2018 Coca-Cola 600 Explained

Type:	NASME
Race Name:	Coca-Cola 600
Details Ref:	^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] ^[8] ^[9]
Year:	2018
Race No:	13
Season No:	36
Location:	Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina
Course Mi:	1.5
Course Km:	2.4
Distance Laps:	400
Distance Mi:	600
Distance Km:	960
Avg:	136.692mph
Pole Driver:	Kyle Busch
Pole Team:	Joe Gibbs Racing
Pole Time:	28.149
Most Driver:	Kyle Busch
Most Team:	Joe Gibbs Racing
Most Laps:	377
Car:	18
First Driver:	Kyle Busch
First Team:	Joe Gibbs Racing
Network:	Fox
Announcers:	Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip
Ratings:	2.3/2.4 (Overnight)^[10]
Radio:	PRN
Booth Ann:	Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini
Turn Ann:	Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Pat Patterson (3 & 4)

The 2018 Coca-Cola 600, the 59th running of the event, was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on May 27, 2018 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Contested over 400 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.42 km) asphalt speedway, it is the 13th race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Report

Background

The race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is located in Concord, North Carolina. The speedway complex includes a 1.5miles quad-oval track that will be utilized for the race, as well as a dragstrip and a dirt track. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams based in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith serving as track president.

Entry list

	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
00			Chevrolet
1			Chevrolet
2			Ford
3			Chevrolet
4			Ford
6			Ford
7	J. J. Yeley (i)		Chevrolet
9			Chevrolet
10			Ford
11			Toyota
12			Ford
13			Chevrolet
14			Ford
15	Ross Chastain (i)		Chevrolet
17			Ford
18			Toyota
19			Toyota
20			Toyota
21			Ford
22			Ford
23			Toyota
24	William Byron (R)		Chevrolet
31			Chevrolet
32			Ford
34			Ford
37			Chevrolet
38			Ford
41			Ford
42			Chevrolet
43	Bubba Wallace (R)		Chevrolet
47			Chevrolet
48			Chevrolet
51	B. J. McLeod (i)		Chevrolet
55			Chevrolet
66	Timmy Hill (i)		Toyota
72			Chevrolet
78			Toyota
88			Chevrolet
95			Chevrolet
96	Parker Kligerman (i)		Toyota
Official entry list

First practice

Denny Hamlin was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.401 seconds and a speed of 190.134mph.^[11]

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time
1	11				28.401	190.134
2	12				28.470	189.673
3	2				28.506	189.434
Official first practice results

Qualifying

Kyle Busch scored the pole for the race with a time of 28.149 and a speed of 191.836mph.^[12]

Qualifying results

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	18			Toyota	28.407	28.185	28.149
2	22			Ford	28.510	28.379	28.240
3	11			Toyota	28.539	28.360	28.265
4	20			Toyota	28.425	28.555	28.288
5	2			Ford	28.565	28.590	28.338
6	31			Chevrolet	28.579	28.408	28.391
7	1			Chevrolet	28.267	28.433	28.430
8	12			Ford	28.463	28.387	28.437
9	10			Ford	28.741	28.448	28.465
10	19			Toyota	28.662	28.591	28.465
11	42			Chevrolet	28.629	28.461	28.580
12	3			Chevrolet	28.626	28.560	28.712
13	17			Ford	28.542	28.595	—
14	21			Ford	28.519	28.601	—
15	78			Toyota	28.632	28.620	—
16	41			Ford	28.481	28.668	—
17	6			Ford	28.685	28.726	—
18	37			Chevrolet	28.652	28.738	—
19	38			Ford	28.756	28.796	—
20	13			Chevrolet	28.734	28.815	—
21	24	William Byron (R)		Chevrolet	28.722	28.835	—
22	9			Chevrolet	28.588	28.860	—
23	48			Chevrolet	28.652	28.935	—
24	43	Bubba Wallace (R)		Chevrolet	28.673	29.061	—
25	15	Ross Chastain (i)		Chevrolet	28.781	—	—
26	95			Chevrolet	28.787	—	—
27	88			Chevrolet	28.801	—	—
28	14			Ford	28.834	—	—
29	34			Ford	28.894	—	—
30	47			Chevrolet	28.921	—	—
31	32			Ford	29.025	—	—
32	96	Parker Kligerman (i)		Toyota	29.173	—	—
33	72			Chevrolet	29.484	—	—
34	23			Toyota	29.486	—	—
35	00			Chevrolet	29.513	—	—
36	66	Timmy Hill (i)		Toyota	29.963	—	—
37	55			Chevrolet	30.172	—	—
38	51	B. J. McLeod (i)		Chevrolet	30.383	—	—
39	4			Ford	0.000	—	—
40	7	J. J. Yeley (i)		Chevrolet	0.000	—	—
Official qualifying results

Practice (post-qualifying)

Second practice

Second practice session for Saturday was cancelled due to weather.

Final practice

Erik Jones was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.870 seconds and a speed of 187.045mph.^[13]

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time
1	20				28.870	187.045
2	42				28.929	186.664
3	12				29.016	186.104
Official final practice results

Race

Stage Results

Stage 1Laps: 100

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	9
3	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	8
4	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	7
5	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	6
6	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	5
7	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	4
8	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	3
9	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	2
10	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage one results

Stage 2Laps: 100

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	9
3	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	8
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	7
5	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	6
6	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	5
7	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	4
8	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	3
9	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	2
10	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage two results

Stage 3Laps: 100

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	9
3	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	8
4	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	7
5	1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	6
6	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	95	Kasey Kahne	Leavine Family Racing	Chevrolet	4
8	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	3
9	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	2
10	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	1
Official stage three results

Final Stage Results

Stage 4Laps: 100

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	70
2	15	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	400	54
3	3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	49
4	5	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	400	41
5	23	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	41
6	7	1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	400	37
7	11	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	400	46
8	16	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	36
9	27	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	28
10	13	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	399	31
11	22	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	399	30
12	28	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	399	35
13	9	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	399	34
14	14	21	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	399	23
15	10	19	Daniel Suárez	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	399	22
16	24	43	Bubba Wallace (R)	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	399	21
17	17	6	Matt Kenseth	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	399	20
18	29	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	399	19
19	4	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	399	29
20	26	95	Kasey Kahne	Leavine Family Racing	Chevrolet	399	21
21	20	13	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	399	16
22	2	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	399	15
23	30	47	A. J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	399	14
24	25	15	Ross Chastain (i)	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	398	0
25	19	38	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	396	12
26	33	72	Corey LaJoie	TriStar Motorsports	Chevrolet	396	11
27	32	96	Parker Kligerman (i)	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota	394	0
28	35	00	Landon Cassill	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	394	9
29	18	37	Chris Buescher	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	394	8
30	37	55	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	389	7
31	34	23	Gray Gaulding	BK Racing	Toyota	388	6
32	36	66	Timmy Hill (i)	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	383	0
33	38	51	B. J. McLeod (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	373	0
34	12	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	348	3
35	6	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	344	5
36	8	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	278	10
37	31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Go Fas Racing	Ford	257	1
38	40	7	J. J. Yeley (i)	NY Racing Team	Chevrolet	191	0
39	21	24	William Byron (R)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	139	1
40	39	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	83	1
Official race results

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 4 among different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 11 for 54
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 4 hours, 23 minutes and 22 seconds
• Average speed: 136.692mph

Media

Television

Fox Sports televised the race in the United States for the eighteenth consecutive year. Mike Joy was the lap-by-lap announcer, while three-time Coca-Cola 600 winner, Jeff Gordon and five-time race winner Darrell Waltrip were the color commentators. Jamie Little, Regan Smith, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum reported from pit lane during the race.

Radio

Radio coverage of the race was broadcast by the Performance Racing Network (PRN), and was simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini called the race in the booth when the field raced through the quad-oval. Rob Albright reported the race from a billboard in turn 2 when the field was racing through turns 1 and 2 and halfway down the backstretch. Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through the other half of the backstretch and through turns 3 and 4. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Jim Noble and Steve Richards were the pit reporters during the broadcast.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Kyle Busch	573
	2	Joey Logano	506 (–67)
	3	Kevin Harvick	485 (–88)
	4	Brad Keselowski	437 (–136)
3	5	Martin Truex Jr.	430 (–143)
1	6	Kurt Busch	429 (–144)
	7	Denny Hamlin	429 (–144)
2	8	Clint Bowyer	421 (–152)
1	9	Kyle Larson	382 (–191)
1	10	Aric Almirola	376 (–197)
2	11	Ryan Blaney	375 (–198)
	12	Jimmie Johnson	327 (–246)
	13	Erik Jones	314 (–259)
	14	Alex Bowman	299 (–274)
	15	Chase Elliott	296 (–277)
	16	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	296 (–277)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Ford	472
	2	Toyota	467 (–5)
	3	Chevrolet	416 (–56)
Official manufacturers' standings

• Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

. – Driver has clinched a position in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2018 schedule. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. April 22, 2018. May 5, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171224004109/http://www.jayski.com/news/pages/story/_/page/2018-NASCAR-Cup-Schedule. December 24, 2017. dead.
2. Web site: Charlotte Motor Speedway. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. April 22, 2018. January 3, 2013. September 29, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150929061845/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nascar-tracks/charlotte-motor-speedway.html. dead.
3. Web site: Entry List. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. May 21, 2018. May 21, 2018.
4. Web site: First Practice Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. May 24, 2018. May 24, 2018.
5. Web site: Qualifying Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. May 24, 2018. May 24, 2018.
6. Web site: Final Practice Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. May 26, 2018. May 26, 2018.
7. Web site: Coca-Cola 600 Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. May 27, 2018. May 27, 2018.
8. Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. May 29, 2018. May 29, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180613211004/http://www.jayski.com/stats/2018/pdfs/13cms2018racereport.pdf. June 13, 2018. dead.
9. Web site: Manufacturer standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. May 29, 2018. May 29, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180613211004/http://www.jayski.com/stats/2018/pdfs/13cms2018racereport.pdf. June 13, 2018. dead.
10. Web site: Charlotte TV Ratings . . . 21 July 2018.
11. Web site: Utter. Jim. Denny Hamlin fastest in Thursday's lone Coke 600 practice. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. May 24, 2018. Charlotte, North Carolina. May 24, 2018.
12. News: Reed. Steve. Kyle Busch captures pole at Charlotte; Harvick starts last. May 24, 2018. Associated Press. Associated Press. AP Sports. May 24, 2018. Charlotte, North Carolina. https://web.archive.org/web/20180525133416/https://racing.ap.org/article/kyle-busch-captures-pole-charlotte-harvick-starts-last. May 25, 2018. dead.
13. Web site: Utter. Jim. Erik Jones fastest in final NASCAR Cup practice before Coke 600. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. May 26, 2018. Charlotte, North Carolina. May 26, 2018.