The 2019 Bank of America Roval 400 program cover, featuring the finish of last year's race between Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., and last year's winner Ryan Blaney.
Since 2018, deviating from past NASCAR events at Charlotte, the race will utilize a road course configuration of Charlotte Motor Speedway, promoted and trademarked as the "Roval". The course is 2.28 miles (3.67 km) in length and features 17 turns, utilizing the infield road course and portions of the oval track. The race will be contested over a scheduled distance of 109 laps, 400 kilometres (250 mi).[11][12][13]
During July 2018 tests on the road course, concerns were raised over drivers "cheating" the backstretch chicane on the course. The chicanes were modified with additional tire barriers and rumble strips in order to encourage drivers to properly drive through them, and NASCAR will enforce drive-through penalties on drivers who illegally "short-cut" parts of the course. The chicanes will not be used during restarts. In the summer of 2019, the bus stop on the backstretch was changed and deepened, becoming a permanent part of the circuit, compared to the previous year where it was improvised.
If a driver fails to legally make the backstretch bus stop, the driver must skip the frontstretch chicane and make a complete stop by the dotted line on the exit before being allowed to continue. A driver who misses the frontstretch chicane must stop before the exit.
[14][15]
Entry list
(i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.
Jimmie Johnson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 80.968 seconds and a speed of 103.152 mph (166.007 km/h).[16]Michael McDowell was replaced by Austin Cindric for the session while he was treating a kidney stone, but returned for qualifying later in the day.[17]
Cody Ware was supposed to drive No. 51 car in the race but during the Xfinity Series race, the day before, the coolbox of Cody Ware's car didn't work during the race so he felt the heat exhaustion. So J. J. Yeley was called to replace Ware in the No. 51 car in the race.
Race statistics
Lead changes: 13 among 9 different drivers
Cautions/Laps: 10 for 23
Red flags: 1 for 8 minutes and 22 seconds
Time of race: 3 hours, 20 minutes and 58 seconds
Average speed: 75.499 miles per hour (121.504 km/h)
The Performance Racing Network, with talent and production assistant from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow, and Jeff Hammond called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front straightaway. IMS Radio's Nick Yeoman was assigned the entrance to the road course and into the Bank of America bridge (Turns 1-3). Voice of the Indianapolis 500 Mark Jaynes was assigned the action from the Bank of America bridge to the middle of the infield section. Doug Turnbull called the action exiting in infield into the oval Turn 1 banking (Turns 7-9). Pat Patterson called the action on the backstretch and into the bus stop. Rob Albright was assigned to the oval Turn 3-4 end. (Turns 13-15). Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Steve Richards, and Wendy Venturini had the call from the pit area for PRN.
Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
References
^"2019 schedule". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. May 5, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
^"Charlotte Motor Speedway". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. January 3, 2013. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
