Sunday, September 29, 2019

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.

Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
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

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