NASCAR at Charlotte 2015: Winners and Losers from the Coca-Cola 600
With the completion of the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, NASCAR's two-week stint at the Charlotte Motor Speedway has come to an end.
One guy who really enjoyed his stay in the Queen City? Joe Gibbs. His racing team swept the races at Charlotte, with Denny Hamlin winning the All-Star Race and Carl Edwards coming out in front at the Coca-Cola 600, securing a spot in the Chase.
Edwards' win was unexpected, and I don't just mean before the race began—even with 50 laps remaining in the race, you'd have been hard-pressed to find someone backing Edwards for the win. But, hey, that's why they run all 400 laps.
Here are all of the winners and losers from the longest NASCAR evening of the year.
Winner: The Back Flip
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Carl Edwards made his way back to Victory Lane for the first time in 31 races on Sunday night, and he brought his signature back flip with him. He certainly hasn't forgotten how to celebrate—after the back flip, he climbed into the stands with the fans.
"Joe Gibbs Racing is back," Edwards said on Fox after his win. "I was the slowest of the pack; I just had the best guys in the pit."
This was Edwards' first win with Joe Gibbs Racing, the team he joined in the offseason in hopes of finally getting a championship. Though he has struggled at times this season, this victory and subsequent berth into the Chase could potentially open the floodgates.
Edwards has his crew chief, Darian Grubb, to thank for this particular win—the No. 19 wasn't the fastest car on the track, but when the leaders pitted with about 20 laps left, Grubb made the call for Edwards to stay out. He led the rest of the way.
"Now Edwards is in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and the pressure that came with the prospect of a first-year shutout is gone," Jeff Gluck of USA Today wrote. "He and Grubb can continue to gel [sic] and build the team without worrying about their plans for the fall."
Loser: Denny Hamlin
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Edwards' teammate Denny Hamlin, who won the All-Star Race last week at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, had an end of the race to forget. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
With about 50 laps remaining, Hamlin was in the lead but was complaining on his headset that he wasn't feeling well at all. (According to Jeff Gluck of USA Today, Joe Gibbs said after the race that Hamlin had been dehydrated, and he was getting IV fluids.)
Then, with 37 laps left, Hamlin had to surrender the lead to pit because of a loose tire. This caused him to go down a lap, and he didn't have enough time to make it all up. He ended up finishing in eighth place.
It was still a great two weeks in Charlotte for the No. 11 car, but he'll be wondering what-might-have-been after this Coca-Cola 600.
Winner: Kyle Busch
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Kyle Busch was one of the biggest question marks coming into this race. The younger Busch brother and brand-new father was driving in his first points race of the season, marking his comeback after breaking his right leg and left foot in the XFinity Race at Daytona.
While Busch did race in the All-Star Race last week, there's a huge difference between 110 laps broken into small segments and 600 miles, the longest NASCAR race of the year. In fact, Joe Gibbs Racing had 18-year-old Erik Jones on standby in case Busch couldn't make it through all 400 laps.
But No. 18 didn't just make it through the race, he contended for the victory. Though Busch finished in 11th place, he had more speed than that and would have likely finished in the top five if it hadn't turned into a fuel-mileage race.
Still, just the fact that Busch was able to be back on the track this quickly and contending with the best drivers in the sport speaks volumes about his work ethic, passion and talent.
"I feel fine; everything was pretty good. Real fortunate that I was able to get back this fast. It feels really good, it was fun to race here," he said on Fox after the race.
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Loser: Martin Truex Jr.
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Another race, another fast car and heartbreak for Martin Truex Jr.
The Furniture Row Racing star finished the race in fifth place and is currently sitting second in the points standings, but he still doesn't have a victory this season and, therefore, is still in danger of missing out on the Chase.
The No. 78 car was one of the best cars all evening long at Charlotte—Truex was in the lead for a race-high 131 laps. But, when it came down to a fuel-mileage race at the end, he was simply on the wrong cycle.
Talking with reporters on Fox after the race, he didn't hide his disappointment and frustration.
"I don't know, man. I don't know what to do about fuel-mileage races," he said. "Sooner or later we'll get some luck."
Winner: Roush Fenway Racing
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It's been well-documented what a terrible season Roush-Fenway Racing has been having in 2015. Coming into the Charlotte race, none of its drivers were in the top 20 of the points standings.
But on Sunday evening, Greg Biffle provided a glimmer of home that the organization is moving in the right direction with his second-place finish that pushed him up to 19th in the standings.
“Really excited for our team and origination, we’ve been working really hard on our cars," Biffle said after the race, as tweeted by Kelly Crandall of Popular Speed. "Well documented how bad we’ve been running."
His teammates didn't have the same luck—Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who is 25th in the standings, was having a top-20 day until he skidded into the wall late in the race; Trevor Bayne finished 27th—but still, this is the type of finish that can turn the fortunes around for everyone.
Loser: Hendrick Motorsports
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It's rare that there are bad days on the track for all of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, but the Coca-Cola 600 is likely not going to be included in the highlight reel shown at the team's end-of-season banquet.
The driver that struggled the most was last year's champion, Jimmie Johnson. The No. 48 car spun out twice. He was able to recover from the first one and get back into the top five, but the second one resulted in too much damage and caused him to spend significant time in the garage.
His teammate Jeff Gordon, who is still looking for his first victory of the season and a spot in the Chase, finished in 15th and was never in contention for the victory. Kasey Kahne battled back valiantly after being a lap down at one point, but he could only get back up to 12th.
Chase Elliot, the future driver of the No. 24 car, was also in this race to nab his first Charlotte start. He had a respectable run, finishing 18th.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the top finisher of the team, ending up in third place. But Junior's car wasn't one of the fastest of the day, and he had to take a gamble on fuel mileage in order to have a shot at the victory. Ultimately he still fell short and is still without a career win at his hometown track in Charlotte.
Winner: NASCAR's Tribute to Fallen Soldiers
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The Coca-Cola 600 is run on Memorial Day weekend, and while NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway have always done a good job of honoring soldiers, past and present, in its race-day festivities, this year the organizations took their tribute to the next level.
On Sunday, instead of the drivers displaying their own names on their cars, each driver's car featured the name of a fallen soldier. It was a special gesture that certainly did not go unnoticed by the families of the deceased, as reported by Gavin Off of the Charlotte Observer:
"Mark A. Bradley, a U.S. Marine, was one of 50 fallen soldiers honored by NASCAR and its racing teams at the Coca-Cola 600 this year. Their names, often recognized only by close friends and family, replaced the names of drivers known worldwide.
Bradley’s name stretched across the top of the windshield of Ryan Newman’s No. 31 car.
“I was flabbergasted, humbled,” Mark’s father, Jack, said of learning about the recognition.
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Loser: Fuel-Mileage Races
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The Coca-Cola 600 is known as an endurance test for the drivers, and occasionally it can feel that way for viewers as well—besides the re-starts, lead changes are often few and far between, and patience can be tested.
However, Sunday's race was actually exciting. The first half of the race included nine different leaders and a plethora of lead changes, and the battle for supremacy between Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin was truly fun to watch.
Then, it all boiled down to a fuel-mileage race. Now, look, I love it when strategy plays a part in the end of a NASCAR race, and it's always fun when there's a feeling that anything can happen. But it's frustrating to see the fastest cars of the day become merely an afterthought due to what might as well be luck and technicalities.
Fuel-mileage races are here to stay, and certainly some are better than others. But slow and steady isn't supposed to win the race in NASCAR.
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