Bank of America 500 Preview

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads back home to Charlotte Motor Speedway to kick off the “Round of 12” in the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the Bank of America 500, the only Saturday night race in the Chase. This is the final voyage to the Charlotte area for 2016.

 

40 drivers are scheduled to compete in the Bank of America 500.

 

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile asphalt speedway located in Concord, North Carolina. The front stretch is 1980 feet long with the backstretch at 1500 feet. The first and second turns are 2400 feet in length with turns three and four at 2040 feet. The turns are banked at 24 degrees with the straightaways at five degrees.

 

This is the 57th October event at Charlotte. This will be the 116th event all together from Charlotte. This race has seen 44 different pole winners with Jeff Gordon as the youngest and Bobby Allison as the oldest. The race has seen 49 different drivers win with Gordon as the youngest and Cale Yarborough. 16 races have been won from the pole with the last race being the Coca-Cola 600 in May by Martin Truex Jr. Truex Jr. holds the race record set back in 2016 at 160.655 mph. Kyle Busch holds the qualifying record set back in 2014 at 197.39 mph.

 

Drivers are excited to be racing “back home” at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

 

“I’m proud of the way we’ve been running. I think we’ve been building and gaining on some things that we’ve been missing. Really really cool to move on, I’m proud of that. Like I said, this group has been doing a really good job. I’m proud of all these guys and we are excited to get on to Charlotte. We had a good car there in the spring and fought hard. Hopefully we can get that next little bit there this weekend,” says Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.

 

“Charlotte has been a tough track for us when it comes to this race weekend in the Chase for the last few years and it’s certainly a track that we need to work on in order to make sure that we qualify well and keep our track position. I feel that overall Charlotte has been a pretty good track for us. We just haven’t been able to get some of the finishes there when we’ve needed them. Track position is always so important at Charlotte and it’s been one of the hardest tracks to pass at recently, especially at night. It’s just very difficult to get around other cars at Charlotte even if you’re a lot faster than a car ahead of you. It’s important to put a lot of emphasis on qualifying, pit stops and restarts heading into this weekend,” said Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

 

“It’s always nice to race at Charlotte.  It is good to race in our backyard and I’ve had some luck at Charlotte.  We had a good run there earlier this year racing our way into the All-Star race.  Hopefully we can get another good finish this weekend at Charlotte,” said Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Rosh Fenway Racing Ford.

 

There will be one practice session on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. EST on NBCSN. Qualifying for the Bank of America 500 will be at 7:00 p.m EST on NBCSN and Performance Racing Network. There will be two practice sessions on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. EST on NBCSN. Performance Racing Network and NBC will have the action on Saturday night in the Bank of America 500 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

Caleb Whisler
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