2022 Daytona 500: Cindric's win was teammate Blaney's loss

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Austin Cindric’s victory in the 2022 Daytona 500 has its roots in the 2021 finish.

Yeah, that one — the one in which Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano had contact battling for the lead, and instead of Team Penske celebrating, Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell earned the victory.

The final lap Sunday at Daytona International Speedway featured a similar teammate vs. teammate dynamic, as Cindric and Ryan Blaney were working together ... and then apart.

"We talked about that a lot, as you would expect we did after the race last year," team owner Roger Penske said. "And I said, ‘Look, the best man wins at the end. I think we've got to work together.’"

The Penske teammates — and most of their Ford brethren — did work together. But some will wonder if Blaney worked together too much and maybe Cindric not enough.

Their contact coming to the finish line ruined any chance for Blaney to win while allowing Cindric to bask in the glory.

"At the end, I felt that with two cars up front and the speed we'd had all during the race, and obviously interesting we had six Fords up there and one Toyota, and Bubba certainly was hungry to win, too," Penske said.

"So we had to execute, and that's what we did."

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Blaney didn’t try to make a move to the outside of Cindric until maybe a little late, and Cindric blocked him, pinching Blaney into the wall and causing him to wreck. The result was a good one for Cindric — barely — as Bubba Wallace tried to take advantage of Cindric’s contact with Blaney but fell 0.036 seconds short.

"The last lap, I got good pushes on the bottom from the 23 [of Wallace], and then I was able to get Austin in front and off of [Turn] 4, where we were good enough to make a move," Blaney said. "I got blocked, and I ended up getting fenced [by Cindric].

"I’m happy for Roger Penske, winning the 500 on his birthday. I’m happy for [Cindric crew chief] Jeremy Bullins and everyone that works on that 2 car. It’s just one of those things. It didn’t work out. We still ended up fourth, but I don’t know another perfect position we could have put ourselves in to win the race."

Blaney didn’t want to get into the "fair or foul" discussion.

"I don’t know," Blaney said. "Congrats to him, I guess. You’ve got to throw a block in that situation."

Cindric saw it the same way: He did what he had to do. And he put Team Penske into the winner’s circle.

"I have absolutely zero regrets," he said. "Everybody behind me put themselves into position to win the race. I think I did the same. Obviously, it worked out quite well."

Cindric will get support from the Penske management. Of course, that includes his father, team president Tim Cindric.

Tim Cindric did talk with Blaney after the race.

"When you look at it, if there was a guy that deserved to win the Daytona 500, it’s Ryan Blaney," he said. "The frustration of finishing second and so forth ... he wanted to win the race."

When Team Penske wins a race such as the Daytona 500, all of the team employees earn a bonus. That fact wasn’t lost on the drivers last year, when they didn’t get it done after being in position. This year, they gave Roger Penske the ultimate 85th birthday present.

"I wanted to try to win the race for Roger Penske," Blaney said. "Whether that was me or another car, that’s what I was doing, and I didn’t want to make a move too early because that throws a big chance out the window."

Cindric believes those talks among the organization about how to handle that situation, in light of what happened a year ago, played a role Sunday.

"It played a role, but at the same time, I look at Ryan, and he's ... kind of been the guy that's honestly gotten the short end of the stick sometimes, as far as being a great teammate," Cindric said.

"We talked about it as a team on Monday before we left for Daytona, as far as what the rules were going to be there and how to manage that."

It’s easy to talk about but difficult in many ways to execute. Drivers are competitors and don’t necessarily like to think about the organizational impact when it comes to the checkered flag.

"Hopefully, I can repay the favor," Cindric said.

There might be a time for Cindric to do that. For the time being, though, Blaney has to feel like the ultimate team player.

"I made the decision of I wasn’t going to make a move until I was 100 percent sure that one of our two cars was going to win," Blaney said. "I was committed to him until I was 100 percent sure that one of us was going to win, and one of us did."

That one just wasn’t Blaney. It was one of those races after which you could say both drivers deserved to win.

Saying that wouldn’t take away from Cindric’s performance.

"If you looked at Austin this week and the way he ran, he didn't make a mistake," Penske said. "He was up second, third almost the entire race, and then, at the end, to be able to pull it off, which shows you the quality of kid he is and also the experience that he already has as a young man.

"We're very excited about the win."

Thinking out loud

NASCAR faces a tough decision this week when it comes to the wheels it confiscated from Team Penske and RFK Racing. The teams altered the pinholes for safety reasons, they said, to make sure the wheels were tight.

The new aluminum wheels potentially need to have burrs removed from the pinholes so the wheel remains tight. But NASCAR entered the race week at Daytona with a rule of no modifications to any vendor-bought pieces.

The wheels are bought by vendors, so the fact that Penske and RFK altered the pinholes should bring a significant penalty. There, of course, is skepticism that the teams did this specifically for safety maintenance. Altering the pinholes would have the tendency to make the holes bigger and, therefore, easier to take off or put on the wheel. A faster pit stop can make all the difference.

NASCAR is trying to create a new culture, and if it doesn’t penalize these teams, it will need to prove to the other teams that the stern warnings during the offseason meant something.

Social spotlight

Stat of note

Austin Cindric became the ninth driver to score his first career win in the Daytona 500. The others: Tiny Lund (1963), Mario Andretti (1967), Pete Hamilton (1970), Derrike Cope (1990), Sterling Marlin (1994), Michael Waltrip (2001), Trevor Bayne (2011) and Michael McDowell (2021).

They said it

"It's a racer's dream, and so many people get close to it, and I feel very grateful and very proud to be able to pull it off." — Austin Cindric on winning the Daytona 500

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!