Kyle Larson continues amazing season, wins at Charlotte Royal (10-10-21)
By: Becca Cottingham
Headline Photo Courtesy: NASCAR Twitter Page
We head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Roval and a cut-off race for playoff drivers. Multiple drivers hit the pit road early for tires as they cannot take gas until the competition is waved. Christopher Bell got hit with a penalty but thankfully he was able to serve it prior to the competition caution coming out. We have drivers who decided to stay out when the competition caution does come out. Some drivers are going for stage points instead of tires and fuel. This will lead to some interesting laps at the Roval. We do see a caution prior to the end of stage one as Ryan Newman has a tire blow. There is beating and banging from multiple drivers. Chase Elliott and AJ Allmendinger battle down to the last several turns of stage one to see who was going to earn the stage one win. Chase Elliott on the bottom makes his move and gets the stage one win.
We get back to green with AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Busch leading us. Things seem to be going well but all of a sudden we see nothing but a cloud of smoke. NASCAR foes call a caution due to the amount of smoke. All the while Hendrick Motorsports has issues with batteries staying charged. Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman both are having issues. The caution allowed both to look at their vehicles to see what could be wrong. Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick meet again on the track and there is still no telling how feelings are between them. Drivers may come down before the end of the stage. Kyle Busch maintained the lead and will win stage two.
We go racing again for the final stage of the roval and drama is sure to kick up even higher. Kyle Larson did his alternator belt corrected. Now it will depend on if he can make up the spots since the car has been fixed. The drama then continues between Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott. Kevin Harvick gets into the back of Chase Elliott and sends him into the wall. The drama this has created will not end today. All the while AJ Allmendinger had his engine expired and he nursed the car back to pit road. Drivers for the most part settle down afterward. Chase Elliott’s back bumper flap comes untapped and is flapping around and can eventually cause an issue. Chase Elliott’s car’s bumper does eventually give way and brings out a caution. We get another caution due to four wide and several drivers hard into the wall. This lines us up for some very fun and dramatic last few laps at the Roval. Denny Hamlin leads the pact while everyone is trying to catch him or stay above the cut line. Chase Elliott gets closer to Kevin Harvick and the warning of retaliation may be getting ready to happen. This does not get a chance to happen as Kevin Harvick slams into the concrete wall hard after locking up the front wheels. This will end Kevin Harvick’s day and a chance to advance. We will head back to another restart and this may or may not determine who wins this race. Kyle Larson gets the restart that he needs and shuffles Denny Hamlin backward. Kyle Larson overcoming all of his issues will now have to run eight very clean solid laps and hope for no additional cautions. William Byron has an issue and goes off track and was able to get back with no caution. This cost William the chance to try and chase Kyle Larson down along with Tyler Reddick. Kyle Larson will hang onto the win to become the unofficial winner at the Roval
