NASCAR Preview: 2022 Circuit of the Americas
Mar. 25—This coming weekend, NASCAR fans will get to see their favorite drivers turning left and right around the first road course of the 2022 season, as the Circuit of the Americas road course just outside Austin, TX, will be hosting the EchoPark Grand Prix race weekend for the second time on Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27.
All three top divisions will be in action again, just hopefully dryer than last year's monsoon of a race weekend.
Friday action kicks off with the Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) thirty-minute practice and followed immediately by qualifying at 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., followed by the Xfinity Series (NXS) thirty-minute practice and qualifying at 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Both series' qualifying will follow the group qualifying format, with two groups an A & B the top five from each group line up and go out again for a second round of qualifying to set the top ten starting spots.
Saturday will be another double header race day just like last week in Atlanta. However, fan will get an on-track appetizer to kick off the day of racing with the Cup Series (NCS) one hour practice and qualifying starting at 10:00 a.m.
The only difference between the NCS and other two divisions will be the NCS drivers will be split in the two groups for practice where the CWTS and NXS only split up for qualifying.
Then, in the afternoon, NCS qualifying the CWTS drivers and teams line up for their 42-lap "XPEL 225" at 1:00 p.m., to see if John Hunter Nemechek (#4) can rebound from his early season troubles or could there be yet another new face in victory lane.
Coverage for the "XPEL 225" will be on FS1 for the TV viewers and PRN/SiriusXM Ch. 90 for Radio.
If all that on-track activities left you still wanting more, no fear, because immediately following the CWTS post-race coverage, the NXS lines up for their 46 lap "Pit Boss 250" at 4:30 p.m.
Joining the Xfinity regulars Bubba Wallace will be climbing in the #18 Joe Gibbs GR Supra for his first of two races this season, the second race to be the Indianapolis Road Course later this year.
Coverage for the "Pit Boss 250" will conveniently also be on FS1 for TV and PRN/SiriusXM Ch. 90. So, no need to worry about changing those channels following the CWTS race.
Sunday will hopefully be a Sun-"day" instead of last year's event that saw the NCS trying to race around a course with poor visibility. This was due to blinding rooster-tails of water coming off the backs of the cars.
The weather folks have predicted a high of 83 degrees a low of 56 degrees and only a 4% chance of precipitation for Sunday. All weekend should be mostly sunny skies and hot temperatures.
Fans will have to tune in on FOX and PRN/SiriusXM Ch. 90 at 3:30 p.m. for the NCS 68-lap "EchoPark Grand Prix" to see if Chase Elliott (#9) can continue his road course dominance, or might another "road course ace" take the win away from the series' reigning most popular driver? Tune in and find out.
