CONCORD, N.C. -- It’s well known that Chase Elliott is a phenomenal driver on road courses, having won five of the last eight events at the twisty venues. As Hendrick Motorsports prepares to take on Circuit of The Americas for the first time, Elliott’s teammates are looking to him for advice.
“Chase was able to test there a month-and-a-half ago, so we have some notes from it and some in-car footage for us drivers to look at,” Kyle Larson said. “As we get on later in the week, we will look ahead to COTA and see what there is to study to try and be prepared for this weekend.”
Elliott was one of small handful of drivers selected to test Goodyear tires at the track in March. Running a few laps on the 20-turn road course, plus his proclivity with road courses, has pegged Elliott as a favorite to win the race this weekend.
“Being able to go test was a good opportunity for our whole team to get some laps, including myself,” Elliott said. “To see a racetrack that I’ve never even seen in person, it’s one thing to go look at it, right? But it’s another thing to get on it and run through the different tires that Goodyear had selected for us. I have no idea which one they chose, but it was good to get some laps and have a little bit of a start point for (practice) Saturday.”
Like Elliott, William Byron was able to head to COTA for a test run in a Trans Am back in January. While he felt comfortable running the Trans Am in the middle of winter at the Austin, Texas, venue, he knows a live race at the end of May is a different animal.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of preparation throughout this week,” Byron said. “I just have to understand the Cup car tendencies there and things like that. (I’m) definitely really comfortable with the track and I feel like we’re going to be in a really good place when we get there.”
Alex Bowman, who is coming off his second win of the year after taking the checkered flag at Dover International Speedway, said he expects racing at COTA to be “pretty tough,” especially with the limited amount of practice before the race.
“(We’re) just trying to maximize the little bit of practice that we have to be strong there in the race. The weather looks pretty unpredictable at this point, too, so it’s just another thing to think about,” Bowman said. "We have probably the best road course racer in the series with Chase as a teammate, so being able to lean on him and learn from him.”
Elliott revealed the differentiating grip in certain parts of the track would be one of the most difficult aspects of COTA for the Cup drivers to get used to, along with the elevation and hills at the track.
“I think it’s going to be a real challenge,” Elliott said. “Obviously, it has a really long back straightaway that we’ve seen in the (Formula 1) races there, so that will be interesting for our cars. I’m not sure how we’ll handle and adapt to that – how the drafting will play a role there, if any. From there, (you need to) be really detailed and hitting your marks, as always, and trying to put together a good race with a good result.”
Tune in on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1 see Elliott and the rest of the Hendrick Motorsports teammates take on the inaugural Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas.