Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Racing Media Zoom Call
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse, goes into this weekend’s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway 15th in the standings, 44 points above the cut line to make this year’s Chase. Additionally, he’s 31 points behind Bubba Wallace for 14th and 39 behind Daniel Suarez in 13th. Cindric spoke about his situation earlier today on Ford Racing’s weekly Zoom call.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WILL YOU PLAY IT CONSERVATIVELY ON SATURDAY OR DO YOU TRY TO EARN STAGE POINTS AND TRY TO LOCK YOURSELF IN? “I think that’s a great question. If it was up to me, I know exactly what I would want to do. I’m the guy who begged my crew chief to let me race after being on the front row in the Daytona 500, but, obviously, there’s a lot at play for the race and a lot of factors to come in. I think qualifying will probably play a factor in some of those decisions, maybe, and maybe some of those decisions have already been made and I just haven’t been informed yet. I think there’s a lot of important things, but when you have the package change as much as I think we’re anticipating it – at least changing how the car drives, from my seat you definitely learn a lot more by racing. So, I think there are pros and cons to both and I think we have a couple days left in the week to really understand what our best move forward is.”
DO YOU THINK MOST DRIVERS WILL BE WILLING TO AT LEAST EXPERIMENT WITH THIS PACKAGE AND TRY TO MAKE MOVES? “Absolulely. I think that’s the only way that you learn. I think the way that first stage especially is set up with it only being 35 laps, there’s really not much of a threat of anything else. I mean, even with our other package easily can make 35 laps on fuel, so there’s no reason not to really race hard. I think regardless of how strategy or fuel mileage or anything looks, I think you’re gonna see the drivers trying to learn what the cars have, what the tires do over the course of a run, what the balance of their car is and what adjustments need to be made, so I think if you’re racing, you are experimenting, especially when you’re speedway racing even if you know the package. So, I think the way that first stage plays out is kind of a perfect warm-up, a perfect playground for trying to figure out what we’ve all got.”
YOU ARE AN UNDER THE RADAR KIND OF GUY WHO DOESN’T GET INVOLVED IN A LOT OF DRAMA. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GOING INTO A RACE LIKE THIS AS AN UNDER THE RADAR DRIVER? “I appreciate what you said and I think, for me, I don’t spend any massive amount of time considering how I am perceived. I kind of just want to do my job and represent our partners and our team well and, most importantly, perform at an extremely high level. I think my commitment to that is maybe what would give that impression, and I guess my focus on what those things would be, so I think it’s really quite that simple. But, I think winning races also puts you in the storylines, so from that standpoint we definitely want to be doing that. Past that, it’s a super important weekend for us to get to business and do what we need to do for the remainder of the season.”
WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING WITH THIS PACKAGE AND THE CHASE SITUATION BEING WHAT IT IS? “That’s a great question and it’s something that every driver, every crew chief, even every spotter is currently debating and, obviously, with no practice or any testing with this package, and I say that in the thought of it being a drafting package because it’s essentially the same package that we race on intermediate tracks, so it’s not like we don’t have sufficient aero data and all these other things to help crew chiefs and teams make decisions, but you put the cars in much different positions and spots and situations that you wouldn’t normally otherwise experience – maybe at Michigan in the middle of a pack on a restart, but, otherwise, I think at a bare minimum you take downforce off the car it’s gonna drive worse. It’s never gonna drive better, so I think understanding to what degree those things are, I think that’s been more of mine to date is all the things that I think will be different, it’s more of scaling what degree they’re gonna be and you’re not really gonna know that until you go out there and race. So, I think it’ll be very interesting for everyone and how that affects your approach and how you can work together with your teammates. I think approaching this race very open-minded. Really, the last time I feel like we were able to do that, I’m not trying to foreshadow by any means, but the last time I feel like we had to approach a speedway this open-minded was the first Next Gen speedway race at Daytona for the 500. It’s a challenge for sure, but I also think given the opportunity to go out there and figure it out between myself and my teammates that I’ll be working with all night, I think we all have the tools to be able to be at the forefront of that learning curve.”
IS THERE A BENEFIT TO BEING AN UNDER THE RADAR GUY AT DAYTONA? “I’m not sure. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I’ve always debated though, because I’m driving the Menards car for the weekend, and it’s a night race and I’m very easy to see, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing at a night race. Am I easier to block because my car is easier to see? I have honestly had that debate because what does your eye pick up on? I can promise you that your eye will pick up on that bright yellow Menards/Maytag Ford Mustang.”
HOW HAVE THE CHANGES MADE THIS WEEKEND IMPACTED YOUR PREPARATION? “Yeah, I’ve definitely been a bit looser and open-minded in my preparation in kind of just focusing on the keys of what makes Daytona Daytona. What makes parts and pieces of this car this car. It’s the same tire, so trying not to get too lost in the sauce of the down and dirty of the real specific details because I feel like that can be distracting, but it’s also things that even if I didn’t do any prep for coming back with the same package, I would have a pretty general understanding if you just had to throw me in the car today. I think with that just trying to remind yourself of what things are still gonna exist regardless of the changes and from there kind of keep an open mind and make sure that as a team we have the things that we think are going to be points of debate throughout the race or areas in which we’re trying to understand the varying degrees of change that we’re experiencing versus the package that we’ve raced pretty much since the inception of the car.”
IS IT EVEN WORTHWHILE TO WATCH THIS YEAR’S DAYTONA 500 WITH THE CHANGES? WHAT KIND OF VIDEO HAVE YOU PREPPED WITH? “The bulk of the film that I’ve prepared for this week is the summer race from last year at Daytona. It’s just a hotter event than what the 500 was and, obviously, kind of just more looking at general handling and trends from lanes usage and then always you’re getting a sense of watching other drivers and the decisions that they make or other OEM’s and how they work together. That type of communication that happens between team’s drivers and spotters that you kind of just build up a notebook of how other people operate for better or for worse. It’s no different than I feel like I might operate slightly different than Joey or Ryan, but we have to continue to collaborate on certain ideas. I think those are things that you can usually pick up on by watching and those will be things that won’t change.”
DO YOU THINK PEOPLE THINK YOU’RE BLANEY WHEN YOU’RE IN THE MENARDS CAR? “Good question. Actually, I don’t know if you guys noticed, but last week was one of the craziest double paint scheme weekends of the year. My spotter and I keep track of that. Like, if we see something on social media, we’ll send it to each other. There were two Trackhouse cars that looked the exact same. We had the two Monster cars. I feel like there were two others, but that’s very much a real thing. Obviously, Doug and I will sometimes walk the garage to make sure we know paint schemes just so we’re calling out the right cars and understand the right things because it is super important. The Coke 600 is always one of the hardest ones because everyone is in a red, white and blue paint scheme and when the cars are a mile away from you on the spotter’s stand, it’s easy to mix up a 54 and a 35 just because one has a green banner on the top and the other one doesn’t. I think those are all very important, but I run a Menards car half of the schedule. I think the other guys on the roof are good enough to figure it out.”
WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF MANUFACTURER TEAMMATES WORK TOGETHER IN THIS RACE. WITH TWO FORD DRIVERS BEING BELOW YOU IN THE STANDINGS, WILL THAT AFFECT YOUR STRATEGY? “I’m not sure that it does. I think from a Ford context, there’s a total reality that we get two in, so I think Brad is far enough back from me that he can mathematically pass the 97, but he can’t mathematically pass me. Obviously, they have to have a standout day and you could be easily done by the first stage and know that the 6 car wouldn’t be able to advance, but as far as the 60 and myself and how we work together as a group, I think the more Fords we get in the Chase, the better. That’s my mentality going into it is there’s no reason why we both can’t get in.”
DO YOU FEEL WE’RE GOING TO SEE SOMETHING SIMILAR TO ATLANTA THIS WEEKEND OR SOMETHING ELSE UNIQUE TO THE BIGGER SPEEDWAYS? “Yes, no and yes. I definitely feel that handing will be more important than it’s been in the past. I always feel like the summer race, for obvious reasons, requires more handling needs. I think the biggest differences between Atlanta and Daytona at the moment is the length of the straightaways and the radius shape of the corners. So, for us, how does that impact your ability to race? I feel like the corner happens quite quickly at Atlanta, whereas in Daytona you’re sustained in the corner for quite a while, so are there gonna be factors that apply in a handling limited environment? Sure, that you would have to utilize at Atlanta or actually drive the car a certain way, yeah, perhaps. But I do think the corner shape definitely will I guess drive the most difference between the two. Like I said, it’s hard to know yet until we go out there and race to know how handling limited it is or it isn’t.”
WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN OR WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE HOW THE CARS WILL BE AFFECTED WITH BUMP DRAFTING OR GETTING CLOSE THE CAR IN FRONT OF YOU? HOW HESITANT OR SELECTIVE DOES THAT MAKE YOU IN TERMS OF DECIDING WHEN TO PUSH? “All great questions that I have no answers to. We will learn at the same time. I’ll probably learn a little sooner than you will, but we will all learn at the same time.”
DARLINGTON SEEMED TO BE A TURNING POINT FOR YOU. WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE TRACK THAT GOT YOUR TEAM GOING AND WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THE SOUTHERN 500? “It definitely was a good event for us for the year. I think that Darlington provides a ton of challenges. I don’t think there’s a more mentally challenging race – maybe the Bristol Night Race – than the Southern 500 and having a clean start there and being able to execute a race, I think there’s really no single area that isn’t important in your race car to be able to have to be able to run well at Darlington, so it’s a good race for us to have a great notebook on and looking at it from a Chase perspective, you’re just trying to get out on the right foot. I mean, every single racing point and all that makes the most difference there, so I think for us it’s definitely one that we’re looking forward to getting back to. It’s a very fun racetrack and a very rewarding place to get a good result.”
HAVE YOU BUSTED BLANEY’S CHOPS ABOUT YOUR CAR LOOKING LIKE HIS? “I guess Ryan and I are probably quite used to that. I think the only thing that I bust Ryan’s chops about is that there are many times, and it’s becoming increasingly less since I’ve been in the Cup Series now for a little while, but there are maybe some casual race fans who think that I am Ryan Blaney. They will yell at me and they will come up to me with a Ryan Blaney trading card and ask me for my autograph while I’m wearing the firesuit, or like the ride around truck when they’re all yelling – ‘I love Blaney.’ I’m like, ‘OK, cool. I do too, but that’s not me.’ So, anyway, we do joke about that from time to time.”
DO YOU SIGN IF ASKED WHEN IT’S NOT YOU? “I show them the belt on my firesuit that says Cindric on it.”
