Roval points, results: Christopher Bell catapulted into the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs by taking the checkered flag Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Chase Briscoe captured the last of eight championship-eligible spots in the next three races.

Defending series champion Kyle Larson was eliminated from the playoffs after finishing five laps down in 35th because of a late mechanical problem from wall contact.

Bell led the final two laps to win on the 17-turn, 2.32-mile road course for his third victory in NASCAR’s premier series. Kevin Harvick finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Haley.

Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10. Briscoe rebounded from the brink of elimination after falling to 25th on Lap 107 of 112 after being spun on a restart.

RESULTS: Click here for where everyone finished l Click here for the race report

It’s the second victory of the season for Bell, who also on at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was in a must-win situation entering the Roval after disappointing finishes outside the top 15 at Texas Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

It’s the sixth time a driver advanced by winning a cutoff race in the NASCAR elimination playoffs, which started in 2014.

Nearly 90 minutes after the race, NASCAR announced a review of the data, video and radio transmissions from the No. 41 Ford of Cole Custer, who finished 24th after slowing dramatically on the final lap near Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Briscoe. The Round of 8 would be unaffected by any potential penalties for the team.

NASCAR is reviewing data, video and radio transmissions from the 41 car following its incident on the backstretch during the final lap. NASCAR will communicate the results of the review early this week. Any potential penalties would not affect the Round of 8 field.

Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Austin Cindric were eliminated from the playoffs after the second round as the field was narrowed from 12 to eight drivers.

Regular season champion Chase Elliott will enter the third round opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the points lead in the reseeded standings, ahead of Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe.

RESEEDED POINTS FOR ROUND 3: Click here for reseeded driver points l Click here for reseeded team owner points

ROUND 2 POINTS: Click here for driver points l Click here for team owner points

CONCORD, N.C. — While Christoper Bell celebrated in Victory Lane after his must-win performance at the Charlotte Roval, Chase Briscoe stood on pit road and couldn’t stop smiling after his ninth-place finish moved him into the Round of 8. 

“This means more to me, I think, then even winning in the Cup Series at Phoenix,” Briscoe told NBC Sports, referring to his win there in March. 

“To know that you have a one-in-eight chance to win a Cup championship is a pretty unbelievable feeling. … That’s the happiest I’ve ever been after a race. Normally, I’m not too animated, like even after a win, but I was screaming in the car. I was pretty fired up.”

When he climbed out of his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford, Briscoe, with his helmet still on, hugged and high-fived crew members.

“I feel like this is the biggest accomplishment of my career,” Briscoe said of being among the final eight drivers vying for the Cup championship. “I feel like that was the best race I’ve ever run in my career, just from start to finish. My restarts, I felt like, were the best restarts I’ve ever had in my life. I felt like I put a whole round together.”

After scoring one top-10 finish in the 21 races leading up to the second round, Briscoe has scored three consecutive top 10s. Until the playoffs began, Briscoe’s last top-10 finish was a fourth-place result in the Coca-Cola 600 in May. 

While in the midst of his top-10 drought, Briscoe said he had a talk with Greg Zipadelli, chief competition officer for Stewart-Haas Racing, about a change to make.

“I just told him, from a strategy standpoint, give me the ball, let me try to do something,” Briscoe said.

#NASCAR … This was Chase Briscoe’s reaction with his team after he advanced to the Round of 8. pic.twitter.com/nMSi7jmYdd

Briscoe wanted the organization to be more aggressive.

“Put me in bad spots,” he told Zipadelli. “Let me try to prove to you that I can do.”

The team has done do so and Briscoe also said he feels he has been given more of a leadership role within the the last couple of months. 

“I like having that role on the team,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe beat reigning champion Kyle Larson for the final transfer spot by two points Sunday at the Roval. 

NASCAR stated after the race that it was investigating the actions of Briscoe’s teammate, Cole Custer, on the backstretch on the last lap of the race when Custer dramatically slowed as Briscoe was racing for position against Austin Dillon and Erik Jones. 

NASCAR stated that it will announce the results of its review this week, but that any potential penalties would not affect the Round of 8 field.

When the series raced at Phoenix in March, Christopher Bell left there 30th in points after a 26th-place finish.

A crash in the Daytona 500 set the team back and so did an engine failure at Auto Club Speedway in the season’s second race. The team also struggled on pit road. Bell’s team had three different pit crew lineups in the first 10 races and five in the first 13 races.

Bell’s early struggles — six finishes of 20th or worse in the first 10 races — led to talk about Bell and his team. It was talk Bell heard. 

“I think a lot of people had written me off as a driver, written the 20 car off, Christopher is going to get fired,” Bell said of the early struggles. “I got that all the time, that I’m getting replaced. The 20 car is the revolving door, he’s going to be out of here.

“Maybe I’ll get to stick around a little bit longer now.”

His Roval win moves him into the Round of 8 and makes him among the favorites.

The Toyotas have been strong on 1.5-mile tracks. The round opens with races at Las Vegas and Homestead, both 1.5-mile speedways. A win in this round moves a playoff driver into the Nov. 6 championship race at Phoenix.

“I like our chances,” Bell said. “All the rest of the races play out really good for us. We just have to execute and dot our I’s and cross our T’s, see where the cards fall.”

Kyle Busch isn’t the only Cup driver interested in running in the Indianapolis 500. Kyle Larson says he’s still interested in competing in the Indianapolis 500 and has the permission of car owner Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon.

“I would love to do it,” Larson said. “Just timing and I want to be in the best equipment possible and best crew. I’ve mentioned to Jeff and Rick that I would like to do it, but I also did a year ago, too. 

“It’s kind of up to them to find something.” 

Larson said that Hendrick told him he didn’t want him to run the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 this year but said he could do so moving forward.

The reigning Cup champion was eliminated from title contention in Sunday’s playoff race at the Charlotte Roval.

Only two former champions remain among the eight drivers left in the Cup playoffs.

Reigning champion Kyle Larson was eliminated on Sunday at the Charlotte Roval, joining former Cup champions Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who were eliminated in the first round. That leaves Chase Elliott and Joey Logano as the only former series champions still in title contention.

Elliott and Logano enter the third round 1-2. This round will set the field for the Nov. 6 championship race at Phoenix.

Roval winner Christoper Bell opens the third round holding the final transfer spot by three points on Ryan Blaney and William Byron.

The third round features races at Las Vegas, Homestead and Martinsville.

The Xfinity Series also begins the Round of 8 this weekend, whittling its playoff field to four drivers for the Nov. 5 championship race at Phoenix.

Noah Gragson leads the standings with 3,056 points. All four JR Motorsports drivers are among the eight remaining playoff competitors. Justin Allgaier holds the final transfer spot. He leads teammate Josh Berry by 11 points. Sam Mayer is last in the standings.

The third round features races at Las Vegas, Homestead and Martinsville.

The Truck Series was off this past weekend. The series is back in action Oct. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ty Majeski is the only driver who has secured a spot in the Nov. 4 championship race at Phoenix.

A look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup playoff race at the Charlotte Roval:WINNERS

Christopher Bell — Years from now, teams might be studying videos of how Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens pulled their Sunday victory from the ashes. Bell had to win Sunday to advance to the next round. His best finish in two previous runs on the Roval was eighth, and he admitted he didn’t have the best car Sunday. But a late-race stop for tires gave him a shot, and he took advantage, pushing to the front and leading the final two laps to claim one of the eight playoff spots.

Kyle Busch — In the search for playoff spots Sunday, Busch, long removed from the championship chase, was largely forgotten. But he ran through the chaos at the end and came home third, ending a five-race streak of finishes of 20th or worse.

Chase Briscoe — Briscoe rallied late to finish ninth and claim a spot in the Round of 8.

Kaulig Racing — For the first time, Kaulig put two cars in the top 10. AJ Allmendinger finished fourth, and Justin Haley was fifth.

Kyle Larson — The defending champion finished 35th after hitting the wall and failed to advance to the next round of the playoffs. After the race, he blamed himself for Sunday’s error and others during the season.

Austin Cindric — Cindric’s 21st-place finish was not enough to get another Team Penske car into the Round of 8.

Daniel Suarez — Suarez was here, there and everywhere during the afternoon, dancing around the cutline and wrestling with power-steering issues until finally finishing 36th and dropping out of the playoffs.

CONCORD, N.C. — After one of the best seasons in U.S. motorsports history last year, Kyle Larson felt the disappointment and despair Sunday of an unfulfilled season, resulting in the reigning Cup champ’s elimination from title contention. 

“Sorry,” Larson radioed his team after a wild final lap that saw the cutline yo-yo before it ended with him two points out of the final transfer spot. “Sorry. I let you all down. Sorry.”

Crew chief Cliff Daniels responded: “We’re going to keep fighting for the rest of the year and next year.”

The emotion was much different from last year when Larson finished the season winning 10 Cup races, the series title and some of the top races in sprint car and midget car racing. 

But a driver compared to Mario Andretti for his talent in a variety of vehicles couldn’t overcome a season’s worth of issues, whether it was three blown engines, pit road issues and mistakes on the track, including a spectacular crash at the Indianapolis road course. 

So, it wasn’t just Sunday why Larson joined Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman — who has missed the past two races because of continued concussion symptoms — Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez as drivers eliminated at the Charlotte Roval.

The final blow to Larson was slapping the wall in Turn 7 in the infield portion of the course late in the race while running 13th. The contact broke the toe link on the right rear and forced him to pit for repairs. He lost five laps and fell to 35th, which is where he finished. 

“Just a dumb mistake on my part,” Larson said.

That was the type of season it has been for Larson and his No. 5 team.

“It’s frustrating to end like this,” Larson said. “As up-and-down as I was this season, I’m not surprised I made a mental mistake, and it cost us at an important time.”

Daniels said the team faced many challenges this year “from mistakes that we made. Climbing uphill when we shouldn’t have had to climb uphill. The new car is a challenge for everybody. Everyone had the same challenges ahead of them. 

“So many of the things that we did right along the way, and it would be some ridiculous mistake, whether it was on pit road, or a mistake that I made, a mistake that (Larson) made (that slowed the team). We had mechanical failures that just can’t happen. That all adds up.”

It led to Larson entering this race with an 18-point lead on the cutline, but Larson had mentioned after Talladega that his advantage did not make him a lock to advance. 

Larson had seen how fortune could change at the Roval. In 2018, he bounced off the wall on the last lap and drove a damaged car across the finish line and advanced only because another car crashed less than 100 yards from the finish line and couldn’t get restarted before Larson passed.

Last year, Larson overcame a battery and alternator issue to win this race, starting him on a stretch that saw him win four of the last five races to score his first Cup championship.

Sunday, there was no celebrating for Larson and his team.

“It’s been tough,” he said of this season. “There’s been no real rhythm to it for me and our team. We fought hard all year to get better, and we’re going to continue to fight and be better for the rest of the season and be more prepared for next year.”