The Charlotte Roval is a challenging venue for NASCAR’s best drivers at any time, but especially as the setting for a Playoff elimination race. It forced drivers in the championship hunt to overcome the challenge and maximize points while a non-Playoff driver won in the Playoffs for the first time this season. That meant Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch ended up eliminated in the second round.
Each driver’s performance at the Roval is scored on a 1-to-10 scale, with a score of 1 reserved for a terrible performance with no redeeming qualities and 10 reserved for a perfect and dominating performance. Performance over the entire weekend is factored in, since qualifying results make race days easier or more difficult.
Talladega was the third and final race of the Round of 12. Points from the previous two rounds carried over to affect each driver at the start at Charlotte. This rating gives an indication of each driver’s relative performance throughout the Playoffs, regardless of if they were or weren’t eliminated.
9 – Kyle Busch (3rd)
It was a very strong day for Kyle Busch at the Roval. Unfortunately, it wasn’t strong enough. He entered the Roval in a must-win position and looked like he was might just be able to do it. Busch started fifth and gathered some points with an eighth-place finish in Stage 1 and a tenth in Stage 2. The win was all that mattered, though, and Busch was leading as the laps wound down.
Unfortunately for Busch, a hard-charging AJ Allmendinger was able to get around before he lost another position to William Byron in a bad restart. Despite the disappointment, the Roval was a very strong round for the No. 8 team. If Busch had been able to do as well at Texas and Talladega, he’d be in much different position.
8.5 – William Byron (2nd)
William Byron had no pressure at the Roval since his win at Texas guaranteed him a spot in the Round of 8. His only goal was to win and pick up some extra Playoff points alongside that coveted checkered flag, and he put himself in position to do so. He started fourteenth and stayed outside the top ten early, but Byron’s No. 24 car got better as the day went on and he was in position at the end.
Byron restarted third in the final restart and made quick work of Kyle Busch, but AJ Allmendinger proved too much and Byron had to settle for second. Still, Byron was in position when it counted. He, wisely, chose not to push the issue with a dive bomb when already out of range, too, but expect big moves from all drivers when it counts as the championship gets closer.
8 – Tyler Reddick (6th)
Tyler Reddick had one of the fastest cars all weekend but just wasn’t in position at the end, which he explained was just out of an abundance of caution to advance. Still, Reddick impressed, starting on pole before winning Stage 1 and finishing fourth in Stage 2, picking up big points including a valuable Playoff point that transfers to the next round. He’ll have some ground to make up in the Round of 8 if he wants to make the championship race at Phoenix, entering the round with an eight-point gulf to the provisional cutline, but his performance to make the round was a good sign that he can.
“Yeah, we executed for sure all day long,” Reddick said. “Selfishly, I wanted to go forward and win the race on top of it all. We were good, but I feel like we were just one of the other cars there at the very end unfortunately. It’s hard to take any unnecessary risks when you’re in a good spot to advance to the round of 8. It just doesn’t make sense to put it all on the line to try to win a race.”
7 – Chris Buescher (7th)
Chris Buescher started 20th but steadily moved up the field to seventh, giving credit to his crew chief Scott Graves for making the right calls. The strong was enough to make the next round fairly easily, and Buescher caps off his strongest-ever season with a deep push in the Playoffs. If he wants to enter the Championship 4 and maybe get Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing a long-awaited return to victory lane, he’ll need strong runs, since he enters already three points below the provisional cutline for the round.
“That was probably a little bit more stressful from on top of the box than what it was inside the race car,” Buescher said. “We basically did what we talked about doing, steadily moving up all day and being there to capture those end of day points. I sure would have loved some stage points, but at the same time didn’t want to throw away the race and it ended up being a great call from Scott and everyone on this 17 team.”
6.5 – Kyle Larson (13th)
Kyle Larson’s weekend started very much on the wrong foot after hitting the wall in practice. Though there wasn’t massive contact, it was enough to damage his engine and force Larson into a backup. He started 36th but climbed through the field, ultimately up to fifth at the end of Stage 2, a massive recovery on a road course. He needed it, too, to advance, after losing plenty of points wrecking out in the first race of the round at Texas. However, Larson enters the Round of 8 in good position thanks to plenty of Playoff points, sitting three points above the provisional cutline for the Championship 4.
“It was a stressful weekend,” Larson admitted, “but the No. 5 team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports did a great job working hard on this backup car late last night. I felt like our car was really good today. We were just pretty conservative there at times. I just didn’t want to make a mistake like I did last year and take ourselves completely out of it. It was just stressful there the final stage, but we were able to get in, which was the goal.”
6 – Ross Chastain (10th)
Ross Chastain had a strong recovery to end up in the top ten. He started twelfth and moved up to third in Stage 1 and sixth in Stage 2, garnering points that he needed having entered with a ten-point deficit with the cutline. But contact with Brad Keselowski late and a stop-and-go penalty put him on the back foot.
It was enough to eliminate Chastain by a big margin. He admitted that his No. 1 car just wasn’t fast enough to compete. With that, neither Trackhouse Racing entry is in the Playoffs the year after Chastain qualified for the Championship 4.
5.5 – Christopher Bell (15th)
With a healthy gap to the cutline entering Charlotte, Christopher Bell just needed a strong finish. He started second, finished fifth in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2, and was fully on track to do that. However, going for those points came at the expense of pitting before the stage break for track position and Bell ended up deeper in the field in Stage 3 when he came together with Daniel Suarez, sending Suarez spinning. Bell enters the next round with eight points to make up to the provisional cutline.
“I mean, I’m sure he’s upset with me,” Bell acknowledged of Suarez. “That was not my intention to spin him out. Today was – I don’t know – it was what we needed it to be. We knew going into it that there was going to be a huge game between taking stage points and skipping stages to get track position. So, fortunately, it worked out and the first stage we were able to get both. We were able to pit and then still get the stage points, and then the second stage didn’t quite work out that way.”
5.5 – Bubba Wallace (16th)
Bubba Wallace capped off a strong season with a deep run in the Playoffs, but that run won’t extend to the Round of 8. He started fourth and drove up second in Stage 1 behind his teammate Tyler Reddick, earning more points with a seventh-place finish in Stage 2, prioritizing points over pit strategy. Contact with Austin Cindric going into the final chicane hurt him in the final stage, though, and Bubba ended up 16th and eliminated. Still, he acknowledged that it was good for his No. 23 team to show speed on a road course.
“We’re putting all of the cards in the right places,” Wallace said. “Usually, you couldn’t count on the 23 at a road course race, right? I don’t think you can say that anymore and I don’t think I can say I suck at road courses. Back-to-back really good runs at road courses. Finishes were okay, obviously not today. Just got to keep working on your craft. No matter how hard it can get you’ve got to keep working and trying to learn and be better.”
5 – Ryan Blaney (12th)
Ryan Blaney had nothing to worry at the Roval thanks to his win at Talladega that guaranteed him a spot in the Round of 8, and that proved a very good thing. He started back in the pack in 17th and had a car that could make some passes in long runs. However, with stages added back, the race wasn’t green long enough for Blaney to take advantage and he just couldn’t move up. He starts the Round of 8 in a ten-point hole already, too, so he’ll need stronger runs to advance.
“It wasn’t a bad day. Our Discount Tire Ford Mustang was pretty decent on mainly long runs we could kind of go,” Blaney explained. “I don’t think we had the short run speed, but the long runs was good and you’d kind of get to the back of a train of cars and just kind of stop. We were all running the same speed. We tried to get off strategy a little bit there.”
4 – Martin Truex Jr. (20th)
Martin Truex Jr. has continued to rely on his Playoff point bonus throughout the Playoffs. He earned fifteen bonus points as Regular Season Championship, and he’s used each of them as his performance has slipped throughout the Playoffs. At the Roval, he started better, qualifying in eleventh and climbing to fourth in Stage 1 and eighth in Stage 2.
That meant he prioritized stage points over finishing position, putting him deeper in the field when drivers who sacrificed points for track position at the stage cycled to the front, and Truex was never able to climb. He admitted, though, that road courses were not a strength for the No. 19 team, and he certainly did all he needed to advance and once again enjoy a healthy 15-point lead to the cutline. However, he’ll need more as the Playoffs go on.
3.5 – Brad Keselowski (18th)
Brad Keselowski did not have the day he wanted. He started back in the pack in 19th, and it got worse early in Stage 1 when he earned a pass-through penalty for missing the chicane pass-through in Stage 1 for missing the chicane. He managed to recover from that before spinning later in the race after contact with Ross Chastain. Finishing 18th with no stage points was not enough for Keselowski after entering just two points to the good of the cutline, and he has been eliminated from the Playoffs.
“I think it was just once,” Keselowski said when asked how many times he spun. “I might be wrong, but we had the one stop early in the race where I hit the curb and I was just too far over and we had to do a pass through. We really recovered from that very well and got back up in the top 10, and then we just kind of faded a little bit. We pitted for tires to try to claw as we faded to like 10th or so, so we pitted for tires and then I spun with the 1 car. We clawed back out of that to an 18th, which isn’t a great day, but it certainly could have been a lot worse.”
3 – Denny Hamlin (37th)
Denny Hamlin had nothing to worry about at the Roval thanks to very strong performances in the two opening races of the round – fifth at Texas and third at Talladega – and that certainly made the ending to his race much more bearable. Hamlin started ninth, pitted early for track position in Stage 1, and scored points for third in Stage 2, but, while running back in the pack, he spun in the final chicane.
That wasn’t enough to end his race itself, but Hamlin got tagged in the rear by Mike Rockenfeller, driving the Legacy Motor Club No. 42 entry, and that caused enough toe link damage that Hamlin could not meet the Damaged Vehicle Policy time limit and was forced to retire. Thanks to plenty of Playoff points accumulated throughout the year, Hamlin enters the Round of 8 in good position, eleven points to the good of the provisional cutline. Strong performances like what he showed in the first two races of the round are going to be necessary to make the Championship 4.
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