AUSTIN (KXAN) — After five years at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, NASCAR made a few changes that are expected to benefit fans.
The length of the racetrack has been cut from roughly 3.5 miles down to 2.5 miles.
“That’s quite a bit more times you get to see the race cars go down into turn one, so I like that,” said Joey Logano, one of the drivers participating in NASCAR’s race.
This is the first road course of the season, and it’s one drivers have so far only seen in the simulator.
“When NASCAR goes to road courses, you can expect a lot of those bump and runs where a driver will get a run on somebody, use that front bumper and try to move them out of the way and try to continue on with their race,” said Dominic Aragon, Editor-in-Chief of The Racing Experts.
However, the course length isn’t the only change for this race.
The NASCAR double-header at Circuit of the Americas moved from its usual late-March slot to the third race of the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series.
Xfinity pre-race action starts at 1 p.m. CT Saturday, with NASCAR countdown live on the CW. The race is expected to start at 1:30 p.m.
KXAN’s Grace Reader contributed to this report.
