NASCAR driver Austin Cindric certainly knows his way around an oval track. But he got his international racing start on the road courses, competing in open wheel and IMSA, and he still loves road racing.
That early career included some experience in Australia, including competing in the famed Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race in 2015 at just 17 years old and testing a Supercar for DJR Team Penske in 2016.
Now, a decade on, Cindric will drive for Tickford Racing in the Australian Supercars series 2025 in the final race of the season at Adeleide as a Wildcard entry.
That will extend Cindric’s racing year by a month. The Cup Series season concludes at Phoenix on November 2nd. From there, Cindric will have a few weeks to get up to speed in a Supercar before the Adeleide Grand Final weekend from November 28th to 30th.
The deal has been in the works for some time. Tickford Racing CEO Simon Brookhouse emphasized that the deal was a collaboration between Tickford, Ford Performance, the Supercars series, and Cindric’s Team Penske NASCAR team.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to do it without the help and connection from Ford, with all the guys at Tickford and kind of just piecing things together to see if it is all possible and then kind of go through the paperwork of how I get approved and this and that,” Cindric described the process.
But he noted that the idea of him racing in Supercars has been in the works much longer, since when he last ran in Australia and considered getting a seat in Supercars or Super2, the equivalent to the Xfinity Series.
“It’s been about 10 years since I’ve been down to Australia to go race. And there’s a certain point in time in my career that it was a legitimate consideration to go race full time there,” Cindric explained.
“As a young driver, it was something I looked at pretty heavily. And I’ve always kept a pulse on it… I have a lot of great relationships there. It’s really cool to see it all come full circle.”
For all his excitement, the track will not be easy to get to grips with. The Adeleide Street Circuit, a street circuit through a park in the city, challenges veteran Supercars drivers enough, much less a driver making his competition debut in the car.
“He will be challenged on the streets of Adelaide,” acknowledged Tickford Racing managing director Rod Nash, “but there is no better opportunity to allow this Wildcard entry to participate at the inaugural bp Adelaide Grand Final.”
However, Cindric might be helped by NASCAR’s own addition to the schedule of the Chicago Street Course for the past three years, itself a street track on a park in the city.
The announcement follows a series of Supercars drivers coming to NASCAR to race since the series introduced a new more similar car and added more road and street circuits to its schedule.
Most notably, Shane van Gisbergen won on his debut and switched to NASCAR full-time, but that list has also included current championship leader Will Brown, Cam Waters, and Will Davison in one-offs across NASCAR’s three series.
This is the first time the opposite has happened, a NASCAR driver coming to Australia to race in Supercars. Cindric hopes that it won’t be the last, saying he’d like more opportunities to race in the series in the future himself.
“All in all, it’s going to be a super fun adventure. It’s something that I look at as a great opportunity to, hopefully, do more races than just the one,” Cindric summarized.
“And I want to do well and represent myself as well as possible, but it’s a tricky course and an incredibly competitive series. So looking to see what I learned about myself and how well I stack up against a pretty stout grid.”
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