CONCORD, N.C. — Austin Cindric was contending for victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race during the closing laps at Talladega Superspeedway when he was involved in an accident that ended his day.
As a result, he enters this weekend’s round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL 29 points below the cutline to advance to the round of eight. He knows that winning the race is his Team Penske outfit’s primary option to continue the championship chase.
“We kind of have to go in here with the mindset of winning the race, which simplifies things in a lot of ways,” Cindric said. “It certainly simplifies strategy thoughts and thoughts in preparation for the race. It’s not the situation you want to be in, but it’s something we’re certainly prepared to go after and fight for.”
Cindric and his competitors will have a new challenge at the ROVAL, thanks to numerous alterations to the circuit, including changes to turns six and seven and the frontstretch chicane.
“I think both are gonna be something that kind of changes your approach from a driving standpoint,” Cindric said. “From the race and the flow of the race, I don’t know how much of that all changes, but with the frontstretch chicane basically just really tightening up the radius of that first apex to finish the lap there, and obviously I haven’t done any laps on the race track.
“I’ve done some laps on the Ford simulator, but I definitely see that making it more likely to miss the corner, to be quite frank. You’re just basically taking away your runoff and the ability to have a mistake and maybe kind of just cut the curb.”
Cindric was an underdog entering the playoffs, but advanced to the round of 12 and was near the top of the standings prior to the Talladega accident. Despite his team’s current position, he’s pleased with the team’s performance.
“I think from a short-term perspective, a complete 180 for the first round and for the second round, but I think the consistent factor has been how fast our cars have been, how fast we’ve been, how well we’ve performed on track,” Cindric said. “That’s been an improvement throughout probably our standard of what we’ve been building up to throughout the season, so long-term perspective, I said in our Monday meeting, I was like, ‘I wish the season wasn’t five races left’ because I feel like the way we go about things as a group, success is usually repeatable.”
Still, Cindric knows his position heading into this weekend.
“I’m proud of how we’ve handled that. I said it when the playoffs started, there’s quite a few guys on my team in their roles that it’s their first time in the NASCAR playoffs in the Cup Series, so I’m just really proud of how everyone has really stepped up,” he said. “A lot of things for us haven’t changed mentality-wise and process-wise and they’ve heeded results for us and that, to me, is the best-case scenario.
“That’s what I want to see out of me and what I want to see out of my team, but, at the same time, I see all these good things and I’m still in a must-win situation. All of that being said, I feel great about the spot my team is in and where I’m at from a long-term perspective and kind of even heading into next year.”