TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
Circuit of The Americas
Austin, Texas
March 23-24, 2024
NASCAR SET FOR FIRST ROAD COURSE RACE OF 2024 SEASON
NASCAR is set to make its fourth appearance at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend, with the 3.41-mile circuit hosting the series’ first road course race of the season. Arguably one of the most technical circuits on the schedule, the course lies within the rolling hills of Austin, Texas – featuring 20-turns and just over 130 feet of elevation change. COTA welcomed Formula One for the circuits’ inaugural event in November 2012, and the venue has since hosted some of the most pristine series in motorsports with NASCAR being the latest addition in 2021.
Chevrolet returns to COTA with a pair of victories in both the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS), with the manufacturer looking to continue its undefeated season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) by picking up its first win in the series at the circuit.
Chevrolet at Circuit of The Americas: Milestone Memories
Team Chevy’s Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain took Chevrolet on a pair of memorable trips to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series’ first two events at Circuit of The Americas.
In the series’ debut at the circuit in 2021, Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 team gambled on fuel strategy in exchange for prime track position amid inclement weather conditions. Sitting at the top of the leaderboard when the event was red-flagged and ultimately deemed official, Elliott not only became the first-ever NCS winner at COTA, but also delivered Chevrolet its milestone 800th all-time NCS victory. The victory also brought Hendrick Motorsports to a tie with Petty Enterprises’ all-time win record in the series, with the organization going on to break the record the following week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. To date, Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports continue to hold the record as the winningest manufacturer and organization in NASCAR’s top division with 854 and 303 wins, respectively, in the series.
One year later, Chastain took the Bowtie brand back to victory lane at COTA. The triumph was a monumental victory for both Chastain and Trackhouse Racing – marking the first-ever win for both the driver and the organization in NASCAR’s top division. The victory also came with a playoff berth to give Chastain his first appearance in the series’ post-season championship battle, with the Team Chevy driver going on to lead the manufacturer in the final points standings with a runner-up finish.
CHEVROLET’S ROAD COURSE HISTORY
Chevrolet’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory on a road course came with Buck Baker in the series’ debut at Watkins Glen International in 1957. To date, the Bowtie brand has tallied 64 all-time road course victories in NASCAR’s top division – seven of which have come since the Next Gen cars began competing in the series at the beginning of the 2022 season.
In recent years:
Chevrolet has earned 17 victories in the past 22 NCS road course events – starting with Chase Elliott’s victory at Watkins Glen International in August 2019, to AJ Allmendinger’s victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October 2023.
Within that time span, the manufacturer notched a streak of 11 consecutive road course wins in the series – beginning with Chase Elliott’s victory at Circuit of The Americas in May 2021.
Six drivers from four different Chevrolet teams contributed to the manufacturer’s streak of 11 consecutive NCS road course victories:
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet:
(Circuit of The Americas; May 2021)
(Road America; July 2021)
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet:
(Sonoma; June 2021)
(Watkins Glen; August 2021)
(Charlotte ROVAL; October 2021)
(Watkins Glen; August 2022)
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet:
(Indianapolis Road Course; August 2021)
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet:
(Circuit of The Americas; March 2022)
Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet:
(Sonoma Raceway; June 2022)
Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet:
(Road America; July 2022)
(Indianapolis; July 2022)
ZILISCH TAPS IN FOR NASCAR DEBUT
Trackhouse Racing development driver Connor Zilisch is slated to make his much-anticipated NASCAR debut in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Circuit of The Americas. The 17-year-old driver will take over the reins of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Silverado RST – a ride that has already found victory lane this season with two-time NCS champion Kyle Busch (Atlanta Motor Speedway – Feb. 2024).
Zilisch grabbed the attention of the motorsports world in the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway when the young Team Chevy driver was a part of Era Motorsports’ LMP2 win – making him the second-youngest driver in history to win the event. The rising star made his first and only start in the ARCA Menards Series at Watkins Glen International last season – leading 34 of the event’s 42 laps en route to a runner-up finish.
ALLMENDINGER, CHEVROLET SETS SIGHTS ON COTA THREE-PEAT
Chevrolet’s two NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at Circuit of The Americas have come with road course phenom AJ Allmendinger. The 42-year-old California native took his Kaulig Racing Camaro ZL1 to victory lane at the Austin circuit the past two seasons. Now returning to the series full-time, Allmendinger will have the opportunity to make it three-straight in Saturday’s Focused Health 250. Allmendinger will also pilot a third entry for Kaulig Racing in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event. The Team Chevy driver has earned one top-five finish at the circuit in NASCAR’s top division, which came in the series’ inaugural event in 2021.
Allmendinger’s win at COTA last season brought the Team Chevy driver to 11 NXS road course victories – extending his record as the only driver in series’ history to earn a double-digit win count on road courses. He also drove Kaulig Racing to victory lane in the NCS’ event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last season – marking his 13th career road course victory at the NASCAR national level.
Doing Double-Duty
Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing teammate Shane van Gisbergen will also be pulling double-duty in the NCS and NXS at COTA this weekend. The 34-year-old New Zealand native has just two starts in NASCAR’s top division – recording a history-making win in the series’ inaugural street course race in Chicago, and a 10th-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course last season.
2021 NCS Champion Kyle Larson also adds to the list of Team Chevy drivers set to compete in NASCAR’s top two series this weekend. The 31-year-old California will get behind the wheel of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro SS to mark his first of two starts in the organization’s NXS entry this season. Two of his four starts in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro SS have come on a road course – tallying a runner-up finish at Road America in 2022, and a third-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in 2023.
ECKES CONTNIUES CHEVROLET’S UNDEFEATED RECORD
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes kept the Bowtie brand’s win streak alive at Bristol Motor Speedway – driving his No. 19 Silverado RST to a pole win, going on to lead a race-high 144 laps en route to his first victory of the season. The victory continued Chevrolet’s undefeated record in the NCTS this season, with Eckes becoming the fourth different driver to take the manufacturer to its fourth-straight NCTS victory lane appearance. This marks the seventh time in series’ history that a single manufacturer has won at least the first four races of a NCTS season. Chevrolet’s longest season-opening win streak came in the series’ inaugural season (1995) when the manufacturer tallied eight-straight victories.
BOWTIE BULLETS:
· With 13 races complete across NASCAR’s three national series this season, Chevrolet has a winning percentage of 69% with nine victories (NASCAR Cup Series – three wins; NASCAR Xfinity Series – two wins; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – four wins).
· Chevrolet has recorded four-straight victories to start the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season – marking the seventh time in series’ history that a single manufacturer has won at least the first four races of a NCTS season.
· Active Chevrolet drivers with a NASCAR Cup Series win at Circuit of The Americas:
Ross Chastain: one win (2022)
Chase Elliott: one win (2021)
· Chevrolet has recorded wins in 17 of the past 22 NASCAR Cup Series road course races, including a streak of 11 consecutive wins that started with Chase Elliott’s victory at Circuit of The Americas in May 2021
· Chevrolet has 64 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins on road courses – starting with Buck Baker at Watkins Glen International in 1957.
· Chase Elliott leads the series’ active drivers with seven road course wins in NASCAR’s premier series – ranking him third on the NCS all-time road course wins list behind Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight).
· Within the first three points-paying races of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series races season, each Chevrolet organization had already recorded at least one top-10 finish.
· With its 42 NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships, 33 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Championships, and 854 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet continues to hold the title as the winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history.
Manufacturer Points Standings
Chevrolet: 184
Toyota: 181 (-3)
Ford: 166 (-18)
Manufacturer Points Standings
Toyota: 150
Chevrolet: 148 (-2)
Ford: 120 (-30)
Manufacturer Points Standings
Chevrolet: 160
Toyota: 134 (-26)
Ford: 128 (-32)
TUNE-IN:
NASCAR Cup Series
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
Sunday, March 24, at 3:30 p.m. ET
(FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Focused Health 250
Saturday, March 23, at 5 pm. ET
(FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
XPEL 225
Saturday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. ET
(FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 WORLDWIDE EXPRESS CAMARO ZL1
Can you take me through a perfect lap at COTA as a previous race winner?
“I’ve never done it. I can’t take you through it because I’ve never done it (laughs). There’s a lot of mistakes that happen with 20 turns. There’s a lot of mistakes that happen for every driver, every lap. I can’t even dream of the perfect lap at COTA. I just want to minimize the mistakes.”
Where is the best place to pass at COTA?
“There’s 20 brake zones and 20 acceleration zones on the other side of each corner. I can’t think of one spot that I get really excited about passing because they’re all high risk, very heavy braking. There are some new asphalt patches in some of the corners that are brake zones. So nothing is comfortable about passing at COTA because it’s really easy to slide through the apex and wipe another driver out, or get wiped out, or spin out.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 GET BIOETHANOL CAMARO ZL1
What are your thoughts heading into COTA. It can be a difficult track for drivers …
“COTA is a tough racetrack. It’s got a lot of different corners. Every corner connects to each other. COTA can be challenging because I feel like it has multiple road courses in one, and it’s one of the biggest tracks we’ve ever gone to. We’ve had some success recently on road courses so we’ll be heading to COTA with the goal of backing up some of the runs we’ve had on road courses of late. We’re really focused on being aggressive with the adjustments to the car and how I drive in the race.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 MARK III EMPLOYEE BENEFITS CAMARO ZL1
Have you seen where the track at COTA has been repaved and patched? How will that impact the race?
“I don’t think it’s going to impact the race any. I have seen it, yeah. I think they got rid of a bump on the exit of turn one, and I think they did a little bit into the backstretch straightaway through 12 or 13, and then out of the carousel and into 19. I don’t foresee it changing a whole lot. Like you’ll have lack of grip probably through the carousel, and then you’ll pickup grip on the exit and be able to go much faster through 19. But then out of 19, it’s back to the old asphalt and turn 20 is very slow with old asphalt being as slick as it is. I don’t know that it really opens up any more opportunities of passing or anything like that, just smoother surface I would imagine.”
Last year at COTA there were four cautions in the last 15 laps of the race. How mentally challenging is that for a driver?
“I would say that last year’s caution periods towards the end of the race was a challenge because you kept having to go through the restarts so thinking about what line you wanted to line up in and where you needed to be in order to position yourself for the restart all the dive bombs and the disrespect that keeps happening getting into Turn 1 is always an issue so you’ve got to be ready for that, mindful that you know that’s going to be happening so from there you hope for the best.”
Do you prefer stage cautions on road courses or had you rather the race stay green?
“I do not prefer stage cautions on road courses and don’t think that they should be there because of the fact that people jump the stages or they stay out in order to steal points from those that jumped the stages knowing when the cautions are going to fall. I definitely feel like it throws off the strategy of the race for a lot of people but when we were at Watkins Glen last fall, we needed those stage cautions so we could put ourselves back in position when we got behind on our pit road issues.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 31 CIRKUL CAMARO ZL1
“COTA will be a challenge of its own. It will be my first time driving these Next Gen cars with sequential shifting, the brakes, and just the raw capability of the cars. It will be a brand-new experience for me, but I love any opportunity to grow as a driver and as a race team. Kaulig Racing has had solid, road-course success, so hopefully with this new package, we can adapt and learn quickly.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1
Bowman on racing at Circuit of The Americas:
“I’m excited to get to COTA (Circuit of the Americas) and unload to see what we have. With the aero package being different and the little bit of repave, it will be interesting to have to adapt to. They’ve patched COTA so many different times. It has lots of different kinds of surfaces through it and it can be pretty tricky.. and a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to this weekend- COTA has been a good place for us.”
BLAKE HARRIS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1
Harris on racing at Circuit of The Americas:
“I think we’ve had really good runs at road courses and he (Alex Bowman) is statistically really strong at COTA (Circuit of the Americas). The No. 48 team is looking forward to getting there. There are a lot of questions about the new aero package and we get an extra practice session on Saturday, so hopefully we can dive in and get adjusted quickly. I think it (COTA) is probably one of Alex’s favorite road courses, and track in general, so we look forward to work to carry our momentum from Bristol to Texas.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1
What are your thoughts on COTA?
“I feel like COTA owes me one or two. We have run well there since we started, but something has happened at the end of these races to disappoint us. But, we certainly go to COTA knowing we will run up front and that’s always a great feeling.”
Does COTA’s proximity to Monterrey give you extra motivation?
“Yes, I love going to COTA. I hear more cheers than normal when we go around in the pace car before the race. That’s a great feeling knowing we have the support. A win anywhere is great, but winning at COTA would be really cool.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships:
Total (1949-2023): 42
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022, 2023
Drivers Championships:
Total (1949-2021): 33
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)
Most Recent: Kyle Larson (2021)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021
Event Victories:
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)
2024 STATISTICS:
Wins: 3
Poles: 0
Laps Led: 390
Top-five finishes: 9
Top-10 finishes: 15
Stage wins: 3
· Chase Elliott: 1
· Kyle Larson: 2
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 854 (1949 to date)
Poles won to date: 743
Laps led to date: 249,565
Top-five finishes to date: 4,307
Top-10 finishes to date: 8,876
Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date:
General Motors: 1,188
Chevrolet: 854
Pontiac: 154
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 828
Ford: 728
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 191
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 182
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
