Drivers have more questions than answers about Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas.
The 20-turn circuit is 3.41 miles long, and although it has hosted Formula One, the NTT IndyCar Series and sports car racing, NASCAR has never competed at the track located outside Austin, Texas.
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Some drivers in Sunday’s field do have at least a little experience at COTA, including Chase Elliott, who participated in a Goodyear tire test earlier this season. The driver many consider to be one of if not the best road racers in the Cup Series is ready for the unique challenge that awaits.
“It’s a super neat facility — super nice facility, number one,” Elliott said. “The track’s fun. It has a lot of character to it, I feel like. I’ve never been here, never seen it before in person before (doing the Goodyear tire test) and really haven’t watched a ton of races here, so it’s really been a pretty steep learning curve for me, trying to piece together all the different parts of the track and understand where you need to be good and how to make it flow.”
Brad Keselowski, another driver that was part of that tire test, echoes Elliott’s sentiments about the track combining elements of fun as well as challenges. But the Team Penske driver embraces the opportunity to try something new in his Cup car.
“So, there’s a couple of things — first off, it’s uphill, which helps the car stop, so it encourages the driver to try to out-brake another driver, which is big on a restart or a start because all of the cars are already so close together,” Keselowski explained about areas of the track’s unique layout in Turn 1.
“Second thing is, it’s really wide on entry, so it’s almost impossible to block because there’s just a lot more race track. And then, of course, the third part is it’s a super slow corner meaning you have to use a lot of brakes to get through there. So, like I said, almost like it was intentional — I’m sure it was intentional — to create some epic starts. I think you’ll see that here.”
The experience factor will be in play this weekend for a number of drivers scheduled to compete in either the Camping World Truck Series or Xfinity Series, both of which will be in action Saturday afternoon in a doubleheader. AJ Allmendinger is on that list as he pilots both the Kaulig Racing Xfinity and Cup Series efforts this weekend.
Allmendinger is also a proficient road-course racer and likes his chances this weekend in COTA.
“It’s always fun going to a new race track, so I’m looking forward to something new,” he said. “It’s a doubleheader weekend for us, so it’s going to be busy. I’m excited to be back in the Cup car after a really fun race at the Daytona road course earlier this year.
“Overall, I think it’s a technical race track — weather is going to be a factor, so there will be a lot of challenges that we will have to face. I’m confident that Kaulig Racing will have a solid weekend.”
