Yahoo Autos Christopher Bell Wins Second Shortest Coca-Cola 600 in History
NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway ended up being the Coca-Cola 373.5 after weather prematurely ended the race. A caution was through for rain at lap 245 and a red flag followed four laps later as lightning was active in the area. With this, drivers brought the cars to the pit lane and returned to their motorhomes for hours, waiting for the race to resume.
Christopher Bell, who started third and led a field-leading 90 laps of the race, was at the front at the time.
The race was called complete by NASCAR at around 11:30 PM local time due to "inclement weather, high humidity, and the likelihood of resuming action after 1 a.m. with the drying process."
In the history of the race, there has only been one shorter; in 2009, David Reutimann won the Coca-Cola 600 after it was called on lap 227.
With this call, Bell earned his second win of the NASCAR season and, in victory lane, said that it was won the team "could build on."
One driver who was not in Charlotte to start the race, Kyle Larson, got to the track by helicopter literally as the yellow flag was being thrown.
Justin Allgaier was driving the No. 5 Hendrick car as a relief driver since Larson was racing in the Indianapolis 500. Allgaier was running in 13th place when Larson arrived at the track; it seemed almost kismet that Hendrick could pull off the driver swap under yellow. Then luck turned again, and the race would never get restarted. Larson's hopes of a double have been postponed a year; let's not forget that the McLaren/Hendrick deal is two years for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion.
At the time of the caution, Brad Keselowski, the most recent winner of a NASCAR points-paying race, was running in second and would settle for that result. William Byron finished third after challenging for the lead through most of the second stage, followed by Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin.
Ty Gibbs, who earned his first pole of his Cup career, settled for sixth in what could've been a breakout night.
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