AUSTIN, Texas — Chase Elliott continued his road course success on Sunday in NASCAR’s inaugural race at the Circuit of The Americas. He won the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix after the race was called for poor weather with 14 laps to go.
But his victory was only one of the many talking points throughout the weekend.
It rained in Austin on both Saturday and Sunday. The Camping World Truck Series race transpired through the wet weather, while the Xfinity Series race, which took place later in the day on Saturday, was mostly dry.
Todd Gilliland and Kyle Busch won the Truck and Xfinity races, respectively. There weren’t many troubles through these events ahead of the Cup race, but it is worth noting that green flag lap times were well over two minutes. It made cautions feel like eternities, and that begs two questions:
1) Should NASCAR run the shorter circuit? That would avoid using the whole length of the long backstretch. It’s the fastest part of the track, and it precedes one of the slowest corners, too. It’s the best passing zone. So this isn’t the best answer.
2) Maybe NASCAR could implement local yellows. It’s something traditionally used in sports cars and open-wheel racing. NASCAR could go Formula 1-style on road courses and divide the track into sectors. When there is trouble in one part of the track, drivers could reduce their speeds in a sector and abstain from passing to keep the race from dragging longer than necessary.
This was a weekend of learning for NASCAR. Speedway Motorsports Inc. operated the track, and one must presume that virtually none of the staff have been to COTA before. It wasn’t easy to navigate around the track if you were a fan. Shuttles must be taken everywhere. Even crew members from the Truck teams had to go far outside the southeast corner of the circuit to get to their parking lot.
But the most crucial lesson taught this weekend is what NASCAR’s Cup cars are capable of in the rain. This was the first Cup race that featured wet weather and the use of rain tires.
It wasn’t pretty. In fact, some might say it was even a little dangerous.
“It’s the most unsafe thing I’ve ever done in a race car by a lot,” Kevin Harvick, who crashed on Lap 19, said. “You can’t see anything down the straightaways. These cars were not built to run in the rain, and when you can’t see, my spotter said, ‘Check up, check up,’ because he thought he saw two cars wrecking.
“We don’t have any business being out in the rain, period. All I can say is this is the worst decision that we’ve ever made in our sport that I’ve been a part of, and I’ve never felt more unsafe in my whole racing career, period.”
The consensus is that visibility was dangerously low. Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Custer concurred with Harvick’s sentiment.
“I couldn’t see anything. Going down the backstretch just trying to stay on the road and next thing I know, I saw a taillight, and it was on my hood in a split second,” Truex said. “You just can’t see anything out there.”
This on-track product wasn’t good with the wet weather. This isn’t the fault of COTA, though. Yes, it is a large track that wasn’t built to accommodate stock cars. But it has enough run-off area that it should be perceived as generally safe, despite the big crash between Custer and Truex.
The cars were the problem. Windshield wipers weren’t strong or fast enough, the blinking light on the rear windows wasn’t bright enough, and the rooster tails flying out from behind the vehicles were too tall. All of this led to treacherous conditions and a red flag.
So, what could be done to improve the safety of wet road courses? Chase Briscoe has a suggestion:
We need mud flaps.
— Chase Briscoe (@ChaseBriscoe_14) May 24, 2021
Since NASCAR is switching to the Next-Gen car next season, there will likely be modifications for the next time the industry is dealt with a rainy race day. Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller said NASCAR would take the lessons learned from Sunday and move forward to find a way to reduce the spray coming out from behind the cars and considering stopping races in bad weather sooner.
NASCAR at COTA was a unique weekend. COTA is known for hosting world-class racing with elite drivers from around the world. Not to knock NASCAR and its fans, but a race weekend at the circuit feels drastically different than when F1 is in town. There’s an element of elitism and snootiness, for lack of a better term, when the paddock is full of Europeans.
But Austin, being in the middle of Texas, is a decent market. And COTA is a superior venue compared to the 1.5-mile snoozer of a racetrack three hours north. Hopefully, NASCAR at COTA wasn’t just a one-time event.
