McLaughlin, van Gisbergen coaching Cindric through Supercars debut

Advice from two Supercars greats turned Stateside racing heavyweights are helping Austin Cindric prepare for his Adelaide baptism of fire.

The Team Penske driver touched down in Australia last week ahead of his wildcard cameo at the bp Adelaide Grand Final on November 27-30.

A Daytona 500 winner in 2022 and Xfinity Series champion in 2020, Cindric turns the tables, given Shane van Gisbergen jumped from Supercars to NASCAR in recent years.

While van Gisbergen is now a rival in the Cup Series, Cindric has felt the support from the three-time Supercars champion, as well as Penske stablemate McLaughlin, who is plying his trade in IndyCar.

Speaking at Sandown on Monday, where he got behind the wheel for the first time, Cindric is determined to get up to speed as quickly as possible before practice on Thursday November 27.

"I've talked with Cam [Waters], I've talked with Thomas [Randle] and many other drivers. I was able to hang out and pick Frosty's brain all weekend,” Cindric told Supercars.com at Sandown.

"You can talk about it as much as you want, you kind of have to experience it, you have to feel it, you have to apply it in real time.

"I think there's some certain driving techniques, whether if it's right foot braking or different things you do with a trail brake or just how the car responds to driver inputs.

“It is going to be different. It is in every car. So, I think being able to experience those things, I can only ask so many questions. I think that'll be the most critical for me."

Waters took Cindric for a hot lap on Friday at Sandown, before the American got behind the wheel of his own car on Monday.

Cindric will get two crucial days of testing at The Bend Motorsport Park this week before track action commences in Adelaide next week.

After the deal was announced, van Gisbergen sent a blunt text to Cindric, along the lines of: "hey, if you want to be any good down there, you’ve got to right-foot brake."

McLaughlin, though, has been in Cindric’s ear every day since he landed in Australia, to the point of asking to see data throughout the Adelaide weekend to help coach him through.

Cindric couldn't ask for more: van Gisbergen (2013, 2017, 2018) and McLaughlin (2019, 2020) won five of eight Adelaide 500s between 2013 and 2020.

“[Van Gisbergen] has been really cool about the whole experience. It's different than Scotty Mac, like he's been texting me every single day since I've been here,” Cindric said.

“But it’s cool, because Shane's a competitor, but he still wants to see me have a good time an have a good experience. Honestly, everybody here has been super welcoming and super excited for me to be part of the grid.

"Learning the car is the first piece, but what's gonna be really challenging is having a 30-minute session and going straight into qualifying on Friday.

"So I think learning the race track is gonna be my biggest challenge to whether or not if I'm as competitive as I wanna be."

International fans can watch the Adelaide Supercars action on SuperView.