Date: May 30, 2021
Event: Coca-Cola 600 (Round 15 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 400 laps, broken into four stages (100 laps/100 laps/100 laps/100 laps)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 3 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 5th, Finished 10th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 23rd, Finished 21st / Running, completed 397 of 400 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 21st, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 397 of 400 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 31st, Finished 22nd / Running, completed 397 of 400 laps)
SHR Points:
● Kevin Harvick (9th with 468 points, 165 out of first)
● Cole Custer (27th with 236 points, 397 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (25th with 251 points, 382 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (28th with 195 points, 438 out of first)
Harvick Notes:
● Harvick earned his 11th top-10 of the season and his 20th top-10 in 39 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Charlotte.
● This was Harvick’s fourth straight top-10 at Charlotte.
Briscoe Notes:
● Briscoe was the highest finishing NASCAR Cup Series rookie for the 12th time this season.
Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the Coca-Cola 600 to score his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Charlotte. His margin over second-place Chase Elliott was 10.051 seconds.
● There were four caution periods for a total of 26 laps.
● Only 14 of the 38 drivers in the Coca-Cola 600 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Charlotte with a 76-point advantage over second-place Larson.
Charlotte Quotes
Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Wow Wow! Waffles Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“This race is such a long one, and I wish we could’ve gotten a better finish for Feeding America® and Wow Wow Classic Waffles in their first outing with us. We struggled with the balance of the car all day, but it started getting better throughout the race. Once the leaders start passing you, it’s hard to make up for the lost time. We’ll look ahead to Sonoma.”
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang:
“We had a really tight-handling HighPoint.com Mustang tonight. It seemed like no matter what we did, we couldn’t make any gains with the adjustments. These races are tough, but I’m definitely looking forward to getting to Sonoma and doing some more road-course racing.”
Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We battled all day to improve the handling and speed of our Smithfield Ford Mustang. We got caught a lap down early and just couldn’t recover. When we had clean air we were one of the fastest cars, but I just couldn’t find any grip in traffic. We raced our tails off to try to find something, and our pit crew had a great day. Moving on to Sonoma.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Save Mart 350k on Sunday, June 6 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. The race begins at 4 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
