NASCAR Cup PR

Road-course races make up a relatively small part of the Monster Energy Cup Series schedule, but when Paul Menard and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team take the green flag for the Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway it will be the team’s 100th Cup start on a road course.

Charlotte (Bank of America ROVAL 400) Preview: The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will come home to North Carolina for the third race of the Playoffs and the final event in the Round of 16. Charlotte Motor Speedway will host the series on its “Roval” (road course and oval hybrid) course on Sunday, Sept. 29. Denny hopes to keep his momentum going as he moves into fifth in overall points.

Leavine Family Racing announced earlier today that Christopher Bell will drive the No. 95 Toyota Camry in the 2020 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Bell, Leavine Family Racing’s founding owner, Bob Leavine, and Toyota Racing Development (TRD, U.S.A.) president, David Wilson, spoke with media on a teleconference.

DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: With the ROVAL’s debut in 2018’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, DiBenedetto started the event from 28th and drove to a 13th-place finish.  The 2019 season road course events have been some of DiBenedetto’s best races of the year with him earning a fourth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in June (a career-best finish at the time) while Watkins Glen International say DiBenedetto finish sixth in August.

After leading the field on a late restart, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went for a spin in turn one, making contact with the wall, forcing him to settle with a 37th- place finish in Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Newman will make his second start at the ROVAL on Sunday, and 38th overall road course start in the Cup Series.

After sweeping the inaugural Roval weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway last season, Ford will look to do it again as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competes in its first elimination race of the Playoffs and the NASCAR XFINITY Series runs its second post-season event of the year.  Chase Briscoe earned his first NXS victory in this event last season and then Ryan Blaney followed that up with a dramatic triumph one day later.  Here’s a look at where Ford drivers stand going into this weekend’s action.

Legendary NASCAR crew chief and Charlotte, North Carolina, native Jeff Hammond will be presented with Charlotte Motor Speedway’s prestigious Smokey Yunick Award prior to Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL™ 400

"That was a tough one. Our No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang qualified really strong, but unfortunately when we took the green flag, we were really free through both corners and that hurt us a little. My guys did a good job of making adjustments and got us more competitive, but we went down a lap and were forced to take a wave-around under caution, putting us off sequence with the rest of the field and had to pit under green. That ultimately sent us 3 laps down to where we just couldn’t overcome it."

Brad Keselowski scored a fourth-place finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400 Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. Keselowski claimed his 11th top-five finish of the season. He collected his fifth top-five in 21 starts at Richmond but his first since the 2017 spring race. The driver of the Discount Tire Ford is fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 35 points behind leader Martin Truex Jr. and 11 points behind third-place Kyle Busch.