NASCAR Analyst Steve Letarte has explained how the Charlotte Roval can become a "kiss of death" for NASCAR playoff drivers. He broke down that drivers would be vulnerable to losing points on the last lap of the 17-turn road course race.After Bristol, Denny Hamlin leads the playoff standings with 3,034 points. William Byron and Kyle Larson follow in second and third place. Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Briscoe are all at least 10 points above the cutoff line.However, the second half of the Round of 12 drivers, who are outside or barely inside the cut line, need to secure their places at Kansas or Talladega and not rely on Roval, according to Letarte. During the latest episode of his podcast Inside the Race, he warned about the second elimination race of the season, saying:"It's Chase down to Redick. I want see the back half of the top 12 and see how they run. I think the Roval is going to tell the story. If I'm any of these teams, my goal leaving Kansas is, I don't need the Roval. Because if you leave Kansas saying, 'Oh, we just need a good run at the roval.' That is like a kiss of death that you're going to end up somewhere in the infield on the grass.""And the problem with running at the road course is there can be 33 cars in the lap. You could give up 25 or 30 points on the last lap. And I think that's what scares everybody at the third race," he added.Chase Elliott (+5), Bubba Wallace (+1), Austin Cindric (-1), Ross Chastain (-2), Joey Logano (-2), and Tyler Reddick (-3) are on thin ice heading into the elimination race. The 2025 Bank of America Roval 400 is scheduled for Sunday, October 5.How Charlotte Roval shaped 2024 NASCAR playoffsAfter the first Round of 12 races at Kansas and Talladega, the Charlotte Roval will decide who moves out of the Round of 12.The 2.28-mile road course is known to produce chaos under elimination pressure. After drivers criticized it for tight corners and a limited passing zone, NASCAR extended the straight after Turn 5, added a new Turn 6, sharpened Turn 7, and tightened the final chicane’s apex last season.They also reduced the curb height from 4 inches to about 2.25 inches just before the 2024 Roval race. During the race, Tyler Reddick made a dramatic climb from 26th to 11th after a Lap 84 restart to reach the Round of 8 by a narrow margin over other drivers, including Joey Logano. However, Alex Bowman's disqualification post-race restored Logano to the Round of 8, and he went on to claim the NASCAR Cup title.