The NASCAR Cup Series will join the Truck Series and Xfinity Series for some road course racing at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). It is always weird in Austin and this week the city’s slogan should hold true as the heavy stockcars try to navigate a track made for F1 racing. The field is stacked this week, so get ready for a fun race.
COTA SCHEDULE
The Truck Series and Xfinity Series are scheduled to practice and qualify Friday. The two series will have a double-header day of racing at COTA Saturday. The Truck Series will take the green flag at 1:30 p.m. ET, followed by the Xfinity Series at 5 p.m. ET (both races on FS1). The Cup Series will practice and qualify Saturday morning and then race Sunday afternoon. There is plenty of on-track action to scratch your racing itch this weekend.
Here is the schedule for the races at COTA…
RACE RECAP AT COTA
NASCAR raced at COTA last year without the Stage breaks. They did not need them. The drivers created enough cautions on their own to bring the field back together.
William Byron won the pole at COTA last year. He led 28 laps (second-most) and finished fifth. There was a caution on lap three involving many cars (Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr., Chris Buescher, Jimmie Johnson, Ty Dillon and Todd Gilliland). The race got back going and the lead was swapped between Byron, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick. Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin wrecked each other on lap 13. The rest of the race turned into the “Tyler Reddick Show.” The No. 45 car led 41 laps and went to Victory Lane.
Stage 1 Results: 1. William Byron, 2. Austin Cindric, 3. AJ Allmendinger, 4. Alex Bowman, 5. Ross Chastain, 6. Daniel Suarez, 7. Kyle Busch, 8. Chase Elliott, 9. Christopher Bell, 10. Ryan Preece
Stage 2 Results: 1. Tyler Reddick, 2. Austin Dillon, 3. Michael McDowell, 4. Kevin Harvick, 5. Chris Buescher, 6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 7. Kyle Larson, 8. Erik Jones, 9. Chase Briscoe, 10. Noah Gragson
Click here for highlights of last year’s race: COTA RACE REWIND
FANTASY PREVIEW FOR COTA
You are going to need to make some decisions for your season-long Fantasy NASCAR leagues (Fantasy Live and the Driver Group Game). Shane van Gisbergen should be a lock for all lineups since he is so good on the road courses and he provides your team a chance to save an allocation with your top drivers. William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott are also really good on the road courses. You need to decide if you want to burn an allocation with these drivers on a road course or save them for the oval tracks. The drivers you can use to replace Byron, Reddick, Chastain and Elliott include Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell and Daniel Suarez. They are also good on the road courses, but not so great on the ovals. Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and AJ Allmendinger are also in play Sunday. There are a lot of good options for your fantasy lineup at COTA. The drivers from the list above that run fast laps in practice and qualify up front are the ones you will want in your lineup Sunday.
FANTASY STATS FOR COTA
There have been three races at COTA for the Cup Series, but the first race was ruined by the rain. It would be a good idea to focus your picks this week on what happened at COTA in the Gen-7. This includes the races in 2022 and 2023. You will see there are a group of drivers who really run well at this track and a group who struggle to find their way around COTA.
Here are the stats from the two races using the Gen-7 car at COTA (sorted by Driver Rating)…
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR COTA
ONE & DONE PICK: TYLER REDDICK
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: CHASE ELLIOTT, WILLIAM BYRON, TYLER REDDICK, ALEX BOWMAN, MICHAEL MCDOWELL, AUSTIN CINDRIC, SHANE VAN GISBERGEN, AJ ALLMENDINGER
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: TYLER REDDICK, CHASE ELLIOTT, SHANE VAN GISBERGEN, ALEX BOWMAN, MICHAEL MCDOWELL GARAGE: ROSS CHASTAIN
* I will update these picks this weekend.
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