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Ryan Blaney won the latest NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his first victory of the season and first since Daytona in August of 2021.
Blaney had one of the fastest cars all day, regardless of the time of day and track conditions. He survived a handful of late-race restarts and held off William Byron for the victory.
Here are three takeaways from the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 29:
#3 SHR’s intermediate struggles continue
In the early stages of today's race, the biggest takeaway was how awful Stewart Haas Racing looked once again.
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Kevin Harvick, who started on the front row, dropped like a rock through the field. Aric Almirola was struggling to stay in the top 30 and Chase Briscoe was being outrun by BJ McLeod at one point.
Harvick recovered and even led at the beginning of stage 3 as usual.
SHR has some significant work to do if they are to reclaim their former glory, especially on intermediate tracks.
#2 NASCAR’s Chase Elliott dilemma
The most significant incident of the day came towards the end of stage 2 when Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott made contact. Elliott proceeded to seemingly purposely wreck Hamlin and end both of their days.
This leaves NASCAR with a dilemma. If they want to be consistent, which is something they aren’t known for typically, they need to suspend Elliott for the next race. This is based on how they dealt with last year's incident between Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace.
If NASCAR doesn’t suspend Elliott, it is another example of them being consistently inconsistent. It would also feed into the notion that NASCAR has different rules for different drivers.
#1 Another Entertaining Coke 600
While it is a prestigious race, the Coca-Cola 600 has never been known for putting on entertaining races. It isn't uncommon for one car to lead a vast majority of the race. However, in the past couple of years, we have seen the complete opposite.
Last year's race saw a lot of cautions with no clear dominant car. The race lasted over five hours and saw an entertaining finish.
This year's race was pretty much the same story. With the changing sky conditions and track temperatures, we saw lots of slipping, sliding, and comers and goers. It also saw a late array of cautions that led to a short shootout to cap off the race.
