NASCAR at Charlotte: AJ Allmendinger hangs on to win at Roval; William Byron second
Charlotte Observer NASCAR reporter Shane Connuck will be passing along updates from today’s Cup Series playoff race at the Charlotte Roval. Follow those musings below. Refresh this page as needed.
Updates have concluded for this race. For the latest on the eight drivers who advanced to the Round of 8, click here.
Unofficial results
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Time behind | Best time | Best speed |
| 1 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | -- | 81.981 | 101.877 |
| 2 | 24 | William Byron (P) | 0.666 | 82.268 | 101.522 |
| 3 | 8 | Kyle Busch (P) | 3.094 | 82.228 | 101.571 |
| 4 | 54 | Ty Gibbs # | 3.418 | 82.454 | 101.293 |
| 5 | 22 | Joey Logano | 4.07 | 82.105 | 101.723 |
| 6 | 45 | Tyler Reddick (P) | 5.168 | 82.039 | 101.805 |
| 7 | 17 | Chris Buescher (P) | 5.898 | 82.555 | 101.169 |
| 8 | 48 | Alex Bowman | 6.812 | 81.837 | 102.057 |
| 9 | 9 | Chase Elliott (P) | 7.992 | 82.05 | 101.792 |
| 10 | 1 | Ross Chastain (P) | 10.438 | 82.291 | 101.493 |
| 11 | 41 | Ryan Preece | 11.057 | 82.969 | 100.664 |
| 12 | 12 | Ryan Blaney (P) | 11.413 | 82.668 | 101.031 |
| 13 | 5 | Kyle Larson (P) | 11.821 | 82.405 | 101.353 |
| 14 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 12.188 | 82.684 | 101.011 |
| 15 | 20 | Christopher Bell (P) | 12.664 | 81.973 | 101.887 |
| 16 | 23 | Bubba Wallace (P) | 13.133 | 82.015 | 101.835 |
| 17 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | 13.917 | 82.969 | 100.664 |
| 18 | 6 | Brad Keselowski (P) | 14.556 | 82.924 | 100.719 |
| 19 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 15.301 | 82.398 | 101.362 |
| 20 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. (P) | 15.808 | 82.657 | 101.044 |
| 21 | 10 | Aric Almirola | 17.128 | 82.888 | 100.762 |
| 22 | 31 | Justin Haley | 18.835 | 82.964 | 100.67 |
| 23 | 51 | Todd Gilliland | 21.283 | 82.938 | 100.702 |
| 24 | 21 | Harrison Burton | 22.586 | 82.624 | 101.084 |
| 25 | 2 | Austin Cindric | 22.977 | 82.416 | 101.34 |
| 26 | 78 | Josh Bilicki(i) | 24.804 | 83.475 | 100.054 |
| 27 | 62 | * Austin Hill(i) | 25.175 | 82.887 | 100.764 |
| 28 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | 26.18 | 82.619 | 101.091 |
| 29 | 42 | Mike Rockenfeller | 26.314 | 83.221 | 100.359 |
| 30 | 38 | Zane Smith(i) | 27.281 | 82.704 | 100.987 |
| 31 | 77 | Ty Dillon | 31.038 | 83.793 | 99.674 |
| 32 | 34 | Michael McDowell | 51.381 | 82.156 | 101.66 |
| 33 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | 56.751 | 82.2 | 101.606 |
| 34 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | -13 | 82.43 | 101.322 |
| 35 | 15 | Andy Lally(i) | -25 | 82.891 | 100.759 |
| 36 | 43 | Erik Jones | -30 | 82.9 | 100.748 |
| 37 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (P) | -33 | 82.955 | 100.681 |
Stage 3
Lap 109: Checkers! AL Allmendinger hangs on. A dominant third stage for Allmendinger brings him a win at the Charlotte Roval!
Lap 107: Two to go and AJ Allmendinger is still hanging on in front. William Byron on his bumper. Neither will factor into the playoff race right now, unless they wreck.
Lap 103: With 6 to go, Allmendinger still leads and William Byron. Kyle Busch in third, Ty Gibbs in fourth. Will be interesting to see what Kyle Busch does in the final five.
Lap 99: Green green green! Kyle Busch, now in second, stalking AJ Allmendinger for the lead. Reminder, of course, if Busch wins, he’s in, and either Martin Truex or Tyler Reddick is out.
BUT, Busch spins his tires on the restart. William Byron gets into second and Busch falls to third. Allmendinger still in front.
Lap 97: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. catches fire and brings out another caution. Like, real fire. Very strange.
Lap 96: Back to green after another yellow, this one after Bell gets into the back of Suarez, ever so slightly, and spins him. Barrison Burton was the first to pit from 20th position. LaJoie, Rockenfeller, Keselowski, McDowell and Bilicki also pit. None of the leaders bit.
Lap 92: The skirmish has clarified the playoff order a bit, though. Let’s recap that here:
▪ Byron, Blaney and Hamlin are in the first two with wins, Hamlin on points.
▪ Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. are the next five, and none of them are within 20 points of the cut line.
▪ Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch are all at least 20 points out. Obviously any one of those drivers winning would change things. Busch is running third, but Allmendinger is building his lead out again after that last caution.
Lap 89: Bubba Wallace a victim of a Daniel Suarez miscue, and he is now last among playoff drivers. Austin Cindric also caught up in that. No one stopped in the line of traffic, though, and no caution. The mishap caused Wallace to miss a chicane, though, and he had to stop on the track as a penalty.
Lap 85: Andy Lally crashes and initially avoids bringing out a caution, but the only place he ultimately had to bail was the exit to pit road, so they bring out the yellow to clear his car.
AL Allmendinger is still your leader. Kyle Busch, who is in a must-win scenario to advance to the Round of 8, is lurking in 3rd. William Byron is in fourth, already holding a key to the Round of 8.
As they run, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Busch would be eliminated. Martin Truex Jr. is the transfer driver, on the bubble with a slim cushion. Coming up on 20 to go.
Lap 80: Caution is out, and two separate incident both nearly collect Martin Truex Jr.... but he survives them both. The 43 and 34 — Jones and McDowell — are toast after Stenhouse spun Jones.
At the front during all that, AJ Allmendinger was barely holding off Ty Gibbs, a pair of non-playoff drivers dueling in front. William Byron, who’s already in, and Kyle Busch, who needs to win, are running 3-4. Joey Logano sitting in fifth now.
Lap 76: Denny Hamlin, who’s already in on points, has problems and loses control in one of the chicanes. His right rear is damaged, and given his standing, he may just shut it down for the day. His right rear tire was not facing in the proper direction.
Yellow flag will bunch the field. Also hurts Ryan Blaney, who now won’t have the 18-second grace on a pit stop to the field. That said, he’s ALSO already safe after a previous win.
Lap 74: Ryan Blaney never came to the pits, and is about 33 laps into his fuel, which means he only has a few more laps to run. That said, he leads the field all by himself, some 19 seconds ahead. That will make where he ends up back on the track interesting.
Of those who have pitted, AJ Allmendinger is still “in front,” with Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, William Byron and Chris Buesher following.
Lap 70: Kyle Busch pits. he’s the first to come in, and there are 39 laps to go. He SHOULD be good to go the rest of the way.
Michael McDowell has a tire issue, which sends a ton of cars to the pits just in case a yellow comes out. AJ Allmendinger was coming anyway. This will be interestng on strategy.
Lap 68: The run up front as they have for the past little while. AJ Allmendinger leads Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher. Allmendinger is more than 3 seconds up.
As they run, Bubba Wallace is 14 points below the cut line. Ross Chastain is chasing 17 points. Martin Truex Jr. is that eighth and final car at the moment.
Lap 62: As they run, two drivers — William Byron and Ryan Blaney — are automatically in the Round of 8 with wins, and Denny Hamlin has earned enough points, meaning he’s also in. That leaves five spots for nine drivers, with a big ol’ jumble in spots 4-9.
Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher are among the drivers more secure than others.
Those still outside looking in: Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch.
Lap 59: AJ Allmendinger is now the leader. Kyle Busch let him go by, and then made slight contact with the wall. Busch is currently running second overall, but is now last in points among remaining playoff drivers.
Lap 57: AJ Allmendinger has been the story so far in Stage 3, not for the fact that he’s a playoff guy, but that he’s running so well and so smoothly behind race leader Kyle Busch. Busch will likely need to win to get in, or pretty close to it. He’s running there now.
William Byron is settled into third, Ty Gibbs in fourth and Chris Buescher in fifth.
Lap 52: As Stage 3 begins under yellow, Kyle Busch is going to start up front after his pit strategy allows him to be there. Denny Hamlin has some relief: He’s already advanced on points, regardless of outcome today.
Stage 2
Lap 50: Stage 2 comes to an end under caution, with Chase Elliott leading the last 14 laps to collect the stage win.
Your Top 10: Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Martin Truex Jr., Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch. Fifty-nine laps are in the final stage.
Lap 47: Caution flag is out! Josh Bilicki gets off Pit Road and makes contact with Corey LaJoie. Pit Road is now closed toward the end of Stage 2.
Lap 43: Chase Elliott remains in the lead by more than three seconds, but there’s a lot going on behind him! AJ Allmendinger passed Christopher Bell for second place, and then Bell pushed his teammate, Ty Gibbs, into third place.
Lap 36: Chase Elliott powers past Christopher Bell and takes the lead! The No. 9 Chevy was running about two-and-a-half car lengths behind Bell during the last lap and eventually passed him. The front of the pack has gotten much tighter.
Your Top 10: Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, William Byron and Michael McDowell.
Lap 30: We’re green again as the stage break caution has ended! Christopher Bell races to the front, ahead of Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez.
Stage 1
Lap 25: And Stage 1 comes to a close! Pole-sitter Tyler Reddick goes wire-to-wire and collects the stage win (10 stage points). Significant gain already for the driver of the No. 45 car, who entered Sunday two points below the cut line.
Your Top 10 after Stage 1, with the 23XI Racing duo in front: Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger.
Lap 23: Christopher Bell, running in second place, drives down Pit Road. He’s giving up the stage points in favor of trying to keep his track position. Still, an efficient pit stop got the No. 20 car out quickly and he’s now running fifth.
Lap 22: Several cars are coming down Pit Road as Stage 1 winds down, including Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola.
Lap 18: Brad Keselowski missed a chicane on the front stretch and received a penalty. He’s now running 19th.
Lap 12: Not much movement in the front roughly midway through Stage 1. Your Top 10: Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain.
Lap 5: Back in 27th place, Erik Jones spins! No caution flag is waved.
Lap 4: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had to pit early, as the No. 47 car had a broken rear toe link.
Green flag, 2:39 p.m.: Green green green! We’re racing at the Charlotte Roval!
2:30 p.m.: Cars are on the Roval! Green flag coming soon.
2:27 p.m.: “Start your engines!” WWE superstar Liv Morgan is today’s Grand Marshal. Engines are fired!
2:06 p.m.: Denny Hamlin was met with a deluge of boos upon being introduced. I wrote about how the “villain” role is fueling the longtime driver’s confidence earlier in the week.
Noon: The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continue Sunday at the Roval — a road course on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s infield.
Tyler Reddick won the pole and will lead the field to green, followed by Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch. Kyle Larson slammed the wall on a turn during qualifying on Saturday and will start the race 36th, driving a backup car.
So, when exactly will this race start? The invocation is scheduled for 2:14 p.m. The national anthem will be heard at 2:15. Command is at 2:22, setting up the green flag at 2:34 p.m.
Odds/Prediction for Sunday’s race
The 2019 and 2020 winner at the Roval, Chase Elliott is the favorite for Sunday’s race at 11-2 odds, according to CBS Sports. He’s followed by Tyler Reddick (13-2), William Byron (7-1), Kyle Larson (17-2) and Michael McDowell (9-1).
Shane Connuck is predicting Martin Truex Jr. to win this year’s Charlotte Roval. The regular season champion and No. 2 seed in the playoffs entered last elimination race below the cut line but rebounded to advance. Now sixth in the playoff standings, Truex may not need a win to advance, but anything can happen in a race like this. He’s due for a strong finish after running around the middle of the pack in each of his last three races, and his last Top 10 finish came at Watkins Glen — another road course.
Required Reading/Viewing
- From Mexico to Huntersville: Daniel Suarez reflects on journey to NASCAR Cup Series
Defending champ: Charlotte Roval unique — and important — as NASCAR playoff elimination race
Love him or hate him, Denny Hamlin is in NASCAR Cup Series playoff contention — again
Watch: NASCAR Cup Series legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks playoffs, Charlotte Roval
NASCAR Cup Series playoffs return to Charlotte Roval. Latest news, odds, how to watch
NASCAR at Charlotte: Sam Mayer needs perfection, and nearly has it, in Xfinity Series win
How Ryan Blaney’s win shook up the NASCAR playoff race headed to the Charlotte Roval
Starting lineup for the Bank of America Roval 400
| Pos. | Driver | # |
1 | Tyler Reddick | 45 |
2 | Christopher Bell | 20 |
3 | Daniel Suarez | 99 |
4 | Bubba Wallace | 23 |
5 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
6 | AJ Allmendinger | 16 |
7 | Joey Logano | 22 |
8 | Chase Elliott | 9 |
9 | Denny Hamlin | 11 |
10 | Ty Gibbs | 54 |
11 | Martin Truex Jr. | 19 |
12 | Ross Chastain | 1 |
13 | Michael McDowell | 34 |
14 | William Byron | 24 |
15 | Austin Dillon | 3 |
16 | Alex Bowman | 48 |
17 | Ryan Blaney | 12 |
18 | Ryan Preece | 41 |
19 | Brad Keselowski | 6 |
20 | Chris Buescher | 17 |
21 | Aric Almirola | 10 |
22 | Kevin Harvick | 4 |
23 | Erik Jones | 43 |
24 | Corey LaJoie | 7 |
25 | Justin Haley | 31 |
26 | Mike Rockenfeller | 42 |
27 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 47 |
28 | Josh Bilicki | 78 |
29 | Austin Cindric | 2 |
30 | Chase Briscoe | 14 |
31 | Harrison Burton | 21 |
32 | Todd Gilliland | 51 |
33 | Austin Hill | 62 |
34 | Zane Smith | 38 |
35 | Andy Lally | 15 |
36 | Kyle Larson | 5 |
37 | Ty Dillon | 77 |
How to watch the Bank of America Roval 400
Place: Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Concord)
Race: Bank of America Roval 400
Date: Sunday, Oct. 8
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR
Purse: $7,689,910
Distance: 252.88 miles (109 laps)
Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 25; Stage 2 ends on Lap 50 and the Final Stage ends on Lap 109
This story was originally published October 8, 2023 at 11:57 AM.