More than five hours after the green flag and more than 16 years after his first Coca-Cola 600 start, Denny Hamlin finally left Charlotte Motor Speedway as a winner on Memorial Day weekend.
Hamlin won the pole for Sunday’s 63rd running of NASCAR’s toughest test of man and machine – and, after an action-packed, unforgettable race from start to finish, the veteran driver added one of racing’s most treasured victories to his resume.
“It’s so special,” Hamlin said. “It’s the last big one that’s not on my résumé. It meant so much. Man, I just can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough.
“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.”
The race featured 31 lead changes over 413 laps, with the favorite ranging from stage 1 winner Chase Elliott, to stage 2 winner Daniel Suarez, to stage 3 winner Ross Chastain. Defending race winner Kyle Larson appeared poised to take home his second consecutive Bruton Smith Trophy, but Chase Briscoe spun out attempting to pass Larson in the final laps.
The ensuing restart saw Larson pull out front before Austin Dillon, the 2017 race winner, moved from fourth to challenge Larson as the leaders approached the white flag. Hamlin dove beneath both drivers as Dillon slid into Larson and the two triggered a multi-car crash, which brought out another yellow flag.
Hamlin seized his opportunity on the restart. He withstood a last-gasp challenge from teammate Kyle Busch, to earn his first Coke 600 victory, with an interim crew chief.
Sam McAulay, a Joe Gibbs Racing engineer, called the shots for Hamlin atop the No. 11 pit box as regular crew chief Chris Gabehart served the first of a four-race suspension, stemming from a rules violation at Dover Motor Speedway.
“It means a lot and something I was worried about all day,” Hamlin said. “One thing I was worried about all day was just the communication with Sam (McCauley), I’m so used to Chris (Gabehart) and then to have two very young and new guys over the wall for us, it worried me, but they did a fabulous job handling the race of knowing when to push and knowing when to have a smart stop and they honestly kept me in it and gave me a chance.”
The staffing change didn’t upset Hamlin or his team’s positive momentum, with Hamlin securing his second consecutive top-five finish for the first time this season.
Busch completed a 1-2 sweep for JGR. Two-time race winner Kevin Harvick finished third with Chase Briscoe fourth and Christopher Bell, another JGR driver, fifth.
Tyler Reddick was sixth with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. seventh, Michael McDowell eighth, Larson ninth and Alex Bowman 10th.
None of the first three stage winners finished better than Chastain’s 15th-place effort, marred by crash damage from the Larson and Dillon incident. Chastain, the winner of Friday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte, led a race-high 153 laps on Sunday.
Elliott’s hopes of collecting his famous family’s first Coca-Cola 600 win ended shortly before halfway, when he was knocked out of contention in a multi-car accident preceding the finish of Stage 2. Elliott led 86 of the 188 laps he completed.
While Hamlin bided his time for much of the evening – leading only 15 laps – Suarez replaced Elliott as the front-running favorite. The Trackhouse Racing driver paced the field for 46 circuits before an accident on lap 346 eliminated Suarez and saw Chris Buescher’s car flip end-over-end in a wild accident. Buescher left his car under his own power and was checked and released from the infield care center.
Hamlin found himself in the driver’s seat as the laps wound down, largely by avoiding the trouble which befell so many of the contenders.
The win was the 48th of Hamlin’s career and his first points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway.