New Roval tire throws strategy into forefront in Round of 12 finale

CONCORD, N.C. -- Strategy for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval was largely determined -- and altered -- after Saturday's practice session. A new-to-the-track Goodyear tire produced lap times that were roughly two to three seconds slower than the 2024 edition of the Bank of America Roval 400. More critically, teams saw a lap-time fall-off of roughly four seconds over the course of the tire life, a dramatic slowdown that forced teams to deviate from previously laid plans. MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Roval Teams were no strangers to this particular tire compound, as it's the same tire teams used at the five other road courses on the 2025 schedule. That's, in part, what made the Roval wear so drastic.

"Yeah, it was a bit of a shock," race winner Shane van Gisbergen said. "I think our outright pace was two seconds slower than last year, and then you would fall off another four seconds off what we did last year. That was a big surprise. I don't think anyone expected that. Yeah, as a driver, you want to be flat-out the whole time and pushing hard, but also, those races create mixed strategies and different pit cycles and stuff.

"Probably more interesting as a fan and seeing people come and go, and a lot more passing. I'm all for whatever makes better racing. It's frustrating having to drive and save the tire the whole time, but if it makes good racing, I'm all for that."

Adam Stevens, crew chief of Christopher Bell's No. 20 Toyota, echoed his surprise post-race despite his team's third-place finish. "I think it caught, certainly us off guard," Stevens told NASCAR.com. "I don't know if I could say it's true for everyone, but yeah, it was a different race for sure." Teams scrambled to make whatever adjustments they could to their cars for the final race of the Round of 12, but the rules only permit so many drastic changes. Much like the extreme tire wear that caught teams by surprise at Bristol Motor Speedway, Stevens said teams could make their tires last if they were permitted more flexibility to change their car setups. But much of the car's settings are locked in during the week. "Most of the setup decisions are made before you leave for the track," Stevens said. "And the car's impounded after inspection, and the list of things you can change is pretty small. So if you feel like you're way off, there's just not a lot you can do to remedy it. And certainly, if we had access to every setup parameter, we would have changed an abundance of things that we couldn't change. "It's the same for all of us. We just had to make the most of it with what we had, and I think (we were) probably about as good as we were going to be. But you know, if we were running this race again tomorrow, we'd come back with something pretty different." [caption id="attachment_490596" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]David Jensen | Getty Images[/caption] Billy Scott, crew chief of the No. 45 Toyota for driver Tyler Reddick, knew his team needed to chase the win since they entered the elimination race 29 points beneath the cutline. Starting from pole afforded the team early track position, but as other teams split the stage by pitting midway through the opening 25-lap stint, Scott kept the No. 45 on track to save a set of tires for later. Ultimately, the strategy didn't work out and Reddick was eliminated from the postseason, along with his 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain and Team Penske's Austin Cindric. "The strategy going in was focusing on winning, so we weren't too worried about getting stage points or keeping the track position there," Scott told NASCAR.com. "In hindsight, though, I think we probably would have fared better to have followed the group in that stage, but I think also we could have been led to a point we felt necessary to pit again in Stage 2 like we did and run out of tires. We just didn't have a good long run car. "We came here trying to be a little more aggressive on some setup stuff, trying to find a little bit more speed that we needed to keep up with the 88 (van Gisbergen) and I think it backfired, in a sense, with having tires that wouldn't last 10 to 12 laps. We were certainly on the short side of that." Multiple strategies were utilized throughout the pits, with some teams choosing to pit twice during the final stage and some opting for three stops. Who chose what was dependent on car strength and track position. But in the end, the speed of SVG overcame any sort of tire drama, propelling him to his fifth straight road-course win -- no matter the tires. "We could run second or third, and that was about it," Stevens said. "We just didn't have anything for the 88, and we knew coming in, he was going to be the car to beat. If we'd had a little bit cleaner day, certainly second was on the table, but it was going to take circumstance to move up one more spot."