2024 XPEL 225

The 2024 XPEL 225 was the 4th stock car race of the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the 4th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, a 3.426 mi permanent asphalt road course. The race was originally scheduled to be contested over 42 laps, but was increased to 46 laps due to a NASCAR overtime finish. In an action-packed race that featured numerous spins and penalties, Corey Heim, driving for Tricon Garage, was able to stretch out his fuel mileage with two laps to go, and held off the field to earn his sixth career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win, and his first of the season. Heim was the most dominant driver of the race, leading a race-high 31 laps and winning the second stage. To fill out the podium, Taylor Gray, driving for Tricon Garage, and Ty Majeski, driving for ThorSport Racing, would finish 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Connor Zilisch, who started on the pole, came back from an early race incident and went through several amounts of adversity, managing to earn a 4th place finish in his series debut.

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 3.426 mi 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.

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, March 22, at 2:30 PM CST, and would last for 20 minutes. Corey Heim, driving for Tricon Garage, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 2:14.953, and a speed of 90.965 mph.

Qualifying
Qualifying was held on Friday, March 22, at 3:00 PM CST. Since Circuit of the Americas is a road course, the qualifying system is a two group system, with two rounds. Drivers will be separated into two groups, Group A and Group B. Each driver will have multiple laps to set a time. The fastest 5 drivers from each group will advance to the final round. The fastest driver to set a time in that round will win 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 will be set at the exit of Istanbul 8. In his first career start, Connor Zilisch, driving for Spire Motorsports, would win the pole after advancing from the preliminary round and setting the fastest time in Round 2, with a track record lap of 2:11.983, and a speed of 93.012 mph.

No drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results
Stage 1 Laps: 12 Stage 2 Laps: 14 Stage 3 Laps: 20

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.