Racing in the final stage kicked off with 93 to go and while Busch leapt out into clean air, the man on the move was Martin Truex Jr., who won the 2016 Coca-Cola 600 in as dominating a fashion as Busch won Sunday night.
Truex restarted eighth after rallying back from two penalties – one for speeding at the end of stage two and the second for an uncontrolled tire at lap 228 – but rocketed up to third by the 75 to go benchmark and shot inside Brad Keselowski for second five laps later.
From there, the two Toyota stablemates drove away from the pack, with Busch opening up an eight-second lead over Truex before the pair made their final pit stops with 47 laps remaining.
A lightning-quick 13.2-second stop for Busch allowed him to easily cycle back to the race lead when the final round of pit service ended with 45 to go, while Truex dropped from second to eighth on-track but quickly began marching back forward with fresher tires than those in front of him.
He found his way back to second with 35 to go, but at that point Truex was more than six seconds behind Busch and could only watch helplessly as Busch sliced through traffic with ease.
Though the gap dwindled back down to 3.823 seconds as Busch protected his car in the final laps, Truex knew there was simply no stopping Busch on this night, just as no one had been able to stop him two years ago.
“Maybe with a yellow I could have done something with him, but I just don’t know otherwise,” admitted Truex, who was the only driver within 10 seconds of Busch at the checkered flag. “We were definitely catching him. It seemed like every time we’d pit under green, we were faster for 20 laps … but at the end of the long runs he was faster.
“At the end of the day, we ran second. He kicked everybody’s tail,” Truex stated. “That’s just the way it goes sometimes. That’s how it was tonight.”
Denny Hamlin crossed the line third, 13.598 seconds adrift of Busch, followed by Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson, whose fifth-place finish was his first top-five effort of the season.
“A top-five feels good, but I want to win,” said Johnson, who rallied back after a spin in the second stage. “I’m tired of running fifth. … We got off on some adjustments today and it was amazing how sensitive the car was. We put it back to the way it was and it took off and I drove right back up into the top three. We had to overcome a lot tonight, so I’m really proud of these guys We’re definitely getting closer.”
Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson were sixth and seventh, with Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completing the top 10.
Sunday night’s race featured nine lead changes between four different drivers, with 11 caution flags slowing the pace for 54 laps. The average race pace was 136.692 mph and the total time to complete the 600-mile distance was four hours, 23 minutes and 22 seconds.
