Joe Gibbs Racing Race Report Presented by Interstate Batteries
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Coca-Cola 600
Date: May 25, 2008
Event: Coca-Cola 600 (Round 12 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Winner: Kasey Kahne of Gillette Evernham Motorsports (Dodge)
JGR Finish: Kyle Busch (Started 1st, Finished 3rd / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)
Tony Stewart (Started 31st, Finished 18th / Running, completed 399 of 400 laps)
Denny Hamlin (Started 16th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 399 of 400 laps)
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) contingent at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway by winning the pole and then finishing third in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. It was Busch’s eighth top-five finish in 2008 and his fourth consecutive finish among the top-three.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for JGR, finished 18th after cutting a tire while leading on lap 398 of the 400-lap event. Stewart led four times for 23 laps.
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota for JGR, finished 24th after he also cut a tire on lap 398.
Busch remains the lead JGR driver in the championship point race, as his third-place finish kept him first in the standings after round 12 of 36. Busch increased his margin over second-place Jeff Burton to 94 points. Hamlin and Stewart occupy the fourth and eighth positions, respectively, with both drivers maintaining their respective point standings. Hamlin is 264 points behind Busch while Stewart is 349 points arrears Busch.
Kasey Kahne, who won last week’s non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star race at Charlotte, won the Coca-Cola 600 to score his eighth career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his third in a points-paying event at Charlotte. Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 in 2006, while his last point-paying Sprint Cup victory came in the 2006 fall race at Charlotte, a span of 52 races. He is the sixth driver to win both the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same season.
Greg Biffle finished 10.203 seconds behind Kahne in the runner-up slot, while Busch, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., rounded out the top-five. Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Carl Edwards and David Reutimann comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were 11 caution periods for 50 laps, with five drivers failing to finish the 600-mile race – the longest on the Sprint Cup schedule.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 1 Best Buy 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 1:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
