Carl Edwards stretched his fuel millage to grab the win in NASCAR‘s 56th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Jeff Gordon‘s day started out in Indianapolis as he drove the pace car for the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Jeff and his family then flew to Charlotte to race 600 miles in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. Earlier in the week Jeff announced that after her retires from racing at the end of this year he will join FOX TV in 2016 as a race commentator for the network.
When the green flag waived the action didn’t take long to start as pole sitter Matt Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards battled for the lead for the first lap.
Over the 400 laps in the Coca-Cola 600 nine different drivers would exchange the lead 22 times. Kurt Busch was out front the most leading a race high 118 laps.
In fact, it looked as though the race would come down to a battle between Kurt and Martin Truex Jr. who also led nearly one fourth of the laps in NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
However, when the eighth and final caution was issued, a few cars decided to top off their fuel tanks and gamble that they could make it to the end of the race on fuel millage. Carl Edwards was the highest running of those cars followed by Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who were also rolling the fuel millage dice.
With the laps running down, the cars that had not stopped to top off with fuel began pitting. When it all cycled through Carl was in the lead followed by Greg and Dale Jr. with twenty laps left in the race.
Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and the other lead cars that had to pit for fuel rocketed forward through the field trying to get to the front runners, who were running in fuel conservation mode. There were just not enough laps left and no cautions came to close the gap to the lead cars.
Carl Edwards was able to stretch his fuel millage to capture the checkered flag in the Coca-Cola 600 followed by Greg Biffle in second, Dale Earnhardt Jr. in third and Matt Kenseth in fourth place. Martin Turex Jr. was able to race forward enough to round out the top five. See the complete race results in the Coca-Cola 600 here.
Kevin Harvick remains the point leader following Sunday’s (5/24) race at Charlotte with Martin Truex Jr. holding steady in second place behind him. Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. each moved up a spot to third and fourth places respectively. Jimmie Johnson who finished 30 laps down after a crash drops two spots in the points to round out the top five. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.
While Jimmie fell two spots in the point standings he remains at the top of the Chase Grid as the only driver with three wins in the 2015 Sprint Cup season. Kevin Harvick is the second driver on the Chase Grid since he has two wins. Carl Edwards joins the list of drivers with a win and all but a guaranteed spot on the Chase Grid. See how the 2015 Chase Grid looks following the 12th race of the season at Charlotte here.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series heads to the “Moster Mile” next for the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway Sunday, May 31st.
By: Buck Stevens
