With the report from The Athletic‘s Jordan Bianchi that NASCAR will be moving the Charlotte Motor Speedway fall race back from the ROVAL to the oval, it’s time to take a walk down memory lane.
This was one of the series’ most outside the box ideas at a time where road course racing initially wasn’t a big time focus and, in its early years, provided complete and utter chaos.
However, as the years went by, the novelty of the ROVAL fell by the wayside, with debate heating up as to whether the fall oval date should return.
Just how exciting was the road course in its eight-year lifespan? It’s one big, thought-provoking, mixed bag when it comes to its best and worst moments.
The Maiden Dance
In the debut ROVAL race, Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson were locked in a heated battle down the stretch. Johnson was eight points above the cut line as the leaders entered the final chicane en route to the checkered flag. The seven-time champ threw caution to the wind and eventually eliminated himself from the playoffs 250 ft. later.
What was once an eight-point advantage was erased, removing Johnson from his final playoff run in what became a featured narrative throughout the ROVAL’s history. Ryan Blaney slalomed around the spinning cars to take the win in a finish that tore the house down.
Simultaneously, Kyle Larson was limping around a junked Chip Ganassi Racing car, in a dead heat with Aric Almirola as cars were spinning everywhere on the final lap. In NASCAR’s first prom, they brought the fans a real date to the dance, with the ROVAL continuously putting on exciting racing during its Gen 6 days.
First … To Last … To First
Chase Elliott‘s 2019 Bank of America ROVAL 400 was one of the most spirited drives in the last decade of NASCAR. Leading with 45 laps to go, Elliott completely smoked turn one and hit the wall, bringing out the caution.
No matter. As the checkered flag flew, it was the driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 who found himself doing burnouts back at the scene of the crime.
Two races in and the drivers, for better or worse, had put on chaotic shows that had fans at the track and home on the edge of their seats.
Harvick’s Heartburn
Coming off a passionate confrontation at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2021, Kevin Harvick and Elliott were not on the best of terms.
After the scuffle in Thunder Valley, Harvick was dead set on making Elliott’s life difficult at Charlotte.
Early in stage two, Harvick drove through Elliott, sending him into the wall with big rear-end damage. At one point there was a possibility of Elliott’s race being over but instead he hunted the Stewart-Haas Racing veteran right back down. The invisible ghost of his car forced Harvick into a mistake as he was making his comeback, going straight on at the former heartburn turn.
Harvick’s exit from the playoffs capped off a rivalry and Gen 6 era of racing that gave the ROVAL the character the schedule was missing.
A Last-Ditch Playoff Dive
One of the consequences of the ROVAL playoff race was its spot amid the eliminations. Most years, it was the Round of 12 finale, and in 2025, we saw one of the moments were the racing went off the rails at the end.
While Shane van Gisbergen was off and winning to the tune of a 17-second lead, Ross Chastain was dropping like a rock on old tires. He was in a dogfight with Joey Logano (who owned the tiebreaker) over the final transfer spot, clinging on to it by one point as the white flag flew.
The Trackhouse Racing veteran had no grip to speak of over the final few miles, losing more spots that he couldn’t afford to.
Once Denny Hamlin motored by, Chastain had quite a few car lengths to make up in the final chicane, at which he elected to dive bomb Hamlin.
There was more ire with the playoff circumstances that Chastain found himself in than the actual aggressor but at the end of the day, people saw one car pile drive another from a different zip code in order to achieve the goals set by the system.
The Redesigns
The 2024 and 2025 ROVAL races featured new elements within the road course. Turn 7 went away from turning further inward on the infield for a wrapping right turn that lead into a hairpin. Additionally, the final chicane featured blue turtles to discourage corner cutting along with the change of all restarts filtering through the left and right instead of the regular frontstretch.
Both changes invited more aggression. Turn 7 had numerous dives and pileups, including Tyler Reddick sustaining early damage as he was on the playoff cut line, while the blue turtles became famous for Alex Bowman flying through the air and eventually failing post-race inspection due to minimum weight.
The result allowed Logano to advance in the playoffs and eventually win the 2024 championship.
Thomas is in his second year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon. He helps manage the 2-Headed Monster Column.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college athletics in the Bay Area, writing about the California Golden Bears and doing play by play broadcasting.
Let’s try to forget the Roval, another gimmick that failed.
Totally agree!
Hey Daytight…. really?? You don’t know a gimmick when it is shoved down your face… come on your smarter than that by your rambling responses.
I love road racing on a REAL course, not in the middle of a mile an a half oval … not 2.5… big difference.
Yeah for the end of The Roval… NASCAR got it right this time… amazing I know!!
So the length of the surrounding track determines it was a gimmick? Is that the standard of what defines a gimmick track? Maybe it’s it the length of the actual track raced?
The Charlotte roval course was longer than the Watkins Glen NASCAR configuration. So is the NASCAR configuration at Watkins Glen is a gimmick? Or is it not, simply because there’s not a 1.5 mile oval surrounding it?
The Charlotte roval was nearly a mile longer than the Monaco F1 Circuit. So Monaco is a gimmick? Y’all keep saying how blindingly obvious it was this was a gimmick, yet y’all also keep giving nebulous reasons as to what made it a gimmick.
I think what’s really happening here is people didn’t like the roval for various reasons, so they are calling it a gimmick. Possibly not, but I cannot understand what definition is being used to consider the roval a gimmick, and thus far, no one has given criteria which holds any water. To like or dislike a track is inherently subjective, and there’s no right or wrong. But terms like “gimmick” do have meaning.
Seriously though, although I’d personally much prefer the roval to yet another Charlotte oval yawn fest, I’m genuinely glad NASCAR listened to the majority of their fans. It’s high time this happened. Now, get rid of the stage cautions!
I like the Charlotte Roval and the Daytona Roval. Oh well.
There are a lot of real road courses that NA$CAR could use instead of a gimmick, but I guess NA$CAR makes more money on their own made=up road course, just like they make a lot of from their “race” car.
I’d agree with you if NASCAR owned Charlotte, but they don’t. Charlotte is just the home track, so it makes a little more sense to convert it.
Since Texas’ racing sucks, maybe try the ROVAL there?
I’m with you in the minority here. I like seeing how much control the driver has over their fate within a road course race.
Of course talent matters everywhere, but it seems ovals, other than possibly short tracks, place more importance on engineering.
At a road course, a great driver can take a car that’s just above being junk, and possibly at least run mid-pack. A car of that level has zero chance of being anything other than a back marker at most ovals, barring a big wreck moving them up the order.
I don’t want to eliminate the road courses but the drivers can show their skill on real road courses, not on a gimmick road course. Chances are NA$CAR wanted too much money for themselves and real road courses wouldn’t pay what NA$CAR wanted for the “privilege” of hosting NA$CAR events.
I wonder what the networks thought when they learned they couldn’t have TV timeouts every 20 laps during a Cup event on the Rovals?
Not sure why we’d consider the Charlotte roval a gimmick.
Once upon a time, Daytona’s road course was likely called a gimmick as well, yet now the Rolex 24 at Daytona is considered one of the crown jewels of motor racing.
I tend to agree with Kevin here…Charlotte is NASCAR’s back yard, so if they felt they needed more road courses, it only made sense to try it there.
Obviously, the fans didn’t care for it, and though I disagree, for once they actually listened to the majority of the fan base by changing it back. Now, if they’d only do the same by eliminating scheduled cautions.
I don’t see where the roval has anything to do with how many commercials we see. They’re going to cut to commercials no matter the course configuration or green flag status, and I don’t recall the roval having more commercials per hour than any other race.
The Daytona 24 Hour cars don’t run on the oval in a second race. The Daytona road course was designed for those cars and similar events. It was not meant for NA$CAR events.
So because the Charlotte roval was designed for Cup cars, and there was an existing track in place, it was a gimmick? Um, OK.
By this logic, the world famous 2.5 mile paved oval at Daytona was and is a gimmick, because originally NASCAR raced on the beach, and any change in track configuration is a gimmick.
Also by this logic, the most famous track in the USA, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is a gimmick, because it was once paved with bricks, but is now asphalt.
Additionally, just a few years ago, Cup cars raced both the Daytona oval track and the road course, which by the reasoning above indicates this was a gimmick, but only because they raced both. If they had only raced one or the other, it would not have been a gimmick.
The list goes on and on. Le Mans has had multiple iterations. Monaco has had multiple modifications. All gimmicks.