NASCAR’s upcoming weekend at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is all set to look different from previous seasons. With drivers set to experience the new COTA course, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric has made his feelings clear about the change.
Late last year, NASCAR announced a layout change for COTA, moving the race from a 3.41-mile layout to 2.3 miles. While the shorter layout will also include 20 turns, from a fan’s perspective, it will increase the action by nearly 50%.
Austin Cindric Talks About the Track Change
The newly revamped COTA layout could provide a breath of fresh air for drivers on the NASCAR circuit.
Regarding the new course, Cindric said, “The course, I would say, is largely unchanged from – otherwise, we’re just cutting a few corners out really simply. I think the larger conversation for us, at least within my race team, is the introduction of yet another road course tire, which is supposed to be similar to what we raced at Watkins Glen in the playoffs.
“So, I think there’s probably more variables and more discussions based around that and more potential strategy and certain things throughout the race that will be affected by having tire wear or not having tire wear and depending on where it falls.”
He added, “There have been repaved sections of the race track, but as far as the course itself, the shortcut through 6A and 6B, I think your restarts are already kind of single file by the time you get to the end of the S’s, which is where 6A starts, so I don’t see a ton changing other than we’re just gonna run more laps and I feel like that stadium section is gonna take a larger percentage of the lap and potentially be a more important part of the lap.”
Austin Cindric on the change to the shorter COTA course NASCAR teams are running this weekend and if it changes any momentum even at the restart: pic.twitter.com/gMM1Ccaplf
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 28, 2025
The NASCAR Cup Series, practice, and qualifying will start at COTA tomorrow. This will be followed by the Focused Health 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix NASCAR Cup Series race will take place on March 2.
