It’s just been a day since NASCAR made a trip to the 3.410-mile road course. And already, there is a rumor that COTA could return to NASCAR’s schedule next year. Last year, the Cup race at the Circuit of The Americas garnered a rating of 1.81 and a total of 3.12 million viewers. In 2022, the numbers were even bigger, with a whopping 3.731 million viewers. Clearly, COTA is doing exceptionally well in terms of earning fan attraction.
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According to NBC Sports, Kevin Lyttle of the Austin-American Statesman has disclosed that Speedway Motorsports Inc. and COTA Chairman Bobby Epstein have already started planning another probable stint at COTA for the next year. Although no such contract with NASCAR has been made yet, Epstein said that he doesn’t “foresee any problem going forward.”
But as said earlier, nothing is confirmed as of now. “Nothing is final until the official NASCAR schedule comes out, but we’re planning for another big event week in Austin at COTA in 2025,” said Marcus Smith, SMI president and CEO. However, shortly after William Byron won the 68-lap race, NASCAR at COTA posted a ticket renewal offer for the fans on platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
So, does that mean an update is on the way? A little speculation doesn’t hurt, does it?
This is what racetracks like COTA do to NASCAR’s schedule
The races at NASCAR’s ovals are all about making left turns. While it takes a magnitude of versatility to be good at making both left turns and right turns, a few drivers like AJ Allmendinger and Todd Gilliland feel that road courses like COTA really switch up things and save NASCAR’s schedule from becoming monotonous.
“It’s a road course where we’re turning left and right, and for me, it’s just a really nice switch up of things that we do every single week,” said Gilliland, referring to Sunday’s race as per KXAN. “There are some sections that are really slow, and some sections that are super fast, some really heavy braking zones. So it’s a really good mix of everything.”
Allmendinger has always considered street circuits as his background. But he loves COTA not because it’s just a road course. “It’s a unique racetrack because I feel like a lot of road courses you have a type of racetrack where (there are) slow corners or fast corners or long straightaways with short straightaways,” he admitted. “COTA has everything, so it’s a racetrack that is hard to get your car right in all aspects of the racetrack, but I thoroughly enjoy it.”
Even Trackhouse Racing driver, Ross Chastain wants COTA back next year. “I had some some great runs there and super fast cars and just a lot of fun — Trucks, Xfinity, Cup cars, all of them,” he exclaimed. He hopes that Marcus Smith doesn’t let go of the idea of bringing this racetrack back on the schedule for the next season.
