May 29, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Denny Hamlin seals "major" win with Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte

CONCORD, N.C—After winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600, Denny Hamlin said, “You’re going to have adversity throughout the day, it’s how you handle that adversity..."

For Hamlin, who was without crew chief Chris Gabehart—and hadn’t been at the point in 404 laps until the end—successfully overcoming the obstacles worked in his favor.

In the second attempt at overtime, Hamlin held off teammate Kyle Busch by .119-seconds at the finish for his first NASCAR Cup win at Charlotte Motor Speedway and his second of the season.

“I can’t believe it, way to stay in it boys,” Hamlin said over the radio as he added the third Cup major to his collection of Daytona 500 and Southern 500 trophies. “It's so special. It’s the last big one that's not on my résumé. It meant so much. Man, just can't thank this whole FedEx team enough.

“I've been a Coke family driver for 18 years. Never won the Coke 600 before. This means a lot.  Man, we weren't very good all day. Just got ourselves in the right place at the right time. What a battle there.”

Busch, who led 36 laps, overcame early damage to finish second. Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 10.

The first segment was slowed by four cautions before Chase Elliott won the stage. Eighteen laps in Ryan Preece spun off of Turn 4. Chris Buescher and Noah Gragson slowed to avoid the No. 15 and followed suit. Josh Bilicki spun off of Turn 3 on Lap 33. Kyle Busch lost control of his car on Lap 46 as Daniel Suarez passed him in Turn 2 for the lead. Busch dropped to 35th, one lap down. Corey LaJoie triggered the fourth yellow flag after spinning off of Turn 4—which would turn out to be the calamity corner of the evening.

Elliott retained the lead on the Lap 107 restart but Ross Chastain, who led a race-high 153 laps before finishing 15th, quickly took charge. Bubba Wallace, who was running fourth, ignited the sixth caution after he blew a right-front tire and spun off of Turn 4 on Lap 127.

Larson, who started the race from the rear of the field after wrecking in practice on Saturday, was penalized twice in the pits for losing a tire and removing equipment from the box. Before pitting during the sixth caution, he hit the wall. Then a fire broke out while the No. 5 team fueled the car on Lap 128. Flames shot from the car and continued in the pits as Larson pulled away.

“This has been the worse race of my life and we’re not even to halfway,” quipped Larson after he was forced to drop to 30th for the Lap 131 restart.

Elliott grabbed the lead out of the pits followed by Chastain and Ryan Blaney. Sixteen laps later, Austin Cindric blew a right-front tire while running ninth and retired. Before the Lap 152 restart, miscommunication between Blaney and the No. 12 team forced the driver to remain on the track while other lead-lap cars pitted—except for Larson, who lined up second. Blaney was off the pace on older tires, but it was Larson who spun off of Turn 4, 15 laps into the run.

Chastain returned to the lead on Lap 171 with Suarez in tow. Fifteen laps later, as Elliott was passing Suarez for second-place, he slid up into the wall in Turn 2. Before the No. 9 Chevy could make it around to the frontstretch, Elliott spun off of Turn 4 into the grass. He bent the rear toe link on the car and retired under the damaged vehicle policy (DVP).

Blaney’s car became unstable transitioning off the apron in Turn 2 on the Lap 192 restart. He checked up, turned sideways and into Kurt Busch. Thirteen drivers were involved in the wreck on the frontstretch which ended the day for Blaney, Busch, William Byron, Brad Keselowski and Wallace.

With three laps remaining in the segment, Suarez passed Chastain to win the stage. Joey Logano restarted the third stage with the lead but Suarez flexed his way to the front. Harvick tagged the wall on Lap 219 to bring out the 12th caution. Suarez came in for tires and came from 18th to sixth in five laps. 

Chastain led three times during the third segment to win his third stage. Larson reported to the team following the run he had a car that was good enough to win. Reddick grabbed the lead out of the pits. Two laps into Stage 4, Chastain and Larson bounced off of each other in Turn 2. Suarez vaulted from seventh on the restart to fifth by Lap 312. Eleven laps later, Larson miraculously emerged, at last, the leader. Reddick drew the 15th caution after a left rear tire blew as he entered Turn 4 while running second on Lap 340.

On the Lap 346 restart, Suarez came up the track in front of Briscoe out of Turn 4. Contact from the No. 14 Ford turned Suarez around. Todd Gilliland tagged Suarez and he spun in front of Chris Buescher, who was 15th. What appeared to be just a benign slide through the grass turned violent as the left rear tire on Buescher’s caught the turf and flipped five-and-a-half times on the front stretch. NASCAR red-flagged the race in order to extract Buescher from his car.

“It’s not ideal by any means,” Buescher said. “I’m gonna be a bit sore tomorrow. I haven’t been upside-down in a really long time. The team did a really nice job. We had great speed and had a chance at this thing, it just didn’t work out.”

Chastain held the point for the Lap 352 restart. With a slide job in Turn 4, Larson took the lead. Two laps later, Briscoe moved to second and pursued the No. 5 Chevy. Finally, on Lap 396, Briscoe went low and grabbed the lead off of Turn 4—but Larson regained the point off of Turn 2. Coming to the white flag, Briscoe spun off of Turn 2. NASCAR called the 17th caution and the race went into overtime.

“Sorry guys, let you down there, just got loose,” Briscoe said.

Larson had the lead for the first attempt at overtime. On four tires, Austin Dillon made a run off of Turn 2 and battled Larson and Chastain for the lead out of Turn 4. But Dillon was hooked by Larson and makes contact with Chastain. Joey Logano, Cole Custer, Martin Truex Jr., and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were collected in the melee.

Hamlin and Busch emerged unscathed following the 18th and final caution. As many of the younger contenders with faster cars crashed out during the course of the 619.5-mile marathon, Hamlin throttled back the No. 11 Fed Ex Toyota en route to his 48th win.

“I knew that they were all going to drive in way too deep so I actually backed up the corner so I got a good run off because you just never know what can happen and it kind of just played out luckily how I was hoping,” Hamlin said. “Those guys slid in there and they were going to drive in deep and they were on older left side tires. Man, that was a fortunate win for us.”

Elliott retained the points lead by 34 over Chastain.