Chase Elliott gets 4th straight road course win on Charlotte Roval win as Kyle Busch gets knocked out of playoffs
Chase Elliott continues to be NASCAR’s road course king. And Kyle Busch won’t be defending his Cup Series title.
Elliott won his fourth consecutive road course race on Sunday with his second straight win at the Charlotte Roval. Busch, meanwhile, failed to advance to the third round of the playoffs and was eliminated from title contention along with Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola.
Elliott had the best car at the Roval once again. A restart with 10 laps to go was no problem as he drove away from everyone else and beat Joey Logano by almost three seconds.
Erik Jones was third, Kurt Busch was fourth and Ryan Blaney finished fifth. Kyle Busch was running in the top 10 late in the race but had to pit for fuel with two laps to go.
The win is the third of 2020 for Elliott. He won at the Charlotte oval in May and then at the Daytona road course in August. He’ll start the third round of the playoffs in fourth.
Elliott is also the defending winner at Kansas Speedway. That’s where the third round of the playoffs begins before heading to Texas and Martinsville ahead of the winner-take-all finale among four drivers at Phoenix on Nov. 8.
He’s also the first driver to win four road course races in a row since Jeff Gordon won six in a row from 1997-2000.
Hello, rain tires
Sunday’s race was the first NASCAR Cup Series points race run with rain tires. The race started with a wet track thanks to rain in the Charlotte area all morning and early afternoon. Things dried out as the race went on and teams switched to slick tires for dry conditions when the track started to get dry spots.
It didn’t stay completely dry, however. There were spots that were perpetually wet in the infield section and caused trouble for numerous drivers.
Kyle Busch has 4 races to keep the streak alive
Busch entered the Cup Series full-time in 2005 and won two races in his rookie season. He’s won at least one race in each of the seasons since.
Busch has zero wins in 2020. Will it be his first winless season? Busch has shown significant speed at times throughout the year, so he hasn’t been completely off the mark. he’s just not had much good luck.
Will his luck change over the last four races of the season? It’ll be funny if Busch is the one winning at Phoenix while the Cup Series champ finishes second.
Playoff standings
1. Kevin Harvick, 4,067 points
2. Denny Hamlin, 4,054
3. Brad Keselowski, 4,035
4. Chase Elliott, 4,027
5. Joey Logano, 4,022
6. Martin Truex Jr., 4,017
7. Alex Bowman, 4,009
8. Kurt Busch, 4,006
Race results
1. Chase Elliott
2. Joey Logano
3. Erik Jones
4. Kurt Busch
5. Ryan Blaney
6. William Byron
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Alex Bowman
9. Cole Custer
10. Clint Bowyer
11. Kevin Harvick
12. Tyler Reddick
13. Jimmie Johnson
14. Ryan Preece
15. Denny Hamlin
16. Aric Almirola
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Austin Dillon
20. Chris Buescher
21. Bubba Wallace
22. Matt DiBenedetto
23. Ty Dillon
24. Christopher Bell
25. Daniel Suarez
26. Gray Gaulding
27. Corey LaJoie
28. Quin Houff
29. James Davison
30. Kyle Busch
31. Ryan Newman
32. Michael McDowell
33. Josh Bilicki
34. Matt Kenseth
35. JJ Yeley
36. John Hunter Nemechek
37. Brennan Poole
38. Timmy Hill
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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