After 249 of 400 laps – and the successful return of Kyle Larson from Indianapolis – it was over in Charlotte: thunderstorm brings Christopher Bell the victory
The NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was stopped on Sunday after just over half the distance. The reason was a thunderstorm that hit the 1.5-mile oval during the third of the four scheduled race segments and literally flooded it
With more than 50 percent of the entire race distance completed and no improvement in the weather situation in sight for hours, the decision was made to call it a day at 11:30 pm local time (5:30 am CEST) after a two-hour wait.
Victory in the aborted race went to Christopher Bell (Gibbs-Toyota). He had won the second race segment (Stage 2) and was leading the third segment at the time of the stoppage. This is Bell’s second win of the 2024 season after Phoenix.
Brad Keselowski (RFK-Ford) was classified second and William Byron (Hendrick-Chevrolet), who had won the first race segment (Stage 1), third. Tyler Reddick (23XI-Toyota), who had to start the race from the back of the field because his car had failed technical inspection on Saturday, finished fourth.
Ty Gibbs (Gibbs-Toyota) started a race from the pole for the first time in his young career in NASCAR’s top division. He was joined on the front row by William Byron, while his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson had qualified tenth on the grid on Saturday.
Larson missed the start of the race on Sunday evening in Charlotte because he finished the Indy 500, which had been postponed by four hours, and ultimately finished in P18 after a late penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At this point, the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte was already in the second of the four race segments.
At the start of the race in Charlotte, Justin Allgaier was the replacement driver for Larson in his 5 Hendrick-Chevrolet. Due to the driver change, he had to start from the back of the grid. But before the 600-mile race was over, Larson arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway by airlift, as he had done a week earlier in the double-header of Indy 500 qualifying and the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro.
In the third of the four race segments in Charlotte, when Allgaier had already moved up to P13, Larson was supposed to take over the cockpit during a yellow period. However, this did not happen because the yellow phase during which Larson arrived at the track turned into a red phase due to a thunderstorm.
And the red phase ultimately brought the race to a premature end. P13 in the final result went to Justin Allgaier. Shane van Gisbergen (Kaulig-Chevrolet) and Jimmie Johnson (Legacy-Toyota) both finished on the lead lap, in 28th and 29th place respectively.
The next stop on the 2024 NASCAR Cup calendar is the 1.25-mile oval at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis next Sunday (June 2).
