2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, representing the Air Force, won the first-ever Proud to Honor Veterans Day Classic, featuring 12 Ford Mustangs in a 30-minute contest around the Daytona International Speedway contest.
He beat Robert Noaker, who wasn’t even an original entry, taking over for 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney as he suffered a fall a day after winning the Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Cindric and Noaker went back-and-forth throughout the race, with Cindric taking the win just 0.136s ahead of Noaker.
It was an epic battle as Cindric, a Daytona 500 winner, NASCAR O’Reilly champion and Rolex 24 podium finisher faced off against Noaker, a two-time champion of the IMSA Ford Mustang Challenge Series with wins in the Mazda MX-5 Cup and Michelin Pilot Challenge GS class.
“Air Force, hell yeah!” said Cindric after the race. “That’s an awesome, awesome way to end on Veterans Day. This has been an amazing event and I had a ton of fun racing Robert there. He’s definitely the future in these kind of cars and I’m just thankful for all our servicemen and women that make things like this possible. Hopefully those families that were here tonight and watched at home were able to take away all the fun and the joy, but also see how much, you know, myself and everyone at Ford Racing really, truly appreciates everything that our veterans do. Awesome.”
On the battle for the win, Noaker thinks he knows where he lost, and it was at the very start: “Probably the start of the race, just not using tires up,” said Noaker. “Yeah, he [Cindric] had a bit more braking ability into the corners and I think I had a bit more top end speed on him. So it made a fun duel there, you know, just trying to adapt and learn how these cars race together. It was so much fun.”
Ryan Preece finished third, Logan Sargeant 4th, and Brad Keselowski fifth. Layne Riggs, Joey Logano, Joey Hand, Ben Hobson, and Noah Gragson filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Ty Makeski and Jenson Altzman finished 11th and 12th, respectively.
Along with Blaney, Frankie Muniz was also set to be among the driver lineup, but he was involved in a practice crash earlier in the day and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. While he was released a few hours later, Muniz was unable to take part in the event.
Complete race recap
As for the race itself, Cindric earned pole position for the exhibition event. Noaker, filling in for Blaney, started from the outside of the front row, with Sargeant starting third.
The 30-minute race got underway with Cindric in command, but Noaker quickly moved into the lead. Cindric stayed with him as they quickly drove away from the rest of the field.
Back in the pack, Majeski spun entering the backstretch chicane and Gragson narrowly avoided colliding with him.
The battle for third was interesting too, as Navy teammates Sargeant and Preece went back-and-forth for the final podium spot.
With nine minutes left, Cindric finally found a way back around Noaker, but the two drivers remained close as they left the rest of the pack far behind.
Logano lost a rear bumper in the Daytona tri-oval, with the bumper simply flying off and coming to rest on the apron.
Noaker reclaimed the top spot a lap later, and the back-and-forth continued.
Altzman, who was running a strong fourth, went spinning at the exit of the backstretch chicane and fell down the running order.
Riggs and Logano also had a spirited battle for sixth, with Riggs dipping his tires in the dirt and even running the apron around oval Turns 1 and 2.
Cindric snatched the lead back for the final time with four minutes to go on braking into Turn 1, and held back Noaker for the remainder of the race.
Ford Proud to Honor Veterans Day Classic race results
| Pos. | Driver | Army Branch | Margin |
| 1 | Austin Cindric | Team Air Force | — |
| 2 | Robert Noaker | Team Marines | -0.136s |
| 3 | Ryan Preece | Team Navy | -5.340s |
| 4 | Logan Sargeant | Team Navy | -6.706s |
| 5 | Brad Keselowski | Team Army | -10.376s |
| 6 | Layne Riggs | Team Space Force | -12.085s |
| 7 | Joey Logano | Team Coast Guard | -12.360s |
| 8 | Joey Hand | Team Army | -28.095s |
| 9 | Ben Hobson | Team Marines | -29.302s |
| 10 | Noah Gragson | Team Space Force | -46.463s |
| 11 | Ty Majeski | Team Coast Guard | -50.870s |
| 12 | Jenson Altzman | Team Air Force | -1 lap |
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