AUSTIN, Texas — The fifth working of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Sequence (NCS) season will arrive with a particular new feel and look for each drivers and followers alike at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the season’s third race set for Sunday, March 2 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), will shift from COTA’s 3.41-mile, 20-turn Full Course structure to the power’s equally difficult 2.3-mile, 20-turn Nationwide Course. The NASCAR Xfinity Sequence (NXS), which returns to COTA for a fifth season, can even make the most of the Nationwide Course for the Targeted Well being 250 on Saturday, March 1 (2:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The reconfiguration will remove roughly a mile of the bottom of the everlasting street course’s conventional structure and is anticipated to shave roughly a minute off lap instances based mostly on early NASCAR simulations. The Nationwide Course structure will start upon exit of the esses part after which return to the normal course on the tail finish of the lengthy backstretch.
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Followers will profit from the race distance being prolonged from 68 laps to roughly 100 and offering almost 50 p.c extra motion in entrance of them than the earlier Full Course structure. Extra modifications could also be made to the structure, and the lap complete for each the Cup Sequence and Xfinity Sequence races can be confirmed as NASCAR finalizes the Nationwide Course particulars.
“The transfer to the Nationwide Course will make a terrific race expertise even higher for our followers with extra laps and extra motion,” Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith stated. “Followers can have extra laps to cheer for his or her favourite driver from the very best seats, and the motion will come quicker with lap instances decreased by roughly a minute. The Nationwide Course and its new pavement will present the drivers, groups and crew chiefs with a recent look and a brand new problem after working the Full Course the final 4 years at COTA.”
From a driver’s perspective, they won’t solely have a brand new structure to grasp but additionally take care of the total repave the monitor underwent after final season’s NASCAR race weekend. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who gained the 2022 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, had the chance to run the prevailing Nationwide Course on iRacing and shared his ideas on the simulation.
“It’s going to be like mainly going to a brand new monitor, a brand new city, new space,” stated Chastain, who drives the No. 1 Chevrolet. “It flows collectively good, and (Flip) 12 (of the Full Course) will actually change since we don’t have that lengthy backstretch. As soon as I get to (Flip) 13, although, it’s all going to be the identical. I’ll get my regular pace I used to be ultimately yr. Gosh, this place is superior.”
Whereas Chastain has loved loads of success on COTA’s Full Course with three top-five finishes in 4 begins, he’s wanting ahead to the problem of mastering the brand new structure.
“I really like the problem of the Cup Sequence,” Chastain stated. “That’s why I’ve ascended to this stage, as a result of I saved pushing myself from pro-trucks to late fashions to the Truck Sequence, Xfinity and Cup. It’s scary as heck to consider attempting to compete at this stage, and the way good these drivers are, how good these groups are, how many individuals’s livelihoods rely upon this race store.
“… And this can be a race that we look ahead to and put quite a lot of time into the simulator like we already talked about forward of time. Have a look at the check information. See if certainly one of us perhaps may check and get some actual, actual monitor time after which go race.”
The fifth annual EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will transfer up from its conventional late March date to the third NCS race of the 2025 season on Sunday, March 2. The NASCAR at COTA occasion will comply with the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 16, and Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 23.
The weekend can even play host to the NXS on Saturday, March 1, with the Targeted Well being 250 and the IMSA-sanctioned VP Racing SportsCar Problem on the identical day.
