Last To First: Chastain Outduels Byron for Coca-Cola 600 Win

After capturing his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, which officially locked his place in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Chastain performed a lengthy post-race burnout, and then he capped it off with his patented watermelon smash on the frontstretch to the delight of the sold-out crowd in attendance at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Chastain explained that an accidental decision to pit later than his competitors on the final green-flag pit sequence actually paid massive dividends, and he believes the fresher tires in the closing laps allowed him to make his daring move to get past Byron for the race win.

"To drive on that final run in the World 600 and pass two cars that had been way better all night... Phil Surgen wanted me to pit two laps earlier. I went two laps longer just out of a little bit of confusion. Man, that paid off at the end," Chastain explained. "These Goodyear Eagles held on longer because they were a little bit fresher."

In order for Chastain to even have a chance to slice through the field on Sunday night, it took an incredible effort from his Trackhouse Racing team, which worked through the night on Saturday evening to prepare the backup car for the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet.

Chastain had crashed in NASCAR Cup Series practice, and instead of attempting to thrash on the damaged primary car, a decision was made to go back to the Trackhouse Racing shop and get the backup car ready. It was that determination from his race team, which fueled Chastain's fire to win Sunday's race.

"When I left the shop last night, I went over and sat in this car for the first time. It was about 10 o'clock when I left. They worked until 2:30 [AM}," Chastain said. "They were back at 5:30 this morning. Most of them drive 30, 45 minutes home. A little shower, I think. I don't even know if they slept. Back there at 5:30. They get this thing ready, and that's the dedication it takes from Trackhouse."

While it had to be frustrating for the team, Chastain made all of the extra man-hours more than worth it, as the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team conquered one of NASCAR's four crown jewel events -- the Coca-Cola 600.

"Holy cow, we just won the world 600," Chastain exclaimed.

The win marks the sixth victory of Chastain's NASCAR Cup Series career.

While it was elation for Chastain, who headed to victory lane, Byron suffered a heartbreaking defeat at his home track. Byron flat-out dominated Sunday's race as he led 283 of the 400 laps, and the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet took the win in Stage 1, 2, and 3. He nearly took the win in the Coca-Cola 600, but in the final dash to the checkered flag, Byron had to avoid Tyler Reddick, who crashed in front of him with roughly 20 laps remaining, and with six laps remaining, he lost his grip in the wake of Joey Logano, who was attempting to remain on the lead lap.

"Well, I was just defending, but it was just -- yeah, [Chastain] was catching me, and I was trying to just defend. I was getting a little bit tight. Then the scenario there with the cars we were around, it was tough," Byron stated. "So, yeah, he got a run on me and was able to get to the bottom and clear me off of two. Disappointing to lead that many laps and such a great effort by our whole team."

It was another dominant day, which resulted in another missed opportunity for Byron, who really wanted a win in the Coca-Cola 600.

"It will be good in the long-term, I guess, but I really wanted this one," Byron anguished. "Yeah, just a bummer, right? Try to learn from it. Yeah, it was tough there at the end. He was catching me, and I was trying to. Just not quite enough."

Chase Briscoe, who started from the pole, was able to recover from several issues throughout the race to record a third-place finish in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE, and he was followed to the finish line by AJ Allmendinger, who put together perhaps the most complete race of the season for Kaulig Racing.

Allmendinger was happy he was able to reward his hard-working team with a solid finish in the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

"I mean, it's great. It's my job, when they build speed like that, is to go out there and execute from the driver's seat and reward them with a finish like this," Allmendinger said. "You know, I'm always going to be hard on myself. A lot of my raw emotion on the radio is mostly at myself if I feel like I'm letting us down. And this is why we love, and hate this sport. Right? You can have three horrific weeks, and feel like, 'Man, I don't want to do this anymore,' then you come and do this, run top-five, top-six all day, and you're like, 'God, I love doing this.'"

With the strong performance, Allmendinger vaulted eight spots in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings from 25th to 17th.

Right behind Allmendinger in the fifth position was Brad Keselowski, who finally scored his first top-five and top-10 finish in what had been a hard-luck season prior to Sunday's grueling event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece, and Noah Gragson rounded out the top-10 finishers in Sunday's race.

Denny Hamlin, who went toe-to-toe with Byron for the race lead virtually all race long, finished a disappointing 16th after he had to make an extra pit stop in the closing laps after his team was unable to get enough fuel on what they had believed was their final pit stop of the evening.

Another driver, who was in the mix for the race win was Carson Hocevar. Hocevar restarted from the second position on a Lap 308 restart, but as he accelerated, he suffered a blown engine in his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. That resulted in a disappointing end to his bid to win the race, and Hocevar would be credited with a 34th-place finish.

Kyle Larson, who suffered a crash on Lap 92 of the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the afternoon, flew to Charlotte Motor Speedway with hopes of ending his day with a win in the Coca-Cola 600. However, Larson, who led 34 laps early in the race, suffered from a tumultuous race.

The driver collided with the outside wall around Lap 40, and a couple of laps later, Larson spun from the race lead to bring out the first caution. Larson would never find himself near the front the remainder of the race, and on Lap 246, Larson was swept up in a multi-car melee in Turn 4, which ended his race.

It was also a less-than-stellar 700th career NASCAR Cup Series start for seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson qualified impressively in the 17th position for this event, but his race ended with a crash on Lap 112. The NASCAR Hall of Famer would be credited with a last-place finish.

Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 1. That race will be televised on Prime Video, the second of five races that will be covered by the streaming service. Television coverage of that event will kick off at 7:00 PM ET.

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