Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 highlighted both Kyle Larson’s dominant performance and Tyler Reddick’s dramatic advance into the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Larson secured his second Playoff win of the season, once again excelling in an elimination race.
Mirroring his dominant performance in the final Round of 16 race at Bristol, Larson took control at the restart of Stage 2 and led 62 of the last 82 laps at the 2.28-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. He finished 1.511 seconds ahead of Christopher Bell, with third-place finisher William Byron trailing by 8.965 seconds.
“It’s really the first time I haven’t been close to the cut line during the Playoffs, so it was nice to have a stress-free weekend,” Larson said, reflecting on his smooth path to the finish.
His previous Roval win came during his 2021 championship season. Larson also credited his simulator work during the week for helping him get into a rhythm.
With his sixth win of the season, Larson advanced along with teammates Byron and fifth-place finisher Chase Elliott. This victory also marked Larson’s second win at the Roval and the 29th of his career.
Meanwhile, Reddick had an up and down kind of day. Reddick took the Stage One win, but the 23XI driver’s race wasn’t without its challenges. After avoiding a wreck in Turn 7 and sustaining damage to his car, his team worked hard to repair the vehicle during caution periods. Despite the damage, Reddick’s car regained competitiveness for the final stage.
“I thought I was going to flip,” Reddick said of the wreck. “My team did an amazing job keeping the car in the race, and we kept fighting.”
Crew chief Billy Scott’s decision to bring Reddick in for fresh tires proved crucial in the final laps, helping him climb back through the field and stay in contention for the Round of 8.
With Reddick’s resurgence and eventual finish, it was thought that Joey Logano had been eliminated from the Playoffs. But after the race, Alex Bowman’s Chevrolet failed to meet NASCAR’s weight requirements during inspection, leading to his disqualification. This moved Logano back above the cut line and into the Round of 8.
NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran, who spoke to the media following the announcement, said the Hendrick Motorsports car failed to meet minimum weight during an inspection of playoff cars.
“As we were running through, we had an issue and the [No.] 48 did not meet minimum weight,” Moran told reporters post-race. “We put the car to the side and carried on. … We gave them the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the wire system and add water. We gave them every opportunity to make minimum weight. We ran them back through and unfortunately they were light again.
“They are allowed a (.5%) weight break for usage of fluids and so on. That’s about 17 lbs. We backed the car off the scales, ran it back on, and unfortunately it was the same weight.”
Moran opted not to disclose any further details on the No. 48 with a pending appeal. He also expects the appeal to be expedited in order to ensure a clear playoff field before the series races at Homestead Miami Speedway next Sunday.
“We can’t get into that,” Moran said. “Obviously, we’re going to have an appeal process that’s in play. We’re not getting into all the details of the car. The car did not meet our rule of minimum weight. If the appeal happens it’ll be expedited so it’ll probably happen in the next couple of days.”
Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement on Sunday night that they were “working to understand the issue and will make a decision Monday about whether to submit an appeal.”
Bowman, who had been above the cut line before his disqualification, lost his place, would have made him the fourth Hendrick Motorsports driver in the next round.
Also on the sidelines of the playoffs were Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe. This left Ryan Blaney and Logano as the only Ford drivers still in the Playoff hunt.
At the checkered flag, AJ Allmendinger finished sixth, followed by Shane van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace, Blaney and Reddick.