CONCORD, N.C. — Four drivers will be eliminated from playoff contention Sunday at the Charlotte Roval, but the driver to watch could be one who is not racing for a championship.
CONCORD, N.C. — Four drivers will be eliminated from playoff contention Sunday at the Charlotte Roval, but the driver to watch could be one who is not racing for a championship.
Pre-race coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Here’s what to watch for in today’s Cup race on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn course at Charlotte Motor Speedway:
SVG goes for 5 in a row
Shane van Gisbergen goes for his fifth consecutive road course race. That would be second only to Jeff Gordon’s record streak of six consecutive Cup road course wins.
“There's no question he's done a fantastic job,” Chase Elliott said of van Gisbergen. “I've always tried to give him the credit that I think he deserves for the discipline and how good he is at it, and I think that should be celebrated, you know?
“I've always been a fan of if a guy's dominating something, so what? You know you as writers and fans should celebrate that, and then us as competitors should figure out how can we make ourselves better to try and recapture where the bar has been set.”
This season, van Gisbergen has led 52% of all the laps run on road course events and run in the five in 84% of the laps on those circuits.
And, he’s getting better on the road courses.
“Certainly, I'm learning a lot more working with the same team,” van Gisbergen said. “Last year, the car would be prepared at Trackhouse, then given to Kaulig Racing to run. I feel like this year, I've been able to have some influence and guidance on the setup. We've gone a bit of a different way this year. It's something I thought would be better and it has worked.”
Who moves on and whose playoffs end?
Reigning Cup champion Joey Logano enters today’s race in the last transfer spot to the Round of 8.
Those behind the cutline are Ross Chastain (-13 points), Bubba Wallace (-26), Tyler Reddick (-29) and Austin Cindric (-48).
Logano said he will want to know how others are doing during the event.
“I want to know it all,” Logano said. “I want everything, all the information I can possibly get said to me. I think everybody knows you make better decisions when you have all the data and we’re asked to make decisions in the heat of the battle live. There’s no time to talk it through in a boardroom.
“We’ve got to make the decision at that moment, so the more prepared we can be the better, but also understanding what the situation is, what’s going on around me and what I have to do inside the race car.”
What kind of impact will the tires make?
This is the same tire teams have raced on all the road courses but the tire was handling different at the Charlotte Roval and seeing more fall-off.
“It’s been a super tricky day, super different, at least a lot further off than I thought the tire was gonna be,” Austin Cindric said after Saturday’s practice and qualifying. “I definitely felt like we were gonna lose a little bit of grip there, but not that much, so it was an interesting day and I’m sure (Sunday) will be just as interesting.”
Cindric said he was struck by how different the tire was from other road course tracks this season.
“Every track that we’ve gone to so far this year with this tire we’ve slowed down, so we were definitely expecting to slow down,” Cindric said. “Last year, I believe the pole (at the Charlotte Roval) was in the 82-second bracket. Today, it was in the 85’s and the rest of the field was in the 86’s and 87’s, so that’s a lot slower.
“And then talk about the fall off, I mean, we’ve had some fall off with this tire, but not quite like that, so I would say it’s just been very much to the extreme of what we’ve experienced with this tire change.”
Will Hendrick’s streak end today?
Hendrick Motorsports has won at least one road course from 2018-24 but that streak could end today.
Hendrick Motorsports has yet to win on a road course this season with Christopher Bell winning at Circuit of the Americas in March and Shane van Gisbergen winning the past four road course races (Mexico, Chicago Street Race, Sonoma and Watkins Glen).
Category: General Sports
