NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
The Place: Circuit of The Americas
Track Length: 2.40 Mile Asphalt Road Course
The Date: Sunday, March 2
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,055,250
TV: FOX, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 228.0 miles (95 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 45), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 95)
How To Watch NASCAR This Week:
Friday, February 28
NXS Kennametal Pole Qualifying (The CW App at 5 p.m. ET)
Saturday, March 1
NCS Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying (Amazon Prime at 11 a.m. ET)
NXS Race: Focused Health 250 (The CW, PRN, SiriusXM at 2:30 p.m. ET)
Sunday, March 2
NCS Race: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM at 3:30 p.m. ET)
NASCAR Cup Series
Circuit of The Americas Storylines and Insights:
- For the first time, the NASCAR Cup Series will run the shorter (2.40-mile) track configuration at Circuit of the Americas. The previous four Cup races (2021-2024) were competed on the longer configuration at 3.41-miles.
- Since joining the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021, this is the earliest COTA will be run in a season.
- Chevrolet won the pole for four of the last five road course races, Toyota won the pole for four of the prior five.
Chevrolet won six of the last seven road course races, Hendrick Motorsports won five of the six.- Three drivers have won poles at COTA: William Byron won the pole for the last two races at COTA (2023, 2024), Tyler Reddick won it in 2022, and Ryan Blaney won it in 2021.
- Only one driver has won his first career pole in the NASCAR Cup Series at COTA – Tyler Reddick (May 23, 2021).
- The race winner at COTA has started on the front row in the last two COTA races, and the deepest in the field a race winner is started is 16th (Ross Chastain, 2022).
- In 15 of the 17 road course races with the Next Gen car the race winner has started in the top 8.
- Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, and Tyler Reddick are the only drivers to finish inside the top-10 in all four COTA races, no one has finished top-five in all four.
- 16 of the 37 drivers entered at COTA have a Cup road course win.
| Active Road Course Winners (16) | Wins | WGI | Sonoma | Charlotte | COTA | Indy | Daytona | Road Am. | Chicago |
| Chase Elliott | 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Kyle Larson | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kyle Busch | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AJ Allmendinger | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tyler Reddick | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Christopher Bell | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| William Byron | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex Bowman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Chris Buescher | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Daniel Suárez | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Denny Hamlin | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joey Logano | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Blaney | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ross Chastain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michael McDowell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Shane Van Gisbergen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 36 | 11 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
- NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon leads the NASCAR Cup Series in road course wins with nine victories at two tracks (Sonoma, five wins; Watkins Glen, four wins).
- NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart has the second-most road course wins all-time in the NASCAR Cup Series with eight victories at two tracks (Watkins Glen, five wins; Sonoma, three wins).
- Chase Elliott, with seven road course wins (third all-time), has won at five different NASCAR Cup Series road course tracks (Charlotte ROVAL, COTA, Daytona Road Course, Road America and Watkins Glen) – the most all-time.
- Chase Elliott’s seven road course wins rank third all-time and lead all active drivers but he is the only Hendrick Motorsports driver without a road course win in the Next Gen car, the other three all won in the last five races.
- NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison holds the NASCAR Cup Series record for the most wins at a single road course track with six victories at Riverside International Raceway (1971, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1981 sweep).
- Kyle Larson, during the 2021 season became the first driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to win at three road course tracks in a single season – Sonoma, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte ROVAL. Larson has six total road course wins.
- Four of the last five first time winners in the Cup series were on road courses.
- Christopher Bell’s four races at COTA: two Top 3s and two finishes in the 30s
- Hendrick Motorsports won five of the last 11 road course races and are the only organization with multiple wins in that span.
- Only two drivers finished in the top 10 in both races this season: John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Blaney.
- Tracking Chase Briscoe’s Playoff deficit: currently 38th, -98 behind 16th and -138 behind the points leader.
- The driver who led the most laps did not win either of the first two races this year for the fifth consecutive season, the longest such streak in series history.
- Team Penske led 255 laps in 2025, the fifth most laps by a team through the first two races of a season without a win.
- Ford drivers led 337 of the 467 raced in 2025 but have the fewest wins (zero), the fewest top-fives (1) and the fewest top-10s (4) of all manufacturers.
- Ford led 337 laps in 2025 (72%), the third-most ever by a manufacturer in the first two races without a win.
- Michael McDowell is the only driver not involved in an incident during the first two races of the 2025 season.
- The four NASCAR Cup Series races (2021-2024) at the Circuit of The Americas have produced four different race winners: Chase Elliott (2021), Ross Chastain (2022), Tyler Reddick (2023) and William Byron (2024).
- Ross Chastain (2022) is the only driver to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas.
- Last year’s COTA race had the fewest cautions of any road course race in 2024 (2).
- No stage winner went on to win a road course race in 2024.
- The driver leading the most laps won all three COTA races with the NextGen car (2022-2024).
- Cody Ware and Josh Berry are the only drivers who failed to finish both races in 2025.
- Austin Cindric scored the most stage points in 2025, 30 (includes the Duel).
- Joey Logano is the only driver who scored stage points in all four stages in 2025.
- 2025 is the first season ever to start with last lap passes in the first two races of the season.
- The 105 lead changes in 2025 are the most ever through two races in a season.
- Hendrick Motorsports won at least one road course in each of the last seven years, the longest streak ever by a team.
Updated Cup Series Practice and Qualifying Procedure This Weekend:
Practice
- Two practice sessions run with two groups
- Each group gets 20 minutes per session
Qualifying
- Run with two groups
- Each group gets 20 minutes
- Times are blended back together after both groups are completed; field is set fastest to slowest
Connor Zilisch Bio:
- 18 years old from Mooresville, NC
- Will be making his NASCAR Cup Series career debut this weekend at COTA in the Trackhouse Racing No. 87 Chevrolet with veteran crew chief Darian Grubb.
- Won his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen last September after starting on pole and leading the most laps.
- Won 5 of his 9 ARCA Menard Series starts (finished runner-up in the other two including Watkins Glen last year in his series debut).
- Won the pole in his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut at COTA in 2024.
- IMSA class wins in 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring in 2024.
- Signed as a Trackhouse Racing Development Driver in January 2024.
- Running full-time in NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025 with JR Motorsports.