Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series
NASCAR Media Zoom | Thursday, October 7, 2021
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang, has already clinched a spot in the Round of 8 going into this weekend’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He answered questions from the media earlier today about the Roval and what lies ahead in the playoffs.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang — HOW MUCH OF THE TEST IS LEARNING THE CAR AND HOW MUCH ABOUT LEARNING WITH A NEW GROUP OF GUYS? “I would say yes to all. Certainly, a lot of emphasis is put on these tests because it’s all we’ve got, and as far as I understand it’s the only NASCAR-scheduled road course test and I wouldn’t necessarily classify the Roval as your traditional road course, so a lot of things that I’m trying to focus on to learn, but at the same time with the race this weekend and within the industry, I can say for our team it’s been not a thrash, but it’s certainly been a very busy week in the shop trying to get cars ready to go to tests, cars ready to go to races so it’s been full-on. Certainly, there’s an importance on both.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU THINK PEOPLE ARE CATCHING UP WITH THE ROVAL? “I think within the industry, if you think about it, I look back at 2018 when they first ran the track and I pulled out on the racetrack and I was several seconds faster than the next car. I don’t think you’re ever gonna have that again in NASCAR. I think there’s been a big transition and a big emphasis on driving as far as road courses and their importance. Obviously, adding one in the playoffs I feel like was a catalyst for that, so I think the addition of this race in the playoffs really kind of kick-started that emphasis on this style of racing and, like I said, I don’t think you’re gonna have those second gaps between cars and drivers. I think the drivers and the equipment have really closed the gap to where you probably aren’t gonna see that again.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE ROVAL THEN AND WHERE IT’S AT NOW? “I wouldn’t necessarily say I thought it was crazy. I’ve done a lot of street course racing, so I’ve had certainly narrower racetracks and bumpier racetracks, but it’s certainly different — the Roval — and, for me, it was actually and environment I was used to racing in the winter heat, the Legends cars stayed on the infield but ran the infield road course. Certainly a couple corners that I already knew, but, otherwise, it’s a unique beast and the challenge is as a driver, yeah, I don’t feel like turns one and two — NASCAR one and two, NASCAR three and four — are that significant, but if you talk to the crew chiefs and the engineers those are very different for how we have to deal with those, so it certainly kind of handicaps a lot of the setup of your race car for the infield.”
YOU’RE PLUS 77 SO ARE YOU FREE TO JUST GO WIN THIS THING? “Yeah, we’re advanced to the next round so I look at it as two parts. One, it is our last opportunity to have a free race that we know of, so whether if that’s learning things, kind of being light, giving our guys time to work on our Texas and Kansas cars. All of those things are great and we’re the only ones in that position, so obviously being conscious of the fact that everybody is racing for their season still, but we have that one week, which is nice. But on the flip side of that, it’s the last week that you can get playoff points that are gonna matter because after this weekend our playoff points will pay off for the Round of 8, and then it’s all about making it to Phoenix from there, so we’re hunting for playoff points whether if that’s trying to win the race or trying to win stages, so everything else really doesn’t affect the rest of my year.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL THE PLAYOFFS HAVE STARTED? A LOT OF GUYS HAVE HAD TROUBLE AND NOT GOTTEN THROUGH VERY CLEAN. “Obviously, you’re gonna have that, especially when you have Talladega in the mix. I feel like a lot of guys really got put in a bad spot with Talladega as you’d expect. A couple guys got some bad luck in Vegas, so I wouldn’t say it was above or below the average expectation by any means, but as far as the 22 team it’s been extremely solid. We’ve brought really fast race cars between Talladega as well as Vegas. I expect us to have a fast car again this weekend at the Roval. It’s somewhere I feel like we got our car a lot better in the dry last year, but we only ran about six laps in the dry last year, so I’d like to hopefully continue to improve that. If it rains, whatever, we’ll throw them on and turn on the rain lights and get after it.”
WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE BALANCING THE XFINITY SEASON WHILE PLANNING FOR CUP NEXT YEAR? “I think that’s a great question and I think this week is a perfect example because I’ve tried really hard to get myself in position by the end of this week to know what to do, know what to expect, know what the priorities are for this test on Monday and Tuesday. But, at the same time, on Saturday I’ve got to race to try to win, so I’m trying to get to a point where I can know what that stuff is, write it down and close it off because obviously winning this championship and doing the most we can to position ourselves for that is top of the list. That’s kind of been a characterization of my entire year. It’s something that was really an unknown factor for me for quite a while after knowing I was going Cup racing at this time last year was who I was gonna be working with. Obviously, I’m working with Jeremy Bullins and his team. All of the boxes are checked. I know what everything looks like for next year, so I have all the tools to be able to effectively prepare for that, so it’s been a balance and trying not to make it a distraction for myself or my race team.”
HOW MUCH OF A PRIORITY ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO KANSAS IN THE NEXT ROUND? “Kansas has been the kryptonite of the 22 XFINITY team since I’ve been on the team. It is crazy how bad it goes for us at Kansas and the tough part is we’re usually fast, whether it’s been my fault or not my fault, we’ve been getting in wrecks there in every single playoff race and it’s really derailed our playoffs. Last year we had all of our playoff points from doing well in the regular season and we really leaned on that because, otherwise, it was pretty terrible. I’m certainly gonna sleep with one eye open heading into Kansas. The best thing we can do, they’ve changed it now. They put Texas in front of Kansas, so maybe that’s gonna be the game-changer for us, but it’s been a bit of a disaster there. Even the spring race there we led every lap and got beat on the final restart, so Kansas has just been a gut-punch for me, so I’d certainly like to just walk out of there with a top 10 and I’ll probably be happy.”
