May 25, 2026, 1:13 PM ET

Daniel Suarez won this year's Coca-Cola 600 with some late-race strategies that paid off well at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Suarez started the race from 14th after qualifying was canceled due to rain, and starting positions were set by a metric from the NASCAR rulebook. Early on in the first stage, Suarez made an unscheduled pit stop and fell a lap down until getting a caution a few laps later. Suarez spent the rest of the stage recovering from his loss in track position, but ended it in 12th and fell short of earning stage points. In the second stage, Suarez continued to challenge for a top-10 running position, but ended up pitting an extra time due to a vibration in his car. As a result, he lost more track position and ended the stage in 30th. He then spent the third stage trying to recover more track position, but only made it up to 21st. In the final stage, Suarez continued to gain more positions, but in the late part of the stage, his team made a call to take two tires instead of four and started at the front as he beat everyone out on pit road. Then, through two consecutive restarts, Suarez got a push from Kyle Larson and held off Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Tyler Reddick while the race was called early for rain on lap 372. Suarez scored his third career Cup Series win and his first with Spire Motorsports in 2026. With his victory, Suarez now moves up to 10th in the regular season standings after 13 races.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com