Kyle Larson won the Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday for his seventh win of the season.
It was the seventh and final road-course race of the 2021 season. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott entered Sunday as a two-time defending winner of the race, and Larson had also earned two of his wins this season at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Larson is the first racer ever to win three road-course races in a single season.
Tyler Reddick finished second, while Chris Buescher took third.
Denny Hamlin, who entered Sunday's race as the leader in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, finished in fifth place. Larson passed him late in the race after a restart.
The other drivers joining him in advancing to the round of eight are Larson, Elliott, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch.
Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Alex Bowman entered Sunday's race on the bubble to be eliminated from the playoffs, and they each failed to advance.
Larson faced some early adversity because of his alternator belt needing to be changed in the middle of the race. He had fallen below the cut line, but his crew was able to turn things around quickly.
"I was getting stressed out like, 'Man, I'm not gonna get knocked out of the playoffs like this," Larson said after the race. "It wasn't looking too good, and thankfully everybody in our 5 car did a great job of staying calm."
The big story on Sunday was the feud between Elliott and Harvick. Harvick sent Elliott crashing in the final stage with 55 laps to go. It was an apparent retaliation for Harvick's wreck at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Later in the race, Harvick had a chance to advance in the playoffs as he was above the cut line, but he crashed into the wall with nine laps to go.
Elliott's team called the crash "karma" for the earlier incident. It's Harvick's first time failing to advance past the Round of 12 in the playoffs.
The next race will be the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
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