Drivers to watch for the NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA

NASCAR hits its first of six road course races this season with a trip to Circuit of the Americas.

Last year’s inaugural Cup race in Austin, Texas, was marred by torrential rain that shortened the race.

With a much drier forecast ahead coupled with the Next Gen’s road course debut, which drivers will be in the mix for the win on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox)?

Chase Elliott

Elliott is NASCAR’s current road course ace, and although teammate Kyle Larson is trying, no one else in the series is even close. Elliott won Cup’s lone trip to Austin a year ago, nabbing one of seven career road course wins in 19 such starts. In other words, the 2020 series champion has an outstanding 36.8% win rate on road courses throughout his Cup career.

Also noteworthy is that each of Elliott’s last two victories came on road courses — COTA and Road America. Despite being Hendrick Motorsports’ only driver without a win this year, Elliott is the series’ points leader and enters Austin fresh off his best finish of the season.

With Elliott building a streak of consistency, COTA might be the perfect track for the No. 9 team to rekindle its magic and get back to Victory Lane.

Ross Chastain

Chastain is on an incredible hot streak of three straight finishes inside the top three. And while the Trackhouse Racing driver may not be the first name you think of on a road course, Chastain wheeled the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish last year and led four laps in the inaugural event.

Of course, the track was drenched in rain a season ago, and this weekend’s forecast looks bone dry. Factored with a new car, it’s difficult to say definitively whether Chastain will be able to translate last year’s drive into something as