NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to COTA this weekend

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Circuit of The Americas Storylines and Insights:

• 2025 will mark the fifth time the NASCAR Xfinity Series will compete at Circuit of The Americas (2021-2025).
• Circuit of The Americas is the first of seven NASCAR Xfinity Series races on road courses in 2025 (21% of all races on the schedule are on road courses)
• The NASCAR Xfinity Series will compete on the 20-turn, 2.40-mile configuration this weekend and as a result the stage end laps for the race are updated to 20, 40, 65.
• Jeremy Clements is making his 500th NASCAR Xfinity Series start this weekend; he becomes the fourth driver to reach 500 starts in the series.
• Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones are making their 300th consecutive start this weekend.
• Sam Mayer won four times on road courses, the rest of the field this weekend combined won five (Allgaier-3, Clements-1, Zilisch-1)
• None of the former NASCAR Xfinity Series COTA winners are entered this weekend: Kyle Busch (2021), A.J. Allmendinger (2022 and 2023), Kyle Larson (2024).
• All four of Sam Mayer’s road course wins came in the last 10 races.
• Three of Sheldon Creed’s 13 runner-up finishes came on road courses. Creed has the record for the most runner-up finishes in the series before their first win.
• Both of Austin Hill’s runner-up finishes on road courses came in his three starts at COTA.
• Austin Hill, who finished second, is the only driver in the field that finished in the top-five in this race last year.
• Harrison Burton is the only driver to finish top-10 in both races in 2025.
• 2025 is the second straight season that Richard Childress Racing won the first two races of the season.
• Richard Childress Racing is the first team to win the first two races of a season with two different drivers.
• Richard Childress Racing’s next win is it’s 100th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Only two other teams won at least 100 NXS races (Joe Gibbs Racing-215, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing-138)
• The last seven road course races were won from the front-row, the last 18 were won from a top-five starting position.
• Chevrolet drivers won the last eight races on road courses.
• Three of the four races at COTA were from pole (2021, 20323, 2024).
• There were 16 track limit penalties in this race last year including Shane van Gisbergen who crossed the finish line in second but had a 30 second penalty for short cutting the course on the last lap.
• JR Motorsports won the last two races on road courses with two different drivers, a team has never won three straight road course races with three different drivers.

Update for Xfinity Series Practice and Qualifying this weekend:

Practice

• 50 minutes for all cars

Qualifying

• Run with two groups; each group gets 20 minutes
• Times are blended back together after both groups are completed; field is set fastest to slowest