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The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season opened with two of its fastest speedways and two of its biggest stars -- William Byron and Christopher Bell -- taking early season wins to assert themselves as among the drivers to beat. With that established, it's now off to Austin, Texas for an unusually early test of road racing mettle for Byron, Bell and the rest of the field trying to join them on the playoff grid early in the season.

NASCAR makes its annual trip to Circuit of the Americas for the Echopark Texas Grand Prix to open the month of March, presenting the Cup Series with its first road course race of the season. Not only that, but the move has been made this year to a considerably different version of the course. As opposed to the 3.4-mile Grand Prix circuit used for Formula 1's United States Grand Prix and other road racing series, a new and shorter version of the racetrack will now be used for NASCAR.

Based on COTA's National Course, NASCAR will now use a 2.3-mile version of the track's layout that bypasses turns 7 through 11 of the Grand Prix circuit as well as most of the long straightaway between turns 11 and 12. Given how spread out the field had gotten over the course of long runs in past races at COTA, this change to shorter straightaways and a greater emphasis on corners should help keep the field closer together and create an environment conducive to NASCAR road racing at its best over the course of 95 laps on Sunday.

How opportunity awaits AJ Allmendinger, one of NASCAR's best road racers, at Circuit of the Americas
Steven Taranto
How opportunity awaits AJ Allmendinger, one of NASCAR's best road racers, at Circuit of the Americas

Where to watch NASCAR at Circuit of the Americas

When: Sunday, March 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET
Where: Circuit of the Americas -- Austin, Texas
TV: Fox
Stream: fubo (try for free)

Starting lineup

Tyler Reddick won the pole for the Echopark Texas Grand Prix in qualifying on Saturday, leading the first front row sweep in team history for 23XI Racing. His teammate at 23XI, Bubba Wallace, will start alongside Reddick on the outside of the front row.

  1. #45 - Tyler Reddick
  2. #23 - Bubba Wallace
  3. #9 - Chase Elliott
  4. #77 - Carson Hocevar
  5. #99 - Daniel Suarez
  6. #88 - Shane van Gisbergen (R)
  7. #5 - Kyle Larson
  8. #8 - Kyle Busch
  9. #1 - Ross Chastain
  10. #34 - Todd Gilliland
  11. #11 - Denny Hamlin
  12. #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
  13. #54 - Ty Gibbs
  14. #87 - Connor Zilisch
  15. #24 - William Byron
  16. #71 - Michael McDowell
  17. #4 - Noah Gragson
  18. #19 - Chase Briscoe
  19. #20 - Christopher Bell
  20. #38 - Zane Smith
  21. #48 - Alex Bowman
  22. #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  23. #22 - Joey Logano
  24. #17 - Chris Buescher
  25. #12 - Ryan Blaney
  26. #6 - Brad Keselowski
  27. #3 - Austin Dillon
  28. #60 - Ryan Preece
  29. #7 - Justin Haley
  30. #41 - Cole Custer
  31. #35 - Riley Herbst (R)
  32. #43 - Erik Jones
  33. #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
  34. #10 - Ty Dillon
  35. #21 - Josh Berry
  36. #2 - Austin Cindric
  37. #51 - Cody Ware

Storyline to watch

It is extremely rare that a driver is considered a favorite to win in their Cup Series debut, much less when they're only 18 years old. But for as much as he has already shown, much is being expected this weekend of 18-year old Connor Zilisch. The racing prodigy will make his Cup debut driving a fourth car for Trackhouse Racing, and his odds of winning are among the best in the field across multiple sportsbooks.

There's good reason for this level of hype: Despite his young age, Zilisch is already an extremely advanced race car driver, particularly on road courses. One year ago, Zilisch won in the LMP2 class at both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in between spectacular first appearances in both the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series. In his Truck debut at COTA a year ago, Zilisch won the pole and was so prohibitively fast that despite missing the first corner, he was able to drive all the way back through the field and finish fourth. Later in the year, he won both the pole and the race in his Xfinity debut at Watkins Glen.

Now, Zilisch is a full-time Xfinity Series driver for JR Motorsports on top of earning a limited schedule of Cup races for Trackhouse. And speaking to RACER.com, Zilisch made it clear that he has his sights set on the record for youngest winner in Cup Series history.

"I want to try and become the youngest Cup Series winner, and to do that, I have to race as soon as possible and get it in before I turn 19," Zilisch said. "I wanted to at least give myself a shot at that. So, that was definitely part of my thinking. Honestly, I don't think there was anything that told me that I'm not ready to race on a road course on Sunday."

Zilisch, who does not turn 19 until July, will try to break the record that was set by Joey Logano when he earned his first Cup win at 19 years, one month and four days old at New Hampshire in 2009. Logano is currently the only driver in Cup Series history to win a race before his 20th birthday, with the next youngest winners being Trevor Bayne (20 years, one day), Justin Haley (20 years, two months, nine days), Kyle Busch (20 years, four months, two days) and Donald Thomas (20 years, four months, six days).

NASCAR news of the week

  • During their respective rounds of media this week, Kyle Larson and Austin Cindric both addressed their incident racing for the win in the final laps at Atlanta, with Larson taking responsibility and apologizing during an appearance on Corey LaJoie's Stacking Pennies podcast. Cindric likewise confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that he and Larson had spoken, though he hinted at lingering frustration after being taken out of a chance to win both of the first two races of the year.
  • 23XI Racing announced at Atlanta that Corey Heim has signed a multi-year deal to become the team's development driver, an arrangement that will include a part-time Cup schedule for Heim as the driver of 23XI's No. 67 Toyota. Heim currently races full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series for TRICON Garage, where he has made the Championship 4 in each of the last two seasons.
  • The Athletic has reported that Dodge has begun the process of gaining approval from NASCAR to join Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series next year, with an eye towards returning to Cup Series competition as soon as 2027 or 2028. Dodge had last raced at NASCAR's highest level from 2001 to 2012, winning the 2012 Cup championship with Brad Keselowski and Team Penske before exiting the sport due to financial issues and a lack of teams willing to align themselves with them.
  • NASCAR has made an update to its rule book clarifying its damaged vehicle policy, now stating that a driver can only leave the designated work area once before attempting to make minimum speed. If a car is on pit road and the DVP time limit expires, a damaged car can now continue to be repaired on pit road, but it will result in a stop-and-go penalty.

    This update was made in response to a miscommunication between NASCAR and Kyle Busch's team during the Daytona 500, which eliminated Busch from the race after he had left the designated repair area to return to the track but then came back to the repair area before the race resumed.

Pick to Win

Shane van Gisbergen (+500) – The last time the Cup Series was at a conventional road course at Watkins Glen, Shane van Gisbergen was half a lap away from victory when a self-inflicted error -- grazing the guardrail entering the bus stop chicane -- clipped his momentum enough to give Chris Buescher a shot at the bump and run for the win. With SVG now running the full Cup Series schedule -- coming off three wins on road courses in the Xfinity Series last year -- there should be an even greater level of emphasis and preparation for these races for him and his team, as a victory on a road course is likely his ticket to a playoff spot and the inside track to Rookie of the Year honors.

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