Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Richmond Media Availability
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske, will be one of 16 drivers competing for the NASCAR Cup Series championship when the playoffs start in two weeks at Darlington Raceway. He spoke about his team’s preparations not only for that, but for this weekend’s race in Richmond, VA, as part of a Ford media call.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW MUCH DOES HAVING A WIN ALREADY CHANGE YOUR PREPARATION FOR A RACE LIKE THIS WEEKEND? “I think in a lot of ways you can almost call it you have the opportunity to get into playoff mode, if you will, earlier from a team mentality standpoint, just as far as executing. The first two rounds of the playoffs are so much about execution and it’s something that I feel like the early part of the summer we were really struggling to lock down as a team, so that’s kind of where our minds have been, but as far as how it relates to the years past, I think every year has been different, but at the end of the day it does give you freedom to put pressure on other things as we move about the summer, but we are getting into that range of we have to hunker down and absolutely execute and understand where our performance is at and what our strengths and weaknesses are, so when it does start up in Darlington we’re ready to go.”
NASCAR IS RELATIVELY NEW FOR TEAMS AS FAR AS GETTING DATA TO WHERE THEY CAN CALCULATE FUEL AND TELL HOW MUCH A DRIVER NEEDS TO SAVE. WHERE DOES NASCAR COMPARE TO OTHER SERIES YOU’VE RACED IN AS FAR AS THAT GOES? “I wouldn’t say it’s fair to say that fuel calculations in NASCAR or as a race engineer, or a crew chief, or as a driver, are not very sophisticated, but it’s due to the lack of actual data. Now, we do have some data and we have to make estimates based off of the data that we do have. None of that really happens necessarily in real time or as in real time as much as you’d like it to be and as accurate as you’d like it to be, so there’s a lot more guessing that goes on in a fuel save situation in the NASCAR Cup Series than really anything else I’ve ever driven or been a part of. For example, if I was racing any other series really, I’d now what my capacity is. I have it on my dash. I know how much fuel I just used on the last lap, so I can make real time adjustments as the driver without even getting feedback from my team. The only feedback I really need from my team is how much fuel do you want me to use a lap, and then do we have a code word that defines that, whereas, for us, you can come up with codes and come up with an understanding, but even pace and lap time aren’t necessarily the greatest gauges of what that is, so you can spend time on the simulator driving in different ways to get reads on what uses what and what’s more efficient than what, but as far as fuel used in real time, it is a lot of estimating based off of data. The guys that are tasked with that challenge on top of the pit box and back in the shop have a lot to overcome. When you hear guys just making it on fuel or running out of fuel at the line, or running out just before, it honestly is so impressive that we’re able to get it that close with the resources that I feel like all the teams lack due to the lack of information and data.”
HOW IMPRESSIVE IS THAT LEVEL OF PRECISION AND HAVE YOU SEEN IT IMPROVE OVER YOUR FOUR SEASONS IN CUP? CAN YOU ESTIMATE HOW MANY HOURS ARE SPENT ON CALCULATING THAT KIND OF THING? “It’s constant as far as tracking mileage throughout the race, but other races are more important than others. Richmond is not gonna be a fuel mileage race at all because you’re gonna pit before you need gas at all times, but Daytona obviously that could come into play at some of the bigger racetracks. That definitely comes up and shows up, but I feel like it’s one of those things that, if anything, it’s gotten more difficult in the last couple of years because there was basically a change in the NASCAR rulebook that eliminated a second pump, or at least where a second pump could be located or used, to where my first year in Cup and even the race that I did in 2021, you kind of had a reserve pump that you knew had like two laps worth of gas in it or something, that you could turn on and now that’s been eliminated, so there is no safety net anymore than there used to be, so now it’s even more terrifying if you’re a crew chief or an engineer trying to make those calls because that safety net doesn’t really exist. There’s no real reference point anymore of how close I actually am.”
ARE YOU GOING TO RACE ANY DIFFERENT THIS WEEK WITH SOME OF THE GUYS STILL TRYING TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS? “I think Richmond is one of those racetracks that you have nowhere to hide as far as your performance. Every week I’m trying to win the race. That’s gonna benefit my playoffs and that’s what I’m paid to do. That’s what I want to do, so as far as that goes that doesn’t really change. That’s a constant. As far as how aggressive we might be on strategy throughout the race, there are definitely some opportunities to change things up depending on if you want to do one stop in the second or third stage, or two stops in the second and third stage. There isn’t an opening because there’s usually a lot of green flag runs, but because there are a lot of green flag runs and it’s such a tricky racetrack, there’s not really anywhere to hide if you’re not any good. It’s a tough racetrack if you’re really struggling for performance.”
YOU’VE DRIVEN THE XFINITY, GEN-6 AND NOW THIS NEXT GEN CAR. CAN YOU GIVE US INSIGHT AS TO HOW BIG THE DIFFERENCE IS IN TERMS OF DIRTY AIR THESE DAYS? “Yeah. It’s definitely a conversation and I hate to inform everyone that it’s not going away, and by that I mean that every racing series that you watch in the world, even if you watch a sprint car race on the dirt track, they’re dealing with dirty air. I’ll drive my go kart and lose the nose because of aero wash, so that’s racing. There are definitely certain levels of turbulent air and what the effect is. I think there are two main things and differences as far as watching a race on Saturday and watching a race on Sunday and that’s how you affect the cars around you. I feel like in the Xfinity car with the longer rear quarterpanels you could definitely affect the car in front of you by your proximity a lot more than you can in our cars. On the flip side, taking air off each other’s doors in the Truck and Xfinity car also affects the racing and has actually led to having more side-by-side for longer in our cars, whether that’s good, bad, better or indifferent. But I think to my second point would be that we are all so similar and so competitive with one another that it’s difficult to differentiate yourself. That’s the nature of having a highly competitive series. If I’m half-a-tenth to a tenth faster than you in any series, am I gonna realistically expect to pass you? That’s gonna be a hard pass to actually make. I’m gonna have to go off line, have a big enough run, so I think there are a lot of details other than just the air. Like I said, that ain’t going away. We’re driving cars through air. We’re gonna move the air, but the magnitude of it and the variance throughout the field, I think that’s what creates racing and passing, whether that’s through tire wear or carrying runs. Being able to differentiate yourself is how you create variance, which is why I feel you see on tracks that we have multiple lanes to use, our races are great. I just got done watching the Richmond race from last fall and in the heat of the day we were all over the racetrack, running two or three lanes on the track. It was honestly a really great race, no different than watching a progressive banked track on the mile-and-a-half stuff. There’s pros and cons to all of it, but that’s what’s gonna change it is giving me somewhere to make myself different than the guy in front of me.”
DO YOU THINK THE UPTICK IN AGGRESSION IS A DIRECT PRODUCT OF HOW SIMILAR YOU GUYS ARE? “I think you’re gonna get close to the end of the race in any series and you’re gonna have an uptick in aggression. I mean, you watched Watkins Glen in the Xfinity and the Truck Series and we wrecked a bunch of stuff just because it was the end of the race, so I feel like that is just racing. I think the urgency is definitely high anytime you have a chance to gain multiple positions or if you have multiple positions in front of you. It was interesting to me because at the same time I had to pit from the lead and go back to 30th and I was able to drive through the field because I was able to run different lanes, so it was pretty interesting to see all of that. If you’re locked down and you can’t, then you’re stuck, for sure. It’s very interesting, but, otherwise, wrecking at the end of the race is just because we’re competitive.”
THE TIRE USED THIS WEEKEND IS THE SAME ONE FROM BOWMAN GRAY, MARTINSVILLE, WILKESBORO, AND THIS IS ALSO THE FIRST TIME WE’VE RUN THAT TIRE AT A TRACK LIKE RICHMOND. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE TIRE GIVEN THE TRACK SHAPE AND HOW IT MIGHT INFLUENCE THINGS IN TRAFFIC? “We’ve run that short track tire throughout the year this year and it’s been a big change on paper. It’s been pretty racy, so I don’t have any big question marks heading into the weekend other than just adjusting for it. It’s very similar to the red tire that we ran in the option tire race last year, so I expect a lot of similarities in fall off and balance characteristics to that. That’s kind of what we’ve been working on as a team to look at, but I don’t know if I have a favorite or not, but I feel like although it’s on paper it’s a pretty big change, it’s been able to be pretty racy at a multitude of different styles of short tracks.”
CAN YOU GIVE US AN INSIDE LOOK OF WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD AT DRAFTING TRACKS LIKE DAYTONA? “Fast cars, man. I’d like to say it’s that simple and in a lot of ways it really is. Obviously, I feel like anybody who is driving a Ford Mustang has a great advantage when we go to these drafting style racetracks. Roush Yates and everybody does an awesome job at providing us a complete package for those races. Past that, it’s just study and observe and apply. I give a lot of credit to my team as well as my spotter on the roof, Doug Campbell. We’ve been able to do a good job at executing those races and putting ourselves in position. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been crashed a multitude of times out of the lead, but that wouldn’t make me any special because there’s been a lot of people who have had that, too. I’m proud of the performance there, but it’s never a guaranteed result, that’s for sure.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GATEWAY AND WHAT IT TAKES TO GET AROUND THERE? “It’s a really unique track, just because the straightaways are so long in comparison to the corner radius. You actually have quite a bit of straight line braking into turn one and double downshifts, double upshifts on exit. Two and three are much more of a sweeper. The one surprising thing to me has been how much the track has actually moved around each time we’ve gone there to where you can run the bottom, you can run the top or the middle as the track rubbers up, so the track has taken rubber really well over the last couple years, so I’m interested to see with the tire that we’re bringing this year how much that happens, if not more. It’s been a great track for our company. For whatever reason it’s one of those that we don’t have any shining stars on why it’s been so good for our team. Obviously, the Ford has been quick. I think it really does complement our engine package, so we’ll see. It’s a good one to have in the playoffs for us and a good opportunity.”
HAVE YOU HAD ANY CLOSE CALLS CELEBRATING ON CARS OR SLIPPING LIKE CONNOR ZILISCH LAST WEEKEND? “Those close to me probably wouldn’t say that I’m the most graceful individual, but I appreciate the praise. I guess I hide it well. I think about what happened to Connor often because the saying goes, big tree fall hard. That’s a long way for a big, tall guy to fall from, so I guess the rookie mistake there was not putting the window net inside the race car. I do that because it covers up the door numbers and the pictures look bad. It’s a scary sight, honestly. It’s kind of an upsetting thing to sit there and watch and feel helpless about. I’m sure many felt the same, but I think his dad put out a tweet making fun of him, and I think that definitely calmed a lot of the nerves. It’s something probably very similar that my dad would have done, so I can sympathize with that as well. It’s just a shame, but it’s probably not gonna stop me from being overly excited when I get out of the race car. If you’re going up on top, I guess the moral of the story there is you might as well just stand on the roof.”
WOULD IT BE JUST AS EASY TO HAVE THE WINDOW NET ON THE INSIDE? “It naturally goes on the outside of the car if I was to get out. If you want to go a step further, because at that point in time you would have put your window net down, go celebrate on the front straightaway, go grab the flag and all of that. If you want to go do burnouts again, the window net on the inside of the car – the way the window net works is it’s obviously got the fabric but then it’s got a steel bar at the top that latches to the side of the car. If you put that window net on the inside of the car, that steel bar is just kind of swinging around on the inside, so it’s not a comfortable thing to drive or a very safe thing to drive with this long bar just swinging around. It could hit you in the arm or the head or whatever else, so it’s not something you want to put on the inside of your car while you’re driving it, otherwise that’s why it ends up on the outside.”
YOU HAVEN’T HAD A TOP 10 IN SEVEN STARTS AT RICHMOND. CAN THAT CHANGE THIS WEEKEND? “I feel like I’ve had everything happen at Richmond other than finish in the top 10, so I think my last two times there I lost a cylinder and then I lost power-steering the last event, so I can 250 laps at Richmond without power-steering. I didn’t know I could do that, but here we are, and I don’t look to do it again. It’s actually one of my favorite racetracks. It’s a fun place. You kind of get that short track feel there that I haven’t had at too many places, and I hope we have a great weekend.”
WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE GOTTEN BETTER AT THIS YEAR? “It’s a great question and I don’t think finishing races where we should is not in that category. I could probably tell you a lot more about the things that I need to get better than the things that I have, but I think there’s been a lot of gain in having one year under our belt as a race team working together. You work on so many fine details that it is really about the fine details and communication and all these small things and all of that getting very normal. With all of that becoming normal working with my team it’s what becomes normal on the racetrack too. What do you expect out of yourself? I guess you call that experience, but I do feel like I’ve been able to approach each weekend with a much clearer mindset on what’s going to happen in the race. What I can impact. How I can impact it, so I’d say along those lines. Road course racing has not been a strength of mine this year. That’s been frustrating to not be able to get that, so I think that our team has been operating at a pretty high level in a lot of areas and I’d like to think I’m a large part of that.”
HOW ARE YOU AND THE TEAM BALANCING AGGRESSION WITH THE NEED TO SCORE MORE PLAYOFF POINTS? “I think any opportunity, especially the last couple months where we’ve had to try and get playoff points, they’ve definitely been on the radar. I guess past Atlanta we haven’t done that, but I think in the next couple of weeks, the best opportunity is to win races. We’ve been gunning for that on a lot of events and feel like we’ve had cars that have been able to contend for wins in the last couple of weeks as well. I think there’s been a lot of positive momentum for the team and ramping up at the right time.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST AREA OF IMPROVEMENT FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM THIS YEAR? “I think just starting off on the right foot really helped us out to start the year and build our notebook. I believe that’s gonna help us even further in the playoffs.”
Josh Berry, driver of the No. 21 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Wood Brothers Racing, has clinched a spot in the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. With two races remaining in the regular season, Berry talked about this weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway and what lies ahead in the postseason as part of a NASCAR media call this morning.
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS WEEKEND AT RICHMOND? “I’m excited. I think we’ve had some good runs there in the past in the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series. I feel like it should be a good opportunity for us to run well and definitely a place that we’ve had circles for a while. The biggest thing we’re looking at right now is the qualifying draw and how that worked out. It’s unfortunate, but we’re just gonna have to make the most out of that and probably get creative in the race to get some track position. I feel like if we have a good car, we should be up front.”
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THERE HAS TO BE AN ELEMENT WHERE FANS GET MAD AT CERTAIN GUYS AND IT CREATES STORIES, BUT HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT AS A DRIVER? “There’s always going to be lots of different personalities and everybody seems to go about things a little bit differently. I’m not sure I have an answer to your question, but I think it’s good having a personality like that. You’ve got to always have guys for the fans to hate, so that’s just gonna be part of it.”
WOULD YOU RATHER FLY UNDER THE RADAR AND NOT BE A GUY LIKE THAT? “Yeah, I guess. I think we’re all brought up differently. I’m molded to how I race from being around everybody at JR Motorsports for so long and Dale Jr., and I know that those are the guys that taught me how to race and how to act. I choose to try to stay out of all the controversy as much as I can.”
DO ANY OF THE FIRST THREE PLAYOFF TRACKS STAND OUT TO YOU AS ONE YOU CAN CAPITALIZE ON? “Yeah, I think all of them. Darlington, we were really solid in the spring. We unfortunately got in the incident with the 45, but ran good there last year too in the 4. Gateway, we had a good race going in the 4 car last year and blew a tire, but I really haven’t raced there a lot, but I still feel like that should be a good place for us, and obviously the Penske cars were really strong there. And then at Bristol we had a solid race there in the spring. I feel like we can make our cars better off of what we had there. Obviously, there was a lot of debate on if the tires were gonna wear and how they were gonna wear going into that race, and I feel like we can maximize everything going back. I feel like those are three good opportunities for us, it’s just gonna come down to unloading well and executing our weekend, and I think we’ll be in the hunt.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE SIM WORK FOR PLACES LIKE GATEWAY? “I think we just all use it differently. For us, we’re not gonna prepare any more than we have necessarily that we do in our weekly prep, but we work through that stuff and just get acclimated to the track the best you can with different setup changes. I just try to come up with a plan when we get there.”
DOES IT MATTER THAT YOU GUYS HAVE ONLY ONE RACE AT RICHMOND THIS YEAR? “I think it will be pretty similar to what we’ve seen in years past, but obviously everybody on our teams and a lot of the industry has a lot of experience there, so it’s a little unique only racing there once, but I feel like it will be the same old Richmond. I don’t think it will be too different.”
CARSON HOCEVAR SAID HE DOESN’T THINK THERE WOULD BE A WAY TO REPLICATE WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAST LAP THERE LAST YEAR WITH DILLON AND LOGANO AND HAMLIN. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT AND GIVEN THAT IT HAPPENED, THERE WERE ONLY THREE CAUTIONS IN THAT RACE. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE FACT IT WAS SO TAME AND THEN HAD SUCH A DRAMATIC ENDING? “It’s just a place that the race seems to string out and kind of happen naturally. I think we’re all excited to go back with the option tire, or close to the option tire it seems like. I think tire wear is gonna be more. I think the strategy is gonna be really important. Looking at things, I think we’re gonna be right on the allotment of tires. If we do have a few cautions, I don’t know that it’s gonna be guaranteed that you’re gonna be able to pit for every one of them and put tires on, so I think there’s gonna be a lot to look through there. Hopefully, when we get there and the tires fall off more like we’ve seen with that option tire, it opens up more passing and more strategy. I think in looking at it on paper at least, I feel like that’s gonna be a good change going into this weekend.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE AS A DRIVER HAVING TO SAVE FUEL? HOW OFTEN DO YOU START PLANNING AHEAD ON THAT KIND OF THING? IS IT PART OF THE WEEKLY MEETING LEADING UP TO A RACE? “We talk about a lot of different scenarios going into the races, but I really think it comes down to – you can talk all you want about different scenarios, but until you get in the race and once you know when cautions come and what opportunities present themselves, it’s really a lot on the crew chief and the engineers and everybody back at the shop to try and come up with a plan the best they can. We’ve seen that track position is so important with this car and it just opens up a lot more strategy that can get us into a situation where we have to save fuel or this or that. I don’t think we’ll see that this weekend. The tires are not gonna last as long as the fuel, which I think should be a good thing.”
WITH THE MISFORTUNATE AT WATKINS GLEN LAST WEEK, YOU HAVE AN EARLY QUALIFYING DRAW FOR RICHMOND. WHAT BECOMES THE GOAL AND FOCUS IN PRACTICE? “Obviously, it’s unfortunate how that all works out, but all you can do is just focus on practice and get your car as good as you can for the race. I think top 20 or top 25, I think we would probably take it. The track rubbers up so much and then cold tires peel rubber off the track and Richmond is one of the worst for that. I think Richmond, Darlington, Kansas, some of those places where we see higher tire wear and the track rubbering up more is worse for that, so it’s just unfortunate, but you just have to do your best to battle out of it. We’re kind of planning, honestly, that we’re not gonna qualify like we want and be prepared strategy-wise to do what we need to do to hopefully try to get up front.”
SO DOES THAT MEAN IN PRACTICE THERE IS MORE FOCUS ON A LONG RUN OR ON RACE SETUP AND NOT WORRYING ABOUT MAKING A ONE-LAP QUALIFYING RUN? “Richmond is kind of a place like that anyway, so you probably put a little less focus on the first couple of laps. A lot of places we go, especially the intermediates, when the track is new it’s a great opportunity to push the car early in the run and get a feel for what it’s gonna drive like in qualifying, but Richmond, with how many long runs we have, I think the majority of us all just try to train the focus on long runs anyway. For us, that will definitely be the case. I’m not really too worried about the fire off speed and just make sure it drives good and hopefully has good long run pace.”
THE POST-RACE INCIDENT WITH CONNOR ZILISCH LAST WEEK. DOES THAT MAKE YOU THINK TWICE ABOUT HOW YOU WILL CELEBRATE AFTER YOUR NEXT WIN? “I think we all will. That was so frightening to see. You take for granted how things can go, so I think we’ll all think about it more. When you see something like that, I think you’re gonna think about it, whether you watch how the window net winds up on the door – and sometimes it’s hard too. I mean, we’ve been strapped in the car for three hours or four hours. You get out and it’s no different than being on a plane and standing up for the first time. Your legs are a little shaky. Sometimes I think we take for granted some of that stuff, so I think we’ll all look at it a little differently. Obviously, you don’t want to ruin the celebration element of it, but you’ve got to watch something like that and learn from it. It was a scary deal, but I’m glad he is relatively OK. He’s obviously banged up a little bit, but I’m glad it was not worse than it was and I hope to never see that again because it was hard to watch.”
