Well, The Athletic has been a central hub of earth shattering developments about race tracks and future schedule updates. On Monday, they dropped another bomb. According to a fresh report from Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi, NASCAR will be moving one of the two Texas Motor Speedway race dates to the All-Star Race in an effort to clear space on the schedule for Circuit of the Americas.
Yep. That’s right. The beautiful, sprawling 3.426-mile road course in Austin, Texas which has hosted races in Formula 1, IndyCar, IMSA, World Endurance Championship, MotoGP and Australian V8 SuperCars, now seems poised to have big heavy NASCAR stock cars turn around it’s picturesque facility.
NASCAR declined to comment on the report when asked by TobyChristie.com. Texas Motor Speedway, likewise declined to comment on the report, but said they will wait to make a statement when the official schedule is announced.
While it’s somewhat disappointing to see the All-Star race move from Bristol Motor Speedway, where it was held this season due to COVID-19, to Texas Motor Speedway, if it had to be done to get a track like COTA on to the schedule, I think a lot of racing enthusiasts can get behind that.
COTA is not just a race track, they are also a massive entertainment destination and have hosted numerous acts on race weekends ranging from EDM festivals to other big-time events. If fans want to attend the NASCAR race at COTA, chances are, they’ll be seeing much more than just a race.
Of course, last October, Tony Stewart turned some test laps around the road course in a Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford Mustang and the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion left the session giving the track rave reviews saying, “I think NASCAR is looking to run more road course races, and after driving it there’s some really good passing opportunities on this track for our cars.”
NASCAR has already announced that Nashville Superspeedway, a 1.333-mile concrete speedway that hasn’t been used by NASCAR since 2011, will return and be a part of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
According to CBS Sports’ Matthew Mayer, there will be potentially four new tracks on the circuit next season.
https://twitter.com/MatthewMayerCBS/status/1308125028177846274?s=20
The Athletic report ended with a note that the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is expected to be released this week. To read the full report from The Athletic, click here.
