{"id":20674,"date":"2018-07-18T14:15:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T19:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20674"},"modified":"2018-07-25T14:30:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T19:30:10","slug":"expect-bent-fenders-and-bruised-egos-in-charlotte-road-course-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/18\/expect-bent-fenders-and-bruised-egos-in-charlotte-road-course-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Expect bent fenders and bruised egos in Charlotte road course race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kurt Busch drives during testing for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 18, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images for NASCAR)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

CONCORD, N.C. \u2013 AJ Allmendinger didn\u2019t hold back when he talked to reporters during a break in Tuesday\u2019s road course test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Chase Elliott leads Kasey Kahne through the backstretch during testing on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway on July 10, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s going to be a lot of contact, for sure,\u201d Allmendinger predicted. \u201cThrough the infield, it\u2019s pretty narrow. In general, through the infield, I think there\u2019s going to be contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bus stop chicane on the backstretch may be the most challenging section of the 2.28-mile course. Drivers will carry tremendous speed into those two quick corners (Turns 11 and 12), which sit close to the entrance to Turn 13 (NASCAR Turn 3 on the oval).<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I go in there, my eyes are wide open, and I know I\u2019ve got to hit my marks,\u201d Allmendinger said.<\/p>\n

When the track gets crowded during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series\u2019 Bank of America Roval 400 playoff elimination race on Sept. 30, there\u2019s no telling what might happen, but the action during Tuesday\u2019s testing produced some obvious clues.<\/p>\n

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Ryan Newman in the 31 car chases down Chase Elliott in the number 9 car during testing at The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway on July 10, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ryan Blaney destroyed his primary car in the tire barrier on the backstretch bus stop. Alex Bowman scraped the tire wall in the same place. William Byron charged into Turn 1 (the transition from the oval to the infield), broke a brake line on his No. 24 Chevrolet and plowed through the first tire barrier into the second one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of fun by itself,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure how much fun it\u2019s going to be with 39 of my best friends out there. It\u2019s going to make the highlight reel interesting, for sure. …<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an interesting race. I\u2019m not sure anybody knows what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowman says the Charlotte road course is unlike any other track he has ever driven.<\/p>\n

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A cup car drives through the Roval during testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway on July 10, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere are a couple corners at Mid-Ohio that get pretty awkward and off-camber and stuff, but not like this,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThis is just from really fast areas to super slow, can\u2019t get to the throttle at all, not a lot of grip.<\/p>\n

\u201cInto (NASCAR Turn) 3 there, we\u2019ve have three cars spin out already today. There\u2019s no room for error\u2014the tire barriers are right there. It\u2019s a handful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joey Logano agrees. To the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, the most important \u201cstrategy\u201d in the race will involve keeping the fenders on his car.<\/p>\n

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Denny Hamlin in the #11 car manuevers through the backstretch of The Roval during testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway on July 10, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNot crashing will be the biggest challenge,\u201d Logano said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be some areas where we wad some stuff up. To be in the Playoffs, it\u2019s going to be quite the race to see how this thing goes. I would say the most challenging part, honestly, is getting through the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get decent speed, but at some point, there\u2019s going to be a caution, and strategies are going to change, and you\u2019re going to see the fastest cars be in 15th and 20th, like you do at road courses. You\u2019re going to see something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may see some fast cars get torn up, so, honestly, I think finishing this thing is priority number one. Do that, and you\u2019ll probably have a pretty good shot at winning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. \u2013 AJ Allmendinger didn\u2019t hold back when he talked to reporters during a break in Tuesday\u2019s road course test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. \u201cI think there\u2019s going to be a lot of contact, for sure,\u201d Allmendinger predicted. \u201cThrough the infield, it\u2019s pretty narrow. In general, through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[233,16],"class_list":["post-20674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-charlotte-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/CMS_Track_071018-e1532546760796.jpg?fit=640%2C358&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5ns","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20682,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20674\/revisions\/20682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}