NASCAR made its second annual visit to Circuit of the Americas in the Lone Star State on Sunday (March 27) for the EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix, where Ross Chastain claimed his and Trackhouse Racing Team’s maiden NASCAR Cup Series victory after holding off AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman on the final lap.
However, the race dragged on for some, with extended caution laps ticking time and laps off the clock. Can NASCAR remedy this issue with local yellows or other changes? How about Chastain’s recent surge, finishing in the top three week after week as Trackhouse got closer and closer to its first win? Bryan Nolen and Adam Cheek discuss these topics and more.
Sign up for Stock Car Scoop on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or visit Frontstretch every Monday and Friday throughout the year.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
Improve the racing by moving the date to Watkins Glenn and run the boot once the the shorter course once.
The second option: Insert an off week.
Third: IMSA Cars
Fourth: Figure 8 (Three and Four are tongue in cheek)
Bottom line is this car is a work in process. Realistically, hit the pause button for places like COTA until they get the cars de-bugged. It is going to take some time. It is intricate and the teams haven’t had time to perfect the machine, NASCAR to provide the right combination of parts and pieces, and the drivers need time to get comfortable. In two years, nothing will need to be done, the racing will be just fine.
If this circuit (track) looks good across the pond that is all Na$car will care about.
The track is too long and the same length as the Watkins Glen long course where the caution laps would be 4 and a half minutes too. They should COTA by going from turn 10 to a place on the backstretch to make it 2 1/2 miles like the course at Watkins Glen. Using the long course at the Glen would mean n event of about 68 laps instead of 90 on the short course and caution periods of 270 seconds instead of 196. Mosport would be a great choice for a Cup event too.