The Cup Series will compete on another road course this weekend as they complete the Round of 12. The Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be the fifth race this season on a road course. We have had four different winners in each of the road course races this year (William Byron at COTA, Kyle Larson at Sonoma, Alex Bowman on the Chicago Street Course and Chris Buescher at Watkins Glen). Will we have another new winner in Victory Lane Sunday? It should be fun to see how it all plays out on the have road course, half oval track. The Bank of America 400 can be seen Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
NASCAR took a week off from practicing last week because the Cup Series was racing at a Superspeedway track. The teams were given a 40-minutes practice session Saturday to dial in their cars for the Bank of America Roval 400. Most of the drivers made some 5 or 10-lap runs and then brought their cars in for some adjustments. We can probably learn enough from this practice session to help us with our picks for the race Sunday.
Here is my starting lineup for the Bank of America Roval 400…
WILLIAM BYRON (3): Byron finished 2nd in this race last year. He also won on the road course at COTA earlier this year. The No. 24 car has speed again this weekend. Byron posted the 8th-fastest speed in practice and qualified 10th for the race. Byron has a lot of momentum and a win may make him the favorite to win the 2024 Cup Series Championship.
JOEY LOGANO (4): We got to see the first practice before the lineups were locked. I posted on X (Twitter) to change Ross Chastain to Joey Logano. The No. 22 car had a lot of speed in practice and Logano finished four of his five races on the Charlotte Roval in the top-10. He looks like he has the speed to finish in the top-10 again.
* You can use ROSS CHASTAIN in this spot if you were unable to make the change or you can use TYLER REDDICK if you have at least two allocations left with the No. 45 car.
ALEX BOWMAN (4): Bowman is on a hot streak and now he gets to compete at one of his best tracks. Bowman has NEVER finished outside the top-10 on the Charlotte Roval. His average finishing position at the Charlotte Roval is 6th. He has been good at the other road course tracks this year too. Bowman finished 4th at COTA and won the Chicago Street Course Race this year. The No. 48 team is on a hot streak so I will continue to play Bowman until he cools off.
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN (6): SVG is the “free square” every time he is entered in a road course race. His skills behind the wheel at these tracks are much better than any driver in the field. The Bank of America 400 will be the first Cup Series race for SVG on the Charlotte Roval, but I am not worried about it. He has the Xfinity Series race Saturday to get his rhythm down at this track. SVG is going to be hard to beat Sunday and could make it a clean sweep of non-playoff drivers in Victory Lane in the Round of 12.
* If you are out of allocations and need to know which driver to use Sunday, simply look at the Driver Rankings for the Bank of America Roval 400
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