Circuit of the Americas will have a new look for its NASCAR racing in 2025, the track announced Nov. 20.
NASCAR’s three series will shift from its full-course layout to a 20-turn, 2.3-mile national-course layout.
As a result, the NASCAR Cup Series race at the track will be approximately 100 laps instead of its previous 68.
Previously, the series ran the 3.41-mile course.
“The move to the national course will make a great race experience even better for our fans with more laps and more action,” Speedway Motorsports President/ CEO Marcus Smith said in a release. “Fans will have more laps to cheer for their favorite driver from the best seats, and the action will come faster with lap times reduced by roughly a minute. The national course and its new pavement will provide the drivers, teams and crew chiefs with a fresh look and a new challenge after running the full course the last four years at COTA.”
“It’s going to be like basically going to a new track, a new town, new area,” Ross Chastain, who tested the course on iRacing, added. “It flows together nice, and (turn) 12 (of the full course) will really change since we don’t have that long backstretch. Once I get to (turn) 13, though, it’s all going to be the same. I’ll get my normal speed I was at last year. Gosh, this place is awesome.”
(cont’d) The National Course will begin upon exit of the esses section and then return to the traditional course at the tail end of the long backstretch.
The #EchoParkGP will be extended to approximately 100 laps providing nearly 50% more racing in front of fans in attendance! pic.twitter.com/TCbeXIsd6z
— NASCAR at COTA (@NASCARatCOTA) November 20, 2024
The new layout will begin at the exit of the esses section of the previous course and then rejoin at the end of the backstretch.
Kevin Rutherford is the executive editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2025 after being the managing editor since 2015, and serving on the editing staff since 2013.
At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.