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Kyle Larson Cashes In On Bank of America ROVAL 400 Win

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson celebrates his Bank of America ROVAL 400 win with his daughter, Audrey, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Larson had a race day at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL that he may remember years down the road long after his helmet and gloves are in the mantle.

Entering Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 with a 52-point margin over ninth place Joey Logano, Larson started sixth and firmly established himself as the favorite. Driving from sixth to second in the opening laps of Stage 1, despite making a pit stop, he finished fifth while regular season champion Tyler Reddick took the stage victory and a valuable Playoff point.

Larson led the opening laps of Stage 2 before pitting for tires and fuel on Lap 49. Much like the opening stanza, Larson did not relinquish tremendous track position, falling from the lead to ninth while AJ Allmendinger, the defending race winner, emerged victorious in Stage 2.

With drivers needed to make one more pit stop heading into Stage 3, Allmendinger found himself in a decent position as the leader while Larson drove up to second in just 20 laps. Maximizing his advantage with fresher tires, Larson made a bold pass to take the lead from Allmendinger in Turn 7, one of his strengths at the 2.32-mile, 17-turn road course.

Other than the race’s final pit stop cycle, Larson led 42 of the 43 final laps. Not even a Lap 82 caution for debris in Turns 3 and 4 derailed Larson’s afternoon as he drove his way to his sixth victory of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season and sixth career road course win.

For a driver who struggled at the Charlotte ROVAL the past two seasons, Larson did his homework with the results like a student who studied for the big exam.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson captures his sixth checkered flag of 2024 when he won Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

“It was a great day, for sure. This place has not been easy on me. This is probably the most difficult track out of the road courses for me,” Larson said. “I put in a lot of work this week; a lot of studying and a few hours in the sim.

“It’s cool to win here with Cliff’s [Daniel, crew chief] family and everybody’s family. Just a great day for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Execution from start to finish was amazing.”

Christopher Bell, who clinched his spot in the Round of 8 prior to the race’s finish, trailed Larson to the stripe by 1.511 seconds.

“It feels alright. It feels good, I’ll be honest,” Bell said. “Happy for this DEWALT Toyota team. We had a goal today to win the race, and that’s what we came here to do, and it was close – me and the 5 seemed like we were pretty evenly matched once we got out to our equal spacing.

“I would make a bad lap, and he would pull away, and he would make a bad lap, and I would close in. Hopefully, we get a redo in Phoenix.”

William Byron tallied another podium finish to conclude the Round of 12 at his hometown track despite wanting more from his performance.

“It was an OK day for the No. 24 Valvoline Confetti Chevy team,” Byron said. “I feel like the whole day, we were just trying to find a little bit more pace. We could get better in some areas, and then other areas, we just struggled.

“It seemed like the back chicane, we just struggled changing direction there. It was kind of all we had. It was a good day, but we definitely wanted more. We just weren’t quite good enough.”

After the race, Hendrick Motorsports occupied four of the eight Playoffs spots in the Round of 8. However, Alex Bowman and the No. 48 team were disqualified after the car did not meet post-race minimum weight requirements.

Joey Logano

Joey Logano went from being eliminated from the Round of 12 to making the Round of 8 field in a series of strange, post-race inspection events. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

Joey Logano, who was initially eliminated from the Playoffs after Reddick’s drive from 26th to 11th, bumped into the eighth and final Playoffs spot while Bowman was eliminated from contention.

Despite the shocking news on Sunday night and Hendrick Motorsports’ decision not to appeal the disqualification, Logano is prepared to be on the attack for Team Penske.

“Same way we would have if we made it any other way. You go out and attack,” Logano said. “We’re a motivated race team any way you look at it. The stats may not look like it, but we feel very confident we can make a run at this thing and get ourselves into the Championship 4.”

As for Larson, who leads the Cup Series in wins this season, there is no statement being issued to the competition. It is about capitalizing at tracks that suit the 2021 Cup champion and his team.

“For myself and our team, it’s no statements that we’re trying to send to the field,” Larson said. “I think the field knows that we’re strong. I think the field knows that we could win at any track. It is nice to win and really more than anything just gain five more points that rolls into the next round.

“We’ve won stages. We’ve won a couple of races since the playoffs have started, and that really helps. I’m just excited to kind of get ourselves to the next three great tracks for us and hopefully we can make that final four.”

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson rang the Hendrick Motorsports cowbell after winning Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. (Photo: Jennie Mae Lingle | The Podium Finish)

Once Larson and his family return from a family wedding in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, he will enter Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a fresh mindset. Like Talking Heads sang in 1981, when it comes to Larson’s approach in the Round of 8, it will be the same as it ever was.

“I think you really in the playoffs have to take it week-by-week. When you close out a round and move into the next round, it’s even more of a reset,” Larson said. “For us, in our case, the points reset, which gets us even closer to the cut line than we were, but still a fair amount above it. And, too, it changes with the tracks and the schedule. So for us these next three are great tracks for us.

“I just look at it as really good opportunity. We would love to win, but if we could just go there and perform how we typically do, we could have a really good point gap before we get to Martinsville. That’s my goal is just to be up front all race long at these next two races especially, but even Martinsville as well.”

Stage 1 Top 10 Results
  1. Tyler Reddick
  2. Joey Logano
  3. Chase Elliott
  4. Ryan Blaney
  5. Kyle Larson
  6. Shane van Gisbergen (i)
  7. Ty Gibbs
  8. AJ Allmendinger
  9. Brad Keselowski
  10. Austin Cindric
Stage 2 Top 10 Results
  1. AJ Allmendinger (i)
  2. Joey Logano
  3. Chase Elliott
  4. Bubba Wallace
  5. Ryan Blaney
  6. Austin Cindric
  7. Michael McDowell
  8. Kyle Busch
  9. Kyle Larson
  10. Denny Hamlin
Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson was burning down the house for the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL faithful. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL Race Results
Finish Start Car No. Driver Sponsor/Make Status
1 6 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Running
2 12 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Toyota Running
3 10 24 William Byron Valvoline Confetti Chevrolet Running
4 5 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Sylvania Ford Running
5 7 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet Running
6 3 16 AJ Allmendinger (i) Celsius Chevrolet Running
7 1 13 Shane van Gisbergen (i) WeatherTech Chevrolet Running
8 4 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford Running
9 9 23 Bubba Wallace Leidos Toyota Running
10 14 12 Ryan Blaney Discount Tire Ford Running
11 2 45 Tyler Reddick Monster Energy Toyota Running
12 20 77 Carson Hocevar (R) Delaware Life Chevrolet Running
13 11 8 Kyle Busch Lenovo Chevrolet Running
14 18 11 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Running
15 21 34 Michael McDowell Love’s Travel Stops Ford Running
16 24 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Harris Teeter/Totino’s Chevrolet Running
17 29 17 Chris Buescher Fifth Third Bank Ford Running
18 15 38 Todd Gilliland Boozy Jerky! Ford Running
19 23 71 Zane Smith (R) Ambetter Health Chevrolet Running
20 26 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford Running
21 30 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota Running
22 36 4 Josh Berry (R) Bed Bath & Beyond Ford Running
23 8 6 Brad Keselowski Castrol Edge Ford Running
24 27 31 Daniel Hemric Cirkul Chevrolet Running
25 34 41 Ryan Preece United Rentals Ford Running
26 33 7 Justin Haley Mattress Warehouse Chevrolet Running
27 31 15 Kaz Grala (R) Meat N’ Bone Ford Running
28 16 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Chevrolet Running
29 38 66 Josh Bilicki (i) NCSHPfoundation.org Ford Running
30 13 99 Daniel Suárez Choice Privileges Chevrolet Running
31 32 10 Noah Gragson Beef A Roo Ford Running
32 22 3 Austin DIllon BetMGM Chevrolet Running
33 37 43 Erik Jones Family Dollar Toyota Accident
34 35 42 John Hunter Nemechek Mobil 1 Toyota Accident
35 19 54 Ty Gibbs Interstate Batteries Toyota Engine
36 25 14 Chase Briscoe Ford Performance Racing School Ford Accident
37 28 51 Corey LaJoie Schluter Systems Ford Engine
38 17 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet Running

Rob Tiongson is a sports writer and editor originally from the Boston area and resides in the Austin, Texas, area. Tiongson has covered motorsports series like NASCAR and INDYCAR since 2008 and NHRA since 2013. Most recently, Tiongson is covering professional basketball, mainly the WNBA, and women's college basketball. While writing and editing for The Podium Finish, Tiongson currently seeks for a long-term sportswriting and sports content creating career. Tiongson enjoys editing and writing articles and features, as well as photography. Moreover, he enjoys time with his family and friends, traveling, cooking, working out and being a fun uncle or "funcle" to his nephew, niece and cat. Tiongson is an alum of Southern New Hampshire University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and St. Bonaventure University's renowned Jandoli School of Communication with a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism.

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