Kyle Busch was fast, flawless and first on Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, easily winning the Coca-Cola 600, for his 4th victory of the season. How fast? After starting from the pole, he built a lead as large as 8 seconds in the final stage and at the end of the night, was first to the checkered flag by nearly 4 seconds over runner-up Martin Truex, Jr.
Flawless? How about leading 377 of the 400 laps run in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota! Busch won each of the first three stages, leading every lap in Stage-3 en route to his 47th series win and first points-paying victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch did win the 2017 All-Star Race there.
With Truex finishing 2nd and Denny Hamlin 3rd on Sunday night, Toyota swept the top three spots. Brad Keselowski, Saturday’s X-finity Series winner, ran 4th with Jimmie Johnson completing the top 5. Bubba Wallace was the highest-finishing rookie, in 16th place. Defending race winner Austin Dillon had early contact with the wall that forced him off the pace and he was saddled with a 34th-place finish in his bid for back-to-back Coca-Cola 600 victories .
The race included just 9 lead changes among 4 drivers: Busch, Hamlin, Keselowski and Joey Logano. There were 11 cautions for 54 laps. Toyota has now won 3 of the last 4 spring races in Charlotte dating back to 2015.
[button style=”btn-primary btn-lg” icon=”fa fa-flag-checkered” align=”left” type=”link” target=”true” title=”mrn.com Race Center” link=”https://www.mrn.com/2018/05/27/kyle-busch-wins-coca-cola-600/”]
– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
1. Kyle Busch @ 573 points
2. Joey Logano (-67)
3. Kevin Harvick (-88)
4. Brad Keselowski (-136)
5. Martin Truex, Jr. (-143)
6. Kurt Busch (-144)
7. Denny Hamlin (-144)
8. Clint Bowyer(-152)
9. Kyle Larson (-191)
10. Aric Almirola (-197)
For the complete driver standings, please visit the official page on nascar.com.
