After Austin Sendrick was the first driver to clinch a playoff point with his season-opening Daytona 500 win, Austin Sendrick is more than ready to start the playoffs for the NASCAR Cup Series.
“It sure is,” Cendrick said. “Last week has been stressful for all of us on Team Penske, just trying to make sure we all get in, and really throughout the summer we still knew the points were definitely important. From that perspective, yes, it’s a bit of a reset.
“I honestly feel good mentally. I don’t feel like there’s a lot of plus or minus expectations, so you just try to go out and put together three really great races and try to be consistent, try not to beat ourselves up. Here’s the opportunity - obviously there are former champions They’re not in the playoffs now, so I’m not guaranteed to be next year or next year or anything. So, it’s a great opportunity, a great opportunity in the junior season, and we just have to do our best to make the most of it.”
Cendrick is the fourth Novice to make the playoffs, joining Denny Hamlin (2006), Chase Elliott (2016), and most recently Christopher Bell (2021). No rookie has ever won a championship in the playoff era, Hamlin’s third place in points standings is the current standard.
Darlington kicks off the first round of the post-season and Cendrick goes on Sunday night (6pm ET, USA) preparing for the Southern 500 to be the “biggest mental challenge” of his career. Darlington is one of the longest and hardest races for a driver to endure and rewards teams with good racing strategy, discipline and focus.
Cendrick knows he needs all of that not just in Darlington but in all of the post-season. While he’s no stranger to competing for the championship and passing a playoff stage, Cindric’s previous experience - having won the 2020 Xfinity Series - is very different from what he will experience at the Cup Series level.
“It sure is,” Cendrick said. “At Xfinity, in the last couple of years, I’ve already had a few playoff points. I have to go back to my first year in Xfinity and my first year in the truck series to make the playoffs with the fewest points I have now. But up to this point, the field Too tight. You can look at it from, oh, I’m in third place and have some of the fewest break points, but I can also look at eight that put me in fifth.
“Think about how easy it is to win and lose eight points in three races. I think there’s everything to gain for us now. I’m excited about it, but I think the ball is in every team’s court for Darlington because it’s an easy race to beat yourself, and an easy race to be so late in the So early in the first round. We need to do our part to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Cendrick’s win cleared the way for a rocky first half of the season. Team #2 finished 18th in the standings after their first visit to the World Wide Technology Raceway in early June with two top-10 finishes. But the team had a quiet summer that included four straight top-10 wins from Sonoma through Atlanta and six top seven spots in the last 11 races.
Cendrick finished the regular season 14th in the championship standings. He is ranked 14th on the playoff network with six playoff points.
“I don’t have any expectations,” Sendrić said of his first Cup Series playoff. “I got the same questions before the start of the season about my expectations for a rookie year and frankly, I want to do my job. That is the only expectation I have, to have a team that has all the resources and ability to do that. We certainly gave a lot on many occasions. We’re definitely going to have a great season if you look back.”
Cindric not only won in his rookie year, but was also in the sport’s biggest race. As the only rookie to qualify for the post-season, Cindric was named Rookie of the Year.
“I have to give myself the point of view sometimes that I’m racing around guys who are having the best years of their careers,” Cendrick continued. “Sometimes I want a lot, but I think that’s a good thing. But at the same time, I think striving for the best is what we’re about here at Team Penske. I don’t think we feel like we’ve covered that at the moment, so between the three of us, I think it’s There is still more we want to get.
“But in terms of the second car, I feel like we’re the best so far. I think the process has gone downhill, the communication is definitely the best it has been, so I think all of those things matter when I’m racing guys who have decades of that experience.”