Keselowski Goes Overtime to Win Coca-Cola 600
NASCAR returned to the track in earnest last week with a pair of races at Darlington Motor Speedway. Those races set the stage for one of the biggest races on the circuit, the Coca-Cola 600, which takes place every Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It marked the third race in eight days for most of the field as NASCAR continues their aggressive push to make up for the races that were missed during the two-plus month pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Racing at Charlotte always makes for entertaining television and not even Mother Nature could put a damper on what took place.
In qualifying early Sunday afternoon, it was Kurt Busch taking the pole with a lap of 29.790 seconds and an average of 181.269 miles per hour. Jimmie Johnson took the second spot on the front row by running a 29.799-second lap for an average of 181.214 miles per hour. As it turned out, both those guys would be in contention for much of the night, though neither would end up taking the checkered flag when all was said and done.
In a race that was delayed by rain and finally came to a close early Monday morning, it was Brad Keselowski, who qualified ninth only to be moved to the back of the field for making unapproved adjustments to his car, rallying late to win the Coca-Cola 600 by .293 seconds over Chase Elliott. Elliott held the lead with under two laps to go when teammate William Byron spun out with a tire problem, bringing out a caution flag. He decided to make a pit stop while Keselowski gambled on his car at that point. As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold and it proved to be critical as Keselowski drove the #2 car to victory lane.
That capped a rough week for Elliott, who was in the hunt to win the Toyota 500 at Darlington Wednesday night only to be involved in a crash with teammate Kurt Busch late. That prompted Elliott to flip the middle finger in a confrontation after the race came to a close due to rain with Denny Hamlin taking the checkered flag. He originally finished third in the race behind Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson but was bumped to second when Johnson was disqualified a couple of hours after the conclusion of the race for failing a post-race inspection due to his alignment of his rear suspension being outside of allowable standards. After the race, Johnson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels said "We think something must've broken but won't know until we get it back to the shop. Tough news after a strong night." That extended Johnson’s winless streak to 102 starts, dating back to his last win at Dover on June 2, 2017.
Johnson wasn’t the only one to have their hopes knocked off due to vehicle issues. Denny Hamlin, who won Wednesday night’s Toyota 500, was out of this one before the race started. During the pace laps, he had a piece fly off his car, sending him to pit road before things got going. By the time he hit the track, he was eight laps behind and he eventually logged a 30th-place finish. As a result of the tungsten flying off of Hamlin’s vehicle, his crew chief, Chris Gabehart, is facing a potential four-race suspension. It will be interesting to see how that particular situation plays out as it clearly wasn’t something that was intentional by any stretch of the imagination.
All told, there were 20 lead changes in the race with eight caution flags accounting for 52 laps under the yellow flag. Alex Bowman, who finished 19th, led a race-high 164 laps in the race while Martin Truex, winner of three of the last six races at Charlotte, led 87 laps and finished sixth. Kurt Busch led 54 laps en route to a seventh-place finish, Elliott led 38, Joey Logano led 26 and finished 13th while Keselowski held the lead in 21 laps in the race. Bowman won the first two stages of the race and was second in stage three. Logano won the third stage while Keselowski took the checkered flag. Bowman, Truex Jr., Logano, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon were the lone drivers to finish in the top 10 in each of the first three stages in the race. Truex Jr. was the only racer to finish in the top 10 of the first three stages and end up in the top 10 of the race overall.
From a betting perspective, Keselowski went off at +900 to win and +250 to finish in the top three for those of you who put down some money on the race. Elliott was +170 to finish in the top three while Ryan Blaney was a hefty +400 if you took the gamble on him finishing in the top three of the race.
Kevin Harvick maintained his lead in the NASCAR Cup standings as he exited Sunday’s race with a 23-point lead over Joey Logano. Bowman (25 points behind Harvick), Elliott (50 back) are third and fourth while the duo of Keselowski along with Truex Jr. are tied for fifth, 56 points off the pace. There’s not much of a delay before the cars hit the track again. The next NASCAR Cup race comes to you again from Charlotte Motor Speedway on Wednesday night with the green flag expected to drop just after 8 pm ET. Television coverage will be provided by Fox Sports 1.