{"id":37090,"date":"2022-02-20T19:50:37","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T01:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=37090"},"modified":"2022-02-20T21:35:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T03:35:38","slug":"team-penskes-austin-cindric-capitalizes-on-next-gen-car-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/20\/team-penskes-austin-cindric-capitalizes-on-next-gen-car-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Penske’s Austin Cindric capitalizes on Next Gen car debut"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holly Cain<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 was decided by a couple feet \u2013 rookie Austin Cindric\u2019s No. 2 Team Penske Ford nudging ahead of Bubba Wallace\u2019s No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota as they crossed the most famous finish line in stock car racing alongside one another in front of a sold-out crowd.<\/p>\n

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Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Discount Tire Ford, and Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, race to the finish of the NASCAR Cup Series 64th Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2022 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

All afternoon long, the race featured close racing, strategic drafting and ultimately an overtime restart to settle the winner\u2019s famed Harley J. Earl trophy.<\/p>\n

There were 35 lead changes among 13 drivers in a decidedly competitive high-speed dance of skill and will. Today’s Daytona 500 also saw 104 green flag passes for the lead; the fifth-most since the creation of the Loop Data statistic in 2007.<\/p>\n

And for all the emotion and drama of the race, the drivers had nothing but encouraging remarks about the premier series\u2019 points racing debut of the NASCAR Next Gen cars \u2013 officially marking a new era of racing featuring the most innovative technical changes to the sport in decades, if not ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s a race car,” Wallace said, standing on pit road following the race. \u201cI actually enjoyed being behind the wheel and learning a lot. The draft is a little bit different. Pushing is a little bit different, so some things that we need to work on and enhance our speed in some areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019ll be a good debrief tomorrow. We\u2019ll just talk about it and try to get better.”<\/p>\n

Technically the car features a new horsepower package, aerodynamic changes, single-lugnut wheels, a composite body, even a new camera-rearview mirror. Aesthetically, the cars look different with numbers moved from the car doors further up toward the front fender area.<\/p>\n

Teams spent much of the offseason testing them \u2013 their feedback resulting in tweaks here and there. And ultimately the car was declared ready for competition – Sunday\u2019s race it\u2019s important regular season debut.<\/p>\n

As with Wallace, Aric Almirola, who finished fifth in his last fulltime season start in the Daytona 500, was impressed with the new car. He started 38th on the 40-car grid and was able to methodically work his way forward \u2013 missing multiple multi-car incidents to get his Ford to the front draft and in position to at least compete for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the car was resilient,” Almirola said. \u201cI thought the car was dicey to bump draft aggressively, the cars move around a lot and the bumpers are rounded so they don\u2019t make a perfect match, but nonetheless, it was Daytona and we put on a great race, a wild finish and it\u2019s always exciting.”<\/p>\n

Added race winner Cindric, \u201cThere\u2019s so much different about this car but it\u2019s still the same style of racing. \u2026 It was really interesting to see who picked up on different things in the race and even in practice.”<\/p>\n

Cindric\u2019s team owner Roger Penske agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re on a great trajectory,” Penske said. \u201cAll the new fans we had at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum and certainly selling this place out, I think is terrific,” Penske said, adding \u201cEverybody\u2019s got the same hammer and it\u2019s up to strategy, execution and the driver.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the cars we have today and the new rules are terrific,” he said.<\/p>\n

DAYTONA 500 QUICK NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n

*Austin Cindric\u2019s victory in the Daytona 500 has not only been a confidence boost for his first fulltime season in the NASCAR Cup Series, but it\u2019s also positioned him for another trophy. He is tied with Brad Keselowski for the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings lead but his Daytona 500 win gives him the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

And, his effort puts him atop the series\u2019 Rookie of the Year points standings \u2013 ahead of Todd Gilliland, who finished 33rd and Harrison Burton, who was involved in an accident and finished 39th in the 40-car field. Cindric is the first rookie to win the Daytona 500 in series history.<\/p>\n

*Former Indy 500 winner (1995)  and 1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve finished 22nd in his Daytona 500 debut. It marked his first NASCAR Cup Series start since 2013 \u2013 the fifth in his career. Former Daytona 500 winning crew chief Tommy Baldwin helped lead the effort this week.<\/p>\n

*Hendrick Motorsports is still looking for a Daytona 500 race result to equal its Daytona 500 qualifying work. The team swept the front row in qualifying but it was the race proved to be another challenging endeavor. Chase Elliott had the team\u2019s best showing in 10th-place. The championship organization\u2019s other three cars were collected in accidents and finished laps down.<\/p>\n

*Aric Almirola was clearly sentimental, but smiling when he climbed out of his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford after a fifth-place finish in Sunday\u2019s race. It marked his last Daytona 500 start as a fulltime driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place means so much to me. I\u2019ve sat up in those grandstands. I\u2019ve won an Xfinity Series race here. I\u2019ve won the July [Cup] race and I\u2019ve won a [Daytona 500 qualifying] Duel,” Almirola said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Daytona 500 just keeps getting away from me. Still, it was so much fun and so cool for my family and everybody to be here and experience it and enjoy it. I\u2019m sure they were going bananas, jumping up and down thinking we had a shot to win.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 was decided by a couple feet \u2013 rookie Austin Cindric\u2019s No. 2 Team Penske Ford nudging ahead of Bubba Wallace\u2019s No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota as they crossed the most famous finish line in stock car racing alongside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":37116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[526,42,287,16],"class_list":["post-37090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-austin-cindric","tag-daytona-500","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-1371840120-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1653","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-9Ee","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37090"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37117,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37090\/revisions\/37117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}