The first road course of the 2022 NASCAR season is up this weekend when the circuit heads to Austin, Texas to take on the Circuit of the Americas road course.
Last year, road course master Chase Elliott won. William Byron pulled off the race-record 46th lead change on lap 315 of 325 and outran Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain to win in Atlanta last Sunday afternoon.
Byron was among a race-record 20 race leaders. He gave Hendrick Motorsports three different winners through five races. Bell was penalized for an illegal pass on the final lap and relegated to 23rd place, the last spot on the lead lap. The race weekend was the first on the track since a major repaving and reconfiguration since the series raced at the 1.54-mile track last July. Chastain’s finish came despite a crash that put him two laps down. Kyle Busch also rallied after a crash to finish third.
The 68 lap, 231.88 mile race takes place Sunday at 2:30 pm. Practice is Saturday morning at 9 am with qualifying 10 am.
The XFinity Series Pit Boss 250 runs Saturday in Austin at 3:30 pm. Pole-sitter Kyle Busch won last year.
Ty Gibbs passed Ryan Sieg on the final lap of a second overtime and beat Austin Hill by 0.178 seconds to win at Atlanta last weekend.
Gibbs led just the final lap and earned his second victory in five starts this season and his sixth in 23 career starts. The race included a race-record 10 caution flags that slowed the pace for 56 laps. A.J. Allmendinger ran third, followed by Riley Herbst and Landon Cassill. Noah Gragson’s streak of four consecutive top-three finishes and Justin Allgaier’s streak of 16 consecutive top-10 finishes ended.
Practice for the XFinity racers is tonight at 4 pm with qualifying at 4:30 pm.
Todd Gilliland won after starting fifth last year at COTA in the Camping World Truck Series.
Corey Heim passed Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith on the last lap and won at Atlanta, his first career victory in just his fifth career start last week.
Ben Rhodes rallied to finish second, followed by Ty Majeski and Smith at Atlanta. Smith is the points leader by 13 over Tanner Gray. Gray and third-place Majeski are the only drivers with three top-10 finishes in as many races.
The 42 lap, 143.22 mile race runs at noon Saturday with practice this afternoon at 2 pm and qualifying 2:30 pm.
