By David Morgan, Associate Editor
CONCORD, N.C. – The Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs comes down to this.
There are numerous adjectives that can be used to describe this weekend’s race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course: unpredictable, volatile, treacherous, chaotic, etc.
One thing is for sure, Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 is going to be a hell of a ride, with four drivers getting cut from the Cup Series Playoffs when the checkered flag waves.
In an effort to spice things up back in 2018, Charlotte officials elected to switch from running another race on the 1.5-mile oval to creating what they call the ROVAL, incorporating both the high banks of the oval with the track’s infield road course.
What emerged is a 2.28-mile, 17-turn behemoth that has been pushing drivers to their limits ever since as they battle to conquer the track and punch their ticket into the next round of the Playoffs.
The Charlotte ROVAL was already chaotic enough in its original iteration, but officials at the track decided to up the ante heading into last year’s event, and it remains the same for the 2025 edition.
Two major changes were undertaken to the track before the 2024 race, starting with what will likely now be the biggest chokepoint on the track in Turn 7.
Instead of a sweeping right and left hander at Turn 6 and 7 before hanging another left onto NASCAR oval Turns 1-2, officials have lengthened the straightaway out of Turn 5 that sends the drivers over a blind crest into a right-hander at Turn 6 before funneling them into the new hairpin turn at Turn 7 before returning to the NASCAR oval.
The backstretch chicane has also been tweaked a bit for this year’s race, tightening up the Turn 10, 11, and 12 complex, but the bigger change has come to the frontstretch chicane.
A sharper Turn 16 and 17 will greet the drivers after they storm off the frontstretch and through the flowing right-hander that is Turn 15, making for another heavy braking zone that will no doubt be another section to bottle the drivers up in hopes of prompting more passing.
One way or another, excitement guaranteed.
Playoff Picture
Thus far in the Round of 12, two spots have been guaranteed based on wins, courtesy of Ryan Blaney winning at New Hampshire and Chase Elliott stealing the win last weekend at Kansas.
As it stands now the other drivers currently above the cut-off line and in position to transfer include the following: Kyle Larson (+54), Denny Hamlin (+48), Christopher Bell (+44), William Byron (+40), Chase Briscoe (+21), and Joey Logano (+13).
Of those drivers, Briscoe and Logano find themselves within striking distance of elimination should Sunday go awry, with Logano on the bubble to be the first driver out if one of the four drivers on the outside looking in pull off the victory.
Those four on the verge of elimination are Ross Chastain (-13), Bubba Wallace (-26), Tyler Reddick (-29), and Austin Cindric (-48).
Chastain has a fighting chance of making in into the top-eight on points, but the other three will likely need a win to make it through. A tall task for all involved.
SVG’s Race to Lose?
With Sunday being the final road course race of the season, all eyes will be on Shane van Gisbergen to see if the New Zealander can win another road course race to bring his season win total to five.
The driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet has been nearly unstoppable on the tracks that incorporate both left- and right-hand turns, winning every road course race this season with the exception of Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
After finding himself bumped from the Playoffs at the end of the first round, van Gisbergen and his team rebounded in the second round, most recently scoring his first oval top-10 a week ago at Kansas, so they come into Charlotte with the momentum from that finish and the knowledge that the win will likely have to go through their driver.
“I’m excited. I always enjoy turning right,” van Gisbergen said with a laugh. “It’s a track I’ve been too before, and I did decent there last year in both Cup and Xfinity. It’s definitely a little different than your average road course, but it’s a lot of fun. Hopefully it will be a great weekend!”
By the Numbers
What: Bank of America ROVAL 400, NASCAR Cup Series Race No. 32 of 36
Where: Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course – Concord, North Carolina
When: Sunday, October 5
TV/Radio: USA Network, 3:00 pm ET / PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Channel 90
Track Size: 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course
Banking: 24 degrees in oval turns, five degrees on oval straightaways
Race Length: 109 laps, 252.88 miles
Stage Lengths: First two stages: 25 laps each – Final stage: 59 laps
2024 Race Winner: Kyle Larson – No. 5 Chevrolet (Started sixth, 62 laps led)
Track Qualifying Record: Kurt Busch – 1 minute, 16.805 seconds/106.868 mph – September 2018
Top-10 Highest Driver Rating at Charlotte:
- Chase Elliott – No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – 109.7
- Shane van Gisbergen – No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet – 107.5
- William Byron – No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – 107.2
- A.J. Allmendinger – No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – 105.3
- Kyle Larson – No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – 104.8
- Tyler Reddick – No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota – 101.7
- Christopher Bell – No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – 96.5
- Joey Logano – No. 22 Team Penske Ford – 96.3
- Ryan Blaney – No. 12 Team Penske Ford – 91.6
- Kyle Busch – No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet – 90.0
NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings:
- Ryan Blaney (Locked into next round – New Hampshire win)
- Chase Elliott (Locked into next round – Kansas win)
- Kyle Larson (+54)
- Denny Hamlin (+48)
- Christopher Bell (+44)
- William Byron (+40)
- Chase Briscoe (+21)
- Joey Logano (+13)
- Ross Chastain (-13 below cut-off)
- Bubba Wallace (-26)
- Tyler Reddick (-29)
- Austin Cindric (-48)
From the Driver’s Seat
“The ROVAL is unique, it’s one of a kind in the sense that it’s not like any other road courses we see,” said Michael McDowell.
“It’s not a typical or standard road course. But the oval part of it isn’t really a thing anymore. I think in the old car you had to choose whether you wanted your car to go through the banking or go through the infield, whereas now in the Next-Gen car it’s not really a hybrid, as much. So, set up wise you’re thinking about it from a road-course standpoint, but it’s very unique.”
Last Time at the Charlotte ROVAL
Kyle Larson did what Kyle Larson does in the 2024 iteration of the Charlotte ROVAL race, taking over the lead at the start of the second stage and leading 62 of the final 82 laps en route to the victory, but it was what was happening behind Larson that would grab the headlines of the day.
Pole sitter and regular season champion Tyler Reddick would win the first stage, but after finding himself mired back in traffic after pitting during the stage break, Reddick’s day would take a drastic turn for the worse.
Heading into notorious Turn 7 on Lap 31, Reddick carried too much speed into the hairpin corner and when he got on the brakes, his car was practically out of control as he slid in with a head of steam, slamming into team owner Denny Hamlin before also making contact with Austin Dillon, who had also spun in that same corner.
Reddick would drop to 37th as a result of the incident and when the caution flag flew a handful of laps later, he was able to bring his car to the attention of his crew so they could get their first look at the damage and work up a game plan to get him back to a raceable condition.
The team determined the right-rear toe link needed to be fixed, so they were able to get that changed and get him back on track without falling any further behind than he already was.
Under the final caution, the call was made by crew chief Billy Scott to bring Reddick to pit road for fresh tires and let him go out and earn his spot in the next round of the Playoffs over the final 26 laps.
Reddick would go on to put on a determined drive forward to regain the points lost and punch his ticket into the next round. Starting that run 13 points in arears to Joey Logano, Reddick would eventually pull even with him in the standings with 12 laps to go.
By the time the checkered flag flew, Reddick was up to 11th place, enough to secure a four-point margin over Logano to capture the final transfer spot into the Round of 8.
However, Logano’s Playoff demise was short lived when Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was found to be underweight in post-race inspection, therefore resulting in a disqualification and erasing his 18th place result that was enough to get him into the next round of the Playoffs.
With Bowman’s disqualification, Logano, who appeared to lose out on advancing when the checkered flag flew moved into the top-eight in points and got new life in his quest to win another Cup Series title, which he would do four weeks later in Phoenix.
“NASCAR allows a clear margin to account for the difference in pre- and post-race weight. After a thorough review by our team and the sanctioning body, we simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement,” Hendrick Motorsports said afterwards in a statement after announcing that they would not appeal the DQ.
“Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable. We are extremely disappointed to lose a playoff spot under these circumstances and apologize to our fans and partners.”
Weekend Schedule (All Times Eastern)
- Saturday, October 4
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice (2:00 pm – Tru TV)
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying (3:10 pm – Tru TV)
- Sunday, October 5
- Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte (3:00 pm – 109 laps, 252.88 miles – NBC)
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