Since 2021, the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) has been part of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. From 2021 to 2024, the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix was held on the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit. The races were all supposed to be 68 laps around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile (5.488-kilometer) road course in Austin, Texas, but only one of those races actually took place as planned: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports won the 2021 race, which was cut short to 54 laps due to rain; Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing won the 2022 race; and 23XI Racing won the 2023 race, which was extended to 75 laps due to three overtimes.
In reality, the race last year lasted 68 laps, and William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports won. However, this year, NASCAR is not employing the same COTA configuration. The world-class motorsport venue’s 20-turn, 2.3-mile (3.701-kilometer) “national layout” will be used starting in 2025, and the race will consist of 95 laps. After Road America was eliminated from the Cup Series schedule in 2023, COTA was the longest track (4.048 miles), but that is no longer the true. Watkins Glen International, at 2.454 miles, is presently the longest road track on the schedule when NASCAR returned to the shorter 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway layout following the 2021 race on the 2.52-mile course.
The Talladega Superspeedway oval is now the longest circuit in the series at 2.66 miles for the first race since 2019. With the exception of the run down to the hairpin before the back straightaway, the COTA course is largely unchanged. Now, the straightaway is considerably shorter and starts nearly immediately after the esses that come following the turn one drop down. There are still an astounding 133 feet of height changes in the pattern. This weekend’s Xfinity Series event at the venue will also use the same modified circuit configuration.
