Though he has three high 10 begins in 5 races this season, Cindric’s fourth place end at Atlanta is his solely end higher than twenty second and finds himself mired in twenty first within the sequence standings.
Cindric and his No. 2 Ford crew have had pace, they’ve simply not been capable of get via most races to display their full potential. He’s been caught up in accidents at Daytona and Phoenix and fell sufferer to a corded tire final weekend at Bristol.
This weekend’s race at Circuit of the Americas presents sequence drivers their first highway course check of 2024 and the usage of NASCAR’s new quick observe/highway course aero package deal, which was first run at Phoenix two weeks in the past.
Austin Cindric, Group Penske, Low cost Tire Ford Mustang
Photograph by: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
“I believe it’s an important alternative for us to sort of get again on observe and hit the reset button,” stated Cindric, 25. “The final couple of weeks have been fairly funky with getting knocked out the primary couple of laps at Phoenix after which clearly final week’s craziness and all of the tire failures that we skilled.
“I’m sort of excited to only get again going and hopefully loads of inexperienced flag operating. It’s been a spot that we’ve had some good tempo. We clearly must adapt to the brand new package deal, however I’m excited to go hit the reset button and get after it.”
Cindric has in depth highway racing expertise from sports activities vehicles and owns a mixed six highway course wins in NASCAR’s Xfinity and Vans sequence.
He has but to win a highway race in Cup – his solely sequence win thus far was within the 2022 Daytona 500 – however he has run competitively.
Cindric will likely be making his fourth sequence begin at COTA and making an attempt to increase a streak that has seen him qualify within the high 10 for the race each season. He has back-to-back high 10 finishes as effectively along with his finest effort coming final season (sixth).
“The final two weeks have been wildly out of the management of what I really feel like our race crew is able to in a couple of other ways, however so far as COTA stacks up for me, irrespective of how you narrow it, it’s been a race observe that I’ve been capable of be aggressive at and lead laps each time I’ve been there in a Cup automobile,” Cindric stated.
“Personally, it’s not essentially my favourite race observe, to be trustworthy, but it surely’s someplace that we’ve carried out effectively. We appear to have a package deal that works effectively there and after the final couple of weeks I’m very hungry to only execute and everybody get to do our jobs.”
COTA ‘has every part’
Cindric stated the problems of the final couple weeks – getting wrecked out early at Phoenix and the sudden tire put on scenario at Bristol – makes it tough to pinpoint some areas that he and his crew want to enhance.
What they might want most could also be merely a clear, uneventful race.
Nonetheless, Cindric says COTA presents a troublesome problem, even for these with highway racing backgrounds.
“I believe it has every part – each sort of nook conceivable. Excessive pace, low pace, lefts and rights, braking zones, medium pace corners,” he stated. “You undergo the entire gearbox.
“There may be some tire put on. We’ve bought some patches in some locations, but when something, that may make the tire put on perhaps a little bit bit much less, and I additionally don’t really feel like this tire essentially wears any greater than any of the remaining.
“It’s considerably of an abrasive race observe, so previous that, it’s simply bought every part in it and also you simply must have the whole image to be aggressive there.”
