Quicker laps, longer races: Explaining NASCAR's updated COTA layout for 2025

NASCAR returns to the Circuit of the Americas for the fifth consecutive year, but eagle eyed viewers will notice the track layout is quite different ahead of the 2025 season. For the first few sets of corners, the traditional layout is retained, seeing NASCAR drivers navigate the famous Turn 1 section and the esses.

As racers approach Turn 6, everything is going to change.

All-new shortcut

Instead of continuing down towards Turns 7-11, the cars will exit the esses and take a hard left around a tire barrier into what is being called 6a. Through 6a, the asphalt visually shifts from newer black pavement into some much older gray pavement, making it an easy spot for viewers watching live coverage.

What follows is a brief straightaway, running right along the wall before they take another sudden left into 6b and back onto the main course. It essentially functions as a shortcut, taking them directly from the exit of Turn 6 to the approach into Turn 12.

As a result, drivers will avoid the full 3.41-mile layout in favor of a shorter 2.40-mile course. The Cup race is now 27 laps longer, upping from 68 to 95 total laps. 

This meaningful change to the track eliminates long straightaways and makes for a tighter course with less time to breathe. For drivers, the track will remain mostly familiar to them, apart from the 6a-6b stretch. Laptimes are also a full minute faster than last year’s race.

Ahead of a packed race weekend, what do the drivers expect? Connor Zilisch, who is making his Cup debut at COTA, “expects a lot of chaos” on the run into 6a due to the heavy braking zone and really wide entry.

Here’s what the drivers have said ahead of this weekend at COTA.

Bell calls it ‘awkward’

Christopher Bell: “It’s just awkward. It’s a very awkward corner with how you’re coming off of turn 6 the right hander in the esses. The whole car is like pushing you out track left and then you don’t really have a ton of visuals getting into (Turn) 6A there expect now they have a big, old tire pack which is good because that gives us a reference of where the apex is.”

“I don’t know. I think it is a pretty high intense braking zone, but the thing is your car is automatically trying to take you track left, so I don’t know how big of a passing zone it’s going to be,” Bell said.

Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

Nemechek expects ‘late dive bombs’

John-Hunter Nemechek: “When you’re coming off the high speed esses I think it’s going to be really hard to pass through there. I think you’re going to throw a late dive bomb if you’re going to try and pass through there. Then the asphalt being so old compared to the new asphalt and being super slick.

“We just got done with the track walk and it’s a significant difference on the section from 6a to 6b. I think it’s going to be really hard to pass through there. I think your angles are going to be really difficult with how tight it is.”

Cindric’s technical perspective

Austin Cindric: “I think it specializes the track a little bit more with making it smaller. Just from a numbers standpoint, when you reduce the number of corners on the racetrack the corners that exist now have a heightened importance, whereas there’s a corner I might not have sacrificed setup items on or passing zones that are now much more important because they’re a higher percentage of the lap. So, from a numbers standpoint it does change things.”

Busch laments loss of passing zones

Kyle Busch: “I think you lose a couple passing zones. You lose Turn 11, all the way up at the top. You lose coming down into Turn 12 after the long straightaway. I don’t think going into Turn 6 is going to be a passing zone. It’s really tight. I mean, sure – guys are going to try and throw it in there and pass there, but it’s a 90 degree corner. It’s going to be slower and sharper than the frontstretch at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, when you come down into the turn on the front straightaway. As you come back onto the back straightaway, that corner is just kind of a flowy corner, so I don’t think you’ll get much two-wide racing through there. Trying to setup something on that little short shoot you have now before Turn 12 is going to be tricky to say the least because you want to be on the inside for that corner but the next two corners you’re going to want to be on the outside … I feel like we lost two and we didn’t gain any.”

Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

He also likened it to a short track with right-hand turns, adding: “But being a shorter course and not having that long straightaway in Turn 12, you’re going to get less separation from all those other cars around you, so it’s going to be more Martinsville-esque with cars staying closer together and probably a little bit more pushing and shoving, and I’m sure that’s what the fans will certainly enjoy.”

Photos from Saturday of COTA