Well the round of 8 for the NASCAR playoffs is set, but it was quite a bumpy path that got us here. Sunday’s Bank of American Roval 400 proved costly for many playoff contenders. The race proved to be pretty exciting as plenty of drama nearly cost several of the series’ best drivers. Hendrick Motorsports looked like they were cruising to all four of their cars reaching the Round of 8. Boy, how things changed quickly by the end of the day.
Wow the new changes to the layout of the Charlotte Roval, did not disappoint. Turn seven in particular proved to be quite the passing zone. Sure it wasn’t textbook by any means. The drivers themselves certainly found a new meaning of track limits. The Roval is notorious for what the racing world likes to call ‘turtles’ the pieces of curbing putdown instead of rumble strips. The drivers fully understood what those turtles could do on Sunday.
From cars getting airborne to drivers getting clear out, Sunday’s race had it all. Did I forget to mention a disqualification following post-race inspection completely changed the Round of 8? Let’s take a closer look at the chaos from Sunday’s race.
Charlotte Roval Proves Costly For Playoff Contenders
While Kyle Larson was busy commanding the race and securing his spot in the Round of 8, the rest of the playoff field had a fight on their hands. Most of the playoff contenders couldn’t relax on Sunday. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin both started the race below the cutline going in. Though they weren’t in a must-win situation like Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez found themselves.
Trouble was brewing around every turn on Sunday. Suarez whose first career win came on a road course just couldn’t get things right on Sunday. He stayed in the fight all race, but his chances were buried after his troubles at Talladega. As for Briscoe, his day went bleak early on, as he wound up being one of the first cars out of the race.
Bowman looked like a sure-fire dark horse for the Championship all playoffs, as he was near the top in scoring points thus far. His day got hairy during the first few laps of the race. Bowman caught the curb on the front stretch chicane, and caught a little air, before bouncing off the wall near the start-finish line, which kept him going straight, but it pretty much made his day tougher.
His day got a lot worse following the race, but more on that in a bit.
The new layout also made turn seven the most exciting point on the track. Tyler Reddick has quite the story to tell about his experience at that point of the track.
Reddick Catches Air, Nearly Costing Himself and Team Owner
Reddick took advantage of strategy to win the opening stage of the race. The downside to that was he and many other good cars had to start at the back of the field for the start of the second stage. Given how chaotic restarts can be especially at road courses, Reddick and Elliott, and even Hamlin were in for a tough climb back to the front.
It was in the midst of stage two, that Reddick found himself going curb hopping in turn seven. While Austin Dillon’s No. 3 lost control well after the corner, Reddick was carrying too much speed into the sharp turn, and caught air going over the turtles, and his rear wheels were off the ground. Though his boss, Hamlin was the next car to his right and took quite a shot in the door from Reddick’s No. 45. It was certainly a sight to see, as the NBC cameras didn’t see the live shot of Reddick catching air. Several replays told the real story.
Tyler Reddick had a CRAZY DAY, passing 15 cars after the final restart to advance to the Round of 8.
Relive the highlights from the No. 45 team. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/SAEA3C4fVs
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 13, 2024
Despite concerns of a broken toe link, after the significant blow, Reddick’s team fought tooth and nail to keep him in the fight. Boy did Reddick deliver on it. He was able to get his car back into the hunt, late in the race, and thanks to some good breaks on strategy by Crew Chief Billy Scott, Reddick was able to pass enough cars to get him ahead of Logano for the final spot in the round of 8 at that time.
Reddick Shares What the Ride Felt Like
Reddick’s wild day at the Roval was very clear during his postrace interview, he even thought he could’ve flipped according to motorsport.com.
” Yeah, I thought I was gonna flip, Reddick said. ” I think I was behind the No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) just trying to work the move to the inside. I got clear of him- I saw the No. 3 (Dillon) spun and everybody was on the binders coming to a stop. Of course, me and my boss (Hamlin) get together. Felt like I was gonna do a front flip- this thing was absolutely destroyed. Just real hats off to everybody on this Monster Energy Camry. This thing couldn’t go four seconds of what the pace was. And we just kept working on it and we made it a lot better for Stage 3.”
He fought like crazy and got the job done. Though Logano felt like the loser in that moment things certainly changed in a hurry during post-race inspection.
Bowman Disqualification Gives Joey Logano Another Shot
A massive sinker from NASCAR in post-race inspection dropped, just hours after Alex Bowman thought he was going to still fight for a championship.
His No. 48 car was found to not meet minimum weight requirements, per NASCAR officials. And so the car and driver were disqualified from the race. So his stage two and points from the race were invalid, and he was moved to a last-place finish, knocking him out of the playoffs.
Cue, the Team Penske and Joey Logano fan cheers. Yep, that’s right Logano in, Bowman out.
The NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran was very clear in the explanation for the DQ according to Zach Sturniolo from NASCAR.com.
“Unfortunately, the 48 had an issue (and) did not meet minimum weight,” Moran said. “We put the car to the side. We continued on. We … gave them the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the water system and add water. So we gave them every opportunity to make minimum weight. Unfortunately, they were light again. They are allowed a 9.5% weight break, which is for usage of fluids and so on. That’s about 17 pounds. We backed the car off the scales, ran it back, and then, unfortunately, it was the same weight. So the car had a weight issue. All the other cars cleared inspection. The 48 didn’t, and that ends up in a disqualification.”
It’s honestly a crappy situation for a guy that has delivered a great effort during the playoffs. The biggest issue in this is that no exact amount of weight was given. That doesn’t sit well with me in my opinion, but what can I do? As for Hendrick Motorsports response to what happened. They aren’t appealing and feel terrible about the whole situation according to a statement released by the team on Monday.
Hendrick won’t appeal the Bowman disqualification. They said they didn’t give themselves enough of a margin to meet the postrace standards (no explanation on how the car lost the weight). Team statement: pic.twitter.com/pPtbeKVloZ
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 14, 2024
It sucks no matter how you put but the round of 8 is set. The remaining playoff contenders should be ready for some fun in Sin City.
