Denny Hamlin wins the Coca-Cola 600 in a Thriller

NASCAR’s longest night took place this past Sunday and this race was one to remember. You could say that this might have been the best Coca-Cola 600 in years, as the NextGen car continues to impress. In a race of ups and downs, 600 miles and a couple of overtime restarts came down to the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. In the end, Denny Hamlin prevailed, scoring his second win of 2022 and his first-ever win at the 600.

“It all worked out perfectly,” Hamlin, who also won the pole for the race, said in victory lane. “The weekend, the way it started with qualifying to get the pole and, I mean honestly things just worked out perfectly for us at the end.”

“We didn’t have the fastest car by any means, but we were very fast on the short run. We battled with it all day. We were kind of hanging around in the back end of the top 10.”

“I thought it was going to be a piece of cake,” Hamlin said going through the final restart. “I thought the 18 (Kyle Busch) was going to push me and it was going to box him in with the 1 (Ross Chastain), but when he lagged back, I saw a huge run and I was like ‘Man I wish the 1 was still out there to box him in.'”

Kyle Busch finished second behind his teammate, coming close to adding another Coca-Cola 600 win to his resume.

“We didn’t have a good enough of a day to be in that position,” Kyle said in his post-race interview. “Just a strong fight all night long by this M&Ms team.”

As for Kyle Larson, he had a rough night in the first half of the race, spinning out at one point and being hit with a couple of pit road penalties. In the end, he was in the mix to win the race until being involved in a wreck on the first overtime restart. Larson despite all of the insanity finished ninth.

“Long race thankfully,” Larson said with a small laugh. “The first half was a struggle for all of us but I was especially frustrated with myself. To rebound from that and have a shot to win there late was something to be proud of, our team fought really hard.”

The next night, Kyle Larson traveled to Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana to compete in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car race and finished second to Sheldon Haudenschild, after starting in 16th.

At one point late in the race, there was a pileup on the front stretch where Daniel Suarez didn’t have Chase Briscoe clear and lost control of his car, then he took a couple of hard hits from Todd Gilliland and Chris Buescher. When Buescher went spinning in the infield turf, his wheel slipped under the car and hit a drain in the infield, causing his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford to barrel roll several times in what was one of the more bizarre wrecks I have seen.

Kevin Harvick finished third with teammate Chase Briscoe finishing in fourth, and Christopher Bell finishing fifth. Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 10. Hamlin joins William Byron and Ross Chastain as the only drivers to have multiple wins this season.

My Thoughts on the Coca-Cola 600

Right off the bat, I will say that was probably the best Coca-Cola 600 in recent years. The NextGen car and this new aero package being used for 2022 have been proven to be a huge success so far this season. Looking at Las Vegas, Kansas, and the 600, we have seen some of the best racing on 1.5-mile tracks in a while. It felt like everyone was driving hard, despite it being a 600-mile race. The race had 17 cautions and became the longest Coke 600 in history, however, it left an amazing impression on fans that were either there or watching at home. I’m really impressed with the NextGen car, it’s made the racing more exciting, and as NASCAR wanted it, they wanted the competition to be even as close as ever. Honestly, this could be a season where we could have 16 or more winners before the regular season is over.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to a new venue out in St. Louis at WWT Raceway at Gateway for the Enjoy Illinois 300. The green flag will be at 3:30 pm EST on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR. I will also be in attendance for the race.