• Wednesday, October 9th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

The Charlotte Road Course has been a serendipitous track for Hendrick drivers

For Hendrick Motorsports drivers, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course can be a place of good omens.

In 2020, when the 2.280-mile, 17-turn circuit hosted the sixth race in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Chase Elliott won that Round of 12 elimination race and went on to win the series championship.

A year later, in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Larson duplicated his teammate’s feat, winning at the Roval and claiming the title with a victory in the Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway.

Interestingly, all four Hendrick drivers—Elliott, Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman—are above the current cut line entering Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The four drivers, however, come to the newly configured road course with different agendas. Byron is the only driver to have clinched a spot in the Round of 8, a feat he accomplished on points after a third-place finish last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

After matching his career-best finish (fourth) at Talladega, Larson can advance to the next round of the Playoffs by scoring 16 points on Sunday, no matter who wins the race.

Bowman is 26 points above the current cutoff and likely will try to score points in the first two stages to secure his spot in the Round of 8. Elliott is eighth in the standings, just 13 points ahead of Joey Logano in ninth, a position that may dictate a more aggressive approach to Sunday’s race.

Complicating the issue are dramatic changes to the layout. Instead of approaching the main grandstand, Turn 6 now directs the drivers toward the condominiums in Turn 1 on the NASCAR oval. It’s an uphill corner where drivers won’t be able to see the apex before they reach the braking zone.

The new Turn 7, which leads up to the banking of the oval, is a tight hairpin that Christopher Bell (second in the Playoff standings and the 2022 Roval winner) says has the potential to be a new “calamity corner.”

Turn 16, in the frontstretch chicane, has been tightened to a sharper radius.

“I kind of look at it like it’s a new race track, truthfully,” Elliott said. “That section of the track (Turns 6 and 7) is going to change the entire flow of the lap there, so I’ve been kind of approaching it as a new track with my preparation. I’ve spent some time in the simulator, just trying to really memorize the track and where the little bumps are.

“Typically, those track scans are pretty good. I think that’s probably one of the best things about the simulator, that a driver can go and get familiar with the track layout—surface content, roughness, so on and so forth. It’s really about all I feel like I can do until we get some time on track.”

Drivers will get their first non-virtual track time on Saturday during practice, with each competitor getting 40 minutes on the new layout before qualifying.

“I was able to turn some laps on the Roval in the simulator last week,” Larson said. “The changes to the track create another passing zone (Turn 7) but could also create chaos if drivers make late moves there.

“With our finish at Talladega, we’re in a much better points position entering this race than years past, but we still have to execute and put together a solid race this weekend.”

Needing more than just a solid race are the remaining Ford drivers in the field—Logano, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney. Of the four, only Blaney, the reigning series champion, remains above the current cutoff at +25.

Briscoe and Cindric are 29 and 32 points below the line, respectively, likely needing a victory on Sunday to advance.

“We kind of have to go in here with the mind-set of winning the race, which simplifies things in a lot of ways,” Cindric said. “It certainly simplifies strategy thoughts and thoughts in preparation for the race.

“It’s not the situation you want to be in, but it’s something we’re certainly prepared to go after and fight for.”

• Bank of America ROVAL 400
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Shane Van Gisbergen
• Age: 35
• Team : No 13 - WeatherTech Chevrolet
• Owner: Matthew Kaulig
• Crew Chief: Travis Mack
• Shane Van Gisbergen won the Pole Award for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 with a lap of 82704 seconds, 99246 mph
• This is his first pole in 12 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and third top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in one races at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course
• Tyler Reddick (second) posted his 19th top-10 start of 2024 and his third in five races at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course
• AJ Allmendinger (third) posted his fourth top-10 start at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course It is his third in 15 races this season
• Carson Hocevar (20th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 109
• Margin of Victory: 01.511 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 0 Minutes 3 Seconds
• Average Speed: 82.817
• Cautions: 5 for 13 laps
• Lead Changes: 7
• Green Flag Passes: 3,357 (35.0 passes per green flag lap)

• Bank of America ROVAL 400
• Race Winner: Kyle Larson
• Age: 32
• Team : No 5 - HendrickCarscom Chevrolet
• Owner: Rick Hendrick
• Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
• Kyle Larson won the Bank of America ROVAL 400, his 29th victory in 362 Cup Series races
• This is his sixth victory and 16th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his second victory and second top-10 finish in six races at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course
• Christopher Bell (second) posted his third top-10 finish in five races at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course It is his 20th top-10 finish in 2024
• William Byron (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in seven races at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course
• Carson Hocevar (12th) was the highest finishing rookie
• William Byron leads the point standings by 9 points over Kyle Larson
• Alex Bowman's #48 vehicle was determined to be too light in post-race technical inspection, disqualifying the result and dropping Bowman to a 38th-place finish.