“Horrible timing,” Defending Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric served as a juror for a murder trial in the off-season

Austin Cindric won the Rookie of the season last year.

“Horrible timing,” Defending Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric served as a juror for a murder trial in the off-season

Austin Cindric

2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric while talking to media before the 2023 season opener, revealed a wild experience he had during the off-season. The No:2 Penske Racing driver was summoned to serve as a juror for a murder case trial in North Carolina. Cindric and the rest of the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Last season’s rookie of the year was Juror No:5, and he had Roush-Yates employee as his fellow Juror. Cindric was actually summoned for jury duty two weeks after his Daytona triumph last season but was able to get a deferral due to his tight NASCAR schedule. He got a second opportunity to fulfill his constitutional duty midway through December.

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“I had to serve on a jury for a week-and-a-half in December on a … murder trial. It was a good life experience, horrible timing,” Austin Cindric said. He refused the opportunity to be the foreman and read the verdict as he didn’t want to make the headlines because of it. Cindric said, “Enough people knew who I was; I didn’t want to be the one to deliver the bad news,”.

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Austin Cindric wants to convert his Daytona 500 win into a Cup championship

Austin Cindric
Austin Cindric

Cindric pointed out that he would be delighted to win the Daytona 500 again. He said, “It’s weird because you try and think to yourself, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ It’s like, ‘Well, I’d be perfectly satisfied with just doing the same thing again.’ Which is kind of a strange place to find yourself in your career,”.

He added that he wants to get to the next level, in the Cup series, and win the Championship. Cindric said, “Because as a young driver, you’re always trying to get to the next level, find the next thing, find the next height. And past the Daytona 500 and a couple other marquee events, the next height is the championship,”.

“I want to do it all, man. It’s pretty simple – I want to be the best, I want to experience the best. And it’s those big events that are obviously marked on the schedule and certainly bucket list items or wins. I love this sport, I love driving, I want to do it all,” Cindric added.

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