The NASCAR Cup Series will make the trip to Austin, Texas this weekend to race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The Truck Series gets the weekend off, so we will just have the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series at COTA. The Cup Series will get 20-minutes to practice and then they will lineup up for qualifying Saturday morning. The races at COTA have been pretty easy to predict, so hopefully we can post a high score in our Fantasy NASCAR leagues in the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix.
COTA SCHEDULE
COTA RACE PREVIEW
There have been four races at COTA in the Cup Series, but the race Sunday will not be like the others. NASCAR will move the race from the 3.4-mile road course to the 2.3-mile National Course. This is important because it means there will be less passing zones and tighter racing. Shane van Gisbergen has raced the shorter National Course four times in the Supercars Series, so SVG should have another advantage over the field this weekend.
The four races at COTA have been won by four different drivers. Chase Elliott, William Byron, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick have all captured the checkered-flag at COTA. That is three Chevy’s and one Toyota if you are scoring at home. Ross Chastain leads the Cup Series with an average finishing position of 4th and Alex Bowman is a close second with an average finishing position of 4.3. Connor Zilisch will be making his Cup Series debut Sunday. He took SVG and the Xfinity Series to school last year in the Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen. Zilisch will be a serious threat to win Sunday. The other driver on my radar is Ty Gibbs. He finished 9th in his first race at COTA and 3rd last year. The shorter track should play into the hands of the No. 54 team. The drivers listed above are the drivers I will be building my fantasy lineups around Sunday.
I will have more stats for each driver in my articles this week.
FANTASY STATS FOR COTA
The NASCAR Cup Series will go from two of the most unpredictable races (Daytona and Atlanta) to one of the easiest races to predict. There are a handful of drivers who have dominated the races at COTA. The change to the shorter track could bring more drivers into play, since the race will not be as technical as it was on the 3.4-mile track, but it is a good idea to stick to the drivers with the best results in the four races at COTA.
Here are the driver’s stats from the races at COTA, sorted by Driver Rating…
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR COTA
ONE & DONE PICK: CONNOR ZILISCH
FANTASY LIVE PICKS
FANTRAX LIVE PICKS
* I found the easiest way to select your lineup is to go to TEAM and then ROSTER and drop all of the drivers from last week (Click on the red dot). Then go to DRIVERS and select your drivers for each group. If you need any help, message me in the Member’s Forum, or on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR or on my Facebook Page: Fantasy Racing Tips
* I will post my FanTrax article on Wednesday
SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE
EARLY WEEK BEST BETS FOR COTA
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN +500
TYLER REDDICK +750
CHASE ELLIOTT +1200
- I wanted to add Conner Zilish to my card, but not at his current odds. I will wait until after practice and see if we can get a better deal. I heard some people were able to get Zilish at +700 on Bet MGM. If you find anything like that, take it.
- Shane van Gisbergen is my pick to win. +500 are probably the best we will see from SVG. I expect him to dominate practice and qualify up front.
- Chase Elliott started to figure out the GEN-7 car on the road courses last year. People and oddsmakers forget how dominate Elliott used to be on these tracks. I think the new track will give Elliott a better chance to win, so I will take a chance at +1100.
* I will update these picks this weekend.
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