Coke 600 race analysis and results: Kyle Larson’s dominance was never in doubt

Charlotte Motor Speedway was Rick Hendrick’s world and all the other NASCAR teams were just living in it on Sunday. It was as if the Hendrick Motorsports owner knew something others didn’t last weekend when — asked about a potential win at the Coca-Cola 600 — he smiled over at driver Kyle Larson.

“Kyle needs to do it,” Hendrick said.

The No. 5 driver delivered on the prophecy, handing Hendrick the organization’s 269th victory to surpass Petty Enterprises in all-time wins in the Cup series. Larson led a race-high 327 laps of 400 and swept all four stages.

HMS teammate Chase Elliott finished in second and Kyle Busch finished third.

The drama of the night centered on the battles between teammates, with all four Hendrick cars finishing in the top-10 at the end of each race stage. Only Busch was there at the end to break up the party. He rated his team a seven on a scale of one to 10, with Larson’s performance being a 10.

“So we’ve got some work to do,” the No. 18 driver said, adding that he feels his Joe Gibbs Racing isn’t “close enough” to where Hendrick Motorsports stands performance-wise. Denny Hamlin was the only other JGR driver to finish in the top-10, in seventh, while none of the typically-strong Penske drivers cracked the top-10.

While no other teams could match Hendrick, no other cars could upset Larson, not even his teammates. He resumed the lead after a clean green flag pit stop with just under 50 laps left in the race and was hoping for no caution as he put 10 seconds between the No. 5 car and Elliott in his mirror. Instead of the caution, came a checkered flag.

“The best driver, the best car won tonight,” Elliott said.

The victory was his second on a 1.5-mile track this year after he won at Las Vegas, and he became the first driver this year to surpass 1,000 laps led. Larson led 269 laps of 325 at Atlanta earlier this year, proving that especially, he’s a threat on 1.5-mile tracks, three of which appear in the playoff schedule.

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“It was a great night, and it’s been a great few weeks really for this team,” Larson said.

Hendrick Motorsports is riding a wave of momentum after all four Hendrick cars finished in the top-four at Dover two weeks ago and defending series champion Elliott secured Hendrick’s record-tying victory last weekend at Circuit of the Americas. The organization nearly posted another 1-2-3-4 finish on Sunday with No. 24 driver William Byron finishing fourth and No. 48 driver Alex Bowman finishing in fifth.

Hendrick said he doesn’t think the organization is weak anywhere.

“And I think when the time comes we’ll be ready,” Hendrick said alluding to the championship race at Phoenix.

But for tonight, the owner was focused on winning at home and breaking a record at the track located a few miles from his race shop in Concord, N.C.

“I wanted to do it at Charlotte,” Hendrick said. And just as he predicted a week ago, he did.

Coke 600 race results

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