Written by Gabriel Tsui, Edited by Sharifah Zaqreeztrina
After a breathtaking race in Bristol that involved tyre strategies and excellent racing, we now head to Austin, Texas for the sixth race of the season, as well as the first road course race of the season. After two consecutive wins, can Toyota keep stacking up victories or would Chevrolet or Ford stop the win streak?
Bristol 500 Race Debrief
The race started off with Ryan Blaney leading the field to green, but was unable to pull away and was overtaken by Josh Berry in a few laps time. Later on, two consecutive caution flags were waved after William Byron got into the wall and Tyler Reddick spun on the subsequent restart.
Bubba Wallace led the way on the second restart but was quickly overtaken by Berry. After the green flag pit cycle, Blaney re-took the lead, but was soon overtaken by Kyle Busch. Towards the end of the stage, Busch spun after losing his right rear tyres entirely, leading to a caution towards the end of the stage, where we saw Ty Gibbs cross the finish line as the stage winner.
After the stage break, Kyle Larson led the field to green but was soon engaged in a dogfight with Gibbs, fighting for the lead. It went on until Denny Hamlin overtook the both of them 20 laps into the stage. After a caution caused by a collision between Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Michael McDowell, another caution was brought out.
During the pit cycle, Gibbs put on a used set of tyres to save sticker tyres, which proved to be an excellent strategy. Gibbs fought all the way back from 28th place after the pit cycle to the stage win, securing both stage wins of the day.
Going into the final stage, Gibbs held the lead but Martin Truex Jr. took the lead for the first time 20 laps after the restart. After a period of green flag racing, on lap 310 Berry spun and brought out another caution in the race.
Hamlin won the race on pit road and took the lead from Truex Jr, and held onto it towards the end of the race. Truex re-took the lead for a brief second but ultimately Hamlin held onto the lead again for his first win of the season.
Track Preview
The Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a road course track located in Austin, Texas, around 15 miles away from downtown Austin. The track is 3.426 miles (5.514 kilometres) long, with 20 turns across the entire track.
The drivers will drive 68 laps around the track, with 15 laps in stages one and two, and 38 laps for the final stage. Unlike last season, there will be a stage break for road courses this year, which could shuffle up the strategies teams planned for the race.
The race was first hosted in the year of 2021, and has been part of the early season races ever since. The races have been lengthened by overtime in 2022 and 2023, so expect another exciting race that could come down to the wire in overtime.
Weather forecasts indicate that there will be little to no precipitation in the race weekend, while cloud cover will be expected, with temperatures fluctuating between 14 and 23 degrees Celsius. The race will commence on Sunday, March 24th, at 15:30 ET (12:30 PT, 21:30 CET).
Race Predictions
Since 2021, Chevrolet has won twice in 2021 and 2022, where Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain took it all the way to victory lane respectively. They have tremendous experience on road courses, and they perform exceptionally in them.
They also have some of the best road course drivers. Drivers like Larson and Byron, alongside the aforementioned Elliott and Chastain are all great performers on road courses who significantly boost their chances of winning.
However, on the other side of the garage, Toyota and Reddick hold the win from 2023, after he hosted a masterclass on restarts and never relinquished the lead. He crossed the finish line with a margin of 1.6 seconds between himself and Busch who was placed second.
Toyota will be aiming to continue their good form from the past weeks. Their great pace in road courses and amazing road course drivers such as Truex Jr, Hamlin, and Christopher Bell gives them the biggest chance of achieving yet another win.
Therefore, the prediction to this race would be Toyota taking another win, with one of the JGR drivers heading to victory lane.