CHARLOTTE, NC. – AJ Allmendinger won the Bank of America Roval 400 to score his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first on the Roval.
After dominating the second half of the race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, AJ Allmendinger put his road racing abilities on full display and held off a late charge by William Byron to win.
His margin over second-place Byron was .666 of a second.
NASCAR’s top stars battled it out over 109 laps on the 17-turn, 2.32-mile road course in Concord, North Carolina.
There were seven caution periods for a total of 18 laps. All but four of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Allmendinger was the 15th different winner in the 32 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.
This was the final race in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Playoffs. Byron, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, and Martin Truex Jr., moved on to the Round of 8. Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch did not advance.
Stage 1 Winner: Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
- Ryan Preece (Started 18th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
- Kevin Harvick (Started 22nd, Finished 19th / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
- Aric Almirola (Started 21st, Finished 21st / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 30th, Finished 28th / Running, completed 109 of 109 laps)
SHR Points:
- Kevin Harvick (14th with 2,121 points)
- Aric Almirola (22nd with 565 points)
- Ryan Preece (24th with 555 points)
- Chase Briscoe (30th with 449 points)
Preece’s 11th-place finish bettered his previous best result on the Roval – 14th, earned in 2020.
This was his 10th top-15 of the season and his second top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts on the Roval. This was Preece’s second straight finish of 11th or better. He finished eighth last Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
“We had a pretty good day at the Roval, I’m really happy with an 11th-place finish for our 41 team,” Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang. “We’ve been working so hard on our road-course program and the results today show that. We were lacking front turn and rear grip at the start of the race, but we made the right adjustments at the end of Stage 1 to get us through and my team was on it on pit road. I’m so proud of this team. We’re making progress each week. We definitely had some momentum on our side after a strong day last weekend at Talladega, but that’s a completely different track than this one. So, to come out here today and put all of our focus on the pit strategy and track position and to be able to stay up front until the end shows the resilience of this team. I’m looking forward to getting to Las Vegas and keeping it going.” –
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the South Point 400 on Sunday, Oct. 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is the seventh race of the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs and the first race in the Round of 8. The South Point 400 starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
