Joe Gibbs’s Former Driver’s Dismal Day at the Roval Highlights the Need for Return of NASCAR’s Charlotte Special

Over the past few days, arguments to remove a road course from NASCAR have gained more traction. Though road courses are an integral part of a number of elite motorsports competitions around the world, their viability in NASCAR is a different story. Not all of their drivers can seem to get their heads around a track that involves turning right. The latest in the list of disputed road courses is of course the place where the latest Cup Series race was held, the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and perhaps Joe Gibbs’ former driver is responsible for setting it off.

The race at Charlotte was not a dull affair by any means as AJ Allmendinger took an emotional victory. But it was what unfolded behind him that has fans and insiders thinking about the Roval’s need. There were a number of cautions and almost all of them involved drivers not being able to navigate through a corner. The most significant one was when Bubba Wallace got caught in one such situation, ultimately costing him a place in the next round.

Spotter uses Joe Gibbs’ former driver’s example to reveal truth about road course racing

But Bubba Wallace was not the only one who had issues. On a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, spotters Brett Griffin, TJ Majors, and Freddie Kraft spoke about the chaotic nature of the race on Sunday and how it was easier for everyone to drive on big tracks (ovals).

Bubba Wallace’s spotter Freddie Kraft got the discussion underway with former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones. Jones did not have a good time on the road course at all. There were several instances of him cutting corners and serving stop-and-go penalties. In the end, he did not even finish the race.

“Guys wrecking mid-pack that didn’t need to be. Suarez hooked the 2 into us, then Bell dumps Suarez. Erik Jones had more stop-and-go penalties yesterday than…the whole first part of the race all I heard was, alright 43 has served his stop-and-go, 43 has served another stop-and-go. Yeah, I guess he just kept blowing the backstretch,” Kraft said.

This later trickled into a conversation among all three spotters which ended with TJ Majors saying that it was easier to race on the big tracks. Speaking about drivers making mistakes after a restart into turn 1, Majors said it just like it is.

“You could still overdrive the corner. That’s easier when you start on a big track because you’re not coming out of a corner,” Majors said.

But this conversation about the Roval was brought to the forefront by Door Bumper Clear’s guest on the show, Bob Pockrass. After the race on Sunday, the eminent NASCAR journalist shared a video on Instagram asking fans whether the Roval should be done away with.

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Pockrass said that while the race was an interesting affair, it was due to the stage breaks coming at the end of each stage. This was not the case in the earlier road or street course races this season. And he did have a point. Things were interesting because of that. Fans were quite vocal about their dissatisfaction with Roval in the comments.

But a drawback to that is the restart will always see chaos. Unlike Formula One, NASCAR cars are bunched up very close to each other. Going through a tight chicane like that is not just extremely tough, but also dangerous. A lot of these drivers do not even have much experience racing on a track that isn’t an oval.

Their lack of experience on road courses also compromises their skills of navigating their way through a tight chicane. So it is a lot tougher for drivers, but many would say that the challenge is what separates the good from the great.

However, a lot of people commenting under Bob Pockrass’ Instagram post seem to think that the Roval should be scrapped in favor of another Oval race at Charlotte. What are your thoughts? Should the Roval stay or should there be two Charlotte Oval races?

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