Shane van Gisbergen won his fifth race of the season at the Charlotte Roval as Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric were eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The road course ace didn’t dominate at the Roval like he had at four other road courses this season. But he had a big margin of victory after his closest challengers Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson pitted late for fresher tires in the hope of catching a caution.
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The race’s biggest drama came down to the final playoff spot in the semifinal round between Chastain and Joey Logano. Logano’s team had him pit for tires in the hope he could make up enough track position to stay ahead of Chastain in the points standings.
And sure enough, it worked out. Barely.
Chastain got passed by Denny Hamlin on the last lap to get Logano into the next round. Chastain then made a last-ditch dive on Hamlin in the final corner that resulted in both of them spinning out and Logano crossing the finish line ahead of Chastain anyway.
Hamlin was safely into the third round of the playoffs, so he had nothing at stake as Chastain and Logano fought for the final spot. Chastain was in that position late in the race because he missed the turn off pit road at the end of the first stage and cost himself 15 spots and sped on pit road during his final pit stop after grabbing the wrong gear.
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Despite the mistakes, Chastain found himself with a fighting chance to make the next round of the playoffs. He had to finish four spots ahead of Logano after the stage points and called what happened throughout the race “unacceptable.”
“Knowing that no one else had a hand in it but me … I can go to bed knowing that they’re building me to be the best I can be but I’ve got to make those right decisions in those moments where I’m not on autopilot — but I come out of the pit stall I’m just getting to my lights … and I pulled [the shifter] twice,” Chastain told NBC after the race. “And when I got to the end of pit road I didn’t turn because I wanted to give them the yellow line and I needed to just turn the wheel. It’s really simple.”
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A year ago, Logano made the third round of the playoffs after he thought he had been eliminated. Logano was provisionally out of the postseason after the race but Alex Bowman’s car failed post-race inspection because it was underweight. That disqualification put Logano back into the postseason and he went on to win his third championship.
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If you believe in the Logano even-year success rule, he’s not a title contender in 2025. Logano’s titles have come in 2018, 2022 and 2024. He’s been a relative non-factor in 2025, but just needs one win over the next three races to be guaranteed a title chance at Phoenix in November.
Logano joins Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and William Byron in the semifinal round of the NASCAR playoffs. A win at Las Vegas, Talladega or Martinsville guarantees any of those eight drivers a spot in the four-driver title race at Phoenix on Nov. 2.
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