The ‘Circuit of The Americas’ race is back with its fourth running in the Cup Series and its fifth in Xfinity. Road course races are always thrillers. But this one might be even more than before. Well, the track’s layout has changed! Yup. The 3.4-mile track regularly used by Formula One is almost a mile shorter now. NASCAR would run just the 2.4 miles, 20 turns. But now the Cup race would be 95 laps, not 65. The track is shorter, but the racing action is the same amount.

And speaking of racing action, we have some road course ringers coming this time. After dominating road courses in the 2024 Xfinity Series, Shane Van Gisbergen is now in the Cup, running a full season. So he’s surely the front-runner going into the race. But it wouldn’t be without a challenge. SVG’s Trackhouse Racing teammate and NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch has shown prowess on road courses. Remember last year when he won his debut Xfinity race at Watkins Glen? And even Chase Elliott will be looking to get back his old road course form. Overall, it’s the fourth race of the season and it’s going to be a thriller.

Here’s everything about the action-packed COTA race

Folks, we don’t have the Truck Series race this weekend. But accompanying the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series is the IMSA’s ‘VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.’ The weekend would kick off with the practice for that at 1 p.m. E.T. They have two sessions, the second one will follow the first at 3 p.m. E.T. After this, we would dive right into the Xfinity Series practice at 5 p.m. E.T. And wasting no time, at 6:05 the qualifying session would commence. You can catch both on the CW app.

Saturday is packed too. We start the day with the IMSA race. This would conclude at 10:25 am E.T. And then we have the Cup practice session at 11:00 a.m. E.T. And if you are interested, this would be streamed live on the Amazon Prime App. Immediately after the practice session is wrapped up at 12:30 p.m. E.T., the Cup will start it’s qualifying session. And we will have our final starting lineup by 1:30 p.m. E.T. You can catch all the action on Prime, Performance Racing Network, or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Finally, the show-stopper of Saturday will be the Xfinity race at 2:30 p.m. E.T.

And like the Cup race, this would have more laps too this year (65 laps up from last year’s 45 laps). And it would be broadcasted on CW, Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. After we have Xfinity’s first-course winner of the year,..we will head to the Cup Series. On Sunday, the garage will open at 12:30 p.m. E.T. and the ‘EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix’ will green flag at 3:30 p.m. E.T. And folks, you can watch all the action unfold on Fox, Performance Racing Network, or SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

The weekend is going to be exciting. Be it Shane van Gisbergen‘s chance of making it to his first Cup Series playoffs or maybe Team Penske will join Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing on the winning list. And watching these great storylines unfold from the grandstands would be a whole other experience. Also,  you are in luck, the tickets are still available for the weekend. You can get them at nascaratcota.com But folks, a word of caution, check the weather for the weekend before you head there. We know it’s Austin, but still, the weather can be unpredictable.

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The weather at COTA and the lineup

What’s better than a road course race? A wet road course race! Navigating that sharp turn 6 on the new layout will be a challenge in dry conditions, let alone in wet ones. And according to the recent update, there is a good chance of rain. There will be a mix of some overcast and some sunshine on Saturday with a 7% chance of rain. Also, it’s expected to be partly cloudy for the start of the Xfinity race.

And the rain forecast is even worse for Sunday. We would have overcast and the temperatures would reach 80 degrees. More so there is a 15% chance of rain when the Cup race commences. Let’s see if NASCAR delays the start or brings the wet tires out! Whatever the case, it’s a race to not miss. Especially with the kind of lineup it has. We have a lot of double duties: like Ross Chastain, William Byron, Connor Zilisch, and many more. Check it out:

Cup Series: 

#1 Ross Chastain

#2 Austin Cindric

#3 Austin Dillon

#4 Noah Gragson

#5 Kyle Larson

#6 Brad Keselowski

#7 Justin Haley

#8 Kyle Busch

#9 Chase Elliott

#10 Ty Dillon

#11 Denny Hamlin

#12 Ryan Blaney

#16 AJ Allmendinger

#17 Chris Buescher

#19 Chase Briscoe

#20 Christopher Bell

#21 Josh Berry

#22 Joey Logano

#23 Bubba Wallace

#24 William Byron

#34 Todd Gilliland

#35 Riley Herbst

#38 Zane Smith

#41 Cole Custer

#42 John Hunter Nemechek

#43 Erik Jones

#45 Tyler Reddick

#47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

#48 Alex Bowman

#51 Cody Ware

#54 Ty Gibbs

#60 Ryan Preece

#71 Michael McDowell

#77 Carson Hocevar

#87 Connor Zilisch

#88 Shane van Gisbergen

#99 Daniel Suárez

Xfinity Series: 

#00 – Sheldon Creed

#07 – Alex Labbe

#1 – Carson Kvapil

#2 – Jesse Love

#4 – Parker Retzlaff

#5 – Kris Wright

#7 – Justin Allgaier

#8 – Sammy Smith

#9 – Ross Chastain

#10 – Daniel Dye

#11 – Josh Williams

#14 – Carson Hocevar

#16 – Christian Eckes

#17 – William Byron

#18 – William Sawalich

#19 – Riley Herbst

#20 – Brandon Jones

#21 – Austin Hill

#24 – Corey Heim

#25 – Harrison Burton

#26 – Dean Thompson

#27 – Jeb Burton

#28 – Kyle Sieg

#31 – Blaine Perkins

#32 – Austin Green

#35 – Baltazar Leguizamon

#39 – Ryan Sieg

#41 – Sam Mayer

#42 – Anthony Alfredo

#44 – Brennan Poole

#45 – Brad Perez

#48 – Nick Sanchez

#50 – Preston Pardus

#51 – Jeremy Clements

#53 – TBA

#54 – Taylor Gray

#70 – Thomas Annunziata

#71 – Ryan Ellis

#88 – Connor Zilisch

#91 – Josh Bilicki

#99 – Matt DiBenedetto

Let’s make this a guessing game. Who do you think is winning the Xfinity and the Cup race? Share your picks with us in the comments below.