NASCAR CUP SERIES: DUEL 2 AT DAYTONA

February 13, 2025

Austin Cindric

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Austin Cindric, winner of tonight's second duel here at Daytona. Austin, congratulations. Can you kind of take us through those emotions on that final lap there.

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, the outside lane definitely deteriorated a little bit, which kind of made Joey and I pretty vulnerable. Joey committed to helping me there. He and I ran really well together all race. I don't think there was a point in the race he wasn't staring at my rear bumper.

I certainly appreciate that, but definitely left him really vulnerable. 43 had a great run, was able to get to the outside of us there. Pretty slippery in 3 and 4. Not quite able to stay together. I feel like we still would have had the advantage if handling wasn't a factor. I knew it was going to be super close at the line. Obviously it was, but, yeah, then to have the poor guy go to the start/finish line and celebrate and all that.

But, yeah, at the end of the day it's kind of a swing of one point. It doesn't change his starting position, doesn't change mine. You know, certainly proud of the effort. Happy I was able to race that one out and see what my car had for Sunday.

You know, this is a multi-stage process, this whole weekend, and to be able to get a great read like we did tonight and give us some stuff to chew on for the next two days to get ready to try and do it all again and execute on Sunday.

THE MODERATOR: We will start with questions.

Q. You guys have a lot more to lose than gain. I think running up front, mixing it up, racing for the win in a Duel, how much of that is data acquisition? How much of that is just you being a competitor? Is a part of this also points? Is it just a little bit of all of that? What kind of goes into how aggressive you're willing to be to win a duel?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: I think there's a few aspects to it. One, I think the points were the only thing I could use to justify racing from my crew chief's perspective, from a strategy towards the season, the points definitely do matter for the season.

I feel like we were able to check a lot of our boxes early in the race, but I think there's a lot of trust involved too. I'm very thankful that my race team trusts me to go out there and do that because, yeah, I left last night saying, hey, can I race, can I race, can I race?

To your point, as a competitor, that's all I want to do. That's all I'm here to do. Somebody is just going to have to tell me not to, which is totally fine. I understand.

But I felt like we were able to kind of do it all tonight. Yeah, you maybe look like a fool if things maybe don't work out, but there's some risk management involved. I think in a lot of ways the pros outweighed the cons for me.

It's easy for me to say, but having two days for the same group of guys to have to patch up a car, build another car, I have a lot of confidence in those guys. Easy for me to say, but, yeah, not having to talk about that. All in all, a lot learned for tonight and a lot gained. Certainly I had a lot of fun.

Q. Your 500 win in 2022, you finished second in your Duel race that year. Had a strong car. Had a strong car tonight. Do you feel similarly confident to how you felt in '22 when you won on Sunday?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Can someone fact check me? Have I finished second in my Duel every single year? Not the 33 car. The last three years. Every year I finished second in my duel, and that's the first thing I thought was when the checkered came out.

Q. You were second again.

AUSTIN CINDRIC: I thought I was second again, after they told me the 43. I thought it was going to be exceptionally close.

With that being said, I had the same thought process every year of, okay, this kind of has a mirror image or whatever, but I don't really believe in a whole lot of that.

Look, this game has evolved a lot, and the field, the competitors, the drivers have continued to evolve a lot through that race. I go through media day and get a lot of questions about that race. I think as a competitor, if I came in with the skill sets that I had to win that race, I would be barely participating on the race on Sunday. The game changed a lot.

I have some really strong competitors. Certainly I have to respect that. The execution, the ups and downs of a 500-mile race you're going to have to go through, the changes in the racetrack, all those factors play at large. Certainly looking forward to it, but past success does not equal future success in this scenario. The parallels are nice.

Q. To that end, it's very rare that you can get a teammate in a Duel race or get it to work out that way. You had both your teammates land in the same Duel with you and really worked well with both of them all the way through. How big is that potentially when it comes to now already knowing how you guys work together and how you can battle plan for the closing laps?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Well, the three of us spend a lot of time talking. I think Josh is kind of now included in that equation with the three of us. To be able to talk things out if we agree or disagree, there's a lot to talk over with these races and understand how to work best.

I think being able to find each other on the racetrack this early in the weekend and have some things to talk about and us to review and say, hey, What do you think about this? If we're in this scenario again, what would you do? What would you do if the shoe is on the other foot? We have 48 hours to do that. I think that's only an advantage to us to be able to have those conversations.

Q. Is there anything the car on the inside can do from turn four through the start/finish line to avoid getting side-drafted like that without losing it is advantage?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Well, it's certainly a situational question. My answer would be it all depends on your help, and it all depends on handling. It depends on the cars you are around.

I felt like at that stage in the race, I thought I had just as good a shot as any to make it to the line and beat the 43. Obviously Joey slipped quite a bit, so I'm losing my help in that position. So kind of advantage to the 43 car there.

I think it is very situational on when that works and when it doesn't. That's what this racing is all about, analyzing those situations, look at the factors, and understand how you can control them best.

Q. I wanted to follow up on what I asked you yesterday about being in position to win here and at Talladega last week and getting turned out at the leader -- out as a position to win and it not working out. I know that the duels are small potatoes in the grand scheme of speed weeks and the Daytona 500, but do you think this is a case now of the law of averages that you talked about working out?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yes and no. I still haven't won the actual race. I still definitely do believe in the law of averages. Huge fan of that. But I think the safest person to have behind me is someone that I trust, and there are only three or four people -- I guess it would be three. There are only three people that I can really truly say that I trust.

Obviously we work with the Fords and all that, but when it comes to my teammates, those are the guys that I want behind me and vice versa. If Joey could pick one or two people out of the field to have behind him doing this race, I think it would be one of us. Obviously I would want it to be somebody like Joey because there isn't an element to taking care of the car in front of you or an element to just driving through the car in front of you to win the race. I feel like I've been on the side of being driven through to win the race, and that is part of this.

So when the racing gets aggressive, everything is on the line, you know the story. For me, I think the best-case scenario is to work well with your teammates and have one of them lined up or be the guy that can secure that for your teammate. I think that's my best-case scenario, and I felt like I had that for the entirety of the Duel race with Joey.

Q. I know something like this, a finish like this almost never happens, but is there anything in your racing career that has ever come close to this in terms of just being a completely bizarre way to win a race?

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Yeah, it wasn't exactly expected. I did go up to get the checkered flag, and the flagman was gone. So I didn't get the flag, which was a bummer because I was going to give it to Brian for his birthday present, but I don't get to do that.

If anyone knows where the flag is, I'm staying in the Airstream in the DO lot right behind the Care Center. You can deliver it to me.

Otherwise, yeah, I don't know what to say. It's weird. I guess from a due diligence standpoint, it's better to have it right than not right, and the light was clearly on, and we were clearly ahead.

I more just feel bad for Erik that he had to do the victory lap and all of that. Nonetheless, it's definitely not something I've done before.