CONCORD, N.C. – Coming into Sunday night’s 62nd annual Coca-Cola 600, Kyle Larson had never even won a 500-mile race in the NASCAR Cup Series, let alone the longest race in the sport.
The Elk Grove, Calif., native put an end to that narrative with a commanding performance at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Larson became the second driver in the stage-racing era to sweep all three stages and win the race outright, equaling Kyle Busch’s performance from the 2018 Coca-Cola 600.
Larson led 327 of 400 laps and simply drove away following the final pit cycle of the night, pacing the final 49 circuits and taking the checkered flag 10.051 seconds clear of his teammate, Chase Elliott.
In doing so, Larson helped Hendrick Motorsports claim the all-time Cup Series win record for an organization with its 269th victory since the team’s inception in 1985.
Prior to Sunday night, Rick Hendrick’s team was tied with Petty Enterprises at 268 wins each.
But even with that slice of history, Larson made most of the headlines all about him. The __-year-old led the most laps in a win he’s ever had in a Cup race and cemented his status as a championship favorite.
“This feels good, but it was not easy. I felt like I had to fight off William (Byron) and Chase (Elliott) a lot,” said Larson. “It kind of worked out there in that last run. The No. 43 (Erik Jones) had to pit and pulled out in front of me, and I just towed with him for a while and stretched my lead out. We had a good car there in that last run. It feels great to be the guy to help Mr. Hendrick break that record, finally.
“This is awesome.”
Sunday night’s race also took place in front of an estimated crowd of 50,000 fans – perhaps the largest crowd at a NASCAR event since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020.
“We haven’t seen this many fans in forever. Thanks to all you guys for coming out. I hope we put on a good show,” Larson added. “Thanks to Metro Tech, Chevrolet, HendrickCars.com, and everybody who allows me to drive this No. 5 car. And thanks to my No. 5 team tonight, too. They were great tonight. My pit crew did awesome.
“We had awesome pit stops, especially on the green flag stops, too. That really allowed us to get the win tonight.”
Only two cautions for incident slowed the pace Sunday night outside of the scheduled stage breaks.
Kurt Busch lost an engine down the backstretch on lap 173, while Ryan Newman cut a right-front tire and pounded the outside wall in turn three at lap 296, ending the third 100-lap stage under caution.
Aside from that pair of moments, there were few chances for anyone to threaten Larson’s dominance.
Two of his teammates – Chase Elliott and William Byron – passed Larson briefly under green-flag conditions, but neither could hold the top spot for an extended period of time.
Elliott took the lead from Larson on lap 132 and held serve there for 17 laps, while Byron made a move for first on lap 231 and also paced 17 laps before ceding the point.
But those two periods were the only times Larson seemed vulnerable. Once he took over at the start of the final stage, with 94 laps left, the only time he gave up control was during the final round of pit stops.
Behind Larson, Elliott was left to settle for second, tipping after the race that Larson was “just better all around” than anyone else on this particular night.
Kyle Busch’s Toyota broke up a potential second-straight top-four sweep for Hendrick Motorsports by crossing the finish line third, with Byron coming home fourth and Alex Bowman fighting through an early-race shock issue to place fifth.
Austin Dillon and Denny Hamlin were sixth and seventh, respectively, with Chris Buescher ranking eighth as the highest-finishing Ford driver. Tyler Reddick and Kevin Harvick closed out the top 10.
Despite Larson’s dominance, 13 drivers exchanged the lead 23 times, with just 26 of the 400 laps being run under caution.
Larson’s race-winning effort averaged 171.766 mph over a total of four hours and 49 seconds.
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues June 6 on the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course.