NASCAR playoffs at Charlotte: Where to watch, start time, stream, preview for the Bank of America Roval 400

On most weekends, NASCAR amounts to a traveling circus where an entire industry travels to one place, sets up shop there for the weekend, and then moves on to the next stop on its schedule and repeats the process. For those who make their living in racing, it is a demanding and often punishing grind, which makes homecoming trips to the Charlotte, North Carolina area, where virtually all of the industry lives and works, so welcome.

For many racers, trips to Charlotte Motor Speedway are a chance to do what they love without sacrificing the comforts of home. But this weekend, home is anything but comfortable or even familiar: As it has done since 2018, Charlotte Motor Speedway has been twisted into a half oval, half road course for this weekend's Bank of America Roval 400, the elimination race in the NASCAR playoffs' Round of 12. And this time around, the Charlotte Roval has evolved, presenting the 12 drivers looking to advance to the Round of 8 with much more to adapt to and perhaps even more perils that could end their title hopes five races shy of the championship in Phoenix.

Where to watch the NASCAR playoffs at the Charlotte Roval

• When: Sunday, Oct. 13
• Where: Charlotte Motor Speedway -- Concord, North Carolina
• Time: 2 p.m. ET
• TV: NBC
• Stream: fubo (try for free)
  

What to Watch

For the first time since the track was introduced, the Charlotte Roval has undergone considerable layout changes for this year in an effort to create more passing zones and overtaking opportunities. Turn 6 is completely new for this year, as a much longer straightaway now leads into it off of turn 5, and that section of the track now precedes a hairpin corner and heavy braking zone in turn 7. The apex of the final chicane in turns 16 and 17 is now much sharper as well, with "robust" turtle curbs in that corner to prevent drivers from cutting the course.

The course will remain 17 turns and 2.28 miles in length with 35 feet of elevation change. Understandably, much of the focus for the competitors is on the sharp hairpin in turn 7, which Shane van Gisbergen described as a "passing and carnage spot" in media sessions a week ago.

"It's not like anything I've really ever driven before," Van Gisbergen said. "It's kind of a hybrid in the way the style of the corners are. It's not really a street circuit because the walls aren't that close in a few places, but it's an odd, odd track. And then the cars are compromised to run on the oval as well, but there's curbs too and I don't know how well these cars take the curbs. We don't really run on tracks with big curbs like that, so it's gonna be interesting to feel that and learn how much I can take and use and how to pass. There's a lot to learn next week."

News of the Week

• 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have filed a preliminary injunction in their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, which seeks to immediately enable both organizations to compete as chartered race teams in 2025 while litigation proceeds. The two teams have also filed a motion for expedited discovery, seeking immediate access to documents and files from NASCAR executives pertaining to the 2025 charter agreement and its negotiations.
  
  NASCAR will oppose the preliminary injunction, claiming in a filing on Wednesday night that such an injunction "is only warranted in the most extraordinary circumstances (which are not present here) since they are seeking to alter the status quo through an injunction requiring NASCAR to provide Charters for 2025 and beyond notwithstanding that the time to sign Charters for 2025 has expired."
  
  NASCAR is being represented by attorney Chris Yates , whose clientele has included the U.S. Soccer Federation, UFC, Atlantic Coast Conference, and World Aquatics among other organizations.
• Following inconsistencies in its application at Talladega, NASCAR clarified its Damaged Vehicle Policy in a meeting held Thursday with Cup Series crew chiefs. According to Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, NASCAR sought to express that their intent is to not put any cars out of the race that do not need to be, and suggested that NASCAR will be more liberal in how they evaluate a car's damage and whether or not they will give teams an opportunity to fix it in the event they cannot drive back to their pit stall.
  
  "They want to put it back in the teams' hands and give them an opportunity to go out and compete again," Gabehart said . "I don't want to speak entirely for them on the specifics, I'm sure they'll do that in the coming days. But the gist of it is it sounds like they're gonna loosen up the reins a little bit with five (races) to go."
• Legacy Motor Club has made a change at crew chief, as Dave Elenz has been dismissed as the crew chief for the No. 43 team and driver Erik Jones effective immediately. Ben Beshore will move over from the No. 42 team to become Jones' new crew chief, while newly-hired team technical director Brian Campe will assume interim crew chief duties for the No. 42 team and driver John Hunter Nemechek.
  
  Although the pairing of Jones and Elenz got off to a successful start in 2022, a season which saw the two win the Southern 500 together, the No. 43 team's performance has fallen off drastically since then. Jones' fifth place finish at Talladega was his first top five and only his second top 10 of the entire 2024 season.
• On Thursday, Beard Motorsports announced the passing of Ron Lewis, the team's spotter since 2017. The team, which competes primarily in superspeedway races, finished 24th at Talladega just days prior with Anthony Alfredo behind the wheel.
  

Pick to Win

A.J. Allmendinger (+750) – No driver in the history of the Charlotte Roval has demonstrated a greater mastery of this track than defending Roval winner A.J. Allmendinger has. After going a perfect 4-for-4 in Xfinity Series competition at the Roval, Allmendinger kept his streak up by winning the Cup race a year ago, earning his third career victory and giving him at least one Roval win every year since 2019.

Allmendinger's Roval record in Cup isn't spotless like his Xfinity Series one is, but he's earned two top fives and three top 10s in four Cup starts at this track with only an engine failure in 2021 dragging his average finish down. Even though Kaulig Racing has not had the season it hoped for, the rest of the field will likely have to go through Allmendinger again in order to claim Roval supremacy.