Elliott Wins Playoff Cutoff at the Roval

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Chase Elliott won the Bank of America Roval 400 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course on Sunday afternoon.

Elliott had a dominant car throughout the race, but a miscue on a late restart almost ended his day.  After taking the green flag, Elliott locked up his tires and slid into the Turn 1 wall.

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Elliott said he was happy he could come back from the mistake.

“You talk about messing something up,” Elliott said.  “I pretty well blew it and got cautions at the right time and brought it home.”

Elliott led a race-high 35 laps on his way to victory lane, and the win was his third win of 2019, his second at a road course.

Elliott said the extra Playoff Points will help in the next round of the Playoffs.

“It’s our last road course, so the biggest thing is we have six more bonus points to continue forward with,” Elliott said.  “Luckily our car wasn’t too bad, and our Napa Camaro was fast enough to drive through there.”

After the race ended, four drivers were eliminated from the Playoffs as the first round came to an end.  Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones were all eliminated from contention.

Alex Bowman was on the bubble coming into the race on Sunday, and after spinning on lap 1 it seemed like his Playoff hopes would be over.  Bowman was able to drive up through the field to finish second and lock himself into the next round.

Bowman said he was glad to come back after trying to give the race away on the first lap.

“Glad we were able to rebound,” Bowman said.  “The guys obviously gave me a really strong car to come back through the field.”

Unofficial results:

1. Chase Elliott

2. Alex Bowman

3. Kevin Harvick

4. Clint Bowyer

5. Brad Keselowski

6. William Byron

7. Martin Truex Jr.

8. Ryan Blaney

9. Jimmie Johnson

10. Joey Logano

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Michael McDowell

13. Kyle Larson

14. Aric Almirola

15. Ty Dillon

16. Paul Menard

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. Chris Buescher

19. Denny Hamlin

20. Kurt Busch

21. Ryan Preece

22. Ross Chastain

23. Austin Dillon

24. Bubba Wallace

25. Matt Tifft

26. Parker Kligerman

27. Corey LaJoie

28. Landon Cassill

29. JJ Yeley

30. Timmy Hill

31. Joe Nemechek

32. Ryan Newman

33. Daniel Hemric

34. Daniel Suarez

35. David Ragan

36. Garrett Smithley

37. Kyle Busch

38. Josh Bilicki

39. Reed Sorenson

40. Erik Jones

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images