The 17-turn, 2.32-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway road course will determine which eight drivers will remain in contention for the 2023 Cup Series title.
The course includes much of the oval but with an infield portion and chicanes on both the backstretch and frontstretch. New for this year, drivers will use the frontstretch chicane on all restarts with the restart zone in the second half of the chicane. NASCAR hopes that change reduces the potential of accidents as drivers jockey to enter the sharp corner in Turn 1. The drivers trying to make the playoffs certainly hope for that, too.
Here is a look at what Round of 12 drivers have to do to make the Round of 8. The four winless drivers in the round and lowest in the standings will be eliminated from championship contention.Byron won the most recent road course race at Watkins Glen. But it's likely this team already is working more on Las Vegas in a couple of weeks.Blaney was 26th at the Charlotte road course this year but still has good memories as the winner of the inaugural race there in 2018.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @NASCAR Cup Series: Full 2023 schedule, dates, race resultsYellaWood 500 highlights: Ryan Blaney victorious at TalladegaBlaney beats Harvick at Talladega to advance in NASCAR playoffs. Harvick disqualified after race.FOX SPORTS™, SPEED™, SPEED.