From a NASCAR Fan’s View
Well, it’s that time again. Time to go road racing at the Roval at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. When it’s over, there will only be eight contenders left to race for the final four and the Championship. From this fan’s view, there are those who absolutely need a win to move on to the round of eight, and that road may be partially blocked by one of the non-playoff drivers who is particularly good at Road Racing Circuits. Of course, you all know of whom I speak. Yeah, that’s right, it’s SVG.
Tyler Reddick needs a win to guarantee he can move into the round of eight from this round, but there is no guarantee he will get the win he needs. Sure, he qualified on the pole, and that is a good start for the weekend, but he also needs to win, and the one person who could very likely take that chance from him is Shane Van Gisbergen. SVG starts next to Reddick on the front row, but he has won four road races in a row this season. Since Reddick is twenty-nine points below the cut line, a win looks like his only option, and SVG is one driver hard to rule out of maybe winning his fifth Road Race this season. If SVG does win this one, Tyler’s chances are likely pretty much done for this season.
I suppose it could be said that it would be nice if SVG is the only one Reddick needs to beat to take the trip to victory lane. It might be nice, but it isn’t true. There are actually several drivers that could ruin Reddick’s chances of moving on. Two of them start right behind Tyler and Shane on the second row. Ty Gibbs has shown a lot of speed at the Roval, and he starts third. Right next to him is Kyle Larson, and he qualified fourth. Gibbs isn’t qualified for the playoffs, but he can definitely play the spoiler, and I think he would love to do so since it would be his first points win in the Cup Series. We all know he is capable of winning, and many say he is due. Whether he will or not remains to be seen.
As a side note, there is a slim possibility Reddick could point his way into the next round, but it is a very, very slim possibility. Besides all that, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace are ahead of him in points, even though they are both also below the cutline. Ross is the driver with the best chance of pointing his way into the next round. He is only thirteen points below the cut. Since he has shown some speed in practice and qualifying, he could steal the show from Reddick and move himself into the next round. After all, Ross and SVG are teammates at Track House Racing, and according to the talk around the garage, Ross has been working with SVG and trying to learn as much as he can from his driving style.
And then there’s Bubba. Bubba is pretty much in the same boat as Reddick since he is twenty-seven points below the cut. He, too, needs a win to guarantee his ability to move on to the next round. Both he and Reddick would have to have a miraculous points day to even think about having a chance to move on to the round of eight by points. There is a reality check ahead as far as that goes. From this fan’s view, it would most definitely have to be miraculous.
There is another problem for Reddick moving on without a win at the Roval. There are several other drivers quite capable of winning this race, and just like Ty Gibbs, they aren’t qualified for the playoffs, but they can spoil it for those who are and need to win or have a very good finish. First on the list is another great road racer, and that is A.J. Allmendinger. He qualified with one of the top speeds for the day and, given his road racing prowess, he could pull off the upset. Of course, he is a long shot and not likely to win, but this fan expects he could be in the mix given the right set of circumstances.
From this fan’s view, that is why the Roval is not only a race that is very hard to call out any one driver to win or pull the surprise victory out of a hat, but to call out an obvious winner from those that probably should or could win. I’ve already named a few that could win and, unfortunately, those aren’t the only ones that could. There are several drivers other than SVG, Larson, Gibbs, and Reddick that can win this one. In fact, the field is full of good road racers, and they are spread out everywhere in the field. All they need is a break that favors them over the rest, and they will end up in Victory Lane…
Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
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Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
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