“A Lot of Pressure” – Austin Cindric on Winning at Indianapolis

Published 08/17/2021, 1:52 PM EDT

Austin Cindric triumphed during the Xfinity race at Indianapolis and helped Team Penske secure a clean sweep on Saturday. However, he knows that the regular season is still underway and his rivals are not far behind. In light of this, Cindric opened up on winning for the Team Penske organization.

Austin Cindric confessed that his team put in a number of late nights. This is why he dedicated his win on the Indianapolis road course to them, adding that it was a team effort and a team win.

“This race and this race track means so much to so many people for so many different reasons. You can feel a different tone on the grid, a different sense of urgency. Today was almost an exhibition race for us, obviously, our strategy was to get playoff points, not stage points. There’s certainly a lot of pressure and my guys put in the work. This is definitely a team win“, said Austin in an interview.

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Austin Cindric has increased his chances of retaining the title

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Following the Xfinity race at the Indianapolis road course, Cindric rocketed to 896 points. His nearest rival is AJ Allmendinger, 82 points adrift of the Penske star. Allmendinger finished 2nd on the track, with Justin Haley in third place. Haley himself sits comfortably in sixth place and is well-positioned to reach the 2021 Xfinity Series playoffs.

Admittedly, the likes of Daniel Hemric, Justin Allgaier and Harrison Burton did not enjoy particularly great races. All of these drivers are comfortably in the playoffs, so they weren’t under immense pressure to perform. However, the competition will be much more fierce near the tail of the Top 10.

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Drivers like Jeremy Clements, Riley Herbst, Michael Annett, Myatt Snider, and Brandon Brown will push themselves to their limits. Jeremy, Riley, and Michael are right on the bubble in the playoff standings which will give them an extra edge. Meanwhile, a good result for Snider and Brown could unseat two of the three drivers mentioned.

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.