Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has defended the timing of the United States Grand Prix, despite it being scheduled on the same weekend as a NASCAR event.
President of Texas Motor Speedway Eddie Gossage, who will host the NASCAR Sprint Cup's AAA Texas 500, has criticised Ecclestone for staging the F1 race at Austin's Circuit of the Americas on November 2.
"I've spoken to the people that run the race at COTA and their position is that they believe the NASCAR crowd is a different crowd to Formula 1, different people, different customers," BBC Sport quotes Ecclestone as saying. "At the end of the day they run a domestic series in America, we run a world championship."
The 2014 F1 season will get underway in Australia on March 15.
