NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 9, 2022

Austin Cindric

Pit Lane Interview

Q. Austin, we saw a late-race spin. What happened there?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: We were in a position where I needed one more spot. I was working to get that spot. I haven't seen a replay, but sounds like I got hit from behind, locked the rears, got sent back.

No, I just screwed that up, so... I think he hit me there at the end. Doesn't matter either way. Trying to drive a little desperate for 30-lap older tires than every car around me. Tried to make something happen.

Probably could have done something better throughout the day, trying to figure out where to get track position, when to have tires, when not to. A bit of a cluster.

We were golden there if that red flag wouldn't have come out. Great spot to get in. The way these go. If we get the finish we deserve at Texas, we're not even in this position.

Just frustrating. But that's Playoff racing. There's a lot of guys who have had a lot worse luck in the Playoffs. Learned a lot in my rookie season, proud to have a shot to finish out the season strong and have fun the next couple weeks.

Q. Interesting call by your crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, in stage two. You guys didn't get stage points and he elected not to short pit. He apologized to you on the radio. Were you surprised?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: It's so hard to calculate that out, I mean, when you're dealing with one or two points, like I said, there at the end. I needed one or two points. That one or two points we thought we were going to get, we had some cars we probably didn't anticipate staying out in stage two that we didn't think their priority was going to be stage points.

Miscommunication or a bad call, whatever you want to call it. It's tough when it is that one or two spot and you're relying on other guys to make decisions that benefit you.

That's the way it goes.