NASCAR News: NASCAR to use short COTA National Course

The fifth running of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) season will arrive with a distinctive new look and feel for both drivers and fans alike at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the season’s third race set for Sunday, March 2, will shift from COTA’s 3.41-mile, 20-turn Full Course layout to the facility’s equally challenging 2.3-mile, 20-turn National Course. The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS), which returns to COTA for a fifth season, will also utilize the National Course for the Focused Health 250 on Saturday, March 1st.

The reconfiguration will eliminate approximately a mile of the backside of the permanent road course’s traditional layout and is expected to shave roughly a minute off lap times based off early NASCAR simulations. The National Course layout will begin upon exit of the esses section and then return to the traditional course at the tail end of the long backstretch

Fans will benefit from the race distance being extended from 68 laps to approximately 100 and providing nearly 50 percent more action in front of them than the previous Full Course layout. Additional modifications may be made to the layout, and the lap total for both the Cup Series and Xfinity Series races will be confirmed as NASCAR finalizes the National Course details.

“The move to the National Course will make a great race experience even better for our fans with more laps and more action,” Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith said. “Fans will have more laps to cheer for their favorite driver from the best seats, and the action will come faster with lap times reduced by roughly a minute. The National Course and its new pavement will provide the drivers, teams and crew chiefs with a fresh look and a new challenge after running the Full Course the last four years at COTA.”

From a driver’s perspective, they will not only have a new layout to master but also contend with the full repave the track underwent after last season’s NASCAR race weekend. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who won the 2022 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, had the opportunity to run the existing National Course on iRacing and shared his thoughts of the simulation.

“It’s going to be like basically going to a new track, a new town, new area,” said Chastain, who drives the No. 1 Chevrolet. “The COTA National Course flows together nice, and (Turn) 12 (of the Full Course) will really change since we don’t have that long backstretch. Once I get to (Turn) 13, though, it’s all going to be the same. I’ll get my normal speed I was at last year. Gosh, this place is awesome.”

While Chastain has enjoyed plenty of success on COTA’s Full Course with three top-five finishes in four starts, he is looking forward to the challenge of mastering the new layout.

“I love the challenge of the Cup Series,” Chastain said. “That’s why I’ve ascended to this level, because I kept pushing myself from pro-trucks to late models to the Truck Series, Xfinity and Cup. It’s scary as heck to think about trying to compete at this level, and how good these drivers are, how good these teams are, how many people’s livelihoods depend on this race shop.

“… And this will be a race that we look forward to and put a lot of time into the simulator like we already talked about ahead of time. Look at the test data. See if one of us maybe could test and get some real, real track time and then go race.”

The fifth annual EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will move up from its traditional late March date to the third NCS race of the 2025 season on Sunday, March 2. The NASCAR at COTA event will follow the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 16, and Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 23.

The weekend will also play host to the NXS on Saturday, March 1 with the Focused Health 250 and the IMSA-sanctioned VP Racing SportsCar Challenge on the same day.

Fans can take advantage of the “Texas Two-Step” promotion between NASCAR at COTA and Texas Motor Speedway, which plays host to its NCS race on Sunday, May 4. Speedway Motorsports will offer ticket purchasers of either NCS race a 20 percent discount if they would like to attend both. Click HERE for more information on the “Texas Two-Step” promotion or to purchase tickets. Circuit of the Americas PR