end of the race’s second segment to come home with a third place finish.
“It’s crazy,” said Briscoe. “You dream when you grow up racing just being in the Daytona 500 and I never in a million years thought I would ever get an opportunity to even run in one. To be restarting sixth with a green-white-checkered was pretty surreal in the first place, but I just couldn’t get to Brad (Keselowski). I kept trying to get there and I just couldn’t.”
The race was slowed five times by cautions for on-track incidents, with the scariest moment of the day coming on lap 63, when contact between rookie Harrison Burton and Keselowski off turn 2 sent Burton’s car around, gathering up several other cars while Burton’s No. 21 Ford flipped up in the air before rolling back over onto its wheels.
Among those gathered up were Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell. Of those, Busch was able to continue. All drivers sidelined were checked and released from the infield car center.
“I’m fine. I’ve hit a lot harder before, that’s for sure,” Burton said. “It’s just unfortunate. I hate it for the Wood Brothers group. They brought a really fast Ford Mustang down here and ended up on our lid, so that’s never good. I’d like to look back and see what happened. I don’t know, I just got pushed and didn’t take it the right way – the car didn’t take it the right way or got pushed in the wrong spot. I’m not sure. I couldn’t really tell. I was looking out front to see what I had to do next to side draft the next guy that was on me, so just a bummer. I don’t really know what we could have done different, but we’ll move on and get better from it.”
“It looked like the two cars on top,” said Hamlin, who entered the day as a favorite but ended up not finishing the 500 for the first time in 17 years. “The 6 (Keselowski) was pushing the 21 (Burton) and you could see the 21 was kind of getting out of control there, so you know the mindset was that you’ve got to back off but I think the 6 was just insistent on pushing him at all costs and eventually turned the 21 around.”
“I was just pushing and it just turned sideways and spun immediately out,” said Keselowski, who led 67 laps, the most on the day. “I don’t know what happened there. It was a shame to see it. I hate it for him. I was trying to help him win the stage and certainly didn’t want to see him spin out.”
It was the first of four multi-car crashes on the day, beginning with a shunt on lap 150 that was triggered when Tyler Reddick’s Chevrolet got loose off turn four and was tagged from behind by Jacques Villeneuve. That sent Reddick around, gathering up Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. – who swept the first two segments of the race – in the melee.
The third crash came with 10 laps remaining, when contact between Kevin Harvick and pole sitter Kyle Larson in the tri-oval sent Larson into the Chevy of Noah Gragson, setting off a crash that gathered up Todd Gilliland, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones.
That led to a brief red flag condition to allow for clean up. When it was lifted, the race resumed only to be slowed again by the Keselowski-Stenhouse crash, sending the race into overtime.
Aric Almirola finished in fifth place.
Kyle Busch, defending race winner Michael McDowell, Unadilla, Georgia’s David Ragan, Keselowski and Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona 500 – February 20, 2022
1. (5) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 201.
2. (16) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 201.
3. (9) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 201.
4. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 201.
5. (38) Aric Almirola, Ford, 201.
6. (10) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 201.
7. (6) Michael McDowell, Ford, 201.
8. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 201.
9. (3) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 201.
10. (11) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 201.
11. (26) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 201.
12. (33) Daniel Hemric(i), Chevrolet, 201.
13. (14) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 201.
14. (24) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 201.
15. (27) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 201.
16. (4) Chris Buescher, Ford, 200.
17. (32) Cody Ware, Ford, 200.
18. (21) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 199.
19. (17) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 199.
20. (31) Cole Custer, Ford, 199.
21. (20) Joey Logano, Ford, 198.
22. (40) Jacques Villeneuve, Ford, 198.
23. (25) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 198.
24. (2) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 197.
25. (36) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 197.
26. (35) Kaz Grala(i), Chevrolet, 196.
27. (37) B.J. McLeod, Ford, 196.
28. (18) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 194.
29. (13) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, Accident, 191.
30. (22) Kevin Harvick, Ford, DVP, 191.
31. (39) Noah Gragson(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 190.
32. (1) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 190.
33. (29) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, Accident, 190.
34. (12) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 152.
35. (15) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, Accident, 151.
36. (28) Greg Biffle(i), Chevrolet, 136.
37. (30) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 63.
38. (23) William Byron, Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 62.
39. (8) Harrison Burton #, Ford, Accident, 62.
40. (19) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 62.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 142.295 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 31 Mins, 53 Secs. Margin of Victory: .036 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 37 laps.
Lead Changes: 35 among 13 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Larson 0;B. Keselowski 1-6;K. Busch 7;B. Keselowski 8-26;K. Busch 27-31;B.Keselowski 32;K. Busch 33-37;R. Stenhouse Jr. 38;H. Burton # 39;J. Logano 40;K. Busch 41-57;W. Byron Jr. 58;H. Burton # 59-60;M. Truex Jr. 61-67;A. Dillon 68;E. Jones 69-71;R. Blaney 72-107;M. TruexJr. 108;B. Wallace 109;B. Keselowski 110-124;K. Larson 125;B. Keselowski 126-129;M. Truex Jr. 130-132;B. Wallace 133;B. Keselowski 134-155;B. Wallace 156;A. Cindric # 157-162;B. Wallace 163-166;A.Cindric # 167-168;B. Wallace 169-170;A. Cindric # 171-175;B. Wallace 176-177;R. Stenhouse Jr. 178;B.Wallace 179;R. Stenhouse Jr. 180-193;A. Cindric # 194-201.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Brad Keselowski 6 times for 67 laps; Ryan Blaney 1time for 36 laps; Kyle Busch 4 times for 28 laps; Austin Cindric # 4 times for 21 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 3 times for 16 laps; Bubba Wallace 7 times for 12 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 3 times for 11 laps; Harrison Burton # 2 times for 3 laps; Erik Jones 1 time for 3 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 1 lap; William Byron Jr. 1 time for 1 lap; Austin Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; Kyle Larson 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,6,38,47,22,3,45,43,5,9
Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,22,23,6,47,2,17,4,5,38
Playoff Standings: 1. Austin Cindric – 54 (1 Win); 2. Brad Keselowski – 54; 3. Martin Truex, Jr. – 49; 4. Bubba Wallace – 47; 5. Chase Briscoe – 41; 6. Ryan Blaney – 41; 7. Michael McDowell – 39; 8. Kyle Busch – 38; 9. Chris Buescher – 35; 10. Chase Elliott – 34; 11. Joey Logano – 33; 12. Aric Almirola – 32; 13. David Ragan – 29; 14. Ty Dillon – 26; 15. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 25; 16. Kurt Busch – 24.
