The Cup Series will have a home race this weekend when they take the green flag in the Bank of America Roval 400. This is the last race in the Round of 12. The first two races have been won by non-playoffs drivers. The only driver locked into the Round of 8 is William Byron, since he is 74 points above the cut-line. It should be fun to see which seven drivers will join Willy-B in the next round of the playoffs. The Bank of America Roval 400 can be seen Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
My goal every year at the Superspeedways is to simply survive the race. All of the drivers I had in the lineup were running in the top-12 with only 30 laps to go at Talladega… then all hell broke loose. Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott all crashed out of the race. I was able to make a last second switch to get Blaney in the Garage. The picks are now ranked No. 34 out of 352K entries. It is hard to complain about that.. 😊
CUP SERIES PRACTICE
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 are the practice speeds for the Bank of America Roval 400…
FANTASY LIVE STRATEGY
There are five races left in the regular season. If you have not mapped out your allocations for these final races, you need to do it so you will know which drivers you are able to burn an allocation with on a road course (or you can simply trust my picks, because I have everything mapped out). It is also important to know that the four championship drivers “WILL” score Stage Points at Phoenix. We need to hold back one allocation with the drivers we think will make it to the championship race. Here is what I found on the Fantasy Live website..
This is a good race to take a chance with the “road course ringers.” Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger are really good on the road courses. They need to be in your lineups so that you can save an allocation with your top drivers for the tracks in the Round of 8.
FANTASY LIVE PICKS FOR CHARLOTTE
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN (4): 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.
AJ ALLMENDINGER (5): It is going to be tough to fade Allmendinger Sunday. He won this race last year and he finished 4th in the Bank of America Roval 400 in 2022. That is an average finishing position of 2.5 in the Gen-7 car at the Charlotte Roval. Allmendinger has also led an average of 35 laps in the Gen-7 car at this track. Allmendinger should be one of the best picks for the race Sunday.
TYLER REDDICK (4): Reddick has the best Driver Rating, the second-best Average Finishing Position (Behind Kyle Busch) and scored the most Stage Points in the Gen-7 car on the Charlotte Roval. Reddick finished 5th at COTA, 8th at Sonoma and 2nd in the Chicago Street Race this year. Reddick should be a lock for a top-five finish Sunday.
KYLE LARSON (4): We have five races left and I have four allocations left with Larson. I will be using the No. 5 car a lot in these final races. Larson won on the road course at Sonoma earlier this season. He looks fast again this weekend. Larson posted 9th-fastest speed in practice and qualified 6th for the race. Larson won at the Charlotte Roval in 2021. He could do it again Sunday.
JOEY LOGANO (4): I wasn’t expecting to play Lognao in this race, but 40 minutes of practice and a solid qualifying run changed everything. Logano posted the 4th-fastest speed in practice and qualified 4th for the race. 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.
(GARAGE PICK) CHASE ELLIOTT (4): Elliott dominated the road course races in the old car and he has struggled in the Gen-7 car at these tracks. It looks like he is starting to get his rhythm back. Elliott finished 4th at Sonoma and he looks fast again this weekend. Elliott posted the 10th-fastest speed in practice and qualified 7th for the race. Elliott has a great chance to finish in the top-five, so I will have the No. 9 car in the Garage Sunday.
* If you are out of allocations and need to know which driver to use Sunday, simply look at the Bank of America Roval 400…
Good luck and be sure to follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR. I will send out a Tweet during the race to let you know if I plan to swap out one of my drivers for my Garage pick.