The Circuit of the Americas road course was originally designed for Formula One racing; but for the past four years, NASCAR has held races on the 3.41 mile course.
Over those past four years, NASCAR has seen a number of issues from torrential rain storms to displaced “turtles”.
When the Xfinity and Cup Series drivers return to COTA in March for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, they will take on the “National Course” which is a 2.3 mile course.
Both courses include 20 turns but the National course eliminates about a mile of the backside of the course and about a minute off of the course time.
Along with the course change, COTA will have a repave which makes the course feel like a new track that the drivers have to learn all over again.
The elimination of the over a mile will increase the number of laps in the race form 68 to around 100 in the Cup Series. NASCAR also expects to see an increase in on track action.
Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith spoke on the changes saying, “the move to the National Course will make a great race experience even better for our fans with more laps and more action. Fans will have more laps to cheer for their favorite driver from the best seats, and the action will come faster with lap times reduced by roughly a minute. The National Course and its new pavement will provide the drivers, teams and crew chiefs with a fresh look and a new challenge after running the Full Course the last four years at COTA.”
Melon Man Ross Chastain was given the opportunity to run the new course via the simulator and spoke on the new course saying, “it’s going to be like basically going to a new track, a new town, new area. It flows together nice, and (Turn) 12 (of the Full Course) will really change since we don’t have that long backstretch. Once I get to (Turn) 13, though, it’s all going to be the same. I’ll get my normal speed I was at last year. Gosh, this place is awesome.”
Having earned three top fives in four years, Chastain is ready to take on the new course adding, “I love the challenge of the Cup Series. That’s why I’ve ascended to this level, because I kept pushing myself from pro-trucks to late models to the Truck Series, Xfinity and Cup. It’s scary as heck to think about trying to compete at this level, and how good these drivers are, how good these teams are, how many people’s livelihoods depend on this race shop. … And this will be a race that we look forward to and put a lot of time into the simulator like we already talked about ahead of time. Look at the test data. See if one of us maybe could test and get some real, real track time and then go race.”