The Cup Series standings have taken an interesting turn after back-to-back races on drafting tracks. Now Circuit of the Americas (COTA) will take center stage while testing a select group of drivers.
The top four drivers in the standings -- Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Cindric -- are all contenders on road courses. The same goes for Kyle Larson in sixth place. Bubba Wallace in fifth, John Hunter Nemechek in seventh, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in eighth are different stories.
All three drivers have emphasized improving their road course statistics. They have each made progress but have yet to be in contention for a win.
Nemechek has six road course starts in Cup with no top-10 finishes. He has an opportunity to deliver his first this weekend and extend his season streak to three races.
Stenhouse has 40 road course starts with one top-10 finish -- COTA in 2023. His other three finishes at the Texas track are 22nd, 37th, and 28th.
"I would say, for me, I don't really focus on the results as much as I do the speed that we've had and been able to show at some of these tracks," Stenhouse said in a release from Hyak Motorsports. "Especially throughout portions of that race the past few years.
"We've just had mistakes -- whether it's been the team or the driver. They took us out of contention for a few decent races there. I try to block some of that out from the past road course races over the last few seasons."
Wallace has 30 career starts on road courses. He has posted three top-10 finishes and one top-five, all in the Gen 7 era, the result of extensive work behind the scenes with his team, Toyota, Reddick, and Esports ace/performance consultant Keegan Leahy.
The 23XI Racing driver finished fifth in the 2022 Indianapolis road course race, seventh in the 2022 Charlotte Roval race, and ninth in last season's Charlotte Roval race.
But while Wallace has improved as a road course racer, he acknowledged that COTA has not been kind to him. He has three DNFs and one 15th-place finish in four trips to the Texas road course. Now, he will take on a new layout that will test all of the drivers.
"COTA is always really good for us until we get the green flag, and then we crash into something," Wallace joked last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. So we're going to try to get past lap one and then maybe crash on lap two. That'd be progress.
"COTA is exciting. I think it will be interesting to see how this new configuration is. We have put some laps in on (the simulator). Definitely interesting and tricky."
These three drivers racked up stage points and strong finishes during races at Daytona and Atlanta, which helped them move inside of the top 10. If they don't have a strong weekend at COTA, they could erase all of their progress as they pursue spots in the playoffs.
However, they could also build their points cushion over other playoff contenders by continuing their progression on NASCAR's road courses and pushing for top-10 finishes.