Coke 600 race analysis and results: All of NASCAR is chasing Kyle Larson and Hendrick
It was as if the Rick Hendrick knew something others didn’t last weekend in Austin when — asked about a potential win at the Coca-Cola 600 — he smiled at driver Kyle Larson.
“Kyle needs to do it,” Hendrick said.
The No. 5 driver delivered on the prophecy, handing Hendrick Motorsports the organization’s 269th victory to surpass Petty Enterprises in all-time wins in the Cup series. Larson led a race-high 327 laps of 400 and swept all four stages.
HMS teammate Chase Elliott finished in second and Kyle Busch finished third.
The drama of the night centered on the battles between teammates, with all four Hendrick cars finishing in the top-10 at the end of each race stage. Only Busch was there at the end to break up the party. He rated his team a seven on a scale of one to 10, with Larson’s performance being a 10.
“So we’ve got some work to do,” the No. 18 driver said, adding that he feels his Joe Gibbs Racing isn’t “close enough” to where Hendrick Motorsports stands performance-wise. Denny Hamlin was the only other JGR driver to finish in the top 10 (seventh) while none of the typically strong Penske drivers cracked the top 10.
While no other teams could match Hendrick, no other cars could upset Larson, not even his teammates. He resumed the lead after a clean green flag pit stop with just under 50 laps left in the race and was hoping for no caution as he put 10 seconds between the No. 5 car and Elliott in his mirror. Instead of a caution, a checkered flag flew.
“It was a great night, and it’s been a great few weeks really for this team,” Larson said.
Elliott, who led the second-most laps (22), conceded that the best car and driver won.
The victory was Larson’s second on a 1.5-mile track this year after he won at Las Vegas, and he became the first driver this year to surpass 1,000 laps led. Larson led 269 laps of 325 at Atlanta, proving that the team is especially a threat on 1.5-mile tracks, three of which appear in the playoff schedule.
Hendrick Motorsports is riding a wave of momentum after all four Hendrick cars finished in the top four at Dover two weeks ago and defending series champion Elliott secured Hendrick’s record-tying victory last weekend at Circuit of the Americas. The organization nearly posted another 1-2-3-4 finish Sunday with No. 24 driver William Byron finishing fourth and No. 48 driver Alex Bowman finishing in fifth.
Hendrick said he doesn’t think the organization is weak anywhere.
“And I think when the time comes, we’ll be ready,” Hendrick said alluding to the championship race at Phoenix.
But for Sunday night, the owner was focused on winning at home and breaking a record at the track located a few miles from his race shop in Concord in front of around 50,000 people, the largest crowd at Charlotte Motor Speedway since the pandemic.
“I wanted to do it at Charlotte,” Hendrick said.
The owner didn’t pick favorites, either, saying that he had no preference for which driver secured the milestone win, but he added that it was special to win the Coca-Cola 600 — a crown jewel event — and break the record in the No. 5 car, the owner’s first car number that the team brought back this year when Larson joined.
The driver now sits second in points, 76 behind series leader Denny Hamlin. Byron and Elliott are third and fourth in points after Sunday, and Hendrick Motorsports leads the series in wins with six. Gibbs has the second-most wins with five.
Hendrick made two other comments, not in the same breath, but there was an obvious connection about the way the year is trending for the team.
“I think Kyle is going to win a lot of races,” he said.
And later: “Records are meant to be broken.”
Coke 600 race results
| Pos. | Car No. | Driver | Time behind |
| 1 | 5 | Kyle Larson | -- |
| 2 | 9 | Chase Elliott | 10.051 |
| 3 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 10.228 |
| 4 | 24 | William Byron | 10.509 |
| 5 | 48 | Alex Bowman | 11.547 |
| 6 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 16.467 |
| 7 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 17.397 |
| 8 | 17 | Chris Buescher | 17.599 |
| 9 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | 18.657 |
| 10 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 23.509 |
| 11 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 24.403 |
| 12 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 24.638 |
| 13 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | 28.931 |
| 14 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 29.104 |
| 15 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | -2 |
| 16 | 43 | Erik Jones | -2 |
| 17 | 22 | Joey Logano | -2 |
| 18 | 21 | Matt DiBenedetto | -2 |
| 19 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | -2 |
| 20 | 34 | Michael McDowell | -2 |
| 21 | 41 | Cole Custer | -3 |
| 22 | 10 | Aric Almirola | -3 |
| 23 | 14 | Chase Briscoe # | -3 |
| 24 | 20 | Christopher Bell | -3 |
| 25 | 38 | Anthony Alfredo # | -3 |
| 26 | 37 | * Ryan Preece | -3 |
| 27 | 6 | Ryan Newman | -4 |
| 28 | 77 | Justin Haley(i) | -5 |
| 29 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | -9 |
| 30 | 53 | Cody Ware(i) | -11 |
| 31 | 78 | BJ McLeod(i) | -11 |
| 32 | 0 | Quin Houff | -11 |
| 33 | 15 | James Davison | -12 |
| 34 | 51 | Garrett Smithley(i) | -13 |
| 35 | 52 | Josh Bilicki | -18 |
| 36 | 66 | * David Starr(i) | -31 |
| 37 | 42 | Ross Chastain | -41 |
| 38 | 1 | Kurt Busch | -261 |
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 10:33 PM.
