DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With a front row starting spot in the Great American Race, most crew chiefs would have been content to start their qualifying race, run a few laps, shake down the car, and call it a night.
Not Brian Wilson. On his 45th birthday, and with 10 points on the line for the win, he agreed to let Austin Cindric race the No. 2 Team Penske Ford in the second Duel at Daytona.
Wilson didn’t have to ask his driver twice. Cindric not only was honored to oblige but delivered Wilson a present he won’t soon forget.
“The points were the only thing I could use to justify racing from my crew chief’s perspective, from a strategy towards the season, the points definitely do matter for the season,” Cindric said. “I feel like we were able to check a lot of our boxes early in the race, but I think there’s a lot of trust involved too.
“I’m very thankful that my race team trusts me to go out there and do that because, yeah, I left last night saying, ‘Hey, can I race, can I race, can I race?’ As a competitor, that’s all I want to do. That’s all I’m here to do.”
Cindric’s past performance in the Duels bolstered Wilson’s confidence. After winning the Xfinity title in 2021 and graduating to Cup in 2022, the 26-year-old racer went on to finish second in his next three Daytona qualifiers. He won the Daytona 500 in his rookie year.
But Cindric was determined not to be a bridesmaid once again.
“Every year I finished second in my duel, and that’s the first thing I thought was when the checkered came out,” Cindric said. “I thought I was second again, after they told me the 43 (Erik Jones), I thought it was going to be exceptionally close.”
Wilson wanted to take the temperature of the race before going all in. The No. 2 Ford started from the pole and led the first lap. Cindric found his teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney and got a feel for potentially how the draft would evolve on Sunday.
Following a 44-lap green flag run, Cindric pitted with his teammates and returned to the lead.
“Obviously, I was a little nervous there because I already have a car that’s locked into the front row,” Wilson said. “There were a lot of conversations today between me and Austin, how hard he would race.
“And when we came out there after the pit cycles up front, we decided to race for it and I’m just happy it worked out. Very happy and very proud of my team.”
Cindric was battling Erik Jones coming to the checkered flag when a wreck broke out behind the leaders. Despite Jones crossing the line first, the field was frozen at the time of the accident and NASCAR declared Cindric the winner.
“It wasn’t exactly expected,” said Cindric of his first Duel at Daytona win. “It’s weird. I guess from a due diligence standpoint, it’s better to have it right than not right, and the light was clearly on, and we were clearly ahead.
“I more just feel bad for Erik that he had to do the victory lap and all of that. Nonetheless, it’s definitely not something I’ve done before.”
Cindric didn’t get his victory lap. He didn’t get the checkered flag. And he didn’t ride the No. 2 Ford into Victory Lane.
“I did go up to get the checkered flag, and the flagman was gone,” Cindric said. “So I didn’t get the flag, which was a bummer because I was going to give it to Brian for his birthday present, but I don’t get to do that.
“If anyone knows where the flag is, I’m staying in the Airstream in the DO (Driver/Owner) lot right behind the Care Center. You can deliver it to me.”
