New look: Austin Cindric to wear glasses during Atlanta race

Although Austin Cindric will be racing the No. 2 Team Penske Ford during Sunday evening's bout at Atlanta Motor Speedway as normal, the 24-year-old will have a different look, with the Columbus, Ohio native preparing to don glasses inside the car during Sunday's Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, USA, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). The new eyewear came in handy in Saturday's qualifying session as Cindric will start 10th under the lights Sunday evening. "I've been telling everybody it makes pretty things look prettier and ugly things look uglier," a glasses-adorned Cindric said to Tyler Reddick during Saturday's pre-qualifying media session with the No. 45 driver noticing the different look. RELATED: Atlanta schedule | Cup lineup for Sunday One reason for the change came at Nashville Superspeedway on June 25, where he finished 27th during the evening contest. The change became official on Wednesday when Cindric had an eye appointment and immediately sprinted to the mall to have a pair made within the hour. While the change could initially bring fear, it is the opposite in the case of Cindric, who looks forward to the opportunity. "One of my motivators was Nashville," Cindric said. "I couldn't see very well by the end of the race. Here I am with glasses before the next night race, so it's not fear at all. I would say I'm gonna have a great improvement come Sunday night." Cindric plans to wear glasses as opposed to contacts in the car and additionally asked Joey Logano -- another fellow glass-wearer -- about the intricacies of where glasses inside the machine with the helmet and additional gear taken into account. "I didn't take any much time to decide whether or not this was the right thing for me to do as far as getting glasses, especially for me," Cindric said. "I guess I'm nearsighted, and I have trouble seeing things far away. My profession requires me to identify things that are far away at a high rate of speed, so I would identify that as significantly important to eliminate a weakness." Cindric currently sits 22nd in the season points standings and has three top-10 finishes in 18 starts this season.