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NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: DESERT DIAMOND CASINO WEST VALLEY 200November 7, 2020Austin CindricAvondale, Arizona THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, and that is Austin Cindric. Q. Austin, in one of your interviews post‑race maybe on MRN or something, you talked about how when you started Legend cars you weren't good and you had to get better and your message was to aspiring racers out there, it's not where you start but ultimately you can get better. Over the years, how did you get better and how did you get better recently enough that you end the season winning more oval races than road course races? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. I've driven a lot of different cars, I've had a lot of different teammates and competitors and I've done a lot of observing as far as everyone's learning curve is different. My learning curve has required a lot of hard work, a lot of preparation, a lot of studying, a lot of self‑criticism, and for me that's the hard work that I had to put in, and every driver has different things they need to improve on. And for me when I started out in Bandoleros and legends cars I wasn't the kid that had already been go‑kart racing for three or four years. I found it difficult, and then racing when you're already not as fast as you want to be and getting run over, and the Summer Shootout stuff is difficult, especially as a kid to understand that one no wants to give you anything, and then there's parents out there that want to do the same thing to you. It's a tough challenge as a kid. I was fortunate to have parents and the right people around me. I may not have been in the fastest car every single time when I was a kid, but I had people that were teaching me hard work. A guy name Steven Abbey, I mean, he was pretty much my big brother. We traveled around the country racing legends cars, and he taught me to be tough, not to take anything from anyone, and like I said, it's not about where you start but it's about how you grow yourself. Some of that comes through self‑awareness. I figured that out early in my career that that's what I started to lack, and that's how I grew the most in a short amount of time. But overall, yeah, a lot has happened in a short amount of time in my career, and I probably never would have told you 10 years ago that I'd be winning races for Roger Penske at this level as a 22‑year‑old. I would have friendly told you that that's crazy. I'm proud to be here. I'm proud of the work that I've put in to get here, and there's still a lot more to go. Q. Roger said that during the pandemic, while there was the break, he thought about shutting down the Xfinity team. Did you know that, and at that time what were you thinking? AUSTIN CINDRIC: I had a very good idea that that was a possibility, so for me, that's something out of my control, out of any driver's control. Obviously someone like Roger Penske, when he says it, you're going to run the whole year and he's going to make sure everything can happen to do that. I trust if it wasn't going to happen it wasn't going to happen, and obviously we've had great success since that point in the year, and I'm not sure that's a catalyst for it, but that's a lot of motivation, and then to be able to announce early on in the playoffs that we're coming back for another season I think is a great thing and I think motivates a lot of people in the shop that hard work and preparation and the work that we've put in to have this success does matter, whether that's from an internal level or partnership level. I'm sure that it's gone a long way for sure. Q. I know we've talked about it before, but does a championship‑‑ do you care about perception? Does it help with any perception of people thinking you get what you deserve versus your last name? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, I haven't really even‑‑ that's the first time I've thought about that this whole week, so I guess it's not in the forefront of my mind, but as far as my own perception or the perception of others, obviously we've gone out here and done everything there is to do in the Xfinity Series this year. We've gotten six wins, we've gotten both championship trophies. For me and my team, that's all we need. But the support that I've had this year outside has been‑‑ to me surprising. It's been new to me. When I started I made a lot of mistakes on a national level and got told by a lot of people about all the things I do wrong, and this year it's been overwhelmingly supportive, and that's been kind of cool to experience. I'm not somebody that reads too many of the comments or anything on social media, but everything that I do see on the things that I post and the people that loyally follow me, it's pretty satisfying to know that I've come that far. Q. We know you guys are friends, but talk about your relationship and the competitive nature with Chase. We saw him come over there and congratulate you with a hug after your celebration down on the track. What was that like and the conversation between the two of you guys? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. I know Chase, he's‑‑ as teammates go, he's been one of the most competitive guys I've ever had as a teammate, just not as far as lap time but man, when he gets down he's down, and when he gets up he's up. He's very, very focused and determined as a competitor, and I know it bothers him that he wasn't able to win the championship today, and for him to come over and congratulate us, I think it speaks to the friendship that he and I have built throughout the last couple years, especially this year being able to race close and hard for a championship all year long, even from the start of the race in Las Vegas. But in tandem with that, to do the work we've done together on the superspeedway races, we're not even teammates and we have meetings, we call each other every other day before these races and talk about different things we can do to be better, and that's all been set in place by Ford, Ford Performance, Mark Rushbrook, Pat DiMarco. Those guys have been really integral in keeping us paired up together, and as he goes to move on to bigger and better things next year, and I'm sure he's going to do really great having some big shoes to fill in the 14 car, and I'll be excited to quietly cheer him on. Hopefully he doesn't beat too many Team Penske cars but he can finish better than the rest. But it's going to be fun to watch him grow and develop and try and catch up to him the following year. Q. Once you cleared Allgaier you didn't have to win the race. Did it mean something to you to win the race and win the championship at the same time? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. To that point, obviously I made a slide job to try and win the race there. I think a lot of credit should be given to Noah there. I think his situational awareness of what was at stake between me and the 7 as far as when we exited Turn 4 there three wide and as far as the final lap there as we were on equal tires. I think he did a lot of the right things there, and I appreciate him being respectful in those scenarios. But yeah, winning the race is a big deal. We've won on short tracks, road courses, mile‑and‑a‑halfs this year, and I wanted a superspeedway way this year, so that's another box to check for 2021, I guess. But the versatility in the schedule is something I really love about racing in NASCAR, and my career has been about being versatile, and yeah, there's a little bit of pride, but obviously you don't want to throw away a championship, so I didn't go 10 tenths into the final corner but I went 9.9 trying to make sure we solidly sealed the deal. Q. For a guy who had never won on ovals, you won on an oval to win the championship. What clicked for you? AUSTIN CINDRIC: I mean, I'm not sure a whole lot has been different since the start of the season. I think this is something that's been a long time coming. I really think about my first time coming here was in 2015, subbing for Austin Theriault in the trucks, second truck start, never seen this place in my life, and I struggled in practice. I had no idea what I was doing. I started to figure out here and there, and I talked to Max Papis on the grid, and he's obviously someone that has a background more similar to mine, and he pulled me aside and he said, Look, I watched you all practice, and these cars don't do what you think they're doing. Like they don't do what you're expecting them to do, and we talked about this for a while, and that was a great mindset change for me early on, to understand that I have to approach these cars in a different way, and a lot of the opposite things make these cars click. For me that's been a progression, whether if it's how to get lap time out of the race car or how to ask for what I need throughout a race, and I'm quite proud of that and I'm quite proud of the relationship that I've built with Brian Wilson. He and I trust each other like we're brothers so it's been fun to build that up because when we raced here in the spring, I thought we were really good on the bottom and I thought we had a shot to win the race, had a shot to race with Kyle Busch, and as the track moved up we weren't any good anymore. I had problems at X, Y and Z, and I need help here and we need to do these things to be better, and those guys went to work. Between Brian and Matt Mote, my engineer, and Cody Sauls, those guys did an incredible job. I think we tinkered a little air pressure out of it today and that's it. It's amazing the amount of things we changed and how close we were. I'm very proud of that effort, and I think that's a big deal in my progression racing on these types of tracks with these types of cars. Q. The term "growth" has been used a lot post‑race from yourself, Mr.Penske and your father. I was wondering looking ahead to next season what's one area of growth that you'd like to improve upon before you presumably move up to the Cup Series? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think for me it's a lot of the small details that the guys on Sunday do really, really well, whether if that's projecting where the track is going to go or understanding what they need out of their car to be versatile. So those are things that I will continue to hone on. I think it's small details. But next year is not going to be easy. Winning races is not going to be easy. There's going to be great guys and great equipment and we're still going to have to be able to get the job done. I think the goals are still the same as far as regular season and as far as in the playoffs. But yeah, on paper there's not a whole lot left, but for me there's a lot more left to study, and I'd like to hope to find myself at a capacity where I can stay at the track on Sundays and watch from the spotter's stand. That was my goal initially to start the year, and I honestly think that helped me for this race. I stayed for the Cup race on Sunday, stood on the spotter's stand and watched the whole thing and picked up a lot of things that I felt like either worked or didn't work for me in the race and gave me a lot of time to brainstorm. I think those are all things that will contribute to my preparation for 2022 with the Wood Brothers, and obviously that's where my main focus is is getting better every week. Q. Your dad reminded us earlier tonight that when you said‑‑ I think you were around 10 years old, that you wanted to be a race car driver, you didn't get much support from your dad and mom about pursuing that career. I just wondered what was it in you that made you want to keep pursuing it even when you were reminded that Mom and Dad were only going to do so much and could only do so much but you still wanted to go that direction? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, for me, I didn't know anything different as a kid, whether if that was going to the Indy 500 and cheering on Helio and Gil or going to Mid‑Ohio and letting loose and being able to walk around the track or take our bikes everywhere, and it's experiences like that from a young age that really I got the bug. I think I definitely blindsided my parents when I told them that's what I wanted to do, and I definitely got a lot of negative feedback. So much so that I pretty much wrote it off as, okay, they don't want this to happen, it's no problem. Then my dad came over from home from work on I think it was either a Monday or Tuesday night and he drove me to Charlotte Motor Speedway and I sat in some kid's Bandolero or I guess it was Matt Wallace's Bandolero, Mike Wallace's son, went and sat in his Bandolero and saw what the Summer Shootout was and saw a bunch of kids my age doing what I wanted to do. From there that turned into a birthday present, which was driving around at the Fifth Mile, which I'll stem off and tell a really funny story. Ken Regan, who run 600 Racing, U.S. Legends, was there for my test. I drove Cory Gordon's Bandolero, and I'm sitting in the car, I'm on the staging grid, and he's telling me, all right, when you go out on the track, I want you to turn left. Like he's completely kidding, and I totally took him seriously, pulled out of the staging grid and turned left and went backwards on the racetrack for like 10 laps, and I'm like, man, I'm thinking this is cool, this is a race car, and they're telling me to stop, like, Dude, you're going the wrong way. That's how my racing career started, and we picked up from there. Q. Can you confirm that one of the reasons‑‑ one of the things your dad tried to tell you is that you were too tall to be a race car driver? AUSTIN CINDRIC: I've been told I was too tall by a lot of people, and there's not been a single race car that I haven't been able to fit in. Some haven't been comfortable, some have hurt, some are fine. NASCAR is definitely the roomier of the race cars I've driven, so in more ways than one this is a great home for me. But yeah, the tall thing is a myth as far as I'm concerned. When you've got guys like Michael Waltrip squeezing into those twisted up cars they had back in the 2000s and guys like Justin Wilson driving INDYCARs, those were my two main points I hit right off the bat when they told me I was too tall. They knew I had at least done some homework. Q. In addition to Coleman Pressley having grown up in a racing family, he also drove or has driven late models. How or where has he benefitted you the most? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, I mean, Coleman has been like a big brother to me, and not too many people know about his career, his background, but also the hard work he puts in, whether if that's on the Cup side or not. He lives about two hours away from Mooresville and he makes the drive to either meet with Brad or myself and we do a film review every week to where we talk about certain things. I call him after every race, and whether it's just a sounding board or a mentor or someone that's a trusted voice, he puts in the work. I'm very fortunate to have a guy like that in my career and to help paint the picture for me. There's a lot of things even tonight that we've talked about days in advance that we're able to understand even when I'm doing subtle things in the race car, and how he sees them from up top I have no idea, but he sees the things that I'm doing and gives me feedback from a driver's perspective. I mean, I've been fortunate to have a lot of great spotters in my career, whether if that's been Coleman, Joey Meier, Josh Williams, those guys have probably spent the most amount of time with me in my career. I've had plenty of other guys I've worked with, but those guys have put in a lot of time with me, and I'm very fortunate for that because I feel like that's a side and a relationship that doesn't get exploited very often. That's somewhere where I really enjoy his role that he plays within our team. Q. Just to follow up on that, you said you like to stay the watch the Cup race from the spotter's stand. Do you stand there with Coleman when you do that and watch‑‑ does he talk to you or explain to you what he's picking up on? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, obviously he's got a pretty important job to do, but we'll discuss things throughout the whole race, and I'll stand right next to him. He'll leave some room for me, and the other spotters are usually pretty friendly about it, as well. I enjoy doing that because it also gives me perspective of when he gives me feedback I know what he's seeing. So it works both ways. I need a better perspective as a spotter just as his perspective as a driver helps me. That's been fun for me to do. Like I said, I had initially planned on doing that at every single Sunday this year, and obviously that's not able to happen, but yeah, I think that's‑‑ anytime you can watch race cars going around the racetrack you learn something. Q. There's winning a championship and I imagine someone like you might think and then there's winning a championship for Roger Penske. What does that mean to you to be a Penske champion? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, I think it goes on a couple different levels. Obviously when you race for Roger Penske you're expected to be successful because we have the resources, we have amazing partners, and we have the equipment to be able to get it done. Brian and I have to go to work on that and be able to continue to prove that. I think in some ways for him and me it's a relief that we can have some success, but at the same time to win for Roger Penske, someone that's not only put a lot into my career but has believed in a lot of drivers and has believed in my future, it's great to be able to give back on that investment. But also at the same time when you look at the season that Team Penske has had in 2020, Josef having such a close chance at the INDYCAR championship, Scott winning the V‑8 championship, and he was also here today, which was cool, and then obviously the Cup guys have a shot on Sunday and the IMSA guys have a shot next weekend at Sebring. Every single program has a shot at a championship, and to be part of that but also to check our box and make sure we've done our part is pretty neat. It's a fun culture inside that place, and it's been difficult not to go inside the building. I haven't really been inside the shop since March and I'm someone that's at the shop every single day and says hi to most of the people I see, and that's been a difficult aspect of this year for me, and hopefully we can all get together and celebrate a championship the right way. Q. Austin, is there one area in particular where you feel you've made the biggest gains because looking at your career you're more of a classically trained race car driver. Is there one area in particular where you feel like you have gained the most? AUSTIN CINDRIC: I think for me, my perspective I feel like is definitely broader, and that's been an advantage to me and a disadvantage to me in my racing career. I've driven a lot of different cars, a lot of racetracks for a lot of teams and a lot of people. I've been exposed to a lot, and it's taught me that a race car is a race car; it's got a motor and four wheels, and I feel like that perspective has helped me look at things clearly, and I usually don't make the same mistake twice because of that. Understanding what makes things work and putting a reason behind it, whether if that's asking Brian why certain things work ‑‑ I'm not going to tell him what spring to put in the car, but if he explains to me why things work the way they work, I can give him better feedback. With no data, with this not being a data‑driven sport in NASCAR, I think that puts a lot of emphasis on me and what I can do to help Brian and the team develop our cars and that hard work that goes into it. So I feel like in the last couple years I've learned a lot about that. Early on in my stock car career I didn't have trouble finding speed. In 2018, which was probably my most highly criticized year in racing, I had several pole positions and I was fast in practice all the time and I would unload fast, but that doesn't cut it in NASCAR. I've learned, I feel like, the right things to have the right foundation and to continue improving on that. Q. You tweeted "effort equals results" when talking about your future plans earlier this year. Using that same mindset, what does it mean to have effort you put forth with a successful season end with a championship? AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. Obviously that's the goal. Obviously that's the mantra at Team Penske, "effort equals results." I don't boast the work that I put in, but I feel like there's very little I leave on the table as far as preparation. I feel like this year in particular with not having practice and not having a lot of‑‑ whether if it's Dartfish or pictures or lap tracker to lean on, that preparation is that much more critical, and as a team I feel like we already had the maximum set in place for what we do before every weekend, and I'm very proud of that. For all of that preparation to lead to future opportunities, for all that preparation to lead to two championships this season, it means a great deal, and it motivates me to continue to push that envelope and to continue to have that mindset because that's what's gotten me here. THE MODERATOR: Austin, that's it. Congratulations again on the championship. Outstanding year, outstanding race, and thank you for all the time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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