NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte ROVAL
Round of 12: Elimination Race
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
October 5, 2025
Van Gisbergen Drives Chevrolet to Third-Straight Charlotte ROVAL Victory
Three Team Chevy Drivers Advance to Round of Eight
Team Chevy’s Shane van Gisbergen added onto an already banner rookie campaign in NASCAR’s premier series – driving his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. With now five-consecutive road course wins in the division, Van Gisbergen sits just behind career Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon’s all-time record streak of six-straight road course triumphs.
The victory marks Chevrolet’s sixth win in eight NASCAR Cup Series events on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, with Shane van Gisbergen extending the manufacturer’s streak to three-straight on the 2.28-mile circuit.
Joining Chase Elliott in the NASCAR Cup Series Round of Eight are his two Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Kyle Larson and William Byron, who were able to point their way into the next round at the conclusion of the second elimination race of the postseason. With the playoff rankings reset, Larson and Byron will head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway above the cutline in the third- and fourth-positions, respectively.
Setting out in his quest for five-straight road course wins in NASCAR’s top division, Shane van Gisbergen turned in a front-row qualifying effort for the Bank of America ROVAL 400. Wheel-to-wheel with polesitter, Tyler Reddick, coming to the green-flag, Van Gisbergen settled into the second position for just a handful of laps before quickly making a pass for the lead. Van Gisbergen went on to pace the field with the defending race winner and Team Chevy playoff contender, Kyle Larson, in tow. Continuing to click away laps, the first green-flag pit cycle began at Lap 11 by Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez. The duo of Team Chevy drivers, Van Gisbergen and Larson, were among the last cars to hit road – bringing their Chevrolet-powered machines in for their first scheduled stop of the day with 12 laps to go in the opening stage. With both crew chiefs making a call to put on a set of scuff tires, the pair quickly cycled back up through the field with the No. 88 Chevrolet regaining the top position with five laps to go in the stage. While a portion of pit road opted to flip the stage, Van Gisbergen and Larson were called to run out the opening stage with Van Gisbergen going on to collect the first green-white checkered flag of the race. Earning second-place stage points, Larson officially earned an early berth into the Round of Eight.
Among those that short-pitted the opening stage was road course ace, AJ Allmendinger, who lined up on the front-row to bring the field to the start of Stage Two. The No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet quickly set sail for the next 22-lap run. Looking to run-out the stage, Allmendinger was fighting too much fall off – forcing crew chief, Trent Owens, to give up the track position to bring his driver to pit road with nine laps to go in the stage. Looking to optimize points earned in Stage Two, Team Chevy playoff contenders, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain, remained on the course to lead the Bowtie brigade with a third – and fourth-place stage finish, respectively.
Choosing to flip the stage, it was a Team Chevy front-row with Van Gisbergen and Larson leading the field to the green-flag for the final stage to mark 55 laps to go in the race. Taking the lead on the restart, Van Gisbergen held onto position through a tight three-way battle before the first natural caution of the day fell. Unwavered by the restart, the pair found their way back to the top-two positions, but Larson quickly challenged the road course king – ultimately driving his No. 5 Chevrolet to the lead at the 64-lap marker to lead his first laps of the day. Larson pulled away to a nearly 2.5-second lead before getting the call from crew chief, Cliff Daniels, to come down pit road for a scheduled stop with 38 laps to go – quickly taking over the lead once again just three laps later. The defending ROVAL winner continued to pace the field before a quickly-approaching Van Gisbergen closed the gap to make the pass for the lead at Lap 86. Van Gisbergen went on to ultimately accumulate 57 laps lad en route to his sixth career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver
1st – Shane van Gisbergen
2nd – Kyle Larson
5th – Michael McDowell
7th – Daniel Suarez
8th – Chase Elliott
9th – AJ Allmendinger
Chevrolet’s season statistics with 32 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
Wins: 14
Poles: 11
Top-Fives: 60
Top 10s: 132
Stage Wins: 23
UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of Eight will get underway at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the South Point 400 on Sunday, October 12, at 5:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 21st
If you got that last lap back, what would you have done differently?
“I would restart the whole day for this No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet team. They expect so much more out of me. I went off the end of pit road and didn’t turn. I thought I had more room and I was just trying to get to the yellow line. I just completely started the downfall there. And then I came out of the pit stall, double-clicked up into third and sped on pit road. It was just unforced errors. It’s heartbreaking for almost 200 employees at Trackhouse Racing, our teammates, ECR engines, everybody that makes this go around. Justin (Marks) hired me to drive this No. 1 Chevrolet and be a leader, and I just completely unraveled our day. We definitely had the speed. On the last lap in turn seven, I downshifted into third, slid the rear tires and let the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) by. It’s just not acceptable.”
“I would say a month before the playoffs until now, this team gave me everything I needed to get to the Round of Eight. We have a team that could go fight for the top-four. We had a top-four car, and we were a top-eight car a month ago and I just took that away from us today with some unforced errors. A terrible body of work today. When you work 20 years, studying and try to be ready for these moments and you fail, it’s a terrible feeling. But I will get up tomorrow and get back to work.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 32nd
“Tough weekend for our Titan Risk Solutions/Carolina Cowboys Chevrolet team. During our qualifying run, the left front locked up which put us at the rear of the field for the start of today’s race. We knew it was going to be a battle with having to pass a lot of cars in the race. Our Chevy fired off loose at the initial start but the adjustments crew chief Richard Boswell made on our first stop definitely helped. Forward drive stayed with us the entire run after that, and we were playing the long game with taking care of our tires. Unfortunately in Stage 3, we got contact from behind and ended up in the tire barrier. From that point on, it was a grind to the end.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 2nd
“I’m happy with a second-place finish for this No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet team. Shane van Gisbergen (race winner) is just so good. It was a fun battle with Christopher (Bell), too. To start the final stage, we were trying to break up his (SVG) rhythm and race, and I thought it was playing out well. He was just so fast. I tried riding. I tried saving my tires, but I just can’t do it as well as he does. But overall, it was a great finish and momentum to head into the Round of Eight.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 35th
“It was a rough start for the No. 8 Bank OZK Chevrolet today at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, getting wrecked in Turn 1 on the first lap. Despite the early damage, the entire Richard Childress Racing team never quit and we were able to get our Chevy running better as the race progressed. This wasn’t the finish we all thought we’d have today, but we’ll take some learnings from this week and focus on getting a win next weekend in front of my hometown crowd in Las Vegas.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 8th
“We were just trying to do something different on the strategy side, and unfortunately, it never really went our way. I thought the pace in our No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet was respectable, restarting in the mid-20s there on a couple of occasions and getting back into the top-10. I felt like we were decent, but we just needed to have something go our way with the way we were running it. Overall, it was a solid day for our team. We certainly gave it our best effort and I’m excited to get to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 11th
You’ll enter the Round of Eight 39-points above the cutline. It sounded like your car just didn’t have the speed you wanted today. What else did you need?
“I think I was just kind of out there trying to figure out something that would work. We were just kind of sliding around too much, especially on the restarts. We really needed green-flag runs. Once we got green-flag laps in, I felt like our No. 24 Valvoline Blood Cancer United Chevrolet was pretty decent. I’m not sure, but overall, we came home with an 11th-place finish. I felt like we got better there at the end, which is a good thing.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 5th
You’re walking away with a top-five finish. How do you feel about your day, and were you surprised by any of the strategies with the way it went down?
“I’m proud of the effort today by this No. 71 Delaware Life/FIG Chevrolet team. We executed really well. We had top-five speed, and we sort of stayed there all day long. There wasn’t a lot of excitement for us with just managing our track position. I’m bummed we didn’t have a little bit more speed to contend. When I would push hard, I could hang with the No. 88 (Shane van Gisbergen), No. 5 (Kyle Larson) and the No. 20 (Christopher Bell) for a little while. But then I would fade, so I sort of had to run my pace to keep the tires underneath me.
I’m proud of the top-five effort, but we come to these road courses to try and win. Today, we just didn’t quite have enough to do that. We were close. We were definitely in the game. The tire was fun. It was a tough 15 to 18 laps, depending how long you had to run your tires. They were falling off so hard and so fast, so that was cool. Goodyear did a good job of that. It mixed up the strategies, as we saw. I felt like we played that right. I think we ended up where we should have, as far as our speed goes. Proud of Travis (Peterson, crew chief) and everyone on this No. 71 team. We’ll keep building on our road course program. A couple top-fives this year, so that’s good. We’ve got good speed, but we just need a little bit more.”
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 1st
You said last year you struggled with the ROVAL, but you dominated today. A great strategy today
“Yeah, it’s unbelievable. Kyle (Larson) and Christopher (Bell) were racing really well today. They had a bit of speed on me and then got going at the end. Thank you to WeatherTech, Chevrolet, everyone at Trackhouse Racing. Our car was fast and really amazing today. Just an unreal year that we have had.”
If I had told you at the beginning of the season that you would not only have five wins, but five-in-a-row at road courses, what would you have told me?
“I don’t know. It’s just been unbelievable. We executed all of them, except for COTA. I am just over the moon.”
Now you have the ROVAL and you got your first top-10 on an oval last week, so the sky is the limit now, right?
“Yes, things are going well. We are getting better and better, and we’re having a blast doing it. Just speechless. It was certainly a good race, and I am so happy for everyone.”
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