Martin Truex Jr. came close to giving Furniture Row Racing another victory in the Coca-Cola 600, but the overall picture Sunday night for the two-car race team out of Denver, Colo. provided many highlights.
Recap: Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion team started 23rd and finished 21st in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Logano and the team struggled to find speed for most of the weekend, despite running the 10th fastest time in final practice on Saturday afternoon; those struggles continued in the early stages of the 600-mile event Sunday. On the opening run of the race, Logano battled a car that was tight and it built tighter throughout the run.
At the same track that he made his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENSC) start at in 2011, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove his Fastenal Ford to a 15th – place finish in Sunday night’s rain delayed Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion, overcame damage sustained in a Lap 245 incident and utilized fuel strategy in the closing laps of the rain-marred Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) event at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night to record a 16th-place finish.
Six hundred miles and 400 laps around Charlotte Motor Speedway was a marathon, not a sprint, for Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Dow Salutes Veterans Chevrolet SS team throughout the Coca-Cola 600 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, the sports longest test of man and machine. This was Dillon’s first career victory in 133 NASCAR Cup Series starts and the first time the iconic No. 3 made its way back to Winner’s Circle since Dale Earnhardt, Sr. won at Talladega Superspeedway in the fall of 2000.
After breaking an axle during a Stage 2 pit stop, Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team rebounded to finish in the top 25 in the rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “Somebody broke and there was just oil everywhere and I couldn’t turn. I ran into the back of Chase. Somebody broke in front of him and then he ran over what they broke and then he broke, so there were two cars broke in front of me and just oil everywhere. You couldn’t stop and turn. You couldn’t do anything. It’s a real bummer four our team. We had a really fast Miller Lite Ford and I think we had a shot at winning tonight, but that’s how it goes.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SALUTES VETERANS CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER - YOU PUT THE NO. 3 CAR IN VICTORY LANE. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EMOTIONS? “It hasn’t sunk in yet. I can’t believe it. I was just really focused on those last laps. My fiancé wrote in the car, ‘When you keep God in the first place, he will take you places you never imagined.’ And, I never imagined to be here at the 600 Victory Lane. Praise the Lord and all these guys who work so hard; and my pit crew is the best on pit road. I love it for them. We’re in the Chase. It’s awesome.”
Movie star Channing Tatum, a co-star in "Logan Lucky" and the grand marshal of Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, met with media prior to opening ceremonies for the 600-mile event.
