#SrigleyStats Weekend Recap: Circuit of The Americas
Taking a look back at some #SrigleyStats for the tripleheader weekend at Circuit of The Americas, and giving a call to this week's 'Spotlight Driver', Ty Gibbs!
PHOTO CREDIT: Nigel Kinrade, LAT Images, Courtesy of Toyota Racing
This weekend’s trip to Austin, Texas, marked the first road course event of the season for the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, by visiting the 3.41-mile road course of Circuit of The Americas.
It was an action-packed weekend of racing, with the full-contact, hard-fought road course racing that fans have come to love being put on display by drivers in each of NASCAR’s top-three divisions.
Let’s take a look back at some of the #SrigleyStats from Circuit of The Americas, as well as a quick recap of the race’s finishing order, and the #SrigleyStats Spotlight Driver.
For those looking for the #SrigleyStats Sheet, don’t worry, that will be released to paid subscribers later today or tomorrow! If you’re interested in gaining access to the #SrigleyStats Sheet, you can subscribe for $5/month or $50/year, down below:
NASCAR Cup Series: Top-10 (EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA):
#45 Tyler Reddick - 23XI Racing
#8 Kyle Busch - Richard Childress Racing
#48 Alex Bowman - Hendrick Motorsports
#1 Ross Chastain - Trackhouse Racing
#24 William Byron - Hendrick Motorsports
#2 Austin Cindric - Team Penske
#47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. - JTG Daugherty Racing
#17 Chris Buescher - RFK Racing
#54 Ty Gibbs - Joe Gibbs Racing
#38 Todd Gilliland - Front Row Motorsports
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Top-10 (Pit Boss Grills 250 at COTA):
#10 AJ Allmendinger - Kaulig Racing
#17 William Byron - Hendrick Motorsports
#19 Ty Gibbs - Joe Gibbs Racing
#18 Sammy Smith - Joe Gibbs Racing
#7 Justin Allgaier - JR Motorsports
#11 Daniel Hemric - Kaulig Racing
#1 Sam Mayer - JR Motorsports
#8 Josh Berry - JR Motorsports
#2 Sheldon Creed - Richard Childress Racing
#98 Riley Herbst - Stewart-Haas Racing
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Top-10 (XPEL 225 at COTA):
#38 Zane Smith - Front Row Motorsports
#51 Kyle Busch - Kyle Busch Motorsports
#98 Ty Majeski - ThorSport Racing
#16 Tyler Ankrum - Hattori Racing Enterprises
#41 Ross Chastain - Niece Motorsports
#11 Corey Heim - TRICON Garage
#2 Nick Sanchez - Rev Racing
#15 Tanner Gray - TRICON Garage
#1 Kaz Grala - TRICON Garage
#99 Ben Rhodes - ThorSport Racing
#SrigleyStats Spotlight Driver: Ty Gibbs
PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Earp, LAT Images, Courtesy of Toyota Racing
After an unsettling start to his rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series, it looks as though Ty Gibbs is starting to get the hang of things, after the sixth race of the season at Circuit of The Americas.
Finishing ninth in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the 3.41-mile road course, Gibbs has now scored back-to-back results inside the top-10, for the first time in his short NASCAR Cup Series career.
A solid run in Sunday’s 75-lap contest can likely be attributed - at least in part - to the additional laps that the Charlotte, North Carolina-native gained in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event, where he piloted the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra to a third-place result for Joe Gibbs Racing.
With positive momentum on the side of the 20-year-old driver, Gibbs heads to a track in Richmond Raceway where he’s competed in the NASCAR Cup Series - only the third facility in the first seven races he’s run the Cup Series on.
Not only does Gibbs have prior experience at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series, but when filling in for Kurt Busch at the three-quarter-mile track last Summer, the defending Xfinity Series champion was running inside the top-10 before a mechanical issue derailed his race.
Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, one of the powerhouse organizations in the NASCAR Cup Series, we knew it was only a matter of time before Gibbs became a consistent threat for top-10 finishes.
The grandson of Joe Gibbs was a force to be reckoned with in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since his series debut, so it’s not difficult to make the assumption that he’ll be competing for top-fives and wins in the NASCAR Cup Series before long.
It goes without saying, though: Keep your eyes on Ty Gibbs and the No. 54.
ENDURANCE RACING: NASCAR STYLE
Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas was a long-winded one, going into three rounds of NASCAR Overtime and running seven laps further than scheduled - which equates to nearly 24 additional miles.
Though, after 3 hours, 30 minutes, and 32 seconds, Tyler Reddick, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD, crossed the start-finish line to capture his fourth victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The event, the third contested at Circuit of The Americas, had the longest race time of any road course event in the NASCAR Cup Series since Riverside in January 1976, 47 years ago, a race that lasted more than five hours.
BYRON LEADS THE PACK WITH NEXTGEN CAR:
For those of you that weren’t aware, William Byron has been strong to start the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, scoring back-to-back victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.
But, he’s also sneakily been one of the best drivers in the series since the beginning of last year, leading the most laps of any NASCAR Cup Series driver since the implementation of the NextGen car.
However, by leading 14 laps in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA, Byron became the first NASCAR Cup Series driver to lead 1,000 laps in the NextGen car, ahead of teammate Kyle Larson and Atlanta winner Joey Logano.
HERBST CONTINUES HOT STREAK
With a 10th-place finish in Saturday’s Pit Boss Grills 250 at Circuit of The Americas, Riley Herbst has now scored nine consecutive top-10 results in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the longest streak of his career, and the longest streak by any Stewart-Haas Racing driver.
ROAD COURSE QUALIFYING MASTER:
Tyler Reddick was pretty much untouchable this weekend at Circuit of The Americas.
However, there was only one driver that came anywhere close to beating the 23XI Racing driver, and that was William Byron, who took the pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session.
The pole position was the ninth of Byron’s NASCAR Cup Series career and the fourth of his career on a road course. In the process, Byron has collected poles on four different road courses, the first driver to do so in NASCAR history.
While Byron is nowhere near the mark of 10 poles on road courses by David Pearson, it’s possible we could be talking about the Hendrick Motorsports driver challenging this record in a couple of years, with six road courses on the schedule every year.