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In The Know – Charlotte ROVAL

NASCAR CUP SERIES OVERVIEW:

●  Event:  Bank of America Roval 400 (Round 32 of 36)

●  Time/Date:  2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 8

●  Location:  Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval

●  Layout:  2.28-mile, 17-turn road course

●  Laps/Miles:  109 laps/252.88 miles

●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 25 laps / Stage 2: 25 laps / Final Stage: 59 laps

●  TV/Radio:  NBC / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

 

SHR FAST FACTS:

Kevin Harvick:

Harvick has made a total of 60 NASCAR Cup Series starts on road courses. He has 22 starts at Sonoma, 22 at Watkins Glen, five on the Charlotte Roval, three at COTA, three on the road course at Indianapolis, two apiece at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and on the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and one on the Chicago Street Course. He has scored two road-course wins – Watkins Glen in 2006 and Sonoma in 2017 – along with 12 top-fives and 27 top-10s with 199 laps led.

Aric Almirola:

IHOP will be the primary sponsor on the No. 10 Ford Mustang this weekend with a brand new paint scheme. For more than 65 years, IHOP has been a leader, innovator and expert in all things breakfast, lunch and dinner. The chain offers 65 different signature fresh, made-to-order breakfast options, a wide selection of popular lunch and dinner items, including Ultimate Steakburgers, Hand Crafted Melts, Burritos & Bowls and more. IHOP restaurants offer guests an affordable, everyday dining experience with warm and friendly service. As of June 30, there are 1,790 IHOP restaurants around the world, including restaurants in all 50 states, two U.S. territories and 13 countries outside the United States. IHOP restaurants are franchised by affiliates of Pasadena, Calif.-based Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN).

Chase Briscoe:

Five races remain on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule and Sunday’s race on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval serves as the final road-course event of the season. For Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School team, it’s a return to the track where Briscoe and crew chief Richard Boswell earned their first win in 2018.

Ryan Preece:

The Bank of America Roval 400 marks Preece’s fourth Cup Series start on the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course. His first start on the course came in 2019 for JTG-Daugherty Racing, when he qualified 14th and finished 21st. His second came in 2020 and marks his best at the track – 14th. Preece didn’t compete on the Roval last season and this weekend will mark his first start with SHR. Preece made his lone Roval appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2018 for Joe Gibbs Racing. He started 10th and finished fourth. The Cup Series has already competed at four road courses this season – Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International – and on the downtown streets of Chicago for NASCAR’s inaugural street race. In the June race at Sonoma, Preece won the Friday ARCA Menards Series West race and on Sunday earned his season-best Cup Series road-course finish of 13th.

OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:

WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Rheem/Chasing A Cure Ford Mustang:

This is your 23rd year in the NASCAR Cup Series. How valuable is that kind of experience in this sport?

“Today’s sport is so engineering-minded that the simple, everyday things sometimes get forgotten. It’s very important to do all the little things right, and you have to execute the simple things right, too. Don’t overcomplicate it because sometimes overcomplicating results in a worse result than just say, ‘OK, today we finished fifth and next week we’re going to try to do two or three things to finish first, not 20 or 30 things and finish 30th.’ Keeping the simplicity of our process in the middle of our engineering-minded process is very important. It used to be trial-and-error when you tested. Nowadays, it’s try it and prove it or debunk it, so that it’s either right or wrong.”

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 IHOP Ford Mustang:

You won your first road-course race in the Xfinity Series earlier this year at Sonoma. How could that translate to the Roval this weekend? 

“Just confidence in myself on road courses. The cars don’t translate much from Xfinity to Cup, and the Roval is a mix of speed and handling on the oval with the tight turns in the road-course portion. If we could find that balance in our cars, we’ll be competitive. I’m proud of our team and the effort we’ve all put in to improve our road-course cars over the year.”

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang:

Over the last month or so, there’s been a little more consistency for the No. 14 team when it comes to results. Do you feel things are starting to turn around for the team?

“Yeah, I think we’re finally starting to get things figured out. Not just the No. 14 team, but Stewart-Haas Racing as a whole. You know, we had a good run of top-five finishes early this season and then we went months without a top-10. It was tough. I’ve never had a season where it was either we finished up front or we were 33rd. When we made the crew chief change, obviously there were a lot of people wondering why we did it in the middle of the season, but I think it has worked out really well. We’re getting a chance to show that we are capable and we can run up front, and Richard (Boswell) is still in the middle of trying to figure out this car. So, I think that shows there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s putting us in a good starting place for 2024.”