Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval serves as the final race of the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and it is one last chance for the four drivers currently on the outside of the cutline, to work their way into the Round of 8. The drivers below the Playoff bubble have varying levels of success at road courses throughout their NASCAR Cup Series careers, which could create an interesting dynamic.

Standings: NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid After Kansas

Heading into this weekend’s race, Ryan Blaney, who won at New Hampshire, and Chase Elliott, who won in a thrilling finish last weekend at Kansas, are the only two Playoff drivers 100% safe regardless of what happens on Sunday afternoon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

That being said, it would take an epic collapse for a few of the drivers above the cutline to miss the Round of 8.

Kyle Larson leads the way for the drivers trying to lock their slot into the Round of 8 as he carries a 54-point advantage over the Playoff cutline into a race that he won a season ago. Larson is a virtual lock to move on to the Round of 8, while Denny Hamlin (+48 points), Christopher Bell (+44) and William Byron (+40) also look quite safe.

The two drivers, who should be on pins an needles at least in qualifying and perhaps the early portions of Sunday’s race are Chase Briscoe, who is 21 points above the cutline, and defending series champion Joey Logano, who sits just 13 points above.

They’ll have four talented drivers trying to chase them down this weekend.

Ross Chastain (-13 points to cutline)

Last weekend, Chastain was able to essentially hold serve in the Playoff Standings with an 11th-place finish at Kansas Speedway. While he ended with a so-so finish, Chastain felt his car had really good speed in the opening Stage of the race. They just couldn’t recapture that speed the remainder of the day.

“We fought around 10th place all day. I thought our No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet showed signs of brilliance at the beginning and at the end of Stage One. I thought we were really strong, and then I just never had that feeling again,” Chastain explained. “We just couldn’t get the balance right and the grip to go with it. We’ll regroup and get ready for the Charlotte ROVAL next weekend.”

While Kansas wasn’t a Round of 8-worthy run, it was enough to keep him within striking distance of advancing by way of points this weekend.

Chastain may not be on many people’s lists of strongest road racers in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ross Chastain isn’t bad at turning right and left by any means. The driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet has a win at Circuit of the Americas in 2022, and in 31 career road racing starts, he has amassed six top-fives and 13 top-10s.

Not a bad resume at all, but he has just one top-10 result, a 10th-place finish, in six career starts at the Charlotte Roval. That being said, Chastain took a win on the Charlotte oval layout in the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this year, if he can master the infield road course portion of the track, he could be an interesting pick to win the race.

And he has two of the best road racing tutors in the world in his camp in teammate Shane van Gisbergen, who has four road course wins this season, and team owner Justin Marks. Chastain is one of the most aggressive drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series so expect him to go down swinging on Sunday.

Bubba Wallace (-26 points to cutline)

Bubba Wallace should be locked into the Round of 8 already, as he had the lead on the final lap of last weekend’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, but contact from Denny Hamlin, his team owner, forced him into the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4, which sent him fading to a fifth-place finish.

“Two years ago I’d probably say something dumb. Or say he’s a dumbass for that move,” Wallace explained after the race. “I don’t care if he’s my boss or not. But we’re going for the win. I hate that we gave it away there.”

Now, it all comes down to a form of racing that Wallace has shown disdain for over the years: road course racing. However, Wallace has started to show some relevancy at road course events, and he has garnered praise from teammate Tyler Reddick for how much he has put into attempting to improve at road courses.

In his last three starts at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Wallace has two top-10 finishes. And with how well he kept his composure in defeat at Kansas Speedway, it just feels like Wallace doesn’t truly think his shot at advancing to the Round of 8 ended with the last-lap run-in with Hamlin at Kansas.

Tyler Reddick (-29 points to cutline)

Pit road issue after pit road issue last Sunday at Kansas continued to mire Tyler Reddick deep in the field, but the 23XI Racing driver would climb his way back to the front every time. In the end, he collected a solid, seventh-place finish on what he described as a tough day. But he knows it’ll take more than that to advance to the Round of 8 of the Playoffs.

“It was a tough day,” Reddick explained of his race. “I really thought our Beast Toyota Camry was really fast. We just had struggles on pit road. That’s part of racing. It’s tough. Obviously, there’s only one thing we can do at Charlotte and that’s what we’ll be focused on.”

While it’s been a subpar season for Reddick, who remains winless, the driver, who raced with the health of his four-month-old son Rookie on his mind a weekend ago at Kansas, is one of the best road racers today in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks.

The Corning, CA native has three wins on tracks that feature right and left turns, and in 28 career road course starts, Reddick has eight top-five finishes and 18 top-10s. If anyone below the cutline should be expected to rise to the occasion, it should be Reddick.

That being said, it’s been a weird down year for Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing team, which have seemingly slipped into a post-Championship 4 slump after a shot at a championship a season ago. However, if they wake up Sunday at the Roval, Reddick could be very dangerous the rest of the way. But it all starts, or potentially ends, with Sunday’s race.

Austin Cindric (-48 points to cutline)

Another miscue in qualifying last weekend put Austin Cindric behind the eight ball to start things off at Kansas Speedway, and while he felt his No. 2 Ford had great speed in the race, he never really got a chance to showcase it as he was swept up in a crash, and finished 30th.

“I definitely passed a lot of cars today, but never really in a points paying position. I’m proud of the effort from the team all weekend,” Cindric said. “I never really made it easy on myself to start from Saturday and it’s hard to sit here and say we had speed to contend. A cheap wreck there on the front straightaway and I had to run the last 50 laps without power-steering, so mentally, physically and emotionally I’m very disappointed for the result.”

At 48 points below the cutline, Austin Cindric essentially knows what he must do in order to advance to the Round of 8 of the Playoffs, it’ll likely take a race win.

“Yep. It’s that simple,” Cindric explained.

When you factor in that Cindric is well-versed at road course racing, as that was his background before moving into the stock car racing world, the 27-year-old racer has to feel somewhat comfortable heading into Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval, even if his road racing experience hasn’t quite translated to success in the NASCAR Cup Series, just yet.

In 22 NASCAR Cup Series starts on road courses, Cindric has just three top-five finishes and eight top-10s, but he finished fourth in this event a season ago. Could Cindric unlock the keys to victory this weekend at the Charlotte Roval and keep his bid alive? That remains to be seen, but given his racing roots, and his performance at the Roval last season, he can’t be discounted.