There were storylines aplenty coming out of Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400, which saw Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski eliminated from the playoffs at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Other than Busch, who ran a clean race and finished third, the remaining three drivers experienced their share of issues, prohibiting their advancement on to the Round of Eight.
Take Keselowski, who had several issues on the frontstretch chicane.
On lap 19, he missed the chicane and had to serve a pass-through penalty. He again had an incident on the frontstretch near the end of the race when he attempted to pass Chastain.
“We were all kind of throwing ‘Hail Mary’s’ there at the end, trying to get the spots we could get and it just didn’t work out,” Keselowski said.
While not an ideal situation for the driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang, who finished 18th at the ROVAL, he admitted it doesn’t affect his pride in regard to the gains RFK Racing has made this year.
“We wanted to go further and deeper in the playoffs, but we still have the opportunity to finish fifth in points, so we’re going to push hard to make that happen,” Keselowski said.
As RFK’s co-owner, Keselowski commended teammate Chris Buescher for advancing on to the next playoff round, though, he added that his own mentality as a driver hasn’t changed.
“He (Buescher) ran a great round and did the things he needed to do and had a great day today. He certainly earned it,” Keselowski said. “We want to go and win with both cars and I think we’re committed to doing just that.”
Despite Issues, Hamlin Advances
It wasn’t part of Denny Hamlin’s plan to be taken out of contention on lap 76 of 109 at the ROVAL, or to finish dead last out of 37 cars. But what was part of the plan was scoring stage points, which the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver did in the opening stages.
That allowed Hamlin to secure a berth in the Round of Eight before his race came to a screeching halt in turn 17.
“We planned on it before we got here,” Hamlin said in his interview on NBC Sports. “We’ve already moved our focus to Vegas.”
Kaulig Racing Hints At Plans For No. 16 Entry
There was no official answer given by Kaulig Racing team owner Matt Kaulig or team president Chris Rice on Sunday night as to who will fill the seat of their No. 16 Cup Series entry next year.
However, the pair made it clear that a decision has been made and the announcement will be coming in the next week.
A.J. Allmendinger, who won Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 and earned his third career Cup Series victory, is the car’s current driver.
“We do want to win races and we love A.J., we haven’t all decided — actually we just haven’t announced yet exactly what we’re doing. I think we’re pretty clear on what we’re doing, we just haven’t announced anything,” Kaulig said.
He then deferred the question to Rice.
“It is a clear-cut decision, we just haven’t announced it yet,” Rice said.
However, the team president elaborated regarding Allmendinger’s current position at Kaulig.
Rice added, “I’ll tell you over the last month, he’s been very key and pivotal to everything we’re doing at Kaulig Racing. He knows everything we’re doing at Kaulig Racing, and he supports 98 percent of it I would say. He shouldn’t support it all because that’s what makes you better.”
It’s unclear whether Allmendinger will return to the Cup Series or move back to the Xfinity Series next year, but the 41-year-old did confirmed he will be back under the Kaulig Racing banner, regardless of what series he races in.
“I just want to keep racing with the Kaulig Racing Chevy,” Allmendinger said. “I’m not going anywhere.”