AUTO RACING ROUNDUP Saturday’s results

NASCAR

Mystery is the appeal for Charlotte’s roval

CONCORD, N.C.

If there was just one race to watch the entire NASCAR season it would be the one on Charlotte’s newfangled “roval” thing.

NASCAR has claimed the “best drivers in the world” and they are on display today on a bonus day on network NBC at the same time as the NFL. Come watch them try to conquer this new Charlotte Motor Speedway, a mystery track where seasons are on the line because four drivers will be bounced from the 16-driver playoff field.

Add in a desperate free-agent season in which a slew of veterans are hunting the very few available jobs.

Times are tough in NASCAR and jobs are going to cheaper, younger drivers, so everyone needs a good race to show they are worthy of a seat.

And so they get the roval, the brainchild of Marcus Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc ., and this track has vexed these drivers.

Well done, scream the fans, energized because this roval is something new.

“We need to take more risks,” roared retired five-time champion Jeff Gordon, now a television analyst who has taken an active role in stopping NASCAR’s spiral.

“We need to step outside of that comfort zone and take more risks. There’s a potential for Sunday to be a big day.”

Smith has gone outside the box because he’s got a boring 1.5-mile speedway. The roval, good or bad, is his baby. It’s already a success because fans are genuinely giddy, in part because it could be a disaster for four playoff contenders.

xfinity

Briscoe captures win at Charlotte track

CONCORD, N.C.

Chase Briscoe is climbing his way through Ford Racing’s development system by racing any kind of car on any kind of track. That exposure gave the Indiana native the wherewithal to attack the new roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway as if it was America’s favorite dirt track, the one owned by hero Tony Stewart.

Briscoe treated the roval, a hybrid of Charlotte’s speedway and an infield road course, as if it was Ohio dirt track Eldora Speedway. Stewart’s track hosts sprint cars and NASCAR’s Truck Series, and Briscoe won there this summer for one of the few positive races in a season he’s found to be a struggle.

Briscoe snapped that streak Saturday with his first career Xfinity Series victory, in the first race of the weekend on the roval. It was a breakthrough moment because Briscoe had not even sniffed a victory in his 13 previous races,

“I feel like my career was getting really bad this year, and I needed to get my stock back up,” Briscoe said. “We’ve wrecked a lot of race cars and I think my best finish was ninth, so I was really down on myself personally.”

Associated Press