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In The Know – Circuit of the Americas

●  Event:  EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)

●  Time/Date:  3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 26

●  Location:  Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas

●  Layout:  3.426-mile, 20-turn road course

●  Laps/Miles:  68 laps/231.88 miles

●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps

●  TV/Radio:  FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

SHR FAST FACTS:

Kevin Harvick:

Harvick has four road-course wins outside of the NASCAR Cup Series. Two came in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007 and Watkins Glen in 2007 – and two were in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West – Sonoma in 1998 and Sonoma in 2017. Harvick’s K&N Pro Series win at Sonoma in 1998 was three years before his Cup Series debut on Feb. 26, 2001 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.

Aric Almirola:

Almirola’s best road-course outing in the Cup Series came at Sonoma Raceway in 2018, where he finished eighth. He made it back-to-back top-10 finishes at the track when he returned for a ninth-place result in 2019.

Chase Briscoe:

Chase Briscoe will make his third start at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, this Sunday in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Briscoe earned his first NASCAR Cup Series top-10 with his sixth-place in the inaugural race there in 2021. It was his first of three top-10 finishes earned in his Rookie of the Year season, all on road courses. Though the introduction of the NextGen car leveled the playing field on road courses during the 2022 season, Briscoe’s team showed speed on road courses. He’s focused this year on finding the areas where he can gain advantages over his competitors through intense prep work during the offseason.

Ryan Preece:

Preece’s road-course racing background is not extensive. In his Cup Series career, he’s made 12 road-course starts. His best road-course outing was in 2021 at the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course, where he started sixth and finished ninth.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

Livin’ for these liveries : @StewartHaasRacing. /YuKy2rcjyU

— Stewart Haas Racing(@StewartHaasRcng) March 22, 2023

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Kevin Harvick Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang:

This year, while the road course races still have stages, the race will remain green with no yellow-flag breaks at the end of each stage, which is something you’ve lobbied for. Why did you want to see it happen?

“The strategy is back. You had two strategies before – win or collect stage points. Now, with the rolling stages, it opens up more options for what you can do.”

Aric Almirola Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang:

How much does road-course racing put what happens back in the driver’s hands?

“It puts a lot back into the driver’s hands, but you still have to have a good-handling car to compete up front, and strategy is going to play a huge role into the weekend now that the stage breaks have been eliminated. While a lot is in the driver’s hands, you still have to have everything go right in order to come out on top.” 

Chase Briscoe Driver of the No.14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang:

In 2021, all of your top-10 finishes came on road courses. With the introduction of the NextGen car, we saw more parity. Is it more difficult to find those areas on track where you can gain an advantage over other teams?

“I think the whole field has elevated their ability on road courses, between the teams putting in work to figure out what to do with the new car and the driver getting more comfortable. So, it’s going to be hard to have a big advantage where you would typically find it, in a braking zone or with straightaway speed, but the lower downforce will hopefully help some and allow us to find something we can work with to gain that advantage.”

Ryan Preece Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com:

The number of road-course races on the schedule has doubled in recent years. How does that change the way you condition, and your mental preparation?

“There are a lot of similarities when it comes to road racing and short-track racing. The racing discipline of it is definitely still the same. But, there are a lot of other road-course ringers, or whatever you’d like to call them, that have the upper hand on a lot of things. For instance, when it comes to braking, there are a lot of differences. From a preparation standpoint, though, we’ve been given all the tools we need to be as prepared as possible and, at this point, I just want to show up and go do it.”

“Superspeedway racing is always really aggressive and intense. I think that with this new car, we’re going to see a lot of bump drafting and teams and manufacturers working together to stay up front. That’s what we’ve been seeing at the superspeedways last season and this season. I can only really go off of what I’ve seen from last year and learned from watching and being on the simulator. But, I’m hopeful that we unload with a lot of speed, qualify really well and can stay up front in clean air to be there at the end.”

Formula one vs NASCAR with jenson button and ryan preece:

Before he takes the track for his first career NASCAR Cup Series start, Jenson Button discusses the differences between driving a Formula One car and a NASCAR Cup Series car. From feeling to mechanics, the duo discusses all of the intricacies of the two top-level race cars.

4Ever Defining: A LEGACY

In unimaginable circumstances, Kevin Harvick stepped into NASCAR Cup Series racing and the No. 29 race car in 2001. But the young 25-year-old racer climbed in gracefully and became a fearless racer. In just his third Cup race, Harvick won at Atlanta. It was a healing moment for our sport and a win that helped cement Harvick’s legacy 4EVER. In Episode 2 of 4EVER Defining, we unpack how Harvick’s legacy started with that win in Atlanta through the eyes of Richard Childress, Dale Jr., DeLana Harvick, Mike Dillon, Jeff Gordon and Mike Joy.