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A glimpse of Chris Buescher's onboard camera as he takes a ride on the partially oval course of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway, USA TODAY & # 39; HUI
Kurt Busch drives his oval car down the road during a roval test run at Charlotte Motor Speedway.(Photo: Chuck Burton, AP)
Crazy, unique, ruthless, wild, narrow, treacherous, and scribbled and whoop-de-doos. This is just one example of how NASCAR drivers have described the new circuit track at Charlotte Motor Speedway over the last year.
The semi-oval and half-road circuit – or "roval" – creates a largely unknown challenge for drivers this weekend, as the Bank of America's Roval 400 Monster Energy Series NASCAR Cup inaugural race on the circuit of 2.28 miles.
They do not know what they do not know about the race on this course, and the stress of this misunderstanding is magnified for the 16 playoff drivers, who are fighting for 12 spots in the first playoff break.
"It will be interesting for sure," said Denny Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota and currently occupies 16th place, 29 points from the break mark. "It will definitely be one of those à la carte races. It will be a survival race. Many good competitors could easily have problems on this track. "
With 17 towers – eight of which are contiguous to one part of the infield – the other is a stark contrast to the four 1.5-mile towers.
Teams will always have three tries, plus qualifiers, to get last-minute laps, and many have been tested in the past year. But everyone did not have a good experience.
"A dozen guys collapsed trying themselves," Alex Bowman told USA TODAY Sports about his test in July. "We do not see the mistakes of the Cup like that, very often, so it's really not easy."
But Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch, who won the first two playoff races at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway, were eliminated automatically and qualified automatically in the round of 16. The third consecutive checkered flag of Keselowski, while Busch has already made seven trips in the path of victory – tied with Kevin Harvick.
With Keselowski and Busch, defending champion Martin Truex Jr. took his place in the next round, based on the playoff points.
Just before the starting line, Chase Elliott (+10), Austin Dillon (+10), Bowman (+5) and Ryan Blaney (+4) enter the weekend and take the ninth place in 12th place. But not finishing or poor performance could easily eliminate them.
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"There will be a lot of kicks and blows, probably a lot of racing cars and torn carnages, so I hope we can stay out of it all," said Bowman, who drives the # 88 Chevrolet. "I'm not necessarily the best road racer in the world, so if we can have a good solid top 10 day, I think it would be really good for us."
Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Erik Jones and Hamlin are currently ranked 13th to 16th and will be eliminated if they do not finish higher than the other drivers.
Although it is stressful to participate in a stunt race on a new wacky and unpredictable course, everyone on the track is at least in the same boat this first time.
Kurt Busch, who is 15 points ahead of the sideline in eighth place, reaffirmed the importance of the playoff points accumulated in the first 28 races.
"The way you take away the chances and ends that can happen to you is that you have accumulated enough points, so you do not have the threat of being eliminated on a road playoff race," Busch, who drives No 41 Ford told USA TODAY Sports. "It's part of our schedule, it's part of what we do and you work around that.
"It's going to be crazy anyway."
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