14 lead changes. 11 cautions. 2 red flags. It was a crazy night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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In the end it was Kevin Harvick who won a wild Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, holding off Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch in an 11 lap shootout. The win is Harvick’s second of the 2013 season, his last for Richard Childress Racing.
Harvick came in and took two tires on the last caution, while Kahne, who had the fastest car of the night, stayed out. Definitely showing that new tires will win every time.
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“Charlotte is something we had to overcome for a long time,” Harvick said. “We had to win it on gas mileage before. We just went out and won it this time.
Crazy is probably an understatement of the night, when the race was red flagged for the first time on Lap 123 when a cable from a Fox TV camera broke and several drivers ran over it, damaging their cars and sending at least three fans to a local Charlotte area hospital.
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Unlike normal red flag conditions, NASCAR allowed the teams to repair their cars and retain their track position. Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, and Mark Martin were the drivers who had damage.
“I didn’t see anything, I just heard a big ‘thunk’ on the right-front tire and thought the right-front tire blew out. That’s how hard it felt and what it felt like,” Busch said.
Busch would later bow out with a blown engine, along with NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
The next race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is Sunday, June 2nd from Dover International Raceway. As always, stay with TSB for the latest NASCAR news.
And from all of us at Total Sports Blog, Happy Memorial Day and a HUGE thank you to all who protect our freedoms both here and aboard. Come home soon!