Ford Notes and Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Bar Harbor 200 Advance (Dover International Speedway, Dover, DE.)
Friday, October 5, 2018
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, is battling for a spot in the Round of 8 this weekend at Dover. He was part of a press conference this morning to talk about what it’s going to take to advance.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS RACE WILL PLAY OUT TOMORROW? “I think out of all the places we go to when you hear caution breed cautions this is probably one of the biggest places that that’s true because of how the track changes for restarts and how the rubber picks up and how it changes everyone’s balance. I think we saw that in the spring and we’ll probably see it again here.”
IS IT A MUST-WIN SITUATION FOR YOU? “Sitting below the cut line I still don’t think of it as a must-win. I mean, we saw how crazy the Cup race was at the Roval. Obviously, that was kind of expected at that race track, but even with the way each round has kind of jumbled the points, I feel like nine points isn’t the most daunting task. I’ve still got to have a perfect race, still got to get really good stage points, still got to be able to finish and put myself in a position at the end of the race. Do I think we can win this weekend? Yeah, I think we can. I think this is one of my stronger tracks. I’ve been here a few times. Obviously, I think we have got a really good notebook to go off of, but at the same time it’s still open for anybody. I think Justin is gonna be really hard to beat this weekend. Obviously, he won the race in the spring, so I’m excited for this weekend. I always love coming here. It’s one of my favorite tracks, but everyone has got to be able to execute everything perfect and I feel like that’s something I’ve tried really hard to accomplish in a race weekend and I don’t see a better weekend to that than here.”
DID YOU GIVE BRISCOE TOO MUCH INFORMATION LAST WEEK AT CHARLOTTE? “I don’t think so. Chase and I have been teammates for a while and he’s been really helpful for me in some places and I’ve been helpful for him in some place I’m sure, so it was really cool to see that happen. It’s funny, the two races he’s won this year, which were probably the two biggest wildcards in NASCAR, he’s texted me back and forth after practice about how terrible he was in practice. At Eldora he was like, ‘We’re terrible. I’m gonna run like junk.’ And he goes and wins the race the next day. It was the same thing at the Roval. It’s funny that we have that kind of relationship and it was really cool. Obviously, I wish that I would have been able to win the race, but I wouldn’t have had anyone better to win than race and for him to do that on a road course I think that will definitely boost his confidence because we’re co-driving together at Road Atlanta next weekend, so I need him to be as good as he can.”
THOUGHTS ON THE ROVAL? “I’d say just from a track reconfiguration standpoint, I think the only thing that place is lacking is a legitimate brake zone. I think there’s enough room on the front straightaway coming off of NASCAR 4 to make that happen, just to give a legitimate passing point. You have enough time to get a run on somebody because there are so many times where I got a run off of the bus stop on the back and I could not do anything with it unless I bonzai’d on the inside of somebody through the chicane, destroyed my side skirts over the curbs and risking my splitter and all that. I feel like there’s more of an opportunity there, but as far as pit lane goes I feel like there’s some real estate out there that could be used to probably extend a line or do something because I had a few sketchy merges off of practice. When you’re on the racing line, you’re not really using a lot of the track to the left, so there’s probably something more that can be done there, but all in all I think on-track product-wise, I mean I was watching the Cup race as a fan on Sunday and I don’t think anyone could have been anymore entertained in those last 15 laps at that place, so it was cool to see that become such a success and obviously it’s there to stay.”
