CONCORD, N.C. — The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. After its conclusion, Brad Keselowski wished for another 100 miles.
Keselowski’s RFK Racing Ford was one of the fastest cars during the final third of the race and he moved forward to finish a season-best fifth.
“We had a really good car. We got mixed up in some of the different stuff in the midpoint of the race and just clawed our way out,” Keselowski said. “I feel like if we could have got to the lead, we could have won the race. I wish it was a 700-mile race.”
The 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion entered Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway without a top-10 finish, and he ranks 32nd in the standings after 13 races.
“We’ve been really competitive the last few weeks and I feel like it just hasn’t all come together and it still hasn’t all come together, but this car has got the speed to win the race and I need to go get it,” Keselowski said. “This car was good enough to win. We just weren’t able to put all the dots together and some of that falls on me for sure.”
• A.J. Allmendinger enjoyed his best finish of the season at Charlotte, bringing his Kaulig Racing No. 16 home in fourth.
“The No. 16 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet was good all night. We ran inside the top-five, top-six through most of the race,” Allmendinger said. “We needed a little bit more to get to the next level, but I’m super proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. We had a tough three weeks there, but it’s great to come back and show up with a lot of speed. I told Sgt. Nicole Gee that’s on the side of our race car, I told her family I was going to do everything I could to try to get them in victory lane. It was close! It meant a lot to be able to meet her family. We know what this day is truly about, so I’m proud I could give her a great ride. Almost got all of us to victory lane.”
• Chase Briscoe won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 and finished third, but he said it was a long road to get to the podium in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“Yeah, on paper, started first and finished third, but there is a lot more to the story. We made it a lot harder 600 miles than we probably needed too,” Briscoe said. “We just had that penalty early and it kind of put us behind. When you start from the front, you kind of set your car up for clean air, we didn’t anticipate 37th. It just took us forever to just slowly creep up on it. We were kind of out of adjustments. So overall, we were probably a third-place car, realistically – just wish we could have got some stage points in our Bass Pro Shops Toyota.
“Overall, a good finish, I wouldn’t say it was a great night. Honestly, that is just been how our season has gone – we’ve gotten really good finishes, but we’ve not just had very good day. So, hopefully, we can put one of those all the way together here soon.”
• Chase Elliott finished sixth on Sunday night and credited fast pit stops for the effort.
“We had a really good No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet. Pit road was amazing,” the 2020 series champion said. “We gained spots on pit road all day, but I would give them right back on the next restart. I just needed to be better.”
• Teenager Connor Zilisch came home 23rd in his first Coca-Cola 600 start.
“It was a really long day. My goal was to come in and run all the laps, and we did that,” Zilisch said. “Finishing 23rd isn’t horrible.. probably better than I was expecting. We got some damage when Jimmie (Johnson) had an issue and spun into us, and that kind of hurt us for the rest of the day. I felt like we were actually pretty good during the first stage and we were making up ground. But nonetheless, really proud of Trackhouse Racing.
“It’s so cool to see Ross (Chastain) win such a big race, and I’m very thankful to be able to get this opportunity to run in the Cup Series again with Red Bull and Trackhouse Racing.”
