Shane van Gisbergen kept doing what he does best on Sunday, dominating on the NASCAR Cup Series’ road courses by winning the Bank of America Roval 400 Round of 12 elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
The No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver ran down two-time Roval winner Kyle Larson and recorded his fifth straight victory on the road courses this season by walloping Larson by 15.16 seconds for his sixth win in 46 career starts, all on the curvy, twisting configurations.
After failing to win in the season’s first road race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, van Gisbergen reeled off wins at Mexico City, the Chicago Street Race, Sonoma and Watkins Glen before scoring Sunday’s win, his first at the Charlotte layout.
Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell followed the pair.
Ross Chastain was passed on the last lap and wrecked Denny Hamlin coming to the checkers, which eliminated Chastain by four points while competing with Joey Logano for the final spot.
Polesitter Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric also failed to advance to the Round of 8.
In the 32nd race this season, Reddick lined up next to van Gisbergen and took off, but the road-course hot shoe from New Zealand passed the No. 45 Toyota coming to Lap 5.
Needing a win to advance, Cindric ran into problems before the first pit stops began on Lap 10. The Team Penske driver slipped from 17th to 36th on the grid, putting him in even more jeopardy in the playoff standings.
The winner of the past four road races, van Gisbergen led 17 of the 25 laps in claiming Stage 1 by nearly eight seconds over Larson. Following Ty Gibbs and Bell, fifth-place finisher Chastain earned points to pass Logano in the standings, but the Trackhouse Racing driver blew the turn exiting pit road and gave up 15 spots.
Cindric’s chances ended on Lap 33 when Carson Hocevar locked up his brakes, lost control of his No. 77 Chevrolet and rammed the No. 2 Ford.
Ryan Blaney scored the win in Stage 2, but again, fourth-place Chastain managed to move up by earning seven playoff points.
After a series of pit stops on Laps 72 and 73, Larson emerged as the leader with Bell and van Gisbergen in hot pursuit to set up the finish.
