Cindric is the son of Tim Cindric, former president of Team Penske, and the grandson of Jim Trueman, founder of Red Roof Inn and a former IndyCar team owner. He grew up in North Carolina, racing semi-professional legends cars and Bandolero machinery before attending the Skip Barber Racing School. He graduated from Cannon School in Concord, North Carolina, on May 18, 2017, hours before competing in a Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
In 2013 and 2014, Cindric competed in the U.S. F2000 National Championship, first with Andretti Autosport and then with Pabst Racing Services, posting a podium at Lucas Oil Raceway. He also earned a bronze medal on his Global RallyCross Championship Lites debut at X Games Austin 2014.
In sports cars, Cindric made his IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge debut in October 2014 for Racers Edge Motorsports at Road Atlanta. In 2015, at age seventeen, he became the youngest driver to compete in the Bathurst 12 Hour, driving a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG for Erebus Motorsport and finishing 21st overall. He became the youngest winner in the IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge with a victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2015, co-driving for Multimatic Motorsports.
Cindric made his NASCAR debut in the Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway in 2015, substituting for the injured Austin Theriault at Brad Keselowski Racing. He ran additional ARCA and K&N Pro Series East events in 2016, winning at Virginia International Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and Kentucky Speedway.
In 2017, Cindric competed full-time in the Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing in their final season. He won at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on the final lap after making contact with leader Kaz Grala, a move that drew criticism from Justin Allgaier and Christopher Bell. Cindric defended the contact as a "last resort" required to secure a playoff berth. He finished third in the championship standings.
Cindric joined the Xfinity Series full-time in 2018, splitting time across three cars: Team Penske's No. 12 and No. 22 Fords and the No. 60 Ford of Roush Fenway Racing. The No. 60 entry was involved in 28 accidents across three drivers during the season. In 2019, running full-time in the Penske No. 22, he scored his first Xfinity wins with back-to-back road course victories at Watkins Glen International and Mid-Ohio.
In 2020, Cindric swept both Xfinity races on consecutive days at Kentucky Speedway, becoming the first driver since Richard Petty in 1971 to win national series races at the same track on consecutive days. He won the regular-season championship and entered the playoffs with five wins before clinching the series title at Phoenix Raceway. He led all drivers in top fives (19) and top tens (26) that season.
In 2021, Cindric won five races including the season opener at Daytona, Phoenix, Dover, Pocono, and the Indianapolis Road Course, but lost the championship to Daniel Hemric on the final lap of the season finale at Phoenix.
Cindric made his first Cup Series start in the 2021 Daytona 500, finishing fifteenth after a fiery last-lap crash, as part of a part-time programme in the Penske No. 33. On February 20, 2022, in only his eighth Cup Series start and first full-time season driving the Team Penske No. 2, Cindric won the Daytona 500. He became the ninth driver to win his first Cup Series race in that event and, at age 23, the second-youngest winner of the race. It was Team Penske's third Daytona 500 victory. Cindric also became the second rookie in NASCAR history — after Jimmie Johnson — to lead the Cup Series standings in consecutive weeks. He finished the 2022 season twelfth in points and won the NASCAR Rookie of the Year award.
After a difficult 2023 season in which he missed the playoffs and finished 24th in points, Cindric broke an 85-race winless streak in 2024 with a victory at Gateway. In the 2025 season, he was fined $50,000 and docked 50 driver points following a "right-rear hooking" penalty at Circuit of the Americas, then won at Talladega by 0.022 seconds over Ryan Preece.
In September 2025, Cindric was announced as a wildcard entry for Tickford Racing at the Supercars Championship finale in Adelaide.
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