Allmendinger Wins At Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL
A.J. Allmendinger was near flawless as he held off William Byron to win the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Sunday.
Allmendinger led 46 of 149 laps, continuing a history of great performances on the road course at CMS. Sunday’s win was his third Cup victory and his first in more than two years. Byron came on strong late in the race, but Allmendinger held on to win by just two-thirds of a second.
“I knew that if I could get into the lead, it was going to be a difficult challenge for those guys to get around me,” Allmendinger said. “I try to study, not just the race track, but where everybody is in the Playoffs and where they are. Everybody’s going for a Cup win, but there’s aggression and there’s desperation.”
Kyle Busch saw his Playoff season come to an end. Busch had to win to advance into the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8, but only managed a third place finish.
“It’s going to be bittersweet when we win in Las Vegas next week, because, boom, that locks you through,” Busch said. “That’ll give you all the what-ifs, but it’ll certainly be a good building block for our program.”
Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano rounded out the top five. In addition to Busch being eliminated from the Playoffs, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski were also denied a spot in the Round of 8.
