AUSTIN, Texas — The fifth edition of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) season will arrive with a distinctive new look for drivers and fans at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the third race of the season scheduled for Sunday, March 2 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), will move from the full 3.41-mile, 20-turn COTA course to the complete installation. Equally challenging 2.3-mile, 20-turn national course. The NASCAR
The reconfiguration will eliminate about a mile from the back of the traditional permanent road course layout and is expected to shave about a minute off lap times based on early NASCAR simulations. The national course layout will begin at the exit of the esses section and then return to the traditional route at the end of the long back stretch.
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Fans will benefit as the race distance increases from 68 laps to approximately 100 laps and will offer almost 50 percent more action in front of them than the previous Full Course layout. Additional layout changes may be made, and lap totals for the Cup Series and Xfinity Series races will be confirmed as NASCAR finalizes details for the national course.
“The move to the National Course will make the racing experience even better for our fans, with more laps and more action,” said Marcus Smith, president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports. “Fans will have more laps to cheer on their favorite driver from the best seats, and the action will be faster with lap times reduced by around a minute. The National Course and its new surface will offer drivers, teams and crew chiefs a new look and challenge after racing the full course for the past four years at COTA.
From a driver’s perspective, they will not only have a new layout to master, but also have to deal with the complete repaving of the track after last season’s NASCAR race weekend. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who won the 2022 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, had the opportunity to ride the existing national course on iRacing and shared his thoughts on the simulation.
“It’ll be like we’re going to a new track, a new city, a new region,” said Chastain, who drives the No. 1 Chevrolet. “Everything is coming together well and (turn) 12 (of the full course) is really going to change since we don’t have that long back straight. Once you get to (round) 13, everything will be the same. I will return to my normal speed from last year. My God, this place is awesome.
Although Chastain has had much success on the full COTA course with three top-five finishes in four starts, he is looking forward to the challenge of mastering the new layout.
“I love the challenge of the Cup Series,” Chastain said. “That’s why I got to this level, because I continued to push myself from pro trucks to late models to the Truck Series, Xfinity and Cup. It’s scary to think about trying to compete at this level, and how good these drivers are, how good these teams are, how many people depend on this racing store for a living.
“…And it will be a race that we are looking forward to and dedicating a lot of time to the simulator as we have already talked about in advance. Look at the test data. See if one of us could maybe test and get a real, real track time and then go racing.
The fifth annual EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will move from its traditional late March date to the third NCS race of the 2025 season on Sunday, March 2. The NASCAR at COTA event will follow the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 16. , and Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, February 23.
The weekend will also host the NXS on Saturday, March 1, with the Focused Health 250 and the IMSA-sanctioned VP Racing SportsCar Challenge on the same day.
