Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell is back in the Round of 8, looking to make his third Championship 4 appearance in the past four years after advancing Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. The four-time 2025 winner has yet to win at this weekend’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway — despite starting on the pole there three times since 2021 — but is this the year he cashes in on the speed he tends to have at the 1.5-mile track?
NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs contenders after the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and before Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Analysis: Larson looked like his old self once again this weekend (i.e., a world-class championship heavyweight) and offered Shane van Gisbergen’s toughest competition on the day, even pacing the field for 27 laps out front. Though he’s yet to win since the Kansas spring race, Larson carries a three-race streak of top-seven finishes into the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas, where he has three wins and two runner-ups from 2021-on alone.
Analysis: Blaney enjoyed a stress-free day at the Roval after already having advanced, but still did himself a favor by capturing the Stage 2 win and a playoff point along with it, which could come into play later on, so remember that. No. 12 has led in 10 of the past 11 races as he continues to fortify his championship hopes, and this could be an interesting weekend for him ahead. After looking early in his career that Vegas would be a track Blaney would be a multi-time winner at, he’s found the inside of the top 20 there just three times in the Next Gen era.
Analysis: Hamlin seems to be involved in nearly every marquee on-track incident this year, and the Roval was no different as he and Ross Chastain came together in the final moments during a last-ditch effort by the No. 1. Something’s clearly working for him, though, as No. 11 enters the Round of 8 solely atop the points standings as he perhaps closes in on title No. 1. Vegas is a track he tends to have speed at, but it’s only resulted in one of his 59 career Cup wins. That said, he’s sort of been the man to beat there this decade, and that may be the case again for the rest of the field Sunday. And it’s quite possible nobody can.
Analysis: Bell was the only other driver capable of sharing a podium with SVG and Larson at the Roval on Sunday, deserving and finishing third in a tough battle at times with each. There’s a strong chance the Bell and Larson battles don’t stop there, either, with both appearing to be Championship 4 favorites and both eyeing the win this weekend. Bell has three Vegas poles and a ton of laps led in each (including 155 in a runner-up effort in this race last year), so he’ll no doubt be aiming to finally capitalize out in the desert. After last year’s crushing Championship 4 miss, Bell could see himself in this year’s quartet before any of his peers.
Analysis: Elliott had a pretty strong day at the Roval, collecting 40 points in an eighth-place effort, even though he didn’t need any of them after he’d clinched advancement a week prior. There was still incentive for him to run as well as possible, though, because any potential playoff points would have helped — No. 9 slots in below the bubble after the reset, 14 points off the cut. Though he finished top 10 there earlier this year, an overall 19.0 average finish and one lap led in the last seven Vegas races offer some cause for concern.
Analysis: The final results haven’t been atrocious and he’s clearly done enough to make the Round of 8 with even a bit of cushion, but there’s still something lacking from Byron and the No. 24 at the moment, having led just once in the past nine races and for only five total laps. Considering six of those were playoff races, “rising to the occasion” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind here, but that could all be washed away Sunday at Las Vegas, where Byron excels and owns five straight top 10s, including a win. On the flip side, if they don’t get it together out in Nevada, it might be a signal that Byron could have to wait for title No. 1.
Analysis: Briscoe didn’t quite have to sweat making the Round of 8 or not, thanks to his overall very strong playoffs, and it’s a good thing he didn’t — starting inside the top 10 and finishing outside of it, while leading no laps in a cutoff race, certainly isn’t doing oneself any favors. Still, one of the season’s brightest story lines will have at least three more chapters; however, the first one could be rocky. Long one of his worst tracks (22.1 average finish), Briscoe will need to find some of that old Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 car 1.5-mile magic this weekend if he wants to avoid leaning on Talladega (gulp) and Martinsville to advance to his first Championship 4.
Analysis: The whole “where there’s a will, there’s a way” ethos clearly applies to no team and driver more than the No. 22 group and its intrepid three-time champion, and here he is once again, defying the odds and putting himself within striking distance of another title. Despite being ranked eighth here primarily because of a notable points deficit to open the round, you could make just as strong an argument for Logano to be No. 1 just based on what we know he and crew chief Paul Wolfe are capable of. Not a single soul out there would be surprised in the least to see them rip off another Vegas win to punch a Championship 4 spot (like he did last year … and in 2022). If that happens, we might as well save everybody the airfare to Phoenix and start engraving the Bill France Cup next week. No guarantees, though, of course — Logano doesn’t have a top 10 at a 1.5-mile track since Kansas, in May. | MORE: Analysis: Logano is the last one other competitors wanted to see make Round of 8
After the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval concluded the Round of 12, NASCAR’s premier series heads westward to begin the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, scheduled for this Sunday in the South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Denny Hamlin (plus-8), Ryan Blaney (plus-6), Kyle Larson (plus-4) and William Byron (plus-4) sit above the playoff cut. Christopher Bell (minus-4), Chase Elliott (minus-14), Chase Briscoe (minus-14) and defending Las Vegas fall winner Joey Logano (minus-24) place below the four-driver cutoff and will have three contests to flip fortunes in their favor. Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric were eliminated from title contention following the Charlotte Roval.
Katherine Legge will race behind the wheel of a Cup Series machine for the first time since August, once again piloting the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet. In six prior Cup Series starts this season, the 45-year-old driver has tallied two top-20 finishes, including a 17th-place result at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July.
Katherine Legge will return to NASCAR Cup Series action this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), again teaming up with Live Fast Motorsports to make her seventh start behind the wheel of the No. 78 Desnuda Organic Tequila Chevrolet.
Legge made her Cup Series debut earlier this year at Phoenix Raceway, becoming the first woman to enter a Cup Series event since Danica Patrick made her final start in the 2018 Daytona 500.
The multi-disciplined driver from Guildford, England, has tallied two top-20 finishes this season in six Cup Series starts, with a 19th-place finish coming at the Chicago Street Course and a 17th-place result in the crown-jewel Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Legge additionally raced in NASCAR’s inaugural Cup Series race in Mexico City.
Legge’s most recent Cup race came at Watkins Glen International in August. She has also made six starts in the Xfinity Series this year.
“We’re honored to have Katherine back with us in the Desnuda car,” team owner BJ McLeod said in a press release. “Her talent and professionalism bring tremendous value to the team, and her leadership as a trailblazer continues to inspire both inside and outside of racing.”
Legge’s return to the Cup Series adds to an already diverse racing resume, which includes stints in IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E and NASCAR. Known for her adaptability across disciplines, the veteran driver brings valuable experience and perspective to the No. 78 team as she continues her part-time Cup campaign this season.
“I’m proud of how far we’ve come this season, gaining experience and speed at the pinnacle of stock car racing as a driver, as a team and with showcasing the Droplight brands like Desnuda,” Legge said. “This car represents more than just a livery. It’s a statement of purpose and individuality. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the perfect place to showcase what Desnuda and I both stand for—real passion, hard work and the courage to stand out.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs roll on to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the Round of 8 kickoff race on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Championship 4 hopefuls will all be chasing Connor Zilisch this weekend after his win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval granted him his 10th Xfinity victory of the 2025 season and a healthy 57-point buffer to the cutline.
2011 Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne will return to Xfinity Series competition this weekend, driving the No. 24 Toyota for Sam Hunt Racing.
Somehow, someway, Joey Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe are back in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. A gutsy decision by Wolfe to pit from 13th place with just 11 laps to go and forfeit their then-two-point advantage over Ross Chastain paid off aplenty. Fresher tires allowed Logano to remain on the attack while Chastain bled spots. Entering the final chicane tied at the cutline and needing one more spot to best Logano, Chastain’s desperation led him to spin Denny Hamlin and try to claim the final spot in the Round of 8.
Too little, too late. Chastain went around with Hamlin and ultimately fell four points short of advancing, permitting the No. 22 Team Penske team to continue its NASCAR Cup Series Championship defense. That’s terrible news for the other seven drivers who advanced to the postseason semifinals.
We’ve seen this mojo before from Logano. The team was ousted after the checkered flag flew at the 2024 Roval race, but a disqualification for Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team after post-race inspection suddenly propelled the No. 22 team back into the final octet. A bold fuel strategy by Wolfe at Las Vegas to open the semifinals later led Logano to victory, a Championship 4 berth and Logano’s third Cup championship.
“Proud of Paul Wolfe. Made some really hard calls today,” Logano told NBC Sports. “Three-stopping the end there, kind of an audible there at the end. Just our fall-off was a little too much, so making that call there at the end was ultimately what kept us there in the game with just a few left.”
Leaving the door open for them to do it all over again? That could spell disaster for anyone else chasing a championship in 2025. Hamlin, who is one of those other seven drivers, had passed Chastain on the final lap, placing Chastain in a must-pass-now scenario.
“Truthfully, I wish I would have just known what the last-lap scenario was,” Hamlin said of his late pass on Chastain that sent the No. 1 into desperation mode. “And then I can make the best decision I can for me.”
What that boils down to is hoping anyone but Logano makes it this far in the postseason.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
And yet this is nothing new for Logano, who at age 35 is continuing to flex his muscle as one of the Cup Series’ elite. Despite ranking seventh in Passing Rating and 10th in Speed Rating, Logano is the best defender in Cup, according to NASCAR Insights’ season-long rankings. All he needs is track position — sometimes via speed, sometimes via fantastic pit calls — and Logano can do the rest to keep competitors behind him.
That, in large part, is what makes the No. 22 team lethal in the postseason. Given an inch, they will take a mile, and they will force you to go through them. And with a chance to eliminate Logano from being a real threat for the championship — Logano has past wins at Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville and of course Phoenix — the Cup field just couldn’t get rid of him. Fans at the Charlotte Motor Speedway knew it, too, and let Logano hear their displeasure after the race. With a Round of 8 berth in hand, he didn’t mind.
“Is that me? Is that who they’re booing at?” Logano said as his TV interview played over the public address. “Oh well. We’re still alive, baby! We’re still going. I’m so excited. …
“It’s the drama of the playoffs. If you want drama, the playoffs bring it every time.”
The theatrics reached their fever pitch, and Logano was left as the last man standing, smiling his way into the Nevada desert with another chance to make NASCAR history, this time pursuing a fourth Cup title that would tie him with Jeff Gordon for fourth-most all-time behind Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson (seven). And all Logano needs is a chance.
“A championship performance from the team,” he said. “Wish I was a little faster, but overall, I couldn’t be more proud of the team. We still got a shot.”
The polls are open for the National Motorsports Press Association’s 2025 Most Popular Driver Award. Fans can vote up to five times per day per unique email address for their favorite driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Simply visit the Most Popular Driver landing page and click on the series logo for the series you want to vote for, select your favorite driver and click the submit button to cast your vote. Fan Rewards members will earn 25 points on their first vote from the Rewards dashboard.
The polls are open from noon ET on Monday, Oct. 6, until noon ET on Monday, Nov. 3. We’ll update you with the top 10 vote-getters in each series on Oct. 15 and again with the top five vote-getters in each series on Oct. 22. The winners will be revealed on Nov. 4 at the NASCAR Awards banquet in Scottsdale, Arizona, after Championship Weekend. The NMPA will also send out a press release that announces the winners.
Be sure to come back to NASCAR.com for the top-10 and top-five updates and continue voting to help your favorite drivers in each series cross the finish line.
Chase Elliott has won the Most Popular Driver Award in the Cup Series for the past seven seasons, while Justin Allgaier and Rajah Caruth took home the honors in the Xfinity and the Craftsman Truck series in 2024, respectively.
The 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field that opened the 10-race postseason is now cut in half. Eight drivers survived the year’s second elimination Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, while four more lost their eligibility for the Bill France Cup.
The playoffs will roll on with next Sunday’s 400-miler at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, HBO Max), but first, a breakdown of an eventful Bank of America Roval 400 and the playoff perspective that became clearer after an eventful Round of 12 finale.
WINNER
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. The top-billed favorite among playoff and non-playoff drivers alike ran his road-course win streak to five straight, tying Denny Hamlin for the most Cup Series wins this season. Van Gisbergen led 57 of the 109 laps and his 15.160-second margin of victory ranked second only to his own 16 1/2-second advantage at the end of the inaugural Mexico City event in June. The shoo-in Sunoco Rookie of the Year also reached six career wins in just 46 starts, becoming the fastest to reach that mark since A.J. Foyt hit that plateau in 1972.
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. The former Cup Series champ’s winless spell has now reached 20 races, but he’s showed signs of momentum in the Round of 12. Larson logged top-10 finishes in all three of the round’s races, highlighted by a runner-up effort Sunday at Charlotte. Those results — plus a gathering of points at each stage Sunday — helped him advance before the final Roval stage.
Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell started the playoffs with a 29th-place thud at Darlington, but it’s been mostly positives in the races since then. Sunday marked his second consecutive third-place finish, stretching his run of top-10 results to five straight. Those consistent conversions helped him clear the elimination bar by a whopping 60 points.
WHO’S NOT?
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. The lone remaining playoff driver for Trackhouse fought gamely in the final stretch, but his last gasp to avoid elimination came up four points short. Those efforts were at least partly undone by a pair of miscues on pit road — a Lap 27 overshoot of pit exit that cost him 14 positions, and a Lap 88 speeding penalty when he left his pit stall in the wrong gear. He tried to hold off a charging Joey Logano in the points hunt, driving on older tires for the home stretch, but his advantage slipped away. His head-of-steam run into the final chicane nudged Denny Hamlin out of the groove, but also sent his own No. 1 Chevy spinning. He backed across the finish line in 21st place.
Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford. A collection of mishaps in the race’s first half doomed the 27-year-old driver’s already slim hopes for reaching the Round of 8. Cindric overshot the backstretch chicane on Lap 9, looped his No. 2 Ford a lap later after contact from Justin Haley’s No. 7 Chevy, then sustained bigger damage after Carson Hocevar locked up his No. 77 Chevrolet and barreled into him in the front chicane on Lap 33. It all added up to multiple laps behind the wall, a 36th-place finish in the 37-car field and the loss of postseason eligibility.
BUBBLE WATCH
RANK
DRIVER
+/-
1
Denny Hamlin
+8
2
Ryan Blaney
+6
3
Kyle Larson
+4
4
William Byron
+4
CUTLINE
5
Christopher Bell
-4
6
Chase Elliott
-14
7
Chase Briscoe
-14
8
Joey Logano
-24
NASCAR INSIGHTS
Not surprisingly, the two drivers atop the scoring pylon were also aces in the NASCAR Insights metrics. Race winner Shane van Gisbergen was easily No. 1 in speed and restarts, and runner-up Kyle Larson was among the top five in four of the five analytics categories (defense, speed, restarts and pit crew). The best pit crew for the day was the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevy team for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but second on the list was Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske group, which made the most of their service stops, helping keep their driver’s title defense alive.
QUOTABLE
“I trust Paul Wolfe.” — JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Team Penske Ford, on his veteran crew chief’s pit-stop call with 11 laps remaining, which gave him a tire edge for the final run to the checkers.
NEXT RACE
The Cup Series Playoffs move into their next phase Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where a treacherous three-race Round of 8 will begin. The South Point 400 (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) will mark the last race of the season on a 1.5-mile track. From there, the Cup Series field will experience a pair of extremes — its largest oval at 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 19, and its smallest at the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 26. Those three races will determine the four drivers who will race for a championship Nov. 2 at Phoenix Raceway, and Las Vegas could help set the tone.
CONCORD, N.C. — Strategy for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval was largely determined — and altered — after Saturday’s practice session.
A new-to-the-track Goodyear tire produced lap times that were roughly two to three seconds slower than the 2024 edition of the Bank of America Roval 400. More critically, teams saw a lap-time fall-off of roughly four seconds over the course of the tire life, a dramatic slowdown that forced teams to deviate from previously laid plans.
Teams were no strangers to this particular tire compound, as it’s the same tire teams used at the five other road courses on the 2025 schedule. That’s, in part, what made the Roval wear so drastic.
“Yeah, it was a bit of a shock,” race winner Shane van Gisbergen said. “I think our outright pace was two seconds slower than last year, and then you would fall off another four seconds off what we did last year. That was a big surprise. I don’t think anyone expected that. Yeah, as a driver, you want to be flat-out the whole time and pushing hard, but also, those races create mixed strategies and different pit cycles and stuff.
“Probably more interesting as a fan and seeing people come and go, and a lot more passing. I’m all for whatever makes better racing. It’s frustrating having to drive and save the tire the whole time, but if it makes good racing, I’m all for that.”
Adam Stevens, crew chief of Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota, echoed his surprise post-race despite his team’s third-place finish.
“I think it caught, certainly us off guard,” Stevens told NASCAR.com. “I don’t know if I could say it’s true for everyone, but yeah, it was a different race for sure.”
Teams scrambled to make whatever adjustments they could to their cars for the final race of the Round of 12, but the rules only permit so many drastic changes. Much like the extreme tire wear that caught teams by surprise at Bristol Motor Speedway, Stevens said teams could make their tires last if they were permitted more flexibility to change their car setups. But much of the car’s settings are locked in during the week.
“Most of the setup decisions are made before you leave for the track,” Stevens said. “And the car’s impounded after inspection, and the list of things you can change is pretty small. So if you feel like you’re way off, there’s just not a lot you can do to remedy it. And certainly, if we had access to every setup parameter, we would have changed an abundance of things that we couldn’t change.
“It’s the same for all of us. We just had to make the most of it with what we had, and I think (we were) probably about as good as we were going to be. But you know, if we were running this race again tomorrow, we’d come back with something pretty different.”
David Jensen | Getty Images
Billy Scott, crew chief of the No. 45 Toyota for driver Tyler Reddick, knew his team needed to chase the win since they entered the elimination race 29 points beneath the cutline. Starting from pole afforded the team early track position, but as other teams split the stage by pitting midway through the opening 25-lap stint, Scott kept the No. 45 on track to save a set of tires for later. Ultimately, the strategy didn’t work out and Reddick was eliminated from the postseason, along with his 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Team Penske’s Austin Cindric.
“The strategy going in was focusing on winning, so we weren’t too worried about getting stage points or keeping the track position there,” Scott told NASCAR.com. “In hindsight, though, I think we probably would have fared better to have followed the group in that stage, but I think also we could have been led to a point we felt necessary to pit again in Stage 2 like we did and run out of tires. We just didn’t have a good long run car.
“We came here trying to be a little more aggressive on some setup stuff, trying to find a little bit more speed that we needed to keep up with the 88 (van Gisbergen) and I think it backfired, in a sense, with having tires that wouldn’t last 10 to 12 laps. We were certainly on the short side of that.”
Multiple strategies were utilized throughout the pits, with some teams choosing to pit twice during the final stage and some opting for three stops. Who chose what was dependent on car strength and track position. But in the end, the speed of SVG overcame any sort of tire drama, propelling him to his fifth straight road-course win — no matter the tires.
“We could run second or third, and that was about it,” Stevens said. “We just didn’t have anything for the 88, and we knew coming in, he was going to be the car to beat. If we’d had a little bit cleaner day, certainly second was on the table, but it was going to take circumstance to move up one more spot.”
NASCAR officials have disqualified the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota, driven by Riley Herbst, after the car failed to make minimum weight after Sunday’s Cup Series race at the Charlotte Roval.
The rookie driver had originally crossed the line in 30th, one lap down at the 17-turn, 2.28-mile road course. It’s the second Roval race in a row where officials have disqualified a car for failing to make weight, as Alex Bowman’s playoff run came to a halt with a similar issue last year.
Herbst had multiple hiccups on the afternoon, flattening his own tire on Lap 58 after a retaliation attempt on Ty Dillon. Moments later, he went spinning off the bumper of Kyle Busch coming through the Turn 17 chicane.
The No. 35 car, as well as the No. 41 Ford piloted by Cole Custer, will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection. There were no other issues.
Shane van Gisbergen won Sunday’s race, leading 57 laps and cruising to a 15.160-second triumph over defending winner Kyle Larson.
