NASCAR playoffs roll into reconfigured Roval, tight turns may create 'chaos' in elimination race

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — It's elimination time in NASCAR's playoffs at the reconfigured Charlotte Motor Speedway, where changes to the hybrid road course/oval called The Roval have created an uneasiness for the drivers racing for a championship.

The field of 12 will be cut by four drivers after Sunday's race and Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe are all below the cutline. William Byron is the only driver already locked into the round of eight, but Christopher Bell basically only needs to start the race to advance.

It means anything could happen on the reconfigured The Roval, the final race in what's already been an unusual second round of the playoffs. A championship-eligible driver did not win at Kansas Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway, which took a chaotic turn last week at Talladega when 28 cars wrecked with five laps remaining in regulation to mark the biggest crash in NASCAR history.

Now comes The Roval, which Speedway Motorsports created in 2018 as an update to the traditional 1.5-mile speedway fans had grown weary of because of the lack of diverse courses on the NASCAR schedule. The original layout produced its own share of chaos, but drivers didn't feel as if the course had enough passing zones.

Well, be careful what you ask for: The Roval now has a pair of “passing zones” that look a whole lot more like “crashing zones.”

The changes begin at Turn 5 where a high-speed downhill corkscrew has shown cars launching off all four wheels during simulator sessions. Instead of taking a right, the straightaway has been extended towards a new Turn 6 in a section that includes an elevation change that will alter driver visibility until they reach the crest of the hill.

The drivers will have to slow going into Turn 6, then make a sharp entrance into a tight left-handed Turn 7 in what is essentially a 180-degree turn onto the banked oval. The final chicane also has a sharper apex for the drivers to navigate at Turn 16.

“The reconfigure was designed to create more chaos. You're going to have to convince me otherwise of that,” said Denny Hamlin. "They made corners sharper and tighter. They want you to drive straight in the corner, I believe, and wipe out whoever is in front of you, and then it's going to be a parking lot in Turn 7. Then it's just going to be who can navigate and get through there.

“There's a blind spot when you go through 5 to 6, you go over a rise and your car gets really high. In the (simulator) it gets airborne. It probably won't in real life, but we get to experience this new Roval config and I don't know what else to say about it other than try to qualify and try to avoid the wrecks. That's about it.”

Said title contender Alex Bowman: “Turn 6 is like 100% blind. You can’t see it until you’re there, which is pretty interesting. And Turn 7 is like making a U-turn on a one-way street, so it’s going to be chaos, for sure."

Is that fair for the drivers, who must quickly learn a new layout while their title chances are on the line?

“It’s the same for everybody,” said reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney. "It’s going to be different for everyone and it will just be who can adapt to it the quickest. I’ve done some (simulator) work. We’ll see where it goes.”

NASCAR this week was forced to meet with Cup Series crew chiefs to clarify how the damaged vehicle policy will be enforced the remainder of the playoffs following its disastrous implication last week at Talladega.

There's confusion about the DVP rule since drivers Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry were in first-lap incidents in playoff races. Although the damage appeared minimal to both cars, the way the DVP rule had been previously officiated, both were deemed out of the race and ineligible to be towed to the pit stall because they were unable to continue after contact.

And then last Sunday at Talladega when a 28-car crash brought out the red flag, NASCAR struggled to control the cleanup. Numerous damaged cars were stranded with flat tires at the entrance of Turn 3, and playoff contenders Chase Elliott and Briscoe were towed back to their stalls to allow for repairs.

Under previous implementation of the rule, the cars should have been ruled out of the race because they had four flat tires and were not able to drive back to pit road.

Even worse, the cars towed back to pit road were allowed to work on repairs when NASCAR lifted the red. Only problem? The cars that didn't crash were being held on the backstretch by the pace car, which took a long delay to get the cars moving again.

Drivers were incensed that those who needed to pit for repairs were still stranded while others — many of whom would have been ruled out of the race — were already at work to rejoin the race.

NASCAR officials told teams they'll operate the DVP policy the rest of the playoffs the way they did at Talladega. That means if a vehicle has flattened tires and appears able to continue but cannot be driven back, the car will be towed back to its pit stall and the team can change tires and assess and repair its damage under the allotted seven-minute time frame.

Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, who as a helicopter pilot has led a massive rescue and recovery effort in Hurricane Helene-damaged areas of Western North Carolina, was named the honorary start for Sunday's race. ... Recent Hall of Fame inductees Carl Edwards and Ricky Rudd, who were elected in May but have mostly been absent from NASCAR since their respective retirements, are the grand marshalls. ... Briscoe and his wife, Marissa, welcomed a set of twins this week. He was stressed Saturday to finish work at the speedway and get home to his new family of five. He said his wife were at the emergency room Saturday for follow-up care. Briscoe said the stress won't effect him Sunday as he faces playoff elimination.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Daniel Suarez (99) and Kyle Larson (5) head down the front straightaway during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Joey Logano, right, gives autographs before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Crew members for driver Austin Cindric change tires during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Christopher Bell (20) stops on pit road during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Driver William Byron signs an autograph before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

Drivers race down the front stretch three wide during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Attack ads on every TV break. Campaign money pouring in. And on a sunny Saturday, a crowd stretching out the door for a campaign rally at Tulip's, a popular Fort Worth nightclub — this time for Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker trying to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Texas is having one of those Octobers again.

With Democrats defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans, Allred's bid could be their best chance to flip a seat next month and preserve their thin Senate majority. Cruz is imploring Republican supporters to take the challenge seriously, six years after his narrow victory over Beto O’Rourke revealed fault lines for Republicans after decades of dominance in Texas.

But Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator, is doing things his own way. Out for more than the moral victories Texas Democrats have settled for since 1994 — the last time they won a statewide election — Allred has run to the center and away from O’Rourke’s barnstorming and break-the-rules blueprint. The different look has frustrated some Democrats, but amid signs of a competitive race with less than a month to go, Allred is sticking to the script.

“Beto didn’t win, but he was successful,” said Ryan Armstrong, 21, who was registering voters outside Tulip’s on a clipboard still adorned with a “Beto for Texas” sticker. “I have a lot of hope that (Allred) will win, but I honestly don’t know if he’s done enough.”

Allred, a three-term congressman from Dallas, is by nature a far different candidate than O’Rourke, an electrifying orator who was quick to hop up on a table to fire up a crowd and road-tripped across all 254 counties. Allred describes himself as someone who “keeps a cool head” and presents himself as a bipartisan problem-solver. To win with that low-key approach, he'll need enthusiasm generated by Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket even as he sets himself apart from her in a state former President Donald Trump is expected to win handily.

“Colin has to outperform Harris, so that’s a little more delicate for him than it was for us,” said David Wysong, a top O'Rourke adviser during his 2018 run against Cruz.

Allred boosts his moderate credentials by touting endorsements from prominent Republicans, including former U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

Other factors also could work in Allred's favor. Most notably, there's the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion, a ruling that paved the way for Texas to outlaw nearly all abortions. That has been a winning issue for Democrats ever since, even in red states like Kentucky and Kansas.

Allred has featured abortion rights in his campaign, highlighting the personal story of Kate Cox, a Texas woman forced to flee the state to get an abortion after doctors determined her fetus had a fatal condition for which there are no exceptions under Texas law.

He has also not let up on Cruz's family vacation to Mexico during a deadly winter storm that crippled the state's power grid and is likely to remind voters again when the candidates debate on Oct. 15.

Cruz, meanwhile, has transformed from selling himself as an unapologetic partisan who showed little interest in governing when he arrived in Washington to a get-things-done Republican holding the line against Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats. He remains just as combative, attacking Allred as a “radical leftist” and linking the congressman to immigration problems and transgender rights.

“Let me tell you, Chuck Schumer and the communists have set their targets on Tarrant County,” Cruz told a packed house of supporters at Outpost 36, a barbecue restaurant in the Fort Worth suburb of Keller.

“They can’t have it,” he said, prompting cheers from people waving Cruz signs that read “Keep Texas Texas.”

Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth and the fast-growing suburbs surrounding it, is the kind of place Allred needs to win big in. Races here have been close in recent cycles, with O’Rourke topping Cruz by less than 1 percentage point in 2018 and President Joe Biden winning the county by a similar margin four years ago.

“Six years ago it was a real battle, and this year it’s a real battle,” Cruz said. “It’s not complicated. If you are a hardcore partisan Democrat, after Donald Trump there’s nobody in the country you want to beat more than me.”

And while O'Rourke's Senate campaign in 2018 may have provided some kind of statewide roadmap for Democrats, he lost in his attempt to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott two years ago by more than 10 percentage points.

The amount of money being spent by both sides hints at the race's national significance.

According to AdImpact, which tracks spending on advertising, the $120 million both parties are spending on the Texas U.S. Senate race is set to exceed the roughly $40 million either paid for or reserved in the Florida Senate race, another top target for Democrats. But it pales in comparison with races in Montana and Ohio, where total spending exceeds $700 million on races in which Democrats are defending seats in red-leaning states.

Part of the heavy spending in Texas is attributable to its size, with 20 separate television markets, including two of the largest and most expensive in the country in Dallas and Houston.

“I think part of it also reflects the fact that Allred has been very successful raising money, and he’s been spending quite a bit of that on TV advertising,” said Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor. “National Democrats have not yet demonstrated the same level of enthusiasm and optimism as the Allred campaign. Part of that may be that they’re still trying to figure out the difficult calculus of combining defense, which they’re far more focused on, and offense."

Allred’s resume seems perfect for the Lone Star State. A star high school athlete from Dallas, he played linebacker and was captain of the football team at Baylor University in Waco. After his NFL career, he worked as a civil rights attorney.

He also has knocked off a high-profile Republican, having defeated Rep. Pete Sessions after he'd spent more than two decades in Congress in 2018. That campaign drew considerable energy from O'Rourke's bid to unseat Cruz, who beat the former El Paso congressman by less than 3 percentage points.

Still, running a successful statewide campaign comes with a higher degree of difficulty, and Allred's approach has left some Democrats scratching their heads. In Laredo, for example, a fast-growing county along the U.S.-Mexican border, some Democrats wonder where he's been.

“He’s done absolutely nothing, nothing to appeal to our voters,” said Sylvia Bruni, chair of the Webb County Democratic Party. “As far as he’s concerned, apparently we’re not worth the time.”

Allred defends his strategy, saying the political landscape has shifted.

“I’m a different candidate and this is a very different year,” he said. “We have different issues that have happened since 2018.”

——

Lozano reported from Houston. Leah Askarinam of the Decision Desk contributed from Washington.

A person waits for the start of a campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Rafael Cruz, top center, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gives a prayer to a crowd during a campaign event for Sen. Cruz, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A person uses a cell phone to capture images of a campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. R (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Employees of a restaurant, top right, listen with a crowd during a campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

People stand inside of a restaurant during a campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, cheer during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Hats with the likeness of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump are seen at a campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A security official stands near a bus during a campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, speaks to supporters at a campaign event at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, speaks to supporters at a campaign event at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, acknowledges supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, waves to supporters at a campaign event at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Supporters cheer at a campaign event for Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, speaks to supporters at a campaign event at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Supporters attend a campaign event for Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses supporters during a campaign event, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Keller, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, speaks to supporters at a campaign event at Tulips FTW, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Desiree Rios)

This combination photo shows Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sept. 27, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo)