The 2024 NASCAR playoffs for the Xfinity and Cup series made its way back to the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval for the 7th time since its 2018 inauguration.
The 2.28 mile road course that utilizes both the infield and a significant portion of the 2.5 mile superspeedway oval has been met with mixed reviews lately, with many clamoring for its removal from the schedule in favor of a return to the oval. When the 2024 NASCAR schedule was being finalized, it was rumored that would be the case only to end up being not only on the schedule, but reconfigured with a new twist.
Back in May during the Coca-Cola 600 weekend, it was announced that SMI and NASCAR got together and engineered a layout that would be more favorable to passing (if approached correctly). They took turns 5 through 7 and made a long uphill straightaway through 5 and 6 that ends in a hard braking zone to make a hairpin through turn 7 into what is normally turn 1 of the oval. Along with that, the frontstretch chicane apex was altered to be sharper, coming closer to pit road than before and forcing hard braking into what is normally the trioval section of the superspeedway.
The new layout was met with as much criticism from drivers as the fans have given the track over the last 3 or so years. Martin Truex Jr expressed concern about the cars going airborne and bottoming out as they come off the low curbing along the new frontstretch chicane, which was a sentiment shared by Kyle Busch.
“It feels like you could get a concussion every lap if you hit them {‘turtles’}. If you hit them, you’re airborne on at least 2 tires. Tires are skipping off the track a bit but I wouldn’t say all four are off the ground at the same time (same in the turn 5-7 section), but it is sketchy. {Context: this section of the track is a blind hill where you can’t see what is going on ahead of you well} It’s easier when you are following someone so long as they don’t drive off a cliff. This new layout is different, but it’s still the same old quirky, weird Roval where the infield is slick and the turtles are huge. The challenges are the same as always here”, said Truex.
“We told them {drivers told NASCAR} that it’s {frontstretch chicane restart zone} a problem and we needed to go back to the restart zone on the oval. It’s gonna be tough jumping off curbs and turtles. You have to be super slow through there. Everybody is gonna hit everybody there. I don’t know why we changed the frontstretch chicane. It was fine, and I don’t understand the reason for making it tighter. Maybe to make us slower through there so we don’t go into turn 1 as fast? I don’t really know. It is a thousand percent correct {that there is a concussion chance}. I don’t know when I will see the data. But I know my head hurts. It is a sharper, faster hit that is more violent here than the original ‘bus stop’ chicane at Watkins Glen where you would hit three back to back to back”, Kyle Busch added.
Spartanburg native and Xfinity series regular Jeremy Clements says that his experience was much different, feeling more like it always has despite the changes when coming over the “turtles”
“It feels the same to me. It is definitely slower and you have to use first gear where last year we were in second. You do need to be able to hit that first set of ‘turtles’ to set yourself up to get a good drive off and make the second part straight. But I’m so tight in my seat that I can’t even move my head. So it felt normal to me, honestly. I mean, maybe the cup cars are different/stiffer. But ours feels the same as it did under the old layout. It didn’t affect my head any. I still feel normal after the race”, said Clements.
Only time would tell if any of those concerns would be warranted and whether or not it will bring about anymore changes to a track where change/adaptation is a slow and steady process based on numbers and data. But, if the Xfinity Series race was any indication of what to expect, Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch may have just had some reason to be a bit hasty.
Xfinity Series Drive for the Cure 250
Shane Van Gisbergen, the duly noted road course expert from New Zealand, secured a front row sweep by earning the pole for both the Xfinity and Cup races. Naturally, that would lead one to think he might sweep the weekend in dominant fashion. But, if anything road course racing has ever proven, it is that the pole winner rarely does dominate the entire race – much less sweep the entire weekend (spoiler alert – he didn’t win either race).
At the drop of the green flag, he immediately was overtaken by Sam Mayer for the lead – thanks to Mayer jumping the start. Sam would end up having to serve a pass through penalty, which immediately gave Van Gisbergen the lead until lap 5, when Aj Allmendinger moved to the front, ultimately going on to dominate the remaining 15 laps of the stage for the green and white checker and the 10 crucial points.
In stage 2, Jeremy Clements’ team took notice of a similar left front tire wear issue to the one they experienced at Darlington just over a month ago. The wear was not nearly as severe, and was not seen again the remainder of the race, but the interesting thing about it is that the Goodyear engineers on site conferred and discussed the possibility that the same low curbing in the front straight chicane that was giving Martin Truex and Kyle Busch headaches, may have played a part in the wear that was also observed on a couple of other cars. Ultimately, it turned out not to be an issue, but is worth a discussion point when it comes to future debates about the viability of this new track configuration and how it performed.
The race did not have its first “natural” caution (aka not for a stage break) until halfway through the 2nd stanza, when a piece of debris was spotted in turn 2. That led to the old adage – you know which one… “Cautions breed cautions”
Matt DiBenedetto and Jeremy Clements ended up getting caught up and spun in the new hairpin turn 7, which resulted in Clements backing into the tire barrier as the third caution of the evening flew. Luckily for Jeremy, the damage, though significant, was mostly cosmetic and he was able to continue the race without losing any laps.
After the restart, on lap 33, there was a major pile up coming out of the chicane on the front stretch that started when Riley Herbst and Anthony Alfredo made contact in the narrowest section of the turn trying to run side by side. The 5 got into the door of Riley Herbst and turned him around leaving several cars with absolutely nowhere to go.
The yellow would be displayed once again shortly after the next restart as Sheldon Creed, who already had a heavily damaged car, experienced mechanical issues and came to a stop on the apron of the racetrack. This caution ended the 2nd stage, with Justin Allgaier claiming the 10 point bonus.
Once the final stage went green, Jeremy Clements once again found himself in a mess, getting spun around by the 20 of Parker Retzlaff in turn 7. Both were able to resume, preventing another slow down.
“It was just a couple of examples of getting used up. No breaks were given to me today. Both spins happened in the new turns, actually. So the new turns both got me getting hit from behind caught in the hornet’s nest. When you’re in the nest, you just get used up”, said Clements.
Even with the incident between Jeremy and Parker Retzlaff not being a yellow, calamity would strike two more times in this race – the 2nd of which was highly controversial in that it completely changed the end result of the race.
The first time, it occurred in the section of the track formerly known as the “Heartburn Turn” – the abrupt hard left turn from the frontstretch into the infield section of the course. Thomas Annunziata, in similar fashion to Chase Elliott in 2019, locked up his brakes and crashed hard nose-first into the tire barrier, burying the nose of his car to bring out the caution. Shane Van Gisbergen assumed the lead after the restart, and held on until there were 9 laps remaining. In turn 7, Parker Kligerman outbraked and overtook Shane for the lead, and looked to be in control of his destiny for the win. Until he wasn’t…
Leland Honeyman ended up having issues with his left front, causing him to crash so hard into the tire barrier that his car was no longer visible. The incident seemed like it should have prompted a near immediate caution, making for an overtime finish with no controversy. Instead, race control allowed them to keep going to race to the white flag, which Kligerman appeared to take as the caution was also displayed.
In that scenario, the race should have been over, ending under yellow with Kligerman as the winner. Instead, NASCAR deemed that the caution light at the line started flashing a split second before he reached it to take the white. Thus, the field was reset for an overtime finish.
So, what is the controversy? NASCAR waited. To quote “Squints” from ‘The Sandlot’, they waited “For. Ev. Errrr”, calling for the caution at the last possible moment when it seemed they had plenty of time to make the call sooner. Because of that hesitation, Kligerman may have been denied his first Xfinity Series win. Instead of Parker claiming a feel-good story victory, Sam Mayer overtook him in turn 7 on the green flag lap of overtime and went on to cruise to his third victory of the season.
“I’m not gonna be mad at NASCAR. It was not meant to be. Sometimes you’re an inch or mile short. Sometimes you get a caution before the white flag by an inch or a mile.“I thought I had won. But I’ve done this long enough to know to wait and see if it’s official. They told me we had to refocus for another restart. I said I can do that; I’m a professional. I did. I fought them off and did everything I could. Now I’m just sad that I couldn’t get it done. I really wanted to win. It would have been poetic. If I could do one thing it would be to win this race in that fashion – holding off the best in the world.. SVG and Aj (Allmendinger). I was driving at the highest level I have ever driven and I just did not get it done ”, said Kligerman, who is retiring from full-time stock car racing following this season.
In other news, despite the chaos of the day, Jeremy Clements managed to snag a top 20 finish, coming home in 20th position. However, if you ask him to state his true feelings about the track, especially after running the new configuration, Jeremy does not mince words as many other drivers have done when asked the same question in the past.
“I didn’t really enjoy this race or the new layout. I really don’t like this track at all. I think it’s crap. I wish we just raced the oval, really It’s hard to pass and it’s just not that fun. It never has been.”
Cup Series Bank of America Roval 400
Have you ever had a narrative change on you in the middle of the night? Well, between the Xfinity Series race and the start of the days’ activities for the Cup Series on Sunday, it would appear NASCAR heard the drivers’ complaints loud and clear. The turtles in the frontstretch chicane that measured about 4 inches in height and were causing the cars to get airborne long enough to create a violent impact on the way down were removed and replaced with a 2.25” rumblestrip-style curb.
Good on NASCAR as that is a huge step in driver safety considerations. However, that left a huge question mark as to how the chicane would be driven now that they could get away with being slightly faster through it while staying closer to level.
The race itself actually ended up being fairly uneventful. There were the fair share of stackups, contact, and spins in the hairpin, which most would say was a success for NASCAR as some chaos was part of the intention. The frontstretch chicane was not nearly as big an issue as was feared.
The racing product itself, especially if you like passing and stuff.. You know.. actual racing.. Was terrible. But, if you are one for watching playoff chaos, there was some interest.
Regular season champion Tyler Reddick, who entered the day 8 points behind Joey Logano below the cutline in 9th, won a caution-free stage 2 to earn some critical stage points. But, those were quickly almost deemed irrelevant as stage 2 started off with some calamity for the 45 team. A stackup involving Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon in the exit of turn 7 forced Tyler to run all the way up the turtles and airborne. He had to come to pit road for a damage check, which left him riding around solo trying to chase down the field and get back into the points chase.
He appeared to catch a break when Chase Briscoe blew his right rear tire and lost the carcass, prompting a caution for debris. But, it was discovered that he had a broken toe link as a result of the run up the curbs, which made him have to come in for repairs. To his benefit, his crew made sure he did not lose too much time by sending him back out a couple of times while they gathered the needed tools and parts, but by the drop of the green, his circumstances did not change as he had to try and make up some points the only way they can be – by passing other cars.
That led to the most interesting storyline of the race. But, before we go there, playoff chaos also struck twice for Chase Briscoe, who needed to win today in order to advance. After getting his blown tire replaced, he had to come in with some mechanical issues that ultimately finished off his elimination as he was forced to DNF.
Alex Bowman claimed the green and white checker for the 2nd stanza. However, due to a postrace development, he would receive no credit for it. That set in motion a final 59 laps that would be defined by a couple of things.
Number 1– Kyle Larson overtook Aj Allmendinger for the lead in the exit of turn 7 on the green flag lap of the final stage and never looked back, dominating his way to the 5 team’s 6th victory of the season. Christopher Bell would spend the rest of the race trying to chase him down, but never pulled any closer than about 2 seconds, even with a late caution with 28 laps to go when Austin Dillon lost a wheel.
“I am just glad to win here at home where we can have everyone in Victory Lane. It is always great to win here whether it be May or October. But, it was great to have everyone here. We are at home. Hendrick Motorsports is 2 minutes away. Patriotic Auto Group is maybe 20 minutes away. We had everyone here today. So many of our team members sacrifice time away from family, so to win here so they can all celebrate with their family is great”, said Larson, who leads the points heading to the round of eight and feels some optimism about the next 3 weeks.
“In the NextGen Era, it is harder to win races in general. I know we have 6 this year, but it is harder to execute them and they are wild. To win the next 3 or 4 is gonna be tough, but we are going to try. You have to take it week by week. Round by round. For this next week, the points reset. But we have to reset & prepare for each track every week. The preparation changes by track. But, these next 3 weeks are good tracks for us. I’m gonna do my best to run up front & try to win. I also feel like the chaos calms down a bit once you get to the round of 8. The round of 12 has always scared me. There are so many desperate drivers. Once the field gets narrowed, it doesn’t really get any easier, but it definitely gets less scary”, Kyle added.
The 2nd story was about how Tyler Reddick overcame a broken toe link to advance to the round of 8.
Reddick was a man on a mission over the closing laps of the race. He started near the back in 24th, and started picking off cars one by one, essentially gaining a spot per lap. Within seven laps, he moved up to 18th position while Joey Logano seemed to be stuck in 5th, eventually losing it to Aj Allmendinger – a move that led to the 4 point gap between Joey and Tyler being erased. But the job was not done yet. Logano held the tiebreaker, so Reddick would need one more pass to put him over the line. However Joey would still advance to the next round on a technicality with Alex Bowman (explained later).
The very next lap, it happened as Tyler cleared Denny Hamlin in turn 7. He would go on to pass Martin Truex Jr to add all the cushion he needed as Logano later dropped to P7 thanks to Shane Van Gisbergen.
In the end, Alex Bowman (failed weight in post race inspection, was DQ’d), Austin Cindric, and Daniel Suarez joined Chase Briscoe as the others eliminated from the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs while Kyle Larson is the points leader heading to the round of eight opener in Las Vegas next weekend. Following the reseeding, 4 the 4 on the bubble are Ryan Blaney (4 under the cutline), Denny Hamlin (-8), Chase Elliott (-9), and Alex Bowman (prior to DQ was -16. Now he is out and the standings have yet to be updated). William Byron is in fourth 4 points in the good.
Both the Cup and Xfinity Series will now head west to Vegas as the Xfinity Series goes green Saturday at 7:00 Eastern Time on the CW. The Cup guys will kick off the next round Sunday with the green flag set to drop at 2:30 eastern on NBC.
Related
