The year 2025 kicked off with a slew of controversies. NASCAR found itself in the thick of debate at Daytona and Atlanta for inconsistent caution flags. Hopes were elevated a little for the Circuit of the Americas track, whose new layout had its supporters. But even the road course was not bereft of criticism. Many reasons upset fans, from confusing track limits to questionable decisions regarding penalties.

Turn 6 was a major point of conversation as not all drivers were aware that the Turn wasn’t being policed. This led to the likes of Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar taking digs at NASCAR’s rules. Despite these minor hiccups, not all in the NASCAR community are strictly against the COTA track. Although traditional short tracks and ovals are the bread and butter of the sport, one insider rooted for COTA – given its international fame.

COTA earns a brownie point

The Circuit of The Americas track has been in NASCAR only since 2021. The traditional 3.4-mile layout is common for Formula One races – but that posed problems for our sport. There were not many fans on one half of the track, and they could not fully enjoy the race. But since NASCAR cut out more than a mile, fans could see their favorite drivers attack Turn 1. Yet drivers faced problems during last Sunday’s race. The new track limits of the 2.3-mile layout were not fully briefed, and racers were confused. Is NASCAR moving away from its roots with road courses?

Experts on an episode of PRN Live debated over removing the racetrack entirely. Journalist Shane Connuck said: “A state like Texas, in the middle of there… Like we’re saying that place already has its spot in motorsports.” Show host Brett McMillan laid down his verdict: “I think we all think that it should go back.” NASCAR has been shuffling the race schedule immensely in recent times, and short tracks have occupied a big portion. Reviving North Wilkesboro Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium for Cup Series events received big praise from diehard fans, who want to do away with road courses.

However, journalist Holly Cain opted to see the bigger picture. She said, “I know that there’s talk certainly that they want to go to North Wilkesboro to add some more short tracks. And I get that, that’s really the people that are the long, diehard NASCAR fans – they love a good short track.” However, COTA brings NASCAR to a global audience, thereby helping its efforts to grow wings. Cain continued: “I just don’t think it should come at the expense of a world-renowned road course that brings all of the things that it does. If we’re plus-ing and minus-ing, I think COTA comes out with a lot more pluses.”

The reason this discussion is taking place at all is that COTA is in its last year of contract with NASCAR. So far, there have been no talks to renew the track, but with how unique it is, Cain feels like its global appeal is vital to a sport that is in desperate need of a wider audience. Drivers also seem to enjoy making the trip down to Texas, with Hendrick Motorsports #48 Alex Bowman saying, “It’s a world-class racetrack, obviously. It’s an awesome place in a cool part of the country. I always get excited to go there.”

Evidently, COTA has some support from the community. Even Dale Earnhardt Jr. sanctioned the track recently just because of NASCAR’s layout changes. However, a pressing issue stood out, as the track limits of the newly confined circuit led to some drivers venting their frustration toward NASCAR.

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NASCAR’s inconsistency pops up again

We all remember what happened in Daytona and Atlanta. Both Cup races ended with wrecks in the final lap, but only Atlanta saw a caution flag being waved. During the Xfinity race at Atlanta, though, NASCAR let the field run on green despite a wreck breaking out. This inconsistency raised eyebrows in the community – and guess what? The same problem reared its head during the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix race. Drivers did not understand if track limits applied to all the esses in Turns 3, 4, 5, and 6.

As it turned out, NASCAR policed all except for Turn 6 – and this was never mentioned in the drivers meeting nor the drivers meeting rules video. The teams realized this only when Shane van Gisbergen was regularly cutting the Turn 6 corner and evading any penalty. Kyle Busch scratched his head post-race: “I heard they were gonna police Turns 4, 5, and 6, and then it turned into 3, 4 and 5, and yesterday it was only 4 and 5. So they ain’t got a clue.”

Brad Moran, managing director of the Cup Series, issued a statement after this dilemma created confusion. “Obviously, there was some confusion because we had a lot of teams that had no questions, and I think we had a few teams that had questions and that’s our responsibility to make sure that all the competitors understand. So, going back, we will not make that error again. We will make sure that everybody totally understands.”

Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, even issued an apology on the Hauler Talk podcast, saying, “We assumed that everything was going to be fine…But it became pretty clear, pretty quickly while listening to radio transmissions, that maybe not, maybe we weren’t clear on this one. And that is on us.” The confusion was because of the turns not being policed in the Xfinity and Truck races, leaving NASCAR to believe that drivers expected them to follow suit in the Cup Series Race. However, this was not the case, as even Carson Hocevar put out a post on X regarding the inconsistencies.

Hocevar wrote, in response to a post by Jeff Gluck, “hi jeff, i missed the memo that we could just go ahead and cut corners. next time if they could be sure to get everyone that memo. that would be great. especially since we have to work on sunday. thanks”. Evidently, COTA revealed holes in NASCAR’s executive decision-making process.

However, the track as a whole elicited mixed responses – let us see if it can have an extended future in the sport. What do you think will happen to COTA? Let us know in the comments!