When the NASCAR Cup Series field rolled into Charlotte Motor Speedway in September 2018, things looked a little different.
Rather than the traditional 500-mile race that usually served as the track’s second date on the calendar, Charlotte’s second race of the 2018 season would be run at a venue both familiar and brand new to the competitors.
The change was announced by Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith in May 2017, shortly before the Coca-Cola 600, and served as the first major shift in the Cup Series schedule in many years.
The decision to run the infield road course at one of NASCAR’s most storied tracks set the precedent for future changes that presented fans with a drastically different schedule. In the six years since the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL’s inception, NASCAR has put dirt on the high banks at Bristol Motor Speedway, raced on the streets of Chicago and taken the Cup Series to new markets such as St. Louis and Nashville (and soon Mexico City).
That’s not to say those events don’t happen without the Charlotte ROVAL’s existence. But the successful new race made it clear that even the boldest changes had an opportunity to work out, as long as they were well executed.
The ROVAL has taken a hit in popularity since the advent of the Next Gen car in 2022. While the on-track product at intermediates has taken incredible leaps, short tracks and road courses have seen a litany of issues when it comes to the quality of the racing.
The opinion of NASCAR fans regarding the ROVAL has certainly shifted from that September day in 2018, when Smith and SMI likely felt that they’d stumbled across gold in the form of a racetrack.
The hype surrounding the ROVAL’s debut was heightened by the fact that the race served — as it does today — as an elimination race in the Cup Series playoffs. The 2018 edition was the cut-off race for the Round of 16 and featured a variety of intriguing postseason scenarios which came to light with just a few laps to go.
As Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson battled for the win, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola were all within one point of each other for the transfer spot in the Round of 12. After being as many as 15 points above the cut line just laps earlier, Almirola was out of the Round of 12 picture, trailing the wounded car of Larson via tiebreaker.
As the field roared down the backstretch, all attention suddenly turned to Truex and Johnson, as…
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