With the iconic observation tower looking down upon the field and the record-breaking Circuit Breaker roller coaster on the horizon, 37 of NASCAR’s best took on the “National” layout at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday afternoon. With the 88 of road course ringer Shane van Gisbergen leading both practice sessions and the 2023 COTA winner Tyler Reddick taking the top spot in qualifying, any seasoned NASCAR fan could predict how the weekend was going to go. That is, until the green flag dropped Sunday afternoon.
As expected, drivers were charging hard into the first turn. The 1 of Ross Chastain, bold as always, took off in the corner and spun the 9 of Chase Elliott. He also tapped the 34 of Todd Gilliland, 11 of Denny Hamlin, 45 of leader Tyler Reddick, and 87 of Connor Zilisch who was making his Cup Series debut. Zilisch fell victim to a flat right front tire, but was able to continue after pitting.
At the back of the field, the 10 of Ty Dillon and 2 of Austin Cindric were in a heated battle that resulted in the 10 taking a spin. Just ahead of him in 25th, the 4 of Noah Gragson spun out on lap five but was able to continue. In the midst of a tight challenge between van Gisbergen and the 23 of Bubba Wallace, Wallace was penalized for shortcutting turn 5 and was forced to serve a stop-and-go. This resulted in him dropping from second to eighth.
At lap nine, van Gisbergen finally passed Reddick for the lead and stretched it to over 1.4 seconds. As the stage one laps began to wind down, drivers began to pit with their manufacturer teammates. The Fords went first, followed by the Chevys. After the pit cycle was completed, Bubba Wallace found himself in the lead from staying out of the pits. This netted him his first ever stage win at a road course. He entered the pits at the stage break with seven others.
At the restart, it was van Gisbergen and Kyle Busch leading the field. One lap later, Busch found himself in the lead. On lap 33, the 5 of Kyle Larson was issued a penalty for shortcutting turn 3. Two laps later, van Gisbergen took the lead back from Busch.
Between laps 41 and 44, a flurry of penalties were issued. The first was for Hamlin who shortcutted turn 5. The second was for John Hunter Nemechek who was issued a commitment line violation after changing his mind about pitting. The final penalty of the stage was issued to Kyle Larson who, this time, lost a wheel and received a two-lap penalty. Amidst this chaos, drivers had begun to pit. The 60 of Ryan Preece stayed out and earned the stage two victory.
Just after the restart, the 99 of Daniel Suárez found himself in a spin which resulted in a plume of smoke covering that portion of the track. Due to the lack of visibility, Connor Zilisch’s day was, unfortunately, cut short when he ran right into the 99. One lap later, the 48 of Alex Bowman was issued a penalty for shortcutting turn 5.
Stage three resulted in some great battles throughout the field including van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe fighting for fourth. On lap 66, the 34 of Todd Gilliland was penalized for shortcutting turn 5. Beginning on lap 68, the field began to complete their final pit stops in small groups. After the cycle was completed on lap 75, it was Kyle Busch back out front in hopes of breaking his 59-race winless streak.
On lap 78, Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon spun in the midst of a heated battle for 20th. Dillon became stuck in the gravel and the caution was brought out. 14 drivers chose to pit at the caution while everyone else stayed out. At the restart, Bubba Wallace was charged with a choose cone violation.
This was when the real fun began. Over the last 10 laps of the race, it was an extremely heated battle between Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, and William Byron for the lead. Over the last five laps, Tyler Reddick joined them and there was just a fraction of a second separating the four. By lap 93, Busch had lost the lead and fallen back to fourth. The then top-three – Bell, Byron, and Reddick – raced each other cleanly and battled until the last turn where Bell was able to hold off the charge and claimed his second win in a row.
The Cup Series returns Sunday, March 9th at 3:30 pm when the field takes on Phoenix Raceway for the first time since last year’s championship race.
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