The 2023 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix was a
NASCAR Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States.
The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...
race held on March 26, 2023, at
Circuit of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located in Austin, Texas, United States. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Grand Pr ...
in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. Contested over 75 laps, extended from 68 laps due to an
overtime finish, on the 3.426-mile (5.514 km) road course, it was the sixth race of the
2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Report
Background
Circuit of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located in Austin, Texas, United States. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Grand Pr ...
(COTA) is a grade 1
FIA-specification
motorsports
Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and powered aircraft
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the po ...
facility located within the
extraterritorial jurisdiction
Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries.
Any authority can claim ETJ over any external territory they wish. However, for the claim to be effective in the external ...
of
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. It features a
road racing
Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a race track, closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily c ...
circuit. The facility is home to the
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
United States Grand Prix
The United States Grand Prix is a motor racing event that has been held on and off since 1908, when it was known as the American Grand Prize. The Grand Prix later became part of the Formula One World Championship. , the Grand Prix has been held ...
, and the
Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas
The Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas is a motorcycling event that is part of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing season that takes place at Circuit of the Americas. It became the third MotoGP r ...
, a round of the
FIM Road Racing World Championship. It previously hosted the
Supercars Championship
The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...
, the
FIA World Endurance Championship
The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...
, the
IMSA SportsCar Championship
The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (I ...
, and
IndyCar Series
The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...
.
Entry list
* (R) denotes rookie driver.
* (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Practice
Tyler Reddick
Tyler George Reddick (born January 11, 1996) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry (XV80), Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing. He is a two-time champion i ...
was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 2:12.016 seconds and a speed of .
Practice results
Qualifying
William Byron scored the pole for the race with a time of 2:10.760 and a speed of .
Qualifying results
Race
Report
Stage 1

The race starts with
William Byron and
Tyler Reddick
Tyler George Reddick (born January 11, 1996) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry (XV80), Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing. He is a two-time champion i ...
on the front row. When the green flag is dropped, Reddick has a slow start and loses position to
Austin Cindric, but manages to recover on the back straight. Byron leads the first lap with a lead of 8 tenths of a second.
On the second lap,
Brad Keselowski
Bradley Aaron Keselowski (; born February 12, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RFK Racing, a te ...
stops at the pit entrance and the first yellow flag is shown.
Chris Buescher and
Ty Dillon have a collision, which causes the latter to spin and hit
Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club. Johnson has won seven Cup ch ...
. At the start of the race, Jordan Taylor drops to ninth place, while
Kyle Larson
Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports, part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. ...
advances to tenth place.
Erik Jones and
Noah Gragson
Noah Quinn Gragson (born July 15, 1998) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Front Row Motorsports.
R ...
manage to advance to 7th and 8th place, respectively.
The race restarts on lap 6 and Cindric takes advantage to take the lead after Byron and Reddick go a little long in turn one. Byron drops to third and Jordan Taylor locks up the front tires and loses positions, dropping out of the top 10.
Joey Logano
Joseph Thomas Logano (born May 24, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No.22 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for NASCAR operations of Tea ...
,
Denny Hamlin
James Dennis Alan Hamlin (born November 18, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also co-owns and op ...
and
Corey LaJoie pit to serve a drive-through penalty for cutting through the sprint section.
On lap 8, Cindric and Reddick swap positions several times, but Reddick finally takes the lead on the final section of the circuit. Moments later, Byron overtakes Cindric and moves back into second.
On lap 11, Kyle Larson spins due to
Bubba Wallace
William Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. (born October 8, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing.
Wallace was previously a dev ...
having brake failure. Larson touches with Denny Hamlin on the way to the last corner of the circuit, which generates the second yellow flag. Bubba Wallace retires from the race.
Several drivers stop on lap 12, including Tyler Reddick, Noah Gragson, Erik Jones,
Austin Dillon
Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet ZL1 and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet ...
,
Ryan Blaney
Ryan Michael Blaney (born December 31, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske. He i ...
,
Denny Hamlin
James Dennis Alan Hamlin (born November 18, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also co-owns and op ...
and
Kimi Räikkönen
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "the Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One ...
, committing to three stops.
Stage 2
The race restarts on lap 16 and Byron takes the lead over Cindric.
Conor Daly
Conor James Daly (born December 15, 1991) is an American professional auto racing, racing driver. He competes in the IndyCar Series driving the No. 76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing. He also competes occasionally in NASCAR and has also rac ...
heads to the garages, while Keselowski is touched by Ryan Blaney and the latter is touched by Kyle Larson a few corners later.
On lap 24, Cindric, Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman pit, followed by Byron, Allmendinger and Suarez on lap 25. On lap 27, Reddick assumes the race lead, followed by Austin Dillon with a 3.6-second advantage and Michael McDowell.
On lap 28 and with just three laps to go in the second stage, Tyler Reddick managed to increase his lead over Austin Dillon by more than six seconds. On the other hand,
Ty Gibbs
Tyler Randal Gibbs (born October 4, 2002) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 54 Toyota Camry (XV80), Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing and part-t ...
was penalized for cutting the esses, while Kyle Larson received a penalty for exceeding the speed limit.
The second stage came to an end with a solid performance by Reddick, who managed to increase his lead to more than seven seconds over Dillon. Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Larson, Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe and Noah Gragson also scored points in this stage.
Final Stage
On lap 32, Harvick and Dillon pit, while Reddick stays on track to take advantage of the 3-stop strategy. On the next lap, Reddick pitted, leaving Buescher in the lead with one stop remaining.
Buescher holds the lead until lap 35, when he pits for his second stop and William Byron takes the lead followed by Allmendinger with a 1.5 second gap. Suarez, Chastain and Kyle Busch complete the top 5, being those who went for two stops, while Reddick, who was going for 3 stops, is in sixth place 7.3 seconds behind the leader.
On lap 36, Reddick manages to overtake Allmendinger and moves into second place, just 3 seconds behind Byron. On the other hand, Christopher Bell spun due to the dirt in one of the turns, but managed to get back on track.
On lap 39, Reddick manages to overtake Byron in the first corner and takes the first position. Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin also suffers a spin similar to Bell's, but continues to race. The yellow flag is shown for the third time due to debris on the track.
The yellow flag evens the strategies and all drivers pit on lap 42. Allmendinger loses several positions after the pit stop. Logano,
Harrison Burton
Harrison Brian Burton (born October 9, 2000) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 25 Ford Mustang (seventh generation), Ford Mustang Dark Horse for AM Racing. He ...
and
Cody Ware stay on track taking the first three positions.
On the restart on lap 44, Reddick tries to take the lead in turn 1, but goes a little wide, allowing Byron and Chastain to take the lead. Logano has to lift his foot off the gas as he is held up by Byron and Reddick.
On lap 45, Reddick made a daring move at turn 11 and went side by side with Chastain on the long straight, ultimately securing second place.
As they reached turn 11 on the following lap, Reddick made an attempt to pass for the lead, succeeding momentarily before Byron counterattacked and the two went side by side through the final sector, with Byron ultimately taking the lead.
On lap 46, Reddick made an inside move at turn 1 but was unable to get past Byron. The driver of car #24 protected the inside line at turn 11 and managed to fend off Reddick's challenge. However, Reddick continued to push and finally overtook Byron on the inside after the long straight, claiming the lead of the race. Kyle Larson suffers a broken toe link in the rear.
On lap 52, the top 4 were separated by a mere 2.4 seconds due to fuel conservation. By lap 55, Bowman had fallen so far behind the leaders that he was overtaken by Daniel Suarez for fourth place. The Mexican driver was trailing Reddick by 3 seconds.
With only 12 laps remaining in the scheduled race, the top 4 were now separated by just 1.1 seconds, all while still conserving fuel. The two
Trackhouse Trackhouse may refer to either of the following:
* ''Trackhouse'', a studio album by American hip-hop artist Pitbull.
* Trackhouse Racing, a NASCAR team, of which Pitbull is an owner.
{{disambiguation ...
drivers overtook Byron, whose car was unstable on the dirt, while Suarez took second place by bumping his teammate. Brad Keselowski's car came to a stop, prompting a yellow flag.
Most of the drivers pit with 11 laps to go. Byron comes out second, ahead of Suarez and behind Reddick. Chastain loses time and positions due to delays in securing the right front tire nut. Bell stays out and becomes the leader, followed by Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kimi Raikkonen, and Ryan Preece on the same strategy.
On lap 59, the race resumes. Reddick takes the lead on the inside of turn 1, having started in fifth place. Several cars spin out, including Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, who cannot immediately resume the race, resulting in a yellow flag. Denny Hamlin has to pit due to a flat tire.
Lap 61, race restart with Reddick and Bell leading the pack. Reddick overshoots the first corner and Byron takes the lead. Kyle Busch moves up to third place. Bell spins out. Allmendinger retires from the race.
It's now a head-to-head battle between Byron and Reddick for the win, with half a second separating them. Kyle Busch is far behind in third place, trailing by 2.4 seconds. On lap 63, Reddick overtakes Byron and takes the lead. A yellow flag is waved with four laps remaining due to debris on the track. Austin Dillon's car was seen smoking from the left rear section.
On the first Overtime attempt to finish the race, Byron goes a little wide in turn one, with Kyle Busch running second. Yellow flag for debris from Ryan Blaney's car. Ryan Preece with heavy damage.
On the second Overtime attempt, Daniel Suarez (pushed by Bowman) spins Martin Truex Jr. Yellow flag for Daniel Suarez's dislodged tire.
Third Overtime Attempt with Reddick and Bowman leading the ranks. Restart, Reddick takes the lead. Bell with major damage to his hood.
The white flag is waved being the final lap of the race, with Kyle Busch overtaking Bowman for second place, albeit far from first place, 1.6 seconds behind Reddick. Finally, Tyler Reddick crosses the finish line as the race winner. Completing the top 5 are Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and William Byron.
Race results
Stage Results
Stage One
''Laps:'' 15
Stage Two
''Laps:'' 15
Final Stage Results
Stage Three
''Laps:'' 38
Race statistics
* Lead changes: 16 among 7 different drivers
* Cautions/Laps: 8 for 17 laps
* Red flags: 0
* Time of race: 3 hours, 30 minutes and 32 seconds
* Average speed:
Media
Television
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
covered the race on the television side.
Mike Joy,
Clint Bowyer
Clinton Aaron Bowyer (born May 30, 1979) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and commentator for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado ...
,
Kurt Busch
Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American auto racing driver. He is best known for competing in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2000–2022, last driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. Busch is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series ch ...
, and
Haas F1 Team
Haas Formula LLC, competing as MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, is an List of Formula One constructors#Team's nationality, American-licensed Formula One racing team established by NASCAR Cup Series team owner Gene Haas in April 2014. The team made its ...
Principal
Guenther Steiner
Guenther Steiner (born 7 April 1965, ) is an Italian and American motorsport engineer and former team manager. Steiner was the Team Principal of Haas Formula One Team from 2016 to 2023, the managing director of Jaguar Racing from 2001 to 2003 ...
called the race from the broadcast booth and
Chase Elliott
William Clyde "Chase" Elliott II (born November 28, 1995) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, Chevrolet ZL1 for Hendrick Mo ...
called the race remotely.
Jamie Little
Jamie Little (born April 9, 1978) is an American pit reporter and play by play announcer for NASCAR coverage on Fox. Little is a former pit reporter for ESPN/ABC coverage of the Indy Racing League, although she returned to her pit reporting du ...
and
Regan Smith handled pit road for the television side, and
Larry McReynolds
Lawrence Joseph McReynolds III (born January 10, 1959) is an American NASCAR crew chief and current racing analyst on Fox Sports as well as a columnist on Foxsports.com. In the past, he has served as an advisor to Petty Enterprises, and as a m ...
provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.
Radio
PRN had the radio call for the race which was simulcasted on
Sirius XM
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...
NASCAR Radio.
Standings after the race
;Drivers' Championship standings
;Manufacturers' Championship standings
*
Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
References
{{2023 NASCAR Cup
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car racing, stock car race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Introduced in 2021, the race was one of seven road course dates on the Cup Series schedule that year. Christo ...
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car racing, stock car race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Introduced in 2021, the race was one of seven road course dates on the Cup Series schedule that year. Christo ...
NASCAR races at Circuit of the Americas
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car racing, stock car race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Introduced in 2021, the race was one of seven road course dates on the Cup Series schedule that year. Christo ...