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COTA making major change to 2025 NASCAR race

ProfilePhotoby: Nick Geddes11/20/24NickGeddesNews
COTA
Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

The Circuit of The Americas (COTA) announced Wednesday that both the 2025 NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races will shift from the 3.41-mile, 20-turn Full Course layout to the facility’s 2.3-mile, 20-turn National Course.

Running the shorter course will shave roughly one minute of lap time based on early NASCAR simulations, the track said. COTA unveiled the National Course layout for the Cup Series’ EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 2, and the Xfinity Series’ Focused Health 250 on Saturday, March 1.

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR at COTA / X

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. As a result of shortening the layout from 3.41 miles to 2.3, the race will be extended from 68 laps to approximately 100.

NASCAR, COTA make significant change to March 2025 race

“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 in a statement. “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.” 

Ross Chastain, winner of the 2022 race at COTA, ran the National Course on iRacing and explained the key differences.

“It’s going to be like basically going to a new track, a new town, new area,” Chastain said. “It 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.”