Roger Penske star Austin Cindric comes clean on new tire concerns at shortened COTA circuit

Team Penske driver Austin Cindric shared the team's main concern ahead of NASCAR's visit to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The first road course event of the season promises plenty of action, with Goodyear introducing a new tire compound for the recently repaved and reconfigured circuit.

NASCAR will be running on a shorter course this year, ditching the 3.4-mile layout. The new 2.3-mile "national" circuit bypasses Turns 7 through 11, with drivers making a sharp left after the esses to join the backstretch before continuing through the stadium section. Additionally, several parts of the track were repaved last year.

Cindric previewed the changes for COTA and mentioned that the biggest conversation at Team Penske has been about the new Goodyear tires. The updated compound is expected to increase tire wear and lap-time falloff, which will impact race strategies. In an interview with Bob Pockrass, the #2 Ford driver said:

"I think the larger conversation for us, at least within my race team, has been the introduction of yet another road course tire, which is supposed to be similar to what we raced at Watkins Glen, the playoffs.

"So I think there's probably more variables and more discussions based on around that, and more potential strategy and certain things throughout the race that will be affected by having tire wear, not having tire wear, depending on where it falls."

Drivers will have an extended practice session on Saturday, giving them their first opportunity to drive around the new layout. This additional track time will allow teams to tune their setups for the new Goodyear tire compound. The 95-lap race is scheduled for Sunday (March 2) at 3:30 pm ET.

Team Penske has struggled to make an impression on road course races in the next-gen era. Cindric showed progress in the latter part of the 2024 season, securing a 10th-place result at Watkins Glen and a fourth-place finish at the Roval.

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Austin Cindric aiming to beat expectations at Circuit of the Americas

Austin Cindric described COTA as one of the better road course events for the team and will not be satisfied with a solid top-10 result. He was involved in a Lap 1 crash last year and recovered to an 18th-place result. In the two years prior, he fetched top-10 results.

Elaborating on his expectations at the reconfigured track, the #2 Penske driver said (via SpeedwayDigest.com):

"It's been one of our better road course events, but I would still say the expectation for us is probably a little bit higher than a solid top 10 at some of these tracks, so I think going with the mindset that, yeah, we definitely need to be better and the new layout and the new tire definitely provides some different challenges and some different opportunities."

Cindric was in contention for victory in the first two races of the season but was taken out in both events. Despite the setbacks, he heads into the third race sitting fourth in the standings, having led 106 laps across the opening rounds.