Who… should you be talking about after the checkered flag?
Sometimes, the only thing to do is race. Sunday (May 24) was one of those days. Following the sudden death of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch on Thursday (May 21) of complications from pneumonia, the Cup Series returned to the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600.
Busch’s race car, permanently renumbered to No. 33, was unloaded on Saturday with no name over the window, though Richard Childress Racing’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Austin Hill had already been tapped to drive it due to Busch’s illness.
Before the engines roared to life, Busch’s family walked together to the edge of pit road, where drivers, their families and team members moved to surround and stand behind them. Busch’s widow, Samantha, stood with their two children as his brother Kurt laid eight white roses on the number eight that had been painted on the infield grass.
Shortly afterward, the drivers climbed into their cars and did what racers do — they raced.
Polesitter Tyler Reddick dropped back on the pace laps, leaving the pole, symbolically, for Busch until just before the green flag. Reddick led the first 39 laps and was in the top five in the first two stages. All in all, he led seven times for a race-high 119 laps, trading the lead with his car owner, Denny Hamlin, and Hamlin’s teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe for most of the night.
Weather was a threat as the race entered the final 100-lap push. Knowing the skies could open at any time, drivers jockeyed for position, bringing out a pair of cautions for multi-car incidents. There were also a couple of cautions for lightning and rain.
With tire management a critical part of the race, pit gambles were risky, and most of the contenders didn’t take chances. But on what would be the last round of stops, Daniel Suarez took one by putting on just two right-side tires.
Then, leading the race as it restarted after a brief red flag, Suarez fended off charges from Hamlin, Bell, Reddick, and Kyle Larson. With almost 30 laps to go, Suarez looked like a long shot to win. But with 25 laps remaining, the skies opened and with midnight approaching, the former Kyle Busch Motorsports driver took the win for Spire Motorsports, which operates out of the race shop that Busch built for his Truck Series teams before he sold the assets to Spire. Busch won the Truck Series race at Dover Motor Speedway with Spire just six days before his death.
Overcome with emotion when he was told the race was official, Suarez credited Busch with setting him on the path that would lead to the Cup Series, where he now has three wins.
And on a rainy Charlotte night, the first fragile tendrils of healing began.
On the other hand…
Chase Elliott has been among the most consistent drivers at Charlotte in recent years, but this time around wasn’t Elliott’s day. A single-car spin on lap 90 put an end to Elliott’s bid for a third 2026 win. He finished 37th with his early exit.
What… is the big question everyone should be asking after the race?
Some questions are hard to ask simply because there’s no way to adequately answer them. Because it’s not fair that we have to ask them at all.
NASCAR looks the way it does today in part because of Busch. But what will it look like without him?
Where… did he come from?
A couple of drivers who were not on the list of usual suspects had strong runs on Sunday night. Shane van Gisbergen had the best oval race of his career, running inside the top 10 for most of the day, scoring stage points and leading 11 laps. Van Gisbergen followed up his win at Watkins Glen two weeks ago with an 11th-place finish on Sunday. He’s been making improvements on ovals this year, and Sunday was the culmination of his efforts to date. He’s inside the top 16 in points, a Chase contender, and he’s only getting better.
Another driver with an unexpectedly strong finish was Zane Smith, who recovered from a pit road speeding penalty to drive his Front Row Motorsports No. 38 to 10th, leading 31 laps along the way en route to his fourth top 10 of 2026 and second in the last four races. Smith hasn’t always had the equipment to run with the leaders, but when he has, he has made the most of it.
When… are we going to talk about the points?
Halfway through the regular season, Reddick continues his stranglehold on the points. With his fourth-place finish, Reddick lost a few points to Hamlin, but he still exits Charlotte with a healthy 122-point lead over Hamlin. Ryan Blaney took over third with his seventh-place run, while Ty Gibbs picked up a pair of spots to move into fourth, 195 behind Reddick. Elliott slipped from third to fifth after his early exit.
Larson’s top five moved him up two positions to sixth. Chris Buescher dropped two spots to seventh. Bell picked up three positions to slot in eighth, Carson Hocevar fell to ninth, and Suarez picked up four places to move into the top 10, 270 markers behind Reddick.
At the Chase bubble, Briscoe and Ryan Preece hold down the final two positions after Charlotte, while Austin Cindric fell out of the top 16 after his 38th-place finish and now sits 15 points behind Preece. Joey Logano remained in 18th, 29 points out of Chase contention.
Suarez was the biggest gainer at Charlotte. Bubba Wallace and Preece each fell three spots, the biggest tumble of the race.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
The second half of the regular season gets underway at Nashville Superspeedway. In five Cup Series races at the 1.33-mile concrete oval, there have been five different winners. Will one of them step up for a repeat, or will the track produce another new winner?
While starting at the front of the field is always preferable, Nashville has seen winners start as high as the pole and as low as 26th. 2025 winner Blaney won from 15th.
Larson, the 2021 race winner, has the best average finish at a stellar 5.3. Logano has also been a standout with an average of 8.6. Hamlin has the best average among non-winners who have run every race at 9.0.
Others to watch include Smith and Hocevar, who only have two starts apiece but boast a top-five finish apiece and have an average inside the top 10.
How… did this race stack up?
It’s true that the durability of today’s Cup car takes away some of the strategy for a 600-mile event where, at one time, simply finishing was an accomplishment in its own right. That’s still true, but to a much lesser degree as mechanical failures are a rarity now.
This year’s race was one of the best Coke 600s we’ve seen recently. While the Toyotas were dominant, there was plenty of hard racing among them for the lead, particularly in the second half. Weather and tire wear played a role — tire management on long green-flag runs was key, something that isn’t always the case but usually adds to the action.
Late cautions, impending lightning and rain added a sense of urgency in the final stage, and that led to some incidents in the final laps that only made strategy matter more. There were also a few different drivers in the mix for a good finish. Van Gisbergen ran in the top 10 most of the night (if he’s figuring out ovals, the rest of the season could be fun). Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was solid all race, though a late tangle with Ross Chastain marred his result. And Smith was in contention in the final stage.
All in all, it was a good race and shows exactly why moving the fall Charlotte race back to the oval was the right move. The race was one of the most entertaining of the year, despite ending a few laps short.
But something was missing. The pre-race memorial for Busch was heartbreakingly perfect as the entire NASCAR community surrounded Busch’s family with love and his brother Kurt paid homage to his brother. But it will be a long time before we stop looking for Rowdy among the leaders.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
I will echo you comments about the prerace memorial. It was done very well and the fact that Samantha Bush had the courage to show up appear during the memorial, as heart wrenching as it was, allowed everyone to share their grief as a NASCAR family – very brave of her. Kudos to Steve O’Donnell for a job well done and the NASCAR folks for quickly putting together a fitting memorial.
The race was good. I was afraid it was going to be an 11 show but it didn’t. There was passing, pit strategies, tire wear, etc. Restarts were riveting. Probably one of the best in quite a while. I Never had the feeling that I normally get where I felt the length. Suarez winning was fitting given the day and NASCAR correct to call it when they did.
Tough day. A beautiful memorial to a great racer was heart wrenching for most I’m sure. The race? Great racing was once again diminished by manufactured pauses. Our Veterans deserve all the tributes they get but producing the ceremony at half way along with the stage breaks simply makes for bad viewing. The darn thing was too long. Indy was compelling with the non stop racing. JMO
If the product had been green flagged at 6 instead of 6:40 it would have completed the full distance and a Toy would have won, making the money well spent.
There was a F1 real race in CANADA too!
SVG deserved to finish top5.
The amount of laps run under caution during the stage breaks killed any interest I had. When I’d check back in, commercials galore.
It was nice of Prime to go commercial free near the end. Prime should cut the number of commercials by at least 50% to thank their members.
Corey LaJoie should front a Queen tribute band. He looked like a healthy Freddie Mercury.
Let me answer like todays NASCAR fans. NASCAR cheated because my racer didn’t done win. Or Legge caused all the wrecks ’cause she be’s a girl, and everybody knows they belong barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Or as a famous Petty once said them there girls don’t be strong enough to turn that there starin’ wheel. Bottom line, no one got killed during the race, so every fan is pissed.