What will Texas teach us about the NASCAR NextGen?

Opening on October 21, 2012, Circuit of the Americas was expressly built for the purpose of hosting the United States Grand Prix for Formula One. The planning and building of the track – which was situated on 890 acres of undeveloped land in Travis County, Texas – heavily involved the input of Charlie Whiting, the FIA-appointed Race Director for Formula 1. While the city of Austin sits within the borders of Travis County, it’s sprawling suburbia is not near the track complex. Centrally located in the state of Texas, Travis County was the perfect place to build this track. It was close enough to major infrastructure like airports and interstates, but far enough removed from densely populated urban centers to give it room to grow at its own pace as an economy developed around it. 

The project was backed by a conglomerate of high-ranking individuals in the motorsports world, but the first, and largest backer was Billy Joe “Red” McCombs – the all-American billionaire from San Antonio, Texas. While McCombs originally wanted to call the site “Speed City”, an unaffiliated organization offered him $7 million for those naming rights. In early 2011, the track’s name was announced as “Circuit of the Americas”. Red McCombs said, “One of the most inviting aspects of the name is the word ‘Americas’. It reflects Austin’s ideal location at the crossroads of North America from north to south, east to west. Also, it speaks to our state as a center of commerce and cultural exchange in this hemisphere. I look forward to meeting many fans and visitors who will be coming from every country.”

The opening year of the US Grand Prix was a huge success for the track with over 117,000 fans in attendance. The track only had 120,000 seats available at the time. Taking this momentum out of the 2012 season and into 2013, COTA’s 2013 event schedule was packed to the gills. Hosting all types of professional and semi-professional motorsports series across the entire spectrum of motorsports, the track was a fantastic location for accommodating both major and minor events. By the end of the 2013 season – which was the track’s first full season of operation – they had seen over 2.5 million visitors across all events. It was safe to say COTA was a booming success and would be around for a long time. Here we are 11 years later, and COTA is still breaking attendance records for various motorsports. If you’ve been paying attention to NASCAR’s television viewership this year, it looks like the sport is in for a bit of a resurgence. There are many factors that may be contributing to this viewership spike, and I’ll get into that in a later article; but I’m excited to see what COTA brings to the NASCAR fan base this year.

NASCAR’s first race at COTA took place in the spring of 2021. The Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series would also debut along with the Cup Series. Although there was some initial debate, NASCAR announced in late 2020 that  all 3 series would run the full 3.42 mile course. EchoPark Automotive stepped up for a multi-year title contract for the Cup race, and the race was named the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix. The inaugural race weekend was largely ruined by rain, and the Cup race was shortened from 68 laps to 54 laps as the weather worsened and caused low driver visibility. Due to slick conditions and the driver’s unfamiliarity with the track, the average speed was a NASCAR record-low of 46 mph. Tyler Reddick, who was with RCR at the time, took pole. Joey Lagano led the most laps, but Chase Elliot won the race. Even with an underwhelming first race, fans were thrilled to watch their favorite stock cars face the challenge of COTA. NASCAR announced very quickly they planned to return to COTA in 2022. 

The race ran as scheduled on March 27, 2022 with much better weather conditions. The race went overtime with 69 laps instead of 68, and the average speed was set at 76 mph, with cars maxing out at 170 mph on the back straightaway. The back straightaway by the way, is longer than an entire lap at Bristol, at 0.62 miles versus Bristol’s 0.53 miles. Ryan Blaney took pole with a time of 2:12:343, but it was Ross Chastain that led the most laps and won the race. This was a momentous victory as it was not only Chastain’s first Cup series win, but also Trackhouse Racing’s first victory in NASCAR. A week prior to the race, NASCAR had confirmed a contract with COTA for 2023 as well. Held in March of 2023, this race also went overtime – this time by 8 laps. William Byron grabbed pole with a time of 2:10.760, but it was Tyler Reddick – now with 23XI Racing – who led the most laps, won Stage 2, and won the race. Additionally, Reddick set the NASCAR lap record for COTA with a time of 2:10.305. 

Thankfully, the relationship between COTA and NASCAR seems to be strong and healthy as we’re returning for the 4th consecutive year. Due to last year’s lengthy overtime, NASCAR has adjusted the restart zone to be directly after Turn 20. In previous years it’s been located directly before Turn 1, meaning cars nearly left the track trying to pass each other entering the first corner. The hope is that now cars will try to jockey for position before hitting Turn 1, leading to less chaos and cautions on restarts. Additional adjustments include newly repaved sections. Over the past year, COTA has repaved the section between T2 and T3 as well as the sections between T9 and T11, a portion of T12, and a swath between T18 and T19. This fresh asphalt will add grip, but it’ll also mean grip will vary between new pavement and old pavement.

This can be a two stop race – as long as the tires hold out, the fuel window allows teams to only need to stop at two expertly timed intervals. Even so, most teams will likely plan to pit 3 times under green. An interesting strategy developed in the 70s will see teams calculate the amount of fuel they will need in a backwards order from finish line to start line. This may mean drivers will stop much earlier than they need to in order to fill up their gas tanks enough to not have to stop over cautions. This will mathematically work out to them finishing the race with less stops. Last year, Reddick’s team picked the wrong fueling strategy and he would have run out of fuel with 6 laps to go. Luckily for him, he was saved by the amount of cautions that came out, and was able to make it to the finish line with fuel left to spare. This track isn’t known for cautions, although there can be some chaos on restart. NASCAR usually opts to stay green at COTA as the main pack has 3+ miles to travel before returning to the portion of the track where an accident occurred. This gives the damaged and debilitated vehicles time to clear off the track without posing any risk to the rest of the vehicles racing. There’s also no stage-end cautions because of how long the laps are. At the end of the stages, points are allotted but the race stays green. This is something I’d like to see implemented at more tracks. 

Qualifying for this track will be interesting. I’d encourage you to tune in to FS2 tomorrow (Saturday) and watch it. For those of you who play NASCAR Fantasy, this will be the perfect time to gauge how well your favorite teams, drivers, and manufacturers understand this track, and how Sunday’s race may shape out. I’m considering opening a Fantasy league for my consistent readers. Please let me know in the comments if this is something you’d be interested in!

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