Austin Cindric feels he 'got the lucky dog' at Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Ford had an underwhelming showing at last weekend's Pennzoil 400. Team Penske's Austin Cindric and Stewart-Haas Racing's Kevin Harvick managed to be the only 2 blue ovals inside the top 10 last Sunday. In a race where Chevrolet's from Hendrick Motorsports dominated the field with Toyota running a close second, Cindric and Harvick managed to be the only drivers to show some performance from Ford's camp.

Driving the #2 Discount Tires Ford Mustang in the 400-mile-long race in Sin City, Austin Cindric elaborated on what raceday had in store for him as a driver and the #2 crew at Team Penske, and said:

“Yeah, a bit of a team effort there honestly. Definitely didn’t have the strength early on in the race. The second stage we definitely fell back even a little bit further. Got the lucky dog, honestly thanks to the pit crew which was able to get us back out front. Caution comes out, just made the car better all day. Felt like we earned a top-15 from the depths of hell for awhile."

The Columbus, Ohio native further elaborated on the late restart which saw him jump positions on the field and said:

"Going two tires on the restart, getting a good launch and being able to be in a position in the green-white-checkered. So, a little bit of strategy, a little bit of good pit-stops – some good restarts on my end and a good recovery. You’ve got to run up-front in these things to expect to win, but when we don’t have it, it’s good to know that we can get back.”

Austin Cindric's teammate Ryan Blaney's performance during last Sunday's Pennzoil 400

The driver of the #12 Menards Ford Mustang for Team Penske, Ryan Blaney, also elaborated on how the team and Ford-manufactured cars in general struggled during the Pennzoil 400 in Sin City last Sunday. The 29-year-old spoke about how the pit strategy during the restarts did not go the way of the #12 crew, and said:

“We didn’t start off very good. We struggled really bad the first two stages. Thought we got a little better there the last couple runs. I think we were about eighth before the last caution, started back racing and just went backwards. It’s unfortunate. We worked hard all day to get faster. The last restart pit-stops didn’t go our way.”

Watch Austin Cindric try and turn his performance around at Phoenix Raceway next weekend.