Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Austin Cindric Interview after his win at Talladega | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

After his first Cup Series win of the season, Austin Cindric joins Kevin Harvick for this week’s Victory Lap interview to break down his impressive performance at Talladega. The two dive into the emotions Cindric felt after winning, his goals for the season, and his thoughts on his teammate Joey Logano being frustrated with him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I say the pressure is on now. Double down. We have 17 weeks to maximize this opportunity. That means winning more races, trying new things, pushing our pit crew to another limit. That's the pressure that we have now. Well, Austin, what a weekend. You know, these super speedway races are kind of unpredictable. And I think when you look at the strategy and everything that played out like we all thought it would,

you guys obviously did the best job, gave yourself the track position there at the end. Tell me about those last, you know, 15. laps or so and just the intensity inside the car and how this all went down at the end for you. Yeah, I mean, to be frank, it is a position we've put ourselves in in the past, and it's gone poorly just with getting in wrecks and the field, you know, getting all crazy at the end. So it's the first one that's definitely gone the right way. And I think all the guys up front were really good about, you know,

when they're delivering pushes and so on. So at that point, it's about just refining, you know, understanding when the runs are coming and when they're not. And, you know, those are the opportunities you crave as a driver to be put in that position and to be able to execute and get it done. You know, I think that win is a total team win. And that's what makes it so satisfying for me because at these races, it's one, to get a green flag finish, but two, to have it all come down to every detail and every person's decision. on my race team. You know, I get to finish everybody's hard work there at the end. And it's really satisfying for sure. You guys have been so close in so many of these races. And like you said, those wrecks at the end or circumstances and just being in position, they tell you to be in, if you

just put it in position, it's going to happen. It eventually happened for you this weekend. But after the race, the emotion that you had was so refreshing to see. Explain to people just why that emotion was so high. I don't know that a lot of people understand that watch consistently just how much time and efforts you guys put in, but just to have that relief of winning the race with all the pressure and all the things that go into this. Yeah, I mean, winning at the Cup Series level is so difficult. And I don't know if it's ever been more difficult. Maybe that's difficult for me to say maybe you'd have a similar or different opinion, but the competitive nature of this series, right now is at an all time high.

And it's exceptionally difficult to differentiate yourself. And, you know, yes, effort does equal results. We say that all the time here at Team Penske, but, you know, it's, it can be frustrating. It can be draining. It can be, it can be a lot at times to manage your own expectations. This isn't like other sports to where you either win or you lose. You have to define success in a lot of days. And a lot of that's living inside your own head.

And, you know, believing in the process. and all that, all that's good. But on these types of races, I do believe in the law of averages. If you put yourself in position enough times, you know, it will come. And it's worth waiting for and it's worth, you know, staying disciplined for. Yeah, the emotion, I don't know if there's a race one that I ever not been excited about, but it's everything, man. It's just who I am.

I mean, there's no other dimensions to me other than race car driver. I put everything into my career, into my driving, into my team, and there's nothing else to it. So if I can't get excited about that, I'm doing the wrong thing. I mean, I care so much about what I do, and I don't really want to do anything else. I don't care about anything else. I don't think about anything else. That's an unbalanced life in a lot of ways, but it's all I want to do right now. And it's just so satisfying to do it.

You know, it's been 30 some odd races, and I'd like to cut that in half each time until we're doing it every week. But it's probably unrealistic, but it's what you prepare for. And it's the mentality I feel like I have to have when you have such a team around you. So what does this change for your team? How do you go forward from here? We know that it takes a lot of pressure off going forward. You put yourself in a playoff position. How do you keep yourself motivated?

We talk on the show all the time. We see a lot of guys win a couple races and then they kind of, you know, tail off. What have you learned from the past to keep that same intensity and in motion that goes along with it? And how does it change the approach of the team until you get to the regular season now? Yeah, I think really, you know, I went into last year with the same mentality as this year, regardless of performance, the goal, the only sole goal for the race season. is to make the playoffs. You see exceptionally competitive cars and drivers

year to year. There's one or two guys that are championship contenders or potential championship contenders that don't make the playoffs. So rule number one, make the playoffs. That's the only goal. Everything else is a bonus. It's the only way to make a championship run. So for me, that is a box checked. And what does that give us?

The earlier you do it, the more time you have to prepare for the opportunity, the opportunity that everyone would give so much for. and that we all sacrifice so much for. So at that point, you know, we talk about, you know, pressure is off. I say the pressure is on now, you know, double down. We have 17 weeks to maximize this opportunity.

And if that means winning more races, if that means trying new things, if that means pushing our pit crew, you know, to another limit, if that means, you know, learning things for other racetracks, or if that means practicing excellence and consistency, you know, whatever we decide, you know, for the next 17 weeks or our priority or our weaknesses or our strengths that we need to capitalize on, that's the pressure that we have now and that I would like to put on my team and myself is to treat this as a gift of a time to maximize, you know, the opportunity when we have it for 10 weeks in the playoffs.

So what are the strengths of your race team and what do you think the weaknesses are of your team. Yeah, I mean, I think if you want to be obvious, I mean, obviously Super Speedway racing has been great for Team Penske, for Ford's, for myself. So maximizing those days is, I think, critical, hard to do, but critical. I think for us, you know, we've got a lot of intermediates coming up and then not a lot until deep into the playoffs. So I think for the month of May,

really understanding our intermediate package is going to be important, I think, so far to start the year with Vegas and Homestead, pretty good. And then there's a lot of wildcard races kind of through the summer stretch and things get kind of funky. And I think it can get easy to lose yourself. So I think there's a lot of small details more than larger ones. I feel like personally, you know, short tracks have been an area that, You know, the results have been harder to get for me since I've been racing in the Cup series.

So I think, you know, whatever that is, I think there'll be a focus for me on that. But I think there's a lot of small details that really define race teams these days. And I think those are the things that we need to push ourselves to have the luxury of only worrying about those small details. We saw at one point during the race at the end of the stage, your teammate, Lugano, was frustrated with you in the booth, we saw it as you had so much momentum that you had to pull out a line or you were going to wreck him.

And I don't know that he really, really saw that. How did you see that moment? And how do you guys talk about that? I know from a driver's standpoint, that was always a much easier conversation today. It seems like you guys all have a great way of communicating. How did you see that scenario and how did that play out for you? Did we see it right or were we just screwed up in the booth?

No, I do think y'all saw that. correctly, you know, I think delivering a pretty big push going to the trial was a tough moment. So I think for us, you know, those stage ends are a rehearsal for the end of the race. You know, the stage lengths are all, you know, it's 60, 60, 68. So the strategies can all play out very similarly depending on cautions, the length of runs, the laps on tires, all the things. So those are rehearsals for us, you know, every driver in the field for the end of the race. And I think the pressure is on that to be, you know, able to maximize those opportunities. And in one way or the other, you know, I feel like we had enough players in the equation as far as me and Josh and Joey all kind of lined up there, at least in proximity that, you know, I think we definitely left a stage win for one of our cars on the table there.

And, you know, we'll have meetings about, you know, where to be better and where to be honest with ourselves. You know, I think my duty is to go into those meetings and, you know, give my own honest feedback on what I could do better. But, yeah, I mean, here the moment, the emotions, the, you know, whatever you want to call it, you know, I think those are things that you kind of just, you know, like to keep in the family as much as you can. And sometimes that bleeds out. But all in all, you know, I do feel like, like what you said, I feel like we do a better job than than most at organizing ourselves and maximizing opportunities. And like I said earlier, these speedway races are such huge opportunities for us because, you know, I do feel like we have some advantages. So we have to maximize that when it is so difficult to separate yourself. Well, I'm happy for you and your team.

You work your butt off, man. And it makes me proud to see hard work pay off. So keep at it. And hopefully we're talking to you again soon. Thank for taking the time today. Yeah, thank you, Kevin. I really appreciate it.