GFT Facts & Stats Friday: NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark GP at Circuit of the Americas
22 March 2024
By Bob Francis, Managing Editor
Go Full Throttle Racing News
AUSTIN, TX — Go Full Throttle returns to Austin for the NASCAR Cup Series Echo Park GP at Circuit of the Americas for the third straight year. We were there reporting on all the action in 2022 when Ross Chastain powered to his first Cup Series victory and did that signature watermelon slam dunk at Victory lane.
Go Full Throttle was also there last year to bring you live coverage from COTA when Tyler Reddick drove the 23IX Racing Toyota to victory for Monster Energy and owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
And don’t forget The Dinger! The epic Xfinity Series battle between William Bryon, racing in a Hendrick Motorsports Xfinity Series car, against Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger where AJ nailed the tire strategy and out handled Byron for the win.
With that history, let’s get ready for NASCAR at COTA 2024!
Circuit of The Americas is the first of five road courses on the schedule
After five points races on ovals, it’s time for the NASCAR Cup Series to return to one of the country’s premiere road courses, the Circuit of The Americas (COTA), for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix this Sunday, March 24 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
There are five road & street courses on the 2024 schedule — Circuit of The Americas (Mar. 24), Sonoma Raceway (June 9), Chicago Street Race (July 7), Watkins Glen International (Sept. 15) and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL (Oct. 8).
Race Facts
NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas
The Date: Sunday, March 24
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $9,740,789
TV: FOX, 3 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 231.88 miles (68 laps)
Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 15)
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 30)
Final Stage (Ends on Lap 68)
Circuit of The Americas sets the stage for NASCAR Cup Series’ new road course package
Starting in 2024 the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen cars will run a simplified diffuser at a majority of tracks measuring one-mile or shorter, as well as all road courses. (Note: Los Angeles, Bristol and Dover excluded.) This weekend at Circuit of The Americas will be the first event the new package will be used on a road course.
The details of the components updated:
- 2023 short track/road course splitter stuffers
- No engine panel strakes
- 3-inch spoiler
- Simplified Diffuser
- Simplified Diffuser Strakes
First road course qualifying of the Cup season
It’s time for the drivers to get their elbows up because this weekend the NASCAR Cup Series is taking on the 20-turn Circuit of The Americas this Sunday, March 24 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The first three Cup races at COTA have produced three different pole winners at the 3.41-mile course. Will we see a fourth?
o Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 91.363 mph, 132.911 seconds, May 23, 2021
o Ryan Blaney, Ford, 92.759 mph, 132.343 seconds, May 26, 2022
o William Byron, Chevrolet, 93.882 mph, 130.760 seconds, March 25, 2023
Interestingly, three different starting positions have led to victories in the NASCAR Cup Series at Circuit of The Americas, but none from the pole or first starting position — the 2021 race was won from the eighth starting position, the 2022 race was won from the 16th starting position and last year’s was won from the outside front row (second).
This weekend’s on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series will begin with practice on Saturday, March 23 at 9 a.m. ET followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 10:30 a.m. ET. Both events will be televised on FS2, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Track Facts
Track Length: 3.41-Miles (counterclockwise)
Race Length: 68 laps (231.8-miles)
Banking/Configuration: Multi-Elevational Road Course
Number of Turns: 20
Qualifying & Race Records
Qualifying: William Byron, Chevrolet, 93.882 mph, March 26, 2023
Race: Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 72.886 mph (3:30:32), March 26, 2023
Track Records
Most Wins: 1 — Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick
Most Poles: 1 — Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, William Byron
Most Top Fives: 3 — Ross Chastain
Most Top 10s: 3 — Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick
Race History
Pole Winners: Tyler Reddick 1, Ryan Blaney 1, William Byron 1
Race Winners: Chase Elliott 1, Ross Chastain 1, Tyler Reddick 1
Winning Car Owners: Michael Jordan/Denny Hamlin 1, Rick Hendrick 1, Justin Marks 1
Circuit of The Americas — Historical Database Race-By-Race Statistics
None of the former COTA winners have won this season and are looking to get back to Victory Lane. Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott won the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas on May 23, 2021 after starting from the eighth position. Elliott leads all active drivers in road course wins with seven. If he were to win this weekend, he would tie NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart (eight road course wins) for second-most on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series road course wins list.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain won the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas on March 27, 2022 after starting from the 16th position. The victory was extra special because it was the first career NASCAR Cup Series win for driver Ross Chastain. Chastain is also the only driver to finish in the top-five in all three previous Cup races at COTA.
Then last season, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas on March 26, 2023 after starting from the second position. Interestingly, Reddick has won five career Cup races and three have come on road courses — Road America (2022), Indianapolis Road Course (2022) and COTA (2023).
NASCAR brings a bevy of road course aces to COTA
At one time in the NASCAR Cup Series being a road course specialist was an anomaly, but not anymore. Heading into this weekend at the Circuit of The Americas, the NASCAR Cup Series has 15 former road course winners entered in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix and 10 of them are looking for their first win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season (all except William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin).
Last season’s Sonoma winner, Martin Truex Jr., with five total road course wins in his career — second-most among active drivers — finished runner-up at Bristol last weekend and is looking for his first win of the season.
“We’ve learned so much over the last couple of years about this car and what it likes and what it doesn’t, so hoping we can come with a lot more knowledge than we had this time last year and get the car where we need it to have a shot to win and run up front all day long,” said Truex. “Our new Camry has been strong so far this year and hoping we can continue what we’ve been doing at the road courses, as well. Looking forward to this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota team.”
Go Full Throttle AI Driver Rankings for the NASCAR Cup Series after Bristol
Kyle Larson holds onto the top spot in the GFT weekly AI Driver Ranking model, with Ryan Blaney P2, Martin Truex Jr. P3, and with the win Denny Hamlin moves up to P4.
Go Full Throttle INITIAL AI Race Predictions for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas
The Go Full Throttle Road Course algorithms were brought in to crunch the data and add our Road Course weighting methodology to the predictions. Prior to practice and qualifying (aka INITIAL) model predictions have Chase Elliott (former winner at COTA), Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick (last year's winner), Ross Chastain (former winner at COTA), and Alex Bowman as 5 best plays with road course ace AJ Allmendinger on standby in the garage. In the Head to Head picks, the GFT models say Busch over Hamlin, Reddick over Larson, Chastain over Suarez, and Bowman over Cindric.
How accurate are the GFT model predictions?
In the NASCAR Fantasy LIVE #TMDNASCAR League, our AI Bot (Go Full Throttle AI 1) is in the top 6% of all players, with a league rank of 249, an improvement of 39 over the previous week.
Other Drivers to Watch
While not in the INITIAL GFT Model Prediction top 5, we are watching Truex Jr, Kyle Busch, C. Bell, and Suarez. Additionally, COTA will be the first NASCAR road (vs street) course outing for Kaulig Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen.
