Daniel Suarez wins emotional, rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600

Daniel Suarez, driver of the #7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, and crew pose with a “Rowdy Nation” banner in memory of Kyle Busch, who passed away suddenly at the age of 41, in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, 2026 in Concord, North Carolina.
(Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)

By Reid Spencer/ NASCAR Wire Service

CONCORD, N.C. (May 24, 2026) —At the drivers’ meeting before Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer had some parting words for the NASCAR Cup Series drivers.

“Let’s put on a race Kyle would be proud of,” Sawyer said, referring to two-time series champion and certain NASCAR Hall of Famer Kyle Busch, who passed away Thursday after a sudden, brief illness.

The drivers took those words seriously and put on a quality show that ended improbably, with Daniel Suarez claiming the third victory of his career when NASCAR called the event 27 laps short of its scheduled finish after a rainstorm drenched the track.

The win was especially poignant for Suarez, who received repeated encouragement and advice from Busch after arriving from his native Mexico and launching his NASCAR career.

“It really means a lot,” Suarez said of the victory. “It really means a lot. I’ve been saying for years this is my favorite race of the year. I get to have my family here every year. This is most of the time the only race (they) get to come.

“It’s been a very tough week. Kyle, he was special, man. This one is for Kyle. For Kyle, for (wife) Samantha, for (son) Brexton, for (daughter) Lennix, all his family … Definitely, this one has a special flavor because of Kyle. This win is for him. If it wasn’t for Kyle, I wasn’t going to be an Xfinity champion. I wasn’t going to have my shot in the Cup series. To win this race for him is unbelievable.”

Suarez’s crew chief Ryan Sparks made the call that won the race during pit stops under caution for lightning in the area on Lap 356. Taking two right-side tires only, Suarez gained 13 positions on pit road and led the field to green on lap 360.

Rain slowed the race on Lap 361, with Suarez barely in the lead over Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. With a strong push from fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson, Suarez pulled ahead after the Lap 370 resumption and held the lead until the rains started in earnest three laps later.

For the final restart, Suarez lined up on the inside lane with Bell top his outside. The push from Larson helped Suarez clear Bell’s Toyota almost immediately.

“I knew after the first restart, I knew he couldn’t get clear,” said Bell, who won a rain-shortened Coke 600 two years ago. “I was going to have to stay beside him. I couldn’t stay beside him. He cleared me. Once he cleared me, I knew it was going to be a really tough pass with it being a short run.

“If we would have had all the laps, he was going to block like hell and probably … yeah, he did a good job blocking—but he won the race.”

Suarez, who recovered from two unscheduled green-flag pit stops for tire vibrations, led once for the final 17 laps in scoring his first victory of the season and his first in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

Bell finished second and Hamlin third, with polesitter and series leader Tyler Reddick and Larson completing the top five.

Reddick led a race-high 119 laps, followed by Hamlin with 75 and Bell with 44. All told, there were 32 lead changes among 13 drivers on the racy 1.5-mile intermediate speedway and 12 cautions for 75 laps.

Reddick leaves Charlotte with a 122-point series lead over Hamlin in second.

The event got emotional before it started. Busch’s widow, Samantha, and son Brexton and daughter Lennix made their first public appearance since Busch’s death on Thursday.

Before the cars fired their engines, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell gave Samantha heartfelt assurances that she and her children would always be part of the NASCAR family.

On a day and in a race that traditionally has made a point of recognizing fallen soldiers on Memorial Day Weekend, the special remembrance was for Busch, who was so suddenly and unexpectedly taken from the NASCAR community.

And there was no lack of action in NASCAR’s longest race.

Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn’t make it to the end of the first stage. On Lap 90, Elliott spun off Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall to cause the third caution of the race.

“I just made a mistake, spun out and hit the wall,” said Elliott, who was running 17th at the time. “I hate it. It’s been a terrible race, I feel like, throughout the course of my career. I’ve just crashed a bunch. There’s a lot of race left. I was trying to find something—we were bleeding pretty bad.

“I moved up to the top there, trying to click off some faster laps. I made a mistake, stepped over the line and paid the price.”

Toyotas dominated the first three stages of the race. Though Kyle Larson won Stage 1, Toyota drivers Chase Briscoe, Reddick and Hamlin claimed the next three positions.

Hamlin led a Camry sweep of the top four positions of Stage 2, and Bell did the same in Stage 3 by pitting late and charging to the front near the end of the segment.

Briscoe, however, was collected in a wild four-car incident on the backstretch on Lap 318. The collision knocked him out of the race, along with Ryan Preece.

Ty Gibbs ran a solid, consistent race and finished sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron and Zane Smith.

Katherine Legge was running at the finish of the Coca-Cola 600 in the second leg of her Indianapolis 500/Charlotte double. An early crash took Legge out of the race at Indy. After the commute to Charlotte, she finished 31st, 12 laps down in the 600.

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Coca-Cola 600
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Concord, North Carolina
Sunday, May 24, 2026

1. (14)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 373.
2. (17)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, 373.
3. (11)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 373.
4. (1)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 373.
5. (18)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 373.
6. (2)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 373.
7. (6)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 373.
8. (33)  Joey Logano, Ford, 373.
9. (31)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 373.
10. (19)  Zane Smith, Ford, 373.
11. (3)  Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 373.
12. (32)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 373.
13. (21)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 373.
14. (4)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 373.
15. (26)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 373.
16. (22)  Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 373.
17. (29)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 373.
18. (10)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 373.
19. (39)  Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 373.
20. (20)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 373.
21. (30)  Riley Herbst, Toyota, 372.
22. (24)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 372.
23. (23)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 372.
24. (28)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 372.
25. (35)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 372.
26. (15)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 372.
27. (13)  Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 372.
28. (38)  Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 371.
29. (34)  Josh Berry, Ford, 371.
30. (7)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 367.
31. (37)  Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 361.
32. (9)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 338.
33. (12)  Ryan Preece, Ford, Accident, 328.
34. (5)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, Accident, 328.
35. (27)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 317.
36. (36)  Timmy Hill(i), Ford, Fire, 291.
37. (16)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 89.
38. (8)  Austin Cindric, Ford, Accident, 52.
39. (25)  Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, Accident, 52.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  119.921 mph.
Time of Race:  4 Hrs, 39 Mins, 56 Secs. Margin of Victory:  Under Caution Seconds.
Caution Flags:  12 for 75 laps.
Lead Changes:  32 among 13 drivers.
Lap Leaders:   T. Reddick 0;T. Reddick 1-39;C. Briscoe 40;T. Reddick 41-56;R. Chastain 57-59;R. Preece 60;Z. Smith 61-91;T. Reddick 92;M. McDowell 93-95;D. Hamlin 96;K. Larson 97-110;C. Briscoe 111-142;D. Hamlin 143-146;T. Gibbs 147;C. Bell 148-150;C. Hocevar 151-154;D. Hamlin 155-202;T. Gibbs 203;D. Hamlin 204-215;C. Briscoe 216;T. Reddick 217-221;D. Hamlin 222;T. Reddick 223-250;C. Bell 251-257;T. Reddick 258-286;D. Hamlin 287-295;C. Bell 296-308;T. Gibbs 309;C. Bell 310-312;T. Gibbs 313-326;S. Van Gisbergen 327-337;C. Bell 338-355;T. Reddick 356;D. Suarez 357-373.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Tyler Reddick 7 times for 119 laps; Denny Hamlin 6 times for 75 laps; Christopher Bell 5 times for 44 laps; Chase Briscoe 3 times for 34 laps; Zane Smith 1 time for 31 laps; Ty Gibbs 4 times for 17 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 17 laps; Kyle Larson 1 time for 14 laps; Shane Van Gisbergen 1 time for 11 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 4 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 3 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 3 laps; Ryan Preece 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,19,45,11,43,12,54,60,47,97
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,54,19,45,5,20,12,17,97,47
Stage #3 Top Ten: 20,11,54,19,5,45,97,6,12,47