What Happened?
Daniel Suarez held off multiple strong Toyotas to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 24) after it started pouring rain late in the race. Ross Chastain and Layne Riggs also won the NASCAR O’Reilly and NASCAR Truck Series races earlier in the weekend as all three races showcased exciting racing.
What Really Happened?
On the most emotional weekend in NASCAR in about 25 years, the weather in the Charlotte area failed to cooperate, leading to three anticlimactic finishes across the top three series.
It was quite symbolic in a way, the skies were crying the whole weekend as the racing world mourned the shocking loss of a legendary driver.
Kyle Busch’s death has been difficult for me to process, and I have a feeling it will remain that way for a while. Busch just won the Truck race at Dover Motor Speedway last week, and I just watched him compete in the All-Star Race in person two days later. Now, he’s gone. His impact on the Cup Series garage today was monumental, and it will be felt for years and years to come.
The stories and tributes shared over the past few days have been uplifting, and just like in 2001, the show had to go on because that’s what KFB would’ve wanted.
I have always looked forward to this race weekend in Charlotte, especially in the last few years as the track has put on great shows, regardless of car or series. Plus, this was the greatest weekend in motorsports with the Indianapolis 500 taking place on Sunday as well.
Indianapolis was able to stay dry for the most part on race day, and we were all treated to a phenomenal photo finish at the end, the closest in the event’s history.
As stated earlier, NASCAR wasn’t as lucky with the weather. All of Friday’s on-track activity was cancelled or postponed because of rain.
The Truck race was originally rescheduled to 8 a.m. ET on Saturday morning, but rain pushed the start back to 9 pm. that night. O’Reilly practice and qualifying was also cancelled like the Truck Series, and for the Cup Series, only practice was completed before the rain came again, cancelling qualifying. All three series had to set their lineups via the metric system and only held one practice session.
The 300-mile O’Reilly Series race started just after 5 p.m., but was halted only 34 laps into the race for more rain, leading to a red flag that lasted over four hours long.
Then, after the race got going again later in the night, the field paced their way to the end of the second stage. The caution flew for incident at Lap 73 but after a called off restart for mist, it was decided to just keep the cars on track under caution until the race became official.
The rule is that the race has to either get to halfway or complete both stages, and the latter is what happened on Saturday night. Chastain was declared the winner despite only completing 91 of the scheduled 200 laps.
Since the O’Reilly race ended so late on Saturday night, the Truck race had to get postponed again to Sunday morning at 10 a.m. ET.
When the race was green, there was plenty of action. The only problem was that there was a record-setting amount of cautions for the 200-mile event. With the 11 cautions for 53 laps, the race was taking so long to run that it was running into pre-race coverage for the Indianapolis 500 that was slated to start around 12:30 p.m.
With the scheduling conflict on the FOX networks, it was determined that if the race wasn’t completed by noon, the race would automatically hit two laps to go after the clock struck 12 p.m.
This was the second Truck race to end under a clock this season after it happened in Atlanta back in February. Riggs was declared the winner after finishing 110 of the originally scheduled 134 laps.
The Coca-Cola 600 was the least egregious of the three finishes as NASCAR tried to battle through nearby rain and lightning strikes all night. However, after heavy rain started coming down with 27 to go, the track was lost and Daniel Suarez was declared the winner after completing 373 of 400 scheduled laps.
This was the first time in a tripleheader weekend that all three races did not reach the scheduled distance. NASCAR obviously cannot control the weather but it was just a disappointing result for the fans that were already having a really difficult week after the tragic news broke on Thursday afternoon regarding Busch.
Who Stood Out?
Before the rain came, there were some great performances that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Shane van Gisbergen had his best performance on an oval in his Cup career, leading 11 laps before finishing 11th.
Zane Smith led 31 laps and grabbed a top 10 finish while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Erik Jones both received stage points and finished 12th and 13th, respectively.
The Toyotas controlled most of the race aside from a Kyle Larson opening stage win and Daniel Suarez stealing the win away at the very end with a gutsy two-tire pit call.
Who Fell Flat?
A bunch of contenders ran into trouble during the race including Austin Cindric, who fell out of a Chase spot due to a crash and 38th-place result. Chase Elliott also crashed out of the race during the first stage.
Chastain, the defending race winner, also did not make it to the end after a crash in the final stage, continuing his tough season.
Chase Briscoe had a great night going until he got into a crash that also involved the RFK Racing duo of Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece.
Lastly, everyone was rooting hard for Richard Childress Racing this weekend but that had a rough night, with Austin Dillon finishing 32nd after he smacked the wall during the final stage. Austin Hill finished 27th, one lap down, driving Kyle Busch’s car that was renumbered from 8 to 33.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Ryan Blaney brought back the BODYARMOR colors for the Coca-Cola 600, and this year, they had a red, white, and blue car to match the theme of Memorial Day weekend.
Blaney was the highest-finishing Ford in the race, coming home in seventh.
What’s Next?
Next weekend, NASCAR will head to the Music City, or just outside of it, technically, for the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The race will take place on Sunday, May 31 at 7 p.m. ET with coverage on Amazon Prime Video.
Blaney is the defending winner of the event.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
The stage caution 7 laps after a 4 hour rain delay was really the tip of the iceberg this weekend. That one bothered me the most.
Green flag at 6:30pm for the Cup race. Why so late on a Sunday night? And they were sure in a hurry to get out of there once the rain came late. The radar was clear after that rain went through. Or is it only important to race until 3am at Daytona and not anywhere else?
O’Reilly running under caution until they got to the required distance so they could call the race.
Truck series race, I blame on the drivers, but why the 8am start scheduled for Saturday, but 10am on Sunday. I guess Gronk’s foolishness was more important than showing the whole truck race.
In a nutshell, yes the fans get screwed again with the head scratching decisions by all of Nascar/Fox this weekend.
Why does NA$CAR schedule an event on a Sunday night and make the fans they care so much about and listen to wait ALL Day and have to work on Monday when they can run it starting at 1:00 pm EST? Didn’t the weather for the last example of Brian’s product teach them anything? I almost wish the weather is great during the day and rains all night on May31.