Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Racing Media Zoom Call
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse, has been Ford Racing’s top finisher in each of the last two NASCAR Cup Series races, including last week’s All-Star Race in which he was sixth. Cindric spoke about not only this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600, but some of the other key races taking place on Memorial Day Weekend.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THERE IS A LOT OF DIFFERENT RACING GOING ON THIS WEEKEND. WHAT IS YOUR PLAN FOR WATCHING AND THEN RACING IN THE 600? “Obviously, we have a big job to do on Sunday night, but the other side of the shop has a big job to do in Indianapolis, so I always look forward to that race. I spent my entire lifetime before being a Cup Series driver going to that race, so I definitely have FOMO not being there. It’s becoming more normal to watch it on TV, but it doesn’t feel very normal. It’s one of the few years also I haven’t also made it up there at any point in time, so, either way, the last couple of years I’ve just been getting to the racetrack really early on Sunday and watch the entirety of the race from Charlotte at the track, just because by the time the race is ending is when our meetings are close to starting and I obviously don’t want to miss the end, so I’m super excited to see how the guys go. That event, ever since Roger and obviously the folks at Fox have really been making the Indy 500 as big as it has ever felt in my lifetime, so it’s definitely cool to see.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU WHEN YOU ARE THE TOP FORD FINISHER IN THESE RACES AT THIS TIME OF YEAR? “I wish that meant I was winning. I feel like that’s a very important piece, but it’s important as an individual, sure, and someone’s got to do it. It might as well be us, but, otherwise, I can’t say it’s a metric I pay a ton of attention to, but nonetheless I think for us right now in highlights that we’ve had some really solid weeks and some solid runs. We’re doing a lot of the right things as a team as far as execution. It’s important to do that with the format the way it is and everything that comes with it, so we just need to make sure we continue that streak of good execution and solid speed in our race cars.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE FEELING OF WATCHING THE END OF THE INDY 500 AS IT’S ENDING? “At the end of the day, I think anyone that’s in the industry grew up as a race fan, and I don’t think you can call yourself a fan of motorsports of any kind and not be absolutely enthralled with what happens on Memorial Day Weekend on that Sunday and the Indy 500 and Coke 600 because the flip side happens when you’re in Indy. I’ve been on the other side where they get done with the race and they’re tearing everything down and whether it was a good day or a bad day, they’re gonna flip on the Coke 600 and cheer on their favorite drivers or whatever else. That changes a little bit this year. Our friends across the pond really screwed this up if you ask me because on the flip side, like getting to Indy early in the morning and watching Monaco was awesome. It’s the best day in racing. It probably still is the best day in racing, but it’s missing the opening act if you will, which is kind of a bummer. I want to get the right people together to get the Indy 500 played on the big screen at Charlotte. I don’t know if that conflicts with anything there, but you’ve got this massive TV. I want to be able to watch it on the massive TV we have at the racetrack if I’m sitting there doing it, so maybe we can talk to the right people to get that to happen because I think all of the campers in the infield would enjoy that too.”
DO YOU THINK THIS WEEKEND IS GOING TO BE MORE ABOUT SURVIVAL AND POINTS OR DO YOU REALISTICALLY THINK THERE’S GOING TO BE A TOP 10 OR BETTER FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM? “I think, for me, my only goal this weekend is to run 600 miles. I know that may sound like a very vanilla answer, but I have yet to run all 600 miles of the Coke 600 and I think you are rewarded if you run all 600 miles, not necessarily to finish first, first you must finish, but you will always go through adversity. Re-watching the race from last year and looking at the finishers and where they were running and how they ran throughout the day, I would say that of the top 15 cars last year only three of them didn’t have to overcome some sort of adversity and they just remained where they were the entirety of the race. It’s a marathon no doubt. It’s the closest thing we have to an endurance race. There are racing categories that would categorize the length of this race as an endurance race, so I think you have to have that mentality to a certain extent, but there are points on the line for four stages not three this weekend, so as far as the championship is concerned, we’re certainly hungry for more and feel as though we need to be further up the standings to have a shot at a championship, so I think this is the natural halfway point in the regular season, so as rollercoaster as things have been for us to get to where we are, there is still more to gain.”
NASHVILLE IS COMING UP IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS. WHAT IS THAT TRACK LIKE? “Nashville kind of has an identity crisis in regards to the racetrack because I feel like, depending on how your car is driving, sometimes it’s a short track and sometimes it’s an intermediate. It obviously has the big speeds, but I feel like a lot of your handling concerns and your driver inputs are much more similar to a shorter track even though the length of the circuit is not very short, so I think it’s always an interesting conversation on what you prioritize, but it’s been fun going there over the last couple years. I can’t think of a better combination of location and sporting body than NASCAR in Nashville. I think it’s a perfect fit and the crowds that we get there and the fans are very much with the culture, so that’s always fun for me to see and it’s always a fun weekend because of it.”
NORTH WILKESBORO IS A POINTS RACE THIS YEAR. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GOING THERE EVEN THOUGH IT’S STILL A WAYS OUT? “I’ll be honest, we’re looking ahead but I don’t even know what month that race is. I could tell you that Nashville is the next week, but that’s it. Nonetheless, knowing that it’s coming up I look at North Wilkesboro as a potentially physically taxing race. We’re gonna have to run a lot of laps there and you don’t really get a ton of rest time and it’s obviously a very quick lap. I’m looking forward to it. It’s been fun to learn a lot about the racetrack. Before it was revived the last race happened before I was born, so I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that I am a wealth of knowledge on North Wilkesboro and what it means to the sport, but I can tell what it means to the sport by the fan response and those that were involved in previous years. It’s cool to see things like that. I definitely enjoy the history of the sport, so I feel like we’re definitely a part of history being back to the first points race there. It’ll be a fun event and it will be interesting to see what that many laps on that track really does and how it’s gonna race.”
CAN YOU GIVE A SENSE OF THE PROGRESS YOU GUYS MADE AT TEXAS COMPARED TO HOW YOU RAN AT THE OTHER 1.5 MILE TRACKS? “I think you highlight the mile-and-a-halves and the clear obvious weakness for us as a company. I think there has been a slow, gradual evolution or refinement from our first couple races in Vegas and Kansas, which are definitely two more similar racetracks than necessarily maybe Texas and I’d even say Charlotte is more similar to Kansas and Vegas, but I think we’ve been refining our package for those races. Even as you mention, Texas still was not quite good enough to go contend for probably a top three and getting a race win and I think that is obviously the goal. We’re still missing a bit on those tracks. If I could tell you what it is, we would be going out there and doing it, but I think Charlotte provides some different challenges to those tracks that we’ve mentioned, but I think it’s important. I think ever since we’ve introduced this tire at the tail end of last year, at the beginning of last year mile-and-a-halves were probably our best, especially on the 2 car and now we’re trying to understand what it takes to be the best again, so that sometimes takes a couple of race events. As you mentioned there is some clear progress, but we still need to go get more.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT IT IS LIKE RUNNING ALONG THE FENCE AT CHARLOTTE AS COMPARED TO HOMESTEAD OR DARLINGTON OR SOMEPLACE ELSE? “I think you’ve got to start with what makes running up high a challenge. You’re trying to gauge your speed and your grip level, keep up momentum, keep the car up off the fence. Obviously, you’re running within a couple inches or less than a foot and doing all that, but the difference at Charlotte with that challenge is in three and four you have a tough time seeing because the bumps are so bad. As someone who wears glasses, I have to really secure those things back over my ears when we go over Charlotte. Re-watching the race yesterday morning, it was a good reminder that I’m gonna be beat up in three and four. There’s really no way around it. We go to Vegas and we talk about the bumps in one and two, and there is a lot more vertical load, you’re kind of bouncing up and down in one corner, where Charlotte is more side to side. It’s like you’re getting hit from both sides. You’re just left to right, left to right, left to right. It’s disorienting and something you have to get used to and almost anticipate, but at the same time can be challenging to determine the grip that you have, and it’s definitely a deterrent physically. You don’t want to go do something that makes you feel bad, but if there is speed, go get it. It’s a challenge with this car for sure. You do get a break in one and two. One and two is ultra smooth. You have the big vertical drop going into the corner, but the bumps are difficult to navigate and having 600 miles to kind of learn where each of them are and understand within an inch of where car placement needs to be is critical for making lap time at that part of the racetrack.”
DOES THAT MAKE THREE AND FOUR AMONG THE MOST CHALLENGING CORNERS ON THE CIRCUIT? “I haven’t thought of it in that context, but I think you’re spot on. I can’t think of too many corners that are more challenging on the schedule than three and four at Charlotte, and the reason being I just got done describing what it took to run one lane. Well, we have three available and the bottom lane is just as challenging because you have to go down the staircase of the bumps and make sure you hit the paint. If you don’t, you lose three-tenths of a second because there’s this trough and all these factors that then you get to the exit and the wall comes out super quick. It’s a very difficult corner to navigate. I think traditionally on paper and even watching the race it doesn’t really do it justice as far as the challenge of it, but, yeah, I would probably agree with that statement.”
FOR CLARIFICATION, YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT THE BUMPS IN THREE AND FOUR AND THE LEFT AND RIGHT MOTION YOU FEEL. THAT’S JUST TRYING TO KEEP THE CAR GOING STRAIGHT, CORRECT? “Correct. It’s like running over a pothole with the left side and then the right side over and over again.”
WITH THAT IN MIND, IS IT SOMETHING THAT BOTHERS THE DRIVERS? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A REPAVE OR JUST LEAVE IT AS IS BECAUSE IT ADDS TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE 600? “I think it definitely adds to the challenge, no doubt. When we were re-watching the race there were a lot of single car spins in that corner, maybe not necessarily due to the bumps, but it definitely creates character as far as like, ‘Hey, do we need to fix this?’ I think if it gets any worse, yes.”
YOUR GOAL IS THE FINISH THE 600 MILES. THAT ASIDE, AS YOU PREP AND PREPARE FOR THE RACE, WHAT IS THE OTHER CHALLENGE THERE? IS EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT A CONCERN AND MAKING SURE YOU HAVE YOUR BEST STUFF AT THE END? “I would say in a general context compared to maybe times that saving the actual physical pieces on the car, I would say no – other than just like the right side of the car and the toe links and the upper control arms and all that. That’s about it. As far as saving bits and pieces on the car to be fresh at the end, I don’t expect any loss in performance from the engine, and I certainly don’t expect any loss in performance from the brakes. We use them some at Charlotte, but I wouldn’t expect an issue to get to the end of the race. So, with that being said, the runs are naturally going to be quite a bit longer than our normal intermediates. From the beginning of a stage we can kind of only go 30-40 laps, whereas this is gonna be 50-60 depending on when you split up the stages if there are no cautions, so we’ll be taking this tire longer than normal. You get to the conversation of running out fuel runs more often than not, like it was surprising to me watching the race last year guys screwing up short filling the cars and then the 11 car had to pit at the end of the race because they didn’t get the car full, so I think that provides a different element given the length of the race, but, otherwise, it’s kind of business as usual.”
DO YOU WATCH THE INDY 500 AS A RACE FAN OR AS A GO PENSKE GUY? “All of the above. I think in order to consume sports you’ve got to have someone to root for. I’m pretty close with a lot of people on the Indy Car side, whether it’s drivers or team members, and obviously our partners at Team Penske, so I feel like I’ve got some skin in the game on who I’m rooting for, that’s for sure. But I think number one is definitely as a race fan.”
KATHERINE LEGGE IS DOING THE DOUBLE. WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT WILL TAKE FOR HER TO ACCOMPLISH? “She’s run the 500 quite a few times. I don’t know how many, but she was running the Indy 500 when I was a teenager. I’m not gonna say it’s a walk in the park there, but I think the Coke 600 is definitely maybe the greater challenge just due to the lack of experience that she has driving stock cars with as challenging as the track is at Charlotte, but also it’s not like she’s getting in a car or with a team that has a bunch of data and notes on how to go make a car go fast at Charlotte if I’m going honest. I’m not taking anything away from the effort there. I think the fact that she’s doing it is awesome. The list of drivers and names that you see who have done it, they are some of the best of the best and I think year over year and with some of the accomplishments she’s had in IMSA she’s had a great career. If I was at the stage in her career that she is, I would think that would be a very cool thing to accomplish. All the power to her to get it all done, and I hope she gets uninterrupted with no weather and all that, and I hope she gets to do all of it. It’s a cool thing to do and it’s something that I always like to understand what it all takes to make that happen.”
WHAT ABOUT THE ENDURANCE SIDE OF IT? WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD TAKE TO DO BOTH? “It’s a great question because I don’t know, if I’m a well-conditioned Indy Car driver that races every week, I don’t know what that takes out of you doing the Indy 500. I’m sure it would be more challenging not being used to that, but I can tell you that as a rookie in the NASCAR Cup Series and as someone that’s been in the series for five years now, the physical toll is much less just due to the fact that my body is conditioned to that. I would say that could be a large challenge, just for the fact that she doesn’t race full-time in either. That plays a huge role in driver fitness, driver stamina. The challenges that you go through physically and mentally throughout a race, so I don’t think it’s gonna be a walk in the park at all. It would be different if you were full-time in at least one of the racing series. I think that could be one of the larger challenges for sure.”
