AUSTIN, TX. – The Pit Boss 250 presented by USA Today (5 p.m. ET, Saturday, March 25 on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be the second race in the Circuit of The Americas triple-header weekend and a chance for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contenders to first, show something for Austin Hill who has won three of the season’s first five races and leads the championship by 46 points and secondly, to hold off a group of road racing aces on one of the sport’s premier road courses.
The 20-turn COTA track is the first of seven road course events on the 2023 calendar for the Xfinity Series. Hill, the driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, has wins at Daytona, Las Vegas and last week at Atlanta holds a substantial 46-point advantage on both John Hunter Nemechek and Riley Herbst atop the standings. Rookie Chandler Smith (-77) and veteran Justin Allgaier (-84) round out the top five in points. But none of these drivers has won at COTA.
A.J. Allmendinger won last year’s race by 2.039-seconds over Hill and led a race best 27 of 46 laps and Allmendinger – now a NASCAR Cup Series full-timer – is back again to try for his second straight at the course.
Allmendinger finished second in the inaugural series race at COTA in 2021, behind two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch who led a dominant 35 of the 46 laps that day.
NASCAR Cup Series drivers Aric Almirola, William Byron and Ty Gibbs are also entered this weekend as are an assortment of talented road course drivers from other series. Brazilian Miguel Paludo will steer the No. 88 JRM Chevy and Argentinian Baltazar Leguizamón – the 2018 Atlantic Series champion is hoping to be the first Argentinian to earn a start in a major NASCAR series race.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series regulars Derek Kraus and Carson Hocevar are also entered in the Xfinity Series race.
The COTA race is of particular importance for the Xfinity Series full-timers – not only because it’s the first road course race of the year but because it will set the field for the first Dash 4 Cash foursome. The popular Dash 4 Cash incentive program will award bonuses to the top-finishing driver among the four eligible Xfinity Series drivers at Richmond Raceway (April 1), Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (April 15), Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (April 22) and Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway (April 29).
The top four Xfinity Series regulars from each race will be eligible for the next race’s bonus. The Richmond foursome will be decided Saturday in COTA.
Source: Holly Cain/NASCAR Wire Service
