Cindric balances role as president, race strategist

As president of Penske Racing, Tim Cindric presides over an empire that operates out of a complex that is over 400,000 square feet in Mooresville, N.C., and requires an annual influx of roughly $100 million to remain competitive in a total of four racing series.

This season, they've done so to a high level across the board. Cindric talked about that and a variety of topics with NASCAR.COM.

Question: You've got an interesting role not only as president of Penske Racing, but also as race strategist for driver Helio Castroneves on the open-wheel side. How do you juggle the roles?

Cindric: The IndyCar role gives me a chance to be strategist for Helio on a race weekend. It gives me the chance to actually be in the game and be part of the competition, and help determine the outcome. I've called races since 1995.

Obviously, my other job has evolved. I guess you could say during the week I run the businesses -- and on the weekend I get to go racing.

Q: Do you find that to be a lot of fun for you?

Cindric: For sure, I enjoy it. It's sometimes difficult to balance the two, because you'd like to be everywhere and sometimes it gets misinterpreted as supporting one organization more than the other because I'm physically at the IndyCar races more than I'm at the NASCAR races. But that's purely because I have a role [on the Indy side] that helps determine the outcome.

Q: How satisfying has it been this year to have Helio win a couple races and have Will Power at the top of the standings on that side, but also then to have Brad Keselowski leading in the Nationwide Series and Kurt Busch qualifying for the Chase in Sprint Cup?

Cindric: It's really neat when you look at all three of those programs being in one facility. It's interesting that in some ways they are done with different approaches, but in others it's a common approach. You look at the standings and you've got two of 'em No. 1 on the scoreboard, and you've got another one starting this Chase who is a lot closer to the front now that they've re-set those [standings]. ... Certainly it's a testament to the people we have and the focus. Hopefully we'll keep two in the same spot they are and move Kurt back up to the top spot as well. We're certainly optimistic, but there is a lot of work to be done.

Q: Do you think you are beginning to see the fruits of your labor that began when you consolidated all the Penske operations under the one Mooresville roof back in 2007?

Cindric: I think the payoffs really become things that a lot of people can't see. With the consolidation of our businesses under one roof with common policies and practices, we're able to achieve a lot of things that you won't see in the competitive world -- but they certainly are things you would understand in the business world. Not having to manage simple little things like three different 401k programs, and the HR and benefits issues.

You're able to leverage even from a sponsorship perspective. Being able to talk from all these different disciplines gives us a leg up when these sponsors come to talk to us. Obviously the Shell-Pennzoil situation [with that sponsor coming over the Penske from Richard Childress Racing] had not only to do with the on-track performance of the No. 2 car with Kurt, but also had to do with our business-to-business plays and our ability to promote their brand through more stages than just the 2 car, or the 22 for next year. We're able to do that not only across our Nationwide and Cup programs, but also through our IndyCar program.

Whether you can attribute our success directly to [the consolidation], I think it's difficult to do that. But what you can attribute to that is our ability to promote from within and to move people from one discipline to another. We're able to attract good people and have them know that there are opportunities to do things here, where in a smaller organization you might have to wait a lot longer to get a similar type of promotion. If you're willing to look at possibly jumping from one discipline to another, you may have the chance to advance your career that you otherwise would never have had.

Q: Talking specifically about Keselowski, could you assess where you are with your relatively new full-time Nationwide program?

Cindric: He's been a big catalyst for our success. Obviously last year with Justin [Allgaier] was the first year that we had run a full-season Nationwide program ever. So we learned a lot last year and felt like being able to achieve Rookie of the Year and some of the success we had with Justin really made the timing good for Brad to come into our organization.

We understood by then what it meant to win. We went from being content with our results last year to feeling like we needed to contend for the championship this year. I think [director of competition] Mike Nelson and the guys did a real good job of putting together the right people. Brad was very focused on that championship as well. It was a big part of maybe why he looked at our organization above some of the others he considered, because we could offer him a full-time competitive Nationwide program. I think that had a lot to do with his choice to come here. It was definitely something that we could offer to him that other organizations couldn't. He and [crew chief] Paul Wolfe have really taken that ball and run with it.

Q: As far as the Cup side goes, I guess you guys are looking for a way to help Kurt Busch rediscover the magic he had toward the middle of the season when he won the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 back-to-back in Charlotte?

Cindric: Yeah, for sure. The last month or so we've been comfortable in terms of being well positioned for the Chase. And I think in some ways that may have hurt us a little bit. But in other ways it may have helped us because we were able to try a few different things.

We're able to re-set the scales right now [for Busch]. Kurt certainly is capable, but we need to be running like we were in May and June to be able to see that happen. Certainly we're not where we want to be with the 12 [driven on the Cup side by Keselowski] or the 77 [currently driven by Sam Hornish Jr.]. ... We expected more on that front.

Q: What do you foresee happening with the 77?

Cindric: Right now we're still in search of a primary sponsor for that car. That search will continue for the rest of the year. The good news is that it's September and not December.

Q: What does that mean for Hornish? Will he be back for sure?

Cindric: I wouldn't say anything is for sure. You can't race without the funding. So as we sit right now, we're collectively trying to do that -- but we also understand that if there are opportunities for him, it's an open book as far as communication. We're certainly not going to stand in his way as far as furthering his career, but we'd certainly like for him to be able to continue with us.

Related:
Chase for the Sprint Cup wide open this year | Sound Off: Busch talks about his chances