Kyle Larson put on a show in primetime on Sunday as he streaked to a dominating victory in Sunday’s crown-jewel Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Larson led 327 of 400 laps, won three of four stages and beat runner-up Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott to the finish line by more than 10 seconds.
The victory was the second of the season for Larson, who is in his first year with HMS after being let go by Chip Ganssi Racing last year after uttering a racial slur into a hot microphone in a televised e-race.
The three stage wins give him a series-leading nine on the season. His 327 laps led gave him 1,105 on the season, which also leads the series.
The victory gave the Hendrick team its 269th victory, breaking a tie with Richard Petty Motorsports for most in Cup history. HMS cars have now won six of 15 races in 2021.
The race turned into another demonstration of power for HMS. Two weeks after making Cup history by going 1-2-3-4 at Dover, the team’s drivers went 1-2-4-5 on Sunday with Elliott’s runner up finish and William Byron and Alex Bowman topped only by third-place Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Finishing sixth was Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing. Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin was seventh.
Martin Truex, Jr., a three-time winner in 2021 and a two-time 600 winner, was a heavy favorite to win on Sunday. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver started P8 but began going the wrong direction fairly quickly as he fell out of the top 10 and basically stayed there until late in the race when he blew a tire and hit the wall. He finished 29th.
The cars of Kurt Busch and BJ McLeod dropped to the rear of the field for the start of the race because of unapproved adjustments. Busch won the race in 2010.
The Series’ next race will be next weekend at the Sonoma Raceway road course in Northern California.
–Field Level Media