Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Chase Media Day — Charlotte Convention Center
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PIT CREW CHANGES ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS WEEK? “Leadership called me earlier this week and kind of discussed the change and why the team felt like it made it. I completely understand the team’s perspective for why that is and obviously the opportunity for us moving forward, so I think that’s really all it boils down to. Back to work for the next 10 weeks.”
DO YOU SPEND ANY TIME GETTING OUT AND DOING PIT STOP PRACTICE WITH THE NEW GROUP TO GET ACCLIMATED TO EACH OTHER? “I find that question funny because I would be there right now if I wasn’t having to sit here and do media.”
IS THERE ANY FEEDBACK ON THE CHANGE OR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SAY YOU DIDN’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN? “It’s not my race team, so no.”
WHAT KIND OF RELATIONSHIP DID YOU HAVE WITH YOUR CREW? “I think anyone that knows me, racing is all I do. It’s all I care about, all I put my time and effort into, so, naturally, I’m pretty close with the guys I work with and, yeah, I think the main level of frustration is I don’t get to see through the season with the guys that I feel like were responsible for me getting there, but, at the same point in time, it’s not completely unprecedented to make changes to give the team the best chance. That’s what the team thinks and that’s what they decided. As far as the guys that are coming on board the 2 car for the rest of the year, there are several veteran guys that have I’ve won races with in Xfinity, and I know most of these guys. I’ve worked out in the same gym and hang out, so I’m not unfamiliar with anyone that is joining the team and looking forward to see what we can do for the next 10 weeks.”
HOW DID YOU INTERACT WITH THEM, AT ALL? “I divide a NASCAR Cup Series team into three different groups. You have your road crew. You’ve kind of got the people for car performance. I’d put that on my side, and you’ve got the people that obviously go over the wall changing tires. Those three groups feed off of one another, the energy and from a culture standpoint when one is down the other one is gonna pick each other up. I feel like we’ve got great culture on our race team on the 2 car and whether if that’s welcoming in new people on to our team or obviously trying to understand how to improve performance or maintain processes that we feel like are going to make us excel. All of those things factor in to the people you have on your team and how you want to go about leading them, and I think when it comes to personnel changes, I think that’s a lot more in Brian’s wheelhouse from that standpoint, but if I can be there to help drive that or direct that, even something as simple as having to start a new group chat and sending a few memes to help break the ice, I think leadership in my role can be defined in so many different ways. So, I go about it the way I want to and I feel like I try to be as available as possible.”
CAN YOU BOTTLE THAT FEELING FROM DAYTONA LAST WEEK AND CARRY IT THROUGH THE CHASE? “Yes and no. I feel like our postseason is 100 percent a swap in mentality. I feel like we can be free and go be aggressive for the next 10 weeks, whereas I feel like for the last three months we’ve been points racing, so I’m looking forward to that opportunity.”
WOULD YOU EVER TAKE THE ATTITUDE THAT THIS CHANGE ISN’T FAIR? “I don’t think it’s productive, especially having the conversation with you if I’m being honest. It’s a change and I feel like as far as the guys that we have on our car for the rest of the year, they’re obviously super capable and, for me, I think it’s a great opportunity for the whole group to go out and have a good 10 weeks.”
WHAT WAS THE RATIONALE YOU WERE GIVEN FOR THE CHANGE? “It’s giving the team the best chance to win the championship. I think that’s fully understandable and it’s a pretty understandable motivation given the time of year. I talked with leadership. I talked with Roger and I understand why that was changed and, like I said, for us it’s business as usual past having personnel changes and being able to welcome our new group in and be able to give them the best chance to succeed, but also for them to give us the best chance to succeed. I think those groups and those different divisions as I talked about on the race team, they feed off of each other and I think it’s important to start that culture in the right way.”
WHERE DO YOU FEEL THE CEILING IS FOR THIS TEAM? “I’m not sure. I feel like I wanted to find what that is after the next 10 weeks. I think there’s several tracks that, for me, I would consider as tracks that I really know what I want out of my race car, whether if that’s a Gateway or a Talladega, but nonetheless I think there’s enough of a variety in the schedule. It’s obviously pretty heavy on intermediates, which I think is also great room for us to improve, but, otherwise, I think one of the things that really makes us different versus last year’s playoffs too is that I’m not expecting many tire changes or package changes or anything else, whereas last year’s playoffs had a new tire every single week. So I feel like we’ve got a good notebook and we have no reason why we can’t continue to improve.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS THIS SEASON? “I would say that the early part of the summer definitely raised urgency for those types of tracks and it’s given us time to evaluate how to improve.”
HOW IS THE POSTSEASON DIFFERENT FROM THE REGULAR SEASON? “I think it’s no different than the rest of the year. Each week is an opportunity to improve or regress, so I think you have to continue to just approach that week to week, race to race mentality. It is what makes our sport easier, I think, than other forms of motorsports just because most of them don’t race week to week and have the opportunity to bounce back each week, or at least have the opportunity to. I’ve always approached it that way, no different than it’s every lap. You have all these small little checkpoints you go through throughout the day and you hyperfixate on those enough to where you don’t think about anything else.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE HERE? “It’s nice, but I told you all at the beginning of the year we would be here. The Chase format fits how we go about things and had this been the case the last couple of years, we’d be sitting here as well. It’s not the case and that’s largely of our own doing as well and the format and we didn’t hit it right. We didn’t win the races when we needed to, but this is good to be back. This is something we knew was gonna be achievable. Really, until the last month, I thought we were gonna roll in here fifth or sixth in seeding, but we had a little bit of a fall back the last little bit. That being said, we’ve got a lot of really good racetracks coming up. I’m excited to get this thing fired off. Darlington is one of my favorite tracks. We’ve run extremely well there. We have lots of good ones coming and there’s still time to win races.”
WHAT IS THE 17 TEAM’S CEILING FOR THE CHASE? “It remains to be seen how this format is gonna work out and with everything being reset it’s a whole lot closer than it was a week ago, so the potential is there. We have a lot of good racetracks coming, so if we can go out here and put up two or three really strong days to start, then there really is no ceiling.”
WHAT DOES IT DO FOR THE TEAM WHEN RYAN WINS LIKE HE DID AND THE MOTIVATION IT PROVIDES? “That was big to drive your way into the Chase in a one-way scenario. It was a big weekend, so I’m proud of that team and proud of Ryan and everybody. That’s big and to be in the Chase now and be looking ahead at the next 10 races we have and the opportunities we have as an organization, we’ve been really good at a lot of these tracks. There was a lot of celebration this week, which is strong for everybody. It gives everybody that little bit of bump of confidence that maybe you need in the shop. It’s been a while since our Watkins Glen win, so it’s good to get everybody fired back up and pumped up to realize that we’re very capable of winning races every year. That’s what they were able to do and it gets us set in a really nice spot as we go to Darlington.”
YOUR 17 TEAM HAS BEEN GOOD AT SCORING POINTS AND BEING CONSISTENT. IS THAT AN ADVANTAGE GOING INTO THIS FORMAT? “It was until now. Will it be in the next 10? I don’t know, but we work hard to go to the racetrack and have chances to be competitive and run up front. If we have a day that we can run eighth and that’s it, then we’re gonna figure out how to run sixth. That doesn’t mean taking a wild shot from out of nowhere and crashing and finishing 35th. I think that’s what has helped get us to this point. It’s why we said at the beginning of the year that making the Chase was not gonna be the hard part for our team, it’s getting in the Chase and being a competitor for the championship. We haven’t been quite there this season. We’ve been able to run in the top 10 really consistently and just be right there at the end of a top five, but we’ve got to get through that still. We’ve got work to do before we can sit here and honestly feel like we’re in the hunt for a championship, but we will have the consistency to be right up there with the best of them throughout this 10-race stretch.”
HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE HOPE OF COMPETING FOR A TITLE AND THE REALITY OF WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW? “We’re optimistic that we can do great things here and simply being a part of this thing that if we hit everything right, and we can have a run at a championship. We have a lot of good tracks for us, but we’re also realistic in the fact knowing that it hasn’t been our season to this date, that we’ve been able to go to these places and hunt for the wins at all of them. We’ve had a couple of shining moments in a lot of race weekends that were just sitting in like the sixth, seventh or eighth window. We need to be better than that, so we’re optimistic about it, but we’re gonna be real at the same time that we can’t sit still. Blind optimism would just have us hoping for the best and it’s not gonna be hope that gets there, it’s gonna be a lot of work and getting better and really executing at the highest level.”
DOES IT FEEL WEIRD TO BE HERE AT MEDIA DAY AND BRAD ISN’T HERE? “The first half of your question is no, it doesn’t feel weird to be here. But the year that we had with all of RFK with the summer stretch, the same stretch that we hit a little bit of a slump. Our organization hit a bit of a slump and caught a lot of bad luck with the 60 and the 6, so, that being said, I think that it’s kind of the way the summer went – not from a lack of effort on anybody’s part or anything like that, it’s just a really unfortunate stretch for the 6 bunch especially. The 60 powered through and got in here. We had three cars in the Chase for a lot of the season and just lost a little bit of a hold there for a while.”
PREECE’S RECENT RALLY COINCIDED WITH YOUR PRANK ON HIS TRUCK. DID THAT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT? “If so, I’m gonna have him come and wrap mine. We’ll return the favor. I think that it’s important to cut up and have a little fun along the way. We talk about this sport, and our sport knows that it’s a very high-pressure environment. We have a lot on our shoulders. It’s not racing for you or your family, you are racing for 200-and-something employees back at the shop and their families as well. Everything does matter, so you have to have that focus and that drive to make every week the best we can possibly be. Does that mean that you can’t goof off a little bit and have some fun along the way? Absolutely, not. So we try to do it and within reason. As we got to the last handful of weeks, I’m proud to see Ryan owning it and driving that thing around everywhere. That’s making me very happy inside, so I’m glad to see it’s still giving. But also the last couple of weeks we haven’t been at each other because we’ve known what’s at stake and we’ve known it was gonna take a little bit more to make sure we found ourselves solidly in the Chase.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED HE’S STILL RUNNING AROUND IN IT? “I am. I really am. My hope was that he would be forced to do it, that being we were able to get his daughter to help do the wrap and apply probably a good majority of the flower power down the side that she would have ownership of it and if her dad tried to rip it off, it would just be a heartbreaking thing to do as a parent, so he would be forced into it. I guess that worked because he’s in it now. You love to see it. It’s fun getting texts from people saying, ‘I just saw Ryan Preece riding around.’ It’s like, ‘Yep, that’s handy work that keeps giving.’ I’ve had a lot of fun with that one.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW HAS THE MINDSET CHANGED ON THE 60 TEAM AFTER LAST WEEKEND? “It hasn’t. If anything, that same mentality has carried over and I think that’s what we’ve been missing. I’ve been missing. We’ve all been missing. I feel confident. At the end of the day, we’ve won two races this year – one points paying and one non-points paying – but why not? There’s only one place for us to go and that’s forward.”
HOW SPECIAL WAS IT TO GET IN THE WAY YOU DID? “It was nice to not possibly have the owner’s in and not the driver’s, so to erase that penalty was nice, even though I did see that the 60 owner’s points is five points ahead of the driver’s. So, it’s just really cool. It’s cool to be here. I’ve never been a part of this. I’ve never been in a situation or things just never worked out and to be here in September doing a media day it’s not so bad.”
WHAT ABOUT YOUR SON’S PACIFIER? CAN YOU TELL THAT STORY? “Heather was the one that pointed it out that night. I’m not a big attention to detail person. I would have never noticed, but she showed me that and that was pretty cool. I don’t want to say that night was like a movie, but it was like a movie. That was cool.”
HOW MUCH OF GETTING IN THE CHASE IS SOAKING EVERYTHING IN VERSUS PUTTING IT ON KILL MODE? “I’m soaking it in. Sunday was a time to I guess be surrounded by a bunch of neighbors and friends and family and enjoy it, but much like that saying the clock resets at midnight and the job and the way you’re gonna attack everything, that’s what we’re focused on.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR TEAM AND HOW THEY BELIEVE? “Oh, yeah. I think Saturday was a great example of what our team is capable of and I love that I have my own personal photographer standing behind you all (Bubba Wallace). It’s all about peaking at the right time. Anything is possible and I feel like Derrick’s attitude, my attitude, it wasn’t just Derrick and it wasn’t just me, it was the entire team. Anything is possible.”
EVERYBODY ELSE IS NEW TO THE CHASE BECAUSE IT’S A NEW FORMAT. “Yeah, but I’m talking about being in the position to even have an opportunity to race after it. I’ve never been a part of the reset, so to speak. That’s the difference. I’m saying I love the fact that I’m a part of it. This is cool.”
BUT YOU’RE ALSO PART OF IT AT A TIME WHEN IT’S TOTALLY CHANGED FROM THE LAST 12 SEASONS. YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE IS GOING IN COLD TOGETHER. “Yeah, but I guess the experience of it all. Like, being in this sport and racing for JTG and then racing for SHR and not winning a race, so I wasn’t qualifying in and having that opportunity to be here. That’s what I mean, so I like the way it rewards consistency, so it gave us the opportunity to be 17th and still qualify in by not just winning a race. Winning the race is what got us in, but winning the race isn’t what got us to that point. We gave ourselves a shot going into Daytona by being 31 points back and then executing a great race.”
SO YOU DON’T FEEL DISADVANTAGED EITHER WAY THAT IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME? “No, and I think the way this point system goes as long as the aggressiveness and the will to win is there like it was on Saturday. We need some luck, but we needed luck on Saturday so I think if we do everything right, I’ve won one points paying race, sure, but my confidence is higher than anybody in this building right now.”
A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK YOU HAVE TO BE IN THE TOP SIX TO HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THE TITLE. DO YOU AGREE? “No. I don’t believe that. Not at all because I think those guys are gonna race the hell out of each other and if they have a couple of bad races, there’s no win and you’re in to get to the next round. It’s gonna be tough to make up those points, so if you’re a team that puts 10 great weeks together and wins races and gets stage points, the fact that you’re in the top 16, I hate to tell you just because you’re 16th in points doesn’t mean you didn’t execute a great season. We didn’t luck into that win on Saturday. We ran up front. We executed. We did everything we needed to do as a Cup-winning caliber team. If we show that for the next 10 weeks at tracks that RFK is strong at, we can do it. It’s not easy, but we can do it.”
HAS ANYONE ON YOUR TEAM TRIED TO BREAK DOWN HOW MANY POINTS YOU NEED TO GAIN? “No. I’m sure people that break down points and all of that in analytics will, but I’m gonna look at it as I want to freakin’ win. I want to go out and qualify well. I want to execute stages. I want to be aggressive. And if you do all those things right, don’t make any dumb decisions, don’t second-guess your decisions, you’ll give yourself a shot.”
YOU’RE VERY SURE ABOUT THAT. “I’m pretty damn sure about that, yep.”
YOU LOOK AT OTHER SPORTS LIKE MARCH MADNESS AND THE FEELING THERE. “How many times has the underdog gone and won the NCAA Tournament, or a wild card went and won the World Series or the Super Bowl? How many times has somebody been trailing after halftime and come back? It’s not over til it’s over.”
THE POINT A LOT OF COACHES OR TEAMS MAKE IS THAT THEY JUST WORRY ABOUT THEMSELVES. IS THAT THE MENTALITY OF WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW? “Yeah, absolutely. I think if you worry about your team, you make good decisions, you’ll give yourself a shot.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WINNING THAT FIRST POINTS RACE? “What it means is that we now have an opportunity to chase after a championship and I think the expectations of what I expect, what the team expects out of me is there. I want to go execute. I want to go win. I want to feel like I felt on Saturday, so I think that’s where my head space is at.”
YOU WERE ABLE TO ERASE A 50-POINT DEFICIT TO MAKE THE CHASE. YOU ARE NOW 100 POINTS BACK AND HAVE SEEN DEFICITS LIKE THAT CUT THROUGH THE YEAR. HOW BIG IS 100 POINTS? “It depends on where you are on your car performance, your driving performance, your qualifying. Doing what Denny did takes a great level of execution. Qualifying well, stage points, all of that adds up. If you’re not getting stage points, if you’re not contending for stage wins, you’re not gonna win the championship. So I’m not in denial, but what I felt like with Richmond, with New Hampshire, with Daytona, those were three solid weeks of showing, outside of an untimely caution, that we have potential. I love that. Not everybody sees it or sees it that way, and I enjoy being the underdog, so bet against me.”
