CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR’s popularity and TV ratings have sagged over the past decade, but executives at Charlotte Motor Speedway say reports of the sport’s demise are greatly exaggerated. And, when it comes to building fan interest, they point to new wrinkles such as creating a road course for a playoff race this fall as the kind of innovation that has long fueled the track and the sport itself.
On Monday afternoon at Bank of America headquarters in uptown, Charlotte regional banking executive Charles Bowman joined Marcus Smith, the CEO of track parent Speedway Motorsports, to kick off a promotional campaign for the revamped fall NASCAR race.
The format of the playoff race shifts this year with the introduction of what’s billed as the “Roval,” a 2.28-mile road course created from the traditional track setup of a 1.5-mile oval speedway. Get it? Road course + oval = Roval.
The Bank of America Roval 400, as the race has been renamed, is Sept. 30. The race moved to Sunday afternoon last year after years of being held on Saturday nights to avoid head to head competition on TV with pro football. NASCAR and speedway executives spent several years designing and refining the course, which includes 17 turns as it snakes through the track’s infield and around the existing oval circuit. Current and former drivers, including Mario Andretti, have tested the course and pronounced it a success.
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