CONCORD, N.C. (AP)-- Jimmie Johnson stood outside of his banged up No. 48 Chevrolet still in disbelief over the blunder he'd made on the final lap Sunday' at Charlotte Motor Speedway that cost him a shot at advancing in the playoffs. "Shell-shocked," said the seven-time Cup champion. Johnson had all but secured a spot in the round of 12 with a strong showing through 108 laps. Sitting in second place, all he had to do was follow race leader Martin Truex Jr. to the finish line. Instead, Johnson made the split-second decision to go for the win, attempting a pass Truex Jr. with two turns remaining on the new "roval" track. Johnson tried to go inside, but instead ran into Truex, causing a crash that cost Truex the win and knocked himself out of the playoffs. Ryan Blaney passed both drivers for the win. "I wish I go could go back in time and let off the breaks a little bit back there and not take that opportunity, because the championship is what we are here for," Johnson said. "To fight all year and be that close to transfer..." When asked if he'd make the same decision again, Johnson said, "if I know the outcome was going to be that? No. I want to stay alive in the championship points. But I really felt like I could pull that pass off." Johnson later apologized to Truex's team and his fan base on Twitter, saying "everyone makes mistakes." Truex deliberately spun out Johnson's car after the race and was still irritated at him when he spoke about the attempted pass. "He just over-drove it and was never going to make it and used me as brakes and turned us both around," Truex said. "It (stinks), 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." Now he will have to finish out the rest of the season contemplating what he called a "mistake." Johnson didn't hide the fact that he wanted to end a frustrating career-long 58-race winless streak. "I was going for the win -- that is what I am here for," Johnson said. "If I didn't think I was better than him in that area I would not have taken that chance at executing that pass. When he left the inside lane open that is the preferred line and I felt like I had a real shot." Before he made the decision to pass, Johnson said he never thought about the chance of missing out on the playoffs, feeling he was safely in. "I thought we had a big enough cushion in points," Johnson said. "I thought we were still fine. I thought I was going to be OK." Instead, Johnson finished in a three-way tie with Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola for the 12th and final spot in the standings. He failed to advance on a tie-breaker. "It's a bummer and it is not what we want by any stretch," Johnson said. Blaney said of Johnson's decision, "you make decisions every second behind a race car. And sometimes to will to win is just too high to sit there and finish second." Charlotte Motor Speedway President Marcus Smith said the race lived up to the hype. "What happened is not what I imagined or hoped for but it was incredibly exciting," Smith said of the dramatic finish. "The roar from the fans is the moment I know everybody would remember for this moment for a long time."<doc-sep>After Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson crash, Ryan Blaney wins his first race of 2018 - the Bank of America Roval 400 in Charlotte. CONCORD, N.C — Winding through the final lap of the inaugural “roval” race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney wasn’t expecting to win. He was focused on the points he was about to earn and advancing to the second round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Blaney was several car lengths behind Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson – who were fighting to win the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday – and solidly in third place. But he suddenly saw chaos unfolding on the 17-turn, 2.28-mile track ahead of him when Johnson lost control of his No. 48 Chevrolet, spun out and nicked the 78 Toyota too. With Truex and Johnson out of the picture, Blaney blew through the final turns on the front stretch – almost wrecking himself – to win his first race of 2018. He’s happy he won, but he’s not sure he deserved it. “Obviously, that's not the way I'd want to do it,” Blaney said after his second career Cup Series win. “Obviously, I want to go out and dominate the race. Whenever you win something like this, it's a weird feeling. I don't really want to call it an undeserved feeling, but it's just kind of an odd feeling. “But we put ourselves in a good spot, and it worked out for us. When I was running third, I was just thinking about points. We were good on points, and I was cool with just riding around in third. But then that situation happened, and we happened to be there.” Blaney and his No. 12 Ford led 16 of the 109 total laps on Charlotte’s new half-oval, half-road course and won the second stage of the race. With one playoff point from the stage win and five from taking the checkered flag, he enters the next round of the postseason with 13 total playoff points eighth among the top-12 remaining drivers. To compare, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are first and second, respectively, with 55 and 50 playoff points going into the first race in the Round of 12, which is Sunday at Dover International Speedway. When four playoff drivers were eliminated from contention with Sunday’s results – including seven-time champion Johnson – Blaney’s obviously thrilled he and his team advanced. But he was conflicted about it long after the race ended and wondered if he earned the checkered flag. The 24-year-old driver explained he’s in an unexpected spot. He doesn’t want to be “overjoyed” about winning because Truex and Johnson wrecked, but he still thinks he and his team should take pride in winning a playoff race – especially the first one on the unique roval track. “I don't have the vocabulary to describe the feeling,” Blaney said. “I've never won a race like that before. Any race I've ever been in – quarter midgets, late models, legends cars – I've never been running third, and the two cars wreck each other and I win the race.”<doc-sep>Ryan Blaney ended up as the winner of Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval after Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. crashed in the final two corners. Johnson and Truex were racing for the lead as Johnson trailed Truex. Johnson got into turn 16 too hot and spun through the corner, taking out Truex in turn 17. That allowed Blaney to drive through for the win. The wreck eliminated Johnson’s chances at making the playoffs. Had he stayed in second behind Truex and let Truex win the race, he would have advanced to the second round. But the spin cost him so many positions that he ended up falling into a tie with Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson for 11th in the standings. Almirola and Larson both have the tiebreaker over Johnson, meaning he’s currently 13th in the playoffs and out of the playoffs. “I was more worried about the win than anything else,” Johnson said. “I hate that I started wheel-hopping and took Martin and I out. That’s the last thing that I wanted to do. And I put pressure onto him in [oval turn 3] and he washed up and I thought I was going to be in the prime braking zone going into that final turn and have a shot at it. And onto the brakes it started locking the rears and wheel-hopping and I didn’t think I’d hit him at first, I knew I was spinning obviously, but I guess I collected him in my spin and certainly regret doing that.” ” … Wins are so important. The veteran could have taken the safe route and didn’t and unfortunately took us out of the playoffs and took out the 78.” Why Johnson is out Johnson stopped after his spin because of a NASCAR rule that mandates drivers stop if they miss either corner in the final chicane. NASCAR penalizes drivers 30 seconds if they miss a chicane in the final laps of a road course race so Johnson didn’t necessarily have to stop. He would have been assessed a 30-second penalty and ended up missing the playoffs regardless. By stopping, he missed the playoffs via tiebreaker because of his eighth-place finish. Story continues “He wasn’t ever going to make it through that corner whether I was there or not. Just desperation on his part and pretty stupid really if you think about it because he was locked into the next round and now he’s out,” Truex said. “I guess if there’s a silver lining, that’s it.” Joining Johnson among the four drivers eliminated from the playoffs after the first round are Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones. Almirola drove through the field to gain multiple positions on the final laps of the race and Larson smashed the wall twice on the final lap. Once exiting turn 4 of the oval section of the track and once while passing Jeffrey Earnhardt’s wrecked car for the the final and tiebreaking position. Earlier wreck took out top contenders A crash with just fewer than six laps to go immediately after a restart took out drivers at the front of the field. Brad Keselowski was the race leader and locked his brakes up entering turn 1. He wasn’t the only one who had problems, however, as a bunch of drivers appeared to struggle for grip on the track and go way wide in the corner. As Keselowski slammed into the wall other drivers like Larson, Kyle Busch and Paul Menard piled in while a wreck happened a few dozen feet away on the inside of the corner exit. Drivers advancing to 2nd round Martin Truex Jr. Kevin Harvick Kyle Busch Kurt Busch Brad Keselowski Joey Logano Ryan Blaney Chase Elliott Clint Bowyer Alex Bowman Kyle Larson Aric Almirola Roval results 1. Ryan Blaney 2. Jamie McMurray 3. Clint Bowyer 4. Alex Bowman 5. Kurt Busch 6. Chase Elliott 7. AJ Allmendinger 8. Jimmie Johnson 9. Kevin Harvick 10. Joey Logano 11. Ryan Newman 12. Denny Hamlin 13. Matt DiBenedetto 14. Martin Truex Jr. 15. Regan Smith 16. David Ragan 17. Chris Buescher 18. Michael McDowell 19. Aric Almirola 20. Cole Whitt 21. Daniel Suarez 22. Ty Dillon 23. Daniel Hemric 24. Ross Chastain 25. Kyle Larson 26. Jeffrey Earnhardt 27. Justin Marks 28. JJ Yeley 29. Landon Cassill 30. Erik Jones 31. Brad Keselowski 32. Kyle Busch 33. Paul Menard 34. William Byron 35. Trevor Bayne 36. Bubba Wallace 37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 38. Timmy Hill 39. Austin Dillon 40. Stanton Barrett – – – – – – – Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.<doc-sep>Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) CONCORD, N.C. — Ryan Blaney won the inaugural Cup race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Sunday, overtaking Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson in the final turn as they wrecked battling for the win. It is Blaney’s first win of the year. Truex led on a restart with three laps to go with Johnson second. Johnson took his shot at the win trying to pass Truex on the outside entering the frontstretch chicane. Johnson lost control and went into a spin. He then caught Truex’s right rear, sending him around. Blaney, who restarted fifth, navigated between their cars and across the line. “I wasn’t expecting that,” Blaney told NBC. “You hate to see two guys get into it there and take each other out, two of the best cars all day. But that’s racing sometimes.” It is Blaney’s first win since the June 2017 race at Pocono, snapping a 50 race winless streak. Truex finished 14th and Johnson placed eighth. Johnson was eliminated from playoff contention. Erik Jones, Austin Dillon and Denny Hamlin were also eliminated. The top five was completed by Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch. The final three laps were set up by a massive wreck in Turn 1 on a restart with six laps to go. The wreck included race leader Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, William Byron, Trevor Bayne, Daniel Hemric and Aric Almirola. The wreck began when Keselowski locked up his brakes approaching the turn. STAGE 1 WINNER: Kyle Larson STAGE 2 WINNER: Ryan Blaney MORE: Race results MORE: Point standings WHO HAD A GOOD DAY: Alex Bowman earned his third top five this season and secured a spot in the playoffs … Chase Elliott placed sixth, giving him a top 10 in all three road course races this season … Matt DiBenedetto placed 13th for his best finish on a non-restrictor plate track this season … Aric Almirola finished 19th after multiple incidents and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. WHO HAD A BAD DAY: Kyle Busch placed 32nd for his third finish outside the top 10 since the July Daytona race … Austin Dillon placed 39th after hitting the wall twice in the second stage … Daniel Suarez placed 19th after three speeding penalties. NOTABLE: Justin Marks placed 27th in what is expected to be his final NASCAR start. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We finished 14th and he’s knocked out of the playoffs. I guess that’s what he gets.” – Martin Truex Jr. on Jimmie Johnson. WHAT’S NEXT: Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway at 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 7 on NBCSN<doc-sep>
CONCORD, N.C. — Neither Martin Truex Jr. nor Jimmie Johnson needed victory as they fought for first place in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday.​ Truex Jr. had already clinched an advancement in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and Johnson didn’t require a win to reach the Round of 12. Still, on the last lap, they raced each other into the front-stretch chicane that Truex Jr. on Friday cautioned could mangle careless cars. Sure enough, Johnson spun out, and Truex Jr. lost control trying to avoid the seven-time series champion, which let Ryan Blaney claim an unlikely victory. The crash knocked Johnson out of the playoffs via tiebreaker. Truex Jr., angry about the finish, rear-ended Johnson after the race was over. In all, the first-ever road and oval combination course provided plenty of buzz for a sport that had some of its worst-ever TV ratings last week in Richmond. "This is new highlight footage for NASCAR,” said Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith. “This was way more exciting probably than any football game on right now." MORE: Hailie Deegan becomes first female K&N Pro Series race winner So much goodness right here. Relive the final moments all over again! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/iaAtE9Nzim — NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 30, 2018 Johnson did not look back on the race quite as fondly. Despite lagging behind for much of this season, the most decorated active NASCAR driver had a chance to move on to the next round before his late lapse ended his campaign. As Johnson prepared to face the media following the race, he yelled an expletive to himself. Later, he tweeted an apology to Truex Jr. for how the race concluded. Everyone makes mistakes... apologies to the 78 and all of their fans. — Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) September 30, 2018 “Wins are so important, and the veteran could have taken the safe route and didn’t,” Johnson said of himself. “We had such a good car, and it’s one of those split-second decisions to race for the win.” Truex Jr. was also dejected after the race. He won at Charlotte in 2017 and felt good about his chances down the stretch Sunday. ''Johnson just over drove it and was never going to make it and used me as brakes and turned us both around,” Truex Jr. said. “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.'' Martin Truex Jr. has: 1. ) Advanced to the Round of 12 2.) Had enough of your sh-t#NASCAR #BofAROVAL pic.twitter.com/Y7JsQMBUgZ — nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) September 30, 2018 Instead of Truex Jr. celebrating another win, Blaney capitalized on the crash with a first-place finish he had difficulty explaining. “I don’t have the vocabulary to describe the feeling,” Blaney said. “I’ve never won a race like that before. I’ve never in any race … been in third and two guys wreck each other and I win the race.” Added Clint Bowyer, who finished third: “Lucky little turd. That could have been me.” It’s unclear what kind of long-term repercussions the wild finish and the ROVAL experiment as a whole will have on NASCAR. Smith lauded the new-look course as a refreshing change for the sport, and he said the ending presented a much-needed viral moment. Bowyer shared that viewpoint, telling reporters earlier in the week, “We’re trying something new. I’m happy our sport is doing that.” But Roger Penske, Blaney’s car owner, acknowledged losing Johnson this early in the playoffs was a hit to the competition given Johnson’s historic success. This likely isn't the last ROVAL race — Truex Jr. said he’s sure there will be more road-oval combination races going forward regardless of his personal feelings toward the course. Others agreed. “My metric (of success) is highlight-worthy moments,” Smith said. “We were full of them today.”