Who… should you be talking about after the race?
The NASCAR Cup Series visited its final road course of the season at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL on Sunday. Charlotte’s infield course is tight and challenging and has been a source of playoff drama every year since the series switched from the oval in 2018.
This time, it was road course business as usual for Shane van Gisbergen vs. the field. Despite charges by Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, the field went home empty-handed for the fifth straight time.
Van Gisbergen took the lead for the first time on lap 4, and it was apparent that nobody could outdrive him, particularly on long runs. SVG led eight times for a race-high 57 laps, winning the Bank of America ROVAL 400 over Larson by over 15 seconds.
Larson and Bell both gave van Gisbergen some competition during the race. Larson, in particular, went door-to-door with the No. 88 for a couple of laps, but van Gisbergen was able to put his car in spots where Larson could not.
The race marks van Gisbergen’s fifth win of 2025 and the sixth of his career, all on road courses. He is one win away from tying four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon’s streak of six straight road course wins.
On the other hand…
Despite doing everything he could to take a spot in the top eight, moving on to the next round of the playoffs, Ross Chastain fell just short on Sunday. While the No. 1 team’s tire strategy didn’t play out as they hoped, Chastain made a pair of mistakes that he couldn’t overcome. First, he missed the tight turn at the exit of pit road when exiting in a large group and lost several spots. On a subsequent stop, Chastain drew a speeding penalty.
He had two top-five stage finishes and held an advantage after final stops, but drivers with fresher tires were able to pass him by. On the final lap, Denny Hamlin, representing the deciding position, also got by. Chastain fought for the spot, spinning with Hamlin coming out of the frontstretch chicane heading for the checkers.
Chastain, fighting to the last, threw the No. 1 into reverse and crossed the finish line, but it was too little, too late, as he finished 21st and missed the cut.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
The title hunt is down to its final weeks, and perhaps no round of the playoffs is more cutthroat and competitive than the Round of 8. Hamlin starts out on top, but after the points reset, he’s just eight points ahead of the elimination cut line, with 24 points separating the entire remaining playoff field. He admitted after the race that if he had known the points situation, he might have raced differently.
Hamlin leads Ryan Blaney by just two points after a Charlotte race that was fairly forgettable for both drivers. Thanks to his runner-up result Sunday, which also included second and sixth-place stage points, Larson sits third, four markers behind Hamlin, tied with teammate William Byron at four points ahead of Bell, who will go to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next week as the first driver below the cut line. The Chases—Briscoe and Elliott—are currently tied for sixth, 14 points under the cut line, with Joey Logano bringing up the rear with 24 points to make up.
While Larson and Bell duked it out to finish second and third on Sunday, the rest of the top eight didn’t really spin up any momentum to carry to the next round. Logano secured the last spot by staying out of trouble and finishing 20th. Even Hamlin has just a 23rd-place finish to take home, and while he did lose several spots on a last-lap shootout with Chastain, he didn’t have a particularly energizing day.
All in all, nobody really leaves this round looking to have a huge edge.
Where… did he come from?
Another week, another quietly strong performance for Ryan Preece. Preece started 29th on Sunday but worked his way through the field with sound strategy, finishing sixth.
It was a good day for RFK Racing overall, with Chris Buescher qualifying fifth and finishing fourth and Brad Keselowski running well for most of the day until he was sidelined by a mechanical failure late.
Preece is having a career year, but he’s also starting to run with the big dogs more regularly. He has more top 10s than Logano and matches Chastain in top fives and top 10s and bests him in laps led. Preece also has a pole. The one thing he’s lacked this year is a win, and that’s looking like it could be just around the corner.
When… was the moment of truth?
With van Gisbergen running away and hiding at the front, the focus of the race turned to the playoffs (if it was ever really off them). And one thing is glaringly apparent: Logano has this playoff system figured out.
Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe narrowly avoided elimination (again) and now find themselves three races away from a possible title race.
Logano starts the Round of 8 24 points below the cut line, but a win could change all of that. He has a total of eight wins at the next three tracks: four at Las Vegas, three at Talladega Superspeedway and one at Martinsville Speedway. He can decide his own destiny in this round if the No. 22 team can put together a winning weekend.
Logano entered the playoffs looking like one of the weaker links. He has just 10 top 10s all season. His finish at Charlotte wasn’t really anything to write home about, but it was just enough.
Should Logano set up another title run, it will be an impressive feat for a team backed into a corner more than once. But it’ll also be another black mark against the system that allows for mediocrity to prevail in the end.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
With just four races to go on the season, the Round of 8 kicks off for the remaining playoff drivers at Las Vegas. With Talladega also looming large, there is nothing the remaining playoff drivers would like more than to wrap up a win in Sin City.
Who has the best shot? If history means anything, you might want to put your money on defending race winner Logano.
His four LVMS wins are the most among active drivers, and another one would break a tie with Jimmie Johnson for the most all-time. Larson is tied for second on the list with three wins along with Keselowski. Larson’s 9.4 average finish edges Logano’s 9.8. Other playoff drivers with LVMS wins include Hamlin and Byron.
Keselowski is a solid non-playoff pick. Spring race winner Josh Berry will be looking for a bounceback from a recent slump, and Alex Bowman also has a Vegas win if you’re looking for a different flavor this week.
How… did this race stack up?
The late chaos and Chastain’s backwards drive to the finish will make fans remember this race more fondly than they probably should.
It did have its moments; van Gisbergen’s battle with Larson for the lead in the final stage was a good one, and there was plenty of beating and banging to go around. The playoff drama also made it seem like a better race than it was.
But was it a great race? Not really.
The ROVAL has produced some good racing over the years, and it certainly has produced the chaos. A better tire with more wear has helped.
But while the track has produced memorable moments, that hasn’t translated into great races. Without the broadcast centering on the playoff elimination, it would have been just okay.
The road course-heavy schedule worked with the Gen 6 racecar, which was a dog on intermediate ovals, but it has the opposite effect with the Next Gen car, which is decent on the intermediates and below average everywhere else.
While a road course should absolutely be in the playoff mix, it might be time to retire this one and move Watkins Glen International into the first round, and drop the total to four races on the year. Charlotte’s oval has been decently racy with the current car.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.