Charlotte Motor Speedway road course unveiled

The Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, or ROVAL, was officially unveiled Thursday.

The course layout features 18 turns over 2.4 miles and will be used for the first time in September 2018. It will be the first time the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has raced on a road course in the playoffs.

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On Thursday speedway officials announced the addition of two chicanes to the course; one will be on the backstretch, making up Turns 12 and 13, and the second chicane, Turn 18, will be off what is Turn 4 on the oval course. The hope is both chicanes will provide additional passing zones.

Also new is a Sports Fields Inc. synthetic turf. Designed to slow wayward cars down, the turf was laid by the chicane on the frontstretch. Features include:

• 42,000 square feet of synthetic turf - more than half the length of a football field
• 1,100 gallons of glue
• 300,000 pounds of sand
• 900 man-hours of planning and installation.

"As the Roval itself is an innovation, we believe this revolutionary new use of synthetic turf was the perfect fit for our world-class racing venue," said Marcus Smith, president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., in a track release. "The turf is more manageable than grass, resistant to heat and it provides a smooth, speed-scrubbing surface should a car spin through it.

"We connected with Brian Storm and Sports Fields through an introduction by Kevin Harvick, and we greatly appreciate all of the hard work and creativity fueled into this project from Sports Fields. We're excited to see how the turf and the new chicanes add to the excitement for next year's Bank of America 500 on the Roval."

It was announced in May the second Charlotte race date would be a road course beginning next season.