{"id":54905,"date":"2025-10-02T13:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=54905"},"modified":"2025-10-02T20:25:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:25:03","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-charlotte-motor-speedway-road-course-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/nascar-weekend-preview-charlotte-motor-speedway-road-course-4\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer, <\/b>NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe looks to solidify position in NASCAR Cup Round of 8<\/b><\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to have scored top-10s in each of the first five postseason races this year.<\/p>\n

But in the \u201cWhat-have-you-done-for-me-lately?\u201d world of auto racing, that model of consistency provides the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota minimal comfort heading to Sunday\u2019s Bank of America ROVAL 400 on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

With the Playoff field set to be cut from 12 drivers to eight on Sunday, Briscoe is seventh in the standings, 21 points above the current elimination line. He\u2019s eight points ahead of defending series champion Joey Logano in eighth and 21 points clear of Ross Chastain in ninth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this weekend, we\u2019re obviously really just racing the 22 (Logano) and the 1 (Chastain),\u201d said Briscoe, who has posted an average finish of 23.8 with a best of ninth in four Cup Series starts on the 2.28-mile road course. \u201cIf we can just go and outrun them in both stages and the race, then we\u2019ll move on no matter what.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s obviously not that easy either. It\u2019s tough knowing that we\u2019ve been as good as we have, and there\u2019s the potential to be knocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race has the potential to present difficult strategic choices for Briscoe and crew chief James Small. Foremost perhaps will be the decision on short-pitting a stage to preserve track position versus taking valuable stage points and starting the next segment near the back of the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the Playoff guys are going to stay out to get stage points, and we\u2019re going to get put to the back, and you\u2019re going to be restarting 20th to 30th,\u201d said Briscoe, who won the inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 17-turn circuit in 2018. \u201cThat\u2019s where all your Playoff hopes and dreams can change really, really quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I think you have to be really smart and conscious about the decisions that you\u2019re making. It\u2019s a little bit easier, I guess, having a little bit of a buffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chastain\u2019s Trackhouse Racing teammate, Shane van Gisbergen is the prohibitive favorite to win Sunday\u2019s race\u2014and justifiably so. The New Zealander has won the last four road course events this season.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, Chastain plans to use the three-time Australian Supercars champion as a measure of his own potential as he tries to crack the top eight in the standings.<\/p>\n

“(Crew chief) Phil Surgen and the guys get to figure out how to get stage points and set ourselves up for the end of the race,\u201d Chastain said. \u201cA lot of it depends on speed. If we’re fast enough to battle with SVG, then we don’t care as much about stage points because we’re fast, and we just go win the race.”<\/p>\n

The bottom three in the standings face much longer odds than Chastain does. Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, teammates at 23XI Racing, are 26 and 29 points below the elimination line, respectively.<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s Austin Cindric is 48 points in arrears, almost certainly needing a victory on Sunday to advance to the Round of 8. Cindric\u2019s best finish in three starts at the Roval was fourth last year.<\/p>\n

Six of the seven previous races at the Charlotte Road Course have been won by current Playoff drivers\u2014Ryan Blaney (2018), Chase Elliott (2019 and 2020), Kyle Larson (2021 and 2024) and Christopher Bell (2022).<\/p>\n

Blaney and Elliott already have qualified for the Round of 8 on the strength of their respective victories at New Hampshire and Kansas. Larson and Bell are comfortably situated in the standings at 54 and 44 points above the cut line.<\/p>\n

Logano faced elimination after last year\u2019s race at the Charlotte Road Course, but Alex Bowman\u2019s disqualification for a car that was under minimum weight gave the Team Penske driver a reprieve.<\/p>\n

Logano went on to win his third Cup Series championship.<\/p>\n

Race is tight for final four NASCAR Xfinity Round of 8 Playoff spots<\/b><\/p>\n

Three of the Round of 8 Playoff spots already are taken as the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads for Saturday\u2019s Blue Cross NC 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (5 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Brandon Jones advanced on the strength of his victory last Saturday at Kansas Speedway. JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier already have clinched Round of 8 berths on points.<\/p>\n

Fourth-place Sam Mayer of Haas Factory Team is 43 points above the current cut line entering the elimination race at the 2.28-mile road course, needing to score just 19 points to advance, no matter who wins the race.<\/p>\n

Mayer has won the last two Xfinity Series events at the 17-turn circuit.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the Playoff field, however, the race for the final four spots in the next round couldn\u2019t be much tighter.<\/p>\n

Fifth-place Taylor Gray is 16 points above the elimination line. Twelfth-place Sammy Smith is just 14 points below. Accordingly, performance in Saturday\u2019s race will be a primary governing factor in setting the field for the Round of 8.<\/p>\n

Hoping to join teammates Zilisch and Allgaier in the next round, Smith comes to Charlotte with momentum from last weekend\u2019s fourth-place run at Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran a solid race all day long at Kansas last weekend, which was what we needed to put us back in the game and have a shot at advancing to the Round of 8,\u201d said Smith, who has finished 11th and 10th in his two starts at the Roval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have full faith that this Pilot Chevrolet team can accomplish just that. This has been our strongest season yet on road courses, so I\u2019m looking forward to this Saturday at the Roval.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilisch is the overwhelming favorite to win at the Charlotte Road Course. Four of his rookie-record nine victories this season have come on tracks that feature right turns as well as lefts.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Truck Series drivers start march toward Championship 4<\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series drivers are set to enjoy a coming-out party in Friday\u2019s Ecosave 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Where the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series already have history at the 2.28-mile circuit, the NASCAR Trucks will race there for the first time.<\/p>\n

And unlike the Cup and Xfinity Series, which face Round of 12 elimination races at the 17-turn layout, Truck Series drivers will open competition in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Corey Heim, a nine-time winner this season, starts the round 69 points above the elimination line, with his name already penciled into the Championship 4. Heim has led 143 of 181 laps contested on road courses this season. He has also led laps in 22 straight races, a series record.<\/p>\n

Layne Riggs is the only other driver who is remotely secure at 22 points above the cut line.<\/p>\n

Third-place Daniel Hemric is one point above the elimination line, with fourth-place Ty Majeski, the defending series champion, tied with Tyler Ankrum at the bubble.<\/p>\n

Eighth-place Kaden Honeycutt, driving for Halmar-Friesen Racing after starting the season with Niece Motorsports, is only seven points in arrears in a wide-open race for the Championship 4.<\/p>\n

Hemric, who finished second to Heim in the last Truck Series road course race at Watkins Glen, approaches Friday\u2019s race with a level of confidence that outweighs his slim margin in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet can be just as good as it was in Watkins Glen and hopefully a little better,\u201d Hemric said. \u201cThis is great opportunity we have in front of us to lock into Phoenix this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a lot of varying strategies, and the field will likely flip at least once during the day. There\u2019s a lot of variables to manage at the Roval, but I have confidence in everybody at MHR (McAnally-Hilgemann Racing) and on this No. 19 NAPA team that we can make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Chase Briscoe looks to solidify position in NASCAR Cup Round of 8 Chase Briscoe is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to have scored top-10s in each of the first five postseason races this year. But in the \u201cWhat-have-you-done-for-me-lately?\u201d world of auto racing, that model of consistency provides the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":40539,"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-54905","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\/2022\/10\/GettyImages-1432016322-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-ehz","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54905","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54907,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54905\/revisions\/54907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}