CONCORD, N.C. - Austin Dillon played the fuel mileage game to perfection on Sunday night – and into Monday morning – to score his first-career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory with a win in the Coca Cola 600, becoming the seventh driver to pick up his first victory in NASCAR’s longest race.
Dillon passes race leader Jimmie Johnson with two laps to go and stretched his fuel 67 laps to put the famed No. 3 back in Victory Lane for the first time since 2000.
Kyle Busch tried to track down Dillon on the final lap, but came up .835 seconds short.
Martin Truex, Jr. – who led a race high 233 laps – finished third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin.
Dillon, the grandson of championship car owner and former driver Richard Childress, won his first race in his 133rd-career Cup Series start, becoming the second first-time winner this season behind Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Dillon joins NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson (1961), Jeff Gordon (1994), Bobby Labonte (1995) Matt Kenseth (2000),Casey Mears (2007) and David Reutimann (2009) as drivers who won their first race in the Coca Cola 600. He is the tenth driver to score his first career series win at Charlotte, along with Buddy Baker (1967), Charlie Glotzbach (2000) and Jamie McMurray (2002).
“It hasn’t sunk in yet. I can’t believe it,” said Dillon. “I was just really focused on those last laps. My fiancé wrote in the car, ‘When you keep God in the first place, he will take you places you never imagined.’ And, I never imagined to be here at the 600 Victory Lane. We’re in the Chase. It’s awesome.”
“I thought I’d saved enough (fuel) early where I could attack at the end, but I tried to wait as long as possible. And when (Johnson) ran out, I figured I’d go back in and save where I was lifting and it worked out. I ran out at the line and it gurgled all around just to do one little spin and push it back to victory lane. I can’t thank my grandfather (Richard Childress) enough. He’s put a lot into me.”
Truex and Kyle Busch waged a classic battle on the track, with the two duking it out for the top spot in the opening 100-lap segment, with Kyle Busch taking the segment win over Truex.
Truex proved unstoppable on restarts, as he blew past Kyle Busch at the start of the second stage and led the next 43 laps before the skies opened up, causing a one hour and 40 minute rain delay.
Truex and Kyle Busch would combine to lead 243 of the next 264 laps, with Truex winning the second stage.
In the final stage, Kyle Busch was again fighting off Truex for the top spot before the caution flag waved with 70 laps to go to bring the field to pit road. Kyle Busch would lead Truex and Kenseth out of the pits while Dillon rolled off eighth just ahead of Johnson.
On the restart, Truex again got a good run and outran Kyle Busch coming out of turns one and two and back into the lead, quickly moving out to a 1.1 second lead.
Crew chiefs first started making fuel mileage calls with about 70 laps to go, telling their drivers to conserve as much as possible, and despite a huge lead over the field, Truex gave up the lead with 33 laps to go, bringing much of the lead lap cars with him.
Out front, Johnson assumed the lead and he and Dillon decided to roll the dice and try to make it to the end on fuel, with Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus coaching him through every lap.
Despite a 19-second lead over Truex, Johnson continued to pedal his car around the 1.5-mile track, allowing Truex to inch ever closer, cutting the lead to less than seven seconds with 10 laps to go.
With Truex closing, Johnson was told to pick up the pace, but was also told they would run out of fuel on lap 399, and true to their word, Johnson reported he was out of gas with just under two laps to go.
Dillon pulled around Johnson and took over the top spot with a 1.4 second lead over Truex, who had his hands full holding off Kyle Busch for second. Kyle Busch would finally work his way around Truex on the high side of turns one and two on the final lap, but was too far back to catch Dillon, who won by half a straightaway over Kyle Busch.
A visibly angry Kyle Busch had little to say after the race – coming up short yet again of his first points-paying Charlotte victory after winning last weekend’s All Star race.
“I don’t know. It’s a frustrating night, man. I am so so disappointed,” said Kyle Busch. “I don’t know – there’s nothing we could’ve done different. We just ran our own race and did what we needed to do for what we had going on and come up short.”
Truex – who led a record 392 laps to dominate last year’s Coca-Cola 600 – marked his third-straight top-five finish in the 600-mile event and his second consecutive top- five finish following his win last weekend at Kansas Speedway, moving him atop the points standings over Kyle Larson.
“I honestly had no idea whether they (Johnson and Dillon) could make it or not,” said Truex. “They told me a couple of those guys were going to stretch it. There was no way we could do it. We were kind of on our own agenda, stick to the plan. I just focused on my driving, trying to do the best job I could.
“Last three years, that’s two of them we lost on fuel mileage, so that kind of stinks, but big picture-wise it was a good night.”
Larson, who started the race in the rear of the field after his car failed to make it through inspection during Thursday night’s qualifying, rallied back into the top 10 in just 50 laps but ended up 33rd after hitting the wall on lap 292.
Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski were the first two cars out of the race along with Jeffrey Earnhardt after Earnhardt lost an engine on lap 19 and Elliott ran over the debris, causing Keselowski to plow into the back of Elliott’s Chevrolet.
The crash ended both driver’s nights, as Elliott was credited with a 38th place finish, while Keselowski was scored 39th.
“I saw parts and pieces flying,” Elliott said. “I don’t know if he (Jeffrey Earnhardt) blew a tire or something and I ended up hitting something that he had on track. I hit it pretty hard. It was really solid, so I knew it was rough. I saw some fire, tried to get stopped and get out of the way and I guess Brad got in my oil and couldn’t get slowed down, so I hate it. Man, it is so just ridiculous. I wish I knew what to do to try to fix things like that, but at the end of the day you really can’t.”
“Somebody broke and there was just oil everywhere and I couldn’t turn,” said Keselowski. “I ran into the back of Chase. Somebody broke in front of him and then he ran over what they broke and then he broke, so there were two cars broke in front of me and just oil everywhere. You couldn’t stop and turn. You couldn’t do anything. It’s a real bummer four our team. We had a really fast Miller Lite Ford and I think we had a shot at winning tonight, but that’s how it goes.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Coca-Cola 600 – May 28, 2017
1. (22) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 400.
2. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400.
3. (8) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 400.
4. (4) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 400.
5. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
6. (12) Kurt Busch, Ford, 400.
7. (5) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 400.
8. (1) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.
9. (17) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 400.
10. (19) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 400.
11. (20) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 400.
12. (11) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 400.
13. (16) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 400.
14. (9) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 400.
15. (13) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 400.
16. (18) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 400.
17. (14) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 400.
18. (26) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 399.
19. (21) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 399.
20. (29) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 399.
21. (23) Joey Logano, Ford, 399.
22. (25) Regan Smith(i), Ford, 399.
23. (28) David Ragan, Ford, 397.
24. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 396.
25. (15) Danica Patrick, Ford, 396.
26. (33) * J.J. Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 395.
27. (32) Gray Gaulding #, Toyota, 393.
28. (31) Landon Cassill, Ford, 393.
29. (36) * Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 384.
30. (35) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 375.
31. (37) * Derrike Cope, Toyota, 327.
32. (40) * Corey LaJoie #, Toyota, Engine, 315.
33. (39) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 292.
34. (34) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, Engine, 290.
35. (24) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, Accident, 244.
36. (27) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, Rear End, 242.
37. (30) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, Accident, 139.
38. (3) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 19.
39. (10) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Accident, 19.
40. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, Rear End, 18.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 138.8 mph.
Time of Race: 04 Hrs, 19 Mins, 22 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.835 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 53 laps.
Lead Changes: 23 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Harvick 1; Kyle Busch 2-23; K. Harvick 24-64; Kyle Busch 65-66; J. Johnson 67; D. Patrick 68-74; M. Truex Jr. 75-89; Kyle Busch 90-102; M. Truex Jr. 103; K. Harvick 104-106; M. Truex Jr. 107-176; P. Menard 177-178; M. Truex Jr. 179-248; J. Johnson 249-252; M. Truex Jr. 253-294; R. Stenhouse Jr. 295-296; D. Hamlin 297-306; Kyle Busch 307-329; M. Truex Jr. 330; Kyle Busch 331-333; M. Truex Jr. 334-367; Kurt Busch 368; J. Johnson 369-398; A. Dillon 399-400.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Truex Jr. 7 times for 233 laps; Kyle Busch 5 times for 63 laps; K. Harvick 3 times for 45 laps; J. Johnson 3 times for 35 laps; D. Hamlin 1 time for 10 laps; D. Patrick 1 time for 7 laps; R. Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 2 laps; P. Menard 1 time for 2 laps; A. Dillon 1 time for 2 laps; Kurt Busch 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 18,78,4,48,20,42,21,14,41,1
Stage #2 Top Ten: 78,48,20,18,41,1,3,77,42,11
Stage #3 Top Ten: 11,18,20,78,77,41,4,19,88,3
Top 10 in Points: 1. Martin Truex Jr. – 491; 2. Kyle Larson – 486; 3. Brad Keselowski – 409; 4. Kevin Harvick – 388; 5. Kyle Busch – 386; 6. Jamie McMurray – 385; 7. Chase Elliott -362; 8. Jimmie Johnson – 359; 9. Clint Bowyer – 343; 10. Joey Logano – 336.
