CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Busch dominated the opening stage of Sunday night’s 59th annual Coca-Cola 600, winning the stage from the pole and positioning himself as the early favorite in NASCAR’s longest race.
Busch led 94 of the first 100 laps, going largely uncontested after passing Joey Logano for the lead on lap five and crossing the line 1.473 seconds in front of Ryan Blaney when the green-and-white checkered flag waved over the field.
It marked Busch’s third stage win of the season.
“It’s a long race, so there are challenges with the adapting track and how that’s going to play out,” noted Busch. “We haven’t had full sunshine today, so I don’t anticipate we’ll have to make big swings at it, but I do think it’s still going to swing. We just have to keep this car handling well and up front; she likes it out here.”
Though Busch started from the pole, he elected the outside lane and lost the lead to Team Penske’s Joey Logano on the opening lap of the 600-mile marathon.
Lacking long-run speed, Logano quickly faded to third – two seconds back of Busch’s No. 18 M&Ms Toyota – by lap 10.
In stark contrast, Kevin Harvick came from the last row of the grid to 22nd in that time, charging forward quickly in his No. 4 Mobil 1/Busch Ford after starting at the rear due to pre-qualifying inspection issues on Thursday.
Harvick cracked the top 20 two laps later and Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas occupied the top three spots by the 16th round, with Hamlin passing Logano for third on the approach to turn three and Erik Jones running second behind Busch.
The Gibbs cars remained in lock-step formation through the first caution of the race at lap 37, when defending Coca-Cola 600 winner Austin Dillon slowed with a shredded right-rear tire.
During the ensuing round of pit stops, Jones was forced to back up after being pinned in his box, dropping him to seventh while Busch and Hamlin lined up on the front row for a restart on lap 44.
Busch elected the outside again and dropped down in front of Hamlin, while Martin Truex Jr. shot out like a rocket on the extreme high lane and went from eighth to fifth when the green flag waved.
What looked like it would be a cruise to the stage win for Busch turned chaotic after Harvick, who had charged from 39th to fourth, blew a left-front tire entering turn three and pancaked the right side of his car, drawing the second early caution of the event.
Keselowski beat Busch off the pit lane after missing his pit box, but stayed on-track in an effort to grab stage points in a 12-lap dash to end the first quarter. However, that gamble didn’t work at all and Keselowski free-fell from first to 19th as Busch rocketed back to the front.
From there, Busch easily beat Ryan Blaney back to the green-and-white checkered flag, with Kyle Larson crossing the line third ahead of Martin Truex Jr. and seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.
Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Erik Jones completed the top 10 and all received bonus points at the first stage break of the night.
Keselowski dropped all the way back to 26th before the stage came to an end.
