NASCAR has always had a basic stereotype, “all they do is drive fast and turn left, anyone can do it,” but what happens when the drivers are asked to turn left and right, especially on a course not built for stock cars? This weekend the NASCAR national series will all take on the challenge of COTA, or Circuit of the Americas. A formula 1 track out of Austin Texas, COTA is a challenging track and it is looking to be an issue for our Cup Series drivers that we all know and love. These guys are not experts turning right, but there are a few people being brought in to see what they can do at the wheel, these are what we call, the road course ringers.
The road course ringers this weekend are 2 very good racers that have dominated road courses recently, AJ Allendinger and Austin Cindirc. Both of these drivers are full-time Xfinity Series drivers and both can be seen dominating on the road courses. AJ will race for Kaulig Racing in the #16 Hyperice car and Cindric will race in his usual Penske ride that he has been in and out of all season.
AJ and Austin are both very well accomplished road course racers and both pose a threat to the rest of the field. The last road course the series ran was the Daytona Road course, where Aj went to the back twice and still managed a 7th place finish in an average car, that is a scary thing to see coming in the rear view.
COTA alone is going to be exciting and it will be cool to see these two guys step into the big leagues and see if they can fight their way through the field and get a good finish to prove they can hang with the best.
The Slow Restart 