NASCAR Cup champs run tire-test at Circuit of The Americas and here's what they had to say

Former and current NASCAR Cup Series champions ran the Goodyear tire-test at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on Tuesday.

Brad Keselowski (2012), Martin Truex Jr. (2017), and current NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott were chosen for their respective car manufacturer teams (Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet). They drove around the 20-turn 3.41-mile COTA track to help NASCAR and Goodyear officials decide the final tire combination for the race week in May (21-23).

Texas two step. 🤠 @keselowski | @chaseelliott pic.twitter.com/0Dp8mejF7r

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 2, 2021

COTA is the second of seven road course races in the 2021 schedule for NASCAR, and one of several races that will have practice and qualifying across the three racing divisions.

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What did the NASCAR champs say about the track?

We'll see you in Austin. 😍🤤@NASCARatCOTA | #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/MwCVXQbpMv

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 2, 2021

NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski felt the COTA track required adaptability in terms of speed by the driver. He said:

“It’s different than a lot of the road courses we go to, very high speed,” Keselowski said. “This section over here you’re 185 mph, which is pretty fast, and then you slow down to 30. So 185 to 30, that’s a heckuva ride. I know it would make my wife sick if she was riding with me.”

Martin Truex Jr. was at the track for the very first time. He felt that it was a significant learning experience for him as he steered around in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Toyota. He had this to say:

“I would say the start of this race would probably be pretty cool because you got that long front straightaway and it’s very, very wide, and (then) you go into a very, very sharp, slow corner. We have raced at places like Pocono where we get five- or six-wide down the front stretch and there’s potential for that to happen here.”

We already can’t wait to have you back! 🤘 https://t.co/Jt91XSSOCY

— NASCAR at COTA (@NASCARatCOTA) March 2, 2021

Truex had previously seen a five-minute, in-car footage of the track. However, his notions of the track changed once he got some running on the course.

“My learning curve was really steep, I had no practice before, I had never seen this track before, had never watched a race here before. I literally watched five minutes of in-car footage last night, I think it was of a Porsche going around this place, and I was like, ‘OK, it looks pretty straightforward.’ But then you get out here and you got the elevation changes and you got the blind corners. Those are the things that take time to learn because you have to go off instinct instead of what you’re seeing,” Truex added.

Meanwhile, reigning NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott feels it will not be like the IndyCar and Formula 1 races that COTA also hosts, but has the potential for a competitive NASCAR race.

“It’s just a different type of racing. We’re not going near as fast as those cars do, but I feel like the product and the competitiveness on track and us being able to race around each other is much more feasible with the speeds we’re going and how big and heavy these cars are,” Elliott said.

Sights and sounds. 🤤#NASCARatCOTA | @chaseelliott pic.twitter.com/XrjHzg1bkQ

— NASCAR at COTA (@NASCARatCOTA) March 2, 2021

“No, it’s not the ‘ooooh's and ‘aaahhhs’ of going through the esses at however fast those guys go, but I do think the racing’s better to watch, and I think that’s what’s made NASCAR popular over the years, and I’m not sure why that would be any different here," NASCAR champ Elliott concluded.