America’s Heartland played host to one of the best NASCAR races of the season as the Hollywood Casino 400 offered up incredible side-by-side action that ended with a stirring double overtime finish.
A turn 4 clash between 23XI driver Bubba Wallace and team owner Denny Hamlin in the final turn allowed Chase Elliott to sneak by, wheeling his No. 9 Kelly Blue Book Chevy to his second victory of the season and punching his ticket to the Round of 8. For a more thorough review of that race, here’s Jey’s recap.
With a week full of speculation from Kansas in the rearview, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series head back to their hallowed home of Charlotte for the Bank of America Roval 400.
Rather than tackle the familiar oval that hosted the National 500 for several decades, the Cup Series headed into the CMS infield to take on the Roval, a 17-turn monstrosity that strikes fear in competitors of all skill and success levels.
Shortly after the start-finish line, the field takes a hard left into the infield where they sweep around a tight complex with undulating hills that sink down into the daunting hairpin of turn 7. To make matters worse, turn 7 is the junction back onto the oval in turn 1 where they put the power down to the backstretch.
A sweep through the chicane gives way to the oval turns 3 and 4 prior to the filed diving into the final chicane, a brutal back-and-forth that feature fearsome kerbs that could ruin your race.
With Elliott and Loudon winner Ryan Blaney locked into the semifinal round, the 10 remaining playoff drivers seek to stake their claim at the Bill France Cup with a spirited performance at the Roval where survival is the name of the game.
Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Joey Logano sit above the cutline for just a few more hours as Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Cindric look to pull off an upset and land a spot in the round of 8.
About 250 miles over 109 laps at the Roval will test patience, resolve, and execution. There’s no time to waste when every corner is an opportunity to get ahead and get that next point.
This Week in NASCAR
New developments emerged in a pair of filings by both sides in the federal antitrust suit between 23XI Racing and Front Row Racing against NASCAR and the France family.
Early in the week, 23XI filed a summary judgment motion summed up best by Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass:
Later in the week, NASCAR countered with a summary judgment motion of their own on Friday evening where the collected declarations from high ranking members of nine Cup Series teams, including Rick Hendrick, Roger Penske, Richard Childress, Brad Keselowski, and Joe Gibbs, among others.
Curiously, all of the owners seem to agree that the charter system should not only be maintained, but be enhanced by becoming permanent, which is one of the key arguments of the teams suing NASCAR.
Anyway, I have two articles centering on how this could potentially be resolved: one if NASCAR wins and another centering on a win for the teams.
As Randall Burnett prepares for his new role as Connor Zilisch’s crew chief with Trackhouse Racing next year, Richard Childress Racing revealed that they were moving on from Burnett on top of the 8 team’s pit box.
In the inaugural Craftsman Truck Series race at the Charlotte Roval, Corey Heim survived a lap 1, trun 1 crash at the hands of Grant Enfinger, advanced through the field at a rapid rate, and closed on his teammate Brent Crews as the laps wound down.
A caution came out with a few laps to go sent the race into overtime where Crews was forced to pit for fuel. A swarm of drivers on fresh tires failed to mount a charge at Heim as the Georgian earned his 10th win of the 2025 season and clinching the Truck Series record for wins in a season.
In much more dominating fashion, Connor Zilisch mirrored Heim’s feat in the Xfinity Series race at the Roval as the phenom whipped the WeatherTech Camaro to his 10th victory of 2025, firmly punching a ticket to the round of 8 that was well in-hand coming into the weekend.
In the background, controversy broke out in overtime as drivers Sammy Smith and Taylor Gray found themselves at the center of a tight points battle when a caution flew on the final lap.
As it turned out, Smith had Gray beat whether Gray’s illegal pass of Jesse Love under yellow stood or not, pushing the JR Motorsports driver into the round of 8 for the third straight season along with Zilisch, Allgaier, Mayer, Love, Creed, Kvapil, and Jones. The four eliminated drivers were Austin Hill, Nick Sanchez, Gray, and Harrison Burton.
Before all of that, the Cup Series qualified for the BOFA Roval 400 where Shane van Gisbergen lost out on the pole for a second straight road course race, this time to 23XI driver Tyler Reddick. For a full lineup, click here.
Reddick found himself in the headlines last Sunday due to his young son Rookie’s ongoing health issues that saw the four-month-old infant being treated in the ICU last Sunday morning for heart failure.
Tyler’s wife Alexa posted on Instagram on Saturday to give an update on Rookie’s condition:
The Race
Today’s Bank of America Roval 400 will be broadcast on the USA Network starting at 3pm Eastern time with commentators Leigh Diffey, Steve Letarte, and Jeff Burton on the call.
The 400 in the race title represents the amount of kilometers run over the course of 109 grueling laps around NASCAR’s most fearsome road course. Those 109 laps will be split into three stages ending on the following laps: 25-50-109.
As for the average race here at the Charlotte Roval, it looks something like this: 7 cautions for 16 caution laps, 11 lead changes, an average duration of 3 hours and 9 minutes, the lap of final caution falls around lap 99 (or 11 laps to go), and just one instance of true overtime back in 2022.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Bubba Wallace. He was a turn away from winning until his efforts were foiled by Denny Hamlin, forcing Bubba to finish fifth.
This week’s writer’s pick is outside pole sitter is Shane van Gisbergen, winner of the last four road courses the Cup Series has visited.
Do I really need to go further than that?
(Top Photo Credit: Charlotte Motor Speedway)
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