The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season has featured many different new tracks. From the traditional oval track at Nashville Superspeedway to the fine Tennessee dirt in Bristol, we’ve seen a lot of fresh races. But nothing has made a larger impact this season than the new batch of road courses.
Originally set at 6, the number increased to 7 road courses when the race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California was cancelled and moved due to Covid. Four of the courses were new to the schedule (yes, I am counting Daytona RC). The other three were Circuit of The Americas in Texas, Road America in Wisconsin, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in Indiana.
The first road race of the season (that counted for points) was held at the Daytona road course a week after the Daytona 500. Now, I already know what you’re thinking, Daytona’s road course isn’t “new”; they held a race there in 2020 as well. However, I decided to add it because it still is relatively new and NASCAR ran a different package this time around. In my opinion, I liked the new package better and hope that NASCAR makes the Daytona RC a permanent fixture on upcoming schedules. The only major “issue” during the race was NASCAR’s “rainbow” caution. NASCAR deemed the track “damp” when in fact it was only lightly drizzling on Oval Turn 3 and the sun was out.
The second new road race of the season was The Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Contrary to the Daytona incident, the issue of this race was the lack of rain…”preparedness,” if you will. From the first practice session to the checkered flag of the Cup Series race, rain persisted all race weekend long. The worst of it, however, fell on the Sunday of the Cup race.
The green flag was taken in dry conditions, but by lap five almost everyone had put on rain tires. The rain came and stayed for the race, only getting worse as the day continued. The rain was fine for the first couple laps, but as the water started to puddle, the drivers began kicking up larger rooster-tails behind their cars, causing awful visibility and posing a threat. Two major wrecks occured due to drivers not being able to see very far ahead and rear-ending whoever was in front of them at over 100mph. After Cole Custer nearly flipped Martin Truex, Jr. over, NASCAR red flagged the race to blow puddles off the track. However, the rain became too much which caused the race to be called prematurely. Before we can form a true opinion on COTA, we need an actual race, not a NASCAR Mud-Bogging event.
The third new track was Road America. It replaced Indianapolis (oval) as the 4th of July weekend event for 2021 (the race actually fell on July 4th). Of the other new road courses, this one was by far the best. There were no issues with rain; the weather was gorgeous all weekend, and no problems with the track (foreshadowing). The race was relatively clean and for the most part, controversy free. The only controversial event was with a handful of laps remaining. Alex Bowman’s brakes failed entering a corner and he wiped out his teammate Kyle Larson. Larson and Bowman talked it over and that ended any sort of dispute. Myself and many other fans hope and believe that Road America might be NASCAR’s new 4th of July tradition.
The final new road course on the NASCAR schedule for 2021 was the Indianapolis road course, which runs through the infield and front stretch of the historic track. At first, the race was calm; a typical road race for NASCAR. The major issue, a speed bump/curb on the outside of the sixth turn, was removed after the xFinity race. All seemed to be well with the remaining curbing in turn six and everywhere else. That is, until a late caution and restart occurred. As the field made it through the turn six area, Martin Truex, Jr. spun but was able to continue in the race. When Truex’s car contacted the curb, many sizable pieces of debris could be seen flying off the car. The next lap, disaster struck. Part of the metal curbing peeled up and launched William Byron’s car in the air, causing him to spin. More cars followed suit and many were ripped apart by simply hitting the curb. During the red flag, the curb was removed and the track president even helped with the cleanup. The saving grace of this race was the last restart, in which Chase Briscoe was run off course in turn one and suffered a penalty. He retaliated by spinning leader Denny Hamlin, who had run him off track. This allowed AJ Allmendinger to take the lead over and win his second-ever NASCAR Cup Series race, and a Cup first for Kaulig Racing. Hamlin and Briscoe had a post-race discussion on pit road, but somehow no physical altercation occurred. The race itself was decent. If not for the curb issues it would have been nearly flawless like Road America
With four new road circuits on the Cup schedule, things were bound to be crazy. Maybe a little bit crazier than we originally intended. Road America was the perfect demonstration of what the new tracks should have been like and although NASCAR can’t control the weather, they can control how they handle it. The COTA episode was a disaster that NASCAR needs to learn from. Though less severe, NASCAR should take notes from Daytona as well. I personally believe we should get at least one more race on each track, especially COTA, before we make an ultimate decision.
The road course fun isn’t over just yet; the Charlotte Roval is back for a 4th race which will be run during the playoffs in October.
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