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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.

Chase Elliott (9) leads the way out of Turn 7 in a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Chase Elliott has won four straight road course races. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

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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