Five to Watch: Key story lines for 2020 Charlotte Roval elimination race

The Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval is set to host an elimination race in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs that will determine the field of drivers advancing into the Round of 8. Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will mark the third time the Cup Series has competed at the Roval and the second road-course race of the season after the debut of the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in August. Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott are the two drivers who have gone to Victory Lane at the 17-turn Charlotte track.

“This is a very stressful week," said Alex Bowman, who is 22 points ahead of the final transfer spot and leads all active drivers with a 3.0 average finish at the Roval. "I mean, the Roval is one thing to be stressed about but then add a cutoff race to it. One of my main goals for the 2020 season with (crew chief) Greg (Ives) and the team was to make the Round of 8. We are so close and need to put together a solid race on Sunday and capitalize on stage points and a good finish."

REIGN THE ROVAL -- Rain could add a new wrinkle in the challenge of racing at the Roval with remnants of Hurricane Delta expected to head northeast after making landfall in the Gulf Coast. If NASCAR officials decide conditions warrant, Goodyear will have four sets of wet weather radials available for each team.

"Everyone has the same opportunity to score a bunch of points leading up to this point," said Joey Logano, who is on the bubble, +21 points. "Everyone has the same opportunity to score a bunch of points during a possible rain race at the Roval, although it is something we’ve never done before and it’s outside of a lot of peoples’ boxes. ... So, it’s hard to say it’s not fair. It’s fair, it’s just crazy."

INSURANCE IMPORTANT -- Defending Cup Series champion Kyle Busch's playoff hopes are on the line this weekend as he comes into the race the first driver below the cutline. Busch, who has made the Championship 4 the last five years, has only earned four playoff points compared to the 46 he had at this point last season.

"I talked about insurance premiums and how my premiums were going to go up last year in Las Vegas," said Busch, referring to when contact with a lapped car knocked him to 19th-place finish in the 2019 playoff opener. "Well, I didn’t even buy insurance this year. That goes to show you how important insurance is, not having any of those stage points, not having any of those race wins to have those stage points to fall back on. Obviously, that’s going to be a tough act to follow this weekend with being able to transfer through, but hopefully we do."

FACING ELIMINATION -- Along with Kyle Busch, three other drivers are on the outside looking in -- Austin Dillon (-21), Clint Bowyer (-38) and Aric Almirola (-48) -- going into the Round of 12 elimination race. Among the four drivers, Bowyer has had the most success at the Roval. In fact, Bowyer's average finish of 3.5 is tied with Chase Elliott for second best among drivers entered this weekend. There have been four drivers in the playoff era who have won an elimination race to advance after coming into the race below the cutline. Denny Hamlin was the last to accomplish the feat when he won at Phoenix Raceway after being 20 points out.

"I would say if we finish second, there’s a chance we may get in," said Bowyer, who comes into the weekend fresh off the announcement he'll move to the FOX Sports booth in 2021. "If you finish second, more than likely you’re gonna add stage points to it and somebody is gonna have trouble. You’ve got to look at this thing as an opportunity and that’s what I’m looking at. I’ll take second. I want to win."

KING OF THE ROAD -- Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. have combined to win seven of the last 10 road-course events with Elliott winning the last three. If Elliott can make it four straight, he would have sole possession of second for most consecutive road-course wins behind Jeff Gordon's mark of six. Truex has finished seventh or better in the last four road course events, dating back to his win at Sonoma Raceway in 2019. Truex also has led in each of the last 10 road-course races for a total of 192 laps.

“I don’t know why the road courses have been good to us thus far," Elliott said. "I came from short-track racing, I did a little bit of road-course racing in go-karts, but I don’t know how much that translates.

"I do think a lot of the credit should go to Jeff (Gordon). Jeff was a fantastic road racer, as we all know. I really think he and Alan (Gustafson) had a very good understanding of what was important at road races and what they really wanted in the cars and what mattered. As a young driver coming into a situation like that, having a good foundation has really helped me learn and learn faster because that foundation was already close."

STILL MORE TO GAIN -- Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin already locked themselves into the Round of 8 by virtue of their respective wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, but there is still more playoff points on the line. Hamlin will look to add to his current tally of 54 playoff points from the pole. Busch will start 10th but only has six playoff points as of now to take to the next round.

"There’s seven playoff points out there to get and we’re going to try to go get them because we may need them in the third round," said Chris Gabehart, crew chief of the No. 11 Toyota for Hamlin. "But the reality is yes, it takes a huge weight off of our shoulders knowing that we’re locked in going into such a chaotic event."