The Post Race Inspection - 2025 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte

Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images

By Adam Carabine & Logan Morris

Logan Morris:  Hey, Adam! After a few weeks away, we’re back after a wild Coca-Cola 600.  Ross Chastain gets it done, and spoils a great run by William Byron

Adam Carabine: Hey Logan, good to catch up with you after a few weeks off from the Post Race Inspection.  We come back for one of NASCAR’s Crown Jewel races (also its longest), and you are right - Chastain did spoil Byron’s party.  What did you think of the race?

LM: Overall. I enjoyed it. It’s also notable because it officially served as Prime’s NASCAR debut. I gotta say, besides the lack of Mike Joy, I thought the broadcast was a breath of fresh air! What did you think?

AC: The broadcast was chef’s kiss, my friend.  More on that later.  Sunday was billed as the ‘Greatest Day in Motorsports,’ and I’m not going to lie, I did #TheTriple.  I watched F1 early in the morning, then the Indy 500, then NASCAR in the evening.  And if I’m entirely honest, I think NASCAR took the cake as the most exciting race.  It may have also been the longest, but there was excitement throughout.  

I think the part of me that likes to root for an underdog from time to time had me happy to see Ross Chastain sneak this one away from the dominant William Byron, but there was much more to the race than just those two!  Shall we discuss the Amazon Prime Video broadcast? I thought it was amazing.

LM: I feel like this was a complete race. It had everything you could have wanted. The underdog surprise, the dominant car, just enough chaos sprinkled in to keep you on the edge of your seat. The broadcast was wonderful. Dale Jr’s passion was missed in a big way, we got a full pre- and post-show. Fox has been a valuable partner for a few decades now, and that relationship will continue, but it’s nice to see NASCAR feel like a true priority again.  

AC: I’m not even sure I can be as nice to the Fox crew.  It felt like as soon as they got the rights to IndyCar, NASCAR was a much lower priority.  Heck, they’ve even been stealing Bob Pockrass away from NASCAR events!  

But yes, Prime did an awesome job covering the race.  Even just some of the decisions made in the director’s chair - we got to see a lot of battles throughout the field, not always just the race for the lead.  At times, Byron was so dominant there wasn’t really much to watch up there, but any time two cars got close to each other, we had a smaller box showing the battle.  And don’t even get me started on the commercial-free run to the finish!? The final 63 laps were commercial-free.  We would never have seen that during Fox’s tenure (and probably won’t when NBC takes over later this year too).  How refreshing!  (See what I did there?)

LM: I did, in fact, see what you did there! To be fair, Prime is a subscription service, so they can do more and have freedom regarding commercials. I’m hopeful that Fox, TNT, and NBC will incorporate some of the things we will enjoy over these next five weeks into their coverage as well.  

AC: I understand, but boy was it nice.  Let’s turn our attention to some of the storylines in the race - and there were MANY.  How about Kyle Larson attempting The Double, and not faring so well.  He crashed out of the Indy 500 on his own (though he took two others with him), and while at first it looked like he might have done the same thing at Charlotte (he spun on his own early in the race), it was actually Daniel Suarez that eventually took him out.  Twitter users did the math, and his entire day came in under 600 miles.  What do you make of that performance from someone often hailed as the GOAT?

LM: It was a tough day for Larson, no doubt. However, I think the veiled criticism he’s gotten online in some circles today has been silly. Great drivers have bad days. It takes a lot of boldness to attempt The Double, and it’s one hell of an undertaking. He showed last year that he can drive an IndyCar. We know what he can do in a stock car, and his ability on dirt is legendary. I have no idea if he’ll try it for a third consecutive year next season, but I’d lay down some money on him doing it again in the next five years. He’s got to have some serious heartburn about his day. But that may be bad news for some, because a more motivated Kyle Larson is a scary thought. 

AC: I would tend to agree with you.  He doesn’t deserve the hate.  I mean, I attempted and completed The Triple today, so I recognize that makes me a better driver than him, but he can settle for second-best.  Jokes aside, he’s a very talented driver, and even the best make mistakes - especially over the course of a very long day.  And to be fair, the reason he had a DNF in the Cup Series race wasn’t really his fault.  I love the idea of him trying it again, and actually think it might be cool to see like 4 or 5 drivers try it all at once.  They could carpool!

Shall we talk about William Byron’s rough day as well? Carry on a theme of sad Hendrick drivers?

LM: Well, he won 3 stages, and finished second, and while it was no doubt a bitter pill, there are a lot of drivers that would have fallen over themselves for that type of day. Until the last 10 laps or so, it looked to be his day, HMS has owned Charlotte thanks to names like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. In some ways, Byron was putting on a vintage Hendrick performance much of the night. 

AC: In this one-off race with four stages, 65 points out of a possible 70 certainly isn’t bad, and Byron will maintain his lead in the Regular Season Championship race, and adds three extra playoff points.  But bitter pill might be an understatement.  Byron looked dejected coming home P2, and the poor guy also had to sit in with the Prime panel and relive it all because there was an actual post-race show!  

After just having signed a contract extension for a few years, I’m sure he can wipe his tears with a few extra Benjamins, but these guys are all competitors, and it’s got to suck to have the best car of the day and not win.  Any other storylines you wanted to touch on before we hit up our weekly awards?

LM: Let’s get to the awards! 

Best Performer

LM: I know he didn’t win, but how can it be anyone but William Byron? He dominated much of the race. As you mentioned 65 out of 70 possible points. A good day at the office, even if he couldn’t see it in the immediate aftermath.

AC: Though Byron is the obvious choice, and I’d also like to go outside the box with mentioning the Prime broadcast, I’m going to choose someone else just for the sake of discussing someone new.  Chase Briscoe!  He earned the pole, and then had a terrible start to the day.  An uncontrolled tire issue on the first round of pit stops put his day in jeopardy.  He rallied back and never gave up, and ended up finishing P3.  That’s a gutsy performance on a day where most eyes were elsewhere.

Biggest Move of the Race

LM: The biggest move of the race was Byron over-driving the car in the final laps. He ended up making contact with the wall in turn two and took away any chance he had of mounting a rally of his own against Chastain’s push.

AC: That was certainly huge, but I’m going to rewind a couple of laps and give the biggest move to Ross Chastain and his pass for the lead over Byron.  They talked about this on the post-race show a bit, but this was a patient and poised Ross Chastain.  He clearly had the faster car at this point of the race, but he bided his time and made the pass when the time was right.  Any sooner and he might have wrecked, and if he’d waited any longer, the opportunity may never have presented itself again.  It’s nice to see an aggressive, yet clean pass for the win.

Biggest Disappointment

LM: I’m going outside the box on this one and say Jimmie Johnson. While he has struggled mightily in his limited next-gen starts, Charlotte is a place he used to absolutely own. At one point, he had three straight Coke 600 wins. Don’t even get me started on his domination of the place in the fall. In no way was I expecting him to truly contend, but there’s something kind of sad about the fact that struggles to merely log laps, sometimes to no fault of his own, at places he rewrote the record book. 

AC: He will walk away still holding the record for winningest driver at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but it is sad to see someone once so dominant suddenly unable to perform.  This week he chalked it up to a “rookie mistake” on his part.  

I’m going to go with Carson Hocevar as my biggest disappointment.  He was looking strong, and even looked at one point like he might contend for the win, and out of nowhere his car blew up on a restart.  It’s one thing to be disappointed when your driver makes a mistake, but when a day is ruined by something completely out of the driver’s hands, it’s even more difficult to grasp.  Though he was quite colourful on the radio, he’s showing some signs of maturing in that car as well.  Don’t count him out yet.

What to Watch for Next Weekend

LM: Next week, we head to Music City, Nashville! We’re now getting a real feel for what Nashville looks like on the schedule. Don’t sleep on Ross Chastain’s ability to go back-to-back. Joey Logano may be another name to keep an eye on, though the Fords were extremely slow on Sunday. It’s not quite a mile and a half at around 1.3 miles, but that makes it pretty unique. 

AC: Yes, Nashville Superspeedway! You brought up the two drivers I was going to bring up.  Chastain has won at Nashville, and he’s riding the momentum of a big win at Charlotte.  Logano won the race last year in Nashville, so he’s looking for the repeat as well.  Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott are the other two previous winners at this track which hasn’t been on the NASCAR schedule for very long.  The unique length, paired with the relative new-ness, could make for some interesting racing.  Or at the very least, a few more mistakes than we’re used to seeing out of the Cup Series, and that could be entertaining.

Until next week, see you then!

LM: Are you sure Hank done it this way?