Hey, remember that guy?
The Winner
You’d be forgiven for having forgotten about Kyle Larson. After all, the man hadn’t won in an outrageous three weeks, one of his longest droughts of the season. Well? Drought no more. Rain has fallen on the fields of Kyle Larson victories.
The Race
Man. Where to start.
Entering the day, Kevin Harvick was nine points back of the eighth spot in the Round of 8, trailing Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch. Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Alex Bowman were further back, each likely needing to win to advance (debatable on Bell, but that was the general picture). No one aside from Denny Hamlin, who’d won in the Round of 12’s opening race, was all that safe—Larson was second in the standings but even he was just 22 points ahead of Harvick. Which meant that all day long, pretty much everyone save Hamlin was in danger.
Bell was the first to fumble. He sped on pit road, drawing a penalty he followed up by flat-spotting his tire, which almost went down before a Ryan Newman wreck drew a caution and allowed him to pit.
Next was Keselowski, who spun in the backstretch chicane shortly before the Newman wreck.
After that, it was Hendrick Motorsports equipment, with electric issues for both Bowman and Larson forcing long pit stops, with Larson’s particularly dramatic as it put the unthinkable on the table—2021 Kyle Larson being eliminated in the effective NASCAR playoff quarterfinals. The pair was saved by Chase Briscoe’s car letting out a whole bunch of smoke, which drew the caution they needed. But it was still dicey for the 5 for a while there.
Elliott won Stage One, and Kyle Busch won Stage Two, giving each some cushion, but early in the final stage, Harvick—who, how do we recap this quickly, has some beef with Elliott because Elliott did the drive-50-on-the-interstate move to him back at Bristol after he cut Elliott’s tire—wrecked Elliott, bumping him into a spin that left the defending champion with a bumper cover flying all over the place. Suddenly, Elliott was the one in trouble, especially with Byron leading the whole thing.
NASCAR made an odd decision here. A conspicuous decision. Elliott’s bumper cover was going to come off. It was a matter of time. Normally in these situations, NASCAR black flags the car, forcing it to pit to fix the issue. NASCAR did not flag Chase Elliott.
Whether due to wanting to protect its champion (and most marketable asset) or wanting to neutralize the impact of Harvick’s hit, it was an eyebrow-raiser. Either way, Elliott was the one in danger of missing the cut line.
Until Keselowski spun again.
Same spot, too, I think.
If you’re struggling to keep track of this all, we’d basically had two battles going on: Byron for the win and Harvick/Elliott/Keselowski/Larson for either one spot (if Byron were to win) or two spots in the standings. Two spots is what it would be, because Tyler Reddick—out of the playoffs but racing hard all day—bumped Byron past the backstretch chicane, leaving the 24 car restarting in eleventh after a debris caution. By this point, Larson’s team had fixed the electrical issue and gotten him back to second. Hamlin was in the lead. Elliott was in 18th and decently clear of the cut line. Harvick and Keselowski were right on the edge, fighting for one spot.
Harvick wrecked.
Ironically, Harvick was trying to avoid Elliott, who was coming up behind him with inevitable human nature leading the way. Harvick drove too hard into a curve, missed the turn, and hit the wall hard enough to end his own day. And therefore his own playoff run.
But it wasn’t over.
Byron, driving for his playoff life, had made it up to 6th. He was still in the mix, with guys ahead of him either having more to lose by wrecking or less to gain (being non-playoff drivers) by racing hard and therefore all at least somewhat predisposed to getting the hell out of his way. Bell was 12th at this point. Bowman was 18th. Harvick was done. Keselowski was on the cut line.
Until Martin Truex got spun. By Joey Hand, of all people, a 42-year-old best known for racing in the 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans races at points over the last twelve years. Now, it was Truex on the cut line, with Byron up to third place.
It wasn’t to be. Byron drove too hard. Byron spun. Truex survived. And we all got to move on to listening to Elliott and Harvick (which we’ll get to below).
What a day by the Roval.
Results
Top ten, other playoff drivers:
Reddick finished 2nd.
Chris Buescher was 3rd.
Kyle Busch was 4th.
Hamlin was 5th.
Matt DiBenedetto was 6th.
Joey Logano finished a quiet, clean 7th.
Bell made it up to 8th.
Ryan Blaney finished a quiet, clean 9th.
Bowman got to 10th.
Byron finished 11th.
Elliott was 12th.
Keselowski was 20th.
Truex was 29th.
Harvick was 33rd.
Standings
Entering the three-race Round of 8, from which four drivers will emerge for the one-race championship:
1. Larson (42 points ahead of first driver out)
2. Hamlin (7 points ahead of first driver out)
3. Truex (6 points ahead of first driver out)
4. Blaney (last driver in; 1 point ahead of first driver out)
5. Kyle Busch (first driver out; 1 point behind last driver in)
6. Elliott (2 points behind last driver in)
7. Logano (11 points behind last driver in)
8. Keselowski (16 points behind last driver in)
Thoughts, Implications, Up Next
I don’t know enough about this rule to cast a certain judgment on NASCAR for how it handled things, but evidently the rear bumper cover isn’t “mandatory” on road courses, which is why NASCAR says they didn’t black-flag Elliott. At the same time, though, it was clearly going to cause a caution, so I guess the question on that is whether they normally black-flag to prevent cautions, and whether they should. In the end, it didn’t really matter, because Harvick was the first one behind the cut line and he’s at fault for this whole thing anyway.
Looking ahead: Larson appears a lock to race in the championship, but he looked like a lock to make the Round of 8 and then wound up in some trouble, so we’ll see. Beyond that, it’s tight. Round of 8 races are at Texas (intermediate, boring), Kansas (intermediate, boring), and Martinsville (short, fun). My impression is that if your equipment holds up on these intermediate tracks, it’s mostly possible to avoid catastrophe, meaning we’re probably heading towards a real fun points race at Martinsville on Halloween.
Elliott v. Harvick
We’ll start with this, then do the other video stuff below.
Harvick bumps Elliott early:
Harvick wrecks Elliott:
Elliott’s damage:
The Elliott team’s plan:
The bumper cover flapping around and NASCAR sending a questionable tweet about it:
Harvick wrecks:
The Elliott team reacts:
Harvick seems completely ignorant of how he looks on this:
Elliott does not:
Other Videos
Keselowski Spin I:
Newman wreck (Keselowski dodged so many bullets, guys):
A.J. Allmendinger making a move:
Elliott making a move on Allmendinger:
Larson’s team swaps out the battery, works on the alternator belt:
Keselowski Spin II:
Reddick bumps Byron:
Reddick bumps Larson:
Larson gets past Hamlin:
Byron charging:
Byron charged:
