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Due to curiosity about the track and the front row of the starting grid looking rather interesting with Kurt Busch and AJ Allmendinger who are both known drivers for followers of IndyCar like me, I watched my 2nd NASCAR race ever with the Charlotte Roval debut last Sunday, not expecting much but lots of yellows due to maybe somebody clearing the tire barriers on the backstretch chicane again and again, having seen such previously in other series, most notably F1 back in 1994 when they were very keen on putting tire chicanes onto their tracks.
I was surprised by how good the racing action actually turned out to be. The multiple racing lines that are possible in the infield section have been very enjoyable to watch, especially in the dicing around there that Larson and Keselowski (I think it was) had around there. The fact that later, the entire outside lane on the restart missed their braking point completely and thus hit the wall in the 1st corner was quite unexpected, given how good the racing had been up to that point. And the race-deciding overtaking move from Jimmie Johnson on Martin Truex looked like it wasn't going to work because Johnson tried for the outside line first before locking it up on the inside, instead of going for the inside right away which, of course, was protected by Truex.
I was surprised by how close the concrete walls had been placed to the infield section and first thought SMI did this reconstruction a bit on the cheap, but given the limited space available and the IMSA circuit they had in place there already, they probably have done the best they could do - almost.
I say almost because there was one thing very bewildering that I noticed watching that race on this track: right behind the wall on the outside of the 2nd turn of the Roval, a safety truck was parked all race long. That's almost a 90 degree turn and the COTs move through it at speed. Yet, still, there is no safety fencing on top of that wall. That dangerous situation should be changed before the next running of this event.
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