Bristol going to plan so far for 'Bubble Boy' Cindric

Austin Cindric is fine being called ‘Bubble Boy’ going into Saturday night’s elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but don’t expect him to act differently.

“It’s no different than any other day,” Cindric said. “My job is still the same, just the emphasis on doing it well is more. But it doesn’t mean I can try any harder to change the outcome.”

The first elimination race of the postseason cuts the field from 16 to 12 drivers. Cindric and his Team Penske team hold the final transfer over Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing, but the 11-point gap is comfort at all.

“Essentially, you think of it like 10 spots,” Cindric said. “[Losing isn't] out of the question if you have a problem or have a mistake or something happens or one of the other cars has a really good night or if somebody else wins. That’s the other thing, too, is that you could easily think of the [No.] 48 or the [No.] 21 or even the [No.] 3 car going out and having an excellent day, and we’ve got to be prepared for that.

“We’re close to the guys that are just ahead of us, so we need to go out and have a really great day.”

Cindric is eight points behind Ross Chastain for 11th on the playoff grid. He is 10 points behind teammate Joey Logano for 10th. The opportunity to leapfrog those drivers would move Cindric off the bubble, and a possible elimination could come from a driver below the cutline winning at Bristol.

Shane van Gisbergen, who sits behind Dillon on the playoff grid, is 15 points out of a transfer spot. Dillon and van Gisbergen have realistic opportunities to point their way into the next round if the competition opens the door.

“I think points in both stages are going to need to be a must for us to really control our destiny and control that gap that we have and any craziness that happens at the end of the race,” Cindric said. “It’s the first box checked, but nothing is guaranteed from here on out. Still, we’ve done a good job today.”

Cindric qualified third. Dillon qualified 23rd and van Gisbergen qualified 28th.

“I feel like we’ve done our job for Friday,” Cindric said. “Whatever that means for Saturday is yet to be seen, but this sets us up well to try and continue to control our destiny for the end of the race.”

And the best way to do that?

“The best defense is a good offense,” Cindric said.