Austin Cindric – NASACAR Photo
* 2022 Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric qualified his No. 2
Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the front row for Sunday’s
67th running of the Daytona 500.
* Cindric qualified second and is guaranteed a front row starting
spot.
* Ford had four of the top five qualifiers as Ryan Preece, Joey Logano
and Josh Berry were third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I am
really proud of the team and the work they have put into this race car.
We are going to have a front row start in the Daytona 500 and, to share
it with one of my closest friends, is pretty cool. Great to have a fast
Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Obviously, we’ve had speed at these types of
race tracks but this is a pretty big one to check off for the weekend,
for the pit selection and everything that that means. We will lock in
and make sure we do the right things tomorrow night and get a good idea
of what our race car is like. For us it is expected with Roush-Yates.
Everybody at Ford Performance does an awesome job at these types of race
tracks and we want to try and continue that throughout the weekend.”
DID YOU PROVE YOUR CREW CHIEF WRONG OR DID HE PROVE YOU WRONG? “I
think my crew chief proved me wrong. He was telling me all weekend we
would be fighting for the front row today and I was thinking about
eighth to 11th was my guess and I was clearly wrong, so I’m glad that
the guy that is paid to be smart is smarter than I am. I’ll just
continue to do my job inside of the car, but, all in all, we certainly
expected to have speed in our Ford Mustangs. We’ve shown that in the
last couple years at these types of racetracks and especially on the 2
car. I’m just proud of the guys. The fastest Ford and the fastest car
in the company. That’s cool for our group because it’s still a
pretty young group. There are still a lot of boxes left to check off,
but it’s a good one to start with.”
FOUR FORDS IN THE TOP FIVE. THIS IS A TESTAMENT TO NOT ONLY FORD
PERFORMANCE BUT ROUSH YATES ENGINES. “Those guys take this race super
seriously and Doug and his group do an awesome job at these types of
racetracks and I’m excited to see what we have in race trim.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO ADD A SECOND DAYTONA 500 TROPHY? “I think both
of them would mean a whole lot different on a few different levels, but
we’ve got a few more days and a lot more work to get there by the end
of the day Sunday.”