After back-to-back races on drafting-style tracks to open the 2025 season, NASCAR’s finest will race on the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday in Austin, Texas.
Forward of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the season’s first road-course race, listed here are 5 storylines to observe:
Favourite: Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Van Gisbergen, the three-time Australian Supercars champion, heads into the weekend because the clear favourite (+450, per DraftKings). That ought to come as no shock given what van Gisbergen has already completed in restricted NASCAR begins.
He received the inaugural race on the streets of Chicago in 2023 and was main on the ultimate lap at Watkins Glen final season earlier than Chris Buescher bought round him in an exciting last-lap battle. Till vehicles are on the observe, it’s laborious to place anybody else in entrance of van Gisbergen as the favourite for Sunday’s race.
Underdog to look at: Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Listed at +3500 to win Sunday (per DraftKings), McDowell presents a variety of upside. The Cup Sequence veteran is not any stranger to turning left and proper (he received on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway highway course in 2023). In four COTA starts, McDowell has one top-10 and three top-15 finishes.
Except for steering points that relegated him to a Thirty eighth-place end within the 2024 race, McDowell has been a contender in every Cup Sequence race at COTA. One week faraway from making up a six-lap deficit to complete thirteenth at Atlanta, McDowell cannot be counted out, particularly when proper turns are concerned.
How will 18-year-old Connor Zilisch carry out in Cup Sequence debut?
Solely 18 years and 223 days outdated when Sunday’s race goes inexperienced, Zilisch would be the youngest driver to make a Cup Sequence debut since three-time sequence champion Joey Logano in 2008 at New Hampshire. Logano was 18 years and 114 days outdated on the time.
Do not let the age idiot you, although, as Zilisch is tied with Atlanta winner Christopher Bell for the second-best odds (+750, per DraftKings). In September, Zilisch grew to become the seventh Xfinity Sequence driver all time to win in his debut race when he took the checkered flag at Watkins Glen. It will not be shocking in any respect, given his previous success, to see the younger phenom in rivalry.
How will adjustments to trace structure, tire compound play out?
Sunday would be the fifth time the Cup Sequence has raced on the Austin venue. After competing on the three.41-mile full structure every of the previous 4 seasons in Austin, drivers will race Sunday on the two.3-mile Nationwide course. That can get rid of the lengthy backstretch, thus giving followers extra alternatives to see vehicles come flying by with the lap depend growing from 68 to 95.
This weekend can even mark the primary time vehicles will take to the observe’s recent asphalt since a repaving venture was accomplished in September. Consequently, Goodyear is bringing a brand new tire to the observe with an up to date building and a brand new compound that ought to produce extra put on all through a run, thus creating extra passing alternatives.
Wild-card stretch to start season lastly wraps up
After a pair of unpredictable drafting-style races at Daytona and Atlanta previous this Sunday’s left and proper turns of COTA, drivers and groups will begin to get a greater really feel of what they should work with.
With one-mile Phoenix, 1.5-mile intermediates Las Vegas and Homestead and half-mile Martinsville to complete March, it ought to change into clear over the following month who the true contenders and pretenders are because the number of the schedule takes form.
