Coca Cola 600 Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway started with Denny Hamlin out front and ended with Denny Hamlin out front. What happened in-between defied belief. And a driver who claims to thrive in chaos proved to be a man of his word. Hamlin won the longest race in NASCAR history—619.5 miles—in two overtimes, beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch to the finish line by .014 seconds. With the victory—the second this season and the 48th of his career—Hamlin nowRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – By the slimmest of margins, Denny Hamlin beat a car he owns for the Busch Light pole position in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the final round of time trials of Saturday evening, Hamlin ran a lower line through Turns 3 and 4 than did his fellow competitors, and that paid off with a blistering lap of 29.399 seconds (183.680 mph)—just .003 seconds faster than that of Kurt Busch (183.661 mph) who drives the No. 45 23XI ToyotaRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Busch has reason to be optimistic about Coca-Cola 600 Kyle Busch has shown consistent strength on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways this year, and that’s a source of confidence entering NASCAR’s Memorial Day weekend marathon at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch won the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 from the pole, and he’ll try for a repeat performance in the 63rd running of the event on Sunday evening (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Though Busch claimed his only victory of the season inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Hendrick Motorsports’ sprawling campus sits in the shadows of Charlotte Motor Speedway, so it was only fitting that Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 was the place that the four-car juggernaut surpassed Petty Enterprises to be the winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series history. Petty Enterprises had been the gold standard in the Cup Series, with 268 wins over the course of a 50-year span from 1949 to 1999, including 10 championships, but the torch now passes to Hendrick Motorsports to be the standard bearer from now into theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. – In dominating fashion, Kyle Larson won NASCAR’s longest race on Sunday night and in the process gave team owner Rick Hendrick a record 269th victory, most in NASCAR Cup Series history. Larson’s win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the eighth of his career and his second of the season, guaranteeing the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet a spot in the postseason Playoffs. By the time he crossed the finish line at the end of 400 laps,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a soggy debut at Circuit of The Americas last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to home base at Charlotte Motor Speedway for its traditional Memorial Day Weekend date and Sunday’s 62nd running of the Coca-Cola 600. While the usual Memorial Day Weekend slate features Formula 1, IndyCar, and NASCAR, a quirk in the schedule this year means only the Indianapolis 500 will precede NASCAR’s longest race. While some races may seem like a quick knockout, Sunday’s daylight to dusk to darkness marathon isRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Hours after bringing home his best finish of the season with a runner-up result in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson received the news that his No. 48 Chevrolet failed post-race inspection, resulting in a disqualification. The disqualification drops Johnson to last in the running order for Sunday’s race and means he will also have to start the next Cup Series race, which takes place on Wednesday at Charlotte, from the tail end of the field. NASCAR Cup Series managing director Jay FabianRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service A late caution set Brad Keselowski up for victory in NASCAR’s longest race—and set Chase Elliott up for a second straight crushing disappointment. In Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, which went to overtime for the second time in its history, Keselowski surged ahead after a restart on Lap 404 and beat Jimmie Johnson to the finish line by .293 seconds to win a race that stretched to 607.5 miles, longest in NASCAR history. Elliott led Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford by 1.6 seconds beforeRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Chase Elliott was just two laps away from doing something his father Bill never accomplished in his NASCAR Hall of Fame career — winning the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Then his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron happened. Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had his eye on a seventh career Cup Series triumph set in stone with a comfortable 1+ second lead over Brad Keselowski. That was until Byron’s left rear tire cut down and spun in Turn 2, bringingRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The Bowtie Brigade showed up during Sunday’s Busch Pole Qualifying for tonight’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as they occupy the first three rows with Kurt Busch being the top Chevrolet driver. Busch earned his 28th NASCAR Cup Series pole after clocking in at 29.790 seconds (181.269 mph) to dethrone eight-time Charlotte winner Jimmie Johnson off the top spot. Not only it’s the 2004 Cup Series champion’s first pole with Chip Ganassi Racing, it’s also his first since the 2018 fall race at Talladega. FollowingRead More