I kind of take back what I said about comparing the NASCAR playoff format to a slasher movie.
It is officially October, and I’d actually apply that comparison more to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL than anything: sure, at Talladega Superspeedway things happen in a flash and one wrong move can take out half the field, but that’s more Final Destination than anything.
The ROVAL, on the other hand, mirrors Halloween, Scream, Friday the 13th and all your slasher classics, to an even greater degree: the potential for race-ending damage, dashed playoff hopes and general chaos lurks around every single corner of the twisting 2.28-mile circuit.
With all that said, the first and second halves of the ROVAL’s four races to date have been wildly different.
2018 & 2019
Both iterations of the 2010s races at the ROVAL were held in September; it wasn’t until the turn of the decade that the date slid into October.
The very first race at the layout was an instant classic, with misfortune befalling two drivers on the final lap and dashing one of those drivers’ playoff hopes. Before that, though, came Brad Keselowski‘s infamous controller disconnect moment as he and a number of other drivers piled into the Tums Heartburn Turn on a restart.
Later, Jimmie Johnson had hunted down Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps, pulling up right to the No. 78’s bumper as the duo entered the frontstretch chicane for the final time.
Johnson locked up the brakes, causing his No. 48 to wobble and spin over the turtles and onto a run-off area, but couldn’t keep his No. 48 Chevrolet from clipping Truex’s No. 78 Toyota. Possibly less than 100 ft. from the checkered flag, Johnson was around and Truex backed into the wall.
Truex couldn’t get the car going in time, allowing Ryan Blaney to slip through and score the second win of his young career.
Outside of the win itself, the incident did little to damage Truex’s hopes for the next round (he made the Championship 4 regardless), but Johnson’s move cost him a playoff spot.
Behind all that, Kyle Larson was limping around in a damaged car and had little hope of salvaging a Round of 12 berth.
Then Jeffrey Earnhardt was spun just before the checkered and the No. 42, beat to hell and wheels askew, trundled by in the nick of time to secure a spot in the next…
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