CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS & ST. PETERSBURG
Saturday, Feb. 28 – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (St. Pete), 12 p.m. ET (FOX)
Saturday, Feb. 28 – NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (COTA), 2:30 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, March 1 – NASCAR Cup Series (COTA), 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
For the third straight week, all three of NASCAR’s top touring series will be in action, but they won’t all be in the same location. That’s because the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series are competing in Austin, TX, at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) while the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series runs for the first time on the streets of St. Petersburg in Florida.
SMITH STARTING STRONG
Zane Smith has gotten off to a solid start this season. The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse is one of only three drivers to post a top-10 finish in the first two races and sits fifth in the point standings going into this weekend’s race at Circuit of The Americas. Smith, who also has a stage win to his credit, has finishes of sixth (Daytona) and seventh (Atlanta), marking the first time in his Cup career he has strung together consecutive top-10 runs. In two previous Cup Series starts at COTA, Smith has finishes of 19th (2024) and 29th (2025).
BUESCHER AT HOME ON THE ROAD
Chris Buescher has turned into one of the most consistent road course drivers on the Ford Racing roster and comes into this weekend’s race looking to extend his streak of top 10 finishes at Circuit of The Americas to four. The Texas native has a pair of eighth-place finishes to go with last year’s seventh-place run in five career starts at the Austin facility. Even more impressive is his streak over the last four seasons that has seen him put together 17 top 10 finishes in the last 23 road/street course events, including a win at Watkins Glen International in 2024. Buescher’s average finish during that stretch is 9.04.
FORD’S ACTIVE ROAD COURSE CUP WINNERS
There are three current drivers who have won a NASCAR Cup Series race on a road course with Ford. The most recent winner was Chris Buescher, who won at Watkins Glen International and extended his streak of at least one victory to three straight seasons. Ryan Blaney got his first road course win in the inaugural event on the Charlotte Roval in 2018 while Joey Logano scored his Cup victory at Watkins Glen International in 2015, which completed a weekend sweep after he won the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race one day earlier.
OTHER FORD ROAD COURSE WINNERS
Besides the drivers mentioned above, Ford has four other active Cup competitors who have won on a road course in either the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Brad Keselowski (Watkins Glen NOAPS with Ford, 2013); Austin Cindric (NOAPS wins with Ford at Watkins Glen, 2019; Mid-Ohio, 2019; Road America, 2020, Daytona Road Course, 2020; and Indianapolis Road Course, 2021); Todd Gilliland (Circuit of The Americas NCTS with Ford, 2021); and Zane Smith (Circuit of The Americas NCTS with Ford, 2022 and 2023).
FORD ROAD COURSE WINS IN THE MODERN ERA (1972-Present)
Circuit of The Americas is one of nine road courses the NASCAR Cup Series has competed on in the modern era, joining Riverside International Raceway (1958-88), Watkins Glen International (1957-Present), Sonoma Raceway (1989-Present), Charlotte Motor Speedway (2018-Present), Daytona International Speedway (2020-2021), Road America (2021-2022), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2021-23) and the Chicago Street Race (2023-Present). Ford has produced a total of 20 combined wins at those facilities from 1972-Present. Mark Martin leads the way with four victories, including three straight years at Watkins Glen, while Ricky Rudd, Marcos Ambrose and Geoffrey Bodine have two each.
RYAN PREECE: “I like it. I think it’s gonna be a completely different race from last year just because of the tire and the tire degradation and how you have to position yourself through that. I think there are still quite a few unknowns, but I think it showed last year at the Roval that qualifying matters, but you can still make a good day out of something if you don’t have track position.”
CHRIS BUESCHER: “I’m looking forward to COTA The changes last year took away some passing zones. It took away those max braking dive bomb passing zones, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did force everything to happen in turn one, which was already kind of a nasty corner with how wide it is on entry and pinpointed at the apex, but the course was better. I think we got more laps. There was probably close to two miles of racetrack on the back side of the course that our fans didn’t get to see. There were no stands. I don’t remember any camping and it was just too far away. I think it was a solid decision to shorten it up and bring us by the stands and by the fans almost twice as much. I think we still have some decent passing zones there. It did kind of change what you put the most emphasis on when we go and it certainly made it a lot easier on brakes.”
GILLILAND WINS DEBUT TRUCK RACE AT COTA
Todd Gilliland became the first NASCAR driver to win a national series event at Circuit of The Americas when he captured what was then known as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in 2021. In a weekend that was hampered by rain, Gilliland was able to manage the mixed conditions of dry and wet pavement to win by nearly eight seconds. Gilliland, who registered his second series win that day, continues to look for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory this weekend in his fourth season driving for Front Row Motorsports.
SANCHEZ FITTING RIGHT IN
Nick Sanchez has had two races with Ford and AM Racing, but he’s been impressive to say the least. In both events, Sanchez started 28th and drove through the field to an eighth-place finish in the first stage. Unfortunately, he was collected in a multi-car accident coming to the green-and-white checkered flag and was forced to retire in 36th place. He avoided that outcome last weekend at EchoPark Speedway by staying patient until the end and then charging through the middle lane to finish third. He has one NOAPS start at COTA (24th last year) and two in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (seventh and 18th).
A SERIES FIRST
This weekend will mark the first street course race in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history as the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg takes place on Saturday in Florida. The 80-lap feature will be the first new event on the schedule since last season when Lime Rock Park was added. The last time a Ford Racing driver won a series debut race was in 2021 when Todd Gilliland drove to victory at Circuit of The Americas.
SMITH SITS ON TOP OF POINT STANDINGS
Chandler Smith is one of two full-time NCTS drivers who have finished in the top 10 of the first two races, winning the season-opener in Daytona and finishing sixth last week at EchoPark Speedway. As a result, Smith has a 28-point lead on the field and is one of three Ford F-150 drivers currently in the top 10. Ben Rhodes is third after his fourth-place run last weekend while Ty Majeski is fourth.
FORD’S ALL-TIME CUP ROAD COURSE WINNERS
5 – Dan Gurney
4 – Mark Martin
2 – Fireball Roberts, Marvin Panch, Parnelli Jones, Ricky Rudd, Marcos Ambrose
1 – Chuck Stevenson, Eddie Gray, Richard Petty, A.J. Foyt, Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, Davey Allison, Geoffrey Bodine, Ernie Irvan, Rusty Wallace, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher
As the spirit of America, the Ford Mustang is the world’s best selling sports car and one of the planet’s most popular race cars. With Mustang-based race cars competing in international sports car competition (GT3 and GT4), NASCAR, NHRA, Formula Drift, in Supercars, at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and in its own bespoke regional one-make series – Mustang Cup and Mustang Challenge – the platform has an unprecedented global reach. This weekend, 12 Mustang race cars are scheduled to race across all disciplines. Learn more about Mustang at www.FordRacing.com.
