Drivers have mixed opinions on road-course advantage for Allmendinger, SVG

AUSTIN, Texas – Las Vegas knew the deal. Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch entered this weekend's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas as favorites for the race victory. Not far down the list was three-time road course winner AJ Allmendinger. While Zilisch is making his highly anticipated Cup debut and is running for an Xfinity Series championship with JR Motorsports, van Gisbergen and Allmendinger are legitimate threats to lock up a playoff spot in the third race of the 2025 Cup Series season. Neither driver will call their shot, though, knowing how deep the Cup Series field has gotten on road courses in recent years. Since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022, 12 different drivers have been victorious on road courses. COTA: Full weekend schedule | Fantasy lineup tips "If you look at SVG, we've seen how fast he is. I'm always going to point to him as the favorite," Allmendinger told NASCAR.com. "I always appreciate that people look at me as a guy that can go out and win, but I've won three of them. It's not like I've won 15 races on the road courses. It's not like I'm the dominant guy." Van Gisbergen never races with expectations, so he himself asked who was the favorite to win at COTA, the site of Sunday's race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). "I know I'm going to be good, but there are plenty of other good drivers here," van Gisbergen said. "There are six to eight guys who are really good on road courses, and the rest of the top 20 are great as well. It's a pretty deep field." However, fellow competitors know how dangerous van Gisbergen and Allmendinger can be. Both drivers had their weekend start off right, cracking the top five in Saturday's opening practice session. Van Gisbergen was at the top of the scoring pylon after both sessions. "Obviously, they are strong, and the decision for race teams, you've got to look at where can you win to get into the playoffs," reigning Cup champion Joey Logano said. "You look at Shane, AJ and some of these guys, they are well-rounded race car drivers and can win at other [tracks], but their true advantage when it comes to these race tracks is they are just good. They have a good chance of winning and locking themselves into the playoffs, and they would be deserving of it." Entering the weekend with three straight top-five finishes at COTA, Alex Bowman has a good feel for the road course. Even with the course change to a smaller layout, the No. 48 Chevrolet ranked second during the opening practice and topped the speed chart in final practice. He is banking on experience at COTA to give him a slight advantage for the weekend. "I feel like I have a couple more races here than SVG does, at least, so that's a good thing for me," Bowman said. "They are super-talented race car drivers, and you know that will be fast when you go to any road course." It won't only be COTA where van Gisbergen and Allmendinger are expected to run up front as the 2025 regular season is filled with five road courses. The next race where drivers will make left- and right-hand turns isn't until June at the inaugural event at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. MORE: Drivers visit Mexico before Cup race in June Possible playoff bubble drivers are aware that van Gisbergen and Allmendinger have the upper hand. Austin Dillon expects drivers who excel on road courses to take up at least one playoff spot this year. "I suspect that there will be at least one to two guys with road-racing backgrounds in the playoffs," Dillon said. "We're all pretty good at it, but there are some guys that have more experience and raced a little more with left and right-hand turns. They are tough to beat out here, but you can't take it away from them." Other weekly frontrunners aren't as concerned and think the two drivers could be focused on the bigger picture. They also have a boost of confidence, having won multiple road-course races in recent seasons. "It could potentially make them less dangerous because they will be more conscious of points," Kyle Larson said. "At the same time, I think they have to take more advantage of winning a road course. I don't know what their mindset is. Honestly, it probably doesn't matter because they are really good anyways." 2023 COTA winner Tyler Reddick knows that to have a shot at the season-long goal, drivers need to excel everywhere and not be a specialist at a singular craft. "At the end of the day, unless you are the first- or second-best car week in and week out, you have to win anyways to make it into the playoffs," Reddick said. "If you want to be a playoff contender, if you want to be a title contender, you've got to win races. I don't know if it really is a thought like that for me. We came into the year knowing we needed to win races to give us the best shot to make the playoffs and then go far." In six Cup starts on road courses, van Gisbergen has three top-10 finishes, including a victory in his NASCAR debut at the inaugural Chicago Street Race. Allmendinger has a best finish of fifth in four COTA starts.