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Sunday's NASCAR Race Won't Be An Oval, But A 'Roval'

This Sunday's Bank of America 400 will use the 17-turn, 2.28-mile road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Charlotte Motor Speedway
This Sunday's Bank of America 400 will use the 17-turn, 2.28-mile road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR's playoffs continue Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This time they won't be racing on the mile and a half oval, but over a twisting course on the track and infield. They're calling it the Bank of America Roval (rhymes with “oval”) 400. So what’s a "roval”?

In racing terms, any track not on a traditional oval is called a road course. NASCAR runs a couple of road courses during the regular season, but this will be the first in the playoffs. The course has 17 turns over 2.28 miles.  

Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith said the track's springtime Race Week gets a lot of attention — with both the all-star race and NASCAR's longest race, the Coca-Cola 600. But the fall race has been lacking.

The twisting "Roval" has 17 turns on the track and infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Credit Charlotte Motor Speedway
The twisting "Roval" has 17 turns on the track and infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"We just didn't have the same pizzaz that all the excitement around those first two races have,” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

About three years ago, Smith hit on the idea of using the speedway’s road layout for this weekend's race.

“There's so much chatter about there not being a road course in the playoffs," Smith said. "There's a lot of chatter about there being too many intermediate mile and a halfs. I could kill two birds with one stone here. Let's change it up and run the Roval."

But what about that name?

“When you drive the road course oval, you call it the roval, and it's been that way for a long time,” he said.

Sunday is the first elimination race in this year's Monster Energy Cup playoffs. That means only 12 of the 16 playoff drivers will advance to the next round.

Three drivers have dominated this season, winning most of the races: Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick. They're No. 1, 3 and 4 in the playoff points standings right now. Brad Keselowski won at Las Vegas two weeks ago and sits at No. 2.  The top three have already qualified to advance. Harvick only needs to start the race and he'll advance, too.

The green flag drops 2 p.m. Sunday.

RELATED LINKS

Sept. 25, 2018, NASCAR.com, “How did the Roval come about?”

Sept. 26, 2018, “Charlotte road course 101: What you need to know about the Roval"

NASCAR.com,playoff standings before the Sept. 30 Charlotte race

David Boraks previously covered climate change and the environment for WFAE. See more at www.wfae.org/climate-news. He also has covered housing and homelessness, energy and the environment, transportation and business.