“Variance Creates Racing”: Austin Cindric Explains NASCAR’s Thought Process Behind Watkins Glen Tire Strategy

The Watkins Glen race in the NASCAR Cup Series will reportedly have a new tire compound for the road course race. It will lead to more tire-wear than usual, making for an interesting day of strategy calls. Team Penske driver Austin Cindric recently spoke about how different tires can affect racing in a recent media interaction. There are positive and negative elements about the tire compound but the driver of the #2 car believes it will make the race dynamic.

“I think there’s a lot of different avenues I feel like I could go down on why tire wear either can make good racing or why drivers want it more or why maybe race fans might want it more, but at the end of the day, it does give more of an option for variance and I feel like variance is what creates racing, whether if that’s guys getting big runs off corners and passing people, or guys really struggling and falling back,”  he said.

The Team Penske star won at the WWT Raceway earlier this season to book his place in the round of 16. Cindric performed well in the first playoff race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing P10 to cap off a good day for his team.

The new tire compound element at Watkins Glen can give him a good chance of taking the checkered flag if his crew gets the strategy right on the day. Two back-to-back Penske wins would give them much confidence for the rest of the season.

He has run two Cup Series races on the track so far in his career, finishing P16 and P13. The #2 driver is now known for his road course racing abilities but will be hoping to change that on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how he navigates the track against some of the best road course racers in the sport today.

Cindric explains why road courses are more challenging than Ovals

Speaking about the differences between oval and road course racing, Cindric believes that the latter puts more pressure on the car. Drivers have to adjust the way they drive their cars as per their respective situation on this track. That is perhaps the biggest challenge for NASCAR drivers on such tracks since they’re predominantly used to running on oval tracks at much higher speeds.

“Road courses are inherently you’re challenging a lot more parts of the car and tire wear can challenge a lot more of how you have to drive the car throughout the run, so it should be a very interesting weekend to see where that all kind of lands and how severe or how much it changes the strategy of the race,” he added.

No matter what challenges he faces, the #2 driver will be hoping to finish as high as possible, maybe even win the race with the right strategy. Sunday’s race sure is turning into an intriguing affair as there will be a lot of strategies at play at the same time.