The NASCAR Cup Series‘ March schedule wraps Sunday with the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuits of the Americas, and we’ve got you covered with all the action from start to finish, exclusively on FOX and the FOX Sports App.
The 68-lap race will cover 231.88 miles and is made up of a 15-lap opening stage, followed by 17 laps in the second stage and 26 in the third and final stage.
Chevrolets have won the past two years.
Here are the top moments!
Green!
It was a smooth, clean start for these drivers.
Pole-sitter William Byron got a good jump to lead the opening lap, while Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric battled for second.
Early contact!
Things weren’t smooth sailing for long, however. The caution came out for a crash between Turns 19 and 20 involving Brad Keselowski, Ty Dillon and Jimmie Johnson.
Down and out
Johnson exited to pit road with a ton of right rear damage, which ultimately ended his race early.
Dillon’s day was also cut short after his front end got destroyed in the collision.
Chaos unfolding
The green flag was back out on Lap 6, as Cindric took the lead.
Meanwhile, Jordan Taylor almost took out Erik Jones on the entry to Turn 11, while Chase Briscoe took a spin in Turn 1 but avoided drawing a caution. Elsewhere, Corey LaJoie and Denny Hamlin were penalized for cutting the course.
The chaos continued with a big crash in Turn 12. Bubba Wallace‘s brakes apparently failed entering the corner, picking up Kyle Larson and Jones in the aftermath. Cody Ware also spun out in that sequence, which drew a caution.
One down, two to go!
Stage 1 went to Byron, who had led the most laps on the day at the time, thanks to a nice jump in the restart zone.
More drama quickly unfolded, as Ryan Blaney sent Keselowski for a spin, followed by Larson sending around Blaney.
After the dust had settled, Byron was running first, followed by Cindric, AJ Allmendinger and Daniel Suárez.
Happy feet
Reddick opened up his lead to over eight seconds to claim the win in Stage 2, grabbing both 10 points and a playoff point in the process.
Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five in the second stage.
Spin!
Christopher Bell got turned around after running through some dirt that got kicked up, drawing a blue flag.
The blue flag is only used on road courses to warn drivers of problems ahead that are hard to see, such as if a car had spun off the course but the race is remaining under green-flag conditions.
Pulling out all the stops
The restart came with 25 laps to go.
It was a battle at the front, as Reddick and Byron raced side-by-side down the straightaway towards Turn 12. Defending champion Ross Chastain also got into the mix, with Alex Bowman right there as well.
Trouble ahead
Elsewhere, Larson’s day got even longer when the rear toe link on his car broke late in the race.
All-out effort
Suárez began closing in on the top three, while two Trackhouse Racing cars put late pressure on Reddick and Byron.
With 10 laps remaining, Suárez took the lead by 0.799 seconds after 12 lead changes from six drivers.
PRE-RACE
Setting the stage
Ahead of the action, FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass broke down what and who to watch for at Circuits of the Americas.
Fire in the hole!
Actor Brendan Hunt gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Just like that, things got underway in Texas!
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