| Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup Series, heads into this weekend’s Round of 12 elimination race in 11th place, 29 points below the cut line. He participated in a NASCAR media call about his situation earlier today. AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET THIS WEEK WITH THE ROVAL AND IT BEING AN ELIMINATION RACE? “I think it’s a cutoff race and two pretty tragic races to start the Round of 12 here. We kind of have to go in here with the mindset of winning the race, which simplifies things in a lot of ways. It certainly simplifies strategy thoughts and thoughts in preparation for the race. It’s not the situation you want to be in, but it’s something we’re certainly prepared to go after and fight for.” CAN YOU TAKE ME THROUGH THE CHANGES WITH THE ROVAL AND PLACES LIKE 6 AND 7 AND THE FRONTSTRETCH CHICANE? “I think both are gonna be something that kind of changes your approach from a driving standpoint. From the race and the flow of the race, I don’t know how much of that all changes, but with the frontstretch chicane basically just really tightening up the radius of that first apex to finish the lap there, and obviously I haven’t done any laps on the racetrack. I’ve done some laps on the Ford simulator, but I definitely see that making it more likely to miss the corner, to be quite frank. You’re just basically taking away your runoff and the ability to have a mistake and maybe kind of just cut the curb. I think the curb strikes are gonna be a lot more aggressive with the car, believe it or not. They’re already pretty aggressive, but I don’t think how useable the curb is, I think is gonna be taken away because you’re essentially making the curb even more perpendicular to the track than it already is, so the approach angle is gonna be a lot different and I think how you have to approach it as a driver is gonna be a little different. How it affects restarts. That is in the middle of the restart zone now, so it seemed like the outside lane had a little bit of an advantage with being able to take that apex and accelerate out of it. What does that do to the left lane? Does it make that even more extreme? Does it equal out both lanes? That’s definitely something we’ll be looking for throughout the weekend.” HOW DO YOU MOVE PAST WHAT HAPPENED THIS PAST SUNDAY? “I think you kind of just have to move past it. That’s kind of one that was a lot more in hand, not saying a win was in the hand, but a really good finish and really good points were seemingly in our grasp there and definitely changes the outlook for this weekend and the results for our season. That one obviously stings. Kansas was a lot more my fault, which I can process how to deal with those problems and be better at my seat, but the opportunity lost there is definitely a little bit more difficult to deal with, but that’s kind of all part of it. If I had a point for every time I’ve said that’s the way it is or that’s the way she goes over the last 72 hours, I’d probably be above the cut line right now. That’s the way it goes.” WHAT HAVE THESE FIVE WEEKS BEEN LIKE WITH THE UPS AND DOWNS? “I think from a short-term perspective, a complete 180 for the first round and for the second round, but I think the consistent factor has been how fast our cars have been, how fast we’ve been, how well we’ve performed on track. That’s been an improvement throughout probably our standard of what we’ve been building up to throughout the season, so long-term perspective, I said in our Monday meeting, I was like, ‘I wish the season wasn’t five races left’ because I feel like the way we go about things as a group, success is usually repeatable. When Brian and I have have been able to get things figured out, we’ve put down solid results. On the flip side, when we’ve had something wrong or something we’ve been fighting, that issue is usually repeated until it’s solved and then what we’ve solved is usually repeated until something changes. I’m really encouraged by a lot of what I’ve seen from my team, from myself in the playoffs and in these races, but in the short term the last two weeks really sting. You can’t do anything about it. At Talladega, if you’re going into that race hoping that’s gonna be your big points day, you’re already probably a little bit behind and that was the case. We obviously find ourselves in pretty much what looks like a must-win situation and we’ll just take it in stride and go for it. It’s pretty simple.” HAVE YOU OR YOUR TEAM LEARNED ANYTHING IN THIS PLAYOFF RUN THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO THE REGULAR SEASON NEXT YEAR? “I think the speed and the performance we’ve had, I think that’s a combination of a year’s worth of work. It doesn’t just happen in one race, it happens with a lot of data, a lot of talking and a lot of conversations – a lot of smart people trying to figure things out. Like I said, a lot of hard work. I don’t think there’s one week or one thing that really clicks for everyone, but I do think, and I say pretty much every time I’m in a playoff media day, you learn the most about yourself and you learn the most about your competitors in the playoff format. I really do like that. I like that mentality because every race, it doesn’t matter if you’re as good as Kyle Larson or Denny Hamlin, it is a challenging format that really puts a ton of pressure on even guys that are excelling above the rest. I’m proud of how we’ve handled that. I said it when the playoffs started, there’s quite a few guys on my team in their roles that it’s their first time in the NASCAR playoffs in the Cup Series, so I’m just really proud of how everyone has really stepped up. A lot of things for us haven’t changed mentality-wise and process-wise and they’ve heeded results for us and that, to me, is the best-case scenario. That’s what I want to see out of me and what I want to see out of my team, but, at the same time, I see all these good things and I’m still in a must-win situation. All of that being said, I feel great about the spot my team is in and where I’m at from a long-term perspective and kind of even heading into next year.” LOOKING AT VEGAS NEXT WEEK. SOME CALL IT THE MOST IMPORTANT RACE OF THE SEASON BECAUSE OF THE PREP TIME FOR PHOENIX IF YOU WIN. IS THAT RACE ANY MORE INTENSE? “I think every playoff race you could make the argument for some reason to have some heightened sense of urgency for somebody, if not most everybody in the field. It kind of just ebbs and flows that way. Talladega looked to be the most important race of my season last week and now that’s Charlotte. That’s the same for me and a couple other guys. It’s no different than guys that think they can not only win the championship, but if they have extra time to prepare for Phoenix, they could be even better. You can look at that for Vegas and some drivers might look at Homestead as their best chance to win and Martinsville – all these places. I just think that more than not every race is – for 50 percent of the drivers in the playoffs, every race is the most important race of their season and that’s why you have mistakes. That’s why you have big, crazy things happen to playoff drivers and cars and teams because the pressure is on.” DID YOU GET OUT OF THE CAR TOO EARLY BASED ON THIS CONFUSION AROUND THE DVP POLICY? HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE IT MOVING YOUR FORWARD? “For us, we had some broken control arms, so do I know that at the time? Had I inspected the car? No, but at the same time you can go back and forth on what the right thing to do is or isn’t to do, but obviously it was the biggest, most cars collected in a wreck ever and I was just kind of amazed at all of the stranded cars and what that scene was like. I’m sure it was not a very great environment to be one of the safety workers and first responders because that’s just a lot of cars and a lot of damaged cars still trying to move. I think that was the thing that really stood out to me the most was observing all of that as it was.” AFTER GOING THROUGH THIS, HOW DO YOU MOVE FORWARD IF YOU’RE PUT IN A SIMILAR SITUATION IN THE FUTURE? “I was put in a similar situation in Daytona in ‘23 with guys telling me I’ve got to get our or move and at that point you either try and argue or plead your case. It’s a social interaction with a human. I mean, there’s a guy standing at your window net telling you that you’ve got to get out and he’s being told by somebody else to do that. It’s not necessarily what he’s saying, so don’t shoot the messenger and you kind of have to manage that a little bit. The moment your window net gets dropped, it’s over, so if there’s anything, you’re a momma bear for your window net more than anything else. And it’s just situational awareness too about what’s happening and how much damage you actually have and how likely is it you’re gonna be able to fix it. You have to play all those things in your head, but the last resort is definitely if you think you have a chance, you’ve got to protect that window net.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WILL GO FOR STAGE POINTS ON SUNDAY OR ARE YOU TOO FAR BACK? “I think, look, if something happens – I think the 45 and the 9 and the 11 in the first stage to where they’re not getting points or they’re out of the race or something like that, I think a lot has to happen for us to not just go for the win. Honestly, if you look at these road course events with how much flipping stages versus race finish and all that, I feel like everyone kind of averages out with a lot more similar points than they would if the race was just run straight up without the ability to flip stages, so I think the opportunity to gain points on road courses or lose points on a road course is pretty average, honestly. So, from that standpoint, 29 points back, I think you just put your best foot forward and go for a win.” YOU GET TWO 20-MINUTE PRACTICE SESSIONS, HOW MUCH MORE CAN YOU TRY OR IS IT JUST GETTING USED TO TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE TRACK? “I think it worked really well at Watkins Glen when we had this practice format, just between learning the tire. I mean, it’s a new tire for this racetrack, so any time you do that it’s always good to get tire wears and put in a long run. During our normal weeks where we just have 20 minutes of practice, it’s either we unload close and we do a long run, or we don’t unload close and we have to work on it and then have no idea what our fall off looks like until we get into the race. It kind of gives us an opportunity to work on it for the first run and then kind of put laps on tires for the second run ideally, so I think you can even look at it that you could maybe even do a mock run if you really wanted to with two sets of tires, but I think getting used to the track early on, see what your car drives like for the first session, and then the second one expect a lot of long runs.” |