Tag: Charlotte Roval

Regular season champ Truex riding bonus points into Round of 8

Martin Truex Jr. is proving NASCAR’s case as to why its regular season matters. The numbers don’t lie: Truex has finished no better than 17th through six Cup Series postseason races – the three-race first round of Darlington, Kansas, Bristol and the …

Martin Truex Jr. is proving NASCAR’s case as to why its regular season matters.

The numbers don’t lie: Truex has finished no better than 17th through six Cup Series postseason races — the three-race first round of Darlington, Kansas, Bristol and the three-race second round, which wrapped up Sunday, of Texas, Talladega and the Charlotte Roval.

Truex’s average finish between those two rounds? 21.3.

The number of points Truex earned in those six races combined? 106.

Even with that, he’s still headed to the Round of 8.

“Stage points and bonus points,” Truex said Sunday afternoon after finishing 20th. “I didn’t create the system. We used it to our advantage. That won’t get us through the next one. The next one, you’ve got to be running up front. Two winners of the next three races are probably going to be playoff guys that are still going. Need to turn it up, and we need to figure it out quickly.”

Truex resets for the semifinal round as the second seed with 4,036 points. Those playoff points were earned by winning the regular-season championship, which is what he’s been falling back on as his Joe Gibbs Racing team has had a rough go of things in the postseason.

“That’s the beauty, and that’s the thing that sucks about this deal, you know what I mean?” he said. “I’m sure there’s guys that are upset. They outran us enough to get in, but they didn’t have the bonus points. It is what it is.

“I hate that we didn’t run better today or finish better at least. I thought the first two stages, maybe our car was pretty decent, but, man, I don’t know what happened. Need to go back and look at that. It wasn’t much fun, but we made it, so here we go. We’ll try three more.”

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The No. 19 finished 18th at Darlington Raceway in the postseason opener with ill-handling — an issue that carried over from practice when Truex hit the wall.

The second race, Kansas, was going as well as it could so early in the day. But on lap 4, Truex blew a tire and crashed. He finished 36th. Bristol, however, was another “fight” of a night with his Toyota Camry and he finished an unimpressive 19th.

To start the second round, he finished 17th in Texas. He spun during the race and again struggled to get the car driving as he needed. Talladega was an 18th place, and one that Truex said was just a matter of being clogged in the draft.

The champ has not led a single lap in the postseason. His last top-10 finish was at Watkins Glen in late August.

Sunday was Truex’s third consecutive finish outside the top 15 on the Roval.

“I’m definitely excited we’re not coming back here again,” he said. “This track has just been a thorn in our side. Feel good about moving on and feel good about what we can do in the next three races. Some good tracks for us and hopefully we can get something going. It’s been a pretty tough playoffs so far.”

The good part about looking ahead — Truex has victories at all three racetracks in the next round: Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville Speedway.

RFK has a lot to be proud of despite one elimination – Keselowski

Despite his NASCAR Cup Series postseason coming to an end Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski said the No. 6 RFK Racing team had a lot to be proud of. “We kept clawing and it just wasn’t enough today,” Keselowski said after finishing …

Despite his NASCAR Cup Series postseason coming to an end Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski said the No. 6 RFK Racing team had a lot to be proud of.

“We kept clawing and it just wasn’t enough today,” Keselowski said after finishing 18th. “I felt like I could have done a few things better, and obviously, it’s frustrating when you don’t advance and you don’t get what you want out of the day. But we’ve got a lot of great things going on, and we’ll learn from it and come back stronger.”

Admittedly, it was not the cleanest of days for Keselowski on the road course. It started with a pass-through penalty on lap 19 after he slid over the exit of the frontstretch chicane. A penalty is called when all four tires are on the opposite side of the blue curbs.

“We really recovered from that very well,” Keselowski said. “We got back up into the top 10 and then we just kind of faded a little bit, pitted for tires to try to claw as we faded. I think we faded to like 10th or so, and we pitted for tires, and I then had spun with (Ross Chastain).

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“We clawed back out of that to an 18th, which isn’t a great day, but it certainly could have been a lot worse.”

It wouldn’t have been a pass-through penalty had Keselowski stopped on the track, which the team initially thought they’d done. But it wasn’t deemed that way by NASCAR.

“There was numerous levels of confusion,” Keselowski said. “We thought we had served it with a stop before that. In the end, it didn’t really make or break our day.”

Keselowski’s spin with Chastain was with 17 laps to go. It was also in the frontstretch chicane.

Sunday, however, was a dual hat day for Keselowski. While he was eliminated from championship contention as a driver, his teammate and the car he co-owns, Chris Buescher, advanced into the semifinal round.

“I’m really happy for Chris,” Keselowski said. “Obviously, you’re never happy when you don’t advance, but if you look at where we were a year ago to where we’re at today, it’s night and day, and we want to make this same jump next year. There’s a level of patience that comes with that and building a team and company, and there’s a lot of great things that we’re doing.

“One day in this sport feels like it could make or break you, but it really doesn’t. I, at least, have a little bit of a longer-term view of the sport and what we’re trying to do and can see that we’re going to have the opportunity to come back next year and be even stronger.”

Busch blames himself for missing the Round of 8 at the Roval

Kyle Busch shouldered the responsibility for the elimination of his Richard Childress Racing team from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch finished third in the postseason’s second elimination race, but he needed …

Kyle Busch shouldered the responsibility for the elimination of his Richard Childress Racing team from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Busch finished third in the postseason’s second elimination race, but he needed a victory to advance, having entered the weekend 26 points below the cutline. The two-time series champion suffered a DNF at Texas Motor Speedway in the first race of the round and was 25th at Talladega Superspeedway. He earned a combined 15 points in those races.

“A lot of it rides with me just getting sloppy, not doing a very good job, and I’m not making excuses but trying to figure this car [out],” Busch said. “I just lose the balance of it; did again today. I was able to get a third out of it but probably would have been worse off than that if it wasn’t for the track position.”

Although the No. 8 team was focused on the win, Busch and crew chief Randall Burnett also managed to earn points in both stages and positioned themselves near the front at the end. Busch pitted with four laps to go in the first stage and finished eighth, earning three points. The team split the second stage, pitting on lap 43, and Busch finished 10th with one point.

He inherited track position when the leaders pitted under the second stage break, then led six laps and spent the final stage battling AJ Allmendinger, who went on to win the race, and Ty Gibbs at the front of the field.

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The afternoon’s final restart occurred with 10 laps to go, Busch lining up on the front row with Allmendinger to his outside. The No. 8 came off the frontstretch chicane, which was the restart zone, sideways as he fought hard to get going with Allmendinger at the green flag but couldn’t hang on to the position.

“I would have had to have moved him, for sure,” Busch said. “I would have had to move him in a chicane where it would have made him have to stop, so then he wouldn’t come back and retaliate. But that’s a tool to use if you can get there and use it. I was hoping William [Byron] was going to use it, but he’s got too many wins already, so he didn’t care. It’s just racing.”

Busch earned 38 points Sunday afternoon. It was his best finish in six postseason races and his first top-five finish since Richmond at the end of July.

“I was trying to do what the car gave me; I was overstepping that a couple more times again, but I didn’t crash, which is good,” Busch said. “But if I was doing desperation stuff, I would have pile-drove everybody into Turn 1 on one of the restarts and opened the door for us. We were better than [Joey Logano] and everybody behind us, but [Ty Gibbs] and [Allmendinger] and [Byron] were probably on par if not just a tick better.”

It is the fourth time Busch has been eliminated in the Round of 12.

“It’s bittersweet,” Busch said. “I hate it. It rides on me. We came out there, we executed, we did the job that we knew we were capable of doing here, getting a third, and had a shot to win. The Lenovo Camaro was fast, the guys gave me a great piece, but unfortunately, just Texas and Talladega and not doing a…good job there and not scoring any points obviously killed us. Give those two to do over again, and we’re in the Round of 8.”

Allmendinger grabs emotional win at Roval elimination race

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 …

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 0.666s 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 10th), Bubba Wallace (16th) and Brad Keselowski (18th).

 

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.

“I hate 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.”

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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 (37th), Christopher Bell (15th), Chris Buescher (seventh), Kyle Larson (who started from the rear in a backup car and finished 13th) and Martin Truex Jr. (20th).

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.”

RESULTS

Logano turning playoff elimination into development mode for 2024

Joey Logano’s visit to the media center Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway must have felt odd. Charlotte marks the second elimination race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, which Logano was knocked out of a few weeks ago. It was the first time in …

Joey Logano’s visit to the media center Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway must have felt odd.

Charlotte marks the second elimination race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, which Logano was knocked out of a few weeks ago. It was the first time in the elimination era that Logano and the No. 22 team didn’t advance past the first round. He has either been a Round of 8 driver or a championship contender in the finale.

The 2023 season hasn’t been kind to the reigning series champion. Being excluded from the hunt early in the postseason is not a feeling Logano is familiar with experiencing.

“Yeah, it burns, it stings, it’s frustrating,” he said. “But it is what it is. We’ve just been fighting away trying to make our cars better for next year at this point and trying to get as many points as we can. We can still finish up to fifth (in the championship standings), so there is still racing to be done and stuff that makes it worth it. But it hurts knowing you don’t have a chance to win the big trophy, which is always the goal when we start the season.”

Logano has one top-10 finish in the last five races — a fifth-place at Kansas Speedway. And yet the 14 top-10 finishes Logano has on the season is the fourth-most in the series (William Byron leads all drivers with 17).

The bad days, however, have been too much to overcome for Logano. It has been a down season for Ford with aerodynamic deficiencies that have hindered its teams, particularly on the downforce-sensitive intermediate tracks.

Logano earned a postseason berth with a victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the spring. He has not won since.

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The team has since begun thinking and working outside the box. Having the freedom to experiment or go down different paths to see what does or doesn’t work is the silver lining of being eliminated from the postseason.

“I can’t say it’s really worked yet, but we’re trying different things or at least answering questions that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to answer,” Logano said. “We’ll swing at it and try things that are out of our comfort zone. I think that part’s good, and maybe we’ll hit on something that helps us. If not, we got what we got.”

With the diverse set of racetracks still in the postseason, one would think Logano’s team will have a good notebook from their experiments. The problem is how quickly setups evolve in the series, and how each weekend requires something different.

“Each road course is different these days,” Logano said. “But really, what we need to make the most difference on now is not only on the road courses but the speedways, and Phoenix in particular as well. I think those places we can keep working on.”

Logano qualified seventh for Sunday’s race at Charlotte.

Ford will roll out an updated Mustang next season, which will coincide with a new production model. It’s great timing for Ford race teams, as the update could help their competitive pitfalls.

“I’ve seen some details on it; it looks cool,” Logano said of next season’s race car. “As long as it’s as fast as it looks, we’ll be all right.

“There are a lot of talks throughout our place and all of Ford teams, I’m sure. Hopefully we made the right decisions. We know which way wasn’t the right way, so we should know what way is the right way now.”

Mayer cruises to Roval Xfinity win ahead of tight elimination battle

The NASCAR Xfinity Series has a new road course ace. “We may be Allmendinger 2.0,” Sam Mayer quipped after winning Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and …

The NASCAR Xfinity Series has a new road course ace.

“We may be Allmendinger 2.0,” Sam Mayer quipped after winning Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and clinching a spot in the Round of 8 in the series playoffs.

The reference was to AJ Allmendinger, winner of the previous four Xfinity races at the 2.32-mile, 17-turn circuit. With Allmendinger ineligible for the race as a full-time NASCAR Cup driver this year, Mayer took over and got the win he needed to advance in the playoffs.

Mayer earned the final spot in the Round of 8 at the expense of seventh-place finisher Daniel Hemric, who ran third in a three-way drag race to the finish line with Parker Kligerman and Kaz Grala—when a fifth-place result would have been enough to survive the round.

“They came out in the bottom of the seventh and hit a home run,” said Hemric, who finished second in each of the first two stages and was bounced from the postseason only because Mayer won from last place in the Xfinity Playoff standings.

Lining up second next to Cole Custer for a restart on lap 63 of 67, Mayer muscled his way past Custer’s No. 00 Ford through Turns 3 and 4 a lap later and pulled away to win by 0.909s.

“I knew we had time,” said Mayer, who led five times for 50 laps. “Our car was so fast—it really felt unbeatable… We kicked their tails today, and it just feels so great.”

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The victory was the third for the 20-year-old driver of the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet—all this year and all on road courses.

“This is our second-chance moment,” Mayer said. “I think we can make something out of it… We can go on and do great things because of this win.”

Kligerman, Josh Berry and Jeb Burton joined Hemric on the playoff sidelines. Kligerman missed out by five points after coming home sixth.

Berry finished third despite battling issues with his power steering but fell short in a must-win situation, as did Burton, who stayed out on old tires for a restart on lap 60 and crashed into Justin Allgaier’s Chevrolet in Turn 1.

 

Sheldon Creed, on the other hand, squeaked into the Round of 8 by two points over Hemric after running 10th on Saturday.

“We had no front turn,” Creed said. “I was talking to our teammate Austin (Hill) about it. Both of our cars did not turn all day… I had to work for that one. I did not think we would be in by two—I thought we would be better than that.”

After the lap 63 restart, Hemric’s fate was in the hands of Custer, who couldn’t keep Mayer behind him.

“We struggled on the short run, for sure,” Custer said. “It’s frustrating. There are definitely things on the replay I could have done different, but our guys did a great job all day, getting our car to where we could compete for a win—but we just needed a little more.”

Riley Herbst ran fourth, with Kaz Grala fifth. Kligerman, Hemric, Stage 2 winner John Hunter Nemechek, Hill and Creed completed the top 10.

RESULTS

Busch going for broke at the Roval – points racing just ‘doesn’t work’

Between his position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings and stage breaks back in the race procedure, Sunday’s agenda has been made easy for Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing. All in for the win. Busch is 26 points below a transfer spot …

Between his position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings and stage breaks back in the race procedure, Sunday’s agenda has been made easy for Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing.

All in for the win.

Busch is 26 points below a transfer spot into the third round of the postseason, and Sunday’s race on the Charlotte road course trims the field from 12 drivers to eight. The two-time series champion sits last on the playoff grid after a crash and 34th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway and a 25th-place finish a week ago at Talladega Superspeedway.

Unlike the five road course races in the regular season, Sunday sees the return of stage breaks. NASCAR wanted all playoff races officiated under the same rules and didn’t deny the racing could be more competitive.

With stage breaks, it means teams will choose between chasing points in the first two stages or trying to position themselves to win the race. It’s rare to be able to accomplish both.

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“With stage cautions back in the equation, it changes what you have to do; you have to go for the win,” Busch said. “If it wasn’t going to be stage cautions, you could probably go for points and see your strategy still play out normal. But with the cycle, the flip, the leapfrog that you get with the caution that comes out, we have to race for the win.

“We saw last year [Joey] Logano ran for points the first stage, the second stage, and got back in 20th for the last stage and finished deep (18th). It doesn’t work, so it’s not going to be good enough for points for us.”

Busch goes into Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC) on the back of finishing of fourth and third at the Roval the last two seasons. Road courses have been strong for Busch and his No. 8 team this year, holding an average finish of 11.8. He finished second at both Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma earlier this season.

“I think as much as the Roval is a wild card, it probably fits the best for us,” Busch said of the elimination race. “It’s better than going to a Martinsville or something where we know that might be ugly. But the road course stuff has been really good, and we’ve tweaked on it and tuned on it a little bit. They had a really good package and baseline to start with, so hopefully it just works well for us.”

Harvick going into Roval unbothered by Talladega DQ

Kevin Harvick is unbothered by the disqualification his Stewart-Haas Racing team was handed last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for unsecured windshield fasteners. “Obviously, you don’t want to be in the middle of those situations, but I don’t …

Kevin Harvick is unbothered by the disqualification his Stewart-Haas Racing team was handed last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for unsecured windshield fasteners.

“Obviously, you don’t want to be in the middle of those situations, but I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other,” Harvick said Saturday. “I can see it both ways. I did my job. I don’t know any other way to say that. I did my job, and the rest of it is open for debate as to who did what and [if] the rule is good or bad.”

The No. 4 crossed the finish line at Talladega side-by-side with Ryan Blaney and came up 0.012s short of the victory. In his final season as a full-time driver, Harvick was leading going down the backstretch before Blaney pulled a crossover move to the left that set the two up to fight to the finish.

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As his career winds down, Harvick, who was eliminated from the postseason in the first round, came the closest he’s been to a victory last weekend before the disqualification. He and his team were last victorious in the summer of 2022.

NASCAR found that seven of the eight top windshield fasteners on Harvick’s No. 4 Ford were either missing or loose when going through post-race inspection. Cup Series managing director Brad Moran explained it was visible to the naked eye, and the rule states all windshield fasteners must be secure throughout the entire event.

“I don’t know all the scenarios from either side, so I hear it from both sides and can see it from both sides in some way, shape or form,” Harvick said. “But I didn’t dig deep into whether it was just or unjust. I just went home and heard the news like everybody else, and I went on with my week.”

Reddick sets Roval pole in Toyota front row lockout

A pair of Toyota teammates locked down the front row for the NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at the Charlotte Roval. Tyler Reddick earned the pole for Sunday’s race with a lap of 102.839mph (81.214s). It’s Reddick’s second pole of the season, …

A pair of Toyota teammates locked down the front row for the NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at the Charlotte Roval.

Tyler Reddick earned the pole for Sunday’s race with a lap of 102.839mph (81.214s). It’s Reddick’s second pole of the season, first on the Roval, and the sixth of his career.

Christopher Bell qualified second at 102.695mph. Bell is the defending race winner.

Daniel Suarez qualified third (102.603mph), Bubba Wallace fourth (102.569mph), Kyle Busch fifth (102.494mph), AJ Allmendinger sixth (102.353mph), Joey Logano seventh (102.203mph) and Chase Elliott eighth (102.200mph).

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Denny Hamlin spun on his qualifying lap in the final round and did not record a lap. Hamlin wheel hopped on the backstretch and the car took a hard hit going over curbing.

The spin also affected Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs — also on track but unable to post a time as Hamlin’s spin ended the session.

Martin Truex Jr. qualified 11th, Ross Chastain 12th and William Byron 14th. Byron is already locked into the next round of the playoffs.

Ryan Blaney, also locked into the Round of 8, qualified 17th. Brad Keselowski qualified 19th and Chris Buescher 20th.

Following a crash in practice, Kyle Larson did not post a lap. He will be in a backup car and start from the rear of the field.

STARTING LINEUP

Larson crashes and Wallace fastest in eventful Roval practice

Kyle Larson will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in a backup car after crashing in practice. He hit the wall coming out of the infield section of the road course and …

Kyle Larson will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in a backup car after crashing in practice.

He hit the wall coming out of the infield section of the road course and onto the oval. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet got loose when making the transition onto the banking and hit the wall with the right front and then the right rear.

The 2021 series champion will not post a qualifying lap as the team makes the change to the backup car. Larson is 15 points above the playoff grid cutline.

“I just got loose entering [Turn] 8 and overcorrected and got the right front into the wall,” Larson said. “It gets bouncy over there, and it stepped out on me.”

Larson, however, wasn’t the only playoff driver to encounter trouble in practice. Christopher Bell was going down the backstretch toward the chicane when the No. 20 Toyota moved to the right and bounced off the wall.

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23XI Racing teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick led the practice session. Wallace was fastest at 102.295mph (81.646s), while Reddick was second on the chart at 102.210mph.

Chase Briscoe was third fastest at 102.062mph, Corey LaJoie fourth at 101.983mph and AJ Allmendinger fifth at 101.957mph.

Ty Gibbs was sixth at 101.814mph, Daniel Suarez seventh at 101.725mph, Larson eighth at 101.692mph, Joey Logano ninth at 101.665mph and Chase Elliott 10th at 101.607mph.

The remaining playoff drivers in practice were Ryan Blaney (12th), Denny Hamlin (15th), Bell (17th), Ross Chastain (18th), Martin Truex Jr. (19th), Chris Buescher (20th), Brad Keselowski (21st), Kyle Busch (26th), and William Byron (29th).

The only other incident was Ty Dillon hitting the wall coming off Turn 1, damaging the right side of his Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

There are 37 drivers entered in the Bank of America Roval 400.