Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course

Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 was as much about Tyler Reddick’s heroic drive into the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as it was about Kyle Larson’s continued domination of elimination races.

As Larson cruised to his second Playoff victory this season—and his second in an elimination race—Reddick charged forward from 26th after a Lap 84 restart and clawed his way to 11th—good enough to knock two-time series champion Joey Logano out of the Playoffs by eight points.

Logano’s exit was temporary, however. In post-race inspection, Alex Bowman’s Chevrolet failed NASCAR’s weight requirement and was disqualified, knocking the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet below the elimination line and restoring Logano to the Round of 8.

Mirroring his rout in the final Round of16 event at Bristol Motor Speedway, Larson grabbed the lead for the restart of Stage 2 and stayed out front for 62 of the final 82 laps at the 2.28-mile, 17-turn Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line 1.511 seconds ahead of Christopher Bell, the only driver who could stay in the same zip code with the race winner. Third-place William Byron was 8.965 seconds behind at the finish.

With his sixth victory of the season, his second at the Roval and the 29th of his career, Larson led two other Hendrick teammates into the final eight—Byron, and fifth-place finisher Chase Elliott.

“Really, it’s the first time in my Playoff career I’ve not been close to the cut line, so it was good to kind of have a little bit stress-free of a weekend,” said Larson, whose previous win at the Roval came during his 2021 championship season. “I think the first time I’ve been here without crashing, maybe, besides the other time I won.

“It’s known that I don’t really use the sim (simulator) much, and I was in the sim this week. It really helped me get into a rhythm I think early on and helped us kind of fine-tune our car, too.”

Joining Bowman on the sidelines were Team Penske’s Austin Cindric (fourth on Sunday), Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez (31st) and Stewart-Haas Racin’gs Chase Briscoe (37th), leaving reigning series champion Ryan Blaney (10th) and Logano as the two Ford drivers left in the Playoff field.

If Larson’s dominating run stole the suspense from his victory, Reddick’s charge over the final 26-lap green-flag run provided nail-biting drama.

After pole winner Shane van Gisbergen (21 laps led) and Larson pitted from the top two spots in Stage 1, Reddick, the regular-season champion, stayed out in the lead to collect 10 stage points and an additional Playoff point on Lap 25.

A pit stop during the stage break mired Reddick in traffic for a Lap 30 restart, and then calamity struck. In the newly reconfigured Turn 7 hairpin, the new corner of chaos, Austin Dillon turned sideways in a melee that saw Reddick jump the curbing and smash into his 23XI Racing team owner Denny Hamlin.

Reddick’s car was severely damaged, and only a succession of pit stops throughout the remainder of the race—including a lengthy sojourn under caution to repair the left-rear toe link—made it competitive for the final run.

“Yeah, I thought I was going to flip, but I think I was behind the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.)—trying to work the move to the inside,” Reddick said of the wreck. “I got clear of him—I saw the 3 (Dillon) spun and everyone on the binders coming to a stop, and of course, me and my boss (Hamlin) get together. It was like I was going to do a front flip. This thing was absolutely destroyed.

“Huge props to everyone on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was, and we just kept working on it. We were a lot better in Stage 3. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it is really nice to pull this off.”

It was crew chief Billy Scott’s call to bring Reddick to pit road for new tires under caution on Lap 82 that proved decisive. The fresh Goodyears were the ammunition Reddick needed to pass 15 cars during the final run and eclipse Logano’s point total by four.

But the drama became moot with Bowman’s disqualification.

“You just have to stay calm,” Reddick said. “You just have to stay focused. In those moments, it is so easy to lose control. Either way, I was going to drive the car as fast as I could. It just worked out for us that this thing was able to get back through the field and get us to the good side of the cut line.”

By the time the second stage ended, Larson and Bell had clinched spots in the Round of 8. Hamlin, who ran 14th on Sunday, also advanced. Bowman was nine points above the elimination line at the finish before the crushing disqualification and would have been the fourth Hendrick driver in the final eight.

At the checkered flag on Sunday, AJ Allmendinger was sixth, followed by Van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace, Blaney and Reddick.

Road course aficionado AJ Allmendinger stole some thunder from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers with a convincing victory in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

Driving the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Allmendinger led twice for a race-high 46 laps, including the last 33, and beat runner-up William Byron to the finish line by 0.666 seconds to win his first Cup race of the season, his first at the Charlotte Road Course and the third of his Cup Series career—all on road courses.

Kyle Busch finished third at the 2.32-mile, 17-turn circuit, two spots short of the win he need to advance to the Playoffs’ Round of 8. Joining Busch on the Playoff elimination list were Ross Chastain (who finished 10^th), Bubba Wallace (16^th) and Brad Keselowski (18^th).

Allmendinger took the lead for the final time when Ryan Blaney pitted from the top spot on Lap 77, under caution for a wreck in the frontstretch chicane involving Denny Hamlin, Ty Dillon and Mike Rockenfeller.

The 41-year-old from Los Gatos, Calif., survived four more cautions and four more restarts before he completed what he termed “the drive of my life.”

Allmendinger was weeping during the cool-down lap and teared up in his post-race interview.

“Ihate crying right now, but it’s a freaking Cup race, man,” he said. “You don’t know when it’s ever going to happen again…

“This is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it. You fight. All the blood, sweat, tears, everybody at Kaulig Racing has just been such… I’d say a down year, but up-and-down year. It’s our second year in the Cup Series.”

Byron and Ryan Blaney already had advanced to the Round of 8 in the Playoffs by virtue of their respective victories at Texas and Talladega.

Joining them in the next round, which starts next Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, are Tyler Reddick (who ran sixth from the pole on Sunday), Denny Hamlin (37^th), Christopher Bell (15^th), Chris Buescher (seventh), Kyle Larson (who started from the rear in a backup car and finished 13^th) and Martin Truex Jr. (20^th).

The regular-season champion, Truex, claimed the final berth in the Round of 8 by 12 points over Chastain, the first driver out.

Ill-fortune that befell Chase Elliott near the end of Stage 2 facilitated Allmendinger’s victory. Just as Elliott, the race leader, was approaching pit road to “short” the stage, BJ McLeod’s spin in Turn 4 caused the second of seven cautions and forced NASCAR to close pit road.

Elliott steered back to the racing surface and won the stage but lost critical track position after pitting during the stage break and never regained it. He finished ninth behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman.

Ty Gibbs came home fourth, followed by Joey Logano.

After a strong run from start to finish, Busch was philosophical about his exit from the Playoffs.

“The guys gave me a great piece today,” he said. “The Lenovo Camaro was pretty fast, just lacked a little bit on the long run, just didn’t quite have the feel of the tire that I was really looking for to be able to turn into the corners and to be able to drive out of the corners and keep pace with the front two there at the end.

“But overall, this ride is on me anyways. The first two weeks of this round were obviously not very good, and we didn’t score any points. That’s where it’s at. That’s where it lies. Texas, Talladega, just not being able to execute and do a good job when points were on the line.”

In a turn of events that bordered on the unbelievable, Christopher Bell found his only path to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

On fresh tires, thanks to a strategic pit stop under caution on Lap 105, Bell passed Kevin Harvick to the outside through Turns 1 and 2 after a restart on Lap 111 and pulled away to win Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

With the victory, Bell transferred to the Round of 8 and simultaneously eliminated reigning series champion Kyle Larson, who brought his No. 5 Chevrolet to pit road on Lap 98 after hitting the wall and breaking the right-rear toe link on his car.

Larson finished five laps down in 35th and was ousted from the Playoffs by two points. After spinning in the backstretch chicane on Lap 107, Chase Briscoe recovered to finish ninth on fresh tires and grabbed the eighth and final berth in the Round of 8 by the two-point margin over Larson.

Bell didn't have the fastest car on Sunday, but he and crew chief Adam Stevens took advantage of two late cautions to make the winning move.

"Man, you've just got to be there at the end of these things," said Bell, who entered the race 33 points below the cut line for the Round of 8. "I keep watching all these races where the fastest car doesn't always win. No secret that road courses have not been our strength this year.

"We were just there at the right time. We obviously weren't in position to win (before taking tires). We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us."

A chagrined Larson blamed himself for his ouster.

"I just made way too many mistakes all year long," Larson said. "Made another one today. Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.

"Just extremely mad at myself. I let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today."

Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez also suffered elimination. Cindric spun entering the backstretch chicane after the final restart on Lap 111 and finished 21st, missing the Round of 8 by 13 points. Suarez fought his No. 99 Chevrolet after his power steering failed during the third stage and came home 36th, leaving him nine points behind Briscoe for the final transfer spot.

Briscoe restarted outside the top 20 on Lap 111 and took advantage of Cindric's spin, his own aggression and a block from Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer, who held up cars Briscoe needed to pass on the final lap.

"Yeah, man, what a wild day," Briscoe said. "It took every bit of it there at the end. To be easily in, then that debris caution comes out (on Lap 104). Still, I thought we had a really good shot of making it in. Get wrecked on the backstretch. Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road course races, how much can change so quickly.

"I had no idea we were even going to have a shot (on the final restart). Truthfully, I knew we were probably out. I saw the 2 (Cindric) wreck, I thought maybe there's still a chance. We had so much fresher tires than anybody. (Crew chief) Johnny (Klausmeier) pumped them way up to qualifying pressures, let me go attack, have the ball in my hands."

What had been an orderly race for 103 laps descended into chaos after NASCAR called the third caution of the race on for debris in Turn 6, ending a 50-lap green-flag run.

That's when Bell brought his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road for tires. He restarted 12th on Lap 107, and by the time he returned to the finish line—due in part to a pile-up in Turn 1—Bell was pursuing Tyler Reddick for the second position.

On Lap 108, Bell slipped past Reddick and was chasing Harvick when a second debris caution for a melee in Turn 2 forced the race to overtime. On the final restart, Harvick was a sitting duck on older tires, but he managed to hold off Kyle Busch for the second spot.

Joining Bell and Briscoe in the Round of 8 are Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Ross Chastain. Elliott led a race-high 30 laps and appeared headed for his third victory at the ROVAL before the caution on Lap 104.

After the Lap 107 restart, Elliott, who had qualified for the Round of 8 with last Sunday's victory at Talladega, spun through the grass outside Turn 6 following contact from Reddick and came home 20th.

Logano, the pole winner, took the first stage wire-to-wire but was buried in traffic after a pit stop on Lap 27 and finished 18th.

AJ Allmendinger ran fourth after leading 24 laps, followed by Justin Haley, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Reddick, Briscoe and Austin Dillon.

With points reset entering the Round of 8, Elliott holds the top spot in the NASCAR Cup standings with a 20-point edge over second place Logano.

Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 featured a frequent winner, a couple of unlikely heroes and occasional villainy.

Kyle Larson took the checkered flag after 109 laps at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course to win for the seventh time this season and advance to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Larson won for the third time on a road course—the most ever in series history in a single season—in a race that featured the violent renewal of the Bristol-born rivalry between Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott.

And Larson's victory was no stress-free Sunday drive. Car chief Jesse Saunders and hauler driver Steven Legendre changed the battery and alternator belt on Larson's No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet under caution and kept him on the lead lap at the end of Stage 2, after the voltage dropped and put Larson in danger of elimination from the Playoff.

"It wasn't looking too good," Larson said of the electrical problems that beset his car. "Thankfully, everybody on our 5 car did a great job of staying calm. (Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels), as always, did a great job of communicating with me what was going on, getting the battery changed, the alternator—whatever was going on to get our battery running.

"I knew I was going to have some sketchy moments. I had to work my way through traffic, stay calm, and we had some good restarts there at the end… It was just a fun race there and a lot of craziness all day long."

The victory was Larson's first at the Charlotte Road Course and the 13th of his career.

Harvick failed to advance from the Round of 12 for the first time since the inception of the elimination format in 2014. His race ended in the SAFER barrier on Lap 99 after he locked up the left front tire on his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and shot straight into the wall.

"I just pushed it in there too hard and I got the tire locked up and I couldn't stop it," Harvick said. "I felt like I needed to go get a couple spots back that I had lost, and I got the left front locked up, and I couldn't get it to turn."

"Karma," Elliott's spotter, Eddie D'Hondt, said on the radio with understandable satisfaction, given that Harvick had spun Elliott into the wall in Turn 8 to jeopardize the reigning Cup champion's chances of advancing to the next round.

But Elliott did advance after recovering to finish 12th, joining Larson, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. in the Round of 8.

Joining Harvick on the sidelines were Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and William Byron, who led a race-high 30 laps but lost track position after a bump from race runner-up Tyler Reddick entering the backstretch chicane after a restart on Lap 90.

Byron missed the corner and had to come to a full stop before continuing. Later, he was running third before hitting the wall on the penultimate lap. Needing a victory to advance to the Round of 8, Byron instead finished 11th.

Harvick's shot into Elliott's back bumper on Lap 55 appeared to be retaliation for the Sept. 18 Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where, in Harvick's view, Elliott cost him a victory by taking his line in the late stages of the race - after Harvick had run Elliott into the outside wall and cut a tire on the No. 9 Chevrolet.

Asked whether his intent was payback for the Bristol race, Harvick said, "Sometimes real life teaches you good lessons."

Chris Buescher finished third on Sunday—his first top five of the season. Kyle Busch was fourth, followed by Hamlin, Matt DiBenedetto, Logano, Bell, Blaney and Bowman.

Notes: Larson is the first driver since Kasey Kahne in 2006 to win both the Coca-Cola 600 in May and the fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kahne won both races on the 1.5-mile oval. The ROVAL became the venue for the fall race in 2018; Larson enters the Round of 8 as the No. 1 seed with 4,065 points, 35 more than second-place Hamlin; The victory was Hendrick Motorsports' 36th at Charlotte Motor Speedway, including the oval and ROVAL events and the NASCAR All-Star Race. Team Penske is the last organization with all off its Playoff drivers still eligible for the championship - Keselowski, Logano and Blaney.