NASCAR Cup Series playoff star opens up on 'challenges' at St Louis

NASCAR star Austin Cindric has warned that a tough strategic battle is in prospect at Gateway on Sunday afternoon.

Cindric is one of a trio of Team Penske drivers in the Cup Series playoffs, and told reporters on Saturday that he expects the race to tax team strategists as much as a road course race given how key track position is likely to be.

NASCAR HEADLINES: King Petty slams 'bunch of ****' as iconic tradition under threat

The 27-year-old is the defending race winner at the egg-shaped oval, having taken advantage of Penske team-mate Ryan Blaney's misfortune in running out of fuel in the closing laps.

Cindric sits 12 points above the playoff cut line going into the second race of the Round of 16, as he looks to make the Round of 12 for the third time in four years.

READ MORE: Team Penske star confirmed for switch to foreign racing series

Cindric warns of massive caution impact

To a question asked by Dustin Long, he admitted: "The strategy for this race is going to be probably as challenging as a road course in the playoffs because of how important track position is going to be, how tight the field is going to be."

Last year's race saw just five cautions (including the two stage-end yellows), but Cindric warned that a caution in the second half of the race could have a massive impact on the result.

"It could easily influence the end result of the race with one caution at the right time," he claimed.

It makes sense, then, that he'd want to avoid a repeat of the 2023 running of the race, which saw 11 cautions taking up more than a quarter of the total laps, as well as three red flags – one for a lightning delay, unlikely this weekend, but the other two for wreck clean-up and barrier repairs.

GET MORE FROM US: Want more NASCAR news? Readers based in the United States can set GPFans.com as a preferred Google source

Related