Denny Hamlin Breaks Silence on Charlotte Roval’s NASCAR Exit in 3 Words

NASCAR’s removal of the Roval from the Charlotte schedule of the Cup Series has got many talking, and Denny Hamlin seems to be embracing the new change. An experienced driver entering his 21st full-time Cup Series season, Hamlin has seen the sport change, and he is just glad that racing is returning to its traditional roots with the Bank of America 400 being held on the regular Charlotte oval track from this season.

Denny Hamlin reminds everyone of NASCAR’s roots

“We’re oval racing.” Hamlin sounds very connected to NASCAR’s history as he focuses on the sport returning to the oval race at Charlotte. Apart from his personal preference for racing on oval circuits, he also feels that the current Next-Gen cars in NASCAR are better suited for those layouts instead of road courses.

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“We need to talk about the sport and the sport is that, oval racing is, and the Next-Gen car, especially, mile and a half has been its strength,” Hamlin told the media.

The current generation cars are wider with a flat underbody, which makes sense when racing on ovals due to the consistent downforce. However, that doesn’t fit racing on road courses. Moreover, most drivers grew up racing on ovals, and hence, they prefer sticking to that in the Cup Series as well.

“I think the drivers, for the most part, are certainly supportive of that change back to the oval. It’s what we are,” he added.

NASCAR has traditionally raced on Charlotte’s oval layout; however, the sport experimented with a different layout in 2018. The Bank of America 400, the playoff race, was moved to the track’s road course. As the oval is also integrated into it, it was called the Roval.

Apart from the road course, drivers also didn’t like the track because it was held during the playoffs, and the smallest of mistakes from other drivers could end their title contention. Denny Hamlin, who has been a victim of this for a long time in his career, understands this best.

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The sport is moving back to its traditional racing practice with these decisions. They recently reintroduced the Chase format as well, bidding farewell to the elimination-style playoffs.

Yet, the authorities will not abandon the Roval layout as they have other things in mind.

Charlotte’s Roval layout to be used again in the future

Marcus Smith, the president of Speedway Motorsports, has some other plans for Charlotte’s Roval in the future. Abandoning the layout does not seem to be a great idea.

Besides, while it is bad for racing, it can be quite fun to drive on, especially with cars that have much better aerodynamics and are designed to be raced at layouts like these. For this reason, Smith feels that the track could be used for a different purpose in the future.

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“We’ve got a fantastic world-class road course with the Roval, and we’ll bring that back at different times. But for now, we’ll be running the oval, and we’ll see what happens. I love driving the Roval. From a sports car perspective, it’s super fun to drive, and we’ve got a lot of customers who like to drive it. So, outside of NASCAR week, we’ll still have plenty of opportunities for our different driving experiences and OEM customers to come out and enjoy the Roval,” he said on the Dale Jr. Download podcast.

It is a positive sign that the track can be used outside of NASCAR. Stock car racing might not be suited well enough for a road course layout like the Roval, as Denny Hamlin mentioned, but it can be perfect for supercar categories.

Meanwhile, as NASCAR is returning to its more traditional rules of racing, would experienced drivers like Hamlin have a better shot at winning the title?