I have been waiting to tell you all this:
I will not be attending any of the NASCAR festivities in Austin this weekend.
If I want to do the “this is savvy and intentional” stance, I want to watch F1 in Monaco, I’m worried how much of the NASCAR race I’d really see from the infield, and the frequency of rain here these days has me thinking attendance could cause problem for Cubs Sunday Night Baseball viewing.
If I want to be honest, the puppy is a lot of work right now and I am too exhausted for spending a day at Circuit of the Americas to sound all that fun.
With that established, your weekend motorsports schedule:
Friday
There’s some practice, I think, but no racing or open-wheel qualifying. (We’re not listing NASCAR qualifying because we spend that energy listing NASCAR’s lower series races, and stock car qualifying isn’t as exciting as open-wheel qualifying, or as meaningful, I don’t think, and they don’t even do qualifying a lot now anyway, right? That is something I have not been paying attention to.)
Saturday
Ok, here we go.
Formula 1: Grand Prix de Monaco 2021 Qualifying
Where: Monaco – in the streets, very cool-looking thing, evidently the biggest race of the year?
When: 9:00 AM EDT
Broadcast: ESPN2
IndyCar: Indy 500 Qualifying Day 1 (locking in spots 11-30, setting up the top ten and those fighting for last spots in the field)
Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
When: 12:00 PM EDT (technically…more on the next line)
Broadcast: Peacock from 12:00 PM EDT to 2:00, NBC from 2:00 to 3:00, NBCSN from 3:00 to 6:00 (which makes me wonder how much will be happening from noon to 2:00)
NASCAR Truck Series: Toyota Tundra 225
Where: Circuit of the Americas (here in Austin, southeast of town)
When: 1:00 PM EDT
Broadcast: FS1
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Pit Boss 250
Where: Circuit of the Americas
When: 4:00 PM EDT
Broadcast: FS1
Sunday
Formula 1: Grand Prix de Monaco 2021
Where: Monaco – yachts! F1 is hilariously opulent.
When: 9:00 AM EDT
Broadcast: ESPN2
IndyCar: Indy 500 Qualifying, Last Row (competition for the final three spots in the field)
Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
When: 1:00 PM EDT
Broadcast: NBCSN
IndyCar: Indy 500 Qualifying, Fast 9 (spots 1-10)
Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
When: 2:30 PM EDT
Broadcast: NBC
NASCAR Cup Series: EchoPark Texas Grand Prix
Where: Circuit of the Americas
When: 2:30 PM EDT
Broadcast: FS1
***
Big weekend! You can see why I want to stay home. We’ll have race previews up for Monaco and the Cup Series on Sunday morning. Recaps for all the series between Sunday and Monday (the NASCAR minor league series recaps will be lumped in with the Cup preview, as is our custom).
