CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR Cup drivers will barrel into a sharp left-handed turn, navigate a winding infield en masse and maneuver through two treacherous chicanes for more than 100 laps this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. Sunday, NBC) is the final hurdle for playoff drivers looking to secure a spot in the postseason Round of 8. It’s also the final road course race on a 2021 schedule rife with right turns. Some of the newness of the 2.28-mile track has worn off since its debut in 2018, but playoff teams, especially those sitting below the points cutoff, are far from relaxed.
“All the cutoff races are critical,” No. 20 team crew chief Adam Stevens said. “And being that this (race) is in the round with Talladega, you have two, what you could call, ‘wild-card races.’ ”
Stevens, who works with driver Christopher Bell, said that the playoff schedule puts pressure on teams to build up bonus points during the regular season, noting that, “Frankly, we’re not in that situation.”
Bell is one of four drivers sitting below the points cutoff (28 points behind) along with Kevin Harvick (9), William Byron (44) and Alex Bowman (52). Byron and Bowman escaped elimination in the last round after entering the cutoff race at Bristol in a points deficit. That could give them some confidence, but Byron described the Roval as a track that’s “not like other road courses” and one where “anything can happen.”
“It’s kind of its own beast,” Byron said.
Bell, Byron and Stevens identified the track’s trickiest of its 17 turns — the ones that could end any teams’ day early and where race fans can expect to see the most action this weekend.
Turn 1 and the Infield
The first turn on the course is a sharp left coming off pit road leading to the infield.
“It’s very important to make this corner as quick as you can and get up to speed,” Bell said. “Definitely the sharpest pit exit we have on the circuit.”
That turn leads to another, gentler left-handed turn in the infield with a slight elevation dip that can cause cars to get loose rounding Turn 3. Drivers next navigate four right turns weaving in a small circuit ending with two left turns before emerging onto the oval.
“It’s a delicate balance to hit with no practice, but there’s definitely a compromise there,” Stevens said about the car setup. “The thing you would do to help this one (turn) is the wrong thing to do for the other one.”
He noted the frequent tire wear in the infield, while Bell described the advantage of using the paint on the left sides while rounding the tight rights, depending on the grip level. As the race carries on, typically more drivers run wider into the paint in Turn 4, for example, trying to straighten out to pick up speed.
And If it rains? Beware.
“If it starts raining at all, all those curbs are gonna be super slick,” Bell said.
Drivers stay in second gear through the infield, climbing uphill as they straighten through Turn 7 and shade right for a sharp left into Turn 8.
Backstretch Chicane
Cars will reach top speeds running on the oval, but chicanes on the backstretch and frontstretch slow speeds and add drama. The original configuration of the course didn’t include a backstretch chicane, essentially a U-shape from an aerial view, until famed crossover racer Mario Andretti tested the course and made the suggestion to Speedway Motorsports president Marcus Smith.
“He said, ‘You’ve got to protect us from ourselves,’ ” Charlotte Motor Speedway general manager Greg Walter said. “And that aligned with a lot of the feedback we were getting from OEMs and Goodyear.”
Another nugget that the track considered in adding the backstretch turns was that “on road courses, braking equals passing,” Walter said.
“We realized this was gonna be a passing zone because there’s so much braking back here,” he said.
Byron called the backstretch chicane the corner that’s given him the most trouble to set up a pass. Stevens, formerly a crew chief for Kyle Busch, pointed to the backstretch chicane as an area where he’s seen the most cars torn up.
Frontstretch Chicane
Another area Stevens mentioned to watch is the frontstretch chicane as drivers try to make a pass. Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson infamously spun out on the final lap of the 2018 Roval race chasing down Martin Truex Jr. trying to do just that.
Johnson locked his brakes, spun and had contact with the front-runner to knock Truex from the lead. Johnson fell from title contention. Three playoff drivers are more than 25 points below the cutoff heading to this year’s race, which means a win becomes more critical to advance and the racing could get more aggressive.
Stevens said that after the restarts and deep into the race, the frontstretch chicane is where a lot of the action happens. Drivers are likely to make mistakes.
“Because it is bumpy and it’s easy to miss it, especially if they are protecting the inside and you feel like you need to get a run on ‘em on the outside,” Stevens said. “And then maybe they miss it, and then you’re up over the curb.”
Cars could lose time, spin out, get passed and/or wrecked, especially in those areas. Byron noted that’s part of the deal on any area of the course.
“All of (the turns) are tough,” he said. “You’re always turning and braking, because you’re always setting yourself up for another braking zone. ... It’s difficult.”
Stevens summarized the race from a team perspective, wishing he had more of a cushion before Sunday.
“A lot of the guys that get through this round are gonna look back and say, ‘Thank goodness we had those bonus points.’ ”
