October 9, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Win and you're in, Christopher Bell scores Roval win to advance in Playoffs

CONCORD, N.C.—Christopher Bell entered the Roval at Charlotte below the Playoff cutline and left with a win on Sunday.

With just one path to the Round of 8—through Victory Lane—the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team opted not race for stage points through the first two segments and only focus on getting Bell to the lead.

When the first actual race caution was called 104 laps into the Bank of America ROVAL 400, crew chief Adam Stevens called an audible for tires. That was the advantage Bell needed to close the deal and advance in the Playoffs.

“Man, you just got to be there at the end of these things,” Bell said. “I keep watching all these races where the fastest car doesn't always win. No secret that road courses have not been our strength this year. We were just there at the right time. We obviously weren't in position to win, we rolled the dice, gambled, it paid off for us.”

Kevin Harvick grabbed the lead on Lap 107 after Tyler Reddick bumped Chase Elliott off the point. But his fortune was short-lived. With fresh rubber, Bell, who restarted 11th, was coming. Two laps later—the second and only other competition-related caution occurred after one of the turtles came loose on the course. NASCAR red-flagged the race for six minutes. When the race returned to green, Bell blew by Harvick and extended his lead to 1.79-seconds over the last two laps.

“I knew we were in a bit of a pickle there with Christopher on new tires and I just didn’t want to blow the first corner,” Harvick said. “I wanted to give us a chance. He was just able to roll more speed than we were and from there it was just kind of like damage control and make sure you bring the thing home and that’s what we did.

“They did a good job. They got us in position and that caution coming out killed us there.  We were half a lap from coming to the white and caution, so they did a good job.”

Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Haley, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Reddick, Chase Briscoe and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.

Polesitter Joey Logano won the first stage and lines up second in the standings behind Elliott, who won last weekend at Talladega. Ross Chastain started from the rear after unapproved adjustments. With strategy, h won the second stage—and gained 10 points plus a Playoff point which proved invaluable after hitting the wall 25 laps in. Chastain broke a toe link on the No. 1 Chevy and was forced to take his car to the garage.

Chastain advanced despite a 37th-place finish, but mechanical issues proved to be the undoing for two Playoff contenders. Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez lost his power steering 60 laps into the race. He finished one position ahead of Chastain, but fell out of the Playoffs.

Perhaps the most shocking development was defending Cup champion Kyle Larson missing the Round of 8 after hitting the wall and breaking the toe link on the No. 5 Chevrolet. Larson was running 13th, well above the cutline, when he was forced to pit on Lap 98 for repairs to the rear suspension.

“There's definitely no other person to blame but myself for today,” said Larson, who finished 35th and missed the Round of 8 by two points. “I feel like our team put ourselves in position as well as we could on points. Got as many stage points as we could. I think it was plus 27 or 28 at the time when I screwed up. Just for no reason either. I wasn't even pushing that hard at that moment. Got loose, and caught off my guard.

“Yeah, just got to keep working on my craft, just be better, make a lot less mistakes. Like I said, I made way too many mistakes this whole year. You can't win a championship like that. Yeah, no surprise that I made another mistake today and took us out of contention.”

Larson’s loss proved to be Chase Briscoe’s gain—but his result was questioned by NASCAR after the race. On the final lap, Briscoe’s teammate Cole Custer had restarted eighth then slowed significantly on the back straightaway allowing the No. 14 to pass him and race to a ninth-place result. Custer dropped to 24th over the last lap.

The sanctioning body released the following statement: NASCAR is reviewing data, video and radio transmissions from the 41 car following its incident on the backstretch during the final lap. NASCAR will communicate the results of the review early this week. Any potential penalties would not affect the Round of 8 field.

Regardless, Briscoe’s ability to move on despite being swept up in an incident laps early  was extremely satisfying to the driver.

“Man, what a wild day,” Briscoe said. “I told my guys before we took the initial green in the race, there's a difference between thinking we could move on and knowing we could move on. This team never gives up. I told them I was never going to give up. It took every bit of it there at the end.

“To be easily in, then that debris caution comes out. Still, I thought we had a really good shot of making it in. Get wrecked on the backstretch. Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road course race, how much can change so quickly. I had no idea we were even going to have a shot. Truthfully I knew we were probably out. I saw the 2 (Austin Cindric) wreck, I thought maybe there's still a chance. We had so much fresher tires than anybody. Johnny (Klausmeier, crew chief) pumped them way up to qualifying pressures, let me go attack, have the ball in my hands.”

Along with Elliott, Logano and Chastain, Briscoe will battle Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, and of course, Bell. While each of the drivers can hold their own, given the No. 20 team’s strength in the Round of 16, it would be foolish to bet against Bell.

“I feel really good about it, that's for sure,” Bell said. “I knew that the whole time going into this second round of the Playoffs this was the troublemaker, with Talladega and then the road course being in here when we weren't strong on the road courses. I was really nervous about this round.

“I felt good about Texas. When we got out of there with no points, I thought it was going to be a really tough road. It was a really tough road. But there was an end to it.”

Bell certainly has won his crew chief, Adam Stevens, over in the last two years.

“If it's just on pure talent and ambition and dedication, he can win as many races as he runs because he has so much skill,” Stevens said. “There's not a place we go that he's not capable of winning. There's nothing that you ask of him that is delayed or out of reach or something that he doesn't want to do if it means getting better.

“The sky is definitely the limit. He's young. He's getting better at a tremendous rate. He's already extremely good. You can't hide the talent that he has.”