Bank of America ROVAL 400: Larson scores dominant Charlotte Roval win, Bowman disqualified

CONCORD, N.C. — Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson dominated most of the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course en route to his 29th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Larson is not just one of the best all-around drivers in NASCAR, but he is also one of the best road-course racers. The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet led 62 of 109 laps at the Charlotte Roval to earn his sixth Cup Series victory of the 2024 season.

“It was a great day, for sure,” Larson said. “This place has not been easy on me. This is probably the most difficult track out of the road courses for me. I put in a lot of work this week; a lot of studying and a few hours in the sim. It’s cool to win here with Cliff’s (Daniels, crew chief) family and everybody’s family. Just a great day for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Execution from start to finish was amazing.”

The last time Larson had this many wins in a Cup Series season was 2021, which was the same year he won the Charlotte Roval playoff race and later went on to claim his first championship in the premier series.

Christopher Bell finished second at the Charlotte Roval and clinched a spot in the next round of the Cup Series Playoffs. The 29-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver won this race two years ago and actually went on to score more points last year finishing 15th than he did this year finishing second.

“It feels alright… It feels good — I’ll be honest,” Bell said. “Happy for this DEWALT Toyota team. We had a goal today to win the race, and that’s what we came here to do, and it was close — me and the 5 (Kyle Larson) seemed like we were pretty evenly matched once we got out to our equal spacing. I would make a bad lap, and he would pull away, and he would make a bad lap, and I would close in. Hopefully, we get a redo in Phoenix.”

The main focus during the final laps of the race was the battle between 2024 Regular Season Champion Tyler Reddick, and two-time Cup Series Champion Joey Logano for the final Round of 8 transfer spot. An incident early in the race caused the back end of the No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota to lift off the ground after making contact with 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin.

Ultimately, Reddick’s late-race comeback and Stage 1 victory helped the No. 45 team live to see another day in the championship fight.

“Yeah, I thought I was going to flip, but I think I was behind the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) – trying to work the move to the inside,” Reddick said. “I got clear of him – I saw the 3 (Austin Dillon) spun and everyone on the binders coming to a stop, and of course, me and my boss (Hamlin) get together. It was like I was going to do a front flip – this thing was absolutely destroyed. Huge props to everyone on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was, and we just kept working on it. We were a lot better in stage three. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it is really nice to pull this off.”

Alex Bowman Post-Race Disqualification

Alex Bowman initially finished 18th, won Stage 2 and advanced to the Round of 8. However, his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was disqualified from the Bank of America ROVAL 400 after his car was deemed too light.

Due to the disqualification, the Hendrick Motorsports driver saw his total number of points scored decrease from 29 to 1, which caused him to drop out of playoff contention as his misfortune helped Joey Logano advance to the Round of 8.

This could have happened when Bowman hit the frontstretch chicane so hard that part of his car broke off. Here is a view from Michael McDowell, the car behind him on the track.

The results from the 2024 Bank of America ROVAL 400 are listed below:

Other Race Facts

The Round of 12 has concluded which means Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suárez and Chase Briscoe were eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. After the points reset, here are the eight drivers who are advancing to the Round of 8.

Kaulig Racing teammates Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger both had great days. Van Gisbergen earned his first career pole in the Cup Series and led a career-high 21 laps en route to a seventh-place finish.

Allmendinger, who won last year’s Charlotte Roval race, led 14 laps and finished sixth for the fourth time this season. According to Jayski.com’s Dustin Albino, all four of Allmendinger’s top-10 finishes have been sixth-place finishes.

Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 Leidos Toyota for 23XI Racing finished ninth at the Charlotte Roval in his newborn son Becks’ first in-person race. Wallace’s top-10 finish adds to his career-high in a season (13), and his 86 points earned in the Round of 12 is tied for the fifth most of all drivers and the most of all non-playoff drivers.

Seven of the top eight in the regular-season standings after Darlington advanced into the Round of 8. Joey Logano, who was 15th, is the other driver advancing while Brad Keselowski, who was eighth in the regular-season standings, was eliminated in the Round of 16.

Week 28 of the GRID Ranking saw three of the top four in the NASCAR GRID Rating finish inside the top three. Kyle Larson won the race, Christopher Bell finished second and William Byron finished third.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule will take place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, Oct. 20. Coverage of the South Point 400 will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC which will kick off the Round of 8.