The Charlotte Roval is not going to be the same track that fans have been used to seeing since 2018. Significant changes have been made to the layout in a bid to increase overtaking opportunities on what was already a tricky road course to navigate. Drivers may take some time to get used to these new changes and it could cause a bit of chaos at the start of Sunday’s Cup Series race.
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There are three significant changes to the track. The first is the straightaway between Turn 5 and Turn 6. It has been extended to create a sweeping right-hander off Turn 6. The second is the tight hairpin in Turn 7 that Turn 6 sends the field into. It can provide fantastic overtaking opportunities but could cause chaos as well. The third significant change is in Turn 16 of the final chicane. A sharper apex has been made on the front stretch and it could also be a good place to overtake.
According to Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, these two major braking zones at Turns 7 and 16 will help the competition and make for great overtaking opportunities. However, it cannot be ignored that they could also lead to a bit of a mess. The cars will have to slow down a lot to navigate through these areas.
So, if a lot of cars are going through one of these turns and even one misses the apex or slows down a tad bit too much, it could lead to a bottleneck situation. This would particularly frustrate those looking to land a seat in the Round of 8. The race in the Roval was always going to be unpredictable but these changes make it a lot more so.
AJ Allmendinger predicts chaos at Roval hairpin
The section between Turns 5 and 7 is getting a lot of attention since it is perhaps the best overtaking zone in the entire track. Last year’s winner AJ Allmendinger calls it the ‘full chaos zone’ with good reason. Cars coming into Turn 5 will have to be faster than they were last season but not too fast to go crashing into the wall.
The veteran also expects several divebomb moves into Turn 7, which is going to be fun to watch as a fan. He told the press in a recent interview, “I don’t know how this is gonna go. I would assume at least once in the two days, this (turn 7) will now become a parking lot because someone will get spun, and seeing how wide it is, which isn’t very wide, we’re gonna come to a dead stop because there’s nowhere to go.”
Sunday’s race has all the ingredients to be both a fantastic road course race and an evening of utter chaos. It will be interesting to see how the drivers, especially the ones who used to excel on it, navigate this reconfigured Roval.
