9:19 p.m.
Lap 228
“What about weather, Adam?”
“Inching closer. Building closer.”
“I don’t think it will rain forever but it will lightning and we will lose the track.”
That was Christopher Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens right before what turned out to be the decisive moment of the Coca-Cola 600.
Brad Keselowski had just hounded Bell over the course of the previous short green flag run, and it was clear that he might have had the best car at that moment, but he didn’t have track position and he was running out of time.
In fact, he had less time than he even realized.
Keselowski once again hounded Bell on the next restart but just couldn’t overcome the leader’s advantage in clean air. Then the caution waved for light precipitation, which then led to a red flag for a lightning hold, and then the long-expected deluge.
NASCAR spent 90 minutes working towards drying the surface but then, with no additional storm in the forecast, made the results official at 11:30 citing difficulties drying the track in the humidity of the evening combined with how late the race would resume.
Christopher Bell emerged victorious in the Coca Cola 373 and a Half.
“I got booed out of the place,” Bell said of his Victory Lane experience, a reflection of just how frustrated the remaining fans were to having the race called short with a track that appeared to be three quarters of the way dry.
Both Bell and Keselowski cited the importance of clean air on what turned out to be the decisive moment of the race.
“I mean, obviously getting clean air is really important, and I’ll be honest, the 6 car was really fast, and the fact that he could keep pace like that with me showed that his car was really strong,” Bell said.
Keselowski just needed the tires to wear out a little bit more to overcome the aero advantage. Really, if the last two runs was one big run, Keselowski thinks he could have eventually wore Bell down.
“I think we had more speed than him, but there was a pretty big air advantage that he had,” Keselowski said. “As laps would go on, the aero grip gets displaced by the mechanical grip, and then we could take him.
“But the leader, he was probably — I feel like the 20 car was the second-best car today, but it was still the second-best car. So, to be able to displace him, we needed him to fall off, and that’s just not going to happen with laps and catching the back of the pack, and we just didn’t get that.”
Bell said he was first made aware of the weather shortly after the end of the second stage. Did that last restart, knowing the rain was coming any moment, feel remotely similar to a green-white-checkers finish?
“I would say certainly it ramped up, and you could just feel the pressure and the intensity and the importance of that restart, the laps that were going on in that moment,” Bell said.
“The range of emotions that I went through from the time that we get out of the car, the lightning strikes, because we got out of the car without any rain. Then the lightning strikes hit, and we’re like, okay, we’re going to get right back in, and then the rain came and it’s pouring down rain and we thought for sure they were going to call the race. Whenever they didn’t call the race and the rain stopped we thought there was no way they were going to call the race now and we’re going to get back after it.
“I never in a million years thought that I was going to be winning that race on a rain-shortened event after they didn’t call it whenever the rain stopped. I thought for sure we’d be completing the event.”
And so did everyone else on the property. After all, there was 90 minutes between the start of track drying and the ultimate decision to call the race well short of its scheduled distance.
This is the closest thing the industry has to an official explanation as of overnight Sunday into Monday.
So, through it all, does Christopher Bell feel like a winner of the Coca-Cola 600, one of NASCAR’s crown jewels?
“I would say so,” Bell said. “The fans probably aren’t going to say so, and that’s fine. I say it every time that I win races, out of my eight wins, I’ve said it time and time again, that it’s not good enough and we’re here for more. That’s fine.
“I won a rain shortened Coca-Cola 600 but that’s not going to be my last win. I can promise you that. Got to keep it going and got to win more to make it happen.”
Double Deluge
The other major story of the day and night was weather wrecking Kyle Larson and his attempt to complete the Memorial Day Double in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.
First, the start of the Indianapolis 500 was delayed by four hours, meaning that Larson would not be able to complete that race in time to fly back to Charlotte Motor Speedway to begin the nightcap in time.
That’s problematic on several fronts, because Justin Allgaier had to start the race, and would be the driver of record for the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 team. Larson would thus score no points, lose his championship lead which has value to playoff seeding, and will now need to ask NASCAR for a playoff waiver.
The latter is expected to be granted.
Meanwhile, Justin Allgaier drove the No. 5 from the rear of the field to 13th but the rain started falling at Charlotte just as Larson arrived and the 2021 Cup Series champion never even turned a lap. The entire ordeal was just a big disappointment to Larson.
“I’m very, very thankful for the experience, obviously,” Larson said to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports after leaving the race track. “Everything about the two weeks and all that was great until today, so just uh, sad. … Yeah it’s just sad. Everything that could have went wrong today, went wrong. So, hopefully, hopefully get to do it again in the future and hopefully weather is better next time.”
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Coca-Cola 600
- Christopher Bell
- Brad Keselowski
- William Byron
- Tyler Reddick
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- Chase Elliott
- Ross Chastain
- Alex Bowman
- Josh Berry
- Bubba Wallace
- Martin Truex, Jr.
- Justin Allgaier
- Joey Logano
- Kyle Busch
- Michael McDowell
- Todd Gilliland
- Daniel Hemric
- Erik Jones
- Austin Cindric
- Carson Hocevar
- Justin Haley
- Chris Buescher
- Daniel Suarez
- Chase Briscoe
- Ryan Preece
- Austin Dillon
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Jimmie Johnson
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
- Harrison Burton
- Zane Smith
- Kaz Grala
- Corey LaJoie
- Ty Dillon
- BJ McLeod
- Noah Gragson
- Ryan Blaney
- JJ Yeley
Average Speed of Race Winner: 123.053 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 2 Mins, 7 Secs. Margin of Victory: Under Caution Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 46 laps.Lead Changes: 21 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Gibbs 1-42;M. McDowell 43-48;S. Van Gisbergen(i) 49-50;T. Gibbs 51-71;W. Byron 72-89;T. Gibbs 90-93;W. Byron 94-103;T. Gibbs 104-110;R. Chastain 111-120;C. Bell 121-146;J. Berry # 147-153;C. Bell 154-159;M. Truex Jr. 160-167;C. Elliott 168-169;W. Byron 170-188;C. Bell 189-201;W. Byron 202;C. Bell 203-206;W. Byron 207;C. Bell 208-230;B. Keselowski 231;C. Bell 232-249.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christopher Bell 6 times for 90 laps; Ty Gibbs 4 times for 74 laps; William Byron 5 times for 49 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 10 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 8 laps; Josh Berry # 1 time for 7 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 6 laps; Shane Van Gisbergen(i) 1 time for 2 laps; Chase Elliott 1 time for 2 laps; Brad Keselowski 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,54,48,20,19,23,12,6,4,34
Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,24,23,11,6,48,9,4,1,45
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.