NASCAR stages road course test at Charlotte Motor Speedway

StandOnIt said:
Goes cleanly? you're kidding right? There is nothing cleanly about that track.
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There's only been one incident-related caution at a road course Cup event (Almirola spinning at The Glen) this year. These guys are pretty good and should adapt to a new track, and some may be conservative just to bring it home and stay in the top twelve in points. It's possible to have a good road course race without it being a disaster.

I think the Xfinity race could be a ****show, though. Their road races usually seem to be a lot crazier.
 
FLRacingFan said:
There's only been one incident-related caution at a road course Cup event (Almirola spinning at The Glen) this year. These guys are pretty good and should adapt to a new track, and some may be conservative just to bring it home and stay in the top twelve in points. It's possible to have a good road course race without it being a disaster.

I think the Xfinity race could be a ****show, though. Their road races usually seem to be a lot crazier.
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The difference is though that those other tracks have runoff areas, Charlotte really doesn't. Even Elliott's wheel hop on the last lap at the Glen would probably be heavy wall contact at Charlotte. look at how much escape room there is at turn 11 at Sonoma, then look at the last couple turns at Charlotte before you go back onto the oval and tell me what you think will happen.....
 
FLRacingFan said:
There's only been one incident-related caution at a road course Cup event (Almirola spinning at The Glen) this year. These guys are pretty good and should adapt to a new track, and some may be conservative just to bring it home and stay in the top twelve in points. It's possible to have a good road course race without it being a disaster.

I think the Xfinity race could be a ****show, though. Their road races usually seem to be a lot crazier.
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Xfinity is going to be a scrappy fender banging stock car race or I will be disappointed. I'm sure it will be a problem for some, they seem to look at the world thru brown colored glasses.
 
Formerjackman said:
The difference is though that those other tracks have runoff areas, Charlotte really doesn't. Even Elliott's wheel hop on the last lap at the Glen would probably be heavy wall contact at Charlotte. look at how much escape room there is at turn 11 at Sonoma, then look at the last couple turns at Charlotte before you go back onto the oval and tell me what you think will happen.....
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It's not like they're Grade 1 status capable of running F1 or anything. Sonoma is mostly dust and dry grass all around the track and Watkins Glen is lined with guardrail just inches off the surface most of the way around. Charlotte is deceptively wide with a few trouble spots that any decent road course would have. Turn 1 will be tough but should be manageable. The most troublesome is probably someone screwing up the backstretch and killing a tire barrier or the inside wall. I could be too optimistic, but we'll see.
 
I can see the corner being a problem if the drivers make it one. Almost every F1 race starts with a hard turn following the start, there is nothing wrong with a hard left into a technical section of the track
 
FLRacingFan said:
It's not like they're Grade 1 status capable of running F1 or anything. Sonoma is mostly dust and dry grass all around the track and Watkins Glen is lined with guardrail just inches off the surface most of the way around. Charlotte is deceptively wide with a few trouble spots that any decent road course would have. Turn 1 will be tough but should be manageable. The most troublesome is probably someone screwing up the backstretch and killing a tire barrier or the inside wall. I could be too optimistic, but we'll see.
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I agree with you.
 
sdj said:
Not very long.
To me, JMHO, the apex into that first turn is way to narrow and sharp. But, it will be the same for everybody. We will be sitting just past that toward turn one under the roof.
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I'll be just above you.

Zerkfitting said:
A local road course has 3 - 2 - 1 markers approaching the corners; the last corner has 3 - 2 - 1 - oops.
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More like 3 - 2 -1 - AAW-SHIIIIIIIII...

FenderBumper said:
I wonder why they didn't first try this at Daytona, which already has the inner course.
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I suspect Daytona feels they can sell more tickets for a (plate) race on the oval than on the road course.
 
Green Flag, 38 cars going into turn one for the first time to make a hard left hand turn into a narrow chute, yep, it is going to be interesting to say the least. Then the restarts double wide. I would not be surprised if they go to single file restarts pretty quick after the race starts. Just a thought.
I see the double wide starts as the biggest issue.
 
sdj said:
Green Flag, 38 cars going into turn one for the first time to make a hard left hand turn into a narrow chute, yep, it is going to be interesting to say the least. Then the restarts double wide. I would not be surprised if they go to single file restarts pretty quick after the race starts. Just a thought.
I see the double wide starts as the biggest issue.
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Agreed. It’ll be just like the Indy GP, wreck city on that hard right hand turn off the oval
 
LewTheShoe said:
It's not SMI, but I believe Pocono will convert one date to a roval... unless Nascar is telling them that they will be cut back to just one race in 2021. And I believe Pocono would be perfect for it. I hope it happens there.
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Then only issue with a Pocoroval would be that you can't see the entire infield track from the stands I don't believe.
 
kkfan91 said:
You can't really see the oval from the stands either
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Kinda what I'm saying. Its already so hard to see the track as it is, it would just be like a regular RC. They may as well use the Indy GP course
 
Y'all realize @dpkimmel2001 's original post is over 20 months old?

This race exceeded my wildest expectations. There were very few laps when I couldn't find at least one battle for position somewhere on that track. Being able to see drivers setting up their passes three and four turns in advance gave me a better appreciation for road racing. Despite what we saw in practice, drivers in both races adapted well. Starts and restarts weren't the wreckfests many feared. It turned out that there are indeed multiple passing zones, a couple of them in places that surprised me (coming off turn 8 and accelerating into turn 9 / oval turn 1). Kez and Larson showed us two drivers can run side by side all the way through the infield competitively.

I can't remember the last time I walked out of the track grinning all the way back to the car. Thanks, Bruton. Can I renew yet?
 
It is interesting when Roger Penske was interviewed, he said that tracks that get two races either the first or the second event should be different. He said you could say you could almost run on the road course at Daytona think about it. There are plenty of places you can utilize their facilities for more than just one event. he said I think this will put a lot of promoters to put their thinking caps on to determine what they can do.
 
LewTheShoe said:
It's not SMI, but I believe Pocono will convert one date to a roval... unless Nascar is telling them that they will be cut back to just one race in 2021. And I believe Pocono would be perfect for it. I hope it happens there.
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The tricky Tri Roval has a nice ring to it
 
StandOnIt said:
It is interesting when Roger Penske was interviewed, he said that tracks that get two races either the first or the second event should be different. He said you could say you could almost run on the road course at Daytona think about it. There are plenty of places you can utilize their facilities for more than just one event. he said I think this will put a lot of promoters to put their thinking caps on to determine what they can do.
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Or we could just go to Eldora/Knoxville, Iowa, IRP, Nashville Fairgrounds, Gateway, Road America/Mosport and stop lining the pocket books of Bruton Smith & the Frances. Part of the reason for the schedule being so terrible is because no outside independent track can even attempt to compete with SMI and ISC with how they have monopolized the schedule.

I don't mind one roval race a year, but anything more is more than enough.
 
AuzGrams said:
Or we could just go to Eldora/Knoxville, Iowa, IRP, Nashville Fairgrounds, Gateway, Road America/Mosport and stop lining the pocket books of Bruton Smith & the Frances. Part of the reason for the schedule being so terrible is because no outside independent track can even attempt to compete with SMI and ISC with how they have monopolized the schedule.

I don't mind one roval race a year, but anything more is more than enough.
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well it would give some another reason to complain, can't be all bad. I don't care either way, the Roval has been interesting from the first. I don't see the Smiths doing another, listening to Markus Smith interviews, he said the Charlotte 1.5 everybody loved it when it came about, and fans didn't like the small tracks. Everybody copied it, now fans want short tracks and road courses. He sounded a bit resentful about how that happened with the 1.5's so not making another Roval for his bunch makes sense. But that doesn't stop any other track owner(s) from doing it or coming up with something else.
 
AuzGrams said:
Or we could just go to Eldora/Knoxville, Iowa, IRP, Nashville Fairgrounds, Gateway, Road America/Mosport and stop lining the pocket books of Bruton Smith & the Frances. Part of the reason for the schedule being so terrible is because no outside independent track can even attempt to compete with SMI and ISC with how they have monopolized the schedule.

I don't mind one roval race a year, but anything more is more than enough.
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probably the best chance for that happening would be IF The Smiths, or the France's bought out the tracks IMO. They have a habit of doing that in the past anyway
 
StandOnIt said:
probably the best chance for that happening would be IF The Smiths, or the France's bought out the tracks IMO. They have a habit of doing that in the past anyway
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I know Bruton is working with the Nashville Fairgrounds about their possible renovation, would be great to see Nashville back on the Cup schedule. But I don't know how much it would cost to renovate and make it available for 50,000 or so people to attend to attract Cup, seems like they're eyeing NXS and Trucks.
 
You can see pretty well the elevation changes and a lot of corner entries to corners with this clip. The race cameras didn't do the features justice.

 
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