Kyle Larson dominates Coca-Cola 600, Hendrick becomes winningest team

Hendrick Motorsports has officially surpassed Petty Enterprises for the most wins in NASCAR Cup Series history. Kyle Larson dominated Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, leading 311 of 400 laps and sweeping the four stages to secure the team’s 269th victory.

Larson won the pole in qualifying on Saturday ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kurt Busch and B.J. McLeod were sent to the rear for unapproved adjustments.

Stages #1 and 2

Larson dominated the opening stage as Hendrick Motorsports team-mates Chase Elliott and William Byron followed.

The first stage ran completely green as Larson led all but eleven of the 100 laps. The exceptions came during the mid-segment pit stops under green following Larson making his stop on lap 49, with Byron, Brad Keselowski, Matt DiBenedetto, and Anthony Alfredo leading laps before it cycled back to Larson. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain exited the race with a broken oil pump valve.

Larson, Elliott, Byron, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top ten.

Stage #2 began with Larson leading Elliott. Elliott finally broke his team-mate’s on-track stranglehold on lap 132, leading until the next pit cycle commenced and he pitted on lap 149. Reddick and Christopher Bell spent time at the top until Larson returned to the spot. Prior to the stops, Chastain’s Chip Ganassi Racing partner Kurt Busch suffered an oil pump belt failure. David Starr, running his first Cup race of the year, was penalised for failing to meet minimum speed.

Although Busch was able to return to the track, his race ended in smoke when his engine expired on lap 172 and produced a caution. Bowman and Hamlin changed two tyres during the yellow to lead the field to green on the ensuing lap 178 restart. Hamlin took the lead two laps later before losing it to Elliott on lap 183.

Larson reclaimed the lead on lap 188. By lap 195, Hendrick drivers occupied the top four in a similar strong performance to Dover two weeks prior. Kyle Busch broke up the party when he took fourth from Bowman, but it was still a Hendrick 1–2–3 at the end of the stage with Larson ahead of Elliott and Byron. Reddick, Harvick, Bowman, Buescher, Hamlin, and Dillon also received stage points.

Stages #3 and 4

Larson, Elliott, and Byron resumed their battle as the race’s second half opened. On lap 212, Bell hit the wall and had to pit.

Byron overtook Larson for the lead on lap 231. Five laps later, Harivck pitted due to a loose wheel, while green-flag stops started approximately ten laps later. After Byron pitted on lap 247, Reddick, Dillon, and Alfredo enjoyed leading laps. The stops concluded with Larson back on top and he would lead until Ryan Newman‘s right-front tyre went down with five laps left in the stage and sent him into the wall.

Newman’s wreck ended the stage under yellow as Larson won his third consecutive stage. He was the second driver to win three stages at the 600 since Kyle Busch in 2018, the first year that the race was divided into four segments instead of the usual three. Byron, Busch, Elliott, Bowman, Reddick, Hamlin, Dillon, Bubba Wallace, and Harvick comprised the rest of the top ten.

A pair of Kyles in Larson and Busch led the grid to the start of the fourth and final stage. Despite a brief challenge by Busch, Larson kept the lead. On lap 320, Joey Logano pitted to address a flat tyre, a similar fate that befell Martin Truex Jr. twenty laps later.

Larson hit pit road on lap 347. Reddick and Blaney led a combined five laps before they pitted and Larson re-assumed first. As the lap counter crossed 372, he led 300 total laps in a Cup race for the first time; his previous best was 284 at Darlington in 2018, while his 269 at Atlanta in March were his most on a 1.5-mile track.

As Byron and Bowman faced challenges from Busch, Larson easily pulled away from Elliott and his Hendrick compatriots. By the end of the race, his advantage on runner-up Elliott had peaked at over ten seconds. Hendrick drivers occupied the top five with Busch—himself an ex-Hendrick member—preventing a top four HMS sweep as he finished third.

In addition to being Larson’s eighth career win and second of 2021, he notches his first at Charlotte. It is also perhaps fitting that the #5 car was responsible for Hendrick becoming the winningest team as the number holds sentimental value for the organisation, being its first car number with Geoff Bodine in 1984; the #5 has forty total wins.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
2	3	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
3	20	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
4	4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
5	7	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
6	6	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
7	14	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
8	27	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	400	Running
9	15	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
10	5	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
11	13	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	400	Running
12	2	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	400	Running
13	11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	400	Running
14	18	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	400	Running
15	9	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	398	Running
16	19	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	398	Running
17	16	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	398	Running
18	22	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	398	Running
19	26	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	398	Running
20	24	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	398	Running
21	23	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	397	Running
22	31	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	397	Running
23	21	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	397	Running
24	17	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	397	Running
25	29	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	397	Running
26	28	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	397	Running
27	25	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	396	Running
28	30	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	395	Running
29	8	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	391	Running
30	34	53	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	389	Running
31	33	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	389	Running
32	32	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	389	Running
33	35	15	James Davison	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	388	Running
34	36	51	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	387	Running
35	37	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	382	Running
36	38	66	David Starr*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	369	Running
37	10	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	359	Running
38	12	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	139	Engine