Ricky Stenhouse Jr. found victory lane once again and threw the playoff battle into a tizzy. Combined with the huge wreck late in Stage 3, the Charlotte Roval will play an outsized role in determining the next round of the playoff picture.
Christopher Bell is safe but with Ross Chastain and Stenhouse each stealing a win in this Round of 12, the stakes for everyone else couldn’t be higher heading to The Roval.
We saw how quickly the points changed as drivers moved up and down in the field and the big wreck took out a several playoff drivers that looked to be on their way to having a great finish. With points as tight as they are, overcoming a double-digit deficit in this race will require a Top 5 finish and some racing luck.
The past 6 Roval winners are AJ Allmendinger (2023), Christopher Bell (2022), Kyle Larson (2021), Chase Elliott (2020 and 2019) and Ryan Blaney (2018). Obviously, a win by Allmendinger or another nonplayoff driver will doom someone, maybe a couple of someones.
Since his two Roval wins, Elliott has just one Top 5. Ryan Blaney has just one Top 10 in the last three Roval races. Logano has just one Top 5 in the last three Roval races. And in the last three Roval races, the top three finishing drivers are Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher – and two of those are nonplayoff drivers.
It will be interesting to see which bubble driver drives through another contender to fight to stay in the playoffs.
As far as NASCAR goes, they screwed up again with their damaged vehicle policy. Of course, their needed to be a red flag with a record number of cars wrecked, but some slightly damaged cars were just sitting there awaiting a push to their stall. Technically, there were 31 cars still running at the end of the race but only 22 cars were on the lead lap. NASCAR needs to look at this policy and make some adjustments so that everyone knows what is going on.
And speaking of what is going on, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports are suing NASCAR and Jim France in an antitrust lawsuit over the NASCAR charter system. Neither race organization has signed their agreement and run the risk of losing their charters if you believe NASCAR.
NASCAR has been tight with money since its inception and has staved off driver and team owner revolts before. Will this time be any different? You have to hope so. There are some very high-profile owners involved in this and NASCAR doesn’t want to pull charters. But NASCAR also knows that anything they do that cedes ground to 23XI and Front Row, they have to give to every other team.
That could get expensive.
This will most likely go past the racing season, and you have to think NASCAR will want this resolved before 2025, but who knows. NASCAR has been known to be a tough deal maker and they certainly have more money to throw at this that the two teams.
This could get really expensive.
(Photo by Jacy Norgaard/HHP for Chevy Racing)
