The 2026 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
The next race on the NASCAR schedule is the Coca-Cola 600, formerly known as the World 600. This race is one of the crown jewels for 2026 and is held at the one-and-a-half-mile track of Charlotte Motor Speedway. It's Memorial Day weekend, so of course we'll have patriotic schemes and military themes. We'll also be honoring Kyle Busch, who tragically passed on Thursday. RIP Rowdy.
Tyler Reddick started on pole and led the race until Josh Berry spun on lap 35 yet incurred no damage. Chase Briscoe led for a short moment until Reddick got by him to lead again. Then there was a caution for Austin Cindric spinning in turn 2, then hitting Connor Zilisch, which was a very hard impact that caused the 2 car to have major damage on his front end. Cindric and Zilisch were done for the day, an unfortunate end to both of their days. Everybody pitted except for Ross Chastain, who was able to lead for a little bit until Ryan Preece, who took two tires, and then he was passed by Zane Smith, who also took two tires. Smith led until the yellow came out on lap 91 when Chase Elliott spun into the inside wall, ending his day. Michael McDowell and John Hunter Nemechek stayed out, while Erik Jones took two tires to come out of the pits in front of the leaders. By lap 98, Kyle Larson had taken the lead and went on to win the first stage.
Briscoe took the lead from Larson at the start of stage 2, but 43 laps in Denny Hamlin took the lead from his teammate. Green flag pit stops begun, and after the pit cycle completed, Hamlin remained leader. Matter of fact, he took his trusty number 11 to the stage 2 win.
On lap 202, NASCAR sent the cars to pit road for a moment of silence. It has become a tradition at the Coca-Cola 600, but this year they added an absolutely sick drone show! I'm not kidding, I was at that race and it was crazy! Anyways, Hamlin kept his lead until the yellow flag waved for Katherine Legge losing a tire. There were a lot of lead changes up front between the trio of Reddick, Briscoe, and Hamlin. Reddick ended up emerging with the lead until pit stops, where he got it back for a little bit after the cycle, but got it stolen by Hamlin. The 11 wasn't able to take another stage, though, because Christopher Bell came and passed him to go on and win the thrid stage-but not the final one.
Ty Gibbs got the lead early in stage 4, but it didn't last long because Ross Chastain had an incident on the backstretch involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and the 1 car received a lot of nose damage. After the caution, everybody came down into the pits besides Gibbs and SVG. Gibbs led until he was passed by SVG, then there was a crash on the backstretch involving Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, and Chris Buescher. SVG led for a short minute before getting passed by the 20 of Bell. Austin Dillon went behind the wall with right front damage, no yellow though. On lap 353, NASCAR brought the cars to pit road because of lightning in the area. Then, we were able to go back racing again, although it was pretty much like this: green rain green rain green, you get the idea. Then it got to heavy and the race was official. Who won, you ask? After the lightning hold, there were a few pit stops, and Daniel Suarez took two tires to get out front. With all this rain, he was lucky enough to win his first Coca-Cola 600.
Well, that was not what anybody was expecting. Good strategy call by the 7 team, though. That really worked in their favor. Next we head to the concrete of Music City, baby!
