NASCAR Cup Series drivers set to race new Charlotte Roval layout

CONCORD, N.C. — As if eliminations weren’t stressful enough, NASCAR Cup Series drivers will also have to contend with a new layout at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Crews extended the straightaway coming out of Turn 5, creating a new Turn 6. That will set up a sharper hairpin in Turn 7.

Ryan Blaney, in particular, is on board with this change.

“The heaviest braking zone out there is going to be Turn 7,” Blaney said. “You’re going to see a lot of good passes there, as far as people getting runs, diving it in there and taking chances. I thought that corner was tight the way it was before, but it’s going to be even tighter now. It’s going to be really exciting.”

Then, on the frontstretch, they reconfigured the chicane to have a sharper apex in Turn 16.

The idea is to give drivers more braking zones, which Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith believes will create more passing opportunities.

“Two distinct braking zones are going to really help the competition and provide great overtaking opportunities,” Smith said. “One of the biggest things we’ve heard is about off-throttle time in oval racing. In road-course racing, you want as much of an opportunity as possible for a driver to play with the brake pedal, the gas pedal and the steering wheel. That’s what a well-designed track is going to provide – those overtaking opportunities – and that’s what we’ve done.”

It worked for Sam Mayer in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday. Mayer pulled an over-under pass on Parker Kligerman to put himself in the Round of 8, knocking Kligerman out.

The final corner, however, has created more opportunities for chaos. The NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers experienced this Saturday when a multi-car wreck ensued in the final corner and knocked Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed out of the Round of 8.

“The Roval has never been a good track for me, but I thought we would be okay to advance if we just survived. Neither myself nor the 5 were giving up in the chicane and it took me out ultimately. We probably would’ve been fine if it wasn’t for that,” Herbst said.

“When they started crashing. I stopped right at it, and then whoever was behind me, pushed me into it even further. Unfortunate. It sucks that our Playoffs will end this way,” Creed said.

Creed’s teammate, Aric Almirola, was more vocal on his thoughts about the changes.

“Yeah, I didn’t love it. It seemed like it raced a little better than I probably expected. But it is still certainly calamity corner, right? It just invites you to dive bomb it in there. It seemed like for the most part, everyone was pretty respectful, and got through there okay, but it is really, really tough to manage – do you block? Do you not block? It is really inviting to shove it down in there, even when you are two to three car lengths back,” Almirola said.

Meanwhile, with the frontstretch chicane, Martin Truex Jr. reportedly described hitting the turtles as feeling like a concussion every lap, to which Kyle Busch agreed with.

Here is what some of the other NASCAR Cup Series drivers had to say before racing on the new configuration. We’ll see if these thoughts hold up for them after a long day of Roval racing.

Tyler Reddick

“It’s going to be a bit different. My favorite corner, Marcus [Smith] decided to make it a little bit tighter, so that helps me even more. Definitely what they’ve changed on the backs is going to change the flow of the track, but I don’t know if it really changes what you do with your car setup going into the weekend. You’re just going to have to figure out a couple of new corners.”

Ryan Blaney

“It’ll be a little bit different with the final chicane being a little tighter you’re going to see some more kind of outbreaking maneuvers there now than what it has been. Exiting the infield there, yeah I don’t know how that’s going to be; that’s a super tight corner when you turn back onto the banking you know of the oval Turn 1 track. I think you’re going to see some big dive bomb Hail Mary moves into there, just because it’s a pretty wide entry, and you’ll have to slow way down. So we’ll see, but that’ll be a pretty exciting spot on the track. I think they also opened up a couple of passing zones, which is good. That’s what tracks need.”

Denny Hamlin

“Expectations for the ROVAL™ is gonna be that we’re going to have a little bit different track configuration this year. Two corners that we’re going to have to navigate that’s a little bit different. So it’s going to be about who can adapt the quickest and qualify well.”

Austin Cindric

“The ROVAL™ will definitely be different with the reconfiguration, especially in that the Turn 8 area. I honestly hated Turn 8 before so I’m a big fan of this change. It should be fun.”

Alex Bowman

“It’ll be really interesting to see how the track reconfiguration is at the ROVAL™so I’m excited for that, it’s gonna be different for sure. It’s going to be a pretty treacherous section so, we’ll have to wait and see. The front straight-away chicane is going to be narrower, lot of differences so I’m excited to get there.”

Chase Briscoe

“My expectations for the ROVAL™ will be is that it’s going to be a really exciting race first off. It’s a new configuration. I think the new track is going to create quite a few more passing opportunities. Probably going to create more chaos, which is always the fun part of the ROVAL™ from the fan side of things. So, this year’s ROVAL™ will be one for the history books.”

Drivers will also run pink window nets at the Roval in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The window nets will send a message of support for breast cancer survivors and their families, with the nets presented by the Erik Jones Foundation.

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