2021 EchoPark Texas Grand Prix


The 2021 EchoPark Texas Grand Prix was a NASCAR Cup Series race that was held on May 23, 2021, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Originally scheduled for 68 laps on the road course, the race was shortened to 54 laps by heavy rain. It was the 14th race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Report

Background

Circuit of the Americas is a grade 1 FIA-specification motorsports facility located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas. It features a road racing circuit. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Grand Prix, and the Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas, a round of the FIM Road Racing World Championship. It previously hosted the Supercars Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and IndyCar Series.
On September 30, 2020, it was announced that COTA would host a NASCAR Cup Series event for the first time on May 23, 2021. The lower Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series were also added as support events. On December 11, 2020, it was announced that NASCAR would run the full 3.41 mile course.
British IMSA driver Kyle Tilley made his NASCAR debut, replacing B. J. McLeod for Live Fast Motorsports.

Entry list

' denotes rookie driver.
  • ' denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Practice

In a wet practice session, William Byron was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 2:37.694 with an average speed of.

Qualifying

In a dry track, Tyler Reddick scored the pole for the race with a time of 2:12.911 and a speed of.
NASCAR also implemented a new rule for qualifying. For road course qualifying, a timing loop marked on the circuit, not the start-finish line, will set official time. The rule is similar to that used by INDYCAR, which also uses knockout qualifying. At this circuit, the exit of Istanbul 8 will be used as the timing line.

Race

Stage Results

Stage One
Laps: 15
Stage Two
Laps: 17

Final Stage Results

Stage Three
Laps: 36

Race statistics

  • Lead changes: 11 among 10 different drivers
  • Cautions/Laps: 6 for 41
  • Red flags: 2
  • Time of race: 3 hours, 7 minutes and 11 seconds
  • Average speed:

Media

Television

Fox Sports covered the race on the television side. Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer called the race from the broadcast booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith handled pit road for the television side. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio

PRN had the radio call for the race which was simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings
;Manufacturers' Championship standings
PosManufacturerPoints
1Chevrolet507
2Ford494
3Toyota479