Asterisk Mark Report – COTA 2023

AJ Allmendinger – AJ Allmendinger was a top five contender last year at COTA but he had multiple problems which led to his asterisk mark 34th. In the race, Allmendinger was in 3rd on lap 40 but then a few laps later following a caution, the #16 team had a slow pit stop that dropped him from 3rd back to 15th. Allmendinger battled back up to 9th on lap 57 but then shortly after that during a restart he was spun out and damaged which led to his misleading finish. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Allmendinger ranked 3rd.

Daniel Suarez – Daniel Suarez was a top five contender last year at COTA but he finished an asterisk mark 27th after getting caught up in late carnage. In the race, Suarez started 5th, had the 3rd best average running position (7.1), ranked as the Fastest Driver Late In A Run, had the 2nd best Green Flag Speed and ranked 6th for Total Speed Rankings. On lap 57 which is my favorite late race reference point before late chaos ensued, Suarez was in 2nd. At the start of overtime #2, Suarez was running in 5th but then he had a shredded tire which brought out a caution for overtime #3.

Martin Truex Jr. – Martin Truex Jr. finished 17th last year at COTA but that’s a misleading result via him getting caught up in late chaos. Early in Overtime restart #2, Truex was up to 4th, but he was then spun out which doomed him to his mediocre finish. On lap 57 which is my favorite reference point for the running order before late chaos took over, Truex was running in 11th.

Christopher Bell – Christopher Bell was a top ten contender last year at COTA but his race was far from incident free. In the race, Bell finished 9th in Stage #1, was in 12th on lap 35 but then just after that his race took a downhill turn. On lap 38 while running just short of the top ten he was spun out. Bell rebounded back up to 8th on lap 57 which is my favorite late race reference point before late chaos took over but then on lap 61, he got spun out again. Then right at the end in overtime #3, Bell was shown to have a ton of damage which led to his 31st.