What Happened?
Shane van Gisbergen earned his fifth NASCAR Cup Series victory this season by passing Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell with less than 15 laps to go at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell finished behind them to complete the top five.
Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric were all eliminated from this year’s Cup Series playoffs.
What Really Happened?
It was only four weeks ago that fans were upset over the lack of tire degradation and passing at World Wide Technology Raceway. It was a common theme that has ailed much of the 2025 season. Even tracks that have been exception with the Next Gen car, such as Kansas Speedway, have been lackluster for much of the year.
For four straight weeks, however, that narrative seems to have disappeared.
And it kind of feels like it’s because of Goodyear.
It began at Bristol Motor Speedway when the beloved pee-pee tire returned. Its high falloff provided a much-needed challenge to drivers and an unpredictable element to what has otherwise been a boring short track with the Next Gen in the last two races there.
Then, there was New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It certainly wasn’t the best race ever at the Northeastern track, but it certainly wasn’t the worst, either. Additionally, it still had the element of tire wear, which seemingly gave the field the ability to actually pass each other and gave fans differing strategies to watch.
Then Kansas happened, which saw race winner Chase Elliott go from 10th to first in an overtime restart because he had fresher tires than those ahead of him.
Now we look at Sunday, and there was no shortage of emphasis on tire wear at the ROVAL, either. As a result, drivers were forced to conserve their tires and crew chiefs were forced to come up with altering strategies that played a key factor all day. Additionally, this year’s ROVAL race saw the most lead changes for the event in the Next Gen car despite having the least amount of cautions in its entire history.
On-track performance feels like it’s starting to matter again. Pit strategies are starting to matter again, while track position, in most cases, is starting to not matter as much.
Regardless of how you feel this year started, you have to admit Goodyear’s tires over the last few weeks have been giving this year a positive flip in race quality.
Who Stood Out?
Is anyone surprised?
Guaranteed winners don’t come into NASCAR very often. There’s a few times in the sport’s history that a certain driver or team truly was favored to win so much more than everyone else that it wasn’t a contest. Richard Petty at weekday short tracks with fields of 15 cars in the early 60’s, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated at restrictor plate races from 2002 – 2004 and Kevin Harvick at Phoenix Raceway come to mind.
But even then, none of them were favored as much as SVG at road courses.
Even when Reddick outqualified the Kiwi driver on Saturday afternoon, van Gisbergen was still the +100 odds-on favorite to win on Sunday. On lap 4, he backed that up when he took the lead from Reddick and went on to lead 57 of the race’s 109 laps en route to winning the event.
Even more impressive, he did it with a 15-second lead over second-place Larson and Bell, who both seemed to be the only drivers that could actually compete with the Trackhouse Racing driver all day.
In fact, in the final stage of the race, both Bell and Larson seemed to reveal a scratch on van Gisbergen’s road course armor when they actually passed SVG during a stretch of green flag racing. It was perhaps the only time anybody has been able to do so on speed at a road course since Mexico City.
And it put on one heck of a show.
In all, it was an expected win for the former Australian Supercars star and a record-extending fifth win of his rookie season, increasing his hold on the all-time record for Cup rookies.
Who Fell Flat?
There was no doubt about it, Chastain had a faster car than playoff rival Joey Logano on Sunday. However, with one lap to go, he found himself only one position short of a Round of 8 berth and in a desperate situation.
Even worse, it was his fault.
With the dominance of SVG, it was very unlikely Wallace, Reddick or Cindric were going to win themselves into the next playoff round. That left only Chastain to compete against the bubble-riding Logano, and it was a battle of pit stop speed and mistakes between the Nos. 1 and 22 all day on Sunday.
In stage two, Chastain was the first to experience a pitting issue when he locked up while approaching the pit exit. The No. 1 went from top 15 to 30th in mere moments as a result, handing Logano a comfortable points cushion.
However, the Trackhouse Chevrolet stayed out rather than pitting for faster tires and finished fourth in stage two, gaining more points on Logano.
Then, it was the No. 22’s turn for a pit mishap when he had a slow stop and lost spots while under green flag racing conditions. Chastain was then ahead of the Team Penske driver by only a couple of points in the final green flag run of the race. All he had to do was not mess up his last pit stop cycle.
And then he did.
With only a few laps remaining, the No. 1 was below the cutline again and had to wade through the field a second time to try and cut the points margin to Logano.
And he actually did. With only 11 laps to go, crew chief Paul Wolfe pitted Logano one last time in a gamble to try and give the No. 22 just enough speed to gain enough positions for points.
With one lap to go, it worked. Denny Hamlin passed Chastain upon the two entering NASCAR turn 1 after taking the white flag, putting the Trackhouse driver back below the cutline by one position.
But anybody who has watched Chastain long enough knew what was about to happen. The Floridian is well-known for last-lap acts of playoff desperation.
Unfortunately for the watermelon farmer, his last-second Hail Mary didn’t work as well as it did in 2022. He took both Hamlin and himself out. Logano advanced by only four points.
Paint Scheme of the Race
In a field full of hot pink window nets, it only makes sense the car that out-pinked everyone else with vibrant pastel colors is this week’s honored scheme.
And boy, did Spire Motorsports do just that with Carson Hocevar‘s No. 77 scheme.
You’ve got to hand it to Spire’s latest sponsor in Modo Casino, they sure crafted a vibrant and visually appealing design.
What’s Next?
The Round of 8 begins as the 2025 NASCAR season comes to a close.
The Cup Series will take on Sin City in Las Vegas Motor Speedway where someone in the playoffs will attempt to punch their ticket into the Championship 4.
The 400-mile race will be live on USA Network with coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 12.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT