By Jerry Jordan, Editor
The first Proud to Honor Veterans Day Classic came down to the final five minutes Wednesday night at Daytona International Speedway, where pole winner Austin Cindric and Robert Noaker swapped the lead three times in the final nine minutes before Cindric flew around the Ryan Blaney-Substitute driver for the pass that gave the Air Force the checkered flag by 0.136 seconds.
“I finally have something to put on the center of the Christmas card, so I did win a race this year after all the talk,” Cindric said after the charity event. “It was an awesome event. It was a great turnout. Huge kudos to everyone at Ford Racing and Daytona for putting something like this on for the veterans. The response has been really cool and awesome to honor the Air Force with a win tonight.”
“Robert and I had a blast,” Cindric said. “Obviously, there wasn’t anything completely on the line other than a trophy and bragging rights for the divisions of the military, but Robert made me earn it. It was fun to see a guy like that who is in the lower divisions be able to put up that strong of a fight and be unflappable the whole time. It was really cool.”
Noaker was not supposed to be in the race at all. The two-time Mustang Challenge North America champion was at Daytona as a driver coach and got the call Tuesday morning at breakfast, after Blaney fell and injured himself on Monday, taking him out of the Marines car.
“I was going to already be here for the event just to help the other drivers adapt to the car and I got the call that Blaney unfortunately had an incident and he wasn’t able to race,” Noaker said. “That’s probably the most fun I’ve had in this car in the three years I’ve driven it. I can’t thank Ford Racing enough and just racing for the veterans is such a cool show.”
“It was a blast to race Austin,” Noaker said. “I knew he was gonna race clean. He probably knew I was gonna race clean and it was so much fun to race that close and not have any contact and put on a great show for all the veterans here tonight.”
Ryan Preece brought the Navy home third.
“It was a good time. I had fun, but those two got away and I just had a good time,” Preece said. “It was great to be a part of it. I really appreciate Ford for putting this event on and honoring our troops. I wish we could have won it for the Navy, but certainly had a good time.”
The Classic put 12 Ford drivers in Mustang Dark Horse Rs with custom military-inspired liveries, six teams of two racing for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force and Coast Guard after a 15-minute qualifying session set the field for the 30-minute race on Daytona’s 12-turn, 3.6-mile road course.
One other seat also changed before the race ever started. Frankie Muniz was scheduled to drive the Air Force team’s second car but crashed in practice Wednesday afternoon and was taken to a local hospital for evaluation. He was awake and alert and was released Wednesday night. Jenson Altzman took over the car and finished 12th.
1. Austin Cindric, Air Force
2. Robert Noaker, Marines
3. Ryan Preece, Navy
4. Logan Sargeant, Navy
5. Brad Keselowski, Army
6. Layne Riggs, Space Force
7. Joey Logano, Coast Guard
8. Joey Hand, Army
9. Ben Hobson, Marines
10. Noah Gragson, Space Force
11. Ty Majeski, Coast Guard
12. Jenson Altzman, Air Force
The race was the centerpiece of a night built for the military community, with the Zac Brown Band headlining the music and Gen. Christopher Mahoney, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, unveiling the Proud to Honor trophy. Half of the ticket proceeds went to Blue Star Families and Ford’s Proud to Honor Fund supports six nonprofits that serve military members, veterans and their families.
Cindric has now won on the Daytona oval and on its road course and he already has his next target picked out.
“There’s only two races at Daytona I’ve entered, this is a subtle brag, that I haven’t won and it’s the truck race and it’s the Rolex 24,” Cindric said. “I want to win the Rolex badly and I’d love to do it with Ford and Ford Racing.”
