Cup Category

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Following a marathon Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to the short tracks starting with Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Often described as the perfectly designed race track by drivers, the 0.75-mile track lends itself to not only short track characteristics of beating and banging, but also the characteristics of a larger track with the side-by-side racing that will take place throughout the event. Though the track has lost some of its luster in recentRead More

By Matt Weaver, Special Contributor The NASCAR industry is an especially reactive one. For ways both good and bad, it knee jerks to everything from safety matters (generally good) to the (mixed results) endless competition related conversations across the ether on a weekly basis. This season alone has seen the last-minute knee-jerk to a lower downforce configuration for short tracks and road courses, following a winter banning the ‘Hail Melon’ and incorporating a universal choose rule. No motorsports sanctioning body in the world is as reactive to its competitors and audienceRead More

By Matt Weaver, Special Contributor The official box score will show that Tyler Reddick earned one victory on Sunday in the EchoPark Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, but the case can be made that he earned three victories and a runner-up by the end of the day. First, the obvious reference. In surviving three overtime finishes, Reddick was made to have defended a race he had already effectively won, having outdueled William Byron in a spirited old-school classic by the end of regulation. Then came 45 minutes of repeatedRead More

By Matt Weaver, Special Contributor The EchoPark Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas was billed as something akin to a showcase for just how far NASCAR has come from a global standpoint. And for three hours, it largely delivered on that expectation until it suddenly couldn’t. And for nearly 45 minutes, spanning three different overtimes, arguably the greatest international motorsports starting lineup ever assembled for a single Cup Series race just could not stop crashing each other. Involved in one of the overtime crashes, Ryan Preece referred to the fieldRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – Welcome to NASCAR, gentlemen. Needless to say Sunday’s marathon EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas was an eye-opening experience for the road course ringers that came to play in the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend in Austin. Jenson Button and Jordan Taylor, champions in Formula 1 and IMSA, respectively, were making their first start in the Cup Series and were joined by another former F1 world champion in Kimi Raikkonen making just his second Cup start. By the time theRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service AUSTIN, Texas – Tyler Reddick prevailed in three overtime re-starts to claim his first trophy of the year – and first with his new team, 23XI Racing, with a 1.411-second victory over two-time series champion Kyle Busch in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix – the NASCAR Cup Series’ first road course race of the season. It was a field of international champions and NASCAR’s very best at the famed Circuit of The Americas course but for most of the race the outcome looked toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Stage breaks or no stage breaks? That is the question. Since the dawn of stage racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, road course racing has been void of strategy thanks to the pre-planned cautions built into the race. But thanks to a rule change by the higher ups, Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas will be the first race since 2017 that will play out like a normal race with no pre-determined yellow flags. How the new rules for the road coursesRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – One driver’s misfortune was another’s gain. William Byron will lead the field to green in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, but his pole-winning lap came at the expense of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman. Bowman set the fast time in the opening minutes of the final round of qualifying, but the call came down from NASCAR that he had exceeded track limits in the esses during his lap, disallowing his time. That moved Byron’s lap of twoRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – In addition to the NASCAR Cup Series regulars that will be racing this weekend at Circuit of the Americas, Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix has drawn some familiar faces from elsewhere in the motorsports world into the fold as well. Among those drivers is seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson making another appearance for the team he co-owns – Legacy Motor Club – and two former Formula 1 world champions in Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button driving for Trackhouse Racing and Rick Ware Racing,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AUSTIN, Texas – A constant threat on the road courses, Tyler Reddick was back to form Friday at Circuit of the Americas, topping the lone NASCAR Cup Series practice of the weekend ahead of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Winner of two road course races last year, the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota hasn’t missed a beat with his new team, jumping to the top of the board early on with teammate Bubba Wallace following closely behind. Though a number of other driversRead More