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Chase Elliott (bottom) races Ryan Newman at Circuit of the Americas.
The schedules for the top three series in NASCAR are not yet available to the public, but industry sources are providing some early hints about the tracks that will reportedly appear in 2022. One such example is Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Tex.
According to Adam Stern of the “Sports Business Journal,” NASCAR will tentatively release the 2022 schedule the week of Sept. 13. Among the reported dates is a return to the Texas road course, where all three series competed for the first time on May 22-23. Chase Elliott won the Cup Series race, Kyle Busch won the Xfinity Series race, and Todd Gilliland took the Truck Series race.
NASCAR driver-turned-owner Tony Stewart was the first person to test out the Circuit of the Americas in a stock car. He headed down to Texas on Oct. 31, 2019, and took some laps around the 3.41-mile race track in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang while members of the Haas F1 team watched. Two years later, Stewart’s four drivers headed to the track in their respective stock cars.
The Debut Weekend at COTA Featured Weather-Related Issues
NASCAR has yet to confirm that the three series will return to Austin, but the move makes sense. The first trip to the road course did not play out as expected as the weather caused some disruptions, especially to the Cup Series race.
The rain fell throughout the weekend at COTA, forcing the drivers to put on rain tires and windshield wipers. The Cup Series race had the most issues as the rain limited visibility and resulted in several stunning wrecks. Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell, and Cole Custer all left the race early due to incidents on the track. Harvick, in particular, responded by making heated comments about the situation.
“It’s the most unsafe thing I’ve ever done in a race car by a lot,” Harvick said after his wreck, per “Racing News.” “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.
“I let off, and the guy behind me hit me wide-open because he never saw me. So it’s unbelievable that we’re out there doing what we’re doing because we’re in race cars that aren’t meant to do this, and if you can’t see going down the straightaway, it’s absolutely not safe, not even close.”
The rainfall ultimately forced NASCAR to throw the red flag and declare Chase Elliott the winner with 14 laps remaining. Kyle Larson was in second place at the time and added another top-five finish to his season stats. Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, and AJ Allmendinger all rounded out the top five.
A Massive Track Could Lose a Date on the Schedule
Another reported change for the 2022 season involves the Tricky Triangle. Stern reported that Pocono Raceway will lose one of its two races during the upcoming season after hosting a doubleheader in 2021 and every season from 1982 on.
If NASCAR removes one of Pocono’s races, the expectation is that a new track will take its place. World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway Motorsports Park is the most likely option. Stern reported in late August that the sanctioning body has continued to explore a Cup Series race at the 1.25-mile oval outside of St. Louis.
WWTR has hosted a multitude of races, starting in 1997 and ranging from ARCA Menards to the Xfinity Series. The most recent example is the first Camping World Truck Series playoff race, which Sheldon Creed won after sweeping all three stages and avoiding on-track incidents.
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