Off to a hot start, Austin Cindric bags new Xfinity Series sponsor 

Austin Cindric has four Xfinity Series starts this season and finished no worse than fifth. He kicked things off with a win at Daytona International Speedway and has been near the front of the pack ever since. His early success isn’t a fluke because he is coming off one of the best seasons in series history.

The 22-year-old Austin Cindric is the reigning Xfinity Series Champion after a season where he enjoyed six wins, 19 top 5s and 26 top 10s in 33 starts, and while it didn’t get him an immediate ticket to the Cup Series, he’ll be there next year in the iconic No. 21 for the Wood Brothers Racing team. He signed a multi-year deal with Team Penske, who has a technical alliance with the Wood Brothers.

The Champ just keeps on rolling. @AustinCindric is the only #XfinitySeries driver to finish in the top five in every race so far this season. pic.twitter.com/XLSVGVHtDo

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) March 9, 2021

A native of Mooresville, North Carolina, Austin Cindric is expected to see some seat time in the premier series in 2021, but at this point, there is nothing to report.

“I think we’re getting a little bit more clarity as you get more races in and see the guys that enter races and don’t enter races -- the challenges, as I’ve said before, are who enters the races and if we have enough points,” Austin Cindric said during a Zoom call. “I think the 33 car is, like, 36th in Cup owner’s points, so I would say a lot of the races we’re looking at that don’t have practice or qualifying are looking good so far, and hopefully some updates soon.”

Austin Cindric was in that No. 33 Mustang for the Daytona 500, his only Cup Series start to date, and had a respectable P15 despite crashing out at the end. He started P39 for Penske.

Austin Cindric, meet Harrison Burton

Last weekend in Las Vegas, he had a little on-track spat with Harrison Burton when he ran up on the back of the No. 20, sending him into a spin. Some thought it was intentional because Cindric bumped him twice, the second one doing the most damage. Burton was running P4 with 27 laps left, ultimately finishing ninth.

“Yeah, I honestly don’t even know what comments he made,” said Austin Cindric. “I just went up and talked to him after the race behind the hauler. We had a good conversation. Harrison and I have raced really well. He’s honestly one of the few guys in the field that I know I can race really hard. He’s very race smart. He’s grown up around racing, and he and I can usually race pretty close and pretty hard and not have any issues, so I think we both surprised each other there on the front straightaway, and there’s some things to learn from it, but, past that, yeah, I think it’s behind us as far as I’m concerned.”

Austin Cindric found out that he would have a new sponsor on his No. 22 Mustang after Team Penske announced CarShop as the primary sponsor for several races this year. CarShop is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Penske Automotive Group.

Here's our @CarShopDotCom Ford Mustang 🤙🏻The Pink Panther is headed to the Desert @phoenixraceway 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IWr4rTsh7B

— Austin Cindric (@AustinCindric) March 10, 2021

“The car is obviously pretty striking,” Austin Cindric continued in the Zoom call. “It’s bright. It’s gonna be easy to spot and easy to read. It’s great to have CarShop on board. I’m excited about that. They’re part of Penske Automotive Group, so definitely in-house there...I’m excited to represent them and help them grow that brand and, honestly, pretty proud to have them on our car and have the support of those guys on our program. I’m looking forward to having that car in a lot of races this year and hopefully they have some success as well.”