What Happened?
Ross Chastain ran down and passed a dominant William Byron with less than 10 laps to go on to win the 2025 Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday (May 25).
Chastain started dead last after crashing in practice. He led just eight laps and, in a season of utter hell for Trackhouse Racing, suddenly locks himself into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Behind Byron was polesitter Chase Briscoe, who rebounded from early adversity to finish third. AJ Allmendinger and Brad Keselowski, a pair of drivers who desperately needed good runs, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
What Really Happened?
The Coca-Cola 600 marked the very first NASCAR race to be held on streaming, with Amazon Prime Video taking the reins from FOX for the next five Cup races. While Prime had broadcast practice and qualifying on behalf of FOX, this weekend was the first time the Prime crew actually called the shots and had its own crew at the track.
The trackside studio gives a nice retro feel to as little as 10 years ago, reminiscent of the Hollywood Hotel from the old FOX days. The nostalgia goes even further when fans saw Danielle Trotta hosting the pre- and post-race shows alongside Corey LaJoie, as well as the long-awaited return to NASCAR for Hall of Famer Carl Edwards.
The chemistry between the three was fantastic, filled with a satisfying mix of analytical and humorous dialogue. Edwards and LaJoie each provided their own unique perspective on racing — one from days of old, and the other from days of present.
Speaking of chemistry, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his old crew chief and booth-mate Steve Letarte reunited in the booth alongside play-by-play extraordinaire Adam Alexander. There was no shouting over each other (unless absolutely necessary), there was true cohesion, and there was a sense of joy and fun in the booth that has seemed noticeably absent in recent seasons from other race broadcasts.
With two experienced pit reporters next to him in Kim Coon and Marty Snider, the highlight of the night for this author was Trevor Bayne. Bayne is no stranger to calling races, only he has done so from the booth, not pit road. Bayne fit in like a natural with Coon and Snyder, and he is already proving to be a valuable asset in the pits.
Then there were the graphics and in-race segments, which looked cleaner than anything I’ve ever seen to this point in the season. The running order was easy to follow, the introduction of certain new statistics and graphics were seamless and easy to understand, and there was genuine excitement from folks like Letarte in introducing them to the fans.
Not to mention, Prime got a hell of a race to debut its broadcast. The stat sheet may say that Byron led 283 laps, but he was challenged all night from multiple different drivers. The run to the finish with Chastain made for one of the best finishes of the 2025 season.
The crashes and incidents had quality replays. The picture was perfect. The racing was intense — one of the best races this season — and the commentary reflected that. And need I mention the double-box feature that allowed fans to miss exactly zero green-flag laps?
If you don’t have Amazon Prime Video, you’re missing out. Every person on that team cares about the quality of race viewership for the fans, and it elevated the performance of the crew in the process. I understand the idea of streaming a race isn’t for everybody, but if you’ve been on the fence about it, just try it (a 30-day free trial covers all the remaining races on Prime’s schedule). You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it.
My colleague Phil Allaway will surely cover Prime’s debut more in-depth in Tuesday’s (May 27) edition of Couch Potato Tuesday, but overall, it was a great debut for Prime, and it came in one of the most entertaining races of the season — that just happened to be a crown jewel and NASCAR’s longest race of the season.
Who Stood Out?
As mentioned earlier, Allmendinger and Keselowski both needed good runs, as both have had seasons to forget. Keselowski, in particular, sits outside the top 30 in points and has been looking for any little bit of good luck (or really, any luck at all) to turn his season around. Keselowski had to overcome an early pit road penalty for vehicle interference, but he rebounded quite nicely for his first top five of the year.
Allmendinger’s fourth-place finish, meanwhile, comes on the heels of an early DNF at Kansas Speedway due to an ECR engine failure (of which he sharply criticized). It was no fluke, either — Allmendinger kept his Kaulig Racing No. 16 Chevrolet in the top 10 and top five all night.
It was a night both drivers needed, and both were hard-fought and well-earned.
Who Fell Flat?
283 laps. That’s how many circuits car No. 24 was out front.
Byron’s second-place effort is still a good points day, especially after sweeping the first three stages — but leading over 70% of your hometown race and not coming home with the trophy is agonizing.
Not nearly as agonizing as his teammate’s entire afternoon.
Kyle Larson made a second attempt at the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 Double after last year’s attempt was thwarted by weather. This time, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that Larson was able to make it for both races this time.
The bad news is that he didn’t finish either of them.
Larson only completed 92 laps of the Indy 500 before crashing out in turn 2, collecting Sting Ray Robb and Kyffin Simpson in the process.
In the Coke 600, Larson jumped out front early, leading 34 laps. But then he caught the wall.
Then he spun from the lead during green flag pit stops.
Then he spent multiple laps on pit road, under the hood, trying to rebound. Then, finally, he got collected in a multi-car accident with Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Justin Haley on lap 245, damaging the suspension and ending his self-described “bummer” day.
Maybe Tony Stewart is forever meant to be the only one to ever complete all 1100 miles.
Will it ever be attempted again? Who knows at this point. It almost feels like it’s not worth it anymore.
Paint Scheme of the Race
In recent years, two types of paint schemes had fallen by the wayside: patriotic paint schemes on Memorial Day and Independence Day, and breast cancer awareness paint schemes.
This year, at least for the Coke 600, patriotic paint schemes were out in full force.
Much like Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway, it’s next to impossible to pick which patriotic paint scheme is the best in show — each patriotic paint scheme this year makes a case to be the best.
However, as this author’s favorite color is green, all of them pale in comparison to Ryan Preece’s Irish Spring No. 60.
A beautiful Irish green color adorns Preece’s Ford. The car features a white hood that trickles down to the sides of the car, making for a surprisingly nice complementary color to the Irish green. Top it all off with a reflective gold number, and you’ve got a really nice looking paint scheme.
Preece qualified 28th and ultimately finished ninth in this Irish beauty.
What’s Next?
From NASCAR’s backyard to the Music City.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the fifth time, but first time not in mid-to-late June. With sweltering heat always affecting drivers, crews and fans alike, NASCAR elected to move Nashville’s race weekend up to the final weekend of May in an effort to race in slightly cooler weather.
Joey Logano won last year’s race, running over 100 laps on one tank of fuel. In what was perhaps the dumbest finish of the 2024 season, as it took the field five overtimes to complete the race. Logano, who was 14th at the end of regulation, found himself with the win at the end of it all.
Let’s hope we don’t see that play out again this year.
Coverage for the newly-renamed Cracker Barrel 400 begins at 7 p.m. ET on June 1. (Quick sidebar: Why on earth can we not make this a Saturday night race? We need more Saturday night races and making a race start at 7 p.m. ET on a Sunday night seems like a great way to lose viewers who have to go to work the next day.)
Television coverage can be found on Amazon Prime Video — or should I say streaming coverage? Meanwhile, Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) will carry the radio broadcast.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.