April 13, 2025
Despite only ranking 21st in points, Austin Cindric has looked consistently faster in 2025 than any previous season, so it's certainly plausible that he could get an unexpectedly strong result. However, the former road-course specialist has now steadily turned into a superspeedway specialist, and short tracks are not typically his specialty. He also qualified 21st for Sunday's race, far behind Ryan Blaney but well ahead of his other teammate Joey Logano. Cindric's best Bristol finish came in last year's night race when he finished 13th, but while he seems likely to have a regression to the mean after an unlucky season to date and a 50-point penalty, this seems far more likely to occur on a superspeedway than on any short track where he still lacks speed. He will probably finish around where he starts, and therefore has little DFS value.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 6, 2025
Team Penske's Austin Cindric nabbed a starting position of sixth after qualifying for Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. Cindric was the top qualifier of the three Penske entries for this week's race. In six starts at Darlington, Cindic has five top-20 finishes, but none inside the top 10, and he did score positive Place Differential three times. Through seven races so far this season, Cindric has two top-10 finishes and only once has scored positive PD. In practice, Cindric ranked fifth in overall lap averages, third in five consecutive, sixth in 10 consecutive, and fourth in 15 consecutive lap averages. Despite great practice speeds, Cindric is a risk who provides low upside with a track history that shows that he may not stay inside the top 10. Fantasy players should use Cindric mainly as a pivot option in tournament lineups for Sunday.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
March 30, 2025
Austin Cindric qualified 20th for Sunday's Martinsville race. Although he seems to be starting to become something of a weekly threat, Martinsville will probably be an exception to that. He did actually finish fourth in last fall's race, but unlike his No. 2 car predecessors Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, and Brad Keselowski, short tracks have hardly been his best discipline. That race was his only top-five finish on a short track, although his other top-10 showing also came here in 2023. It's certainly possible that his uptick in speed that we have seen elsewhere will show up here, but his current statistical record at the track suggests it probably won't, therefore he isn't likely one of the best DFS options.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
Although Austin Cindric had a reputation of fading to mid-pack in most of the races where he qualified well, that definitely seems to have stopped in 2025 as he has seemed to have a lot more staying power up front. In last week's race at Las Vegas, he overcame a loose wheel after winning Stage 1 to finish 6th. Such a recovery was not typical of him in previous seasons and the Team Penske cars seem faster on a race-by-race level than they have the past couple years. Given the fact that he qualified 8th at Homestead, Cindric will still probably lose positions in the race but he has been leading enough including at Las Vegas that there is a distinct possibility he might accumulate some leader and/or fastest lap points in this race, but he likely needs to lead to have any DFS value.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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