Cota Austin Weekend Schedule, TV information for NASCAR CUP and XFINITY SERIES

The Nascar Cup series will make its fifth visit to the Circuit of the Americas over the weekend, but the Austin, Texas, will be significantly different this season.

A new ‘national’ course will be used for stock cars. The 20 times layout, 2.4 miles, will shorten the traditional circuit of the track (used for Formula One) by about a kilometer and shave about a minute off the round.

The shorter track length will also allow more rounds as the race will be increased to 95 rounds to a distance of 65 rounds from 2021-24.

William Byron is the defensive winner of the cup racing, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson won the XFinity race at Cota last year.

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Circuit of the Americas schedule

(All times east)

Friday, February 28

Garage open

• Afternoon – 19:30 – XFINITY SERIES
• 1 – 18:00 – Cup series

Trace activity

• 1- 1:40 pm vp Racing Sportscar Challenge Practice
• 3 – 3:40 Hours – VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Practice
• 5 – 17:50 – XFinity Practice (CW App Streaming)
• 6:05 – 19:00 – XFINITY QUALIFICATION (CW -PAPROOM)
• 7:30 – 20:05 – VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Qualification

Saturday 1 March

Garage open

• 09:00 – 14:00 – Cup series
• 11:30 – 20:00 – XFINITY SERIES

Trace activity

• 09:40 – 10:25 Hours – VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Race (45 minutes)
• 11:00 – 12:30 Hours – Cup Practice (Prime)
• 12:30 – 13:30 – Qualifying (Prime, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR RADIO)
• 14:30 – XFINITY RACE (65 rounds, stage 1 on lap 20, stage 2 on lap 40, 156 miles; cw, performance racing network, siriusxm nascar radio)
• 6 – 18:45 – VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Race

Sunday 2 March

Garage open

• 12:30 – 22:00 – Cup Series

Trace activity

• 15:30 – Cup Race (95 rounds, stage 1 on round 20, phase 2 on lap 45, 228 miles; fox, performance racing network, siriusxm nascar radio)

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Weekend weather

Friday: Partly cloudy, high of 77 with a 2% chance of rain.

Saturday: Mixing clouds and sunshine with a highlight of 86 degrees and 7% chance of rain. It is expected to be partly cloudy and 54 degrees for the start of the XFinity race.

Sunday: Partly cloudy air with a highlight of 80 degrees and a 15% chance of rain at the beginning of the cup race.