NASCAR playoffs at Charlotte Roval results: Shane van Gisbergen continues winning ways in wild final laps

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Ahead of a dramatic battle for the final spot above the playoff cut line that saw two drivers literally go in opposite directions at the finish line, Shane van Gisbergen won the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval to earn his fifth win of the season and the sixth of his NASCAR Cup Series career. After being eliminated from the playoffs in the Round of 16, SVG was able to put a period on his season as NASCAR’s King of the Road, winning his fifth of the six Cup road course races this season and his fifth in a row.

While Van Gisbergen was able to outlast both Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell after a close and spirited race between the three drivers, the intrigue of Sunday’s race wound up surrounding the cutoff for the Round of 8, which came down to defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano and Ross Chastain. 

NASCAR playoffs 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks

Steven Taranto

Thanks to scoring a good chunk of stage points, Chastain needed to finish only four spots ahead of Logano in order to advance to the next round, but his path towards doing so was complicated by a pair of self-inflicted wounds on pit road. He first cost himself track position by missing the turn at pit exit under caution at the end of stage 1, then put himself in an even worse position when he sped on pit road under green after accidentally leaving his pit box in the wrong gear.

Shortly after being passed by Chastain, Logano elected to come to pit road with 11 laps to go, giving him slightly fresher tires to try and run down enough cars on a three-stop strategy that he could gain enough points, combined with Chastain losing enough positions and points on older tires, that it would get him to the next round. It took until the final lap, but Logano’s strategy would work out, as Denny Hamlin passed Chastain in turn 7 with one lap to go to flip the cut line back in the defending champion’s favor via a tiebreaker that Logano held — and then things got really interesting.

In a desperation move in the final corner, Chastain lunged into the frontstretch chicane from well back of Hamlin to try and move him out of the way, but ended up spinning himself out along with Hamlin. Chastain threw his car into reverse and backed across the finish line, but by that point it was too late: Logano drove past the incident to finish 20th, which was enough to put him in the Round of 8 while Chastain, along with Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric, were all eliminated from playoff contention.

“Everyone was telling me how close it was gonna be there,” Logano told USA. “I knew I was within a point there, and I knew we were gonna be tied there at the end and Ross was gonna do whatever he had to do to make it happen. Just wasn’t quite fast enough today with our car, but overall — man, that’s the drama of the playoffs, right? If you want drama, the playoffs bring it every time. What an entertaining finish there for it to come down to basically a tie at the end there before the wreck.

“Proud of (crew chief) Paul Wolfe, he made some really hard calls today, three-stopping at the end there. Kind of an audible because our falloff was a little bit too much. Making that call there at the end was ultimately what kept us in the game with just a few left. That was a championship performance from the team. Wish I was a little faster, but overall I couldn’t be more proud of the team. We’ve still got a shot.”

Logano will begin the Round of 8 in the deepest points hole of any playoff contender, as he faces a 24-point deficit to the cut line to try and make the Championship 4. But considering his propensity to win in the Round of 8 even in the face of long odds, Logano’s presence in the penultimate round of the playoffs is surely terrifying for the rest of the field trying to keep the driver of the No. 22 Ford from his third Cup title in four years.

Denny Hamlin (+8), Ryan Blaney (+6), Kyle Larson and William Byron (+4) will all begin the next round on the plus side of the cut line to try and be among the four drivers who will race for the Cup championship next month at Phoenix. Christopher Bell (-4), Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott (-14), and Logano (-24) will all try and avoid the final round of eliminations beginning next week with the start of the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Bank of America Roval 400 results, order of finish

1. #88 – Shane van Gisbergen (R)
2. #5 – Kyle Larson
3. #20 – Christopher Bell
4. #17 – Chris Buescher
5. #71 – Michael McDowell
6. #60 – Ryan Preece
7. #99 – Daniel Suarez
8. #9 – Chase Elliott
9. #16 – A.J. Allmendinger
10. #45 – Tyler Reddick
11. #24 – William Byron
12. #54 – Ty Gibbs
13. #12 – Ryan Blaney
14. #19 – Chase Briscoe
15. #23 – Bubba Wallace
16. #21 – Josh Berry
17. #34 – Todd Gilliland
18. #48 – Alex Bowman
19. #47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20. #22 – Joey Logano
21. #1 – Ross Chastain
22. #41 – Cole Custer
23. #11 – Denny Hamlin
24. #38 – Zane Smith
25. #7 – Justin Haley
26. #42 – John Hunter Nemechek
27. #10 – Ty Dillon
28. #4 – Noah Gragson
29. #77 – Carson Hocevar
30. #43 – Erik Jones
31. #3 – Austin Dillon
32. #66 – Josh Bilicki
33. #51 – Cody Ware
34. #8 – Kyle Busch
35. #6 – Brad Keselowski
36. #2 – Austin Cindric
37. #35 – Riley Herbst (R)

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