2021 Coca-Cola 600

The 2021 Coca-Cola 600, the 62nd running of the event, was a NASCAR Cup Series race held at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Contested over 400 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.42 km) asphalt speedway, it was the 15th race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, as well as the third of the four crown jewel races.

Background
The race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, located in Concord, North Carolina. The speedway complex includes a 1.5 mi quad-oval track that was utilized for the race, as well as a dragstrip and a dirt track. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams based in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith serving as track president.

Similar to the Daytona 500, which was a four-stage race (with the first stage being the qualifying heat race), the Coca-Cola 600 is a four-stage race, with this the only race where all four stages are in the main race itself. All four stages are scheduled to consist of 100 laps. The race is official after the second stage.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Practice
Austin Dillon was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 29.845 seconds and a speed of 180.935 mph.

Qualifying
Kyle Larson scored the pole for the race with a time of 29.953 and a speed of 180.282 mph.

Stage 1
Kyle Larson led the field to the green and the Coca-Cola 600 was officially underway. Kyle Busch made Ryan Blaney mad with a tight move he made to pass him early on. The Hendrick Motorsports trio of Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron were in their own zip code to begin the race. Ross Chastain had an oil line belt break and luckily for him, his team found it during the first green flag pitstop.

Brad Keselowski and Matt DiBenedetto both played the waiting game hoping to catch a caution. It ultimately never came and each was eventually forced to pit for tires and fuel. Then, Daniel Suárez cut a tire down with five to go in the stage and had to pit. Kyle Larson would lap half of the field on his way to winning Stage 1.

Stage 2
Kyle Larson would lead the field back to the green flag and continued to lead until about the 30-lap mark in the stage. Elliott managed to catch and pass his Hendrick Motorsports teammate to take over the point. Kurt Busch wound up having the same problem as his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Chastain, as he would have an oil belt break. Unlike the No. 42, Busch’s happened during a green flag run, but he was able to drive straight to the garage for repairs. Just like last week, he had to once again pull off one hell of a move to avoid collecting other cars in doing so.

Larson reclaimed the lead from Chase Elliott after the green flag pit stops. Kurt Busch got the belt fixed but immediately blew his engine when he got back on track. Alex Bowman used a two-tire stop to get out to the lead. That would not last long though as Larson passed him and went on to win the second stage.

Stage 3
Larson led the field back to the green to begin the second half of the race. Christopher Bell slammed the wall hard and cut down a tire. Byron would eventually take the lead over from Larson, but just like in Stage 2, the No. 5 car took it right back after pit stops. Larson got the Stage 3 win after Ryan Newman pancaked the wall to bring out a caution. The stage would end under yellow.

Final stage
Larson brought the field back to the restart and never looked back over the final 100 laps. He was gone from the drop of the green and dominated the entire Coca-Cola 600 final stage. Larson wound up winning the race by over ten whole seconds. He swept all four stages in the longest NASCAR Cup Series race of the year and earned Hendrick Motorsports their 269th all-time win. This put them past Petty Enterprises for most all-time wins by a team in NASCAR Cup Series history.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 100

Stage Two Laps: 100

Stage Three Laps: 100

Final Stage Results
Stage Four Laps: 100

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 23 among 13 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 4 for 26
 * Red flags: 0
 * Time of race: 3 hours, 58 minutes and 45 seconds
 * Average speed: 150.785 mph

Television
Fox Sports televised the race in the United States for the 21st consecutive year. Mike Joy was the lap-by-lap announcer, while three-time Coca-Cola 600 winner, Jeff Gordon and 2012 Fall Charlotte winner Clint Bowyer were the color commentators. Jamie Little, Regan Smith and Vince Welch reported from pit lane during the race. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio
Radio coverage of the race was broadcast by the Performance Racing Network (PRN), and was simulcasted on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race in the booth when the field raced through the quad-oval. Rob Albright called the race from a billboard in turn 2 when the field was racing through turns 1 and 2 and halfway down the backstretch. Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through the other half of the backstretch and through turns 3 and 4. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan and Wendy Venturini were the pit reporters during the broadcast.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
 * . – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.