By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Serving as the United States home for Formula 1 since opening in 2012, the Circuit of The Americas plays host to some good ol’ American Muscle this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series comes to town for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
The 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course sitting just outside of Austin, Texas is the first of six road courses for the Cup Series to visit in 2023 and will give drivers and teams their first look at some new rules for the road courses this season – namely the elimination of cautions at stage breaks.
In years past, the end of a stage would mean a caution to reset the field and a restart shortly thereafter, which all but eliminated the strategy of road course races. This year, that all changes as the stages will still exist, but the race will continue on without a caution, allowing teams to bring varying strategies back to road courses.
Along with the elimination of stage breaks at road courses, the “choose rule” will also make its road course debut this weekend in Austin. The rule, which allows drivers to select their lane of choice on a restart has been in place at other tracks in recent years, but NASCAR added the rule to road courses earlier this month so the rule is in effect circuit-wide.
The new short track/road course aerodynamic package made its debut at Phoenix two weeks ago, but with COTA being the first road course race that it will be implemented on, an additional practice for the Cup Series has been allotted, with teams hitting the track on Friday afternoon ahead of the normal Saturday/Sunday on-track schedule.
A star-studded lineup of road course ringers will be joining the Cup regulars this weekend to battle it out in the Lone Star State.
Among those drivers is seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson making another appearance for Legacy Motor Club and two former Formula 1 world champions in Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button driving for Trackhouse Racing and Rick Ware Racing, respectively.
Jordan Taylor, a standout driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, makes his Cup Series debut driving in relief of the injured Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Last, but not least is NTT IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly back behind the wheel for The Money Team.
By the Numbers
What: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, NASCAR Cup Series Race No. 6 of 36
Where: Circuit of The Americas – Austin, Texas (Opened:…
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