A pair of Ford drivers were guests earlier today as NASCAR hosted a media call prior to this week’s stop at Kansas Speedway. Josh Berry and Austin Cindric – both winners in the NASCAR Cup Series this season – spoke about what lies ahead.
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THIS YEAR’S RACE WHEN YOU DIDN’T FINISH A LAP IN THIS EVENT LAST SEASON? “Typically, I would normally look back on the most recent race, regardless of the weather or different conditions. Given that we didn’t really run the fall race, obviously I’ve already looked back on the spring race and then gonna look back on the fall race as well, but probably just spend more time looking at Ryan and Joey and Austin’s race from their vantage point and see what I can learn. Nothing really changes too much, honestly.”
YOU GO OUT SIXTH FOR QUALIFYING THIS WEEKEND. HOW WILL THAT HAVE AN EFFECT ON WHAT YOU WANT IN THE CAR AND WHAT YOU LOOK AT IN TERMS OF PRACTICE BECAUSE YOU COULD START IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK? “Nothing too much changes for practice. I think we want to run multiple lanes in practice to prepare and see how our car runs on the bottom and the middle. I think it’s realistic to realize qualifying is probably gonna be a struggle with how early we go out, but the biggest thing we’re hoping for is a base hit. If we can get in the top half of the field. Obviously, Bristol worked out really well. The conditions were uniquely fair with the track and the spray and everything that was going on there. Kansas will probably be a little bit harder, but I think for us it’s to try and make the most of it and get the best starting spot we can and know that it’s probably gonna be a challenge.”
ARE THERE ANY TRACKS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE ROTATION? “I think the first one that comes to mind is Las Vegas, not only because of us winning there, but it just seems to put on good racing and I think it’s a good market for the championship race as well. I think that checks those two boxes there. It’s a really good racetrack, but a really good area that could bring some excitement for the championship race.”
ANY SHORT TRACKS OUT THERE THAT COULD BE VIABLE LIKE MARTINSVILLE OR BRISTOL, OR DOES WEATHER BECOME A FACTOR? “I think if there ends up being a championship round, I for sure think there’s a place for those tracks in there, but for the championship race itself it feels like they would want to have a bigger track. I don’t know if that’s really the case or not, but I feel like the mile-and-a-halves seem to be a better option. It’s not something I’ve put a whole lot of thought into I guess.”
HOW DO YOU VIEW YOUR START? ARE YOU HAPPY ABOUT LEADING LAPS AND WINNING OR FRUSTRATED BECAUSE YOU’VE MAYBE LEFT SOME POINTS ON THE TABLE? “It’s a little bit of both. Obviously, we’ve definitely left some points on the table, but the biggest thing is just how you’re running. We’ve been qualifying pretty well and racing well, leading laps. Each race that the finish got away from us is for different reasons I feel like. I made a mistake and sped on pit road at Talladega. We were in a great spot there. Last week, we obviously saw what happened there. I mean, you look at Darlington, we were in the top five. At Martinsville we were leading the race and had an electrical issue, but the biggest thing is you judge yourself on how you’re running and how fast you are. I think that just continues to legitimize everything that we’re doing to prepare and everything we’re doing the week of these races and on race weekends that we’re doing the right things and we’re fast and we’re competitive and just have to keep working on the execution side of things and learning. But I feel like we’re in a really good spot.”
YOU ARE LOCKED INTO THE ALL-STAR RACE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU? AND THEN NASHVILLE IS COMING UP. HOW SPECIAL IS THAT FOR YOU WITH THAT BEING YOUR HOME TRACK? “The All-Star Race is really cool. It’s exciting to already be locked in and going into that race with a different mindset versus just going there trying to make the show. I was able to do that in 2023 in the 48 car and that was really cool, and then it was close last year. I think we ran third in the Open, but unfortunately didn’t make it. It’s fun going there knowing that we’re locked in and able to focus on that a little bit more. It should be a lot of fun. North Wilkesboro, they’ve obviously done a great job with that facility and how nice it’s become over the last couple of years. That’s exciting. Nashville, it’s always cool to go back and race there. I went there in my younger years watching some races in the stands and watching Busch races and ARCA races. It’s always fun to go back there and race. We qualified well there last year. We started second. We didn’t race like we wanted to, but I still felt like I learned a lot there and I’m excited to get there with the 21 group.”
HAS IT BEEN HARD FOR YOU TO NOT WANT EVERYTHING RIGHT AWAY? HOW HAVE YOU DEALT WITH TRYING TO BUILD THIS TEAM WITH PATIENCE? “Each one of these races has been a little different. It’s hard to say. I’m finding myself more and more up front and in contention, so that’s a different outlook and maybe I think at times I could be a little bit more patient, I guess, but I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I think the biggest thing is being fast and being competitive. That’s the hardest part about all of this, so it’s more about making sure you’re doing all the little things during the week to prepare yourself all you can and look at all that stuff, and maybe not being so focused on just being fast and being competitive, considering that we’ve been doing that. It’s just making sure we’re checking all the boxes outside of that and making sure we’re prepared for pit road and different scenarios. As we continue to work together more and more, I think we’re doing a good job of that. You take Texas for example, obviously we’ve seen how treacherous three and four can be, so it’s like even as fast as we are, we’re trying to look back on our weekend and see what we could have done a little bit better to make it a little easier for me and improving there when the groove is moving around and we’re going through those bumps. That’s really a lot of our conversation today was looking back on that after we’ve had a couple days to look through it and see what we could do better. But, all in all, everybody has done such a good job and the cars have been really fast and I’ve learned a tremendous amount here in a couple months of being in this environment. That makes me excited for the second half of the year for sure.”
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN AN ALL-STAR RACE? “I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I think going to different places. Going to new racetracks is exciting, kind of like what we did at Wilkesboro and even Bowman Gray, so maybe mixing it up there. I used to think that it was really cool back in the day when they used to, and I think I’m right on this, I remember they used to have a fan invert kind of thing, where you spun a big wheel like Wheel of Fortune and it set up an invert for the final stage, which I guess in a way it’s probably a little gimmicky, but you’re still leaving it up to fate like if you roll a dice. It’s no different than a dice roll, but at a short track or something like that. To me, something like that is more intriguing than just a predetermined caution kind of thing. I get the idea of it. You’re just trying to bunch everybody up and make it exciting, but I think if you throw something like that in there like maybe choose a fan out of the stands and they roll a dice and kind of leave it up to fate would be pretty cool.”
WHAT HAS RUNNING UP FRONT DONE FOR YOU AND THIS RACE TEAM? “It’s been really exciting, honestly. I think it’s just built up everybody’s confidence and we’re having a lot of fun. For me, it’s interesting because after you win a race people are like, ‘Oh, do you have pressure off of you now that you’ve won a race and do you feel that much different?’ If anything, I feel more motivated and more excited waking up every day than I ever have knowing that all this work we’ve put in, and it really started the Tuesday after Phoenix. We were in the simulator right after Phoenix working with these guys. We obviously spent a lot of time with them during the offseason and getting to know Miles and working with him, so it just legitimizes all that work that you put in is the biggest thing. You feel like you’re doing the right things and working in the right areas, and it just makes you want to continue to expand off that and prepare yourself even more and set yourself up for more and more of those opportunities. It’s been a lot of fun. I think in a way I left the situation last year kind of questioning if I could race at this level, and now you’re looking at a six month difference of leading laps in multiple races and I’ve won a race and a lot of excitement. It’s been quite a change, but it’s been a lot of fun to get to work with Miles. He’s done a really good job. Everybody on the team really has and they’re behind me a lot, even Sunday right there. ‘We don’t want you to change too much. We want you to keep hammering down and leading laps in these races and giving us opportunities.’ I’m excited to keep working off that.”
WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING THE MORE SPEND TIME RACING IN THE TOP 10 AND AROUND THE LEADERS? “I think you’re just building a lot of confidence. I feel like one thing with this car is it’s so different than what the majority of us have all grown up racing and just how it reacts. I’ve kind of learned and feel like I have a good understanding of the Next Gen car and how it wants to be driven, and what I need from the car coming to these racetracks. That’s kind of lining up with how Miles feels and how we’re able to prepare for these races, whether that’s decisions we make with the car or our prep at the simulator. I think it just builds a lot of confidence to know that you’re working in the right areas and doing the right things and then seeing it come to fruition. All in all, a lot of it boils down to just unloading really well and building that confidence early in practice, getting a good feel for your car that sets you up for a good qualifying session, and then obviously having good track position to start the race makes your life a lot easier. I think learning all of that stuff and building off of it is the biggest help.”
WHAT HAS OPENED YOUR EYES TO HOW ANOTHER GROUP OF PEOPLE DO THINGS? HAVE YOU PICKED UP DIFFERENT THINGS OR HAS IT REAFFIRMED THE FACT YOU WERE DOING THINGS THE RIGHT WAY ALL ALONG? “Being in this environment, I think, has helped me grow a lot. I feel better prepared going to the races. I do feel better prepared for whatever reason and feel like I’ve been in a little bit better of a routine throughout the week I guess. The 21 team and the affiliation with Team Penske, there’s a lot of structure here, which I think works really well for me. It’s not anything that I mind, and I feel like I’ve just gotten in a good routine of preparing each and every week. The biggest thing too is having “teammates” like Joey and Ryan and Austin to talk to that run as well as they do, and then obviously you’ve got championships and lots of wins that just elevate it. Sometimes you’re just comparing yourself off of them, if you’re feeling the same things, and a lot of times the little things like that can help build confidence too, that if we are all feeling really similar things, then that obviously makes me feel like I’m feeling the right things and you can go forward and get better. It reminds me more so of the time that I had at HMS and I feel like given everything that was going on at the time, I felt like I handled that really well and did a good job. Now, I kind of feel like I’m in a similar environment and we’re starting to see similar results.”
IS THERE A MAGIC SAUCE AT TEAM PENSKE THAT ALLOWS THEM TO WIN THESE CHAMPIONSHIPS? WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN FROM THE INSIDE? “Obviously, I don’t feel like there’s any strategy to prepare more towards the end of the season versus the start. I think they want to go out and win every race and be competitive every race, just like everybody else does. I think just with this car, as a group collectively if you get off, it’s easy to get everybody off in a way. Just thinking through it. If all the cars for a lot of these organizations, I think, are really similar amongst their teammates, so if you get going down a different path that maybe isn’t working, it might take you a little bit longer to get back to the other way. I just think they’re obviously strong from top to bottom. There are a ton of smart men and women at this organization who can put together really fast cars, and I think they’ve done a ton of work over the offseason to improve. We hit it out of the gate stronger than maybe what they did last year, but I don’t know too much of what’s different about it compared to prior years.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Atlas Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW CHAMPIONSHIP RACE MODEL? “I love the concept of it. You see it in most other major sports, so I think it will be exciting to see what that rotation looks like. I think it gives race fans a chance to be able to go experience a championship race, the biggest day of the season, the culmination of the season to be at their home track and that’s something I feel like we’ve never really had, so I think it’s a really exciting add for all of the fans around the country and hopefully getting a championship in their home town.”
THE RACE IS NOT GOING TO BE ON A DRAFTING TRACK AND MAY NOT BE ON A ROAD COURSE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “I feel like road racing has a part with the NASCAR schedule and NASCAR’s history, but I feel like it’s not its identity. I feel like for the same reasons why you would say superspeedway racing wouldn’t be why you would want it to be the finale, I would say that road courses would probably fall even below that for those reasons. Some of our biggest races of the year are on superspeedways, whereas I don’t really see a marquee road course event, other than the fact that they do exist on the schedule and they’re a key part of it, but I can’t think of how that would suit the identity. Would I hate it? No. I think there are plenty of drivers now, and there’s been more of an emphasis on those types of tracks than probably what there was when I first entered the sport that I think many would be fine, but I don’t think it’s 100 percent our identity to end the year and crown a champion.”
HOW DO YOU WATCH VIDEO DIFFERENTLY NOW THAN WHEN YOU FIRST CAME INTO THE SERIES? “I would say that’s a good question with a loaded answer, just due in part because there was nothing to watch when I started Cup. I started, and maybe that highlights the difficulty of starting in the Next Gen era because there was no data, no notes, no relevant tape, really nothing for my first season in Cup. As that’s evolved you kind of have some bits and pieces and now with three-plus years, you start to get more of a notebook, more of an idea what to look at. You get to be more fine, so, to answer your question, yeah, I do feel like I’ve been refining how I watch different races with different track types, but how much of that is my experience in the series versus how much of that is relevant information is kind of hard to differentiate for me.”
HOW EASY IS IT TO DROWN IN ALL THE DATA THIS IS THERE WHEN YOU MOVE UP FROM XFINITY? “The beauty of data is that it’s only as good as you’re able to apply it, so whether if that’s relevancy, whether if that’s your understanding of what you’re looking at, but it’s no different than receiving advice. I could look at some data and see one thing, ‘OK, I need to get on the gas sooner or run this line.’ I could come up to you and say, ‘You need to get on the gas sooner. You need to run a higher line.’ OK. Whether you have six different people come up to you and tell you something, it’s how do you filter that? I think a lot of that boils down to what your priorities are and having a core foundation of what you’re actually looking for, instead of just jumping in and expecting something else to jump back out at you.”
YOU HAVEN’T HAD GREAT SUCCESS AT KANSAS, SO HOW DO YOU TURN THAT AROUND? “I don’t really know what goes into a driver rating, to be honest. The finishes there haven’t been overly spectacular and somewhat disappointing in some cases. I thought we had an awesome car and an awesome opportunity there in the playoffs and I made a mistake that kind of threw all of that away. I do feel like we’ve got a lot of strengths that really play into that track this weekend and I’m hoping to try and build off the speed we had at Vegas, the speed we had at Texas to start the year, how we ended the season as well, so it’s the beauty of stats is they can be changed.”
DO YOU WORK EXTRA HARD? HOW DO YOU LOOK AT KANSAS? “What I like about Kansas is it takes a lot of the pieces of the puzzle. You have to have raw speed. It’s a really fast racetrack, a lot of on-throttle time at certain points in the event. There are multiple lanes, so you’ve really got to know where you want to put your car. You’ve got to be versatile, but there’s also decent fall off. The rubber gets laid down in the track pretty well, so the track will change inevitably, and on top of that the restarts there are really crazy. That’s the high-speed nature of the racetrack and having so many lanes, so it kind of challenges all the things that a race car, a race team, you’re gonna be doing a lot of four tire stops, so it’s a fun place because of it.”
DOES AVERAGE FINISH MEAN ANYTHING? “I didn’t know it until you said it.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FORMAT CHANGES TO THE ALL-STAR RACE? “I think the 50 extra laps is interesting. That was kind of the main thing that I picked up on. It’s a short track and there’s obviously a lot of opportunity for losing and gaining track position, but past that I can’t say I’ve put in a ton of focus. We kind of live week to week here, whether it was a points race or not a points race. We apply it all the same. There’s obviously cash on the line and a race to win, but otherwise I haven’t put a ton of thought into that one quite yet. It’s been an exciting place to see and to see the facility grow up a bit. I think adding more laps to the race is confidence that we can continue to run a solid show there. I’m excited to see what it looks like with another year of age on the racetrack as well. I’m looking forward to it.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT MAKES THE ATMOSPHERE AT THE COCA-COLA 600 UNIQUE TO ANY OTHER RACE ON THE SCHEDULE? “I struggle to look through any other lens than it’s the greatest day in racing and we are the afterparty. We’re the closing act. You have Monaco, the Indy 500 and the Coke 600. There’s obviously a lot that goes into that event, specifically as it stands alone as far as the patriotic nature of the holiday and how it’s celebrated and how our heroes are honored throughout the weekend. Obviously, that’s important and exciting. I feel like for whatever reason motorsports does such a good job of really highlighting that than any other form of sports, so it’s cool to be part of that and, like I said, it’s the greatest day in racing. It’s big to be part of that as well.”
WHAT ARE YOUR INITIAL THOUGHTS ABOUT GOING TO MEXICO CITY? AND WHAT CAN A DRIVER DO ON PIT ROAD TO GET THAT EXTRA TENTH OR SO TO GET IN FRONT OF EVERYONE? “As far as Mexico, I’ve never even been in the country, so I’ve never driven on the circuit. I’m definitely interested to see and experience both of those things – one just personally and stepping out and going some place new, but also just a new track and a new layout. It’s something I hit during the offseason a little bit on the simulator and I’ve been back and forth as far as where we sit on that. I think there will probably be a lot of similarities drawn to maybe the IMS road course with just a really long straightaway on the frontstretch. It seems to be a fairly flat racetrack, so I’m definitely excited to see how that all translates. Obviously, we’re a month away, so there’s still a bit more prep to do. It’s also quite a bit higher altitude than anywhere else that we go, so I’m very interested to see how that responds with our engines and so on. It’s really cool. It’s really fun that we’re doing something different, and I definitely expect a great response by the fans. As far as the pit road question and drivers making a difference on pit road, yeah, there are a lot of areas to screw up – box placement, pit road speed, most importantly you obviously hear a lot about pit road speeding penalties, but I think there’s a lot of small bits of data you can get into that I can use to help my team, but at the end of the day, pit stops are still a very human-based performance metric and by that I mean it’s four or five guys, and if you include me it’s five or six guys working together and everybody anticipating a lot of things to go correctly and that’s why you see so many mistakes on pit road is that when one thing is off, it really snowballs. It’s a challenging atmosphere. It’s a huge part of the game and I don’t think it’s said enough about how challenging this pit road is for each week, and I think it’s one of the larger takeaways for anyone that’s never seen a NASCAR race in person is how much emphasis goes into those stops.”
