How new Charlotte Roval layout will change elimination race

This weekend, the heat is on for Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, and Chase Briscoe who enter below the cut line, with Chase Elliott on the playoff bubble as NASCAR returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway for yet another Round of 12 elimination race on its infield road course. And if the playoff heat isn’t enough of a challenge, the series added another challenge for drivers — a slightly different look to the ROVAL. 

At first, the layout looks about the same. Drivers will follow the same course for the first part of the lap, but things change after Turn 5. Instead of taking a left, the straightaway has been extended to a new Turn 6. This section includes some elevation change where drivers will lose the ability to see some of the cars in front of them until they reach the crest of the hill.

Drivers will have to slow for Turn 6, but not enough to make passing a real possibility. However, that will change dramatically entering the incredibly tight Turn 7. It’s basically a 180-degree turn as drivers completely change direction onto the banked oval. When desperation hits on late-race restarts, this could become calamity corner with aggressive drive-bombs up the inside. We’ve seen something similar at the tight Turn 1 at COTA, which isn’t even in the playoffs. The final chicane also has a notable change, creating a sharper apex for the drivers to navigate at Turn 16.

Suarez is one of the drivers entering this race in the red, and he’s spent a lot of time in the simulator preparing for the changes. “This Roval race is going to be different for sure,” he said in the weekly team advance. “I think the changes to the track will create passing zones. Right now, our work is in the virtual world. We are doing this on a simulator. Nobody has been running laps in real life. So we are going to find out what these changes mean on Saturday.”

His teammate Ross Chastain, who earned pole position in the last road course race at Watkins Glen, expressed some concern over how the elevation changes will affect visibility. “From the pictures I’ve seen, it’s definitely changed,” he said. “There’s some elevation change and it is blind. You can see a car, I believe, but the track falls away steep enough that you can’t really see it. It gives me a little bit of anxiety because I can’t see the road in front of me. I’ll wait to see how it looks in real life…