Daniel Suárez became the first foreign-born winner of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the Mexican racer held onto the lead over the final two restarts to claim his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory in one of NASCAR’s Crown Jewel events.
The evening started humbly for the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, lining up 14th after rain washed out the Saturday qualifying session while Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick and Bristol winner Ty Gibbs took the front row.
On the opening lap, the 34-year-old driver made his presence felt, going to the outside of Ryan Preece through turn 2 to make it three-wide before Austin Dillon thwarted his attempts to duck underneath him down the backstretch.
The early aggression netted the 7 car two positions on track and held serve over the course of the first run that was broken up by a Josh Berry spin in turn 1 on lap 35. Tyler Reddick maintained his lap 1 lead through pit stops as the No. 45 Mobil1 Toyota led the field to the next restart.
Unfortunately for Suárez, obstacles marred his path to victory, starting with a loose wheel that forced an unscheduled stop on the 47th lap and dropping him to 38th, a lap off the pace.
The eventual winner found himself at mercy of the field, hoping for a caution before Reddick’s torrid pace slotted others a lap down. He found his saving grace on lap 53 when Austin Cindric lost control of his Duracell Menards Mustang in turn 2.
As Cindric’s Ford skidded down the banking, it found Suárez’s successor at Trackhouse Racing, Connor Zilisch, destroying both cars in the process and ending their nights. Suárez received the free pass under that caution.
The race restarted with 41 laps to go in the first stage with Ross Chastain and Ryan Preece on the front row, but before the field reached turn 1, contact between Michael McDowell and William Byron sent Bubba Wallace’s Belk Columbia Camry into the outside wall, ruining his strong run.
As Wallace’s car limped around to the pits, Zane Smith dispatched of the top two in short order as Reddick slipped by both drivers to sneak into second.
Suárez’s fresh tire rubber allowed him to seize the moment and regain his lost track position, rocketing up the grid from 38th to 24th in a dozen laps.
The next caution kicked off right in front of him as Chase Elliott lost the handle on his No. 9 Napa Auto Parts Camaro, careening into the inside wall on lap 90.
With the proximity to the stage end, most of the field came down to pit road for service with the 7 restarting 15th as his teammate McDowell stayed out and took control for the final five-lap dash to the finish. Smith lost his track position due to a speeding penalty on pit road.
Unfortunately for him and John Hunter Nemechek, the drivers on fresh tires disposed of them with expedience with Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Briscoe fighting it out amongst themselves for the stage 1 victory.
In the end, Larson eked out the stage win as Suárez wound up 12th, two spots outside of the points.
Stage 1 Results:
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Briscoe
- Tyler Reddick
- Denny Hamlin
- Erik Jones
- Ryan Blaney
- Ty Gibbs
- Ryan Preece
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Shane van Gisbergen
On lap 110, The 7 car logged its first lap inside of the top-10, moving up to eighth briefly before slotting into ninth as Chase Briscoe scooted by Larson to take the lead for the first time.
Green-flag pit stops entered the conversation near the midway point of the stage as Suárez retreated for service on lap 145 after falling dramatically down the running order from 8th to 22nd.
Shortpitting pushed the 7 back into the top-20 albeit for an abbreviated period as a vibration forced Suárez back to the pits for a second unscheduled stop on lap 164, plunging him from 19th to 34th, one lap down.
To make matters worse, the team remained adamant that there was nothing wrong with the set of tires they removed on lap 164, further complicating any potential solution to their woes.
Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing dominated at the front of the field with Hamlin extending his advantage over Briscoe while Gibbs trailed close behind in third. Hamlin’s strong night continued as he collected the 10 stage points for winning the second stage.
Stage 2 Results:
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- Chase Briscoe
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Larson
- Christopher Bell
- Ryan Blaney
- Chris Buescher
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Stage 3 went green for a few laps before a loose wheel on Katherine Legge’s No. 78 e.l.f. machine came dislodged from her Chevy, bringing out the race’s sixth caution.
Legge entered the Coca-Cola 600 as the second leg of the vaunted 1,100-mile Double. Her Indianapolis 500 chances ended on lap 18 when she had nowhere to go on the exit of turn 2 after Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed.
In the 600, Legge minded her P’s and Q’s for the most part, hammering away at an underfunded car and powering to a 31st-place finish, 12 laps down. Her mileage between the two races amounted to 585 total miles, just short of Larson’s mark from last season.
The ensuing restart saw JGR teammates bicker over position too much amongst themselves, giving Reddick the chance to pounce down the fronstretch.
The series’ points leader darted from the top of the track to the bottom through the second dogleg, making the move on both of his fellow Toyotas on the inside line on lap 217.
Though Hamlin got back around Reddick, the 45 took advantage of an awkward exchange between Hamlin and Katherine Legge’s lapped car, galloping back to the top of the pylon.
Reddick kept himself ahead of his boss through green-flag pit stops, but Christopher Bell running long through the first part of the stint left the top drivers vulnerable to Bell’s fresh rubber.
The 45 car pulled out a one-second gap, but over the run’s final 15 laps, the Mobil1 machine grew unruly, relinquishing the lead to Hamlin for a moment prior to Bell blowing by to steal the stage three win.
Stage 3 Results:
- Christopher Bell
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- Chase Briscoe
- Kyle Larson
- Tyler Reddick
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Blaney
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The 7 squad spent the entirety of stage 3 regaining the speed they lost in their race car, rising from outside the top-30 to 21st by stage end, two spots away from getting back on the lead lap.
During the stage caution, a fire broke out in the 66 team’s pit stall that brought an early end to Timmy Hill’s night, saddling the Maryland native with a 36th-place result.
Bell’s Interstate Batteries bunch logged a lightning-fast pit stop, keeping the 20 car at the front with Ty Gibbs joining him on the front row to begin the final stage.
Gibbs grabbed a gear and hung tight on the outside for much of the opening circuit, taking a major run from Reddick on the exit of turn 4 to take the top spot.
Racing intensified all over the track as weather became a seemingly imminent threat as Carson Hocevar and Ross Chastain made major contact on the front straight, an appetizer of what was to come for the 1 car.
The very next lap, Chastain’s Jockey Camaro went nose-first into the inside wall on lap 318 after contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after a slide job attempt gone awry. The caution gave Michael McDowell a chance to get back on the lead lap, leaving Suárez the first car one lap down.
Chastain’s caution, the eighth of the evening, created a divergence that changed the complexion of the race as Gibbs stayed out with Shane van Gisbergen while the rest of the field behind them pitted for fresh tires.
Gibbs sank like a rock on the bottom as SVG cruised to the front of the field and kept it there, holding off the two-tire brigade ahead of Reddick, the first car on four fresh tires.
The run would be short-lived, though. Coming down the backstretch on lap 329, Chase Briscoe took a full head of steam from the top of the track down to the apron to get by the RFK duo of Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece.
When he did that, Briscoe’s Bass Pro Shops machine made contact with Buescher’s rear bumper, knocking the 17 into the 60. Preece’s wounded Ford clipped the 19 on its way down the track, sending his former teammate sliding into the outside wall, right in front of Suárez who deftly avoided him.
Not only was his car safe from damage, the accident gave the 7 car the free pass for the first time since going a lap down on lap 164. The 7 spent nearly 200 laps off of the lead lap.
The race resumed with 63 laps to go as the Kiwi poked ahead of Bell on the inside to maintain the lead, but his attempt fell short as the fresher tires on the Interstate Batteries buggy allowed the seventh-year racer to shoot ahead.
To make a bad weekend worse for an RCR team reeling from the tragedy of driver Kyle Busch unexpectedly passing away this week, driver Austin Dillon crashed on lap 345 without bringing out a caution. Austin Hill came home 27th in a renumbered 33 Chevy in Busch’s former entry.
Lap 353 brought out the 10th yellow of the race and the first for weather. Initially believed to be an automatic red flag when a lightning strike appears within an eight-mile radius of the race track, NASCAR implemented a new dynamic system for dealing with adverse weather interruptions.
The new policy gave NASCAR the opportunity to keep the drivers pacing under yellow as their meteorologists gave up-to-date information on the weather patterns threatening in the area, which ultimately kept the race active.
Entering the pits 14th, Spire Motorsports crew chief Ryan Sparks made a daring pit call to put Daniel Suárez at the front of the field with two fresh right-side tires as moisture loomed.
Their only problem was that every other car on the lead lap took four fresh tires.
The lap 360 restart played out to perfection for the 7 as Larson lined up and gave him a solid shot to vault him ahead of the screaming pack behind him, legging out a modest gap that he maintained for a lap and a half until Bell took a shot to the outside in turn 3.
Suárez shut the door with authority, but the move compromised his exit against Hamlin advancing on the bottom. Thankfully for Suárez, another caution came for weather that ultimately turned into a short red flag.
The harsh skies above refused to open up too much, leading to another restart where Suárez was tasked with holding on a hungry group of drivers in his rearview mirror.
Just like the previous restart, the 2016 O’Reilly Series champion took an incredible push from Kyle Larson to sprint ahead while Bell and Hamlin tangled with one another.
The Toyota tandem of Hamlin and Bell wasted corners fighting, taking poor lines to cut off the other’s and losing time to Suárez in the process. Bell wriggled clear of Hamlin and set his sights on the 7, carving the apron of turn 4 and eating into the gap.
Hamlin used momentum from the top to get back to Bell’s inside, giving the opportunity for them to split Suárez on corner exit.
However, Suárez took Bell’s line away, stealing his run down the backstretch and watching the JGR duo make contact behind him. The Mexican racer manipulated the air between the two Toyotas behind him for another set of corners before the final caution flew when the skies opened up over the race track.
Rumors and allegations of weather dominated the night, but this time, there was no doubt in the air as the rain poured down on the onboard cameras all over the track.
NASCAR ordered the cars onto pit road, and right as Daniel Suárez leapt out of the Freeway Insurance Chevy, his team embraced him as the winner of the 67th running of the Coca-Cola 600.
In post-race interviews, the former Kyle Busch Motorsports driver dedicated the victory to Busch, acknowledging that the champion’s tutelage helped mold him into a NASCAR O’Reilly Series champion and a multi-time Cup Series winner.
The win also held significance for his new race team, Spire Motorsports. Spire calls the former KBM building their home, a sale Busch orchestrated with his former spotter and agent, Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson.
Christopher Bell ended the night in second with Hamlin, Reddick, and Larson rounding out the top-5 while Gibbs, Blaney, Logano, Byron, and Zane Smith occupied the top-10 positions.
For a full list of finishers, click here.
(Top Photo Credit: Krista Jasso/Getty Images)
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