Daniel Suarez wins emotional, rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600
Photo by Krista Jasso/Getty Images
CONCORD, N.C.—At the drivers’ meeting before Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer had some parting words for the NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
“Let’s put on a race Kyle would be proud of,” Sawyer said, referring to two-time series champion and certain NASCAR Hall of Famer Kyle Busch, who passed away Thursday after a sudden, brief illness.
The drivers took those words seriously and put on a quality show that ended improbably, with Daniel Suarez claiming the third victory of his career when NASCAR called the event 27 laps short of its scheduled finish after a rainstorm drenched the track.
The win was especially poignant for Suarez, who received repeated encouragement and advice from Busch after arriving from his native Mexico and launching his NASCAR career.
“It really means a lot,” Suarez said of the victory. “It really means a lot. I’ve been saying for years this is my favorite race of the year. I get to have my family here every year. This is most of the time the only race (they) get to come.
“It’s been a very tough week. Kyle, he was special, man. This one is for Kyle. For Kyle, for (wife) Samantha, for (son) Brexton, for (daughter) Lennix, all his family … Definitely, this one has a special flavor because of Kyle. This win is for him. If it wasn’t for Kyle, I wasn’t going to be an Xfinity champion. I wasn’t going to have my shot in the Cup series. To win this race for him is unbelievable.”
Suarez’s crew chief Ryan Sparks made the call that won the race during pit stops under caution for lightning in the area on Lap 356. Taking two right-side tires only, Suarez gained 13 positions on pit road and led the field to green on lap 360.
Rain slowed the race on Lap 361, with Suarez barely in the lead over Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. With a strong push from fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson, Suarez pulled ahead after the Lap 370 resumption and held the lead until the rains started in earnest three laps later.
For the final restart, Suarez lined up on the inside lane with Bell top his outside. The push from Larson helped Suarez clear Bell’s Toyota almost immediately.
“I knew after the first restart, I knew he couldn’t get clear,” said Bell, who won a rain-shortened Coke 600 two years ago. “I was going to have to stay beside him. I couldn’t stay beside him. He cleared me. Once he cleared me, I knew it was going to be a really tough pass with it being a short run.
“If we would have had all the laps, he was going to block like hell and probably … yeah, he did a good job blocking—but he won the race.”
Suarez, who recovered from two unscheduled green-flag pit stops for tire vibrations, led once for the final 17 laps in scoring his first victory of the season and his first in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Bell finished second and Hamlin third, with polesitter and series leader Tyler Reddick and Larson completing the top five.
Reddick led a race-high 119 laps, followed by Hamlin with 75 and Bell with 44. All told, there were 32 lead changes among 13 drivers on the racy 1.5-mile intermediate speedway and 12 cautions for 75 laps.
Reddick leaves Charlotte with a 122-point series lead over Hamlin in second.
The event got emotional before it started. Busch’s widow, Samantha, and son Brexton and daughter Lennix made their first public appearance since Busch’s death on Thursday.
Before the cars fired their engines, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell gave Samantha heartfelt assurances that she and her children would always be part of the NASCAR family.
On a day and in a race that traditionally has made a point of recognizing fallen soldiers on Memorial Day Weekend, the special remembrance was for Busch, who was so suddenly and unexpectedly taken from the NASCAR community.
And there was no lack of action in NASCAR’s longest race.
Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn’t make it to the end of the first stage. On Lap 90, Elliott spun off Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall to cause the third caution of the race.
“I just made a mistake, spun out and hit the wall,” said Elliott, who was running 17th at the time. “I hate it. It’s been a terrible race, I feel like, throughout the course of my career. I’ve just crashed a bunch. There’s a lot of race left. I was trying to find something—we were bleeding pretty bad.
“I moved up to the top there, trying to click off some faster laps. I made a mistake, stepped over the line and paid the price.”
Toyotas dominated the first three stages of the race. Though Kyle Larson won Stage 1, Toyota drivers Chase Briscoe, Reddick and Hamlin claimed the next three positions.
Hamlin led a Camry sweep of the top four positions of Stage 2, and Bell did the same in Stage 3 by pitting late and charging to the front near the end of the segment.
Briscoe, however, was collected in a wild four-car incident on the backstretch on Lap 318. The collision knocked him out of the race, along with Ryan Preece.
Ty Gibbs ran a solid, consistent race and finished sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron and Zane Smith.
Katherine Legge was running at the finish of the Coca-Cola 600 in the second leg of her Indianapolis 500/Charlotte double. An early crash took Legge out of the race at Indy. After the commute to Charlotte, she finished 31st, 12 laps down in the 600.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 13
Race Results for the Coca-Cola 600 - Sunday, May 24, 2026
Charlotte Motor Speedway - Concord, NC - 1.5 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 373 Laps - 559.5 Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 5/24/2026 @ 11:46 PM Eastern
Stage 1 Stage 2
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Pos Pos Status Tms Laps
1 14 7 Daniel Suarez Freeway Insurance Chevrolet 373 55 Running 1 17
2 17 20 Christopher Bell Interstate Batteries Toyota 373 6 50 Running 5 44
3 11 11 Denny Hamlin National Debt Relief Toyota 373 4 1 60 Running 6 75
4 1 45 Tyler Reddick Mobil 1/O'Reilly Auto Parts Toyota 373 3 4 53 Running 7 119
5 18 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 373 1 5 54 Running 1 14
6 2 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 373 7 2 53 Running 4 17
7 6 12 Ryan Blaney BODYARMOR FLASH I.V. Ford 373 6 7 41 Running
8 33 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 373 29 Running
9 31 24 William Byron Raptor Chevrolet 373 28 Running
10 19 38 Zane Smith Aaron's Rent To Own Ford 373 27 Running 1 31
11 3 97 Shane Van Gisbergen SuperFile Chevrolet 373 10 9 33 Running 1 11
12 32 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Three Finger Jack Chevrolet 373 9 10 29 Running
13 21 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 373 5 30 Running
14 4 71 Michael McDowell Modo Casino Chevrolet 373 23 Running 1 3
15 26 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 373 25 Running
16 22 41 Cole Custer Sysco/Hickory Tavern Chevrolet 373 21 Running
17 29 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 373 20 Running
18 10 16 AJ Allmendinger Black's Tire Chevrolet 373 19 Running
19 39 67 * Corey Heim(i) Fleetio Toyota 373 0 Running
20 20 34 Todd Gilliland Grillo's Pickles Ford 373 17 Running
21 30 35 Riley Herbst FRE Nicotine Pouches Toyota 372 16 Running
22 24 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Toyota 372 15 Running
23 23 77 Carson Hocevar Chili's Ride the 'Dente Chevrolet 372 14 Running 1 4
24 28 4 Noah Gragson Rush Truck Centers Ford 372 13 Running
25 35 10 Ty Dillon Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 372 12 Running
26 15 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 372 11 Running
27 13 33 Austin Hill(i) Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet 372 0 Running
28 38 51 Cody Ware 9 Evel Knievel Museum/World Supercross 371 Running
29 34 21 Josh Berry eero Ford 371 8 Running
30 7 17 Chris Buescher Body Guard Ford 367 8 10 Running
31 37 78 * Katherine Legge e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet 361 6 Running
32 9 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Patriotic Chevrolet 338 5 Accident
33 12 60 Ryan Preece Kroger/SToK Ford 328 8 7 Accident 1 1
34 5 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 328 2 3 27 Accident 3 34
35 27 1 Ross Chastain Jockey x Folds of Honor Chevrolet 317 2 Accident 1 3
36 36 66 * Timmy Hill(i) Pinnacle Mortgage Corp. Ford 291 0 Fire
37 16 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 89 1 Accident
38 8 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Duracell Ford 52 1 Accident
39 25 88 Connor Zilisch # Red Bull Chevrolet 52 1 Accident
,Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 39 Mins, 56 Secs. Average Speed: 119.921 MPH Margin of Victory: Under Caution
Stage 1 Top 10: 5, 19, 45, 11, 43, 12, 54, 60, 47, 97
Stage 2 Top 10: 11, 54, 19, 45, 5, 20, 12, 17, 97, 47
Stage 3 Top 10: 20, 11, 54, 19, 5, 45, 97, 6, 12, 47
Race Comments: Daniel Suarez won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his third NASCAR Cup Series victory. Prior to the green flag to start the race, the following car dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 48 (unapproved adjustments).
Failed to Qualify: None.
Caution Flags: 12 for 75 laps; Laps: 36-39 (#21 spin turn 2 [66]); 54-59 (#2, 88 incident turn 2 [7]); 91-95 (#9 incident backstretch [23]); 102-108 (Stage 1 Conclusion [77]); 202-207 (Stage 2 Conclusion [16]); 211-215 (Lost wheel from #78 [38]); 302-312 (Stage 3 Conclusion [24]); 319-326 (#1, 47 incident backstretch [71]); 330-337 (#60, 17, 19, 21 incident backstretch [7]); 354-359 (Inclement weather [48]); 362-369 (Precipitation [Red Flag: Lap 367, 7:55] [67]); 373-373 ( [None]).
Lead Changes: 32 among 13 drivers; T. Reddick 0; T. Reddick 1-39; C. Briscoe 40; T. Reddick 41-56; R. Chastain 57-59; R. Preece 60; Z. Smith 61-91; T. Reddick 92; M. McDowell 93-95; D. Hamlin 96; K. Larson 97-110; C. Briscoe 111-142; D. Hamlin 143-146; T. Gibbs 147; C. Bell 148-150; C. Hocevar 151-154; D. Hamlin 155-202; T. Gibbs 203; D. Hamlin 204-215; C. Briscoe 216; T. Reddick 217-221; D. Hamlin 222; T. Reddick 223-250; C. Bell 251-257; T. Reddick 258-286; D. Hamlin 287-295; C. Bell 296-308; T. Gibbs 309; C. Bell 310-312; T. Gibbs 313-326; S. Van Gisbergen 327-337; C. Bell 338-355; T. Reddick 356; D. Suarez 357-373.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: May 31, 2026 - Nashville Superspeedway
NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875
CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES STANDINGS
UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL
1. Tyler Reddick 45 13 0 620 0 0 5 0
2. Denny Hamlin 11 13 0 498 -122 122 1 4
3. Ryan Blaney 12 13 1 446 -174 52 1 1
4. Ty Gibbs 54 13 2 425 -195 21 1 1
5. Chase Elliott 9 13 -2 423 -197 2 2 1
6. Kyle Larson 5 13 2 386 -234 37 0 4
7. Chris Buescher 17 13 -2 385 -235 1 0 0
8. Christopher Bell 20 13 3 361 -259 24 0 3
9. Carson Hocevar 77 13 -2 356 -264 5 1 0
10. Daniel Suarez 7 13 4 350 -270 6 1 0
11. Brad Keselowski 6 13 -2 343 -277 7 0 2
12. William Byron 24 13 0 337 -283 6 0 1
13. Bubba Wallace 23 13 -3 328 -292 9 0 2
14. Shane Van Gisbergen 97 13 2 316 -304 12 1 1
15. Chase Briscoe 19 13 2 304 -316 12 0 0
16. Ryan Preece 60 13 -3 303 -317 1 0 1
17. Austin Cindric 2 13 -2 288 -332 15 0 1
18. Joey Logano 22 13 0 274 -346 14 0 0
19. AJ Allmendinger 16 13 1 254 -366 20 0 0
20. Michael McDowell 71 13 1 248 -372 6 0 0
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