FORT WORTH, Texas — Austin Sindrick began the second row of the NASCAR Cup race in Texas after celebrating a week of victory at Talladega, paying much attention to the explosive radio rants his own teammates directed at him during the first victory of Team Pensuke’s season.
We also had a conversation with Joey Logano. Joey Logano was furious mid-race when rival Toyota driver Baba Wallace didn’t get the necessary help at Ford in Sindrick so he could win the second stage and earn valuable bonus points.
“Are you sure you need it? I mean, I think you have to talk about it. You have to talk about what happened smoothly. I think that’s more of a real entity in the conversation,” Cindric said Saturday.
“I feel like I have pretty thick skin and I also feel like Joey knows quite well, so I’m not too worried or too emotional about what I’m told,” he said. “But for us, we’re looking to organize where we were standing and what we can do in the future, get better and take advantage of those opportunities.”
They returned to the truck in Texas today. Texas is the 1.5-mile track that Sindrick placed third in the 11th Cup race of the season.
“It’s all good for me, man,” Sindrick said when asked if his teammates were good.
Carson Hoxever won his first cup pole in a qualifying lap of 191.659 mph with the Spire Motorsport Chevrolet. The 22-year-old Hocevar is the youngest pole winner ever at Texas Motor Speedway and will host his 45th Cup race. His 56th Career Cup race begins in the front row with Cup Series points leader William Byron (191.564 mph) in the Chevrolet.
Cindric ran the 191.523 mph qualifying lap. Logano is 27th and will advance through two spots to defend race champion Chase Elliott.
Logano said this week he “spewed” his teammates more than he should have during the Talladega race.
Among the reactions this week was that baseball hall of fame chipper Jones criticised NASCAR champion Rogano in a series of social media posts. Jones congratulates Sindrick, and Rogano is called selfish and celebrates his failed inspection after the blessing.
Cindric said he knows who the former Atlanta Braves slugger is, despite not following baseball much.
“But to look at our sport and do something like that, the Hall of Fame is really cool,” Sindrick said. “The rest is a lot of noise, but it’s cool to have someone like that behind me.”
That Braves cap Cindric keeps it in his truck, but it’s not a fan of the MLB team and didn’t wear it this week.
“Well, the funny thing is, it’s like my neutral hat… I don’t want to roam around like an ad, so ‘Hey, if I can help with that, I’m a NASCAR driver’,” he said. “So it’s usually either that or my Colts (cap) that I wrap in the truck.”
Texas Chase and Hendrick
Elliott left Texas last spring, earning his first victory after 42 races and 18 months of victory. He returned in another long, unwinning drought. This is 37 races, nearly 13 months after carefully crossing the finish line after taking the white flag as coach.
“It’s definitely not a conversation you want to have, but I still think we were heading in the right direction,” he said, fourth in the NASCAR Cup standings, six top-10 finishes, not outside the top-20.
The most popular drivers of the sport should not be difficult to find on today’s trucks to help Napa auto parts drive gold cars and mark them as company for its 100th year. NAPA has been his main sponsor since racing in the Xfinity series in 2014.
Elliott’s victory last year was eighth in Hendrick Motorsports’ Texas, twice as many of the other teams.
Hendrick has three of the last four with different drivers each time. William Byron won the track’s race last fall in 2023, two years after Kyle Larson won the playoff and non-point All-Star races.
“It’s not the best racetrack, but it’s different and unique, and that’s the challenge. They didn’t do a good job of remodeling it,” Larson said.
Odds and the end
Larson on Plus 375 is a bet favorite to win Sunday, according to the BetMgm Sportsbook, followed by Byron on Plus-550 and Tyler Reddick on Plus-700. …Kyle Busch’s 35th race in Texas comes two days after his 40th birthday. He has four wins in Texas, where he leads his track record of 20 races overall. His 1,069-lap LED is second only to Jimmy Johnson’s 1,152.
