CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Breaking a 59-race drought in Monday’s rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney won the Coca-Cola 600 to snap a 59-race winless streak and deliver team owner Roger Penske a sweep of the Memorial Day weekend as Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
Blaney led a career-best 163 of 400 laps and held off polesitter William Byron for his first victory on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval and the eighth of his career.
His margin over second-place William Byron was .663 of a second.
Blaney was the 10th different winner in the 14 NASCAR Cup Series races run this season.
This was Ford’s 722nd all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its second of the season and Ford’s 33rd all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory at Charlotte. The manufacturer won its first race at the track on Oct. 16, 1960, with Speedy Thompson.
This was Blaney’s eighth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season, and his first on the 1.5-mile oval at Charlotte.
There were 16 caution periods for a total of 83 laps. Twenty-five of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Ross Chastain remains the championship leader after Charlotte with a one-point advantage over second-place Blaney.
Stage 1 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Chris Buescher of RFK Racing (Ford)
Stage 3 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
- Kevin Harvick (Started 2nd, Finished 11th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 22nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 20th, Finished 20th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
- Aric Almirola (Started 23rd, Finished 25th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
SHR Points:
- Kevin Harvick (4th with 438 points, 8 out of first)
- Chase Briscoe (17th with 292 points, 154 out of first)
- Aric Almirola (26th with 233 points, 213 out of first)
- Ryan Preece (28th with 225 points, 221 out of first)
Kevin Harvick finished second in Stage 2 to earn nine bonus points and eighth in Stage 3 to earn three more bonus points.
Harvick led three times for 19 laps to increase his laps-led total at Charlotte to 624.
Harvick has now led 11,584 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,999 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career. He is a single lap away from being one of just 11 drivers who have led 16,000 laps in their career.
Preece’s 13th-place finish bettered his previous best result at Charlotte – 22nd, earned in the 2020 Coca-Cola 600.
“What a night,” said Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com. “Ford Mustang We battled all night long. Some of those cautions just did not work in our favor at all, but we had a good car and just needed track position and clean air. We made strong adjustments throughout the night and my crew was on it. I think we had a top-10 car. We’ll take 13th after a day like that and it’s definitely the momentum our team needed. Those top-10s and top-fives are coming and I’m looking forward to St. Louis.”
“It was a good night for our Smithfield Ford Mustang. It’s an honor and privilege to race on Memorial Day and it was an honor to fly Lance Corporal Daniel M. McVicker’s name on the windshield, said Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang. “Wish we could’ve brought it home a little bit better for them. We were running 10th with 20-something to go and got caught up in that restart wreck in the middle of (turns) one and two and got a lot of heavy damage that really hurt the racecar after that. Hate that we didn’t get out of here with a top 10. I felt like we certainly had a top-10 racecar. I got loose on an early restart and bent the right-rear toe-link, we fixed it, got two laps down, and then got all of our laps back and drove from the back and into the top 10. So, just really proud of the effort and the fight, but not the result. We fought hard and we’ll go get ready for Gateway. That was a really good track for us last year.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter on Sunday, June 4 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, near St. Louis. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
