NASCAR held its first road course race this weekend in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday. We saw plenty of racing’s best features to go around at COTA. From the usual left turns, and the always welcome change up of rights. Clean pit stops, and good hard racing at the top of the lineup. We also saw an overtime finish that needed three restarts to give us a winner.
This is my first piece following a NASCAR race, and I’m excited to cover what might be the most exciting race we’ll see all season long at COTA. Let’s go stage by stage, dive into the notes I took, and recap what was a fantastic weekend in Austin, Texas!
STAGE 1
The top five at the beginning of this race included William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Jordan Taylor, and Daniel Suarez. Only two members of this race would finish in the top five by the end of this treacherous road course.
We saw the return of legend Jimmie Johnson, who hadn’t been seen in the cup series since the Daytona 500 over a month ago. In his #84 car, he didn’t make it a lap at COTA before being involved in the first collision of the day. Ty Dillon would wreck his car in the same accident. Both would be done for the day afterward.
Bubba Wallace as he contacted Kyle Larson when his brakes gave out. It would result in the second caution of the day. On lap 11, Larson would attempt to push on in his Hendricks Chevy before being dumped by the #11 in Denny Hamlin in front of the pit road. Larson would continue on, but Wallace would be shut down, and visibly frustrated as the cart takes him off.
A frustrating end to the day for Bubba Wallace at COTA. pic.twitter.com/ThLmO0Xhkg
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 26, 2023
An early story was that the #16 A.J. Allmendinger was without communication since halfway through stage one. He raced in the top 10 for most of the race despite the issue. An impressive feat for the 42-year-old driver.
William Byron in his Liberty Chevy took the stage one win. Austin Cindric, Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, and last week’s winner Ross Chastain round out the top five.
STAGE 2
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72116619/1476035132.0.jpg)
Stage two was much cleaner, with no cautions from NASCAR to discuss and we dive right into the winners with Tyler Reddick in his Monster Toyota picking up the stage win. Also in the top five were Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, and Chris Buescher.
After finishing the top five in the last stage, Byron finished 13th. Allmendinger finished stage 16th, Chastain finished 18th, and Alex Bowman finished 19th.
Kyle Larson bounced back from his early collision with Wallace’s Toyota by finishing inside the top 10 at the end of the second stage. A solid bounceback for him in his damaged car to at least salvage some stage points at the end of the second.
STAGE 3
Stage three saw a caution on lap 42, where Denny Hamlin’s #11 Toyota spun out due to an excess of dirt on the race track. The NASCAR cleanup crew would come out and the top five before everybody would have the opportunity to pit would be Reddick, Byron, Suarez, Allmendinger, and Chastain. All five cars would pit.
Gettin’ dirty out there pic.twitter.com/xrFef5dprY
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 26, 2023
Coming out of the pit stop, the top five at the green flag would be Joey Logano’s #22 Mustang, Harrison Burton, Cody Ware, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron. An all-Ford top three coming out of the pit stops.
In lap 56 another caution would come due to #6 Brad Keselowski’s Mustang having some mechanical issues and going off track. This couldn’t come at a better time for both #45 Tyler Reddick in his Monster Toyota Camry and #48 Alex Bowman in his Ally Chevy Camaro as they were both reportedly low on gas. It was reported Reddick by a couple of laps and Bowman by as much as five. So, a much-needed caution from NASCAR comes at the nick of time for two of the leaders of this race with just 12 laps to go.
Craziness on the restart results in another caution. pic.twitter.com/3YtTe2pQfc
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 26, 2023
After the pits, the new top five would be Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kimi Raikkonen, and Ryan Preece with 10 laps to go. Although the clean racing would be harder to come by now. With nine to go, Ross Chastain, A.J. Allmendinger, Erick Jones, and Austin Dillon would be involved in the crash. The #3 Dillon Chevy would head to the garage as well as the #16 Allmendinger Chevy. Brad Keselowski’s #6 Mustang wouldn’t last much longer at either, after taking tons of damage all race long at COTA.
OVERTIME
With four laps to go, we see NASCAR’s first road course of the season go to overtime. Entering overtime, the top five were Reddick, Byron, Busch, Suarez, and Martin Truex Jr. That top five would remain through the chaos at turn one before another caution struck.
Ryan Preece’s #41 Stewart-Haas Mustang was destroyed, and Ryan Blaney’s #12 Mustang got spun as well in a four-car collision involving Christopher Bell, Kimi Raikkonen, and Martin Truex Jr. Bell’s #20 Toyota Camry also had heavy damage. Daniel Suarez lost a tire that would prompt the second restart of overtime.
Around goes Truex! pic.twitter.com/n83JSa0v3b
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 26, 2023
During that chaos, the #48 of Alex Bowman made an aggressive move to jump all the way up to third place. He drove to the outside and floored it and made little contact with Suarez as he jumped racers sixth through fourth to jump up.
THE FINISH
On the final restart, the leader was #45 Tyler Reddick, #8 Kyle Busch, #48 Alex Bowman, #1 Ross Chastain who jumped all the way from 28th after wrecking earlier, and #24 William Byron who led a ton of laps. After Busch and Bowman duke it out in their Chevy Camaros, Busch took the second-place spot and that would be the final with Tyler Reddick holding his first-place position. He takes home 50 points. Busch takes 39, Bowman reels in 41, Chastain also with 39, and William Byron takes 42 with a stage one win.
DRIVER SPOTLIGHT: #16 A.J. Allmendinger
Despite taking home just 11 points and a DNF, Allmendinger ran one hell of a race. He was without communications with his crew chief and pit crew for a majority of this race and still raced top five for a large portion of the race at one of the toughest courses NASCAR has to offer. Sure, maybe a bit of an advantage after racing at COTA on Saturday and winning the Xfinity series, but he had one hell of a run. Shoutout to the Dinger, one of NASCAR’s most underrated cup series racers.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
COTA was one hell of a race to follow this year. Even NASCAR’s most casual fan could follow along and feel the intensity all the way through. It had everything you could’ve possibly wanted, and they’ll look to match the intensity next week when they take on the Richmond Raceway in Virginia! Follow along here at BellyUp Sports when we deliver our power rankings, preview, and eventually review after the race!
If you enjoyed this content, or hate it and want to argue with me, follow me on Twitter @KalebEmcee! Also, read up on the rest of the NASCAR content Belly Up Sports has to offer here!
