Bank of America Roval 400: Power Rankings

Race Information

Race: Bank of America Roval 400
Laps: 109
Date: October 11^th
Venue: Charlotte Motor Speedway
2019 Winner: Chase Elliott (3:20:58)
Network: NBCSN

Track

Charlotte Motor Speedway — Opened in 1960 by Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner, this 1.5 mile quad oval asphalt track is home to two races each year. The turns are at 24 degrees and the straights bank at five degrees. This track was the first modern superspeedway to host night racing. While this mimics Michigan International Speedway and Daytona International Speedway in length, it’s a road course more like Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Favorites

Kurt Busch (ninth selections this year) — Busch did well at Charlotte earlier this year finishing 7th and 5th. Busch hit the ultimate high and low over the last two weeks winning at Las Vegas and then wrecking at Talladega. He has a decent track record of success here with six top ten finishes in his last 10 races here between 2015 -2019.

Chase Elliot (ninth selections this year) — Elliot had a solid 5th overall placement and now has top 10 finishes in three of his last four. He comes to Charlotte where he has averaged a top 10 finish here over the last two years. Elliot finished 2nd and 1st here this year, he’s your clear cut favorite.

High Risk/High Reward

Alex Bowman (fourth selections this year) — Bowman’s four races here in 2018 and 2019 yielded these finishes: 7th, 2nd, 9th, and 4th. He struggled a bit here earlier this year with a 19th and 31st finish here. He has not finished outside the top 20 yet in these playoffs.

Ryan Blaney (ninth selections this year) — Blaney finished 3rd in back to back races here earlier this year. Those two top tens equaled the same number of top ten finishes he has had at Charlotte over the last five years. A stage one wreck last week (among the many) dropped Ryan to 25th. It’s a shame because he looked like he might pull off back to back top tens, instead he has just one top ten finish in the 2020 playoffs.

The Dark Horse

John Hunter Nemechek (third selections this year) — Hunter Nemechek finished 16th and 13th earlier this year at Charlotte. He has progressively gotten better each playoff race starting at 27th, working down to 20th and then to 8th last week at Talladega.

Fun Fact: Speedy Thompson won the first Roval race in 1960 behind the Wood Brothers Racing team.

2020 Results

Favorite: Avg Finish 11th (27th Percent)
High Risk/High Reward: Avg Finish 16th (41^st Percent)
Dark Horse: Avg Finish 19th (47^th Percent)