Could the debut of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval open the door for NASCAR to eventually go street course racing?

This past weekend proved why it’s not out of the question.

The 2.28-mile, 17-turn infield road course on an oval offered long straights and tight corners with very little runoff room. Just based off the definition alone, that sounds like a street course, something NASCAR hasn’t done with regularity and certainly not across any of the three national touring divisions.

AJ Allmendinger thought the Roval raced like one.

"Through the infield, it reminds me of my Champ Car days running on a street course; it's pretty tight back there," he said.

Additionally, the winning team owner, Roger Penske, doesn’t think a road course race would be impossible.

"This was a little bit like our Cleveland (IndyCar) race many years ago, you could see everything," Penske said. "A fan in the stand could see the cars, and that's really important. Most road races you don't get to see that, so I think that's a bonus that we had here in Charlotte.

"So, I guess if we get big enough barriers, if we had a full street course, I think it might be interesting. I think that we've got to look at that. think if somebody wanted to do that and put that on, it would be very interesting."

The NASCAR Pinty’s Series runs on two street courses, at Trois-Rivières and Toronto, and their drivers believe it’s a challenge national touring should take up.

"I think it’s easier to get the fans in, it’s easier to reach a lot of companies to get sponsorships, that’s what really helped us in our careers," said newly-crowned two-time champion LP Dumoulin. "So why, it’s hard for me to say but I would love to see more of them. You can see in IMSA in the WeatherTech series, there’s a lot of (street circuits) and the fans love them."

He even has several locations in mind, too.

"I think (Detroit) would be a great place to start with as well as you go down to Miami, you can reach a big crowd there. Yeah, could be a good thing in Miami, too. Long Beach would be a great one as well."

NASCAR Pinty’s and Modified Tour driver Cole Powell agrees.

"I think it would be a pretty big benefit," said Powell. "I know that Toronto’s put a lot of time and effort into making this street course. I think if NASCAR did it like at downtown Charlotte or even Las Vegas or something like that, I think it would be pretty cool, I think fans would really engage with it and I definitely don’t think it would hurt it at all so why not?

"If they bring me to a board meeting, you know what I’m going to vote for."

It’s also worth noting that the NASCAR Xfinity Series competed at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, a permanent road course that has street courses elements. The tour raced there from 2007-2012.

Also, Penske says any street course needs to be large enough to offer a legitimate pit road and runoff space.

"But the difficult thing on a tight street course is the size of the pit lane running 22 or 23 cars; you start getting 40 out there and the size of the pits and what we have to do might be a little bit of a problem," Penske said. "But look, I think we should try anything."

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