By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
The NASCAR All-Star Race weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway is on the mind of 20 racers who are already locked into the 250-lap main event. Among those 20 is Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, who is fresh off an 11th place finish in last Sunday’s Cup race at Kansas Speedway.
Cindric, who made the main event after winning last month’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, is thrilled of being a part of the event that Kyle Busch described as a “Barnum and Bailey circus.” This is a result of talking points focusing on the Promoter’s Caution scheduled to happen sometime within the first 200 laps at the discretion of Speedway Motorsports president Marcus Smith.
For Cindric, the All-Star Race (Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS1) may circle around the gimmick, but it’s more than just a gimmick. It’s a chance to go for the big cash after missing out on last year’s main event won by his Penske teammate Joey Logano.
“I feel like I definitely had a car that was fast enough to advance on from the Open,” said Cindric during Wednesday’s media availability.
“I’m looking for some redemption in that aspect, but kind of pick up where we left off as a team as well because it was a strong event for our company.”
In an era where other sporting all-stars have been lackluster for years, the buzz remains in NASCAR’s exhibition event.
“I think first of all just being a part of the race and some of the biggest names in the series and to have a shot to go up against them and try to win the thing is big and important,” Cindric explained.
“It’s not a points race but there’s a lot of cash on the line and definitely a cool title to go with it, so the All-Star Race is something that’s been going on for quite some time. It’s jumped around to some new venues, and it’s changed formats, but it’s definitely a cool event.”
Sunday will mark Cindric’s third All-Star Race appearance and as long as he’s not the culprit of the caution, he generally doesn’t have issues of the concept.
“If somebody spins out and hits the wall randomly I’m gonna have to live with it too. It doesn’t really bother me that much that we’re gonna have a promoter’s caution because unless I’m the caution, I can’t control it in any way or if I have some impact on the yellow, if I spin another car,” said Cindric.
“There’s only a few opportunities I get to normally have on a caution anyway and they’re usually both negative, so from that point it’s just the racing Gods or maybe on earth this time. Past that, with different formats there are different ways to beat your competitors and when you change things up, you’ve got to make sure that you’re ready to capitalize on those opportunities.”
At the same token, he admitted of having a hard time keeping up with all the format changes that he simply goes with the flow of what’s being told and similar to Harrison Burton, who has no vocal opinion on the format, his voice doesn’t have enough leverage compared to Busch.
“I guess getting to Lap 220, are we gonna not have a caution or a caution before that?”
“Whatever it’s gonna be. I just do what I’m told at this point,” said Cindric. “I don’t feel like I’m established enough to have that great of an opinion or have one that I think anyone is gonna care about, so at this point it’s just trying to maximize this format. That’s really how I feel.
“In some ways, I feel like I’ve had to do more prep work for this weekend than I’ve actually had to do for a regular season race, not because I want to win any race more than the next, but there are a lot of new things and a lot going on that you have to be prepared for and pay attention to.”
The All-Star Race is far from the only race at the historic North Carolina short track. It’ll also host the Craftsman Truck Series, CARS Tour and the Whelen Modified Tour. The latter of the two divisions run on Hoosier Racing Tire compared to the national touring divisions contracted with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
While it usually is up for discussion among pundits and in the garage, Cindric explained it shouldn’t be concerning for the main event drivers by the time they hit the track – the Open would’ve have laid down Goodyear rubber by then and will be most affected by the Hoosier rubber.
“I think it impacts the Open cars for sure with the modified race having their full weekend schedule being before the Open race on Sunday afternoon,” said Cindric. “By the time the Open race is over, all of that should be cleared off and we’re really first cars on track on Friday as well, so I think for anyone that is locked in it’s not a large variable or question, but I think definitely those guys in the Open.”
Cindric’s Off to the Best Start of His NASCAR Cup Series Career
No points will be at stake this weekend, but after 12 races into the season, Cindric is off to his best start of his Cup career. He’s currently 14th in the regular season standings with his victory at Talladega locking him into the postseason.
There’s been some positive and negatives for Cindric who is in his fourth full-time season in the premiere division. The No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse have been consistently strong in qualifying with four top-three starts and have shown good performances during races.
However, Cindric said he wants things to improve within the No. 2 team in order to transform from being a really good team to a great team before the Playoffs in September with his Talladega win being his only top-five thus far.
To get there, Cindric explained how completing good days will boost their momentum.
“We’ve had some really fast race cars and kind of missed the mark on being able to maximize and capitalize on most of those races,” said Cindric. “I feel like in a lot of ways that’s been the positive and negative of our season so far and we have some things to clean up, but also I have a lot of positives as well.
“It’s something I’m excited about because the things we do right as a team, and we can do them consistently we’re a bit of a machine in that sense. We get the rest of these smaller details cleaned up, I see no reason why we can’t go from really good to great.”
Of the remaining 14 races in the regular season, the next batch will put Cindric to the test as the series will begin running a string of road and street course races (Mexico, Chicago, Sonoma and later Watkins Glen) along with superspeedway races (Atlanta and Daytona) during the summer.
No slouch at those type of circuits, the road courses have been a struggling point for Cindric while the opposite can be said at drafting tracks.
Dealing with both sides of the coin, Cindric and the entire No. 2 team are motivated to improve their chance of putting together his first top-10 season after coming up 10 points shy of doing so last year – one race at a time.
“I think for us the road courses have honestly been more frustrating than satisfying recently,” Cindric commented. “COTA was obviously probably one of the larger negatives from a performance standpoint in the last couple seasons driving this car. I think we’re very motivated to improve that side of our program.
“On the flip side with the speedways and drafting tracks as you mentioned, Atlanta and Daytona to finish out the regular season, those are also both opportunity races that I can certainly see us having fast race cars and shots to win,” Cindric continued.
“With that all being said, I think those have to be looked at as opportunity races for many, but they’re also races that you can really fall behind. Like anything else, you have to live week to week in this deal, and I see that as no different,” Cindric concluded.
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