What hope does NASCAR’s Austin Cindric have in Adelaide Supercars?  

The news that former Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric will race a Supercar in the championship finale on the streets of Adelaide in November is great for fans of both NASCAR and Supercars. 

But any expectations that Cindric, who will drive a Tickford Racing Ford Mustang in the twin 250km races, may be able to replicate what Shane Van Gisbergen did when he took a victory on his NASCAR debut in Chicago two years ago should probably be put on hold. 

Racing in Adelaide is a tough assignment, even for experienced Supercars pilots. Last year, the opening qualifying session ended in disarray when a number of drivers crashed at Turn 8, causing multiple delays and the session being declared because of the circuit’s curfew. 

His soon-to-be Tickford Racing team-mate Thomas Randle suggested how hard it will be for the American. 

“I think it’s going to be challenging for him because he’s being thrown in the deep end,” Randle said. 

“Adelaide is far from the easiest track on the calendar. It’s got some pretty brutal corners, obviously Turn 8. He’s gonna love it, I think it’s gonna be great for him and great exposure for Supercars and NASCAR. It shows the crossover is getting even stronger. 

“For sure, it’s gonna be probably a baptism of fire for him, but it’s cool that he’s coming to do it.” 

Cindric is an oval specialist and his form on road and street circuits is good, but not up with the Cup Series’ road course experts. This year, he has not qualified in the top 10 for any of the four road course or street events, with a best starting position of 13th at Watkins Glen, where he was 0.34s behind pole position. At Sonoma he was 1.14s from pole in 24th place, at Chicago 1.86s away (in 27th) and in Mexico the gap to pole was 0.54s, with Cindric starting 20th. 

When you take that average gap to pole of 0.97s and project it onto a Supercars qualifying session, that puts Cindric towards the back of the grid. If we ignore the red-flag-shortened 2024 session that left half the field with no representative times, that 0.97s gap would put him 23rd on the grid for the final race of the 2024 season and, a year earlier, 23rd and 21st for the two 2023 races. 

Coincidentally, that is almost exactly the gap that Supercars co-driver Jack Perkins found himself from pole in his second Xfinity NASCAR start at Portland last week. Perkins drove a solid race from 12th on the grid the following day and was challenging for third place when he crashed his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota late in the race. 

Van Gisbergen’s successes and other performances do suggest that swapping a Supercar for a NASCAR is somewhat doable, but doubt remains just how it will work out going the other way. 

Cindric can clearly drive and with sound preparation and some practice sessions on Ford Performance’s race simulator, there are few reasons to suggest that he is not capable of stepping up and raising a few eyebrows. But given the size of the task ahead, his fans would do well not to over-inflate their expectations.