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Kaz Grala on Austin Cindric contact: ‘I’m going to race people the way they race me’ (video)

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Austin Cindric's decision to bump Kaz Grala in the final lap of the truck series race at Bowmanville was a poor decision despite the reward being so great.

Two days after his last lap run-in with Austin Cindric in the Camping World Truck Series race, Kaz Grala said going forward he’ll show Cindric the same “level of sportsmanship that he showed me” when Cindric spun him to win.

Grala, a rookie for GMS Racing, made his comments on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Tradin’ Paint.”

Cindric scored his first NASCAR win after intentionally ramming into the back of Grala’s truck in Turn 5 of the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, sending Grala spinning. The 18-year-old Grala, who won at Daytona in February, wound up finishing third.

“I think any good driver will tell you that they have a pretty good memory,” Grala said. “I’m not necessarily one to go out and flat wreck somebody like he did to me. ... I honestly don’t think you should expect to see that approach from me. But I can tell you any time we’re racing around each other I’ll give him the level of sportsmanship that he showed me this weekend. I’m just going to use up all the room that I need and he’ll have to figure it out from there. Again, nothing personal at all, I’m going to race people the way they race me.”

Grala said he had been warned by his team after Cindric banged fenders with Noah Gragson to take second place.

“The 19 is being very aggressive behind you, just be prepared,” Grala said he was told.

But Grala was caught off guard by Cindric’s maneuver.

“We’ve known each other for years,” Grala said. “I honestly didn’t expect quite that. I think going forward for myself and everybody else, I think we just need to race each other the way we want to be raced. I will continue to race people with respect and kindly have a little bit of give and take because at the end of the day, if you can’t make it to the last lap of the race, you’re never going to win the race.”

Grala said the race was Cindric’s to lose, especially with the Brad Keselowski Racing driver in possession of “50 percent newer tire life” than Grala.

“I think honestly he was intimidated to try to race me down into those last couple of corners,” Grala said. “He saw that as his opportunity to not have to face me down into Turns 8, 9 and 10. He certainly dealt with me and got me out of his way, and he was able to complete that lap completely unchallenged, which I just feel bad because I feel like it denied the fans a bit of a race.”

Cindric appeared on the Motor Racing Network’s Motorsports Monday to defend his last-lap actions that delivered BKR its first win of the year and a spot for him in the playoffs. Cindric claimed he wouldn’t have made the move had he already been secured in the playoffs.

“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,” Cindric said. “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.’’

Grala said respect is something Cindric can earn back, but that it might be a hard thing to accomplish in the final eight races of the year.

“I think the 19 is going to have a difficult time going forward in the season because I think he lost the respect of some drivers out there and that’s not something he can’t gain back. He sure can,” Grala said. “It’s just for an immediate effect this season, I’m just not sure it was necessarily the right move for him and his team going forward.”

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