Ford Performance Post-Race Recap
NASCAR XFINITY Series – Call 811 Before You Dig 200
Phoenix Raceway | Saturday, March 13, 2021
FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
1st — Austin Cindric
4th — Riley Herbst
37th — Ryan Sieg
FORD PERFORMANCE QUOTES
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Car Shop Ford Mustang — WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN ALLGAIER GOT TO YOUR OUTSIDE? “I think it was role-reversal from the last time here. He got a really great restart and stuck it on top of three there and we were fighting for track position. We came away with a win in the Car Shop Ford Mustang. It is awesome to have them on board for this season and get the pink and white colors in victory lane.”
TWO STRAIGHT WINS AT PHOENIX FOR YOU, ARE YOU SENDING A MESSAGE FOR LATER IN THE SEASON? “It is data points. You have to work hard the rest of the year to get here. That is where my focus is. I have my name on the wall there and the goal is to be back here with a shot to do it again.”
YOU HAD TO WORK FOR THIS ONE TODAY: “They never come easy. This is a really important track this season and I am pumped for this team. Hopefully we put ona great show there. We were ruining each other there at the end. I am proud to get the Car Shop Ford Mustang into victory lane and hopefully we can carry it over to the fall here.”
DESCRIBE THAT LAST RESTART: “He just got a really great launch. I think he anticipated the restart really well and got to my outside. He faked low and went high and had the momentum that was hard to block. I was trying to defend the bottom, middle and top. I got the air sucked off my door a little bit. it was just hard racing a little bit there. It sucks that he got into the wall there because I think we were going to have a good race to the end there. I don’t think our lap one to two speed was our strength so I definitely got a little fortunate there.”
THE PINK RACE CAR LOOKS EVEN BETTER NOW WITH ALL THE CONFETTI ON IT IN VICTORY LANE: “That is what the boss said. I sent him pictures of the race car and he said it would look great in victory lane.”
RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang — DESCRIBE YOUR RACE HERE TODAY: “I was talking with Richard after the race. The last three weeks we have been running third and fourth and finishing in the 30’s. We jokingly said we ran in the 30’s today but finished fourth. We will take it any way we can get it. This Monster Energy Ford Mustang was fun to drive, just so hard in traffic. We will have to make some adjustments come fall time.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Car Shop Ford Mustang — “I ran up to them and got one of their phones and was able to take a selfie and give it back to them through the fence. I feel like it is the little things like that. If I was a little kid out here watching the race I would want to get a picture with the guy that won the race. They took their time out of their day today to come watch some Xfinity Series racing. It is the little things I can do that can make people come back because it is cool to get to do what I do and if there are people that appreciate it, it makes it that much cooler.”
YOU WERE COMPLAINING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE THAT YOUR CAR GOT REALLY LOOSE ON THE RESTARTS. DID YOU EVER FIGURE OUT WHAT THAT WAS? “Yeah, after we came in for our last set of tires, there were still 70 laps to go and we were kind of anticipating a long run there. I think we made the wrong adjustments and it put us on the splitter. I was on the splitter for the first five laps of the run and that made the car pretty difficult to drive. That is something we usually don’t have to fight on the Xfinity side. When you have these types of tires on these types of track and low air, it makes it really easy. I had to deal with that on that final restart. I thought it would get better with age on tires and it actually got worse with age on tires. I was actually quite glad to have a buffer there for the last two laps. I think that definitely played out in our favor. It is definitely nice to be able to find the limit of where something like that is and be able to bring the notebook a little thicker the next time we come here.”
WAS THE TRACTION COMPOUND DIFFERENT TODAY THAN LAST NOVEMBER AND LAST SPRING? “It was definitely different. Probably a little less usable today. The track was a little narrower. Whether that has to do with the amount of races that have run before us. Granted in the fall we had a Truck race before our race and the temperature was a little warmer. There are a few factors. Like everyone, I think we are all learning what this traction compound does and how it comes on and how it fades and where your strengths and weaknesses have to be. I feel like I was a little bit handicapped by that today. It is just good notes for the time we come back.”
DO YOU SEE A WEAKNESS IN YOUR PROGRAM RIGHT NOW? “Yes and no. I think there are always areas to improve. Today I think if I am being honest we got over a hurdle and we have had some opportunities to pit from the lead in the majority of the races this season and we have lost it. We did that today and my guys rallied and came back and got me the lead back on pit road. I am really proud of that effort. Those guys work really hard and do a lot of great work on Sundays. I am proud that we were able to overcome a flaw and make it a strength. It is a great group of guys. I get to go to the gym with them and we have had a lot of different types of racetracks here at the beginning of the season and get a great baseline on our program and keep trying to get better.”
STRAIGHT UP, HEAD TO HEAD, IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS IS THERE ANYONE THAT CAN CONSISTENTLY BEAT YOU RIGHT NOW? “I feel like that is really an opinionated question. Right now we are strong at a lot of different types of race tracks but we have to keep raising our game. Those guys have made definite gains in the offseason and in some places they have surpassed us. I am pretty motivated to keep matching that effort and try to figure out where the next edge can be.”
WHEN THE LAST CAUTION CAME OUT, DID YOU HAVE A SENSE OF DEJA VU WITH THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE LAST NOVEMBER? “Yeah, definitely. A bit of a role reversal there. Instead of me picking the line right behind Allgaier to keep the enemy close, he did the same thing to me today. It was interesting to see the role reversal and he did a great job on the restart with his launch there. I definitely want to go back and study that. Those caution laps, the caution did not play into my hands but the caution laps definitely did because I felt like we were really bad on the splitter for the first five laps and were really vulnerable. I was worried I was going to get eaten up there and obviously we had the buffer to manage it.”
HOW DO YOU ASSESS HOW YOUR TEAM HAS PERFORMED SO FAR WITH TWO WINS ALREADY COMING INTO THIS SEASON WITH SUCH HIGH EXPECTATIONS AFTER THE CHAMPIONSHIP A YEAR AGO? “We expect a lot of ourselves. I think our partners expect it and I know the people back home expect it. We want to be the best every signal weekend, at every single type of race track. That is obviously a blanket goal for the entire field but I think we are at the point where we leave with a top five and we are a little disappointed. I have to remind myself sometimes that there was a time that all I wanted to do was finish in the top-five in this series. I understand the climb and I understand the guys I am racing around that either haven’t won this year or at all or are fighting for wins every weekend. I know that feeling and I feel like it helps me race better, race smarter and be able to maybe understand what is happening around me. I think that is a strength for us. We have almost all the same people on this 22 team that we had last year and I think they expect it as well. I love what I see out of my team. They are stepping their game up every week and it is my job to equal that effort and do my job.”
LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME THE SEASON WAS SHUTTING DOWN FOR AWHILE AND YOUR SEASON WAS POSTPONED. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THAT? “I think the position I am in right now is not something that I could have imagined, especially during our COVID break there. I think we have touched on it quite a bit that there is a very strong likelihood of our program getting shut down the longer that break took and obviously I have found myself in a position not only to continue to run that season in 2020 but to also win the championship and also come back and do it again, something that I didn’t think was possible no matter how the championship went. Also for me to have my future somewhat more certain with my plans for 2022 and beyond. I feel really blessed and I feel like I have a really great opportunity that not too many people get and I wake up with that every day knowing that it is my job to make the most of it. It doesn’t make me special, it just is a wider window for me to work in and I want to fill that window up with as much as I can do during the week and during the races and carry as much as I can into the following year and also try to have the championship effort.”
LAST YEAR WHEN IT ALL SHUT DOWN, DID YOU THINK IT MIGHT BE OVER FOR YOU? “That was the question I didn’t want to ask because you don’t want the answer. Things worked out for the better and I give a lot of credit to NASCAR for getting us back up and running and that saved us and a lot of other race teams as well. It is something you don’t want to think about as a racer. I have had friends and colleagues, teammates and rivals that have fallen and not been able to continue their careers for whatever reason. I have enough perspective on that from other people to know how lucky I have it. It is my job to make the most of it.”
WHO DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGERS ARE IN THE XFINITY SERIES? “I think at this time last year I would have told you there were three or four guys and right now I could probably name six or seven. I think the guys at Kaulig have stepped up and the guys at Gibbs are bringing more race cars to the race track and Daniel (Hemric) has been running up front which you would probably expect and I feel like Noah and Justin have been good as well. It is hard to pinpoint one group which makes you focus on yourself because if there are too many people out there doing too many different things, you just have to get better. I am motivated by that. Obviously it is a long year. Larry Mac told me on Sirius XM that there are 280-some days until we are back at Phoenix. That is my Mac nugget for the week. That gave me more perspective than I thought. It is a long year. With my schedule I have about four off weekends planned out and I am looking forward to nailing down the rest of our schedule and trying to get more days off after that.”
DOES IT FEEL LIKE EVERYONE IS CHASING YOU AND THE 22 TEAM AT THIS POINT? “Based off the numbers, yes. Otherwise, it is hard to speculate. I have been the guy looking up and trying to chase somebody. The shoe has never been on the other foot in NASCAR. If it is, that is great, but you can’t change your focus.”
WERE YOU ABLE TO TAKE SOMETHING FROM THAT CHAMPIONSHIP RACE HERE LAST YEAR THAT HELPED YOU TODAY? “Certainly. We took a great race car and tried to make it better and we learned some things for the fall. I think there are some things we did today that were better and some that were worse. We are building that notebook and got a win and got some playoff points today. That is big, really big. It is the most important track on the schedule. I am very happy to be able to knock that out. We have been contenders every week this year and that feels good. That feels really good. It is a good way to start, but it is just a start. There is a long season ahead, just the regular season itself. I am motivated to keep it going.”
THE PINK FIRE SUIT AND CAR CLEARLY WORKED. IS THE VERDICT OFFICIALLY A POSITIVE ONE ON THE PINK? “It is easy to find. The pink panther is obviously fast and getting in victory lane makes the boss happy. It is great to get Car Shop in victory lane in our first race. Hopefully it is the first of many.”
WHEN YOU HAVE A SPONSOR THAT IS ALSO AN AFFILIATE OF PENSKE AUTOMOTIVE, DOES IT PUT ANY EXTRA PRESSURE TO PERFORM ON YOU? “Yeah, without a doubt. I think it is a great opportunity for our program in the Xfinity Series to try to build the brand of Car Shop. It is affiliated with the Penske Automotive group and obviously Roger (Penske) has a lot of different businesses outside of racing and for us to have the opportunity to try to build one of those is pretty cool. Me just speculating, it is almost a vote of confidence that he has put in us that we can be the one to waive the flag for Car Shop and hopefully put that car in victory lane. That is the best way to promote a sponsor, to win races. So far we are one-for-one.”
YOU SEEM AS RELAXED AS EVER THIS SEASON. DO YOU FEEL AS COMFORTABLE IN YOUR ROLE AND WERE YOU ARE IN YOUR CAREER AS YOU HAVE EVER BEEN? “I think for me, there are a lot of normal things going on. I have been in the series for – this is my fourth year. That is hard to believe. Before that the longest I had stayed in the same car for consecutive years was Legends cars. I have learned a lot at a very fast pace. My sports car days, I would go up and ask people, whether it was different manufacturers or race teams and obviously introduced myself and I would ask them what I could do to make myself a better driver for them. What could make me more attractive for that team or manufacturer. The consistent answer I would get was to stay in something for a little while. I stand out because I had done all these different things but I never stayed in something for a while. That was consistent feedback for me. This is the first time I have been able to do that and I have had a lot of good opportunities in a lot of different race cars and I have had the chance to be with a really great team and really great group of people and perfect my craft. It matters. It matters a lot. These guys on Sundays that have been doing it for 10-15 years, that is why they are so good and that is why it is going to be so hard for me to go on Sunday and expect to do the same thing I am doing right now. That is why it is hard for guys like Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick and Cole Custer, guys that have dominated in this series. That is why it is difficult. It is experience. Today I fired off into turn one because I knew how deep I could drive it in and the adjustments I had to make to go three wide and take the lead. That is experience. It is nice to have that but I am only going to have it for so long and i might as well take advantage of it. I appreciate what I have learned and I am trying to give myself the best head start I can for 2022.”
YOU NOW HAVE 10 WINS IN THE XFINITY SERIES. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TYING GUYS LIKE BOBBY LABONTE ON THE XFINITY WINS LIST? “I didn’t realize I tied Robert Presley, his son Coleman spots for me. That is pretty cool. I think I have done almost all of them with Coleman. I think only Mid-Ohio I wouldn’t have done with Coleman so that is a pretty cool stat. It is great and it is great to be able to be in this series. There have been some really great drivers in this series. You look at guys winning races and championships on Sundays and they are champions of this series. I am proud to have that on my fire suit and I hope to be able to continue that effort.”
YOU CALLED THE ARCA RACE LAST NIGHT. HAVING THAT VIEW, DID IT HELP YOU TODAY AT ALL? “I am not sure if it would have helped me anymore than just watching like I normally do at home or on the couch. It is definitely great to get some perspective. That was a cool experience for me. Obviously Menards is one of our partners and the ARCA Menards Series does a lot for young drivers trying to move up and that is where I started. It is cool to kind of have a roll reversal a little bit and call the race. Those guys were really good with getting me integrated. I hope to get to do something like that again. I think it would be fun to get in here with another driver. Chase did one of the races at Daytona earlier this year. It is a great perspective to look back and remember what you were like back when you were racing those cars. It is a cool series and I am glad to have a small part in it.”
WHAT CLICKED FOR YOU TONIGHT AFTER AN UP AND DOWN SECOND STAGE BEFORE YOU GOT THE CAR DIALED IN THERE IN THE FINAL RUN? “We lost track position there after the stage break on pit road and we were able to overcome a couple spots but not enough. As the restarts played out, that final pit stop my guys did a great job. I am proud of that effort like I said before. They got us in a position to be able to execute and for me to do my job. We only had three sets of tires this race and I knew it would bea challenging third stage no matter what. Trying to figure out how to manage that run and the last set of tires was a challenge but it was fun. It was a good day and it was executed well on many fronts and there are things we can improve as well.”
DID YOU FEEL AT ANY POINT THAT CLEAN AIR WAS A FACTOR OR WAS IT THE IMPROVEMENTS? “I felt like in the final stage I needed clean air. I didn’t know how much better I was than the 7 car, if any. I felt like he was really good on the short run and I was good on the long run. Having track position on the short run was critical for me because I think it would be difficult to pass. I think with the PJ1 it has been more racey and you can control the race and we were able to do that from start to finish.”
