Elimination is not on Kyle Busch’s radar — yet
One race is left standing between NASCAR’s defending champion and his early exit from the postseason. Kyle Busch is the first driver below the eight-driver cutoff in points to advance to the next round and is still winless in 2020 heading into Sunday’s elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
While hope is never lost for any driver, especially not Busch, the conditions teams are facing for the Roval 400 will be — much like everything else this year — challenging.
“Strategy-wise, there’s only so much you can do,” No. 19 Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. said.
That’s because in addition to the traditional trials of a road course elimination race sandwiched within a mostly oval schedule, this could be the year Cup teams put on the rain tires. There is a 70 percent chance of rain Sunday afternoon for NASCAR’s Cup races at the course in Concord, North Carolina, according to the National Weather Service and AccuWeather.com.
The rain will provide a new challenge for top teams. Wet weather tires, supplied by Goodyear, have never before been used in an official Cup competition.
“I think if it does rain, boy, all hell is gonna break loose,” No. 14 Ford driver Clint Bowyer said. “More importantly, we know it’s gonna rain if we race,” Bowyer added, referring to NASCAR’s many weatherrelated delays and postponements for events this season.
Bowyer, who announced Thursday his retirement from racing to transition to broadcasting after his 15th full-time Cup season ends this year, is sitting 38 points below the playoff cutoff. He, along with Busch and Austin Dillon (tied at -21), as well as Aric Almirola (-48), are the four drivers below the bubble and facing elimination prior to the Roval.
Other playoff drivers are seeking to build their points cushion before the checkered flag. Those drivers include Joey Logano (+21), Alex Bowman (+22), Truex Jr. (+32), Brad Keselowski (+41) and Chase Elliott (+44). Kurt Busch (win at Las Vegas) and Denny Hamlin (win at Talladega) are locked in, and Kevin Harvick needs only eight points to lock in his spot to the next round.
Elsewhere: AJ Allmendinger splashed his way through a torrential rainstorm that turned
ACharlotte Motor Speedway into a slip-and-slide to win the Xfinity Series race on the hybrid road course-oval “Roval.” Allmendinger won for the second time this season in 10 starts for Kaulig Racing. He’s easily the most experienced NASCAR driver at both road course racing and driving in wet conditions — Allmendinger has a long career in multiple formulas, including sports cars and open-wheel, which both race in the rain. Allmendinger’s victory in near darkness on a soaking wet track ended a sloppy race marred by multiple slides through standing water. It was an elimination race for the Xfinity Series playoffs and Harrison Burton, Brandon Brown, Michael Annett and Riley Herbst were knocked from title contention. Allmendinger had a short celebration before he had to transition to NBC Sports’ booth to call IMSA’s debut on Charlotte’s purpose-built Roval. While he was in victory lane, the soaking wet fans still in attendance loudly chanted “AJ! AJ! AJ!” as Allmendinger was shown on Charlotte’s massive video board that illuminated the infield. ... Valtteri Bottas ended Lewis Hamilton’s run of five consecutive Formula One pole positions by claiming first place on the grid at the Eifel Grand Prix at Nurburg, Germany. Hamilton briefly sat atop the time charts after toppling Max Verstappen in the third session, but his teammate Bottas sped through seconds later with an unbeatable time, fastest in all three sectors of the Nurburgring track. Bottas’ time beat Hamilton by .256 seconds and Verstappen by .293. Ferrari recovered a little ground after a miserable run of races, with Charles Leclerc qualifying fourth and Sebastian Vettel 11th. ... Portugal’s Rally Vidreiro has reported the death of Spanish co-driver Laura Salvo, 21, after her car crashed during the race on Saturday. The race was canceled after the incident.
ETC.
A Soccer: Brazil and Colombia had no trouble late Friday beating two of the weakest South American teams to score their first wins in the opening round of World Cup qualifiers. The matches took place without fans in Sao Paulo due to health protocols from the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil easily beat Bolivia 5-0 in rainy Sao Paulo while Colombia scored all of its goals in a 3-0 victory in the first half in Barranquilla.
A Cycling: British rider Alex Dowsett claimed his first Giro d’Italia stage victory in seven years at Vieste, Italy, and Joao Almeida held onto the pink jersey.