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NASCAR is making its way to Austin's Circuit of The Americas.
For the first time in the track's eight year history, the Circuit of the Americas will host a NASCAR race in 2021.
The premiere American racing league will debut in Austin for the first time May 21-23, 2021 as part of the new racing schedule for NASCAR that will also move the All-Star Race to Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
The announcement on Twitter comes after The Athletic first reported last week that NASCAR would make its way to the COTA track.
Austin race car fans know the COTA track as the 3.43 mile, 20-turn road course that hosts Formula One and IndyCar races, but never a NASCAR event. However, NASCAR star Tony Stewart praised the layout of the track last fall in an interview with Autoweek.
"The layout of the track, it's a very technical racetrack," Stewart said in 2019. "Watkins Glen is the road course where I had the most success at, but it's pretty straightforward about where the line is, what you need to do, braking, this and that. The thing about Circuit of The Americas is that it is very, very technical and there are a lot of ways you can attack it."
The addition of a NASCAR race for 2021 is a major victory after the track lost every major event in 2020 due to COVID-19 and the pandemic that has lingered longer than anyone could have predicted.
Since opening in 2012, COTA has hosted many of the largest events in Austin for national and international visitors. According to the Austin-American Statesmen, last year's United States Grand Prix, part of Formula 1's annual international schedule, generated a direct impact of $392 million on the local economy and $880 million in direct, indirect and induced spending.
Fans around Austin have been waiting for NASCAR to come to the COTA track for a while, and the announcement had many going to Twitter to share their excitement.
Fans can already reserve tickets at COTA's website.
More sports:
Austin’s own Nick Foles returns to spotlight in come-from-behind NFL win
(Matt Smith/Shutterstock)
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House Bill 1325, which was signed in June 2019 by Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Farm Bill, signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2018, legalized any hemp product containing less than .3% THC. The same bills were thought to have made Delta 8 legal, though the Texas Department of State Health Services added a notice on its website saying it was still a controlled substance as of Friday, Oct. 15.
Both the federal and state governments keep separate lists on what is considered a controlled substance. Marijuana is considered Schedule I, a category reserved for substances with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," both statewide and federally.
Austin-based CBD retailer Grassroots Harvest CEO Kemal Whyte, like many CBD shop retailers, was blindsided by the announcement. Many small businesses rely on Delta 8 for their sales—Green Herbal Care CBD said about 90% of its sales come from Delta 8—and Whyte said he is frustrated by the inconsistencies in the drug scheduling system.
(Grassroots Harvest/Instagram)
Since 87% of Texans support the legalization of marijuana, at least for medical use, per a recent poll, Whyte said he wonders who this legislation is for.
"It's gonna have a massive impact on small businesses—there's just no way around it," Whyte said. "The reality is, we don't want to push out anything bad for our customers, we want this to benefit our customers and to help them. If we can make money while doing it, that's the American dream. What are we doing, whose benefit is this for?"
Delta 8 surged in popularity after the perceived legalization—consumers enjoyed its lower psychotropic potency, decreased anxiety while using it and the peace of mind as a legal way to get high. So in order to protect their products and livelihoods, both Grassroots Harvest and Austin-based manufacturer Hometown Heroes are taking legal action.
Whyte said Grassroots Harvest is suing DSHS, saying their action is creating negative effects in the market. Meanwhile, a Hometown Heroes spokesperson said the company is in the process of filing a temporary restraining order that would pause the ban on Delta-8 in the state of Texas.
Threats against Delta 8 are not new—DSHS lost a lawsuit trying to make "smokable hemp products" illegal last year and Texas lawmakers had been considering a bill that would make Delta 8 illegal, though it was dropped after the clarification was made.
Hometown Heroes released a formal statement in response to the DSHS rule.
"I need to be clear—we love Texas, we're just choosing to fight for the will of the people in regards to cannabis in Texas," Hometown Hero CEO Lukas Gilkey said in a statement. "(Texas DSHS) are using backhanded ways to create legislation and go against the will of the people."
Whyte laments the fact that it would be easier legally to "open up a strip club that also sells guns," and said he can't post customer testimonials that mention the benefits of Delta 8 without getting hit with a cease and desist from the Food and Drug Administration. Whyte said he isn't opposed to regulation—far from it—he just wants to see it go through the correct channels.
"The fact that they're stunting our ability to communicate with our clients that want to learn about this, you're preventing us from communicating with them and teaching them, or spreading information that we know," Whyte said. "I think that that in and of itself opens up a lot of questions."
Grassroots Harvest still has Delta 8 products on its shelves for the time being but for how long, Whyte doesn't know.
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