The Circuit of the Americas — commonly abbreviated COTA — opened in 2012 as a Grade 1 FIA-specification road course measuring 3.426 miles (5.514 km). Located on approximately 890 acres of land in southeastern Travis County, it was purpose-built for Formula One and was the first circuit in the United States constructed specifically to FIA Formula One standards. The full layout was conceived by promoter Tavo Hellmund and former Motorcycle World Champion Kevin Schwantz, with German circuit designer Hermann Tilke handling the detailed design. From its inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in 2021, the full-length configuration was used across all Cup, Xfinity, and Truck events through the 2024 season.
On 20 November 2024, NASCAR announced that both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series would move to the 2.356-mile short configuration at COTA beginning in 2025. The change reflected a desire to tailor the circuit's challenge more closely to the characteristics of NASCAR's heavy stock cars and to improve the quality of racing by concentrating action in the circuit's more overtaking-friendly sections. As of 2025, the Circuit of the Americas in its short form is the third-longest road course on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
The full COTA circuit is renowned for its diversity of corner types drawn from several European Formula One venues. Its first sector features a steep uphill climb of over 11% gradient to Turn 1 — the circuit's highest point, known as Big Red — followed by a downhill right-hander and a sequence of fast sweeping esses modelled on Silverstone's Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex. The short layout removes or bypasses elements of the circuit to produce a more streamlined lap. The circuit as a whole runs counter-clockwise, placing greater emphasis on left-hand turns and offering a different physical challenge to drivers accustomed to predominantly clockwise venues.
The full circuit includes a 251-foot (77 m) observation tower visible from much of the lap, a 20-acre Grand Plaza bordered on three sides by the racing surface, and a 14,000-capacity open-air amphitheater at its base. These landmark features remain part of the COTA venue regardless of which layout configuration is in use.
The short layout hosts NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series events at COTA from 2025 onward. The full COTA venue continues to serve other series on the full-length configuration, including Formula One's United States Grand Prix, MotoGP's Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas, and the FIA World Endurance Championship's Lone Star Le Mans. The Formula One race at COTA drew over 440,000 spectators across its three-day weekend in October 2022, setting an attendance record for a Formula One event in North America.
The introduction of a dedicated short layout at COTA reflects the broader trend of major American venues adapting road course configurations to different sanctioning bodies and car types. COTA had already hosted NASCAR on the full layout from 2021 and developed one of the sport's most distinctive road course race weekends. The short configuration preserves the venue's place on the NASCAR calendar while acknowledging that the technical demands of the full FIA track are better matched to open-wheel and prototype machinery than to stock cars.