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2026 Focused Health 250 (COTA)

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. 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.

Report

Background

Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a grade 1 FIA-specification motorsports facility located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas. It features a 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 layout.

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.

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 .

Practice results

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Friday, February 27, at 5:05 PM CST. 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.

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 .

Two drivers failed to qualify: Josh Williams and Tyler Gonzalez.

Qualifying results

Race

Race results

Stage results

Stage One Laps: 20

Stage Two Laps: 20

Final Stage results

Stage Three Laps: 25

Notes

Race statistics

  • Lead changes: 16 among 8 different drivers
  • Cautions/Laps: 4 for 12 laps
  • Red flags: 0
  • Time of race: 2 hours, 12 minutes and 56 seconds
  • Average speed:

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Manufacturers' Championship standings
  • <small>Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.</small>

References