CONCORD, N.C. — Charlotte Motor Speedway has been a relative constant in the stock-car racing world, a bedrock facility that’s stood as a NASCAR centerpiece for six decades. Few events here have introduced too many variables to what’s been the standard for speedways across the country. Sunday was different. A lot different. The Charlotte Motor Speedway name above the main gate remained the same, but the NASCAR industry went headlong into largely unknown waters in the inaugural Bank of America Roval 400. The pre-race question of “What will happen?” hasn’t been asked with such urgency since two keystone events here: the first-ever 600-mile race in 1960 and the 1992 NASCAR All-Star Race, the first event under the lights on a track of its size. RELATED: Full results | Postseason standings | Memorable firsts What did happen Sunday was the late-race bedlam most predicted, but at an amplitude that still left the crowd abuzz. The race’s known ingredients before Sunday were part oval, part road course, part uncertainty. After 109 laps and a slam-bang last-lap-last-corner eruption, the recipe added a heaping spoonful of last-lap Mosport, a carnage-filled garage that resembled post-race Martinsville and a post-checkers retaliation that took a page from Bowman Gray Stadium. “God almighty. You knew it was going to be something,” said Clint Bowyer, who skated through the chaos to finish third and advance in the playoff picture by a whisker. “I think it was a little bit of everything.” It was. The 2.28-mile layout and the chance to win a first-time running brought out a competitive fire in seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who gambled with a chance at an eighth title on the table and lost. Johnson’s spirited daylong drive into contention immolated on the final chicane with a banzai bolt that defied physics and rational thought, collecting then-race leader Martin Truex Jr. in the process. “Shell-shocked, for sure,” Johnson said. “Wish I could go back in time and let off the brakes back there a little bit and not take that opportunity because the championship is what we’re here for.” RELATED: Spin on final lap sends Johnson out of playoffs The new circuit brought out an adrenalin-filled brushback pitch from the normally mild-mannered Truex, who rammed Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet on the cool-down lap. Johnson’s self-erasure from the postseason came as consolation to Truex, who offered a “what gives?” shrug in Johnson’s direction after parking on pit road. Does Roval autocorrect to Rival? Surely, it does. The elimination race brought out the claws from the typically measured Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola, who moved on to the Round of 12 by squeezing every drop out of severely battered cars more suited to the post-race scrap heap. RELATED: Clutch pass saves Larson from elimination Both had tales to tell — Almirola of how he survived a mid-race crash, a penalty and a late-race crash to advance on a tiebreaker; and Larson urging an already damaged racer to the finish, slamming the wall twice on the last lap and escaping on the same tiebreak by gaining the critical position within yards of the checkered flag. Almirola, nervous all weekend, had told his crew chief that he just needed a one-point buffer to move on. “It turns out plus-zero is good enough,” he said. At the end, there was a mild surprise in Victory Lane in Ryan Blaney, who hadn’t sniffed a top-five finish on a road course in his young Monster Energy Series career. Blaney, running third on the white-flag lap, didn’t expect it himself, only thinking, “Oh, something might happen here,” as he lurked behind the Truex-Johnson fracas. Something did, creating a last-lap roar that left Marcus Smith, the track’s general manager, beaming in the aftermath. This event was his brainchild, stemming from the seemingly crazy idea that he floated to NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell on a lark. O’Donnell said he spoke briefly with Smith after the race to offer his congratulations. Fittingly, both were in Victory Lane. RELATED: Blaney wins in thrilling finish | Smith: Roval ‘lived up to the hype’ Here’s hoping the one-race experiment becomes a fixture on the NASCAR calendar, but that the temporary frenzy of Roval-mania doesn’t lead to a full-fledged schedule overhaul. Fans might go all-in on the prospects for an encore elsewhere, but it’s hard to say if the drivers’ heartstrings could withstand it more than once a year. “Now it’s time to think about a cold beer because, my God, I want one,” Bowyer said. Cheers, Roval. The next round is on us.<doc-sep>The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field was whittled from 16 drivers to 12 on Sunday following the playoff race at the Charlotte road course, with Ryan Blaney winning. The Roval was the site of the third and final race in the Round of 16. The four drivers lowest in the standings were eliminated from the postseason and the ability to compete for a championship in Miami. MORE: Race results | Memorable weekend pics The following drivers advanced to the Round of 12, and the below list reflects the new point totals. Remember, points reset to 3,000 for the below drivers, and then the drivers’ accrued playoff points are added. 1. Kyle Busch: 3,055 points 2. Kevin Harvick: 3,050 points 3. Martin Truex Jr.: 3,038 points 4. Brad Keselowski: 3,025 points 5. Clint Bowyer: 3,015 points 6. Joey Logano: 3,014 points 7. Kurt Busch: 3,014 points 8. Ryan Blaney: 3,013 points 9. Chase Elliott: 3,008 points 10. Kyle Larson: 3,006 points 11. Aric Almirola: 3,001 points 12. Alex Bowman: 3,000 points ELIMINATED: The four drivers eliminated from the postseason after Charlotte, the final of three races to comprise the Round of 16, were: Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones. THREE-WAY TIE: A wreck with six laps to go in the race put Kyle Larson in a precarious spot. Then Jimmie Johnson spun going for the win on the last lap. The end result? A three-way tie in the standings between Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola and Jimmie Johnson for the final two spots. The tiebreaking procedures state the driver with the best finish in the current round of the playoffs will advance. Larson finished runner-up at Las Vegas, so he was the first driver through. Almirola’s fifth-place finish at Richmond was better than Johnson’s best finish of eighth (Richmond and Charlotte), so he got the nod for the last spot. FALLING FLAT: William Byron slowed on the track with six laps remaining in Stage 2, feeling a tire problem. Moments later, his right front let go, shooting sparks and sending his No. 24 Chevrolet out of alignment. Playoffs driver Aric Almirola smacked the outside wall on the oval portion of the track while avoiding Byron’s No. 24. His No. 10 team called for a pit to straighten the fenders, but they were penalized for a tire violation and forced to serve a pass-through penalty. Later, the No. 10 took a spin courtesy of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and incurred more damage. Somehow, Almirola held on to advance. RELATED: Dillon’s day ends in disappointment BAD HIT: Austin Dillon had done just about everything right this round, but an incident on Lap 58 put him in peril. Trying to avoid the checked-up No. 37 of Chris Buescher, Dillon went into the fence hard, drawing a caution and needing to pit to fix the damage. The impact? Dillon went 13 points below the cutoff line late, and then he got into the wall again less than 10 laps later and was forced to the garage, ending his playoff hopes. BREATHING EASY: Beyond being an elimination race, Sunday’s contest was the first ever Monster Energy Series race at the Charlotte Roval, a combination road course and oval. Three drivers — Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. — had already clinched a spot in the Round of 12, allowing them a measure of comfort not afforded to their competitors. Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick clinched a spot simply by taking the green flag<doc-sep>Ryan Blaney took the lead from Stage 1 winner Kyle Larson during a pit cycle on Lap 37 of the Bank of America Roval 400 and held on for 14 laps to win Stage 2 on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. RELATED: Stage 2 results | Follow Final Stage It was Blaney’s sixth stage win of the season. Jimmie Johnson finished Stage 2 in second, while Kurt Busch — looking for his second win of the season — was third. Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five. The stage was free of cautions, perhaps with drivers aiming for long-term pit-cycle positioning over focusing on passing cars, and setting up what should be a particularly intense and jumbled Final Stage. With five laps to go, however, playoff driver Aric Almirola scraped the wall trying to avoid the No. 24 of William Byron, who had a tire going down. Almirola then had an uncontrolled tire penalty during his trip to pit road. Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski both spun coming through the chicane with two laps to go in the stage. The No. 2 of Keselowski sustained a tire rub. They placed 11th and 12th, respectively. Among the 16 playoff drivers, Almirola was the lowest-running in the stage at 36th. Finish Driver Team Race Points 1 Ryan Blaney Team Penske 10 2 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports 9 3 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing 8 4 Joey Logano Team Penske 7 5 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 6 6 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 5 7 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing 4 8 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports 3 9 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing 2 10 Daniel Hemric Richard Childress Racing 1 Stage 1 Kyle Larson took the lead from polesitter Kurt Busch on Lap 7 of the Bank of America Roval 400 and held on for 19 laps to win Stage 1 on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. RELATED: Stage 1 results It was Larson’s fourth stage win of the season. Busch led six laps and finished Stage 1 in second, while Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer — in danger of missing the Round of 12 cut — was third. Road course ace Martin Truex Jr. and Watkins Glen International winner Chase Elliott rounded out the top five. In need of a win to advance to the Round of 12, Denny Hamlin ran into an issue early when he came to pit road for an unscheduled stop on Lap 6 with a hood issue. He finished the stage in 19th. The first caution of the day came out on Lap 13 when the No. 51 of Stanton Barrett came into Turn 1 a little too hot, slamming into the wall and taking significant damage. The incident ended his race for a 40th-place finish in his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series result since 2006. Among the 16 playoff drivers, Aric Almirola was the lowest-running in the stage at 34th.<doc-sep>The 2018 NASCAR Playoffs hit the road on Sunday as in a 17-turn road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway, for the Bank of America Roval 400 at 2 p.m. ET. Kyle Busch, who took the checkered flag at Richmond last week, is the favorite on the latest 2018 NASCAR at Charlotte odds board at 3-1. Martin Truex Jr. is at 5-1 while Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski are all at 8-1. NASCAR at Charlotte 2018 is the third race of the Playoffs, which conclude in November in sunny Miami. With so much on the line and so many legitimate contenders in the field, you'll want to check out what former Vegas bookmaker and NASCAR handicapper Micah Roberts has to say before making your own 2018 NASCAR at Charlotte picks. Roberts has nailed both races of the NASCAR playoffs so far. He called for Keselowski to win at Vegas two weeks ago at 12-1 odds. Last week at Richmond, he said Kyle Busch was due for his seventh win of the season, and Busch did just that, taking the checkered flag after starting from the 11th spot. Recently, he said Harvick would dominate at Michigan, and he won with ease. Before that, he was all over Busch at Pocono, pointing to not only his 26 career starts at the track, but also his motivation to win after a late bump from Harvick the week before. The result: Busch rallied from 28th for the checkered flag. Earlier this season, he was all-in on Harvick at the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 despite two other drivers having the same field-leading odds. The result: Harvick dominated, leading for 181 of 325 laps and cruising to victory by 2.69 seconds. At the Food City 500, Roberts said Busch "owned" Bristol and would come away with the win -- he rallied to finish .63 seconds ahead of Larson for the checkered flag. In the 2017 playoffs, Roberts picked nine of 10 winners. That was no fluke: In 2016, he told readers to back Denny Hamlin at 15-1 in the Daytona 500. The result: Hamlin edged Truex for the checkered flag. Roberts also nailed Hamlin at 40-1 to win at Watkins Glen later that year. Now, he has analyzed the NASCAR at Charlotte road course from every possible angle and locked in his picks. You can see his entire projected leaderboard for the road course battle at SportsLine. We can tell you he's not going with the favorite in Busch, despite his four road course wins, tops among all active drivers. Busch is also on a roll having won last week, but Roberts has other drivers he prefers on this track. One of the 2018 Bank of America Roval 400 underdog picks he likes to finish close to the front: Daniel Suarez, a solid 20-1 dark-horse. "Suarez is probably not going to be in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 next season, so he has eight races left with Gibbs horsepower to showcase his skills, and this is his best shot of winning," Roberts told SportsLine. "He has four Cup starts on road races and was fourth or better in two of them at Watkins Glen." For the win, Roberts is backing a driver in the thick of the playoff race to get back on track by winning the Bank of America Roval 400. Roberts also has another huge underdog making a strong run at the checkered flag. Anyone who backs him could hit it big. So who wins the 2018 Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte? And which longshot stuns NASCAR? Visit SportsLine now to see the full projected leaderboard from the nation's premier NASCAR handicapper, and find out.<doc-sep>
CONCORD, N.C. – In a race that was as wild as advertised in the closing laps, Ryan Blaney sped past crashing Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. in the final corner to win Sunday’s inaugural Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. With his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and the second of his career, Blaney advanced to Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs. RELATED: Full results | Stage 1 results | Stage 2 results SHOP: Blaney gear Johnson wasn’t as lucky. The seven-time series champion was pressuring Truex on the final lap and powered his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the inside of Truex’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota Camry off the banking of Turn 15 coming into the frontstretch chicane. Johnson spun and collected Truex as he slid across the asphalt between Turns 16 and 17, knocking Truex’s Toyota toward the outside wall in the tri-oval. Blaney drove his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Fusion between the two wrecked cars and crossed the finish line .792 seconds ahead of runner-up Jamie McMurray. Because he had blown the chicane, Johnson stopped on the frontstretch as mandated by NASCAR before continuing across the finish line. He finished eighth and ended the event tied for 11th in the playoff standings with Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson, who completed the final lap in a car that had been all but destroyed in a Turn 1 wreck after a restart on Lap 104 of 109. MORE: Kes wrecks, takes Larson with him | Dillon wrecks out, ends playoff hopes Almirola and Larson got the final two berths into the Round of 12 on a tiebreaker based on the best finish in the current round. Larson was second at Las Vegas, and Almirola took fifth place at Richmond. Johnson’s best result was the eighth at Charlotte, leaving him on the outside with Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones, who also were eliminated from the Monster Energy Series Playoffs in Sunday’s cutoff race. RELATED: Playoff standings “Tough weekend, just kind of avoided some stuff,” Blaney said after he climbed from his car. “You hate to see two guys get into it there and take out two of the best cars all day. But that’s racing sometimes. “We were just at the right spot at the right time. It’s cool to be in Victory Lane and move on to the next round.” Truex, who led into the final chicane, was understandably disappointed with his 14th-place result. “Last corner, desperation behind us, that’s what you get,” said Truex, a four-time winner this season. “I gave him (Johnson) the inside lane, and he had the run through (NASCAR Turn 4), and I was real tight down there. I let him have the inside going down inside coming out of 4 there to the chicane. “He just over-drove it and was never going to make it and he used me as brakes and turned us both around. It sucks. We could have raced side-by-side off the last corner for a win, and that would have been cool. The fans would have been digging it, but instead we finished 14th and he’s locked out of the playoffs. I guess that’s what he gets.” Joining Blaney, Larson and Almirola in Round of 12 of the Playoffs are Brad Keselowski (Las Vegas winner), Kyle Busch (Richmond winner), Truex (locked in after Richmond) and Kevin Harvick (who qualified for the next round when he took the green flag on Sunday). Advancing on points were pole winner Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer and Alex Bowman. Bowyer ran third on Sunday, followed by Bowman, Kurt Busch, Elliott and AJ Allmendinger.