By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net -C/O Ford Performance
Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton will both be competing in this weekend’s All-Star Race after victories last year secured their spots. Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is one of three Team Penske drivers in the field while Burton will be driving the No. 51 Morton Buildings Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU’VE SEEN JOSEF NEWGARDEN WIN BACK-TO-BACK INDIANAPOLIS 500’s AND WHY WOULD HE WIN A THIRD? “Well, I think it comes down to fast cars, right? I think Josef and the guys have been able to fully execute the races and that’s what it gets to. I saw an interview talking about how it was like a war and you go through all the battles and I think there’s a lot of similarities from that mentality what we do every weekend here on the Cup side, but I see no reason why they can’t. It seemed like they had a pretty decent test and looking forward to see what they can do next week.”
DOES YOUR MINDSET OR DRIVING STYLE CHANGE FOR THE ALL-STAR RACE? “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t say it necessarily requires it. I think with maybe some of the different challenges of this racetrack specifically or some of the challenges with the format it’s obviously a bit more of an extended weekend with the qualifying, the pit competition and heat races and obviously a lot of lower series getting to be spotlighted with modifieds and the late model races, and obviously the Truck Series as well. I think that makes the weekend fun and a bit of the nostalgia of going to a place like North Wilkesboro.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE BACK IN THIS RACE? “I think first of all just being a part of the race and some of the biggest names in the series and to have a shot to go up against them and try to win the thing is big and important. It’s not a points race but there’s a lot of cash on the line and definitely a cool title to go with it, so the All-Star Race is something that’s been going on for quite some time. It’s jumped around to some new venues and it’s changed formats, but it’s definitely a cool event. As far as last year goes, I feel like I definitely had a car that was fast enough to advance on from the Open, so I’m looking for some redemption in that aspect, but kind of pick up where we left off as a team as well because it was a strong event for our company.”
HOW DO YOU THINK HAVING HOOSIER TIRE RUBBER LAID DOWN WILL HAVE AN EFFECT ON TRACK CONDITIONS, ESPECIALLY WITH THE TIRE YOU GUYS WILL HAVE? “I think for me specifically it doesn’t impact. I think it impacts the Open cars for sure with the modified race having their full weekend schedule being before the Open race on Sunday afternoon. By the time the Open race is over, all of that should be cleared off and we’re really first cars on track on Friday as well, so I think for anyone that is locked in it’s not a large variable or question, but I think definitely those guys in the Open.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PROMOTER’S CAUTION? “I have a hard enough time keeping up with all of the different format stuff. I guess getting to lap 220, are we gonna not have a caution or a caution before that? Whatever it’s gonna be. I just do what I’m told at this point. I don’t feel like I’m established enough to have that great of an opinion or have one that I think anyone is gonna care about, so at this point it’s just trying to maximize this format. That’s really how I feel. In some ways, I feel like I’ve had to do more prep work for this weekend than I’ve actually had to do for a regular season race, not because I want to win any race more than the next, but there are a lot of new things and a lot going on that you have to be prepared for and pay attention to.”
WHAT IS GOING TO BE KEY TO KEEP YOUR MOMENTUM GOING AND WHAT THINGS CAN BE IMPROVED ON BETWEEN NOW AND THE PLAYOFFS? “I think I can answer both questions with the same answer. I think it’s completing good days. We’ve had some really fast race cars and kind of missed the mark on being able to maximize and capitalize on most of those races. I feel like in a lot of ways that’s been the positive and negative of our season so far and we have some things to clean up, but also I have a lot of positives as well. It’s something I’m excited about because the things we do right as a team and we can do them consistently we’re a bit of a machine in that sense. We get the rest of these smaller details cleaned up, I see no reason why we can’t go from really good to great.”
ALMOST HALF OF THE RACES LEFT IN THE REGULAR SEASON SEEM TO FIT INTO YOUR WHEELHOUSE. WHAT MORE OF AN OPPORTUNITY IS THIS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM AT THESE ROAD COURSES AND DRAFTING TRACKS COMING UP? “They’re definitely opportunity races for many and not just us. I think that’s a good way to think about it from a numbers standpoint. I hadn’t really put together the schedule and looked at it that way, so I appreciate the heads up on that. I think for us the road courses have honestly been more frustrating than satisfying recently. COTA was obviously probably one of the larger negatives from a performance standpoint in the last couple seasons driving this car. I think we’re very motivated to improve that side of our program. On the flip side with the speedways and drafting tracks as you mentioned, Atlanta and Daytona to finish out the regular season, those are also both opportunity races that I can certainly see us having fast race cars and shots to win. With that all being said, I think those have to be looked at as opportunity races for many, but they’re also races that you can really fall behind. Like anything else, you have to live week to week in this deal and I see that as no different.”
NOT DOING THE RUN WHAT YOU BRUNG KIND OF RACE, DO YOU LOOK AT THE ALL-STAR RACE AS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO NOT TAKE A BIG SWING? “I think it’s more of a missed opportunity because I think everybody knows that was on the table. It’s like bringing home cake and then not letting us eat the cake, so I think that’s the problem. If I didn’t know that cake was an option, I wouldn’t maybe be as disappointed. I feel like you guys probably share the same sentiment. I think it would be really cool. Would it fix anything or change anything? Gosh, there would be a lot of information to break down and I think whatever effort once we put forward to continue to improve the platform at the shorter tracks it has to be somewhat of a collaborative effort I would have to imagine. I’m not sure us competing against each other, I think that’s gonna get the best ideas out there, but maybe that’s not the best collaboration. Once again, it’s something that I haven’t really considered. I thought the opportunity would be really cool just because I think we have a lot of really smart, creative individuals in our building and I love to see the ideas and if it’s on a larger scale I think it would be fun to see. From the regular race fan standpoint, I’m not sure how much that would or wouldn’t change. I think it would be fun for the hardcore guys, but otherwise it is what it is. I think the large consensus is it’s an area our product probably has room to improve.”
DO YOU ACCEPT GOING INTO THIS RACE THAT IT’S NOT GOING TO BE YOUR TYPICAL RACE? “Yeah, if somebody spins out and hits the wall randomly I’m gonna have to live with it too. It doesn’t really bother me that much that we’re gonna have a promoter’s caution because unless I’m the caution, I can’t control it in any way or if I have some impact on the yellow, if I spin another car. There’s only a few opportunities I get to normally have on a caution anyway and they’re usually both negative, so from that point it’s just the racing Gods or maybe on earth this time. Past that, with different formats there are different ways to beat your competitors and when you change things up, you’ve got to make sure that you’re ready to capitalize on those opportunities.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO DRIVE THE SWITCHGEAR OR ANY OTHER FORD PERFORMANCE EV DEMONSTRATORS? “I got to drive the Switchgear for a couple days. I got to show my dog around it and he was all about it. He loves going for a car ride, but it’s cool that Ford has gone out of their way, whether it’s with the electric demonstrators or whatever else it might be. I think you see that the road cars are either all business or all fun, and I think anytime you get to showcase the driving experience with the Switchgear, obviously it’s all electric. I’ve driven Ford vehicles. I’ve driven racing vehicles that are all-electric. The performance application is definitely a lot different than maybe in an ICE vehicle, but it has a place in motorsports for sure, and I feel like that’s sometimes hard to conceptualize without actually going out and experiencing it. I feel like I’m basing that most off of racing in Nitrocross with all-electric, 1000 horsepower car. You don’t even have to wait on turbo lag, it’s just like, ‘Bam, you’ve got 1000 horsepower. What do you want to do with it?’ In that instance the torque is just so cool because it’s something that’s not really available. Even having the street car, I think I saw Noah ramped it off some stuff. I’m sure Ford appreciated that (laughing), but I didn’t find anything to ramp it off. It was raining, so I might have just stood my foot on the gas and spun the tires a little bit, but that’s about as far as I took it.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 51 Morton Buildings Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DID THIS DEAL COME TOGETHER? “It was kind of casually, I would say is a good word for it. It seemed like a good fit for both of us with me being eligible and being able to run the All-Star Race because of my win last year, and them wanting to have a car in the All-Star Race and wanting to go compete and try and run as good as we possibly can. So, it kind of just came together through conversation. Having known the Rick Ware Racing group from being in the garage and over time it became more and more real and all of a sudden we’re here and getting ready to go racing this weekend.”
HAD YOU PUT MUCH THOUGHT COMING INTO THE YEAR ABOUT AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THIS? “Yeah, it’s really cool. You kind of never know if an opportunity will come and having an automatic bid into the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race is such a big deal to me. Being in the race is a big deal and especially having my story with how it’s gone – of the ups and downs and now having a chance to kind of go and run in the All-Star Race is such a cool moment for me and something I’ve been really looking forward to. I don’t know about worried, but I really wanted to make this deal work out and I’m really happy it did and how it did.”
WHY DOES IT MATTER SO MUCH FOR YOU TO BE IN THE ALL-STAR RACE? “It’s really cool. I think you said it right. I’ve watched the NBA or the NFL and the things they do are not, they just don’t seem to care as much, whereas last year we had guys fighting over the All-Star Race. It just shows what NASCAR is about. If you give us a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, people are gonna come and they’re gonna give it their all. It’s just how competitive the sport is, how much it means to everybody and that’s the same for me. At the end of the day, it being the All-Star Race is really, really cool, but it’s still a NASCAR Cup Series race and just being involved in that is something I’ve always wanted to do. I got a good chance to do it the last three years and know that I’m capable of doing it. I want to keep getting chances to try to prove that.”
CONNOR ZILISCH HAS COME UP AND GONE OVERSEAS. BRENT CREWS HAS DONE THAT. WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLE FIVE OR SIX YEARS YOUNGER THAN YOU AND HAVE THAT EXPERIENCE, DO YOU SEE THAT AS THE FUTURE FOR KIDS AS FAR AS MOVING UP THE LADDER? “I think it changes, and I think it doesn’t matter what you drive as long as the talent is there. Connor has this great advantage being a world-class road course driver and that’s something he kind of grew up doing, but he’s also just a talented dude on ovals, too. He’s fast. I’ve gotten to race with Connor a lot this season in the Xfinity Series and got to be kind of buddies with him. He’s just a really good dude. I don’t know if it’s a product of how he grew up. I think as NASCAR goes more versatile, where we run road courses a lot, we run superspeedways, short tracks, mile-and-a-halves. We ran a dirt race for a while. You have to be a versatile race car driver. You have to be able to do all of the disciplines, and so I think, yeah, maybe one day if I have a kid that wants to get into racing, maybe I would push more to be more versatile, but I’m really happy with how I grew up racing, too. I had so much fun racing quarter midgets and late models and super late models, and that, to me, was just so much fun. That was one of the most fun years of my life, so I wouldn’t really change it. If the goal is to be successful, I think that’s the way those guys are coming up, so it’s obviously working for them.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE LAST THREE RACES WHERE YOU HAVE FINISHED IN THE TOP EIGHT? “We’ve had a good little stretch here of putting together clean races and grinding out good finishes. That’s kind of what’s important for our team right now. We’re a small team and growing. We have a lot of great people, but maybe not all the resources in the world. For us to bring back clean race cars and have done that throughout the year, that’s a credit to my spotter and our race team for not having massive mechanical failures as well, so we’re able to stack and build and make our cars better throughout the year. Now we’re starting to see the fruits of that labor. We’re really faster and faster, finishing better and better and continuing to stack up those and go up the point standings and hopefully that will continue to build into more top fives and hopefully wins. So, it’s been really good and I’m really proud of the guys at AM Racing for the effort that they’ve put in. The work ethic and the amount of time it takes for a small team to succeed the way that ours has, is really, really cool. This is something I’ll definitely cherish is how much those guys work on and put effort into that race team.”
WHAT WAS YOUR EXPECTATIONS BEFORE THE SEASON? HAVE YOU ME THEM SO FAR? “It’s hard to say. To be honest with you, when I came into the race team my goals weren’t necessarily finish-oriented. It was more the process. For me, I was legit the first hire of our entire race team. It was me and then we were gonna have to figure out a crew chief, car chief, engineer, I mean, everything. Being a part of that it was more step-by-step and that’s kind of how I approach my driving, too. Everyone wants to win, so that’s an obvious goal, but how do you get to that is really what matters, so focusing on that. I think I’ve done a good job of that. I think our race team has done a good job of that. We’re inside the playoffs. That was a big end of year goal was to make the playoffs, so we’re inside that cut now and we just need to maintain that and hopefully grow on that and get some more playoff points and continue to try and build towards the postseason.”
IS THERE A TRACK THAT STANDS OUT OVER THE SUMMER MONTHS WHERE YOU FEEL YOU COULD WIN? “That’s a good question. The next one. When I was really young I got in trouble doing that of being like, ‘Oh, this is a great racetrack for me. I’m gonna put a lot of effort into this because I think I can win,’ and you kind of lose sight of the next week, so, for me, Charlotte is our next one on the Xfinity side and I’m really excited about that one just because we’ve had time to massage on that race car a little bit. I’ve been in the sim a lot for that racetrack and so I’m excited about that and that kind of fits with my motive of focusing on the next race and not worrying about all that stuff, so I’ll go Charlotte.”
CAN YOU TALK MORE ABOUT ANY CONVERSATIONS YOU HAD WITH RWR ABOUT DOING THIS? “It’s kind of, for me, an interesting thing because as a driver, especially when I was younger, I tried to stay out of my own negotiations as much as I could because I just wanted to focus on the racing. I’m not a businessman. I’m not smart. I don’t know how to do that stuff, but this was very different because, and this is a lot how the AM thing was as well, where it was like, ‘Hey, we want you to drive for us, so how can we figure this out?’ From there, it’s easy for me to kind of go from there and take it more on my side, where other deals I’ve had in the past weren’t as easy or as simple as, ‘Hey, you don’t have a contract. Do you want to drive for us?’ That was my last two, so that was really easy for me to go for that and I think we’re all really excited for the All-Star Race and excited to see what we can do. I hope I can bring my best effort and go to North Wilkesboro and try to get a really good run and help Rick Ware Racing in that way as much as they’ve helped me by giving me this great opportunity, so it’s really, really cool.”
DOES WINNING LAST YEAR AT DAYTONA MAYBE ALLOW YOU TO HOLD YOUR HEAD UP HIGHER THIS TIME AROUND THAN MAYBE YOU HAD BEEN BEFORE THAT? “It’s definitely a good thing. This sport is results driven and the numbers say our results are pretty good for this year as our race team. Obviously, they’re not great. I think my crew chief and I have done a good job and we’re working really hard together and it’s never always about a driver, but speaking for myself I think I’ve done a good job of putting together good races. To be honest with you, I felt like I started to do that towards the end of my run in Cup as well, where even before and after the win at Daytona we started qualifying better, running better, and I think I learned a really big lesson from my Cup time in that way. The first two years or so I spent trying so hard to be something other than myself, and then after I got told I wasn’t gonna have the job next year I said, ‘OK, I’m just gonna kind of do this my way,’ and felt like I was more confident for some reason after that. There was no pressure anymore. It was, ‘OK, this is already a done deal, let’s just go race and enjoy this and work really hard and try and make the most of it.’ We started running better and I think I learned a really big lesson from that that I’ve carried to AM Racing and hopefully will carry for the rest of my career.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE PROMOTER’S CAUTION THAT COULD BE USED IN THE ALL-STAR RACE? IS THAT REMINISCENT OF ANYTHING YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE? “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a promoter’s caution before. There have been races throughout the years where you’ve had a planned caution so everyone can stop for tires or fuel and what not, but the fact that it’s in the air of when it’s going to be is pretty fun. As a driver, it puts some thoughts in your head of, maybe not for North Wilkesboro but if they continued that somewhere else, of if I go really, really hard on this run and burn up my tires, and they don’t throw that caution as soon as I was hoping, I’d pay the price for that or vice versa, so I don’t know. I’m interested to see how that plays out. It’s really nothing that, as a driver, you can control. It’s kind of like a normal caution to me. Say you’re running really well and someone spins out, it’s obviously not advantageous to you, but you just kind of have to play the cards you’re dealt. I’m interested to see how that plays out and seeing when they decide to throw it when they see fit for that.”
THE ALL-STAR RACE FORMAT CHANGES EVERY YEAR. IS THIS WHAT IT REPRESENTS TO YOU? IS IT MORE ACCEPTABLE BECAUSE THAT’S PART OF WHAT NASCAR DOES WITH ITS ALL-STAR RACES? “Yeah. Obviously, the All-Star Race in the past years has been a good test ground for different things. I remember they ran the underglow in like 2020, so they’ve played with some different stuff. I don’t know that I have a really strong opinion one way or another about it. I think, to me, it’s less of a change than when they took all the horsepower away at Charlotte. It’s something to keep the fans interested and, to me, I don’t really hate it. I don’t have a strong opinion either way about it. I have heard some people that don’t like the idea of it and, to be honest, I don’t have enough clout to say that my opinion matters right now. I’ll just roll with that.”
HOW DO YOU RECALIBRATE YOUR PATHWAY BACK TO CUP? HOW DO YOU VALIDATE THAT YOU’RE A SUNDAY DRIVER EVEN THOUGH IT’S NOT ABOUT WINNING THIS SEASON IN XFINITY? “That’s a great question. For me, it was a risk to do this pathway of going to AM, a team that was coming off of a really, really rough season on their end. For them it was a risk going to a driver that had just lost his job, but the thing that I think is really gonna help as far as getting me back on Sundays is, to me, it means more to be a part of a rebuilding race team and turn that team into a successful race team. For us, to be able to win a race, to be able to contend for race wins, that would be huge not only for myself as the driver on the racetrack, but also off the racetrack because there’s a lot of key decisions that I’ve been a part of, there’s been a lot of things that I’ve been a part of week in and week out to try and be a part of building this race team, and it’s made me a better race car driver. I’ve learned more ins and outs of race teams and more tough decision-making and been through tougher situations in this year than a lot of times in my career, so I think that is valuable, just as how it was valuable for me to race with the Wood Brothers and learn from Len and Eddie Wood and Joe Gibbs and Kyle Busch. I’ve been all over the place and in a lot of different ownership groups with how they run things, so I’m starting to learn all this stuff and I think I’m getting more valuable on the team side as well as on the racetrack.”
NOW THAT YOUR SUNDAYS ARE FREED UP. CAN WE SEE YOU IN A SUPER AGAIN? DO YOU HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS AT PENSACOLA? “I have a Snowball Derby that got away that’s stuck in my head. I won the pole one year, and I can’t get over it still, to be honest with you. I would love to do it again. I just need to find the right situation and try and find a way to do that. I think the year that we really had a good chance to win we sat on the pole, like is still to this day one of my proudest achievements in racing – to sit on the pole for that race. That racing means a ton to me. I’d love to get back. I don’t know how or when and I’m honestly really busy with the Xfinity stuff as well. I thought I would have all of these Sunday’s off and have time to do stuff and it’s turned into being just as busy. I would say that I would love to, but I’ve got to find the right situation for it.”
YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU HAVE LEARNED, BUT WHILE YOU’RE LEARNING YOU DON’T LOSE CONFIDENCE. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO STAY CONFIDENT WHILE LEARNING? “I think results are always huge for that. I’m a results driven person, so whether it’s finishing well at times, whether it’s races where we have runs that we run really well, a lot of the years past in my career it was if you didn’t win, that was the worst weekend in the world. What I remember when I was racing at Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, that was the standard. That’s the standard that guys like Chrisopher Bell set before you and you were trying to carry that on. With this program, I’m trying to set a new standard and our race team is setting new standards, new process, and so I think you obviously want to be results driven, but changing your mindset to being process driven and what did I do well, what did I do poorly and then working on that. To me, being prepared when you show up at the racetrack is what drives me to being confident, so the more I can be prepared, the better off I’ll be.”
WHAT FEEDBACK HAS HELPED YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU HAD TO OVERCOME? “I think, for me, just feedback from people I know that I respect greatly in the sport, whether it’s my dad. He’s a great sounding board for me, obviously. I talk to Dale Jarrett. He’s a guy that made it to the Cup Series, lost that ride, went back to at the time the Busch Series, which is now the Xfinity Series, and then went back to Cup and he was pretty decent in Cup. There are a lot of guys like that. Len and Eddie Wood are still guys that I talk to, and then just kind of my normal support system. I trust what they say. My dad, in particular, is not the type of day that’s, ‘Hey, I’m a soccer dad and everything you do is great.’ He’s gonna tell me when I make a mistake, so I listen to people like that in this sport that I respect. I take that and try to be the best driver I can be.”
DO YOU WATCH SOCIAL MEDIA OR FOLLOW IT? “I do, yeah. I’m on there and so I wouldn’t say I take advice from Twitter or anything like that, but it’s funny because you can get too into that – of what people think and what people don’t think. For me, it’s not a productive thing, so I don’t really care to take that to heart.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BRING THESE CARS BACK TO THE SHOP IN ONE PIECE? “It’s not necessarily a car count issue for us, but what it is is when you bring a car back in one piece and you don’t have to take a front clip off it, you’re not having to dismantle it to the same degree. Our biggest enemy on the Xfinity side right now is time, where we get all these races back-to-back-to-back and our guys are working really, really hard and all of a sudden you’re getting out of the shop on time, but you don’t have two days to sit there and massage on the race car. So, for us, to beat that enemy of time we have to finish the races with cars in piece, and that’s big teams and small teams. We’re both fighting the same things. The smaller teams it might be a little bit more important, but if you go on a run where you wreck three or four race cars on a big team, that is for sure felt as well. That’s always been a thing in racing and especially in the Xfinity Series, but it’s been good to see the benefit of that and starting to see the guys that we have that are really smart, and I think a lot of them put the effort that they can into the race cars rather than just fixing the mistake that I made. That’s been a good thing for us.”
