“Complete team win”: Austin Cindric opens up on his ‘very rare’ NASCAR feat

Austin Cindric called his third NASCAR Cup Series win last Sunday (April 27) at Talladega Superspeedway a rare and special team effort.

Cindric came out on top at the Jack Links 500, grabbed the first win of the 2025 season for Team Penske and secured a spot in the Cup Series playoffs. The No. 2 Ford driver qualified in seventh place for the 188-lap Jack Link's 500 and led seven laps to score his third career Cup win in a photo finish by 0.022 seconds ahead of Ryan Preece.

During a recent appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the 26-year-old explained why his victory at the 2.66-mile speedway was rare and a team effort.

"But you want to be able to see that, get some results. And it's very rare that you can do one of those speedway races with as many factors and as many challenges and as many things you have to rely on and have it be a complete team win. And by that I mean we can go to Texas this weekend, unload the fastest car, run the fastest pit stops, and probably expect to win the race," Austin Cindric said (00:40 onwards).

"Whereas it's not usually that clear-cut and simple at a drafting track. And I feel like every member of my team played a role, a critical role in the race win. And it's so satisfying for me to see everybody on my team succeed," he added.

The Cup Series will now move to the 1.5-mile quad-oval at Texas Motor Speedway. Cindric's best finish at the track came in 2022 at 15th place.

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Regular season win is always on Austin Cindric's "priority list"

Austin Cindric has made the playoffs for two of his three full-time NASCAR Cup seasons. He won the 2022 Daytona 500 in his rookie year and secured his spot in the season opener race. The following year, he had no wins and missed the playoffs. Last season, he won at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois and ended the year 11th overall. During the same SiriusXM episode, Cindric also mentioned that his main goal every year is to make the playoffs.

"Winning a race in the regular season has to be on the priority list. If not, you're pointing your way in," Austin Cindric said. (00:10)

Cindric's win last week was his third top-10 finish this year. It was also his first win and third top-10 finish in seven races at Talladega.

Cindric is ranked 14th in the points standings with William Byron still leading ahead of this week's race. The Würth 400 race is set to start at 3:30 pm ET on Sunday, May 4.