NASCAR: NASCAR race will be back in 2023 at COTA

NASCAR race officials and drivers are giving strong indications that their two-year experiment in Austin isn’t just a passing fancy.

Stock car racing’s weekend tripleheader at Circuit of the Americas wrapped up with Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Cup Grand Prix. A crowd in the vicinity of 50,000, perhaps more, showed up

The American-Statesman has learned that Speedway Motorsports, which operates the race and rents COTA for the week, and track officials have agreed to add an option for next year. The original contract was for 2021 with an option for ’22.

“We feel confident enough to take ticket renewals for next year,” Mike Burch, SMI chief operating officer, told the newspaper. “That’s a good sign we want to be here. We feel pretty good we’ll be back.

“If all goes to plan, we’ll look over events on the schedule, what else is going on in Austin, and figure out, ‘Do we come back on this same weekend, the May weekend we had last year or some other weekend that makes sense?’”

Bobby Epstein, chairman of Circuit of the Americas, likes what he’s seen in year two.

“This is going to be a successful weekend, they’ll have a good crowd (Sunday), and I think they’ll want to come back.” The Statesman