In 2018, the Charlotte Roval earned the eye of the national sports scene with its dramatic new style of racing. Now, the hybrid oval and road course race is changing its layout ahead of this Sunday.
In 2018, Speedway Motorsports converted the fall Charlotte race from the traditional 1.5-mile oval into an infield road course race. The 2018 race set what some thought was the tone for the future of this race, with a race that was dramatic from start to finish.
The Roval’s history prior to its 2018 debut is interesting. Charlotte traditionally hosted two races a year on its oval, one in the spring and one in the fall. After years of lackluster intermediate oval racing, SMI, in its traditional fashion, attempted to change the game.
The first Roval layout was 2.42 miles long and included 18 turns. Prior to the first race, SMI reduced it to 2.28 miles and 17 turns, including removing a section of “esses.”
The layout has not changed much since, with little fixes and adjustments here and there.
In recent years, the Roval’s falloff has been similar to its fall oval race counterpart. This downfall is not just the Roval. All road course races have seen a major shift in race quality since the introduction of the Next Gen Car in 2022. Notably, the Indianapolis infield road course has reverted to its oval layout this year.
As far as the Roval goes, it remained quiet up until earlier this year, when SMI announced a major change to the lineup. But what are the changes, and why did they do this?
SMI is changing the Roval for a third time. While this change is not as drastic to the overall landscape of the track as past changes, it adds a major braking zone.
The Roval is having turns seven and eight removed and replaced with a major braking zone and a hard left-hand “hairpin” turn. But why, well, it’s pretty easy to assume why. The pure chaos of a hairpin combined with the desperation of the Playoffs will definitely make for click-worthy highlights.
As Charlotte Motor Speedway President Greg Walter said on the DJD Reloaded this week, “In road courses, breaking zones equal passing zones, and hopefully, what we’ve done is create two new passing zones.”
So, there is the chaos factor, but what else?
Well, there is the Next-Gen car.
Jeff Gluck’s ‘Was It A Good Race?’ poll results show that Charlotte Roval statistically scored high from 2018 to 2021. However, in 2022, the track scored a “yes” of 19.2% and 58.8% in 2023.
The Next-Gen car has had troubles on road courses throughout its short life. At the last Cup Series road course race, NASCAR and Goodyear even made drastic changes to the tire compound.
While many have called for Charlotte to return to the oval since 2022, the race is getting another shot. While this change will create chaos and excitement, will that manufactured energy be enough to make up for the Next Gen’s Road Course problems?
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