Take 5: What we learned from Coca-Cola 600

The driver and team that dominated this year's Coca-Cola 600 were familiar but the group celebrating in Victory Lane were newcomers. A few things we learned, a few we confirmed after this year's 12th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

Man in Black: Martin Truex Jr. is the new points leader and based on the way the Furniture Row Racing driver is stacking up bonus points and stage wins, he's on track to have a healthy advantage going into this year's playoffs. Truex earned his sixth stage win Sunday night, double the amount of his nearest competitors. Third at Charlotte in spite of his race-high 233 laps led, Truex has an average finish of 4.2 on the mile-and-a-half tracks this year, where he has two victories. He has now led the most laps in three consecutive Coca-Cola 600s, tying the mark held by NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip.

The Shake-up that Pays: The move to put XFINITY Series crew chief Justin Alexander in charge of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team with driver Austin Dillon paid big benefits right off the bat, with Dillon winning Sunday's race thanks to fuel strategy and savvy pit decisions. It was no fluke win, as Dillon had moved into the top 10 shortly after the 100-lap mark and stayed there for the remainder of the race. The team will need that type of consistency, however, to remain a threat on a weekly basis.

JGR on Comeback Trail: For perhaps the first time all season, all four Joe Gibbs Racing teams were competitive and signs seem to indicate the organization is close to recapturing the speed and consistency that carried its teams to seven wins in the first 12 races a year ago. While still winless, the four drivers finished 11th or better at Charlotte and two of the four, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, led multiple laps. 'We still have some work to do, but we do have more speed and that's encouraging,' fourth-place finisher Matt Kenseth said.

Returning to Form: Kurt Busch (sixth) scored his fourth top 10 in his last six starts, a quiet turnaround for this year's Daytona 500 champion. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver, and 2004 series champion, finished 24th or worse in five of six races at one point this year. More recently, however, Busch and crew chief Tony Gibson appear to be making gains inside the SHR camp. This week's race at Dover could be telling -- Busch has only one finish inside the top 15 there since joining SHR in 2014.

Misfortune is his Co-pilot: It's been a difficult month for Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott on the track, with four consecutive finishes of 24th or worse. The slump has dropped him from second in points to seventh. At Charlotte, it was a wrong-place, wrong-time situation that felled the young driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet. Damage from running over a part off another car on Lap 20 caused Elliott's car to catch fire, and subsequently be hit from behind by Brad Keselowski. 'I hate it,' Elliott, who was not injured, said. 'I don't really know what you do about stuff like that. Just move on.'