CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — A.J. Allmendinger isn't racing for a NASCAR Cup Series championship and knew very well that Kyle Busch's entire season rested on the outcome of Sunday's playoff elimination race.
Busch could only stave off elimination by winning on Charlotte Motor Speedway infield road course.
Allmendinger figured he knows Busch well enough that Busch would understand if Allmendinger raced for the win.
Allmendinger spoiled NASCAR's playoffs by refusing to cede track position even though he's not part of the championship field. Back in the Cup Series full time for the first time since 2018, Allmendinger led 46 laps for Kaulig Racing to win for the first time in NASCAR's top series since Indianapolis in 2021.
“I knew Kyle had to win. I kept looking up at the board to see where he was points-wise,” Allmendinger said. “Kyle has been fantastic to me my whole career. I knew he was going to race hard. I knew what he was racing for.”
Busch, along with Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, and Brad Keselowski did not make the cut for the Round of 8 of the Playoffs on Sunday.
Busch, the two-time series champion who had to win Sunday to advance to the round of eight. Busch gave it a few tries but couldn't get into second place — William Byron finished second — and Busch settled for third.
Busch was uncharacteristically optimistic after elimination and said he'll try to win each of the final four races.
“I would love to be the spoiler. That would be fun,” Busch said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ll keep building."
Also eliminated was Chastain, last year's title runner-up.
"I’m excited with the gains we’ve made," said Chastain, who finished 10th on Sunday. "We came out of the box super strong in 2022 – won the first road course race in the Next Gen car. And then it just slowly kind of stepped back all the way until mid-season this year.
"I can’t wait to get to work in the morning, to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and every race after that.”
Bubba Wallace's first playoff appearance ended in the round of 12 on his 30th birthday with 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan watching from Wallace's pit stand.
“We weren’t supposed to be here, according to a lot of people, but we proved them wrong and then proved a lot of people in the garage wrong that you can’t really count on the 23 at a road course race," said Wallace, who finished 16th. "Got to continue to work. I don’t think we’re a winning car yet, but we’re light-years from where we were a few races ago.”
Keselowski, the 2012 sereis champion, tried to fight back from a pass through penalty for missing the frontstretch chicane and a spin later in the race, finished in 18th.
"There are lots of things I could have done differently today," said Keselowski. "I don’t know if it would have been enough, but I probably could have had a better day if I executed a little better.”
It was a brutal day for Chevrolet, which lost both popular Chastain of Trackhouse Racing and a resurgent Busch, who won three times in his first season driving for Richard Childress Racing. He's been a boost to the organization, which won its last championship in 1994 with the late Dale Earnhardt.
“First year at RCR, means a lot to me for Richard having me and for the Chevy guys having me, everybody, to get this far,” Busch said. "Rides on me to get to the next round, so I’ve just got to do a better job.”
Keselowski knocked a Ford team out, while Toyota lost a championship chance with Wallace.
MOVING ON
The remaining eight drivers in the championship race are led by Byron and Ryan Blaney, who both won in the three-race round of 12 to earn automatic berths into the next three races.
Denny Hamlin advanced in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, as did Tyler Reddick, who drives for Hamlin and Jordan at 23XI Racing. Christopher Bell and Martin Truex, Jr., the regular season champion, advanced with Hamlin for Gibbs to get three cars through.
Kyle Larson drove a backup car to a 13th-place finish to join Byron, who has a series-best six wins this season, representing Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet in the next round. Larson crashed in Saturday practice and Hendrick Motorsports, which is located about a mile from the speedway, had to work into the night to get a car through Sunday morning inspection.
Ford has Blaney of Team Penske and Chris Buescher of RFK Racing, which didn't advance Keselowski through but still has one driver racing for the championship.
Hamlin had already locked himself into the round of eight earlier in the race via stage points, so his last-place finish Sunday was irrelevant.
“We've already shifted our focus to Vegas and we'll see what we can do there,” Hamlin said. “Really optimistic for the next three weeks.”
UP NEXT
The round of eight of NASCAR's playoffs opens Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Joey Logano is the defending race winner and Byron scored his first win of the season at Las Vegas in March.
