The 2025 Coca-Cola 600 was dotted with wrecks and mishaps. Alex Bowman spun at the end of the first stage, incurring right-side damage on his No. 48 Chevy. Ricky Stenhouse Jr hit the wall in Stage 2, and Riley Herbst spun out on pit road. Then, on lap 245, Charlotte Motor Speedway witnessed a ‘Big One’ set off by Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez. William Byron steered clear of all this chaos and yet ended up pulling a long face at the end of the day.
The Hendrick Motorsports star carried heavy expectations. A native of Charlotte, William Byron has three finishes of fourth or better in the last four Coke 600s. He is no stranger to closing out major races, and came dangerously close to doing so on Sunday until a melon farmer stopped him.
William Byron reflects on lost Charlotte dreams
Time to get sentimental, HMS fans. That is because William Byron was the trendsetter on Sunday. He led a whopping 283 laps; the most in this event since his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson led 327 circuits in his 2021 Coke 600 triumph. He swept up all three stage wins in the process as well, overcoming tough attacks from rivals. Larson passed him in the opening lap and would have led if not for a toe link issue. Then Denny Hamlin emerged from Stage 2 onwards, swapping the lead with Byron 8 times before the final pit stop separated the two. However, Byron could not defeat the final boss in the Coca-Cola 600 game. That was none other than Ross Chastain, who toppled Byron’s lead with five laps left.
The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver was in a backup car; Chastain wrecked his main car during practice. Despite that, he ran down William Byron‘s No. 24 Chevrolet and grabbed the victory. In a post-race interview, Byron recollected how Chastain bested him: “I probably overstepped a little bit. That moment in 3 and 4, I was able to hang onto him, but lost a bunch of momentum, and that’s what gave him the run. Down the frontstretch…if I tried to defend anymore into one, probably just get loose and crash. I thought I gave a pretty good block at the end of the straightaway…to keep momentum, and he was able to clear me.”
.@WilliamByron reacts to losing the #CocaCola600 late after dominance.
I asked if Logano made an impact on him slowing in 3/4, allowing Chastain to catch him.
Byron: “yeah, for sure, he (Logano) was doing the usual…”#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/9SUsx9vXIb
— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) May 26, 2025
Well, William Byron did have an obstacle in his path. Joey Logano, the 2024 Cup Series champion, was fighting to stay on the lead lap. He gave Byron fits as the latter tried to get around him. Byron was not happy with Logano’s moves: “He was doing the usual. What I didn’t like is he just kept moving around in 3 and 4. I don’t know what he was doing. I think, just, was in traffic a lot that run. The 45 was running hard, and then lost a chunk there when he got loose. I think, just, it all kind of added up.”
At the end of the day, Byron put up as optimistic a smile as he could manage. He said, “Tough, but it’s a good lesson, right?… I feel like my ability and my team’s ability feels really good right now…All you can do is keep learning from it and move forward; there’s really nothing more.”
Well, William Byron had a day to forget. But he was not the only HMS driver who ran into massive trouble on Sunday.
A short memory in good use
Kyle Larson won in Kansas after twin wrecks in IndyCar and sprint car racing. HMS VP of Competition, Chad Knaus, deduced the only plausible explanation for it: Larson has a “short memory.” Now, however, Larson would desperately need that talent to get over Sunday’s forgettable events. The ‘golden boy’ was attempting the Double for the second time. His Indy 500 race was plagued by rain and a lap 91 crash. Then Larson pinned his hopes on his second-place starting spot at the Coca-Cola 600. However, a long trail of mishaps followed him. These included a bent toe link or getting caught in the lap 245 ‘Big One.’ At the end of the day, the No. 5 car was battered out of shape and led to the garage.
At Charlotte, the toe of the No. 5 Chevy was more than barely off, and repeated pit stops couldn’t make it right. Then Daniel Suarez’s wreck delivered the final blow to the car’s suspension. After this tumult, Larson was left a dejected mess. He said, “Just too many mistakes on my end tonight, and it got me behind. I got loose in (while) leading early and smacked the wall and just kind of got us behind. But I thought our team got the car back in better shape there. I hate the way that the day went. I wish I could just reset and try again tomorrow.”
Clearly, ripples of disappointment would rock the HMS fold presently. Hopefully, the stellar drivers would get over the mishaps and seek redemption.
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