Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard
Indianapolis Motor Speedway | Saturday, August 14, 2021
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st – Austin Cindric
8th – Riley Herbst
32nd – Ryan Sieg
33rd – Kevin Harvick
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 PPG Ford Mustang — FINISHED 1st
YOU JUST WON AT THE BRICKYARD: “Unbelievable. First of all, I have to thank Roger Penske for every opportunity I have had in my career and every opportunity he has given you race fans to enjoy this beautiful weekend with three race series’. How awesome is this facility now guys? It is amazing. I am so proud to be a part of this Penske family with PPG and Ford and everyone that has put so much into my career. This racetrack is so much deeper than just that with my family history and what this place means to me. I can’t even put into words what it means to win at Indianapolis.”
WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH SINGING ‘BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA’? “I didn’t even know I knew the words that well or could remember them that well. Hopefully I didn’t make Jim Neighbors roll over in his grave. I was here the last time he sang the song and it gives me goosebumps every time. I am sure it does for everyone else. I am proud to be here, proud to drive for Roger and proud to win at the speedway.”
HOW BIG IS IT TO WIN AT INDY AS A PART OF TEAM PENSKE? “There is nothing bigger. Nothing bigger.”
POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
TIM CINDRIC, President, Team Penske — WHAT WAS IT LIKE WATCHING YOUR SON CAPTURE THE WIN AT THE BRICKYARD AND KISS THE BRICKS? “Just the fact of the history the Penske organization has and my father had here and so forth. To see him run here the first time, even in a USF 2000 car was pretty amazing. Now to know he is a winner in NASCAR here is a big deal for sure. I think it is not only important to us and our family but if I put my Team Penske hat on, it is a big deal for us too. In the NASCAR world, we have only won here twice and this is the first time we have won on the road course. Obviously, the first race went well today and then he finished it off.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, Race Winner — YOU HAVE A DEEP APPRECIATION OF THE HISTORY OF THIS FACILITY. NOW YOU JOIN THE LIST OF WINNERS AFTER COMING HERE SINCE YOU WERE A YOUNG KID: “I still walk in the race track and I don’t feel like I should be driving. I have come here a lot more as a race fan than I have as a driver. It feels a bit strange to go out through Gasoline Alley and run laps. It is pretty special. I am proud to be able to win a race here. I have a pretty tall task tomorrow but nonetheless, this weekend has been really fun to be a part of. I think I called it the world’s fair of racing almost with the different cultures and different types of racing and drivers you have seen through the weekend. To see all the people get excited about NASCAR racing and IndyCar racing this weekend and to get a win for Roger here is pretty massive. He has done a lot for my career and a lot for a lot of the guys on my team. I am proud of the work everyone has done to get to this point.”
TIM CINDRIC CONTINUED — YOU WATCHED YOUR BABY BOY JUST WIN AT INDY. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AS IT WAS HAPPENING? “Proud, but relief for him because I know how bad he has wanted to win here. I also know this might be his last chance to get it done in the Xfinity car and how hard he and the team worked and how close he was to doing it last year and how tough it was to have him come home last year without winning and sitting on the pole and having a great race until the end. As a father, you always want what your kids want, whatever that is. I struggled to want him to be a race car driver but it was inevitable that that is what he wanted to do. I think I’ve told that story a few times. I think to be not only a part of the Roger Penske legacy at Indy but to join the club of winners here in one of the major races is a big deal.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED — HAVE YOU EVER KISSED THE BRICKS BEFORE? “No, I have never kissed them before. Today was a first, absolutely. That is what winners do and I am just a fan whenever I was watching him race. It has been cool to be a part of that and see some of that, but you see a lot more losers here than you do winners. I think the losses show what it really means so much about this race track. My first 2000 race, it is funny you bring that up. It rained and I drove up into a podium position and it started drying out and I ended up not finishing on the podium because a couple of cars had put on dry tires and came up and drove past the field. It ended up being my teammate that won the race. We are good friends but he was quite a bit slower than I was. I was 15 years old and cried my eyes out when I got back to the transporter because that was my first race at IMS. It is hard to put into words what it means. Maybe that is a good example. It hasn’t been easy for me here by any means between that and getting shoved into the grass 15 laps into my first Xfinity race and blowing the motor with a car capable of winning in the next race. Then last year, coming so close like my pops said. Relief is definitely the word for the day.”
IT SEEMED LIKE THE WAY YOU PLAYED THE STRATEGY TODAY WAS THAT WHAT MATTERED WAS THE LAST THIRD OF THE RACE, RIGHT? “Yeah, we forgot about points today. I have said the month of August has been about points racing for us and trying to wrap up the regular-season championship because that pays off quite a few playoff points but today we kind of turned that off. It is pretty important to win here and quite a few late nights in the shop from my guys this week. They have a lot of pressure, just like I do, to perform when we show up to this track. I am really proud of them. It was a really well-executed race and that is why we were in position. I feel like I did my part to do that and that is what great teams are made of.”
TIM CINDRIC CONTINUED — TIM, WHAT WAS IT YOU TOLD ME BEFORE THE INDYCAR RACE WHEN WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE FAMILY LINEAGE ON BOTH SIDES? “Yeah, you look at it and I said it when I started to actually go work for Roger. You go through this and kind of look at it. If you wrote a racing script, you are kind of living it in some ways. To sit here with my kid winning a race here is a big deal. I grew up not too far from here. My father worked in the wooden garages here until they tore them down. This is kind of my old stomping grounds in a lot of ways. For him to have his name somewhere as part of it, yeah, it is a little odd but I am sure it will all sink in.”
I THINK YOU SAID SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT OF NEEDING TO WIN HERE TODAY: “Yeah, I said the pressure was on him now. It was his turn. So yeah, there was a lot of talk about trying to go 3-for-3 here for the boss. The fact that we got this far is pretty exciting.”
DOES IT MEAN MORE TO YOU IN THAT IT CAME AFTER YOUR FATHER PASSED AWAY DURING THE OFF-SEASON? “Yeah, I can’t lie. I thought about him today. I am not sure if he did or not but we were fortunate to celebrate his life here in the Pagoda. Austin and I and his brother and my sister kind of took a lap around here in his honor when we did that. It was the most important thing to him for sure. Certainly, neither of us knew Jim Truman. We knew of him but neither of us knew him. I think it is pretty special when you look at the whole lineage of it all and he is part of it now. It is cool.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED — YOU HAVE RUN MORE LAPS ON THE TRACK THAN MOST OF YOUR COMPETITORS TOMORROW. GIVEN THAT AND THE AMOUNT OF TRACK TIME YOU HAVE HAD THIS WEEKEND, HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THIS WIN GIVE YOU FOR THE CUP RACE TOMORROW? “I think what gives me confidence is that I feel like the steps I have taken this weekend, whether it is the tire being the same between the cars and how the track changes evolved, that is where I get my confidence from. Brain and I nailed it today. I am really proud of that. Those 40 cars in the Cup field, those guys are professionals and they do this every weekend, week in and week out. We still haven’t gotten to the end of one of these races in the 33 car. That is my number one goal for tomorrow. Everything else is a bonus. If I am good enough to put myself in position and make it to the end, I will be there. We have a lot of hurdles to overcome and I am excited for the challenge.”
WHEN YOU CROSSED THE FINISH LINE, DID YOU LOOK FOR ANYTHING SPECIAL OR WAS THERE ANY MOMENT THAT MADE IT SINK IN? “I wanted to do a lap around the big track but I saw a trolley line up in the short shute so I decided I wouldn’t do that. that would have probably made the boss upset. I wanted to avoid that. Maybe I might forgo that if I get the opportunity tomorrow. Nonetheless, no, it was just cool to have respect from your competitors. That has always been really satisfying to me. I feel like I struggled with that early on in my NASCAR career and I am sure I will probably struggle with that at another point in my career. Probably next year. But to have guys like AJ (Allmendinger) and the mutual respect he and I feel. 90% of the time he and I can get out of the car and joke with each other and speak honestly with one another. To have a lot of Cup guys in the race today, I think it makes it that much better.”
NASCAR IS REMOVING THE ORANGE TURTLE IN TURN SIX FOR TOMORROW. IS THAT A GOOD IDEA? WE SAW A LOT OF DRIVERS HIT THOSE TODAY. DID YOU FEEL LIKE DRIVERS HIT THEM MORE THAN EXPECTED TODAY? “Yes. I think they hit them more than expected. I feel like if you are hitting that one you are probably going off the track anyway but I am not sure of the extent of the damage caused. If they felt they needed to take it out then it probably leaves a little more room for two-wide racing. The Cup cars are quite a bit lower to the ground. If they felt like that was the right move then I have no problem with it.”
TIM CINDRIC CONTINUED — HAVE YOU BEEN GETTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE FROM OTHER TEAMS? “No, I have nothing to do with the curb layout or anything on that front. No, that is strictly outside of my realm.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED — HAVE YOU HEARD FROM ROGER YET TODAY AND WHAT DID HE SAY? “I have yet to see him actually.”
TIM CINDRIC CONTINUED — “I can say I watched the end of the race with him today, the last 10 laps with him. In what we refer to as our P1 which is the bus. He was pretty excited. I know he asked if we could bring Austin by to dinner tonight but he had some other commitments he had to get to right after this event. He was pretty excited for the fact that not only we won twice but he understands kind of what it all means but at the same time he certainly is somebody that I guess it is almost a double standard in some ways. He has to prove himself in a lot of different ways, which is the way it is going to be. I told him last year when he won the championship that he doesn’t really realize what he just did by winning a NASCAR championship. The respect level you get as a champion is different than being a race winner somewhere. Now, this is Roger’s favorite place in the world and now Austin is part of that.”
WHAT DID AUSTIN DO WITH THE MONEY YOU GAVE HIM FOR SINGING LESSONS? “He was smart enough not to go into chorus and go into band instead, let’s put it that way. It was funny because I had the radio on in RP1, the car radio. And the car radio wasn’t very good as far as the reception in there. Austin starts singing and Roger goes, ‘What is he saying? What is that?’. I said, ‘He is singing something, Roger.’ Then I turned it off. I don’t think he got the whole gist of what went on there because he was pretty confused about what Austin was saying or signing or what the hell he was doing. He was just being Austin.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED — AUSTIN, WHAT MADE YOU BURST INTO SONG? “That is just what I think of when I come to this place, honestly. That song. There is nothing else. Maybe the end of Star Wars Episode 3. But other than that, nothing else gives me goosebumps more than when they sing Back Home Again at the Indy 500. I don’t know. I know I was here for the last time that Jim Neighbors sang the song and the reception this place had. I am sure I didn’t do it justice but nonetheless, I guess I was surprised I remembered all the words today with everything else flowing through my brain and the emotions I had. It was pretty cool. I at least got the entertainment value for my guys.”
