Will IndyCar ever race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval?

Josef Newgarden is set to drive an IndyCar at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval this weekend. Will the series ever contest a race at the track?

The newest track on the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, is set to play host to an IndyCar exhibition run this weekend ahead of the two NASCAR races there.

Team Penske driver and two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden is set to drive his #2 Chevrolet around the track.

Newgarden is set to complete this exhibition run at the 17-turn, 2.28-mile (3.669-kilometer) Charlotte Motor Speedway roval in Concord, North Carolina for Shell-Pennzoil.

More from IndyCar

Shell-Pennzoil was Newgarden’s primary sponsor for this year’s Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Additionally, the company has served as a longtime sponsor of Team Penske, one of two teams that compete in both IndyCar and NASCAR.

Newgarden is set to drive his #2 Chevrolet following Friday afternoon’s qualifying session for Sunday’s 109-lap Cup Series race, the Bank of America Roval 400, at the track.

But could this lead to something more, in the form of IndyCar actually racing at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval one day?

According to Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern, IndyCar has already been in talks with Speedway Motorsports, the owners of Charlotte Motor Speedway, about having an IndyCar race contested at the track’s Roval at some point in the near future.

Stern also confirmed that IndyCar will ask Newgarden for feedback after he completes his exhibition laps at the track on Friday, indicating that there are serious discussions going on behind the scenes about the possibility of such an addition to the schedule.

'@IndyCar has talked with Speedway Motorsports about the possibility of holding a race @CLTMotorSpdwy's Roval circuit in the future, and the series will be asking @JosefNewgarden for feedback after his laps Friday, per source. pic.twitter.com/EHKLQ9EJKf
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) September 24, 2019

IndyCar previously competed at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but the two races that were held there in the 1997 and 1998 seasons were contested on the track’s four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval, the site of the other annual Cup Series race, the Coca-Cola 600, at the venue.

A third IndyCar race was held there in 1999, but after debris from a crash killed three spectators in turn four, the rest of the race was canceled.

The 2020 IndyCar schedule consists of 17 races, including seven road course races, five street course races and five oval races.

Among the seven road course races is a race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which consists of some parts of the track’s oval and has hosted a race every year since 2014, so the addition of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval to the schedule would not be unprecedented.

Next. Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time. dark

The qualifying session for the Bank of America Roval 400 is scheduled to begin at 4:40 p.m. ET this Friday, September 27. Josef Newgarden is set to take to the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in his #2 Shell-Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet after it concludes, which it is scheduled to do at around 5:30 p.m. ET.