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NASCAR has no plans to have a race at Austin's COTA anytime soon
NASCAR is not looking to have a race at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas in the future.
The road course opened in the Texas capital in 2012 and has hosted Formula 1 and IMSA races since its opening. The chairman of the track opened the door to the possibility of NASCAR races earlier this year. Monday, NASCAR vice president Steve O’Donnell shut it.
“We’ve not had any discussions with the track there and candidly don’t plan to,” O’Donnell told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“We’re happy here.”
COTA chairman David Epstein told the Austin American-Statesman in February that he had conversations with “officials” from NASCAR and there was mutual interest in the track hosting a race.
“I’ve had contact with NASCAR officials, and we’ve heard from their fans and drivers,” Epstein said. “Everyone seems to want to be here, so I see no reason why it couldn’t come together.”
As NASCAR fans clamor for more road course races, COTA is a natural fit as a place for NASCAR to expand. But Texas Motor Speedway is territorial. It’s so territorial to the point that it has a clause in its agreement with NASCAR that prevents other tracks within close proximity from hosting NASCAR races.
COTA and TMS are approximately 220 miles from each other.
If Texas was getting the crowds it got 20 years ago, we’d understand why a race at COTA could be seen as a threat. The track, which seats well over 100,000, had sellout crowds after it opened in 1997. Since then, however, crowds have been relatively sparse and the track has even taken the step of doing a buy one, get one free promotion for the April race.
The people that are still coming to Texas are die-hards — and probably more local to the Dallas-Fort Worth area anyway. Are they going to suddenly bolt too if there was a race at COTA? It seems doubtful.
But it’s a moot point anyway. NASCAR isn’t going to be adding new tracks anytime soon given that it signed five-year agreements with all of its tracks before the 2016 season. Las Vegas Motor Speedway was only able to get a second race in 2018 because it took one from sister track New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
