After a thrilling Atlanta race, the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are headed to the road course at Watkins Glen International. Road courses are often tricky venues for drivers. But the additional challenge of new tires at the racetrack would surely put them to the test. A new tire compound is projected to wear off quickly, thus forcing the drivers to manage their tires well. Team Penske driver Austin Cindric was one of the three drivers involved during these tire tests back in June. The test was aimed at nailing down the perfect tire setup for the upcoming race, marking the track’s first playoff race.

During the test, Cindric was candid: “I had a least favorite, but no favorite. I ended up coming in after just four laps when I was supposed to do eight.” Reddick, on the other hand, noted, “Track time is important, which is what I think made today frustrating for us.” And, now, going by Cindric’s words ahead of this week’s racing, it feels like NASCAR might have overdone adding new elements to the event.

Expect the unexpected at Watkins Glen

The Next Gen race car has had its fair share of troubles on the road course track. The most prevalent is a lack of passing opportunities. To address this issue, Goodyear was put to work in developing a new compound. In theory, it is expected to have three seconds of the falloff per lap, but we’ve seen such experiments mount to nothing this year. Does anyone recall the All-Star race and the option tire?

However, it turns out NASCAR has made other changes to the racing surface as well. They have decided to replace the curbs in Turn 2 with rumble strips. But how exactly will it affect on-track racing?

This is what Austin Cindric had to say about the changes at the bus stop section of the track. “So the bus stop was the same as the tire tests. Basically, the elimination or the flattening of the first curb and the stop. So that was the same.” He said this in an interview with Bob Pockrass.

Further elaborating on the addition of more such sections of the 2.45-mile race track, Cindric added, “So they added more, and I think they’ll even add more after the OEM tests. So I don’t really have a reason for what that will be like going into the race weekend. But otherwise, I think it’s pretty new. I’d say traditionally it looked like five years ago at Watkins Glen and every year before, but that was the intent to keep us more on the other side of the curb on turn 1.”

While it is known how this new setup will affect racing this weekend, Cindric had a very good idea of how the driver could leverage the new tire compound.

The inside lane will be the preferred pick for the drivers

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The most important aspect of NASCAR racing for the drivers is to find their groove on the racetrack. Now this varies depending on tracks and racing conditions. Tracks like Dover, Darlington, and Michigan allow the driver to work with multiple lane choices. However, going by Austin Cindric’s assessment from the tire test, the inside lane will be a strong position at Watkins Glen.

“The outside car can play a lot of defense, or else if you make a more of a tighter corner, maybe the inside car has a more bit of an advantage. I feel it also gives the inside car a lot of leverage on the outside car if something’s going to take the grip away or, you know, a worse area for a car to be placed of this runoff is difficult to drive through. The car on the inside can probably shove that guy into the runoff,” Cindric explained.

But keeping in view how Tyler Reddick spun out on day two of the tire test, earlier this year, drivers should expect certain spins. Reddick had mentioned, “We’ve had a number of issues that have kept us off track, and when we’ve been on track, we’ve spun and not gotten full tire runs in… the main part of this entire test is to try and help Goodyear figure out what the path is to put a tire together that isn’t going to be soft or go too drastic one way or another on balance but have more fall off.”

Although Cindric wasn’t considered to be a strong contender in the playoffs, he’s started strong with a top-10 finish. And he is 27 points above the cutline going into this weekend’s race. Another top-10 run would probably see him through to the next round.