Austin Cindric has no regrets about the move that won him the Chevrolet 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Cindric drove right into the back of Kaz Grala's 33 car and passed him for the win. The contact spun Grala's truck out, and it led the 19-year-old Cindric to his first career win in the series.
"It's pretty obvious what happened,'' Cindric said via NBCSports, defending the contact. "I may have been too honest about what went through my head in order to make that happen. I don't race that way, contrary to what most think, especially after yesterday.
"But honestly, it's the game NASCAR has set up for us to play, which isn't a negative, but it also is not a positive. Guys have dumped people for wins, especially at that race track for many, many years.
"I honestly would haven't done it unless I had incentive. My incentive was to get the team a win, and my incentive was to get us in the playoffs. If we're in the playoffs, I wouldn't have done it. It's just one of those deals that you had to get yourself to do.
"It's the first time I've ever gone into a corner and known that I was going to throttle up and hit the guy in front of me. No, I wasn't planning on spinning him out. There was a lot of runoff there to the left I was going to move him to and try to get a good run down the straightaway, but I ended up sending him around.
"You can't apologize for winning. I definitely don't like how it all ended up especially with Kaz because Kaz and I have grown up racing together. Kaz and I are friends. Obviously that may change after that weekend. I know he's not very happy, and he has all the right to be. It's one of those things I'm going to have to move through and try to earn some respect back over time, I guess.''
Cindric wants to maintain that he doesn't normally race that way and that the sport is set up to promote such moves. It is hard to argue with the fact that drivers are rewarded, considering Cindric clinched the win and a playoff berth with by spinning Grala. However, Cindric's insistence that he would never do that unless there was incentive rings a bit hollow as there is always an incentive to pass the car in front of you.
After the race, Grala said the move was dirty, and he wasn't pleased.
"He didn't even attempt to pass," Grala said. "He just drove right in there and used me as his brakes, turned me straight around and gave me no opportunity.
"Just a dirty move. I've got a lot of respect for him as a road course racer but lost a lot today."
Grala continued later on Twitter:
Going down fighting is one thing, not being given the chance to fight is another. "If u can't outrace em, dump em" is not in my vocabulary.
— Kaz Grala (@KazGrala) September 3, 2017
Related: The future of NASCAR Truck Series could be in jeopardy