CONCORD, N.C. — Ryan Blaney outran William Byron over the final miles and through several restarts to win Monday’s 600-mile NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Blaney thus ended a 59-race winless streak and qualified for the Cup playoffs.
Following in the top five were Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.
CONCORD, N.C. — It was the longest wait for the longest race, and it ended on a very long day. And it marked the end of a long winless streak.
Ryan Blaney sprinted away from William Byron in the closing laps of Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and ended a 59-race winless streak.
Byron finished second and was followed by Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.
Blaney pushed through several late-race restarts and held on to finally write finish to a frustrating losing string. The win marked the first time long-time team owner Roger Penske has won both the Indy 500 and Coke 600 in the same year.
“You start to get to feel like you can’t win any more when you don’t win for a while,” an emotional Blaney told Fox Sports after the race.
Following the lead of his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, who won Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and went into the stands to celebrate with fans, Blaney ran into the frontstretch grandstands after grabbing the checkered flag.
Contender Kyle Larson lost control of his car on a restart with 26 laps to go, starting a crash that also involved Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell.
Blaney, 29, scored the eighth win of his career. He last won at Daytona International Speedway in August 2021 and had posted four runne-rup finishes during that span.
“I tried not to think about that very much,” Blaney said of the losing streak. “It’s hard to win these races. Sometimes you get in these streaks where things don’t go right. It can definitely be frustrating. It’s easy to get down on yourself when you don’t win. You got to think to yourself can I still do it. Can I compete at a winning level?”
A mid-race collision between Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin left their cars seriously damaged and their feelings hurt. They were racing in close quarters on Lap 186 when contact between the two cars sent Hamlin hard into the wall, resulting in major front-end damage. Elliott’s car sustained serious rear damage.
Hamlin said Elliott had a “tantrum” and that he should be suspended for the next race for what Hamlin called “a right rear hook.” Elliott denied intentionally wrecking Hamlin.
A few laps earlier, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski crashed.
The third-stage win went to Blaney. Following were Reddick, Truex, Byron and Ty Gibbs.
Chris Buescher won the second stage, leading Kevin Harvick, Keselowski, Joey Logano and Gibbs.
Byron won the first stage, leading a three-way battle with Christopher Bell and Blaney on the 100th lap. Bell was second, Blaney third, Reddick fourth and Truex Jr. fifth.
A crash involving Bubba Wallace and Aric Almirola resulted in the drivers having a tense red-flag discussion. Almirola shoved Wallace before the altercation was broken up.
Stage 1 winner: William Byron
Stage 2 winner: Chris Buescher
Stage 3 winner: Ryan Blaney
Who had a good race: Ryan Blaney had the day’s fastest car and held off a following herd over the final miles. … William Byron was strong throughout the race but couldn’t challenge Blaney at the end. … The fourth-place finish by Bubba Wallace and the fifth-place run by Tyler Reddick marked the first time 23XI Racing has put two cars in the top five in a points race.
Who had a bad race: Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson had a tough day in his third race of the year. He lost control of his car 74 laps into the race and slapped the outside wall. He lost a lap in the pits and ultimately finished last. … Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin had top-10 cars but both left the race after a controversial collision near the halfway point.
Next: The series races June 4 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1).
What drivers had to say Sunday at the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway:
Kyle Larson — Winner: “I can’t even tell you what it means. This is my third All-Star win and my third different track. In an historical place like that, you guys and the crowd made this weekend so awesome. We could feel the atmosphere all weekend. So much fun there. That was old-school ass whipping, for sure. We had a great car on the long run there and was just thinking for sure there was going to be a caution. I got out to a big lead and I could see everybody’s cars were driving like crap in front of me, but I cannot thank this 5 team enough. We were God awful all weekend. Practice I was like the worst on 30-lap average, went backwards in a heat race yesterday. You obviously had some strategy work out there in the beginning, but we drove from dead last to the lead and checked out by 12 or 13 seconds. Then just could pace myself there that last run.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 2nd: “I think we needed the louvers and whatever chewed up stuff they have on there. No, just his (Kyle Larson) capability throughout the whole run, he could attack hard and then have something there at the end. If this was any other race I’d be excited, but for a million dollars to come up short and walk home with nothing. Tail tucked between our legs, but, all in all, just continuing to ride the momentum train. I want to get Columbia in Victory Lane and they’ve done a lot, and they came up with the best paint scheme here in the field, so we come up one spot short, so congrats to Larson. He’s been on a rail lately. Just have to keep it going. Now we show back up to home turf and really got to keep the momentum going there and get ourselves deeper into the playoffs here. Excited to be where we’re at right now. Just come up one spot short.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: “Just needed a little bit on the balance, but yeah, the Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD was really fast. I made a mistake earlier in the race, back in the first 100 laps, let Kyle (Larson) squeeze by, and he really mowed through the traffic, and yeah, we lined up obviously behind him on that restart and we could kind of stay in touch, but he was able to keep far enough away. I was trying to figure out how much me and Bubba were trying to figure out how much to push, how much to save, and I had an opportunity to get around him with 40 to go, and I just made a mistake on the fuel all night, and it put us behind.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 4th: “Truthfully, this car at every short track has kind of struggled. I think a lack of grip didn’t really fix the issues. I don’t know. It was fun. I still think this has a great opportunity to be an incredible event, but it would be different if every other race on short tracks had been really good. I think we just need to keep continuing to work on the car. I feel like we made it better on short tracks than what it was last year, but we just need to get it better. We’re slipping and sliding around and doing the things we need to do, but, truthfully, I just feel like this race would have been really, really good if the track had more than one lane. It was almost the track more than the car, necessarily. It was just so fast on the bottom groove. If you miss it by six inches, you are a half-second slower. We all know that, and we all just continue to fight for the bottom. I would almost just put it up as the racetrack is so bottom-dominant that that’s why it’s really hard to pass. We were really, really fast at the end. I felt like if I could have ever just got the lead, I would have been hard to beat, but I’m sure a lot of other guys would say that, too. It was definitely frustrating. We kind of got beat around there on that one restart. I went from running fourth to seventh or eighth and had to drive back up to fourth, so I felt like we were one of the few cars that could pass. I’m proud of that effort, but I would have obviously loved to win a million dollars. Truthfully, with how our last couple of weeks have been, just to get a good run and prove that we can run with these guys is nice.”
Chase Elliott — Finished 5th: “Based on what we saw in practice on Friday, I thought it was about what we were expecting from there. It was pretty anticlimactic; I would say for the most part. But Kyle (Larson), Cliff (Daniels) and the No. 5 team did a great job and really set the pace there once they took tires at the start and controlled the event from there. These races are hard to win. They’re not always going to be barnburners, side-by-side, banging-door finishes. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re still hard to win and that should always be celebrated.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 6th: “I had a fun night. Sixth was probably the highest we got to and where we finished, and I thought we could run fifth. Overall, it wasn’t a bad night. We didn’t have winning speed, but it was a fun night, for sure. It was just a case of how disciplined you wanted to be. The whole last run going green was super-cool. It was big tire management because you never really know how many laps you’re gonna run. I kind of had it in my mind right away like, ‘Alright, we might go the whole way, so let’s kind of plan on that,’ and it happened. It was a pretty fun night trying to conserve tires. It reminded me of my late model days.”
Josh Berry — Winner: “Man, I feel so relieved. These guys deserve to be in this race so bad. Thank you so much to Hendrick Motorsports for believing in me and giving me this opportunity under the circumstances. Ally, everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, man, this is really cool. Our car was solid. We were definitely better the second run. We got some help there, whatever happened with the 34 (Michael McDowell). I don’t know what that was. That was pretty bad. But we were able to get the lead and stretch it out a little bit, kind of maintain it. I think the two best cars made it, so we’ll just see what tonight gives us.”
Ty Gibbs — Finished 2nd: “I, 100 percent, understand his (Michael McDowell) frustration. I moved him out of the way. They fenced us and completely wrecked us for 18th at Martinsville out of nowhere. It’s just a learning experience, I think. We will keep digging. We made it in, so that’s all that matters. It’s the Open. … Everybody’s doing Hail Marys and stuff like that. They all wadded themselves up in (turn) 1. I understand his frustration, but at the same time. We got completely clobbered at Martinsville for 18th. I never said anything and never reacted. Just have to keep to rolling and worry about the future. We’ve got a race for a million dollars, so that is pretty cool. I think our Monster Energy Camry is really fast. We’ve got a little damage from getting hit by him on the apron. I tried to go down on the apron there, probably a little too early and slid, so we are going to get that fixed up and keep digging.”
Aric Almirola — Finished 3rd: “They made their cars better on the pit stop, and we made ours a little bit better, but they made their cars significantly better. I thought we were still better than them in traffic. Surprisingly on a little half-mile racetrack, traffic still matters. I didn’t do myself any favors choosing the outside of that restart. I thought I could maybe make it work. … I was kind of hanging on there at the end trying to hustle to make something of it, and just wasn’t able to get close enough to make a move. Just frustrated. Had a really fast Smithfield Ford Mustang. Proud of the guys. Starting deep in the field against those guys that started on the front row, to drive from ninth all the way up there and have a shot to outrun those guys says how good our car was, but needed more laps. … We’re a great race team and we had a great race car here this weekend. I thought we were a fifth-place car in practice on average. On a long run for sure we were one of the best cars. I would have liked to see it play out tonight here in such an iconic event and running for a million dollars here at North Wilkesboro would have been awesome, so that’s what I’m most disappointed about, just not being in the show tonight and having to watch it on TV. That hurts.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 13th: “Well, it’s short track racing to try to get into the All-Star Race, so somebody has got to leave with hurt feelings. I guess it’s me. I’ve got a great restart there, kind of worked the outside, got a couple guys and was able to get down, and Ty just plowed into me, just knocked me into the 31 (Justin Haley) and spun us both out, and got a lot of damage from that. We ended up on the short side of it. It sucks. Felt like we had a pretty fast Gr8 Auctions Ford Mustang, but at the same time all that stuff comes around, man. You get away with it a few times, but it comes around, and I don’t have a budget for the fine, otherwise I would not be standing here, I’d be standing down there.”
Todd Gilliland — Finished 15th: “I think my spotter said the 42 (Noah Gragson) hit the inside wall. The only thing I saw was the 42 coming right across my nose, and I just shot to the outside wall. That’s probably about as hard as you could possibly wreck here, and it definitely sucks that we tear up a car here, but that’s racing. For me, I lost a spot on that restart. If I had just maintained, I would have been ahead of that. To me, that’s disappointing for myself that I let that happen, but at the same time I didn’t want to get stuck top of three wide.”
Josh Berry won Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Open race, and Berry, Ty Gibbs and Noah Gragson advanced to Sunday night’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Berry, racing for the injured Alex Bowman, and Gibbs advanced to the feature by finishing first and second. Gragson, who finished seventh in the Open, won the fan vote to complete the All-Star starting grid.
Gibbs jumped into the lead from the pole and led every lap until NASCAR slowed the race with a competition caution at Lap 40.
Berry’s team returned him to the track first during the pit-stop round, and he and Gibbs wrestled for the lead much of the rest of the way.
On Lap 54, a five-car crash damaged the cars of Todd Gilliland, Ryan Newman, Gragson, AJ Allmendinger and Chandler Smith.
With 43 laps to go, Michael McDowell and Justin Haley crashed while being passed by Gibbs. Later in the race, McDowell slowed Gibbs’ progress as the leaders moved past lapped cars. Berry took the lead.
McDowell was upset at Gibbs’ move, saying Gibbs “plowed” through him while making the pass.
“I don’t have the budget for the fine. Otherwise, I’d be standing down there (near Gibbs), not here,” McDowell told Fox Sports after the race.
The Wood Brothers team took an unusual approach during one of its pit stops, changing only rear tires on Harrison Burton‘s car. Burton finished 11th.
The All-Star Race is scheduled to take the green flag at 8:14 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1.
#NASCAR … Michael McDowell on his incident with Ty Gibbs and McDowell’s reaction on track pic.twitter.com/VV8PddZyZx
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) May 21, 2023
#NASCAR … So how did the car feel after changing only rear tires in the All-Star Open? Harrison Burton says “there’s a reason why no one has tried it in a while.” pic.twitter.com/23Hz4X4GwA
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) May 21, 2023
The Cup Series hits the halfway mark of the 26-race regular season Sunday at Darlington Raceway. The pressure will be build on drivers to win and earn a spot in the playoffs.
The focus Sunday will be winning at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks. Four drivers finished in the top 10 in both Darlington races last year: Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell.
Denny Hamlin has the best average finish at Darlington (7.48) among drivers with more than two starts there. Kyle Larson is next with an average finish of 9.2.
START: Members of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers will give the command to start engines at 3:02 p.m. … The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:12 p.m.
PRERACE: Cup garage opens at noon. … Drivers meeting is at 2:05 p.m. … Driver intros are at 2:25 p.m. … Susan Chastain, mother of Cup driver Ross Chastain, will give the invocation at 2:54 p.m. … The national anthem will be performed by Master Sergeant Ashley Keeks, United States Air Force Band, at 2:55 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is 293 laps (400.2 miles) on the 1.366-mile track.
STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 90. Stage 2 ends at Lap 185.
STARTING LINEUP: Darlington Cup starting lineup
TV/RADIO: FS1 will broadcast the race at 3 p.m. … Coverage begins with NASCAR RaceDay at 1:30 p.m. on FS1. … Motor Racing Network coverage begins at 2 p.m. and also will stream at mrn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the MRN broadcast.
STREAMING: Fox Sports
FORECAST: Weather Underground — Mostly cloudy with a high of 83 degrees and a 21% chance of rain at the start of the race.
LAST YEAR: Erik Jones won the Southern 500 to open the Cup playoffs last September. Denny Hamlin finished second. Tyler Reddick placed third. Joey Logano won at Darlington in May 2022 after a late-race duel with William Byron. Tyler Reddick was second. Justin Haley placed third.
Friday 5: Should NASCAR let drivers fight or break up confrontations quickly?
Dr. Diandra: Darlington mellowed over decades but still one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks
Cup teams ask NASCAR for “meaningful” talks on charters
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