CONCORD, N.C. --  Team SWN Story By Tom Baker / Photos by Chris Murdock -- A.J. Allmendinger scored his first win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season in Sunday's Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 

Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch began the day below the NASCAR playoff cut line, needing a day like Sam Mayer had yesterday when he came from 11th in the playoff standings to win his way to the round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Drive For The Cure 250 race.

When it was all said and done, Reddick would be the only one of the four who would advance. Busch, Chastain, Wallace and Keselowski were knocked out of championship contention for the year.   

Reddick and Toyota teammate Christopher Bell would lead the field to the green, with Wallace starting fourth, Busch fifth and Chastain 12th.  

The other big story was Kyle Larson's practice crash on Saturday that forced his team to roll out their back up No. 5 Chevrolet.  Larson began the event from  the 36th position, with the team determined to chase as many stage points as possible, if not a win, in order to advance to the next round.

Stage One

When the green flag dropped it was Reddick speeding off with the lead, followed by Bell, Suarez, Wallace and Busch.  AJ Allmendinger wasted no time making a quick move by Busch to take fifth spot on lap two.  Busch, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Chastain comprised sixth through tenth at this point. 

Erik Jones spun his No. 43 on lap 5 after a brush with the 78 of Josh Bilicki, but no yellow was needed as he would restart.   Ricky Stenhouse pitted with a potential toe link issue in his No. 47 Chevrolet and lost two laps while the crew replaced it so he could rejoin the race.  

Ten laps into the race, the top ten positions remained the same. Larson had passed his way to 27th.  Reddick's advantage was a little over a half-second as the field remained close.  

A few laps later, Kyle Busch brushed the outside wall but was able to continue, it seemed, without any negative effects.   

Brad Keselowski missed the frontstretch chicane and had to do a pass through on pit road because he didn't come to a stop on track after his off-track excursion. Brad has started from the 19th position, and now was back outside the top 20. 

As the final few laps of the stage went by, a few teams decided to make a pit stop early, including Larson and Buescher and Busch, who pitted with four laps left.   Hamlin pitted with three laps left along with Alex Bowman, A.J. Allmendinger and Corey LaJoie.  

Bell dove onto pit road with two laps left in the stage, surprising everyone, as he pitted out of second place. However, since he was able to re-enter the race in fifth, he only lost three spots, a bit of shrewdly-played strategy by crew chief Adam Stevens and the team. 

On the final lap of the stage, Mike Rockenfeller, driving the No. 42 for Legacy Motor Club this weekend, spun off-track and had to stop on the backstretch to serve his "penalty".  

When the stage flag was waved, it was Reddick, Wallace, Chastain, Truex, and Bell in the top five followed by Suarez, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Gibbs and Allmendinger.  

As of the end of stage one -Buescher, Larson, Keselowski and Busch were below the playoff cut line.  

Stage Two

Bell and Suarez were up front for the start of stage two, with Elliott, Busch and Allmendinger filling the top five.  Gibbs, Logano, Hamlin, William Byron and Michael McDowell, who has hung around just outside the top ten most of the day so far, now runs tenth.

Larson was in seventh at this point, with early leaders Reddick, Chastain and Wallace all outside the top 15.  

Elliott took second on the restart when Suarez spun his tires a bit, but with 31 laps complete he was nearly a second behind leader Bell. Over the next four laps, Elliott's NAPA Chevrolet quickly ate up the distance and by lap 35 the race was on for the lead! 

Lap 36 saw Elliott dive underneath Bell and take the top spot.  Bell, Suarez, Allmendinger, Busch, Gibbs, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell made up the top 10. Reddick was thirteenth, Larson 15th, Chastain 19th and Wallace 21st at this time. 

Once "40" went up on the scoreboard, the battle for second became hotly contested.  Allmendinger and Gibbs got by Bell and Suarez, and Kyle Busch moved into fifth, shuffling Suarez to sixth place.  Hamlin, Logano, McDowell and Byron rounded out the top ten with Reddick, Buescher and Larson right behind. 

Busch's RCR team decided to "flip the stage" by pitting with six laps left, as did Keselowski. Busch needed a win to advance to the round of 8 so Randall Burnett's strategy was not surprising.  Allmendinger, Suarez and Gibbs pulled down pit road with five left in the stage, as Elliott built up a seven second advantage.  

With all the drivers pitting, Reddick and Larson were now back in contention, running fourth and sixth, respectively, with Wallace running eighth as team co-owner Michael Jordan watched from Reddick's pit box. How would this all play out at the end of the stage?  

The first caution for an on-track event happened on lap 48 when Josh Bilicki and Corey LaJoie came together, resulting in Bilicki spinning his No. 78 into the wall.  Chase Elliott tried to pit but missed the commitment line and had to slow down.  

All that excitement brought the stage to a frenetic end, with Elliott winning it.  Bell, Hamlin, Reddick, Larson, Chastain, Wallace, Truex, McDowell and Busch all scoring stage points.  


Final Stage 

Busch and Gibbs led the field to the green for the restart of the final stage with 56 laps left.  Busch cleared Gibbs and then Allmendinger also snuck by the No. 54 to take second.  Gibbs, Byron, Logano, Buescher, Suarez, Bowman and Keselowski rounded out the top ten as fans settled in to see who would advance to the round of 8 at the end of the race. 

Remember, Busch needs the win to advance, and going into the race Chastain, Wallace and Reddick also were below the cut line. On lap 57, Allmendinger drew alongside Busch and took the lead, sending Busch from "in" to "out" once again for the moment in the playoff race.

Byron moved to third, with Gibbs and Buescher fourth and fifth with 58 on the board.  

Inside of 40 laps to go, Denny Hamlin lost control of his Mavis Toyota No. 11 and got clipped by Mike Rockenfeller, bringing out a caution and forcing the JGR team to action on pit road. Ross Chastain also had an incident on pit road trying to avoid an exiting Austin Dillon and slid into his box sideways.  

The green flag flew once again with Allmendinger and Gibbs side by side and Byron going by Busch to take third.  Gibbs got the lead from Allmendinger, and Dillon and LaJoie came together further back in the pack.  

Allmendinger fought back and retook the lead quickly as business picked up on the track, while McDowell and Erik Jones came together bringing out the yellow.  Jones had a hard hit into the wall after a three-wide battle and McDowell had nowhere to go. 

The running order under the yellow with 29 laps left was Allmendinger, Gibbs, Byron, Busch, Logano, Buescher, Reddick, Keselowski and Cindric through the top ten.  Hamlin's day is over, but he will advance to the round of 8.  

The race restarted with 27 laps left and Allmendinger got the jump on Gibbs to hang onto first place.  Just outside the top ten, Suarez, Wallace, Bell and Larson were fighting each other hard for position and, for Wallace and Larson, their continued road to the championship. 

Andy Lally spun the Rick Ware Racing No. 15 into the wall on lap 84, bringing out another yellow.

That caution put the laps remaining under 25, with Allmendinger, Gibbs, Busch, Byron and Logano in the top five. 

Allmendinger once again got the jump, while Busch and Gibbs started using each other up for second. Gibbs prevailed and Busch fell back to third.  

Just after the restart, Cindric and Suarez made contact with Cindric spinning, and Wallace, running 11th, got caught up in it, missing the rear chicane and losing nearly 20 spots on-track, back to 31st position.  He pitted his NO. 23 Leidos Toyota for new tires and returned to action. 

Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski brushed with 16 laps to go and the No. 6 of Keselowski spun.  Chastain pitted for a lookover just as his teammate Daniel Suarez spun off the front bumper of Christopher Bell, bringing out the caution once again. 

Who would pit and who would stay out?  

Nobody inside the top 20 chose to pit, so once again there would be a restart with Allmendinger, Gibbs, Busch, Byron and Reddick in the top five. 

On the ensuing restart, Busch shot by Gibbs and began pursuit of Allmendinger for the lead, but a fire on the Stenhouse No. 47 brought the yellow back out again! 

Allmendinger got the jump once again and Byron got by Busch for second on the restart.  Byron started fighting to close ground, and drew within a half-second of Allmendinger with 7 laps to go, appearing to be faster than the Kaulig Racing No. 16. 

Busch held onto third, with Gibbs, Logano, Reddick, Buescher, Bowman, Elliott, and Preece in the top ten.  Could Busch close in on the leaders if they began to battle for the lead? 

Over the final laps, Allmendinger and Byron drove away from Busch, Gibbs and Logano.  Byron gave it all he had, but it was not to be as Allmendinger kept his Kaulig Racing Chevy out front and went on to nab his first win of the season on the most unique road course in NASCAR. 

Byron finished second, Busch third, Gibbs fourth and Logano fifth.  Reddick, Buescher, Bowman, Elliott, and Chastain rounded out the top ten.

"You have no idea how much this win means to me," an emotional Allmendinger said after the race.  "You never know when you're going to get another one of these.  I love everyone at Kaulig Racing.  We've had an up and down season this year.  There's a different level of aggression in the playoffs for those drivers.  I've loved racing against Ty for the past three or four years in Xfinity.  He was racing for his first Cup win.  I knew Kyle had to win to make the playoffs.  I knew William was probably going to the next round, so he was going to be aggressive, but not desperately aggressive. One thing I did not want to do was be that guy to make a mistake and let one of them by me. The rear tires were starting to go, but those last 7 or 8 laps, those were about the most perfect I could drive a race car." 

Team Manager Chris Rice added, "I've never met a race car driver with so much passion in and out of the car, and I've never met a race car driver who treats the owner so well.  He knows everything we're doing at Kaulig Racing and supports 98 percent of it. Five years ago, Matt called me and said let's try to get the best road racer in the world so we can win road races and we went and got A.J. Allmendinger."

Drivers who will advance to the round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs include William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick.  

NASCAR action for the Xfinity Series and Cup Series moves to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend, followed by Homestead-Miami and Martinsville, where the field in all three series will be whittled to the championship four for the finale at Phoenix.