Daytona 500 Winner Austin Cindric Explains to Dale Earnhardt Why He Chose NASCAR Over IndyCar

In his own words, NASCAR rookie Austin Cindric is one of those few drivers who love not one form of racing but racing itself. This is something he recently opened up on in an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Daytona 500 winner opened up on many subjects in the recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download. But one of them that stood out was his passion for IndyCar.

“My childhood revolved around IndyCar racing. I hadn’t missed an Indy500 until the one got rescheduled because of COVID,” Cindric said. “From that standpoint, IndyCar really has been everything.”

The Penske driver went on to reveal that all his racing heroes and idols growing up were IndyCar drivers.

So this makes one wonder, if he loved it so much, why didn’t he pursue a career in IndyCar only?

Well, Cindric had an interesting, but perhaps the right theory on that.

“From an influence standpoint, I’ve always looked at it the same way and as hard enough as it is to make it as a driver and beggars can’t be choosy,” he said.

“So if you’ve got an opportunity to do one thing or the other, go do it.”

Austin Cindric describes the toll the NASCAR focus has taken on his passion for racing

Austin Cindric described how there are those who don’t have a chance to take on different forms of racing and then are those who are passionate about one thing.

“But for me, I’ve just loved driving and the more different things I get in, the more different cars I drive, the more I want to drive more,” he said.

“I have had less of that in probably the last five years just from having a focus primarily in the stock car stuff but it’s something I’ve really loved and something that’s made me probably different compared to a lot of younger drivers in my career.”

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