Apparently, Austin Cindric simply cannot stay out of trouble on the race track. This year itself, the Roger Penske driver has been involved in a fair few incidents, and crucially, some of them appeared deliberate. At COTA, he blatantly wrecked Ty Dillon and was docked 50 drivers points, along with a fine of $50,000. Many argued that, thanks to his connections and last name, he was let off the hook as such a contact warranted suspension.
This close call should’ve been enough for the Penske driver to be mindful of the acts he pulls off on the race track. Especially when the playoff waiver and officiating could really hamper his season. But, with close-quarter racing at Martinsville, the No. 2 Ford was once again mired in another race-related incident and this time, it was Riley Herbst who was on the receiving end.
The entirety of the last week was mired in the chaos and chatter after what transpired in the Xfinity race. Perhaps this was the reason why Cindric’s questionable act didn’t come to the limelight. But the journalists present at Darlington Raceway wanted to know about the incident. The Penske driver simply wiped his hands clean of any wrongdoing when asked about the contact with the 23XI Racing rookie.
Austin Cindric offered his version of what went down in Martinsville
Austin Cindric told Bob Pockrass, “Kind of got jumbled up off of Turn 2. Got us all 3-wide, spent the entire front straightaway getting squeezed. Kind of got shoved up into the #35 and spun him out. On my end, there’s nothing. Probably, it’s the first lap I spent side-by-side with Riley. I have no issues with Riley either, so I hope that’s somewhat clear to see. Just a bit of a three-wide situation going wrong.”
This incident happened on lap 202, where Austin Cindric was caught in a three-wide. Sanwiched between A.J. Allmendinger and Riley Herbst, Cindric was looking to break himself free. Coming off the frontstretch, both Allmendinger and Herbst lifted off the gas to make the corner entry. But, the Penske driver did something different; rather than making a left turn he delayed his corner entry and rammed into the No. 35 car. And this, for many, seemed like an intentional contact where Cindric could’ve easily avoided the crash.
Credit to him, he did acknowledge that he could’ve done a better job in that situation.“Unfortunately, I feel like the lesson for me is that, I’m the first one with the opportunity to lift to make it three-wide. I wasn’t fully alongside everybody, with as far back as we were running, it was probably the right thing to do. Especially if I had known that we would be staying 3-wide for more than a corner.”
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
Cindric then made a bold declaration that he did not care about others’ opinions of him. Instead, he was more concerned about his rapport with Herbst and making it up to the youngster. The two of them have known each other for a long time, especially while they were climbing up the NASCAR ranks. After the race, the first thing Cindric did was clear the air between himself and Herbst. Now, there is nothing more that they could do but to move on. However, the same cannot be said for Herbst’s team owner.
Denny Hamlin calls out Austin Cindric’s antics on the racetrack
In light of this, some of Cindric’s contemporaries spoke about the #2 driver. Chief among them was Martinsville race winner Denny Hamlin, on his podcast. Make no mistake, the JGR star praised the Roger Penske protege’s racecraft but drew the line at the aggressive tactics.
He said, “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 that Austin Cindric seems to be losing his mind a little bit more than usual, and I can only say that because I did give him a lot of credit earlier in the year on his superspeedway driving and being smart inside the race car, but he’s starting to be a repeat offender.”
About what happened with Herbst, an argument could be made to classify it as a racing incident. However, Hamlin thought that it was a deliberate crash by the Team Penske driver. He conceded that Cindric was forced into the wall; that was part and parcel of racing at Martinsville. To that end, he feared that this could set a dangerous precedent because this isn’t the first time Austin Cindric has lost his cool.
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