COTA Fantasy NASCAR Scouting Report
COTA Top Ten Starters
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Larson
- Austin Cindric
- Kyle Busch
- William Byron
- Joey Logano
- AJ Allmendinger
- Chase Elliott
- Ryan Blaney
- Christopher Bell
COTA Pre-race Notes
Drivers who started in the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments: Keselowski, Almirola, Hamlin, Blaney, Briscoe, Davison, Buescher, Alfredo, Jones, Suarez and Ware.
Stage #1 Top Ten Finishers (Lap 15): 22,34,1,5,33,17,14,42,18,21
Stage #2 Top Ten Finishers (32): 18,9,8,33,7,5,37,16,14,48
COTA Race Notes
When the race went green, Austin Cindric took the lead in turn 1. Cindric led the opening 4 laps.
When the race started, the track appeared dry, but then it really started to rain.
At the start of lap 2, Logano, Elliott, Byron and Bowman all came in for wet tires because of the deteriorating conditions. Half the field was said to have come in at this time. Byron was the first driver off pit road, and he was in 25th.
Running order on lap 2: 33,16,8,18,5,19,20,34,23,1 … 21,42,47,37,38,15,96,52,9,78 … 10,6,53,00,4,77,11,99,24,22 … 41,7,3,2,14,48,43,17,12,51
AJ Allmendinger and some others came in on lap 3 for wet tires. At that time, Allmendinger told his team he was confident racing in the rain.
On lap 3, Clint Bowyer mentioned that cars were starting to “rooster tail” in the wet conditions. The conditions were certainly changing.
On lap 4, nearly everyone had come to pit road for wet tires except for Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Truex, McDowell, Stenhouse and Preece.
Running order on lap 4: 33,23,19,34,47,37,42,5,96,18 … 24,10,22,20,9,16,8,41,21,7 … 1,3,2,14,11,99,4,48,77,43 … 17,12,15,38,6,51,78,52,00,53
On lap 5, Austin Cindric came to pit road for wet tires. He had a 9 second lead at the time.
Martin Truex Jr. started on wet tires and on lap 6 he was the leader. All the top five at the time started on wet tires.
Running order on lap 6: 19,34,23,47,37 (all the drivers above started on wet tires),33,18,24,22,9 … 16,10,5,20,7,1,41,8,21,14 … 3,2,99,11,4,48,77,17,43,12 … 42,15,96,51,38,6,78,53,00,52
Big: On lap 8, the first caution came out when Daniel Suarez stalled on the track. He changed transmissions prior to the race, and at this time he had a transmission problem. His team later fixed it, but it dropped him many laps down.
During the Suarez caution, Martin Truex Jr. and much of the field all came to pit road. Pitting at this time would give drivers enough fuel to get to the end of Stage #2. During this caution, McDowell, Wallace and Stenhouse Jr. stayed out.
Running order on lap 10: 34,23,47,33,24,22,5,1,7,21 … 14,17,43,77,6,42,53,96,19,20 … 78,18,9,37,16,41,8,2,3,11 … 10,4,48,38,12,51,52,00,15,99
Notable: On lap 10, Denny Hamlin spun and didn’t get any damage.
On lap 11, Joey Logano took the lead.
Running order on lap 12: 22,34,33,24,1,21,14,5,47,17 … 23,42,7,77,43,96,6,19,2,20 … 41,8,37,18,9,16,48,12,3,38 … 53,4,52,11,51,10,78,00,15,99
Big: On lap 14 while running near 5th, William Byron and Matt DiBenedetto had contact and both got notable damage. The #21 got nose damage, and the #24 got rear quarter panel damage. On the next lap, Byron came to pit road because of a flat tire. He had an extremely slow pit stop to repair his car.
Stage #1 Top Ten Finishers (Lap 15): 22,34,1,5,33,17,14,42,18,21
Running order on lap 16: 22,34,1,5,33,17,14,42,18,21 … 43,9,6,20,41,12,19,47,16,37 … 8,2,48,11,3,38,4,7,52,10 … 51,78,23,00,53,15,96,24,77,99
Running order on lap 18: 22,34,1,5,17,42,18,9,6,20 … 12,19,16,37,48,2,11,3,38,4 … 23,96,14,33,43,8,47,10,7,52 … 51,53,78,00,41,15,21,24,77,99
When Stage #2 started, Daniel Suarez was said to have returned to the track. He was 9 laps down.
Notable: On lap 19, Ryan Newman spun and lost all of his track position. He was in the top ten at the time.
Big: On lap 19, Ryan Blaney spun and was shown to have quite a bit of damage to his car. He also had a flat tire.
Big: On lap 19, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace all wrecked. This brought out a caution. The day was over for all three drivers.
Running order on lap 21 under caution: 5,22,18,42,9,17,37,48,11,33 … 3,14,8,7,96,78,51,10,53,1 … 21,43,34,2,16,38,19,41,6,24 … 52,00,15,4,47,12,20,23,77,99
Big: On lap 25 which was the first lap run under green since lap 19, Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Custer crashed in dramatic fashion.
Running order on lap 27 (under red flag conditions): 42,37,18,33,9,22,3,8,11,48 … 7,96,14,21,5,1,2,16,43,34 … 38,51,10,78,12,6,53,17,24,52 … 47,00,15,19,41,4,20,23,99,77
During the red flag, NASCAR gave teams extended pit stops so they could improve visibility. Also following the red flag, NASCAR declared that all restarts going forward would be single file.
Notable: On lap 28 under green, Austin Dillon got black flagged for short cutting the track. He was running inside the top ten prior to his problem.
Running order on lap 31: 18,33,9,8,37,7,48,11,21,14 … 5,16,2,12,22,1,17,34,42,6 … 96,10,24,38,53,00,43,78,3,52 … 47,51,15,19,41,99,4,20,23,77
Notable: Tilley spun on lap 31 and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had contact with him.
On the last lap of Stage #2, Jeff Gordon commented on how good Chase Elliott’s #9 was on drive off the corner.
Stage #2 Top Ten Finishers (Lap 32): 18,9,8,33,7,5,37,16,14,48
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