Comments from eliminated drivers after Charlotte Roval

CONCORD, N.C. — Four NASCAR Cup Series drivers saw their championship hopes end after Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Roval.

Here’s what the four eliminated playoff drivers had to say after the Roval race.

Ross Chastain (-4 points)

Ross Chastain entered the Roval with a 13-point deficit to the cutline, ranked ninth in points.

Chastain started 10th and finished the first stage with six stage points.

Then, during the stage break, he had to stop after failing to make the turn at pit exit, which cost him 15 positions.

Chastain made up those spots with help from crew chief Phil Surgen, whose call boosted him to fourth and seven stage points at the end of the second stage.

Chastain was in prime position to advance to the Round of 8 over defending champion Joey Logano before a speeding penalty cost him the positions he needed. On the final lap, he still had a 1-point advantage but Denny Hamlin passed him and eliminated that.

After one last divebomb on the final lap, Chastain spun himself and Hamlin out, ending his playoff hopes with a 21st-place finish.

“I’d restart the whole day (if I could go back). Trackhouse expects so much more out of me,” Chastain said.

“It’s heartbreaking for our almost 200 employees that makes this go round… Justin hired me to carry this 1 car and be a leader and I completely unraveled it.”

Tyler Reddick (-12 points)

Tyler Reddick entered the Roval ranked 11th in points, 29 points below the cutline.

The 23XI Racing driver led the first four laps from the pole before handling issues shuffled him back. Except for stage two, when he earned nine bonus points, his team focused on a win.

That goal didn’t come to fruition. Reddick ultimately finished 10th.

“I don’t know if anything necessarily went wrong today for how the race was playing out,” Reddick said. “We wanted to prioritize setting up to win the race. I think you could pick it apart – a couple restarts and what not, just kind of, as the race unfolded our long run was not where it needed to be with the top guys.

“Stage 3 there, we didn’t make the progress that we needed too, so we kind of went long there hoping for a caution there, and lost a lot of spots, but at the end of the day, we were trying to set ourselves up for a caution late.”

Reddick pointed to one point in the race where they could’ve possibly done something different.

“Looking back on it, my crew chief, Billy Scott, said we were only out by 14 – maybe we could have chased point a little bit harder there, so a few things to look back on, but coming into this, we played it the way we should have,” he said.

Bubba Wallace (-24 points)

Wallace entered the race with a 26-point deficit, tenth in the standings.

Wallace started 12th and tried to run long on tires to get an advantage late in the race. It just didn’t work out as he fell outside of the Top-10 and never recovered, not even earning stage points as the field shuffled around.

Wallace looked back on “last week” at Kansas Speedway as the turning point. However, he pointed out how he could’ve been better at the Roval.

“Just was thrown for a loop with this tire… I suck on road courses and we can’t save tires on road courses,” Wallace said. “It is just frustrating. It is back to how I was a couple of years ago. Frustrated at self, just knowing what was on the line, and didn’t produce, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. I appreciate everyone on this Leidos Toyota team for pushing hard. This one sucks worse than last week for sure. I had high hopes coming in here, and it is what it is.” 

Austin Cindric (-67 points)

Cindric entered the Roval essentially in a must-win position with a 48-point deficit on the cutline.

It was quickly over before it began. In the first stage, Cindric blew the backstretch chicane multiple times before contact with Carson Hocevar caused severe damage that put him 22 laps down.

“I’m bummed out, it definitely wasn’t the day we needed, and it wasn’t even really close. I just found myself involved in a lot of stuff and we got spun out a few times and racked up a lot of damage. So you’re not going to win when that happens,” Cindric said.

Cindric appreciated the effort his team put into not giving up even when everything was seemingly lost.

“It may be standard to say but I am exceptionally proud of my team for the obstacles we overcame. There was one time I was sitting in my car feeling sorry for myself and they come in, give me a cold bottle of water and replace the warm one and I felt like I was gonna cry. I wanna perform so well for my guys,” Cindric said to USA.

Cindric finished 37th in Sunday’s race.