By John Schutt –
NASCAR Monster Energy Series, Bank of America Roval 400, Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Concord, N.C., Sunday, Sept. 30.
The event was the first attempt of Nascar to have a combined race of an infield road course and the oval track, hence the name: Roval.
Ryan Blaney came up the surprise winner after two restarts with less than 10 laps remaining in the race. Following in second place was Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer in third, Alex Bowman fourth, and Kurt Busch fifth. Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, and Eric Jones all had to use back-up cars because of crashes during practice and qualifying.
Kurt Busch won the pole, Kyle Larson won the first stage, and Ryan Blaney won the second stage.
Deep into the third stage Keselowski and Larson were the race leaders. After a caution, the cars bunched up with eight laps to go. None of the front runners went in for needed gas because they would have lost track position. At the restart, Keselowski was in front of the pack and he, and several others, went into turn one too fast and slammed head on into the turn one wall. Kyle Busch and Keselowski were out and Larson’s car was heavily damaged.
Larson needed a few more laps to stay in the playoffs so his team made some quick repairs. Martin Truex, Jr. made it through the wreck along with Jimmie Johnson in the final restart. Johnson was on Truex, Jr.’s tail for the next four laps. Johnson’s car spun out and hit Truex, Jr.’s car, which knocked both out of contention just 500 feet from the finish line on the final lap. The third place car of Blaney, a few seconds behind the two frontrunners, passed them to win the race!
Larson stayed in the playoffs by passing the stalled car of Jeffery Earnhardt and used the wall to help steer his injured car across the finish line.
Johnson, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, and Eric Jones are out of the playoffs which are under way.
NASCAR Monster Energy Series, Federated Auto Parts 400, Richmond Raceway, Richmond, Va., Sunday, Sept. 23.
The Richmond Raceway has been an all-Kyle Busch show this year with him the winner of the Spring race and this Fall playoff race. Following in second place was Kevin Harvick, Truex, Jr. in third, Chase Elliot in fourth, and Aric Almirola in fifth.
Truex, Jr. led 163 laps of the race and won the first and second stages.
Keselowski and Kyle Busch battled for first, but Busch got ahead on lap 364 and stayed in the lead.