“He’s starting to be a repeat offender, in my opinion. When things aren’t going his way, he’s wrecking guys,” Denny Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast after Austin Cindric wrecked 23XI Racing’s Riley Herbst last week. Remember COTA earlier this year? Cindric’s right hook on Ty Dillon cost him a $50,000 fine and a 50-point penalty from NASCAR, and Hamlin hasn’t forgotten. The co-owner of 23XI Racing added, “As a car owner, I’m not liking Austin Cindric spinning out Riley Herbst, and it’s starting to get on my nerves a little bit.”
“NASCAR will probably view it as a racing incident, but anybody with any driving experience would say that he got p—– he got squeezed, and he wrecked the No. 35,” said Hamlin, not letting it slide, either. He’s calling on NASCAR to step in, warning, “Cindric’s getting a couple of close ones here where NASCAR needs to start taking habitual behavior into account.” It’s a heavy accusation, and Austin Cindric has stepped in to defend himself from all the noise.
Austin Cindric comes clean on his wreck with Riley Herbst
The incident that sparked this firestorm went down on Lap 201 at Martinsville, a track already notorious for tight racing and short tempers. Cindric, driving the No. 2 Ford for Team Penske, found himself caught in a three-wide squeeze between Riley Herbst in the No. 35 and AJ Allmendinger in the No. 16, their cars door-to-door, inches apart, barreling down the front straightaway. Then, chaos. Cindric’s left front got clipped by Allmendinger’s right rear, sending him up the track and into Herbst, spinning the 23XI driver into the wall. While it felt accidental, some said it looked intentional, and Cindric slammed that point of view.
Austin Cindric’s not backing down. In a candid chat with FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass ahead of Darlington, he laid it all out, “Kind of got jumbled up there off turn two, got us all three wide, and spent the entire front straightaway kind of getting squeezed, and kind of just got shoved up into the 35 and spun him out. So, on my end, it was nothing… Just a bit of a three-wide situation gone wrong. Unfortunately, I feel like the lesson for me in that is, you know, I’m the first one with an opportunity to lift to make it not three wide… So, I think that’s the kind of major takeaways for me, and obviously, that contact affected Riley’s race and his finish.” At Martinsville, Herbst’s day ended in frustration, finishing P32 after that spin, a tough hit for a rookie still proving himself.
Pockrass pressed him whether he had time to avoid it? Cindric didn’t hesitate: “No, pretty slight contact from 16 after, you know, once we got an entry in the braking, and yeah, at that point, you’re braking into the corner and the smallest margins, you know, upset cars, and yes, unfortunately, that happened.” Then came the big question: with his past under scrutiny, does he worry people will think he ran into Herbst on purpose?
Cindric’s response was measured. He reflected on the nature of the incident and what he could control, rather than focusing on stuff that was out of his hands. “Yeah, I mean, I feel like that one’s a bit of a stretch to look at and go, ‘oh man… he’s out to get him,’ especially if you kind of look at what happened and what happened before that, that even got us three wides. So, other people’s opinions are things that I cannot control. But past that, I think the only thing I can’t control is my relationship with Riley,” said Cindric. Herbst is the new kid on the block, and Cindric doesn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with him.
Austin Cindric on the contact with Riley Herbst last week at Martinsville. Some viewed it as possibly intentional. Cindric said it wasn’t. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/ESIutIo30m
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 5, 2025
Riley Herbst is in his rookie season with 23XI Racing and has been carving his path through NASCAR’s wild world. After inking a multi-year deal with the team back in November 2024, he stepped into the No. 35 Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota Camry XSE for 2025, a move that’s got folks talking. His journey’s been a grind, from dominating in ARCA to battling in Trucks and Xfinity, where he snagged wins like that epic last-lap pass at Indianapolis in 2024. However, his Cup Series full-time debut has got off to a rough start with no top-15 finish to his name yet, and Cindric made sure he apologized to Herbst for unintentionally ruining his race.
“I sent him a text right after the race and thought that I had some ownership in that. It’s kind of about all I can do to move forward. It doesn’t help his finish. At the end of the day, my race didn’t even matter because I wasn’t even going to finish anyway. It’s just kind of an annoying thing to happen on a day that was already challenging for us.” Cindric ended the race in 37th with an electrical failure to top off a tumultuous night for the #2 team as Herbst finished not too far ahead in 31st.
You can feel the weight in his words. Austin Cindric owns the mistake while fiercely rejecting the idea of intent. And that text to Herbst was personal as he’s trying to keep a bond intact despite the wreckage. Cindric’s had a rough 2025 so far, with incidents piling up and Team Penske still searching for consistency since the pole at Daytona. This wreck just piled onto an already rotten day.
The only glimmer of hope for Cindric entering Throwback Weekend at Darlington is that he will be adorning the paint scheme of a driver with the second most victories ever at the ‘Track Too Tough to Tame.’
Cindric’s special tribute for the Intimidator
Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford Mustang is rolling out with a paint scheme honoring Dale Earnhardt, a legend whose name still echoes through the sport. It’s a tribute, a piece of history roaring back to life. Earnhardt has 9 victories at Darlington in his Cup Series career, only behind the legendary David Pearson, who boasts 10 wins at the ‘Lady in Black.’ The scheme is a reprisal of the yellow and blue car that ‘The Intimidator’ rocked during his days with Rod Osterlund Racing.
Austin Cindric couldn’t hold back his gratitude. “There are few names in our sport more recognizable than Earnhardt,” he said. “The opportunity to pay tribute to a legend while also recognizing the incredible history of the No. 2 in NASCAR was the goal behind this scheme. We’ve had a lot of fun working through the details,” Cindric added.
That No. 2 car is a time machine. In 1979, Dale Earnhardt Sr. won Rookie of the Year with it, then his first Cup title in 1980. Now, Cindric’s behind the wheel, carrying that legacy. “Austin texted me a few days ago to see what I thought,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared on X. “I told him it’s always such an honor for our family to see dad represented during the Darlington throwback weekend.” Can you imagine how that feels for the Earnhardt family? Seeing their legendary father’s colors as a rookie reprised at a track where he was so incredibly successful.
On April 6, at the Goodyear 400, this car hits the track, and it will be a story of respect, memory, and heart.
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