BKR's Take on Truck: Austin Cindric ready for return to Monster Mile

Cindric, who’s in the midst of his first season competing full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing, was attempting to make his first Truck Series start at the Monster Mile one year ago when rain washed away his chance to qualify for a position in the starting field. 

Cindric impressed the garage by running sixth fastest in the final practice, but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to show that speed in qualifying.

“That was going to be my first truck race of the season, and I wanted to come out strong,” Cindric said.  “Practice went really, really well and I felt like we had a better Ford F-150 for the race than what we had in qualifying trim.”

Since Cindric was with a team only attempting its second start of the season, a provisional starting position was unavailable.   

“Dover is a concrete racetrack, and concrete racetracks dry very, very quickly, so I never gave up hope until somebody wearing a NASCAR shirt came up and told me that we weren’t going to be able to qualify,” Cindric said. “It was really unfortunate because there’s so much that goes into making a race weekend like that possible. I know we got rained out in qualifying, but I left there on a high note with my head held high.”

Despite his frustrating initial visit to Dover, Cindric also left with a fondness for the Monster Mile.  He referred to the facility as “awesome” and “fun to drive,” but quickly added that the track can be intimidating, acknowledging that he took a conservative approach prior to logging his first laps on the track. 

“Last year, I stood down in Turn 1 at the start of first practice and watched for a little while, to see what I was really up against, because I had never been to Dover before,” Cindric said.  “It’s an intimidating place, especially in the truck, because you’re carrying a ton of corner speed. You’re committed to full throttle way before you can see the exit of the corner. The exit of the turns are really narrow and the banking falls away when you get to the outside wall, so every lap you’re counter-steering toward the wall and sliding off the corners. I’m really looking forward to going back to Dover in the LTi Printing Ford F-150 this weekend.”