CONCORD, N.C. — Charlotte Motor Speedway has been a relative constant in the stock-car racing world, a bedrock facility that’s stood as a NASCAR centerpiece for six decades. Few events here have introduced too many variables to what’s been the standard for speedways across the country.
Sunday was different. A lot different. The Charlotte Motor Speedway name above the main gate remained the same, but the NASCAR industry went headlong into largely unknown waters in the inaugural Bank of America Roval 400. The pre-race question of “What will happen?” hasn’t been asked with such urgency since two keystone events here: the first-ever 600-mile race in 1960 and the 1992 NASCAR All-Star Race, the first event under the lights on a track of its size.
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What did happen Sunday was the late-race bedlam most predicted, but at an amplitude that still left the crowd abuzz. The race’s known ingredients before Sunday were part oval, part road course, part uncertainty. After 109 laps and a slam-bang last-lap-last-corner eruption, the recipe added a heaping spoonful of last-lap Mosport, a carnage-filled garage that resembled post-race Martinsville and a post-checkers retaliation that took a page from Bowman Gray Stadium.
“God almighty. You knew it was going to be something,” said Clint Bowyer, who skated through the chaos to finish third and advance in the playoff picture by a whisker. “I think it was a little bit of everything.”
It was. The 2.28-mile layout and the chance to win a first-time running brought out a competitive fire in seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who gambled with a chance at an eighth title on the table and lost. Johnson’s spirited daylong drive into contention immolated on the final chicane with a banzai bolt that defied physics and rational thought, collecting then-race leader Martin Truex Jr. in the process.
“Shell-shocked, for sure,” Johnson said. “Wish I could go back in time and let off the brakes back there a little bit and not take that opportunity because the championship is what we’re here for.”
RELATED: Spin on final lap sends Johnson out of playoffs
The new circuit brought out an adrenalin-filled brushback pitch from the normally mild-mannered Truex, who rammed Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet on the cool-down lap. Johnson’s self-erasure from the postseason came as consolation to Truex, who offered a “what gives?” shrug in Johnson’s direction after parking on pit road.
Does Roval autocorrect to Rival? Surely, it does.
The elimination race brought out the claws from the typically measured Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola, who moved on to the Round of 12 by squeezing every drop out of severely battered cars more suited to the post-race scrap heap.
RELATED: Clutch pass saves Larson from elimination
Both had tales to tell — Almirola of how he survived a mid-race crash, a penalty and a late-race crash to advance on a tiebreaker; and Larson urging an already damaged racer to the finish, slamming the wall twice on the last lap and escaping on the same tiebreak by gaining the critical position within yards of the checkered flag. Almirola, nervous all weekend, had told his crew chief that he just needed a one-point buffer to move on. “It turns out plus-zero is good enough,” he said.
At the end, there was a mild surprise in Victory Lane in Ryan Blaney, who hadn’t sniffed a top-five finish on a road course in his young Monster Energy Series career. Blaney, running third on the white-flag lap, didn’t expect it himself, only thinking, “Oh, something might happen here,” as he lurked behind the Truex-Johnson fracas.
Something did, creating a last-lap roar that left Marcus Smith, the track’s general manager, beaming in the aftermath. This event was his brainchild, stemming from the seemingly crazy idea that he floated to NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell on a lark.
O’Donnell said he spoke briefly with Smith after the race to offer his congratulations. Fittingly, both were in Victory Lane.
RELATED: Blaney wins in thrilling finish | Smith: Roval ‘lived up to the hype’
Here’s hoping the one-race experiment becomes a fixture on the NASCAR calendar, but that the temporary frenzy of Roval-mania doesn’t lead to a full-fledged schedule overhaul. Fans might go all-in on the prospects for an encore elsewhere, but it’s hard to say if the drivers’ heartstrings could withstand it more than once a year.
“Now it’s time to think about a cold beer because, my God, I want one,” Bowyer said.
Cheers, Roval. The next round is on us.