Short-cutting and the term “Track Limits” were a BIG deal this weekend at Circuit of the Americas. All three series saw a massive number of track-cutting penalties, with drivers penalized for either tail-end, pass-through, or 30-second penalties, the latter reserved for post-race.

The Cup Series EchoPark Grand Prix was by far the cleanest of the weekend’s three races, with only four drivers penalized. Turn 4 was the culprit for Elliott, Nemechek, Briscoe, and Stenhouse Jr., all of whom were forced into pass-through penalties.

The Xfinity Series Focused Health 250, on the other hand, committed 16 course-cutting infractions: one each in Turns 3 and 5, four in Turn 6, and ten in Turn 4 (you’ll see a pattern here). Nine of those resulted in pass-through penalties, and five resulted in tail-end penalties. Following the checkered flag, van Gisbergen’s 97 and Enerson’s 14 received 30-second penalties. Van Gisbergen lost his runner-up finish to that penalty, dragging him back to a 27th-place finish.

The Craftsman Truck Series XPEL 225 was undoubtedly the harshest on drivers in terms of that course-cutting penalty. The truckers were hit by course cutting on 20 occasions, resulting in 11 pass-throughs, 7 tail-ends, and 2 30-second penalties. Matt Mills’ 42 and Matt Crafton’s 88 were hit with 30-second penalties for course cutting in the last laps, resulting in 23rd (Crafton) and 24th-place (Mills) finishes.

By The Numbers

Turn #	Total Penalties Issued	Truck	Xfinity	Cup
3	6	5	1	0
4	23	9	10	4
5	5	4	1	0
6	6	2	4	0

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images