Austin Dillon stretched his gas millage in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to earn his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win and put the #3 back in Victory Lane for the first time in 17 years!
When Richard Childress’ grandson was ready to move up to NASCAR’s top division as a driver, the race team owner discussed putting Austin in a car with the iconic number three on it that NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt had raced. Richard discussed it with the Earnhardt family who all agreed that since Austin was family and had raced the #3 for his entire life before getting to the Monster Energy level it would be a good idea.
The longest race of the year is the 600-mile Memorial Day Weekend tradition for NASCAR. The race is the only one that will have four stages of racing with that new format this season. Each stage would be 100 laps around the 1.5-mile track. Kyle Busch won the first stage of the race. Martin Truex Jr. won the second stage of the race and Denny Hamlin was the stage three winner.
It appeared that the race would come down to Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch for the win. Martin had been dominating the race as he had for the past two years leading the most laps at 233 laps out front. Last year Truex Jr. not only led the most, but set a NASCAR record by leading 392 of the 400 laps on his way to Victory in 2016. However, as was the case in 2015, Truex Jr. would lead the most laps in the Coca-Cola 600, but not capture the win.
As the laps wound down in the race and most cars headed to pit road for fuel, a few stayed out in “fuel conservation mode” with the hope of stretching their fuel economy far enough to make it to the end of the race.
Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon were the highest running cars on this strategy. Jimmie took the lead of the race on lap 369 with Austin running second and both cars trying to save fuel. With just two laps remaining Jimmie ran out of fuel giving the lead over to Austin who was able to stretch his fuel to last the final two laps and capture the victory in the Coca-Cola 600. This (as mentioned earlier) was the first win in NASCAR’s top division for the young driver. It is also the first time the #3 has been in Victory Lane since Dale Earnhardt’s last win back in the 2000 NASCAR season before his fatal accident in the 2001 Daytona 500.
Kyle Busch was able to get around Martin Truex Jr. in the final couple of laps giving second and third place to the two cars respectively. Matt Kenseth came across the finish line in fourth place with Denny Hamlin taking home a fifth place finish. See the complete race results for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway here.
Martin Truex Jr. may not have won the race, but he did finish high enough to take over the lead in the point standings. Kyle Larson slips back to second place with Bard Keselowski remaining in third place. Kevin Harvick moves into the top five at fourth place with Kyle Busch also moving up to take over fifth. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
The drivers and teams head to Dover International Speedway next for the AAA 400 Drive for Autism Sunday afternoon, June 4th.
By: Buck Stevens
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