2026 Focused Health 250 (COTA)
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| Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 3 of 33 in the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series | |||
 | |||
| Date | February 28, 2026 | ||
| Location | Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 2.400 miles (3.862 km) | ||
| Distance | 65 laps, 156 mi (251 km) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | JR Motorsports | ||
| Time | 1:37.740 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Shane van Gisbergen | JR Motorsports | |
| Laps | 31 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver | Shane van Gisbergen | JR Motorsports | |
| Time | 1:39.452 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 9 | Shane van Gisbergen | JR Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | The CW | ||
| Announcers | Adam Alexander, Jamie McMurray, and Parker Kligerman | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | PRN | ||
| Booth announcers | Brad Gillie, Nick Yeoman, and Daniel Suárez | ||
| Turn announcers | Andrew Kurland (Turn 1), Doug Turnbull (Turns 2–6A), Kyle Rickey (Turns 6B–15), and Pat Patterson (Turns 16–20) | ||
The 2026 Focused Health 250 was a NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race held on Saturday, February 28, 2026, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Contested over 65 laps on the 2.400-mile-long asphalt road course, it was the third race of the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season, and the fifth running of the event.
Shane van Gisbergen, driving for JR Motorsports, continued to show road course dominance with a blistering performance, leading a race-high 31 laps and surviving a chaotic late restart to earn his fifth career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series win, and his first of the season.[10] Austin Hill finished second, and Sammy Smith finished third. Jesse Love and Corey Day rounded out the top five, while Brent Crews (in his series debut), William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, and Brennan Poole rounded out the top ten.
Background
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Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a grade 1 FIA-specification motorsports facility located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas. It features a 3.426-mile (5.514 km) road racing circuit. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Grand Prix, and the Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas, a round of the FIM Road Racing World Championship. It previously hosted the Supercars Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and IndyCar Series.
On November 20, 2024, it was announced that the race would move to the 2.400 mi (3.862 km) layout.[11]
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
- (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Practice
The first and only practice session was held on Friday, February 27, at 4:00 PM CST, and lasted for 50 minutes.[12]
Sam Mayer, driving for Haas Factory Team, set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 1:38.706 seconds, and a speed of 87.533 miles per hour (140.871 km/h).[13]
Practice results
| Pos. | # | Driver | Team | Make | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 41 | Sam Mayer | Haas Factory Team | Chevrolet | 1:38.706 | 87.533 |
| 2 | 00 | Sheldon Creed | Haas Factory Team | Chevrolet | 1:38.809 | 87.441 |
| 3 | 87 | Austin Green | Peterson Racing | Chevrolet | 1:38.834 | 87.419 |
| Full practice results | ||||||
Qualifying
Qualifying was held on Friday, February 27, at 5:05 PM CST.[12] Since Circuit of the Americas is a road course, the qualifying procedure used was a two-group system with one round. Drivers were separated into two groups, A and B. Each driver had multiple laps to set a time. Whoever set the fastest time between both groups won the pole.[14]
Under a 2021 rule change, the timing line in road course qualifying is "not" the start-finish line. Instead, the timing line for qualifying was set at the exit of Istanbul 8. Connor Zilisch, driving for JR Motorsports, qualified on pole position with a lap of 1:37.740 seconds, and a speed of 88.398 miles per hour (142.263 km/h).[15]
Two drivers failed to qualify: Josh Williams and Tyler Gonzalez.
