A.J. Allmendinger plays playoff spoiler at Charlotte Roval

Although he missed the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, A.J. Allmendinger was not going to let an opportunity to crash the party slip by. While playoff contenders made last-ditch efforts to qualify for the Round of 8, Allmendinger held off William Byron in the final ten laps to win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Allmendinger had dominated the Roval in the Xfinity Series, scoring four consecutive victories in as many starts from 2019 to 2022. His prowess translated to the top level as he led a race-high forty-six laps including the final thirty-three to seal the win.

After Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought out the caution for his car catching fire on lap 98, Allmendinger restarted opposite Kyle Busch for a ten-lap sprint. Busch, who was below the cut line and needed a win to advance, spun his tyres at the green flag and quickly fell back. Byron attempted to chase down Allmendinger but was unable to make a pass.

The win was Allmendinger’s third and second in the Cup Series with Kaulig Racing after conquering the Indianapolis road course in 2021. All three of his Cup triumphs were on road courses (the first was at Watkins Glen in 2014), a quirk previously only achieved by Dan Gurney who notched all five of his wins at the now-defunct Riverside International Raceway.

“I knew William was probably going to the next round. He’s going to be aggressive but maybe not desperate-aggressive,” explained Allmendinger. “That was kind of what was playing in my head on who I was racing around.

“At the end of the day, for me, it’s about if I give everything I have, I make no mistakes and William gets around me and beats me, yeah, it sucks, but I go home and I look in the mirror and say, ‘Yep, better team, better driver beat me that day.’ The one thing I did not want to do was be that guy that made a mistake and let him by me. This is what we all want, to be put in those pressure cooker moments, and these guys know. I struggle to believe in myself every day. It’s an ugly place sometimes. I always say I have the best life possible, and that’s why I’m miserable every day because it’s wake up, what the hell are you going to do to be better today.

“It’s ugly sometimes, but it’s the way I am. I won’t ever change. Those are the moments that I dream of, of knowing, hey, you got the best of the best in the world behind you, it’s on you to not let them by.”

Byron had already locked into the Round of 8 via his Texas win, as was Talladega winner Ryan Blaney who finished twelfth. Despite finishing third, Busch was eliminated after retiring at Texas and a dismal day at Talladega.

Also knocked out after the Round of 12 were Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, and Bubba Wallace. Keselowski struggled to an eighteenth following a pass-through penalty for missing the frontstretch chicane and not stopping, while Chastain was tenth; both entered Charlotte in holes due to Talladega crashes. Wallace had impressed with a third from the pole at Texas but found himself in trouble after a poor Talladega race; despite qualifying fourth at Charlotte, he was spun by Daniel Suárez on lap 86 and was unable to recover.

Six cautions for incidents were called, breaking a trend of relatively clean road races. The two most recent road course events at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen had just two and one yellow flag, respectively, while Sonoma also featured a pair. Although COTA and Chicago had significantly more yellows with eight apiece, the cleaner two-race stretch prompted NASCAR to bring back road course stage cautions starting at the Roval.

Besides Stenhouse, three fellow retirements were for crashes. Denny Hamlin spun and broke the toe link, Erik Jones retired after spinning and was impacted by Michael McDowell on lap 79, and Andy Lally got hit from behind five laps later. Although he placed last, Hamlin still advances to the next round.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	6	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	109	Running
2	14	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
3	5	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	109	Running
4	10	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	109	Running
5	7	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	109	Running
6	1	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	109	Running
7	20	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	109	Running
8	16	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
9	8	9	Chase Elliott^	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
10	12	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	109	Running
11	18	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	109	Running
12	17	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	109	Running
13	36	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
14	15	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	109	Running
15	2	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	109	Running
16	4	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	109	Running
17	24	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
18	19	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	109	Running
19	22	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	109	Running
20	11	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	109	Running
21	21	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	109	Running
22	25	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	109	Running
23	32	51	Todd Gilliland	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	109	Running
24	31	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	109	Running
25	29	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	109	Running
26	28	78	Josh Bilicki*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
27	33	62	Austin Hill*	Beard Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
28	30	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	109	Running
29	26	42	Mike Rockenfeller	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	109	Running
30	34	38	Zane Smith*	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	109	Running
31	37	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	109	Running
32	13	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	109	Running
33	3	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	109	Running
34	27	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	96	Electrical
35	35	15	Andy Lally*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	84	Accident
36	23	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	79	Accident
37	9	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	76	DVP