MIAMI BEACH. Fla. – If Austin Cindric is worried about any ramifications from his run-in with Ben Rhodes during last weekend’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Phoenix, he isn’t showing it.
With 22 laps to go in the penultimate race of the season, Rhodes lined up ninth after the No. 27 ThorSport Racing team pitted. Cindric, who also pitted restarted 11th – directly behind his Championship 4 rival.
On the restart, Cindric’s strong start allowed him to move to the inside lane, where Rhodes threw a block and contact was made. The touching of the trucks sent Rhodes hard into the inside wall before ricocheted back onto to the path, directly in the path of Crafton.
The two teammates collided and caused terminal damage to both Toyota Tundras. Luckily for Crafton, he locked himself into the Championship 4 with a third-place finish at the end of Stage 2.
During Thursday afternoon’s Championship Media Day at the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach, the Brad Keselowski Racing driver said he can’t worry about what happened last week – as that’s in the past and instead he’s focusing out the windshield with the potential to win his first NASCAR National Series championship.
The championship is what Cindric refers to as the biggest opportunity of his life.
“I can’t be concerned about any of it because I’ve got a lot bigger fish to fry right now. I’m in the Championship 4,” said Cindric. “This is the biggest opportunity of my career, and at the end of the day, it’s frustrating because I wanted to race our way in. I didn’t want something like that to happen, and obviously that was just a racing deal, and obviously, I think everyone understands that.
“But hot tempers, that was our chance to contend for a championship, and I would contend anyone being frustrated at that point. Obviously, the way they handled it probably wasn’t the cleanest, but you’ve got to move on from something like that. Like I said, I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’ve got to figure out how to race Homestead, I’ve got to figure out how to beat three of the best in NASCAR trucks.”
The Columbus, Ohio native said he reached out to Rhodes before flying to Miami but the two never talked. Cindric, however, said he did leave him a voicemail reiterating that there was no foul intent on his part.
“I reached out to Ben,” added Cindric. “I left him a voicemail, basically just made sure, hey, there was no intent for anything to happen, just a racing deal, and I think he understood that watching his post-race interview, and I’d love to catch up with him this weekend.
“He and I have grown up racing together in licensed cars and Bandoleros, and I would hate to see him think the wrong thing about something like that, but obviously it’s a frustrating deal either way for those guys.”
Thinking about Rhodes or not, Cindric is facing stiff competition for the Truck Series title.
The cagy veterans of Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter are tapped as the championship favorites, while the other contender Christopher Bell can never be counted out.
That leaves the No. 19 Ford F-150 of Cindric. The son of Team Penske president Tim Cindric believes that his team is the “underdog” in the championship fight and he’s perfectly fine being classified as such.
However, once that green flag drops in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, the 18-year-old believes he’ll have a truck that will put him in the thick of the battle and may pull off the biggest upset of the season.
He just hopes he’s raced clean.
“I’d like to hope so,” offered Cindric on being raced fair. “I think the racing always has to be clean and fair, but everything is going to be a fight, but it’s nothing I can speculate on. I’ve just got to go do my best job and execute for a title championship.”
Homestead will mark the final race for Brad Keselowski Racing as a team. In August, the Championship 4 Cup Series contender announced he would fold his team after nine seasons.
No matter the outcome of Friday night’s 134-lap race, Cindric hopes that another path allows him to maintain a presence in NASCAR for 2018.
“I’d love to continue being as diverse as I have been in the past. I mean, I feel like that’s been my hallmark. That’s been something that makes me different than the young drivers I race against.
“To be able to say that I raced and won races in multiple different disciplines and be able to do that throughout a year and contend for race wins in all those disciplines has been really cool and has been a fun process to go through, and I love to see that outlet.
“Obviously, “I committed myself to NASCAR racing this year. I left quite a few good opportunities in sports car racing to come to NASCAR because at my age this is the time to go NASCAR racing, and you’ve got to ride that wave as long as you can.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
