The Talladega crash changed the fortunes of several playoff drivers before the Charlotte Roval race

A round at Talladega could play a role in who advances to the Cup playoffs this weekend at the Charlotte Roval.

An accident five laps before the scheduled end of last weekend's Talladega race significantly changed the playoff chances for nearly half of the 11 playoff drivers vying for the final seven spots in the next round. Only William Bryon made it to the last eight.

Denny Hamlin was the biggest winner among playoff drivers last weekend. Austin Cindric was the biggest loser. But there were also swings for Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins by a margin at Talladega, taking his first win since the 2023 Daytona 500

The JTG Daugherty driver's margin of victory was 0.006 seconds over Brad Keselowski and William Byron.

Hamlin's car suffered front-end damage early in the race and he lost the field in the closing stages. Just before the crash, Hamlin was in 32nd place – 24 seconds behind the leaders. At that point he was 17 points below the cutline.

“I was screwed,” Hamlin said after the race.

He continued: “Things were looking bleak and then suddenly I got lucky.”

Because Hamlin was so far behind the lead group, he was easily able to escape the carnage and pass those involved in the incident. He finished 10th. Instead of being below the cutline, Hamlin sits fourth overall with 30 points above the cutting line.

Hamlin's good fortune was triggered by Cindric's bad luck. Cindric was in the lead – and would have been able to move on to the next round if he had been able to win – when he was turned around. This triggered a 23-car accident that also affected Elliott and Logano.

Cindric was eliminated in the crash and finished in 32nd place. Instead of potentially winning Talladega and making the playoffs, he's 29 points under the cutline heading into Sunday's race at the Charlotte Roval (2 p.m. ET on NBC).

“It puts us in a compelling situation to win at the Charlotte road course,” said Cindric, who never finished worse than sixth in four Xfinity races there but finished 21st in his only Cup start there last season.

Elliott was in fourth place at the time of the accident last weekend. He was 18 points above the cut line.

“I’m not sure how I got grazed,” Elliott said after the race. “I thought I missed it, but someone narrowly hit me.”

That was Cindric's car after it spun, bounced off Logano and Harrison Burton's cars and crashed into the left rear of Elliott's car.

Elliott's car slid into the interior barrier. The car did not make it to the pits under its own power and was towed there – a controversial decision by NASCAR to tow him and two others to pit road, even though those cars were damaged in the incident and were unable to leave the scene under their own power.

NASCAR explains its decisions by citing caution at the end of the race that confused some at Talladega

NASCAR's Elton Sawyer said, “We wanted to side with the competitor.”

Elliott finished 29th. He holds the last transfer spot towards Roval. He is 13 points above the cut line. Elliott is a two-time winner of the Charlotte Roval.

Logano was fifth at the time of the accident. That would have put him sixth in the standings, eight points above the cutline. Logano's car was unable to move forward. He finished 33rd. As a result, Logano dropped to ninth place in the points – the first car outside of a transfer position. He is 13 points below the cut line.

Even though Reddick was involved in the accident, in some ways he came out on top. Reddick was in 14th place at the time of the accident and was listed ninth in the standings, five points behind the final transfer spot.

He finished 20th, but actually moved up to seventh in the standings, 14 points above the cutline, with the problems of Cindric and Logano.

“It was a really solid points day considering all the carnage,” Reddick said. “Yeah, to score points on the cut line, given the damage and 20th place, I’ll take it every time.”