Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Media Zoom | Thursday, September 16, 2021
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 22 Carshop Ford Mustang in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, comes into this weekend’s regular season finale trailing points leader AJ Allmendinger by five points. Cindric, who is going for his second straight regular season championship, leads the series with five wins this season. He was part of a Q&A session with media earlier today.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Carshop Ford Mustang — WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING INTO THE WEEKEND? “It’s a pretty fluid weekend for us. It’s the difference of five playoff points. It’s been a tough month in August, almost losing 100 points in two races. That really derailed our hopes or at least our comfort for that. I would say in the Xfinity Series five points, it’s not that it’s harder to make up than in the Cup Series, but the amount of cars that gain stage points realistically anybody you’re gonna be racing against in the Xfinity Series gains stage points, so your gains are cut in half. We really have to have a standout day under normal circumstances for us to be able to clinch this or at least get it to where it’s tied. That’s obviously the mindset, but the best way I can offset those five playoff points as well is to win the race. Either way, it’s a pretty fun weekend ahead — at least for those watching — and it’s been good for our team to kind of get us in playoff mode already. The last three weeks have been all about points and the next seven weeks are gonna be all about points, so I think that’s the underlying positive from all of it is we’re certainly ready for the playoffs come Vegas.”
WHAT ABOUT BEING ABLE TO BOAST ABOUT WINNING THE REGULAR SEASON TITLE. HOW BIG WOULD THAT BE? “I certainly think anytime you can win a race it’s obviously great. I think the regular season championship is one of those things that it means the most to the person who got it, and everybody else it’s kind of shrugged to the side and you take your points and go on. It’s a trophy. It’s still a championship. It still means you gained the most points and performed the best and I think AJ and his team have performed really consistently to minimize their bad days and, unfortunately, we’ve just had a string of bad luck. When we get knocked out of a race it’s usually pretty big and they’re usually able to capitalize. I’m not gonna take anything away from those guys, but certainly we didn’t think a month ago this was gonna be the scenario but that’s racing. I definitely want to give it our best shot and from there it’s back to playoff mode — you’re living every three weeks.”
DOES IT MATTER AT ALL MENTALLY FOR YOUR TEAM WHETHER YOU FINISH FIRST OR SECOND WHEN YOU GO INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “Yes and no. I don’t think it’s gonna make us perform better or worse in the playoffs. Our Vegas car is already built. The guys are working just as hard. We can’t do anymore. I guess maybe that’s what I’m saying. I can’t prepare more. I can’t be faster than I already am in preparing different ways. Those things come naturally and whether I finish first or second in the regular season championship isn’t gonna change how I prepare and how I perform, or how my team performs.”
HOW BENEFICIAL IS IT TO RACE AGAINST AJ FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP? “I think if there’s anything AJ has done this year it’s just that he’s proven he’s not just good on the road courses. I can obviously relate to that, but they’ve been incredibly consistent and he’s certainly pushed me even when he was part-time. It’s great to be against the best and no matter what I’ve raced in in my career, whether it’s been in NASCAR or sports car racing — even having teammates — I look back to when I raced in Pirelli World Challenge in 2016 and I had Alvaro Parente, a McLaren factory driver, a really established guy as my teammate, when I’ve got a rabbit to chase, when I’ve got someone that’s really well-respected in the industry and I’m trying to grow myself as a driver, those are the best situations you can be in. It’s just like having Cup guys come and run Xfinity. It’s a better gauge for Cup owners and Cup drivers to understand what’s coming up next, so it’s been a great opportunity to race against him. I’ve really enjoyed it. I think he and I get along fairly well and at least understand each other, and it’s gonna be a fun next couple of weeks for sure.”
ARE YOU A BELIEVER IN MOMENTUM? “I feel like momentum is more important for everybody else. If a certain team started to win a lot of races, all you start to think about is that certain team winning those races. I think momentum affects those around you more than it does your own team, so I would say yes, but, at the same time, if I’m superstitious about anything I am a believer in the law of averages. I feel like I said that when we were in Daytona and got wrecked out, so I don’t know what that means for our playoffs, but, like I said before, we can’t try any harder than we already are. We can’t bring any better cars. We’re doing a great job and I’m proud of my team. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year. We just have to keep going in that direction.”
DID YOU GET TO LOOK AT THE 2022 CUP SCHEDULE THAT WAS ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY? “I think Gateway is a great addition to the schedule. Obviously, the Indy car race there has been really popular and it always seems like they always do a great job promoting that race, so I think a Cup race there will be great as well. I raced there in Trucks. I’ve tested there in the Trucks and I really liked it. I think the only difference since I was there last was they paved the two corners for some tire issues that Indy car was dealing with, but nonetheless I think it’s a fun racetrack and I think it’ll suit our cars well.”
HOW HAS THIS YEAR CHALLENGED YOU? “I think in a lot of different directions. Some of it’s been trying to either increase my level of focus in certain areas or increase my level of attention in certain areas, and by that I mean with the sprinkling of Cup races, trying to maximize those opportunities that anyone in this sport would kill to have. I feel like I’ve done that effectively well probably 80 percent of the time, trying to maintain 100 percent focus on the Xfinity side. That was more of a challenge than I probably anticipated, just going back and forth between the two, and maybe that’s because of how much I already put in. It’s hard to do that two times in a week as far as preparation and as far as what it takes in understanding and learning a new car. On the flip side of all that, I feel like this year has been really good for me to understand and really come down to the small details, whether that’s the advantage of working with the same crew, the same crew chief, and really the same race cars for the last three or four years and working on the small details. A lot of guys don’t have the opportunity to do that in this sport, especially at the level I’m at. In the Cup Series I feel like guys do and that’s why guys are really at the top level is because they do have that continuity and they can focus on the small details and have that notebook. I feel like that’s where I’m at in the Xfinity Series. Some weekends that’s good. Some weekends it’s not. Some weekends it might lead us down the wrong path, but either way I learn from it and I think that’s been a valuable experience because I think my ability to perfect those situations is going to be what sets people apart when you’re racing at the highest level. I feel like having that experience at maybe a lower level at a lower level of competition is pretty valuable to when I do get to that point racing in Cup I can reference that and I can have a process and I can look out for the right details.”
HOW DOES A YOUNGER DRIVER LEARN TO STUDY AND TAKE ALL THAT INFORMATION AND NOT JUST DROWN IN THE DATA THAT’S OUT THERE? “I’ve always been a big believer that one thing that works for one driver isn’t gonna work for the next. Everybody is different, just like anything in life, honestly. The things that work for me might not work for somebody else, but I’ve always gained confidence in knowledge and knowing things that I can apply in real time. I feel like I’ve become a lot more self aware probably in the last six or seven years of my racing career than I was in the first three or four. Some of that is just maturity. Some of that is just getting older, but, nonetheless, that’s where I feel I’ve grown the most and being able to apply that knowledge in real time and being able to apply that knowledge even beforehand and kind of predict what’s happening and be proactive instead of reactive because otherwise that knowledge is useless. If you can’t apply it, it’s useless. Giving myself the things to cue off of and communicating with my team to where things are very uniform and I think building that team dynamic has been important for me. I do have a close relationship with my guys, whether it’s my crew chief, my engineer, my spotter, our road crew — whatever it may be — I feel like those things help me apply those details and that knowledge in real time.”
CAN YOU GIVE ME A SENSE OF WHAT YOUR PREP TIME WILL BE LIKE WHEN YOU GET TO THE TRACK ON RACE DAY? “When I was a student in school, unless I had to, I was never a last-minute studier for a test, unless it was just memorization of facts. I never studied for any math test because if you didn’t know the math, if you didn’t know how to use those formulas and apply it in the questions that are gonna be asked, you’re not gonna know it in the next eight hours. For me, that’s been the same philosophy with our race team. It’s that we nail down what we want to do during the weekend during the week. Yeah, things may change and you have to be adaptive, but if I were to get a flat tire driving to Bristol tomorrow and I show up 20 minutes before the race, we don’t need to talk about anything. If I showed up and just got in the race car, we won’t need to talk about anything unless factors have changed and we know how to adapt to them. I think that’s the strength in our team is that when we do show up to the track and I’m someone that does like to show up when the garage opens and roll through tech and hang out with my guys. We kind of just know what to do and we’re just waiting for that opportunity to go show and do it, so that’s what’s fun for me. That time is a little bit boring. I might jump on and look at some onboard video just to get my head in the game, but other than that we’re pretty ready to go.”
