On a night when he started dead last and had to drive a backup car, Ross Chastain drove the race of his life on Sunday to win the 66th running of the Coca-Cola 600.
After running down race leader William Byron in the closing laps, Chastain took his opportunity with six laps to go, passing Byron in turns 1 and 2 and holding off the Daytona 500 winner to score the sixth win of his career.
Chastain only led eight laps to Byron’s 283, but Chastain was better when it counted.
Chastain drove a backwards, Alan Kulwicki-esque “Polish victory lap” before saluting the fans and doing his customary watermelon smash on the start-finish line.
Chastain’s victory comes the day after he crashed and practice and was unable to make a qualifying lap while his team prepared his back-up car.
“When I left the shop last night (and) sat in this car for the first time, it was about 10 o’clock,” Chastain told Prime Video. “They worked till about 2:30 (a.m.). They were back at 5:30 this morning. I don’t even know if they slept getting this thing ready.”
Riding with Chastain was the name of US Army Specialist Kevin McCrea, who passed away in June of 2020 due to complications related to injuries suffered while McCrea was an Army paratrooper in the 1980s.
“The McCrea family, to carry them… he (Specialist McCrea) was riding with me,” Chastain said, pulling out a picture of McCrea from his car. “His family is here. That’s what this weekend is all about: to think about and remember the ones who sacrificed so much for us.”
“The McCrea family told me to be a sponge,” Chastain continued. “That was something their dad told them a lot.”
Byron, Chase Briscoe, AJ Allmendinger and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five, with Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece and Noah Gragson completing the top 10.
Other notable finishers include Shane van Gisbergen in 14th, Kyle Busch in 15th, Connor Zilisch in 23rd, Tyler Reddick in 26th and Ryan Blaney in 38th.
Denny Hamlin did not take on enough fuel on his final scheduled pit stop and finished 16th after having to make an additional stop in the closing laps. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson finished 37th after a crash ended both races of his Indy 500-Coke 600 “Double” early.
The 14th race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season will take place at Nashville Superspeedway on June 1. The Cracker Barrel 400 will go green shortly after 7 p.m. ET, with coverage on Prime Video, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
