The 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field that opened the 10-race postseason is now cut in half. Eight drivers survived the year’s second elimination Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, while four more lost their eligibility for the Bill France Cup.
The playoffs will roll on with next Sunday’s 400-miler at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, HBO Max), but first, a breakdown of an eventful Bank of America Roval 400 and the playoff perspective that became clearer after an eventful Round of 12 finale.
WINNER
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. The top-billed favorite among playoff and non-playoff drivers alike ran his road-course win streak to five straight, tying Denny Hamlin for the most Cup Series wins this season. Van Gisbergen led 57 of the 109 laps and his 15.160-second margin of victory ranked second only to his own 16 1/2-second advantage at the end of the inaugural Mexico City event in June. The shoo-in Sunoco Rookie of the Year also reached six career wins in just 46 starts, becoming the fastest to reach that mark since A.J. Foyt hit that plateau in 1972.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Roval
WHO’S HOT?
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. The former Cup Series champ’s winless spell has now reached 20 races, but he’s showed signs of momentum in the Round of 12. Larson logged top-10 finishes in all three of the round’s races, highlighted by a runner-up effort Sunday at Charlotte. Those results — plus a gathering of points at each stage Sunday — helped him advance before the final Roval stage.
Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell started the playoffs with a 29th-place thud at Darlington, but it’s been mostly positives in the races since then. Sunday marked his second consecutive third-place finish, stretching his run of top-10 results to five straight. Those consistent conversions helped him clear the elimination bar by a whopping 60 points.
WHO’S NOT?
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. The lone remaining playoff driver for Trackhouse fought gamely in the final stretch, but his last gasp to avoid elimination came up four points short. Those efforts were at least partly undone by a pair of miscues on pit road — a Lap 27 overshoot of pit exit that cost him 14 positions, and a Lap 88 speeding penalty when he left his pit stall in the wrong gear. He tried to hold off a charging Joey Logano in the points hunt, driving on older tires for the home stretch, but his advantage slipped away. His head-of-steam run into the final chicane nudged Denny Hamlin out of the groove, but also sent his own No. 1 Chevy spinning. He backed across the finish line in 21st place.
Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford. A collection of mishaps in the race’s first half doomed the 27-year-old driver’s already slim hopes for reaching the Round of 8. Cindric overshot the backstretch chicane on Lap 9, looped his No. 2 Ford a lap later after contact from Justin Haley’s No. 7 Chevy, then sustained bigger damage after Carson Hocevar locked up his No. 77 Chevrolet and barreled into him in the front chicane on Lap 33. It all added up to multiple laps behind the wall, a 36th-place finish in the 37-car field and the loss of postseason eligibility.
BUBBLE WATCH
| RANK | DRIVER | +/- |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | +8 |
| 2 | Ryan Blaney | +6 |
| 3 | Kyle Larson | +4 |
| 4 | William Byron | +4 |
| CUTLINE | ||
| 5 | Christopher Bell | -4 |
| 6 | Chase Elliott | -14 |
| 7 | Chase Briscoe | -14 |
| 8 | Joey Logano | -24 |
NASCAR INSIGHTS
Not surprisingly, the two drivers atop the scoring pylon were also aces in the NASCAR Insights metrics. Race winner Shane van Gisbergen was easily No. 1 in speed and restarts, and runner-up Kyle Larson was among the top five in four of the five analytics categories (defense, speed, restarts and pit crew). The best pit crew for the day was the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevy team for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but second on the list was Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske group, which made the most of their service stops, helping keep their driver’s title defense alive.
QUOTABLE
“I trust Paul Wolfe.” — JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Team Penske Ford, on his veteran crew chief’s pit-stop call with 11 laps remaining, which gave him a tire edge for the final run to the checkers.
NEXT RACE
The Cup Series Playoffs move into their next phase Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where a treacherous three-race Round of 8 will begin. The South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) will mark the last race of the season on a 1.5-mile track. From there, the Cup Series field will experience a pair of extremes — its largest oval at 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 19, and its smallest at the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 26. Those three races will determine the four drivers who will race for a championship Nov. 2 at Phoenix Raceway, and Las Vegas could help set the tone.
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