Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series
Phoenix Media Availability | Wednesday, March 10, 2021
NASCAR XFINITY Series Champion Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 22 CarShop Ford Mustang, has posted four straight top-five finishes to start the 2021 season, including a victory in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway. He was a guest earlier today on a NASCAR Zoom call, where he talked about this weekend’s race at Phoenix Raceway.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 CarShop Ford Mustang — IT’S BEEN A YEAR SINCE THINGS SHUT DOWN. CAN YOU TAKE ME THROUGH WHAT WAS GOING ON FOR YOU? “I actually thought about that a little bit this week just knowing that this week was the week last year that everything changed for everyone. Obviously, every week that we had off was a week that we needed to be on the racetrack. In a lot of ways, and obviously Roger touched on that after winning the championship. I think we all kind of knew in the back of our minds that there were some challenges for us to continue the year if we didn’t get races early on, so I give a ton of credit to NASCAR. We say a lot that NASCAR was the first professional sports league to get back on track, but that was a huge catalyst for me to be able to continue the year last year and my team to be able to show what we were capable of, so I’m pretty grateful for those efforts. I know it probably helped a lot of other people out too, but definitely a big deal for us.”
ANY UPDATE ON YOUR CUP SCHEDULE? “No, no updates. I think we’re doing a little bit more clarity as you get more races in and see the guys that enter races and don’t enter races — the challenges, as I’ve said before, are who enters the races and if we have enough points. I think the 33 car is like 36th in Cup owner’s points, so I would say a lot of the races we’re looking at that don’t have practice or qualifying are looking good so far, and hopefully some updates soon.”
IS IT ACCURATE TO SAY YOU RACED TY GIBBS AND CHALLENGED HIM AS MUCH AS YOU COULD THE LAST TIME HE RACED? “Yeah, absolutely. At Daytona, I said it after the race as well, I thought Ty did an incredible job. I put him in some really tough spots trying to hang onto the lead. Obviously, we had some damage and that made my life really difficult and I knew if I got behind my shot of winning was a lot less, so he handled everything really well and was in a position on those restarts and made some decisions and won the race because of it, so I thought they did a great job. Oval racing, for me, was the next. I feel like he’s showcased that he has the pace and he has the talent and it’s for everyone else to observe and for him to decide how the next couple races are gonna go, so it’s cool for him. It’s a great opportunity and I’m sure he’ll do well with it.”
SHOULD PEOPLE EXPECT HIM TO BE VERY GOOD AGAIN AT PHOENIX? “He’ll obviously have capable equipment, but I think to have an anomaly you have to have more of a data set, so he’s only done one race. I think he’ll do just fine.”
WHAT CHANGES DO YOU EXPECT AT PHOENIX THIS TIME AROUND? “The time of the day is obviously a bit of a factor, but we had a really great package, a really great race and we were able to just execute and put ourselves in a position to win the championship. All in all, that was a perfect day and we’ll try to push this weekend on little things and try to improve on that package. I don’t think we need to do anything crazy and reinvent the wheel because we brought an incredibly good race car and we plan on bringing the same equipment this weekend. I’m excited for that. I’m excited to see that translate over and excited to see how other guys have stepped up throughout the offseason, especially at that track given it’s the most important throughout the year. It will be a great baseline for us heading into hopefully running to the Championship 4.”
ARE YOU IMPRESSED WITH HOW COMPETITIVE THE SERIES HAS BEEN SO FAR AND IS IT THE MOST COMPETITIVE SINCE YOU STARTED RACING FULL-TIME? “Yeah, I think when we get a couple more races I’ll probably have a better idea. I think Vegas was probably the first race you could sit down in all three series and recognize who has done the work in the offseason and who has come more prepared and who has speed. I think you saw that on Sunday as well. I think the guys at Kaulig have definitely stepped up and AJ has brought that program forward as well, so it’s cool to see him win, but I want to beat him. At the same time, we’ve got to keep getting better. I think everyone around us is getting better, so there’s no reason to stop trying, that’s for sure. It’ll be interesting to see how competitive it stays. I felt like there’s a lot of guys that ran up front at Vegas and were able to have some speed in their cars and a lot of it came down to track position by the end of the race, so something we didn’t have. I look forward to doing more races and probably come up with more opinions.”
WHAT FACTORS INTO THE DECISION OF MOVING FROM THE LOW TO HIGH GROOVE WHERE THE PJ1 IS ON THE TRACK? “I think it all depends on what’s happened before you race. For us, there’s the ARCA race and I don’t believe there’s anything else. We had the truck race last year and there was a whole weekend of practice and qualifying before we did it in the spring, so I think the factors will maybe be a little bit different for our race versus the championship weekend, so it’s a good opportunity to learn more about that traction compound. I think everyone is constantly learning about what gets it activated, what makes it fall off, so I think it’ll be another good example of that for us.”
DO YOU THINK ABOUT EVER TRYING TO GET AWAY WITH BRINGING OUT A CAUTION YOURSELF OR IS THAT NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT IN YOUR PLAYBOOK? LAST WEEK YOU GOT A FLAT TIRE AND LIMPED IT AROUND WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT. “I definitely feel like we got almost as lucky as we got unlucky. Obviously, having a tire puncture is never fun and on the restart when everyone’s got new tires, so you’re not even at a tire advantage but putting on tires and missing the pit entry, I was pretty much in a position where I was gonna go two to three laps down. I had accepted that was going to be my reality and past that I was on the apron in one and two and saw a car spinning and we got a new lease on life. That’s pretty much all there is to it on my end. Past that, it was a fight to get back up through the field all day and we still had a bit of a tire deficit at the end of the race even for the final restarts, but, all in all, like you said, got a little bit lucky.”
HOW GOOD IS IT TO HAVE ANOTHER PARTNERSHIP ON YOUR CAR THIS WEEKEND? “The car is obviously pretty striking. It’s bright. It’s gonna be easy to spot and easy to read. It’s great to have CarShop on board. I’m excited about that. They’re part of Penske Automotive Group, so definitely in-house there and I’m excited to represent them and help them grow that brand and honestly pretty proud to have them on our car and have the support of those guys on our program. I’m looking forward to having that car in a lot of races this year and hopefully they have some success as well.”
THE DEAL WITH HARRISON BURTON LAST WEEK. IS THAT JUST SOMETHING YOU MOVE ON FROM? “Yeah, I honestly don’t even know what comments he made. I just went up and talked to him after the race behind the hauler. We had a good conversation. Harrison and I have raced really well. He’s honestly one of the few guys in the field that I know I can race really hard. He’s very race smart. He’s grown up around racing and he and I can usually race pretty close and pretty hard and not have any issues, so I think we both surprised each other there on the front straightaway and there’s some things to learn from it, but, past that, yeah, I think it’s behind us as far as I’m concerned.”
WHAT’S THE SECRET TO BEING STRONG AT PHOENIX? “I think there’s a few factors. Obviously, the tires they’ve brought the last couple of years have seemed to fall off a little bit and depending on short runs versus long runs your car’s balance is very dependent on that, so trying to match that up correctly and trying to have overall speed is important, but then when you throw in the traction compound that obviously plays a lot of factors. There are probably more factors at Phoenix than what there was a couple years ago. I will say I’ve done more NASCAR races at Phoenix than any other racetrack, so there’s a certain comfort level with that knowing where you’re at. Obviously, I’ve been to enough of these places enough times in my career, but it’s definitely somewhere where I feel really comfortable.”
HOW MUCH HAS THE PJ1 CHANGED THE RACING AT PHOENIX? “I definitely think it’s changed more than we realize. It’s still somewhat of a track position race. It’s difficult to pass. You’re pretty handling limited at those racetracks, but if you go back and watch past Phoenix races and the lines that we use and the speed that we’re carrying into the corners, especially later in a run or side-by-side, a lot of normal laps with the traction compound we would have spun out and hit the wall, like especially in turns one and two with as flat as that is and there’s no grip. It’s pretty incredible, honestly. It would be bad if they took it away and you tried to do a lap immediately because you kind of have to reel it back in and get reacclimated because it makes a huge difference and you’re able to actually do some slide jobs and make moves if you have speed.”
YOU WILL BE IN THE BOOTH FOR THE ARCA RACE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? “I’ve spent my entire life watching races and listening to broadcasters and even my weekly prep before races I listen to broadcasters from the prior race. I’ve heard it a lot, so I’m excited to get some perspective. It’ll be cool. In another sense, from a performance side, it gives me an opportunity to watch the race maybe a little closer with a few more angles and try to read up on what to expect for Saturday’s race, but the ARCA Menards Series usually puts on a great show there. I remember watching the race there during championship weekend. I think it was Gilliland, Ty Gibbs and those guys were racing really hard, so hopefully it’s a good race. I looked over the entry list doing a little bit of homework and there are quite a few good cars entered, so it should be fun. It’s definitely a new experience for me. It was a little bit last-minute, but definitely cool to get some time and some new perspective in the ARCA Menards stuff.”
