TC Daily Pit Stop: Allmendinger Scores Emotional Win at ROVAL; RFK Championship Hopes Rest on Buescher After Keselowski Elimination; Byron on a Tear
TC Daily Pit Stop: Monday, October 9th, 2023
A.J. Allmendinger Fends off William Byron for NASCAR Cup Win at ROVAL
A.J. Allmendinger showed more emotion than we’ve seen all season long after he scored a hard-fought win in the NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America ROVAL 400 over William Byron.
Allmendinger, who now has three wins in his NASCAR Cup Series career, says the tears in his eyes were from not knowing if, or when, he would score another NASCAR Cup Series win again.
“Because you don’t know when you’re going to do it again,” Allmendinger said. “I love all of the men and women at Kaulig Racing so much. First of all, hi to my beautiful wife and my new baby boy. I usually give these checkered flags away, but I’m going to have to wrap this [checkered flag] around Aero.”
The eight drivers that have advanced to the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 are William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, and Martin Truex Jr.
The four drivers that were eliminated from Playoff contention on Sunday were Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch.
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RACE RESULTS
DRIVER POINTS
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INSPECTION REPORT
NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid Heading Into Round of 8
RFK Racing’s Championship Hopes Rest on Buescher After Keselowski Elimination
It had been a Cinderella Season for RFK Racing, as both of the team’s drivers — Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher — had advanced to the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but after the ROVAL, their two championship bids, have been reduced to just one.
Brad Keselowski failed to advance to the next round, while Chris Buescher will move on to the Round of 8.
While Keselowski is obviously disappointed by not moving on to the next round, he is extremely happy for his teammate.
“I’m really happy for Chris and you know obviously you’re never happy when you don’t advance,” Keselowski shares. “If you look at where we were a year ago to where we’re at today, it’s night and day and we want to make the same jump next year.”
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William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Team Hard to Beat Heading Into Round of 8
It seems impossible, as William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team have been incredible all season long, but it feels like they are just hitting their stride in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Byron, who has a series-high six wins this season, scored his third-consecutive top-two finish with a runner-up effort at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, and the top seed in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs has seven top-10 finishes over his last eight starts.
It’s becoming apparent that if anyone hopes to hoist the championship this year, they’ll have to go through Byron and his team to get there.