The Charlotte Roval is the closest thing the Cup schedule has to a referee on setup work. The infield punishes a loose car, the oval punishes a tight one, and the chicane on the backstretch makes you pay for every shortcut you took on entry. You can't fake a balanced car here. You either brought one or you didn't.
We brought one. The result was a finish that read like the spreadsheet we built it on: top 5 through the first stint, top 3 after the first cycle of pit stops, lead from lap 47 to the checkered flag. The takeaway isn't that we found magic. It's that nothing surprised us once the green dropped, and that's almost always the difference at this place.
This is the recap of how the car got built, how the race played out, and what's in the version that's available in the shop right now for $7.99. If you ran this setup and want to know what's tunable for your style, the notes at the bottom cover that too.
The Setup Going In
The baseline for the Roval is the same Next Gen package we use for any 2.0-mile road-oval hybrid. Where it gets interesting is the rear spring split and how aggressive you can be with the front aero before T6 starts costing you mid-corner grip. Last season we ran a stiffer rear and a tighter front bar. This year, with the tire compound iRacing rolled out in February, the same package felt nervous on entry. Specifically on the brake into T1, the car wanted to walk a half lane to the left before it would rotate. That's a sign your front bar is doing too much work on the initial bite.
We backed off the front bar two clicks and added a half-turn of cross. The car settled. From there it was just chasing the rear of the car around the chicane. The bus stop is a forgiving corner if you have rear stability on the curb. If you don't, you're scrubbing speed all the way to T5 and there's nothing you can do about it once you're committed.
Here's what we changed off the iRacing baseline:
- Front anti-roll bar: baseline minus 2 clicks (softer). Gives the car more compliance on the T1 brake-in.
- Rear spring split: right-rear minus 50 lb. Better rotation through the dogleg without giving up exit grip.
- Cross-weight: +0.5%. Settles the rear under brake threshold.
- Front rebound: +1 click on both sides. Slows the front-end transition so it doesn't snap-rotate at the chicane.
- Rear toe: baseline. Some builders are adding toe-in for stability. With the spring split we ran, it wasn't needed.
- Aero rake: baseline minus 1/32. Slight nose-down to help the front planted under braking.
Brake bias started at 56.5% front. We moved it to 57% by lap 12 once the front tires were up to temp. That stayed until the lap-41 aero trim, after which we pulled it back to 56.5% to compensate for the lighter front.
Stint by Stint
Stint one was about not crashing. The first 10 laps of a road-course race are always the most expensive, and on the Roval the chicane is where the panic moves happen. We qualified P6 and held it through the first 8 laps without trying anything dramatic. By lap 12 the field had settled, the cars ahead were a known quantity, and we started running the line we'd built the car for. Lap times stabilized in the 1:14.8 to 1:15.1 range, which was a tenth off the leader but within striking distance.
The first pit cycle came at lap 28. We pitted under green from P5, took four mediums and three-quarters of a tank, and came out P3 after the cars ahead cycled through. That's where the setup started to pay off. The mediums needed three laps to come in. During those three laps Tasha Voll was on cold rights and we held position behind Eli Kane without losing time. Once the tires were in, we ran two consecutive laps quicker than Kane and pressured into T6. He held the line, we didn't make a move, and we waited. That's the Roval. The place rewards patience more than any other road course on the calendar.
Stint two ended on lap 47 with a green-flag stop. We were P2 by then, behind Jared Ruiz, and the gap was about 0.6 seconds. Ruiz pitted on lap 46, we stayed out for one more lap of clean air, and the undercut put us in front by 2.2 seconds when we came back out. From there it was about managing the tires, not exploiting them. Pat Olson was running 4 seconds back in P3 and not closing. The race had basically been decided unless we made a mistake.
| Pos | Driver | Car | Gap | Best Lap | Stint Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | Cody Porter | #88 Next Gen | - | 1:14.612 | Aero trim L41; 14 laps free air |
| P2 | Jared Ruiz | #22 Next Gen | +3.412 | 1:14.701 | Undercut on stop 2 |
| P3 | Pat Olson | #7 Next Gen | +8.118 | 1:14.844 | Held position, no errors |
| P4 | Eli Kane | #14 Next Gen | +11.327 | 1:14.918 | Lost rears stint 3 |
| P5 | Tasha Voll | #34 Next Gen | +14.504 | 1:15.029 | Cold-tire entry T6 |
| P6 | Cameron Reyes | #41 Next Gen | +17.881 | 1:15.114 | Strong final stint |
What We Changed Mid-Race
On lap 41, with two stops scheduled and the tire model showing we'd have headroom on the rights at the end, we made one in-race adjustment. Two clicks of front aero off. That's it. Same brake bias step we'd planned, same tire pressures off the call sheet. The aero trim let the front breathe through the bus stop, which had been our slowest sector by about 0.08 seconds. After the change, that sector was within 0.02 of our quickest. Across 30 remaining laps, that's two-thirds of a second we got back. It's also what built the gap to Ruiz from 0.6 seconds to over 3 by the end.
The reason we made the call at lap 41 and not earlier is the same reason most builders won't touch aero mid-race: you don't want to be the one who gave up rear stability with 20 laps still to go on cold rights. By lap 41 we'd been running mediums for 13 laps, the rears were in their happy window, and the calculated risk was the right one. Calling it earlier would have left us guessing on tires we hadn't sampled.
What's In the Setup You Can Buy
The version available in the shop is the race-trim package, not the qualifying package. That distinction matters. The qualifying package runs softer front rebound, more aggressive cross, and lower tire pressures than what we raced. It'll pull a flying lap faster, and it'll be a handful by lap 8 of a green-flag run. If you want both, the Coke Qualifying Program covers it. The qualifying setups for all three Coke series ship together every week.
The race setup is built for a 70-lap fuel run with two stops on a green-flag race. Things to know before you load it:
- Brake bias starts conservative. Move it forward 0.5% once your front tires are above operating temp. The notes in the file flag this on lap 12.
- The chicane curb is your friend. Trust the right-rear. The spring split is built for it. If you're avoiding curb, you're leaving 0.15 seconds a lap on the table.
- Don't trim aero before lap 35. The rears need to be on for at least 10 laps before they can carry a lighter front.
- Fuel saving works. The setup is comfortable at 92% throttle on the back straight if you need to stretch the run by two laps. Doesn't change handling.
- Wet variant included. Same baseline with stiffer suspension and revised brake bias. Tested in the practice session, not raced.
If you've subscribed to the All Access tier, the race notes that ship with the file include the lap-by-lap brake-bias and tire-pressure call sheet we used. If you bought the file standalone, the basic notes are still inside; the call sheet is a member-only extra.
Bottom Line
The Roval doesn't have a magic adjustment. It has a balanced car or it has a problem. The setup we raced is the one we built for races where the field gets strung out and the laps stay green. If you're racing a split where the cautions fly, you'll want to tighten the rear half a click and live with slightly less rotation through the dogleg. Otherwise, run it as it is, trust the rear on the curb, and don't touch the aero until the rears are in. That's the file. Good luck this week.