{"id":37722,"date":"2022-03-25T18:02:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T23:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=37722"},"modified":"2022-03-25T18:04:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T23:04:15","slug":"nascar-returns-to-circuit-of-the-americas-for-texas-size-road-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/25\/nascar-returns-to-circuit-of-the-americas-for-texas-size-road-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR returns to Circuit of The Americas for Texas-size road racing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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May 23, 2021; Austin, Texas, USA; The field moves through corner 1 during the Inaugural EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Mike Haag<\/em><\/p>\n

Raceday San Antonio<\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 All three of NASCAR\u2019s premier racing series \u2013 Cup Series (NCS), Xfinity Series (NXS) and Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) \u2013 will be competing in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix this weekend at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).<\/p>\n

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May 23, 2021; Austin, Texas, USA; Joey Logano during the Inaugural EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

The event will mark the first of six road course races on the schedule. NASCAR Cup Series action begins with practice on Saturday, March 26 at 10 a.m. ET followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 11 a.m. ET. Both will be televised on FS1. The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will be held Sunday, March 27 at 3:30 p.m. ET and will broadcast live on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.<\/p>\n

Last year NASCAR made its debut at COTA on May 23, 2021. Chase Elliott passed his Hendrick Motorsport\u2019s teammate driver Alex Bowman with five laps remaining in the race before the event was called due to heavy rain and visibility issues. It was Elliott\u2019s seventh career road course victory. There were 10 different leaders and 11 lead changes during the race.<\/p>\n

Where rain plagued the weekend of racing at COTA in 2021, this weekend\u2019s weather forecast is calling for temperatures around 85 degrees with sunny skies. There is no rain in the forecast.<\/p>\n

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May 23, 2021; Austin, Texas, USA; Martin Truex Jr. during the Inaugural EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

The Circuit of The Americas is considered to be one of the most challenging road courses on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit. The 20-turn, 3.41-mile, multi-elevational counterclockwise circuit has a rolling landscape and a 133-foot hill at Turn 1.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA will be the first road course race for the Next Gen Cup car. Other road course races this season include Sonoma, Road America, Indianapolis road course, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte ROVAL.<\/p>\n

During the off season, COTA hired consultants to review asphalt designs and figure out what parts of the track needed resurfacing. Engineers used ground penetration radar, laser mapping equipment and software to map the track and identify the different repairs needed. Workers repaved turns 12-16 and built a concrete pad to reinforce the areas at turn two and 10. These improvements should result in an ideal race track for racing this weekend.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Mix Toyota, Tyler Reddick, driver of the #8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet, and Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on May 23, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll definitely be different,\u201d Chase Briscoe said. \u201cI mean, last year\u2019s race will look way different than this year\u2019s race with the weather.  I think there was really good racing last year.  It\u2019s a different style of racing when it was that wet, but from a driver\u2019s standpoint it\u2019s a lot of fun, just the visibility is obviously tough and then from a fan\u2019s standpoint it\u2019s tough to see what\u2019s going on and a little more miserable than if it was a really nice day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Briscoe added, \u201cI think this car on the road courses is where it\u2019s really gonna shine and, truthfully, on the oval stuff it\u2019s been a lot better than what people expected.  I think the road course is probably gonna blow it out of the park.  It\u2019s a really well-built race car, especially for road course racing.  It\u2019s gonna be interesting to see with 40 of us out there going for it versus just a test session \u2013 what that difference looks like \u2013 but I think COTA is a really good racetrack to unveil this thing on a road course and I\u2019ve been really excited to get there, so I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Josh Bilicki, driver of the #52 Junction Fuels Ford, leads the field during the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on May 23, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Carmen Mandato\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

So far this season there have been five races and five different winners \u2013 Austin Cindric (Daytona), Kyle Larson (Auto Club), Alex Bowman (Las Vegas), Chase Briscoe (Phoenix) and William Byron (Atlanta). Cindric and Briscoe are first-time winners. With Briscoe\u2019s victory, he became the 200th different winner in the NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

Elliott enters Sunday\u2019s race with the lead in the NASCAR Series point standings after scoring a sixth-place finish last Sunday at Atlanta.  Joey Logano, who had the points lead, finished ninth at Atlanta and fell to second (-7) and Briscoe is third (-15).<\/p>\n

There will be 11 former road course winners entered in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix this Sunday and 10 of them are looking for their first win of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Mike Haag Raceday San Antonio AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 All three of NASCAR\u2019s premier racing series \u2013 Cup Series (NCS), Xfinity Series (NXS) and Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) \u2013 will be competing in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix this weekend at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). The event will mark the first of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,11],"tags":[39,16],"class_list":["post-37722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-circuit-of-the-americas","category-nascar","tag-circuit-of-the-americas","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A42Z8744a-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-9Oq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37731,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37722\/revisions\/37731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}