COTA Austin weekend schedule, TV info for NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series

The NASCAR Cup Series will make its fifth visit to the Circuit of The Americas this weekend, but the Austin, Texas, track will be significantly different this season.

A new “National” course will be used for stock cars. The 20-turn, 2.4-mile layout will shorten the track’s traditional circuit (which is used for Formula One) by about a mile and shave roughly a minute off lap times.

The shorter track length also will allow for more laps as the race will be increased to 95 laps after a 65-lap distance from 2021-24.

William Byron is the defending winner of the Cup races, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson won last year’s Xfinity race at COTA.

Circuit of The Americas schedule

(All Times Eastern)

Friday, Feb. 28

Garage open

Track activity

• 1- 1:40 p.m. — VP Racing SportsCar Challenge practice

• 3 – 3:40 p.m. — VP Racing SportsCar Challenge practice

• 5 – 5:50 p.m. — Xfinity practice (CW App streaming)

• 6:05 – 7 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App streaming)

• 7:30 – 8:05 p.m. — VP Racing SportsCar Challenge qualifying

Saturday, March 1

Garage open

Track activity

• 9:40 a.m. – 10:25 a.m. — VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race (45 minutes)

• 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Cup practice (Prime)

• 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. — Cup qualifying (Prime, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

• 2:30 p.m. — Xfinity race (65 laps, Stage 1 at Lap 20, Stage 2 at Lap 40, 156 miles; CW, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

• 6 – 6:45 p.m. — VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race

Sunday, March 2

Garage open

Track activity

• 3:30 p.m. — Cup race (95 laps, Stage 1 at Lap 20, Stage 2 at Lap 45, 228 miles; Fox, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weekend weather

Friday: Partly cloudy, high of 77 with a 2% chance of rain.

Saturday: Mix of clouds and sunshine with a high of 86 degrees and 7% chance of rain. It’s expected to be partly cloudy and 54 degrees for the start of the Xfinity race.

Sunday: Partly cloudy skies with a high of 80 degrees and a 15% chance of rain at the start of the Cup race.