NASCAR SATURDAY SCHEDULE AT COTA AUSTIN

The Nascar Cup series gets its first taste of the new “national” layout at Circuit of the Americas with practice and qualifying Saturday on the roadway in Austin, Texas.

The revamped 20-turn, 2.4 mile layout, the traditional circuit of the track (used for Formula One) will shorten about a kilometer and shave about a minute from the round.

Cup cars are on track for exercise from 11am ET, which qualifies at 12:30 a.m., the sessions will be flocked to Prime.

While 18-year-old Connor Zilisch is preparing for his cup debut this weekend, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse jr. And others their experiences of their first cup.

The XFinity series holds its first way of the season that starts at 14:30 ET on the CW network. Kyle Larson is the defensive winner of the race, but will not be in the field this year. Cup managers Ross Chastain, Carson Hcevar, William Byron and Riley Herbst are chasing the Xfinity event on Saturday.

The IMSA Sankioned VP Racing Sportscar Challenge will also be in action in Cota with morning and evening races discussing the NASCAR action.

Circle of the Americas

Saturday 1 March

(All times east)

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

Again

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.