Ross Chastain stuns William Byron to win Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte

With a stunning move into Turn 1, Ross Chastain snatched the lead from William Byron with six laps remaining and hung on to win the Coca-Cola 600.

Chastain split the middle between Byron and Hamlin to earn his first Cup Series victory since last September. The Trackhouse Racing driver led only eight laps, including the final seven at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Chastain started last in a backup car after crashing his No. 1 Chevrolet in practice a day earlier. He said his team worked until 2:30 a.m. Sunday and then returned at 5:30 a.m. to finish the new car.

“That’s the dedication it takes from Trackhouse,” Chastain told Prime’s Marty Snider. “There were people that had Saturdays off, and they came in for this Chevy. To drive on that final run and pass two cars that had been way better all night ... Holy cow, we just won the World 600!

Byron lost by 0.673 seconds despite leading a race-high 283 of 400 laps and winning all three stages.

“He was catching me, I was trying to just defend and was getting a little bit tight,” Byron told Prime’s Trevor Bayne. “Disappointning. Just to lead that many laps and such a great effort by our whole team, and I could have anticipated that last run better. Just sucks. We’ll just keep going and keep trying to put races together like that.”

Pole-sitter Chase Briscoe finished third, followed by A.J. Allmendinger and Brad Keselowski.

Hamlin led 53 laps while trading the lead 15 times with Byron, but his No. 11 Toyota had to coast into the pits after running out of fuel with 12 laps remaining. He finished 16th.

“You can’t change the results, so you’re going to have to live with it,” Hamlin told Prime’s Kim Coon. “They’re the pros. I’m not a pit guy. I tried to do everything I could.

“We had a great car, fun battling up front. Heck of a battle there. Would have liked to have seen it through and unfortunately didn’t get enough gas in it and had to come back in.”

After crashing and finishing 27th in the Indy 500, Kyle Larson’s miserable Sunday continued in the Coke 600.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 34 of the first 41 laps but spun on Lap 43 to cause the first caution flag. Larson fell a lap down in 33rd, but his team made numerous repairs to the No. 5 Chevrolet.

The 2021 Cup Series champion had regained the lead lap and was running 16th when he was hit by Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet, which slid down the track after contact with Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe.

Crashes ended Kyle Larson’s races at Indianapolis and Charlotte.

The wreck knocked out Larson in 37th place.

“I saw smoke, tried to get left through the infield and just didn’t get far enough left,” Larson told Prime’s Trevor Bayne. “Yeah, I got tagged and ended our night. Just a bummer of a day all around. Some mistakes on my end.”

Larson said his initial spin was caused by contact with the outside wall when he briefly lost the handle.

“I just got super loose into (Turn) 3 out of nowhere early in the race, caught the wall, got toe damage and thought the team did a good job to get us to where we were somewhat comfortable the last 100 laps,” he said.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver will be unable to complete 1,100 miles but will be heading early to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coke 600.

“I just needed to chip away at it from now and still end up OK.”

Between Indy and Charlotte, Larson completed 595 of a possible 1,100 miles.

“Not the day that I wanted but huge thank you to Rick and Linda Hendrick, all of Hendrick Motorsports, Arrow McLaren, everybody involved in making the day memorable,” Larson said. “Even though it wasn’t memorable for a good reason. Just unfortunate. Hopefully, we can run it back someday.”

Stage 1 winner: Byron

Stage 2 winner: Byron

Stage 3 winner: Byron