The 27-year-old American placed 23rd of the 25 cars in the 30-minute practice session, with a 1:20.7125s lap leaving him 1.1361s behind pacesetting teammate Cam Waters.

It was an effort that earned praise from Waters and the TV commentators, given the scale of the challenge facing the Cup Series regular on the punishing street circuit.

“I’m not unhappy with that lap,” Cindric told Speedcafe after completing the practice session and subsequent passenger ride outings.

“I left two and a half tenths at Turn 8, just trying to be a hero, so I did that early in the weekend.

“We won’t talk about that.”

Waters paces first Adelaide practice, Mostert fastest finalist

Cindric admitted the scary moment was due to braking “about 10 meters deeper than I should have” into the infamous right-hand sweeper.

The Daytona 500 winner is used to running close to concrete walls at high speed on ovals and had an interesting take on the car-crunching curve.

“I only find it intimidating because everyone doesn’t shut up about it. But, past that, it’s a sketchy corner,” he said.

“I think the thing that actually makes it so inviting is that you’re pretty low in the RPM exiting, you kind of have the wrong gear for that corner.

“So, it really invites you to get back to the gas, because you don’t have the revs, but it can upset the balance of the car some.

“Being line sensitive through there, I can definitely be a little more disciplined with right-side placement getting closer to that kerb, because I’m sure that’ll get dirtier and dirtier.

“I’d say, I need to remember I’m in a right-hand drive, especially through a corner like that, where you really have to be disciplined on your line. So I can see I can easily go wrong.”

Driving school tune-up for Adelaide NASCAR wildcard

Cindric was upbeat about his progress during the session and knows there’s still time to find ahead of qualifying on Friday afternoon.

“I’d say majority is Turn 1 and the [Turn 4-6] staircase,” he said of the deficit to Waters.

“My final sector is pretty decent, just a bunch of little stuff, but Turn 1, just creeping up to where it is and struggling a lot with the back of the car through the staircase.

“[Thomas] Randle had a lot of similar comments, which made me feel good about kind of the direction we need to take the car.”

Fellow NASCAR import Jesse Love ended both Thursday Super2 Series practice sessions at the foot of the order, improving in the second session to be 1.7644s from the pace.