Austin Cindric became the second youngest driver to win the Daytona 500 on Sunday. His win, however, would not have been possible without the help of his teammate Ryan Blaney. The Team Penske drivers used synchronized strategies to push each other over 500 miles, helping each other to succeed.
While pushing Cindric through Sunday’s Daytona 500, Blaney said:
“Yeah, the last lap I got good pushes on the bottom from the 23 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. I’m happy for Roger Penske, winning the 500 on his birthday. I’m happy for 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.”
In playing out his strategy, Blaney made sure that one of the Team Penske drivers would win. On his last lap strategy, he said:
“I made the decision of I wasn’t gonna make a move until I was 100 percent sure that one of our two cars was gonna win, and one of our two cars were going to win and one of them ended up winning. I was committed to him until I was 100 percent sure that one of us was gonna win and one of us did.”
Austin Cindric wins his first Daytona 500
Rookie Austin Cindric, who drives #2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske, edged Bubba Wallace Jr. in overtime to win the 64th Daytona 500 on Sunday. The win became more memorable as it came on his team owner Roger Penske’s 85th birthday.
The 23-year-old was promoted from the Xfinity Series to replace Brad Keselowski and has had a strong run for NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year honor.
Expressing his joy and thanking his team after the victory, Cindric said:
“Oh, my God. I’ve got so many people to thank. First and foremost Roger Penske, happy birthday. Oh, my gosh. Appreciate Ryan 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.”
Also Checkout : Nascar Daytona 500 Results