The NASCAR Cup Series eliminator in the round of 12 is at the Charlotte ROVAL. However, it won’t be your usual ROVAL race as NASCAR has reconfigured the track to increase the thrill and excitement of the payoffs. One of the biggest changes is how the turn seven has been made sharper. While drivers remained concerned about the corner, the newly introduced turtle curbing has thrown a curveball.
The Charlotte ROVAL is a road course circuit that also has elements of an oval; this already makes the track challenging. With the new reconfiguration, things get even more tricky. As drivers ran the practice session and qualifying, some veterans weren’t super impressed by the changes. In fact, Martin Truex Jr. was pretty disappointed with what NASCAR did to the chicane.
Martin Truex Jr. voices concern about the reconfiguration
The 2017 Cup Series champion hasn’t seen tremendous success at the ROVAL in the past. The #19’s best finish on the road course has been P7, which came in the 2020 race. However, the venue has fond memories of the Joe Gibbs driver. After all, he led 492 out of 500 laps to win the Coca-Cola 600 race in 2016. Hence, MTJ is always excited to come to the track, this time even more so as it would be the last time in his Cup career.
Earlier this year, Truex Jr. announced his retirement, making 2024 his last season in the two-decade-long Cup career. After the sim sessions, Martin Truex Jr. felt excited. He had said, “They finally put a jump in one of these tracks for us. I was on the simulator today and you kind of get airborne there going between turn five and that new turn six. So it’s gonna be interesting for sure.” However, after being on track, his view of the reconfiguration completely changed. As part of the reconfiguration, a sharper apex in Turn 16 of the final chicane has been created along with turtles. And it was the turtles that probably troubled MTJ the most, as they proved to be rough and bumpy.
