With the roulette wheel that is Talladega Superspeedway at last in the rearview mirror, sports bettors face one wilder card of a NASCAR weekend before the playoffs conclude with a run of four races at far more predictable tracks. This Sunday, though, it’s the hybrid “Roval” layout at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which incorporates the facility’s infield road course as well as the four high-banked turns of the oval track.

It’s certainly a place where anything can happen. Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. famously wrecked battling for the checkered flag in the inaugural Roval event in 2018, allowing Ryan Blaney to slip past both of them off the final corner and win. 

The 2020 race saw the Cup Series debut of rain tires. There was so much vehicular carnage over the final four laps last year, that Christopher Bell was able to work his way up from 11th to win. 

Road course ace Chase Elliott has won two of the five Roval events contested thus far and is the +600 NASCAR odds favorite to win again this week. Elliott, though, missed qualifying for the playoffs this season and remains winless on the year. 

All five Roval races to this point have been won by playoff drivers, with two claimed by drivers who needed a victory to advance (Blaney in 2018 and Bell in 2022), and two others won by the eventual series champion (Elliott in 2020 and Kyle Larson in 2021).

Bank Of America Roval 400 Odds

Odds via DraftKings and current as of publication. Check out our DraftKings Review

Bank Of America Roval 400 Betting Tips

Elliott leads all drivers with two career Roval victories, followed by Larson, Blaney, and Bell with one each. No driver has finished top-10 in all five Roval races thus far—though Blaney, Alex Bowman, and Joey Logano have come close with four top-10s apiece. 

Bowman owns the best average career finish on the Roval at 6.0, followed by Tyler Reddick at 7.3 and Elliott at 8.0. And 21 different active drivers have scored a top-10 on the Roval, which certainly opens the door to value propositions.

Blaney is certainly a possibility to go back-to-back on the heels of his Talladega victory last week; the Penske driver has been ninth or better in four of his five Roval starts, leading laps in three of them. 

Bowman, top-10 in all four of his Roval starts, has been a nonfactor most of this season but has still managed to contend occasionally on road courses—his only two top-fives since March have come at Circuit of the Americas and on the Brickyard Grand Prix layout.  

It’s a similar story for Logano, who’s been historically strong on the Roval but has been eliminated from the playoffs and finished deep in the pack for three straight weeks.

A.J. Allmendinger has finished as high as fourth at the Roval and has shown some flashes on road courses (fourth at Watkins Glen and sixth at Sonoma) in an otherwise forgettable 2023 campaign. 

His Kaulig Racing teammate Justin Haley was fifth on the Roval last season, and second on the Chicago road course this year. Then there are Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch, both with solid Roval resumes, and also facing playoff elimination this week.

Bank of America Roval 400 Best Bets

Tyler Reddick to Win

Odds: +700 at DraftKings

There’s something about playoff desperation that brings out the best in drivers at the Roval, where the wide runoff areas are tailor-made for using a fender or a quarter panel to shove someone out of the way. 

Those conditions certainly benefit a savvy road course racer like Reddick, who’s run second and eighth in his past two Roval starts, and rediscovered his touch on road courses over the second half of the year. Like Blaney and Bell before him, Reddick is more than capable of scoring a needed victory to get through to the next round.

Chris Buescher Top 3

Odds: +600 at DraftKings

The RFK Racing driver is the best road racer that nobody talks about, finishing eighth at COTA, fourth at Sonoma, 10th at Chicago and 11th at Indianapolis this season. Did you know Buescher owns 10 career road course top-10s? 

He’s run third and sixth at the Roval over the past two seasons respectively, and those odds at betting apps are just too ridiculous to pass up. Plus, mediocre finishes over the past two weeks will force Buescher to be aggressive enough to ensure that he stays on the right side of the cutoff line. 

Justin Haley Top 10

Odds: +275 at DraftKings

Admittedly a bit of a flier, but history indicates a lot will go sideways in the final laps on the Roval, allowing somebody to sneak up and grab an unforeseen top-10 finish. 

Our NASCAR pick is Haley, who owns three career road course top-10s, among them a fifth on the Roval a season ago. The guy was a fantastic road racer at the Xfinity level, and his teammate Allmendinger offers as much road course know-how as anyone in the Cup Series garage.