Roger Penske star Austin Cindric explains why he and SVG stand as NASCAR's only Rolex 24 contenders

NASCAR driver Austin Cindric recently explained the challenges of trying to fit endurance races into the NASCAR schedule. The Penske driver, who replaced Ben Barker, will race at the Rolex 24's GTD Pro class with Ford Multimatic Motorsports. He will join Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx in the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3.

Cindric and Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen are the only Cup Series drivers competing in this year's Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. When asked about the lack of Cup drivers in the event, Cindric told FOX Sports's Bob Pockrass:

"There's plenty that want to do it but the challenge of the schedules, right? We have Easter off, and that's it. And normally how this works for full-time programs is that you have a full-time set of drivers and full-time endurance drivers who do the three long races."

"And it makes a lot more sense logistically for a team that's running full-time to have a guy that can do all three of those races. So I think logistically it's challenging for the teams to be able to do it. And you can have the one-off scenarios or programs that do run this race and those would be the opportunities."

Cindric’s team will start from the GTD Pro from pole position after a strong qualifying performance by Rockenfeller.

Meanwhile, van Gisbergen will join fellow Kiwi driver Scott McLaughlin in Trackhouse Racing's No. 91 Chevrolet along with NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch and Ben Keating.

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"Definitely made January pretty busy" - Austin Cindric on late addition to 2025 Rolex 24

Austin Cindric is set for his sixth Daytona 24 Hours race after competing with Rick Ware Racing in 2023. The 26-year-old competes in the Cup Series for Team Penske's No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

During another interview with Pokrass, Cindric also talked about his last-minute entry to the race after Ben Barker broke his collarbone skiing.

"Yeah late add to the schedule and has definitely made January pretty busy for me, but nonetheless it’s a race that I’m super passionate about. It will be interesting to see kind of where we stack up, practice and qualifying and all that. I really like my codrivers, it’s a team that I’ve worked with a lot," Austin Cindric said.

"Obviously, a pretty close relationship with Ford Performance. So, it’s a perfect fit for me and given the circumstances coming in for, unfortunately, for a guy who was injured over the course of the holidays, you know, it’s been pretty fun," he added.

Austin Cindric's No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 will compete against 14 teams on January 25 and 26.