LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Race Preview: Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL - Speedway Digest

Race Information

Round: NASCAR Cup Series Race No. 32 of 36 (Playoffs Round of 12)

Track Location: Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, North Carolina

Race Name: Bank of America ROVAL 400

Broadcast: Sunday, October 8th at 2:00 PM ET live on NBC (TV), PRN (Radio), and SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90

Team Entrants:

No. 42 | Mike Rockenfeller & Luke Lambert – Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
No. 43 | Erik Jones & Dave Elenz – Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Mike Rockenfeller, No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL Stats

-NCS: Starts: 1; Best Start: 34th (2022); Best Finish: 29th (2022)

2023 NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats

-Starts: 2; Best Start: 21st (Watkins Glen); Best Finish: 19th (Watkins Glen); No. 42 Owners Points: 32nd

About Sunseeker Resort: Opening in 2023, Florida’s newest luxury resort located in Charlotte Harbor is the first resort property of Sunseeker Resorts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Allegiant Travel Company. Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor occupies over 22 waterfront acres with 785 guest rooms, including 189 Signature Sunsuites™. Set upon the Peace River and Florida Gulf Coast, this premier resort offers 20 original food and beverage concepts; including seven stand-alone restaurants, eleven bars and lounges, two poolside offerings and a 25,000-square-foot multi-dining experience. Additional hotel amenities include a waterfront promenade, two unique rooftop and waterfront pool experiences, 60,000-square-feet of combined convention space, full-service spa and salon, a 7,100-square-foot state-of-the-art fitness center with four group exercise studios with specialty instructor lead classes, three retail and market shops, and an 18-hole championship level golf club exclusive to hotel guests only. The resort is conveniently located within a short drive of Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg-Clearwater, and Tampa airports. For more information, visit www.sunseekerresorts.com. Follow us on Instagram: @sunseekerresorts and like us on Facebook: @sunseekerresorts.

Rocky in for the ROVAL: Road Course Ace Mike Rockenfeller will strap into the No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet for the third time this season at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. “Rocky”, a championship-winning sports car veteran, has driven in two prior races for the Club this season, making his first start at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course (where he finished 24th) and following it up at Watkins Glen International (where he finished 19th). As of right now, this weekend will be his final planned Cup Series start of the season.

Hocevar in for the Rest: NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series standout Carson Hocevar will drive the LEGACY M.C. No. 42 Camaro ZL1 for the remainder of the year, beginning next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Hocevar has competed in five races for the Club and has quickly found his groove racing on Sundays. Notching four top-20 finishes with a best result of 11th place at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hocevar is a natural fit to finish out the 2023 season.

Garage 56: Rocky developed a strong bond with LEGACY M.C. Co-Owner, Jimmie Johnson, through the Hendrick Motorsports / NASCAR Garage 56 program as the two were teammates in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans event. On Sunday, the now-iconic Garage 56 car will pace the field before the Bank of America ROVAL 400, and early morning on race day, Rockenfeller will join Jordan Taylor to film digital content with the car for NASCAR On NBC.

Fan Day: This Friday, LEGACY M.C. and GMS Racing will host a Fan Day celebration. Hosted at the teams’ headquarters conveniently located near I-40 and I-77 in Statesville, North Carolina, attendees will be greeted with driver autograph sessions, live interviews held on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, race shop tours, partner displays, merchandise sales, giveaways, food trucks, and more. No RSVP is needed to attend the event, so come out and have fun with our teams leading into the race weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL! More details can be found here.

Driver Appearances: Fans attending the Charlotte ROVAL race will have opportunities to meet both of the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s drivers of the No. 42 Chevrolet throughout the weekend.

Carson Hocevar Merch Trailer Autograph Session | Saturday, Oct. 7th: Though he won’t be driving this weekend, Carson Hocevar will be at the track and will sign autographs at the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB merchandise trailer in the Fan Zone from 10:30 AM to 11:00 AM.
Mike Rockenfeller Race Day Q&A Session | Sunday, Oct. 8th: Located on the driver introductions stage on the front stretch, Rocky will chat with Monica Palumbo and Cole Custer from 11:15 AM to 11:30 AM.
Mike Rockenfeller Team Chevy Stage Appearance | Sunday, Oct. 8th: Head to the Team Chevy Stage located in the Fan Zone from 12:00 PM to 12:15 PM on race day to see Rocky host a Q&A session with “The Motivational Cowboy”, Johnny D!

Breast Cancer Awareness: As we enter the month of October, a team tradition that has taken place for many years will continue for the next four races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Martinsville Speedway. Both LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ cars will carry pink ribbons onboard to honor family members of the respective car’s crew members that have been affected by breast cancer.

Lambert on the ROVAL: Crew chief Luke Lambert has competed in four NASCAR Cup Series races at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Ryan Newman gave Lambert his best finish at this track back at the inaugural running in 2018, where he finished in 11th place. Last year, while in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Lambert’s No. 9 team finished on the podium with a third-place showing at the ROVAL.

Quoting Mike Rockenfeller: This is your last scheduled Cup Series race for this year, so what are some of the goals that you would like to accomplish before the end of the event on Sunday?

“You know, obviously, we had two races and this one is going to be my last one in Cup this year, so I definitely want to do well. I think in the last two, we had some issues on pit lane, so hopefully this time it will be clean, and that means I think we have a shot to do well. We were able to finish 19th last time even with a slow pit stop, so if we improve slightly I think we can fight for a top-15 or a top-10 hopefully. That’s what my goal is, but on the other hand, I know that this is a critical race in the championship for many guys. So I want to do my thing, and always want to win as a driver and for the team as well; but of course I also don’t want to spoil anybody’s race for the championship. We need to be careful, and smart, and hopefully take advantage of a few things so we can make it a really good one. I will enjoy it and am motivated as always, and am looking forward to drive. I raced there last year, so I know the circuit, and I will be ready to go this weekend.”

Erik Jones, No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL Stats

-NCS Starts: 5; Best start: 12th (2018) Best finish: 3rd (2020); Top-5s: 2; Top-10s: 7; Laps Led: 2

2023 NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats

Starts: 31; Best start: 8th (COTA) ; Best finish: 3rd (Kansas); Top-5s: 1; Top-10s: 7; Laps led: 24; Points position: 27th

About Allegiant: Las Vegas-based Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT) is an integrated travel company with an airline at its heart, focused on connecting customers with the people, places and experiences that matter most. Since 1999, Allegiant Air has linked travelers in small-to-medium cities to world-class vacation destinations with all-nonstop flights and industry-low average fares. Today, Allegiant’s fleet serves communities across the nation, with base airfares less than half the cost of the average domestic roundtrip ticket. For more information, visit us at Allegiant.com.

Dega’ in the Rearview: Erik Jones marked his 250th career NASCAR Cup Series start last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, and he made an impact from the start. Despite qualifying 26th, Jones put in an impressive performance in the opening stage, narrowly missing a top-ten finish. A pit road penalty resulted in Jones falling a lap down early in the race. However, he was quick to make up the lap and clawed his way back to the front row. Jones led for four laps but struggled to return to the lead during the race’s final stage, and the No. 43 Allegiant Chevy ultimately crossed the finish line in 26th place.

Most recent ROVAL: During his most recent outing at the Charlotte ROVAL, Jones sat in the 26th starting position, leading one lap on the one-of-a-kind track. However, with just three laps remaining, Jones was bumped off course, resulting in a loss of valuable track position. Fortunately, luck was on his side when a caution waved with only two laps to go. In “NASCAR overtime”, Jones was able to make up many positions, eventually concluding the race with an 11th-place finish.

Road Runner: Throughout his 28 Cup Series starts on road courses, Jones has three top-five and nine top-10 finishes, with 22 laps led. His career-best Cup Series performance on a road course came at the ROVAL in 2020 as he finished third During that race, Jones qualified 14th and led for one lap.

Dave at ROVAL: Crew Chief Dave Elenz has an impressive Xfinity Series career at the ROVAL. In four starts, drivers who worked under Elenz have earned one pole position and led for a total of 17 laps. Elenz has coached two drivers to two top-five finishes and four top-10 finishes at the ROVAL with an average finish of 5.5. Notably, none of his drivers have finished outside of the top 10. In his lone Cup Series appearance at the ROVAL, Elenz and Jones secured an 11th-place finish. This included leading for one lap after starting from 26th position.

Erik Jones at Fan Day: Erik Jones will join the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB / GMS Racing Fan Day on Friday and will sign autographs from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM local time. For more details, please visit here.

Paint it Pink: Last week, it was announced that Kurt Busch has “passed the torch” to Erik Jones as The Erik Jones Foundation (EJF) will work in partnership with Kurt Busch’s Windows of Hope program for a third season. Jones’ foundation will support its efforts in the area of “cancer prevention and early detection and care”. Every driver in the field for the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will run a uniquely colored pink window net to signify breast cancer awareness, which will then be autographed and put up for auction through the EJF, which will receive the proceeds to then be donated to multiple beneficiaries to support early cancer detection. The auction for the signed pink window nets will open on October 9th and close on October 16th.

Special Guests: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB drivers will dawn pink ribbons above the driver’s side door to honor survivors and those who lost their fights to breast cancer through the month of October. Notable survivors riding along with the club are the mothers of both Erik Jones and Carson Hocevar.

Meet Erik: Fans will have the opportunity to meet Erik Jones at the Chevrolet Racing display on Sunday in the Fan Zone for a Q&A from 11:15-11:30 a.m. local time.

Quoting Erik Jones: “It’s always nice to have a home race, being at the ROVAL this weekend and not having to travel is good for everybody. Being able to head over there and give it a shot is comforting. Our road course stuff has been one of our biggest struggles this year, but we have been working hard to improve every time to get where we want to be. It’s great to have Mike Rockenfeller back as well. I think he has done a really good job for us here on these road courses, helping us out, getting us better, and showing us what we can work on to improve. So, I am excited to have him in the car again and hope to finish out strong on the last road course for this year.”

LMC PR