What Happened?
Kyle Larson put on another Larson-style clinic and won at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in dominant fashion on Sunday, Oct. 13 after leading a track record-setting 62 laps. Christopher Bell, William Byron, Austin Cindric and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
This is the sixth NASCAR Cup Series win for Larson in 2024, which matches the record for most wins in the Next Gen era set by his teammate Byron last year.
Among Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano was eliminated from the playoffs. It ended his streak of qualifying for the Championship 4 round in every even-numbered year since the inception of the playoff format in 2014.
For about three hours.
What Really Happened?
Every once in a while, NASCAR writers are reminded to wait until the official results of a race are released before writing. We still often ignore that rule anyway, because disqualifications are rare in NASCAR, and it’s implausible to think a day would come where playoff eliminations are reversed because of them.
No, this crow does not taste good.
In the early Sunday evening, hours after all of the fans had gotten up and left the racetrack and the drivers had all returned home, it was announced that Alex Bowman, who had qualified the No. 48 Chevrolet into the Round of 8 for the first time since 2017, had been disqualified for failing weight requirements in post-race inspection.
The disqualification resulted in Bowman’s immediate elimination from the playoffs and promoted Logano into the Round of 8 — keeping that weird even-year streak alive after all.
It nearly didn’t turn out that way, however. Despite everyone’s efforts and sorrows, the result was exactly how the afternoon began. Logano, Cindric, Suarez and Briscoe were all still below the cut line when the checkered flag dropped, leaving no surprises heading into the roster of this year’s Round of 8.
Logano’s streak seemed to be nothing more than a coincidence after all.
However, around three hours later, that streak was miraculously brought back to life for at least another three weeks with Bowman’s inspection failure.
What is the strange phenomenon that gives Logano the ability to perform as he does in even-numbered years? Is it luck? Is it skill? Is it aliens?
No matter the case,…
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