Ford Performance NASCAR: Cindric Leads Ford With Second-Place Homestead Finish

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 — PPG Ford Mustang — HOW WAS YOUR DAY?  “Finish-wise, I think we overachieved a little bit.  I think I could have made some better moves on the short run to try to get a stage win or two there, but, overall, another great performance as far as unloading close with something brand new.  I think we’ve done that three times successfully and I’m proud of my team.  This is the first weekend now that we get to adjust on it, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  I’ve got to debrief with my guys and come up with a good game plan, but proud of the effort by the PPG Ford Mustang.  I’ve got to give a shoutout to Harrison.  That’s two guys from Cannon School finishing one-two at Homestead, so not too shabby.  Overall, I’ll take it and move on and try to do one more better tomorrow.”

YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED IN SOME DRAMATIC FINISHES OF LATE.  IS THERE ANY SKILL IT TAKES TO WIN IN A CLOSE RACE LIKE THAT OR IS IT OPPORTUNITY, LUCK?  “I think it’s a mix of opportunity, but if you look back to my first year in this series I made a lot of mistakes and I haven’t tried any less since those mistakes.  I’ve just learned from them, so I think that’s what makes you stronger as a driver and stronger as a person is to be able to make mistakes and have the confidence to know you’re gonna be able to improve yourself and better yourself and that takes a great group behind me.  I’ve always said I’ve got a great group of people.  I think we have some small gains to make before we can win every weekend, but with the exception of being wrecked out of Bristol we’ve led every single race since Phoenix.  I think that says something, but at the same time we’ve been able to finish out and put it together, so I’m proud of that effort.  I’m proud of how far I’ve come.  The first time I ever raced here I did not have the confidence to run the wall.  Last year I learned what I needed and today I applied that.  I ran the wall today at this track more than I ever have.  I felt like I was the first one really up there to make it work, so a lot of personal strides, but at the same point I’m tired of losing, but losing in this sport means that you’re close to winning.”

DOES THE RACE BEING THREE HOURS EARLIER TOMORROW CHANGE ANYTHING AS FAR AS ADJUSTMENTS GO?  “I think time of day is important, but the fact we’re not gonna have practice until God knows when and this is the most direct comparison you’ll probably ever get even with practice as far as being able to adjust on your car.  Yeah, it’s a three-hour time difference, but when it’s as hot as it is I’m not sure it really matters.  Hopefully, we can make some gains tomorrow or maybe even go backwards, but we’ll learn from it.  I think here and Kentucky are really important tracks in getting set up for the playoffs and improving our packages.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE IN A BETTER POSITION FOR TOMORROW’S RACE WITH AS STRONG AS YOU WERE EARLY ON TODAY?  “I think that’s generous thinking, but honestly I felt like when the track gained rubber is when I got the worst and there’s gonna be more rubber on the track tomorrow.  I think we overachieved finishing second.  After stage two I really threw the anchor and got way too loose.  Really, I was just trying not to risk the car at that point.  It was really hard to run up high, but I couldn’t run anywhere else, so, overall, to be able to come back and was probably gonna be a fifth-place finish and to finish second I think that’s a gain on the day.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 — Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang — “It was definitely a frustrating day, but we can’t hang our heads.  We had another really good, fast race car and we just made a silly mistake this week and forgot something.  Last week, I made a silly mistake on pit road, so it all evens out.  The positive is that we had a really fast race car.  In fact, I felt like we were the fastest car by quite a bit.  The good thing is we get another chance at it tomorrow and hopefully we can put it all together and not make any mistakes and get another win.”

YOU MADE ALL OF YOUR LAPS UP AND IF THE CAUTION FELL AT THE RIGHT TIME YOU COULD HAVE BEEN BATTLING FOR THE WIN.  HOW DID THAT FEEL?  “I think we may have been seven laps down at first before we pulled out, but I knew that we were gonna have good speed.  For the most part, everything kind of went our way, but we just had to get a little crazy on strategy.  Boswell has always been really good about thinking outside the box and with the speed we had in the car we were able to take tires and restart with 20-lap old tires and still hold our own.  If we would have got a caution before we did the green flag pit stop, then I feel like I could have still won the race and that would have been quite the story.  Overall, having no practice is tough because you miss little things like that, but on the same side no practice and the amount of speed we’ve had each and every week is just a testament of how good our race cars are and how good of a team we have.”

YOU MUST FEEL CONFIDENT FOR TOMORROW WITH THE SPEED YOU HAVE.  “Coming into this weekend I felt like this was a golden opportunity to win two races because I feel like it’s probably my best race track on the circuit.  We gave one away today, but nothing is guaranteed tomorrow.  We still have to put it all together and not make any mistakes.  We’ve got to go through all of our things and cross our t’s and dot our i’s, and hopefully put a perfect race together.  That’s something we haven’t done since Darlington and we’ve given wins away, truthfully.  The last two races now we were by far the best car and made one mistake and it cost us.  These races aren’t easy to win.  You have to do everything right and we’ve kind of been living proof of that.  It doesn’t matter how much speed you have if you make mistakes in this series, you’re not gonna win these races and we’ve just got to clean everything up.  Fortunately, we still have some time before the playoffs start where you can’t afford to make mistakes like this.”