Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

AUSTIN, Texas — William Byron’s dominant day at Circuit of The Americas confirmed at least one thing: He hasn’t lost a step of his road-course game since last year.

The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team cruised to victory in Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race after leading a race-high 42 laps, scoring his second win on a road course in the last three such events. The only exception? A second-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course last fall.

RELATED: Race recap | At-track photos

Byron’s defense against Christopher Bell in the closing stages affirmed both his road-racing prowess and Toyota’s ever-looming speed.

“I never saw him make a mistake, which is what it was going to take to win today in the closing laps,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. “Because Bell had the faster car with the fresher tires, any big lockup into a corner, I think it would have been a different outcome. A lot of credit to William in doing that great job. Takes the whole team, the pit crew, everybody. They’re truly on quite a run here to start this season off. Can’t wait to see where they take it next.”

Gordon, like most in the garage, admitted he expected Toyotas to dominate Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix — even though Byron put the No. 24 Chevrolet on pole position. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick controlled COTA a year ago and showed plenty of speed in Saturday’s practice, as did the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet of Bell, Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Gordon said. “It’s one thing when one car has speed, it’s another thing when a group of them have speed. That tells you a lot about what they have, what they’re bringing to the race track. It’s certainly on our radar in a big way.”

Christopher Bell leads William Byron and others during a NASCAR race at COTA.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

But so is Byron, who became the first multi-time Cup winner this year — and the first multi-time winner in each of the last three seasons. For him and crew chief Rudy Fugle, Sunday’s performance was business as usual on road courses, which is particularly notable since Watkins Glen International joins the NASCAR Playoffs this year in addition to Charlotte’s road course.

“I think it’s just part of the process and our evolution for our notebook for these race tracks,” Byron said. “I feel like for us, we can just take from this another data point of what we need to improve. I don’t think anyone’s car was driving perfect there. Just the way that this race track is with the ride over the bumps, just the way the curbing is, the track is pretty rough. I feel like it drives different than anywhere.

“At the same time, you can put this one in the notebook and say, ‘OK, when we go to what’s next, whenever we go to the next one, we know what to work on.’ We’ll just try to keep building at each one. I feel like we’ve gotten in a rhythm. We just have gotten a good feel for these places.”

Reddick told NASCAR.com earlier that it was important for his No. 45 Toyota to be “part of the conversation of winning this race.” That never really came into play Sunday, with Reddick leading just one lap and finishing fifth after qualifying third.

“I shouldn’t say it’s a bad day, but it’s not what we want when we come to a road course, right?” Reddick said. “We were able to get away with some mistakes in certain areas with a fifth place. So I mean, that’s not a bad thing, right? Obviously, none of us are satisfied with how we finished so we’ll be hungry. We’ll be working on it and getting ready for the next road course.”

Though Bell fell short at the buzzer, his electric charge should not be forgotten, either. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota — also a previous winner this season — has been a continuous threat on road courses with top 10s in 11 of his 21 starts on such tracks. Bell nearly erased a nine-second deficit to catch Byron’s bumper, falling short by just 0.692 seconds at the checkered flag.

Gibbs also shined with a third-place run, cementing the belief his Toyota teammates continue to preach — that a road-course victory is likely coming soon for the 21-year-old sophomore racer.

The good news for the field is that the next road race isn’t scheduled until June, when the Cup Series shifts westward to Sonoma Raceway in California. Until then, the notes from Circuit of The Americas will dictate teams’ next steps in trying to dethrone the No. 24 team.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials disqualified the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford after Sunday’s Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas for a violation found in post-race inspection.

Competition officials determined that the car did not meet the minimum weight requirement after Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the 3.41-mile road course. The infraction falls under Section 14.11.2 (“Vehicle Weight”) in the NASCAR Rule Book.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: COTA

Justin Haley had driven the No. 51 Ford to an apparent 17th-place finish in the race, matching his season-best result. He will instead be relegated to last place in the 39-car field and will collect last-place points in the revised finishing order.

The penalty also dropped Haley from what would have been a 26th-place ranking to 31st in the Cup Series standings.

Haley is in his first year with the Rick Ware-owned organization after spending the last two Cup Series seasons with Kaulig Racing.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

AUSTIN, Texas — Christopher Bell had a late-race charge for the ages in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas. If the race was one lap longer, there’s a high probability the No. 20 team would have been celebrating in Victory Lane.

With stage break cautions returning at COTA for the first time since 2022, Bell and his crew chief Adam Stevens pondered the idea of staying out to collect stage points if the opportunity arose. Instead of making three pit stops over 68 laps, the strategy would be to stretch the fuel tank as far as possible, making one less trip to pit road. It would also mean that pitting late in the final stage would mean Bell had the freshest tires for the sprint to the finish.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The latter strategy panned out. Coming to Lap 13, when the pits closed until the conclusion of the opening stage, the front two runners of William Byron and Ty Gibbs came to pit road, handing the lead to Bell. The No. 20 team won its second stage of the season and gained 10 points, minimizing the loss if the two-stop strategy went awry.

“We took the points in Stage 1 and then we didn’t see another caution,” Bell said. “We talked about it all week. If we were going to jump the stages or not and we decided that if we had the opportunity to win the stages, we would take the points.”

The No. 20 team was expecting more cautions to help trim the distance he trailed to the frontrunners. As he battled through the field, he sent Kyle Larson around on Lap 21. On Lap 40, it was Kyle Busch who went around off his front bumper in Turn 1. That led to a heated discussion from Busch, his former boss in the Craftsman Truck Series and teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, who stormed up to Bell after the race.

“The Larson deal, that was totally on me and I had no intentions of spinning Kyle out,” Bell said. “Kyle Busch, he opened his entry way up into Turn 1 because they were side-by-side, and I ran my normal line on the bottom and wasn’t planning on passing him. He tried to do the crossover and I was underneath him. Obviously, I didn’t mean to spin him out at all. I will reach out to him and talk to him whenever we’re a little bit cooled off.”

After Bell made his final pit stop on Lap 49, he was north of 10 seconds behind Byron, who cycled back to the front of teams that pitted. Bell erased the gap quickly, first passing Ross Chastain before tracking down his Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick. Next up was Alex Bowman, and then he hustled to Ty Gibbs’ back bumper. With two laps remaining, Bell was still 2.4 seconds behind Byron for the race lead.

MORE: Expanded COTA highlights

Byron could see Bell getting larger in his rearview mirror.

“I mean, it was just trying to not make mistakes,” Byron said of seeing Bell close the gap. “I felt like I made a lot of micro-errors in the last 10 laps. I have to calm down a little bit, look back at those 10 laps and think about what could I do better in the car to stay mentally locked in and not get flustered by the mirror, seeing him closing in a braking zone.

“He definitely had fresher tires. I’m sure that helped a little bit.”

When the white flag flew, Bell was 1.7 seconds back. He chopped another second off, but his Herculean effort came up seven-tenths of a second short of winning his second race of the young 2024 season.

“This thing was amazing,” Bell said. “Super, super fast and proud to have a nice, solid race.”

By scoring 45 points — the second-highest total at COTA — Bell jumped a spot in the regular season championship standings to seventh, 38 points behind Martin Truex Jr.’s lead.

The strategy call, though, Bell believes may have cost him the race, noting: “Ultimately, I think that’s why we didn’t win.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron turned in a steady and inspired drive to earn the NASCAR Cup Series victory from pole position in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas road course Sunday, holding off the field by less than a second but dominating the field when he needed to.

Following up on his season-opening Daytona 500 win, the 26-year-old Charlotte native became the first driver to win multiple races this season. This was his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory and gave his Hendrick team a series all-time best 28th win on NASCAR road courses.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

While at times Byron made it look easy, holding a nearly three-second advantage on the field with 10 laps remaining, his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet did have to fend off a hard-charging Christopher Bell, who made up four positions in the closing laps and kept Byron honest in what was ultimately a 0.692-second margin of victory around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile circuit.

“I feel like I made a lot of mistakes in the last 10 laps, just micro-errors and Christopher was really fast there on the longer run,” Byron said. “This sport is so hard and so difficult week in and week out to show up and have fast cars. We’ve had a little bit of a rough stretch the last few weeks but put a lot of preparation in this past week and just thankful for the team I have around me and all the people back home as well.

“Just super thankful to have this opportunity. It’s just a lot of fun to win races, and it’s really difficult, too.”

For his part, Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and a winner at Phoenix this season, acknowledged it came down to a good road-course battle among good teams and talented drivers.

“Obviously, once I got to him, it was going to be tough to pass him, I just needed a couple mistakes, but William has been really good on the road courses and he was flawless today,” Bell said.

Just behind the pair was Bell’s 21-year-old JGR teammate Ty Gibbs, who is having a stellar sophomore season in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Gibbs ran top five for the majority of the day and was second to Byron until Bell passed him with only two laps remaining. The third-place effort marked Gibbs’ fifth top-10 finish in the season’s six races.

“We were just a little too loose in the right-handed corner,” Gibbs said. “I just wish we were a little tighter, but we did a really good job today. … Good points day. We’ll just keep working hard.”

In fact, the effort now brings Gibbs to second place in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, only five points behind his teammate Martin Truex Jr.

Byron’s Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman finished fourth, followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, the 2023 COTA winner.

Unlike the previous day’s races at COTA with NASCAR’s other two national series, Sunday’s race had only two caution flags — both for scheduled stage breaks. It was a clean race that still featured seven leaders and 11 lead changes. But Byron led a dominant 42 of the 68 laps.

SHOP: Race winner gear

One of the sport’s best road-course racers, AJ Allmendinger finished sixth, followed by the 2022 COTA winner, Ross Chastain. Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch and Truex rounded out the top 10.

Shane van Gisbergen and Kamui Kobayashi — two international drivers making their first Cup Series starts this year — endured difficult days. Van Gisbergen’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet lost first gear during the middle portions of the race, and he finished 20th. Kobayashi had two on-track tangles — first with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and later with Sunoco rookie Josh Berry — that relegated his No. 50 23XI Racing Toyota to a 29th-place outcome.

Zane Smith was the highest finishing rookie in 19th.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Richmond Raceway next Sunday for the Toyota Owners 400 (7 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage confirmed Byron’s victory. The No. 51 was disqualified for not meeting minimum post-race weights. The No. 1 was taken to the R&D Center for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

AUSTIN, Texas — Going overseas to pit a NASCAR vehicle in the 24 Hours of Le Mans will always be a career highlight for Jarius Morehead, Cody French and Mike Moss.

That challenge encapsulated the endurance they display on a weekly basis back in the United States — and shines brightly again this weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The trio is pulling triple-duty this weekend in the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Cup Series at the 3.41-mile road course. Morehead served as the tire carrier, French the jackman and Moss the rear changer on Rajah Caruth’s No. 71 truck, the only vehicle they serviced together all weekend. In the Xfinity Series, Morehead carries tires for the No. 9 JR Motorsports entry driven by Brandon Jones, while Moss and French serve on the No. 6 JD Motorsports entry piloted this week by Ty Dillon.

Morehead and French will additionally service the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the Cup Series for Carson Hocevar, while Moss changes rear tires for Corey LaJoie on Sundays.

Their experience working on NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports’ Garage 56 entry in Le Mans, France, nine months ago created a lasting bond, but it also provided plenty of applicable lessons back on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

“We probably were up for at least 40 hours that day,” Morehead recalled of his Le Mans race day. “So just learning, just being very detailed, very precise with what you’re doing. It’s a longer race and longer mileage, so you make one mistake, it’s crucial to that race over there. The lesson I learned is just be patient doing your job and be as precise as possible.”

Jackman Cody French prepares to pit the No. 71 truck during a NASCAR race at COTA.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com

French added that by working on the Garage 56 endeavor, their group — which also included Dawson Backus and Donovan Williams — had extended time to practice and learn with the Next Gen vehicle, even excelling at Le Mans in a pit-crew challenge.

“In all of NASCAR, I would say this pit crew probably has the most experience with the Next Gen car,” French said, “and doing so with all the extra practices and the countless testing hours that we’ve done at certain tracks, including the race. I would say building confidence and familiarity with the car itself, knowing how the car operates, knowing how … the car is gonna react essentially to a pit stop more so than what a five-lug car would.

“Now we can come back over here in the States and know that we could run some of the fastest stops in NASCAR and have confidence in ourselves that if there’s certain problems with the car, this is the way we’ve got to operate.”

At COTA, the order of operations started with a stout Saturday doubleheader with the Truck Series and Xfinity Series, with little time in between both events. This grind is nothing new to the trio, but that doesn’t make the experience any less challenging. Both Saturday vehicles have five-lug wheels, while Sunday’s Cup race features single lugs on the Next Gen car. That matters — even on Saturday.

“On the hot side of the track, I would say from Cup to Xfinity and Truck, the main thing is slowing the pace down,” French said. “On Sundays we’re trying to go eight, nine seconds, and then on Fridays and Saturdays, you’re trying to run 12 to 13 on a good stop. And I’m a jack man, so the game is a little bit different. I’m reacting to the changers. Changers carry the load on Fridays and Saturdays. Jackman is essentially your workhorse on Sundays.

“It’s just making sure your changers are on their A-game: hitting five, making sure five are tight and then knowing that when you wake up Sunday morning, roles are reversed. It’s the jackman’s turn to go.”

Jarius Morehead prepares to pit the No. 71 truck during a NASCAR race at COTA.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com

They’re also no stranger to milestone moments. Three weeks ago, their speedy service on Caruth’s No. 71 truck helped propel Caruth to his first career win at Las Vegas, with Caruth becoming the third Black driver to win at the NASCAR national series level.

“It’s great because they had a huge role in that success from getting us out (with) good stops in Stage 1 and getting us back in the game with that green-flag pit stop there in Stage 3,” Caruth said. “So I would put my guys up against anybody in the truck field.”

A sophomore Truck Series driver, Caruth has developed a strong relationship with his crew already and praised Morehead as a leader of the group. In turn, Caruth and the crew lean on one another and root for each other’s success.

“It’s important to me to have relationships with everybody on my team,” Caruth said, “from our mechanics to our people at the shop, people we go to the race track with and obviously our pit crew just, because everybody has an important role in this, right? Yes, I’m the one that gets to drive the truck, but that’s not the most important thing. Everybody has a role in this deal.”

A former three-year starting defensive back and captain on North Carolina State’s football team, Morehead reflects on the last year with gratitude and grace, appreciative of the glory that has come from such unique challenges.

“You just look back at it and just thank God for everything that he put in your life,” Morehead said. “Definitely a blessing to get his (Caruth’s) first win. Last year close to the end of the year, we were like, ‘we’re gonna get you a win.’ We dreamed. We were talking and it was just exciting to see him get out of that car, his parents over there with him, and him to get his first win. You just look and thank God for everything.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Editor’s note: Projection has been updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions:

After a diverse mix of superspeedways, intermediate tracks and short tracks in the opening five races, the Cup Series gears up for a tussle on the road course on Sunday at Circuit of The Americas in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

Racing Insights’ forecast points to Tyler Reddick as the likely one to secure another victory at COTA.

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live roster | Weekend schedule

Reddick, the most recent winner at COTA, has exhibited remarkable skill in navigating twisty tracks in a Cup car. With eight top-10 finishes in the last 10 road-course races, he is the only driver to win more than once on road courses in the Next Gen car. Reddick is also the only driver to qualify and finish in the top five in the two races at COTA in the Next Gen era.

Following Reddick in the projections is a Hendrick Motorsports trio of Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell jumping up into the top five and replacing Michael McDowell after Saturday’s practice and qualifying session (the full projection is listed below).

OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH 

ROSS CHASTAIN: Chastain scored his first career cup win at COTA back in 2022, and the track has always been a solid place for the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver. He’s the only driver to finish all three races at the circuit in the top five.

ALEX BOWMAN: Bowman muscled out a fourth-place finish in a wild Bristol race last week. He’s also been sneaky consistent on the Austin road course, owning an average finish of 4.33, his best of all tracks.

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: Not only will this weekend be SVG’s first time racing at COTA, but it’s also his first of seven races on the Cup schedule this season. It will be interesting to see how he stacks up with the rest of the field for the first road-course race of the season after a handful of Xfinity races under his belt and added background knowledge of the Cup car.

CHRIS BUESCHER: Look, it may be the second straight week Buescher has been a driver to watch, but the stats show he might know a thing or two around a track like COTA. He finished eighth there last year, and his worst finish in the last 11 road-course races is only 11th.

MARTIN TRUEX JR.: Of all the different tracks the Cup Series has raced on so far in 2024, Truex has been the only constant. He currently has the best average finish among drivers through the first five races (8.6), and he has finished in the top 10 in three out of the last five road-course races.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE ECHOPARK AUTOMOTIVE GRAND PRIX

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.

FinishCar NumberDriver
145Tyler Reddick
29Chase Elliott
35Kyle Larson
424William Byron
520Christopher Bell
654Ty Gibbs
71Ross Chastain
817Chris Buescher
934Michael McDowell
1016Shane van Gisbergen
1119Martin Truex Jr.
1248Alex Bowman
1311Denny Hamlin
148Kyle Busch
1513AJ Allmendinger
1612Ryan Blaney
172Austin Cindric
1899Daniel Suárez
1922Joey Logano
2014Chase Briscoe
2123Bubba Wallace
223Austin Dillon
236Brad Keselowski
247Corey LaJoie
2551Justin Haley
2641Ryan Preece
2747Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2810Noah Gragson
2938Todd Gilliland
3043Erik Jones
3121Harrison Burton
3215Kaz Grala
3371Zane Smith
3442John H. Nemechek
354Josh Berry
3677Carson Hocevar
3750Kamui Kobayashi
3831Daniel Hemric
3966Timmy Hill
Posted on by Staff Report

AUSTIN, Texas — Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill fought tooth and nail in overtime of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Circuit of The Americas. Naturally, neither one of them took home the checkered flag.

Kyle Larson was the benefactor of the late-race bumping and banging between two of the toughest Xfinity Series regulars — even if SVG is a rookie still learning the stock-car ropes.

RELATED: Race recap | At-track photos: COTA

Van Gisbergen led 20 laps in the Focused Health 250, tied with Kaulig Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger for most of Saturday’s race. His No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet controlled the final restart in NASCAR Overtime, but Hill stayed glued to his bumper up the hill into the tight hairpin of Turn 1. SVG ran wide and Hill scooted into the lead, suddenly storming to a potential third win of 2024.

But New Zealander SVG had more to say with his front bumper, running into Hill’s back bumper into Turn 15 and pushing both cars wide — allowing Larson to charge left past both of them on the way to the win.

Van Gisbergen, winner of his Cup debut last July in the inaugural Chicago Street Race, crossed the line second but was levied a 30-second time penalty post-race for shortcutting the track on the final lap, dropping him to a 27th-place finish. Hill ended as the runner-up.

“That last restart, he just drove through me at (Turn) 1. I guess that’s how it is here,” van Gisbergen told FOX Sports. “I just stood up for myself. But it was some pretty awesome racing with AJ, Kyle and at the end it just turned into a mess. But that’s how it is. Really fun but wish we could’ve got the lead, but Kyle just snuck in there.”

Hill explained to reporters that he caught SVG’s rear bumper at the start/finish line surprisingly quick, almost as if SVG “semi-missed a shift,” Hill speculated.

“So I hit him and as we went up the hill, there’s some bumps far left. We were both going over the bumps,” Hill said. “I was obviously hitting him. And then I got off of him once we got to the corner, and it looked like he was wheel-hopping at that point, slid up, so then I was like oh, this is my time and took the lead.

“We took the white and I was trying to drive in as deep as I could in the corners to not let them get to me, and then I kind of drove into (Turn) 13, started to slide the front end a little bit, and then I got really loose on exit of 14. I’d have to watch the replay, but getting into 15, I’m trying to protect and it felt like from my perspective, the 97 just ran through us. And I mean you see his front end; it’s caved in really bad, so he didn’t even give us a chance to make the corner obviously.”

Austin Hill drives a NASCAR Xfinity Series car at COTA.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

With neither making the corner, Larson was able to escape with his first Xfinity win of 2024. The 2021 Cup champion was able to partake in some fierce battles with SVG and Allmendinger earlier in the contest, with all three leaning on each other, dicing up with crossovers and charging corners during a run. Larson couldn’t help but simply enjoy the moments.

“He’s just better than us,” Larson said. “He’s just way better than we all are at this. Like AJ is a level up from me, and he’s a level up from AJ. I got too caught up in the moment having fun there. I should have just forfeited the spot and realized that we were racing time at that moment and I shouldn’t have been racing him.

“I wanted to get to the lead. And he kind of surprised me when he got to my right side off of 13 — I didn’t know that he was there. Then he surprised me again when he got to my left side because I thought he was still out there on the right side. I was like, OK, this is going to be fun. I’m just gonna race him. We’re gonna have some fun here. And then AJ got out and I’m like, man, I just screwed myself.”

Getting lost in the joys of racing, though, is naturally a good thing — at least for Larson, who ended up in Victory Lane. Van Gisbergen enjoyed it too and smiled through the frustration of losing, but couldn’t quite shake the defeat. As for his post-race emotions? He was feeling “a bit of everything.”

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “The cars are awesome to drive, awesome to race. But yeah, gutted to bend it and gutted not to win at the end. Thinking so many things in my head, what I could have done different. But at the restart, I couldn’t have done much different. I was on the inside and just got driven through, but we’ve seen that here every year. That’s kind of how it is, so I was expecting it I guess.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Kyle Larson was ultimately both patient and smart taking the lead on the final overtime lap to win an aggressive Focused Health 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), the first road-course test for the series this year that earned an “A” for high drama and close competition.

New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill were duking it out for the lead — and pushing each other high off the race line as the field approached the checkered flag. With those two fending each other off, Larson drove his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet low around both and was able to pull away to a 1.215-second victory — the only lap the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champ led all day around the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: COTA

Van Gisbergen took the checkered flag second in the No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevy but was accessed a 30-second penalty for exceeding track limits in that last-lap battle with Hill, which ultimately put him in 27th. So Hill, driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, was officially scored as the runner-up.

Larson was all smiles climbing out of car, conceding he wasn’t surprised things got so aggressive in the end. He was one of the few cars — and only one among the front-runners — to drop into pit lane on the final caution to get gas and had worked his way back up front. It was his second big rally of the day. Larson dropped to the rear of the field before the start after his Hendrick Motorsports crew replaced a cracked brake rotor on his No. 17 Chevy. He recovered to challenge van Gisbergen and other front-runners through the middle stage of the race.

“It feels really special because seems like every time we’ve run the 17 car — any of us four drivers — we’re always fast on track and somehow give it away,” Larson said. “Today I was definitely not the fastest, but we were patient. I knew the 21 [Hill] had shoved SVG [van Gisbergen] through [Turn] 1 and if he got to him it could get dicey.

“I was just trying to be patient. I was thinking when to make my move and when I saw him shoving him through [turns] 15 and 16, I thought this could get good and thankfully I cleared them off in that corner. Pretty crazy. Just wild there. … Really cool, just awesome to win here at COTA.”

Neither van Gisbergen nor Austin Hill were too happy with the final outcome — both their cars damaged from the beating and banging on the final lap. Asked if he would speak to Hill about the racing, van Gisbergen said, “Yeah, I guess so.’’ But he was mostly positive about having a chance to win in only his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series race of his career.

“It was a crazy race and the car got better and better,” van Gisbergen said. “On that last restart he [Hill] just drove through me in [turn] one. I guess I stood up for myself. But it was pretty awesome racing with [teammate] AJ [Allmendinger] and in the end just turned into a mess. That’s how it is.

“It was really fun. Wish I could have gotten through to the lead, but the car [Larson] just snuck through there. He was driving really well. A lot of fun.”

While van Gisbergen managed a smile for the post-race television interview, he definitely had to battle all afternoon — including with Kaulig teammate Allmendinger, a two-time winner of this COTA Xfinity Series race and the series’ best active road-course driver.

MORE: Weekend schedule: COTA

They battled head-to-head for the final laps of the regularly scheduled race, only for Allmendinger to get swept up and out in a three-wide attempt for the lead in Turn 1 during the first green-white-checkered flag period. He was running fifth at the time of the final caution that forced a second overtime start and ultimately finished 10th.

John Hunter Nemechek finished third, reigning series champion Cole Custer was fourth and Parker Kligerman rounded out the top five. Rookie Jesse Love, Austin Green, last week’s winner Chandler Smith, Sam Mayer and Allmendinger rounded out the top 10.

It was a particularly impressive day for Green, son of former Xfinity Series champion David Green, finishing seventh in his first series start.

Big Machine Racing driver Kligerman earned his first stage win of the year, claiming the Stage 1 victory. Brandon Jones seemingly won Stage 2 only to receive a penalty for cutting Turn 5 on the last lap of the stage. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst was instead awarded the stage win – his first of the season.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to competition next Saturday with the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chandler Smith is the defending winner, earning his career first Xfinity Series trophy there last spring.

Notes: Post-race inspection was all clear in the Xfinity Series garage without major issue, with Larson’s No. 17 Chevrolet confirmed as the winning car. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for driver Ty Gibbs was found with a single unsecured lug nut in a post-race check, which should mean a monetary fine for the team’s crew chief in the midweek penalty report.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Dustin Albino

AUSTIN, Texas – When Connor Zilisch won the pole for Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series XPEL 225 at Circuit of The Americas by nearly three-quarters of a second, it could’ve been a runaway race for the 17-year-old in his series debut. That strategy changed by the end of the opening lap.

Zilisch overdrove Turn 1 on the first lap, dropping outside the top 10. When he cycled back into the field, the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet had a flat tire.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I had two trucks on the inside, outside of me, and I lost my references and went off where [Taylor Gray] was braking,” Zilisch said of his Lap 1 mishap. “[Gray] went too deep and that caused me to go too deep. Rookie mistakes that shouldn’t have been made, but I learned a lot and will move on and get better for the next one.

“It’s a long race, and as frustrating as it may have been to lose the lead that early, I knew that I wasn’t out of it. It’s just the fact that I was so fast. If I was a little slower, it would have been harder. I had so much speed, so that allowed me to push and not give up.”

When the first caution of the race flew two laps later for a tire carcass lying in the middle of the track, Zilisch’s crew chief Brian Pattie chose to go under the hood of the No. 7 truck to assess the damage from limping around the track on the opening lap. In the process, Zilisch lost a lap but was the recipient of the free pass at the conclusion of the first stage.

When the second stage got underway, Tyler Ankrum tagged Zilisch, turning the No. 7 truck. Zilisch dropped outside the top 20 in the running order but quickly regained some of that lost track position. On Lap 20, Zilisch was caught cutting the course in Turn 4. Despite the tumultuous first half of the race, the No. 7 truck rebounded to sixth at the end of the second stage as other trucks pitted.

It didn’t take long for Zilisch to mow through the field at the beginning of the final stage. On Lap 28, he made contact with Ty Majeski contesting for second position, ultimately leading to a right-rear tire rub. Over that stint of the race, the No. 7 truck lost its fast pace, dropping critical seconds to race leader Corey Heim.

It turned out that Zilisch had a tire going down that entire run. When the caution flew for a stalled Lawless Alan on Lap 37, Zilisch led a host of trucks down pit road for fresh tires. All the No. 7 team had left was a set of scuffs.

“They wanted to give me the best shot, even though I restarted a little further back,” Zilisch said of pitting late. “I think that’s a great call. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have enough speed. My tires were flat spotted. A lot of the mistakes that I made kind of showed at the end that you might not have seen.”

Another caution flew for the entire rear-end housing of Marco Andretti’s truck falling apart coming to the white flag. Zilisch would restart eighth and gain four spots in the overtime finish to place fourth in his NASCAR national touring series debut.

MORE: 2024 Xfinity Series schedule

“I’m proud of myself, but knowing how much speed we had, I’m still frustrated,” Zilisch said. “I wish I could have gotten a better finish. But at the end of the day, I finished fourth in my NASCAR debut. That’s nothing to hang your head about.”

Zilisch is counting down the days until his next NASCAR start, which isn’t scheduled to come until he makes his Xfinity Series debut for JR Motorsports at Watkins Glen International in mid-September. His next truck start isn’t until the postseason is well underway at Talladega Superspeedway. He will also drive the No. 7 truck in the Round of 8 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Posted on by Holly Cain

An afternoon of impressive restarts ultimately handed Corey Heim the winning finish in the XPEL 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the famed Circuit of The Americas (COTA) road course in Austin, Texas on Saturday afternoon.

Heim dominated the race — his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota leading a race-best 31 of the 46 laps and prevailing in an overtime finish to convincingly win his first race of 2024 and sixth of his career — by 1.625 seconds over his teammate Taylor Gray.

RELATED: Official results | COTA weekend schedule

ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, Spire Motorsports’ Connor Zilisch and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain in a Niece Motorsports Chevy rounded out the top five.

“Just prepared so hard for this race,” said Heim, who also won Stage 2. “I came into this race last year and struggled really. Finished sixth with a penalty and just all over the place. To put together a solid race like this is just so special and really just shows you how good our trucks are back at the shop.”

Heim has finished sixth or better in all five races this season.

“Just great consistency and that was the name of the game last year to make it as far as we did,” he said, smiling. “Didn’t have the result at the end [of 2023] but I think this year we can make it back and prove we’re champions. Super excited for the rest of the year, we’re really just getting started and I think our best tracks are in front of us, so really can’t wait.”

Heim’s performance Saturday on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course was the afternoon standard, but there was plenty of good racing behind him. There were 14 lead changes among eight drivers, but no one other than Heim led double-digit laps.

Jack Hawksworth, a sports car and IndyCar driver making his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start, proved himself a talent to be reckoned with. He ran top five most of the day and led a lap. He finished sixth.

Reigning series champ Ben Rhodes, Christian Eckes, Dean Thompson and Tanner Gray rounded out the top 10.

MORE: At-track photos from COTA

The 17-year-old phenom Zilisch, a Trackhouse Racing signee, started from pole position in his first start in one of NASCAR’s national divisions. Leading the field, he went into the first corner hard, however, relinquishing the lead to Heim immediately. After a pit stop for tires and a motivational reminder from his veteran crew chief Brian Pattie, he returned with vengeance. He and his Spire Motorsports No. 7 team never gave up, getting him back on the lead lap and then in contention late in the race.

Zilisch was running in fourth place with less than five laps to go in regulation but was given a pass-through penalty for cutting the course. Fortunately, it came just as a caution flew and it only cost the teenager two positions. He opted to pit for gas during the ensuing yellow flag and was able to climb back to that impressive top-five finish in his first race.

Nick Sanchez won Stage 1 but dropped back after a Stage 2 penalty for cutting the course in the esses and a spin in close-quarters racing with Jake Garcia on Lap 21. After another spin in Turn 1 in overtime, he finished 20th in Rev Racing’s No. 2 Chevrolet.

The race was forced to four extra laps after a late caution when the rear-end housing broke off the No. 04 Roper Racing Chevrolet driven by Marco Andretti. The event was briefly red-flagged for clean-up, and Andretti finished 31st in his first Truck Series start of the year. Post-race, competition officials announced that the rear-end housing and truck arms would travel to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further evaluation.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to competition April 5 with the Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Heim is the defending winner.

Notes: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without major issue, confirming Heim as the race winner at COTA. The No. 7 Spire truck of Zilisch was found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check, which should result in a crew chief fine in next week’s penalty report. Two drivers — ThorSport’s Matt Crafton and Niece Motorsports’ Matt Mills — were assessed 30-second penalties post-race for short-cutting the course in the final laps. … Heim moved up one spot in the standings into the Truck Series points lead. He is 10 points ahead of Majeski after five of 23 races this year.

Contributing: Staff reports