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NASCAR PREVIEW: Elliott carries road course win streak into playoff race
Sept. 19 NASCAR
Chase Elliott’s number 9 car driving at the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 19. Elliott would finish the race in seventh. Image by Jared C. Tilton of Getty Images for nascarmedia.com

The final race of the NASCAR Cup Series Round of Twelve playoffs will be held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL road course, on Sunday, October 11.

Dawsonville’s own Chase Elliott will enter the race 44 points above the cutline. Even if Elliott does not earn any stage points during the race, which is unlikely, finishing in the top 20 should solidify his chances of moving on to the Round of Eight. 

NASCAR has only used the Charlotte Roval road course since 2018 and only two cup series races have ever happened at the track. During both, Elliott was tremendously successful, with two top 10 finishes. 

In 2019, Elliott won at Charlotte Roval despite a crash early in the race. The driver came back to win Stage 2 and the race. 

"I’m not sure you can do anything more stupid, so take a lesson, don’t do that," Elliott said to Motor Racing Network after the race. "I don’t know how it didn’t hurt it, I hit the wall pretty hard. Luckily our splitter was close to the ground and got it done. Just wow."

In 2018,  Elliott stayed consistent throughout the entire race. He started in fourth, finished Stage 1 in fifth and finished Stage 2 in sixth. He finished the race in sixth place as well. 

Elliott has been dominant at road courses over the last two years, winning the last four road course races that he participated in. The most recent road race was held at the inaugural Daytona Road Course race held earlier this season. He was also victorious at Watkins Glen in Aug. 2019. 

“You gotta be able to beat Chase Elliott at the road course,” said Alex Bowman after Nascar’s most recent race at Talladega Superspeedway. “It seems like he’s been dominating lately,” 

Five career road course wins out of twelve possible opportunities should leave fans confident of Elliott’s chances at Charlotte Roval. Though he does not need a victory to move onto the next round of the playoffs, playoff points could push him past Joey Logano, who he is currently tied with for fourth place. 

The Bank of America Roval 400 will be on Sunday, Oct. 11 at 2:30 p.m.