After opening the 2025 season with drafting-style races at Daytona and Atlanta, NASCAR’s Cup Series now moves to a road-course race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Josh Berry and his No. 21 Mustang Dark Horse will carry Freightliner colors for the race on COTA’s National Course, which is about a mile shorter than the full course that was used in earlier Cup races. The shorter course, which eliminates much of the backstretch, still has 20 turns but covers 2.3 miles instead of 3.41. Due to the shorter distance the race will be 95 laps rather than the 68 previously.
Berry said he’s fine with the new layout. “Selfishly I like the changes to the course,” he said. “Last year I was pretty solid with the majority [of the course] that they left.”
Berry said he’s worked hard to prepare himself for the upcoming weekend. “I spent some time at Ford with the simulator, getting acclimated to the new layout and working on things,” he said. “I feel good going there.”
Berry said he and the Freightliner team have done all they can to be as prepared as they can be, and he believes he has reasonable expectations for the race. “I’m continuing to gain experience on the road courses, so for me I think we just want to execute a solid race,” he said. “I want to be more competitive than I was there last year with no mistakes. If we can keep the car facing in the right direction and keep it on the race track, we can have a solid day.”
Practice for the EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix is set for Saturday at 10 a.m. local time (11 a.m. Eastern Time) to be followed by qualifying at 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. Eastern). Amazon Prime will carry the TV coverage of practice and qualifying.
Sunday’s 95-lap, 219-mile race is scheduled to get the green flag just after 2:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. Eastern) with TV coverage on FOX. Stage breaks are planned for Laps 20 and 45.