RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
Breaking down the full field for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway :
1. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. A historic win. Truex set so many records, we can’t list them all. So we’ll settle for this one: He led a Sprint Cup-record 588 miles. Oh, and his 392 laps led … taken alone, they would rank 121st all time in series history. Grade: AAA+ (and that might be a tad low)
2. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Another second-place finish for Harvick (47th of his career). One more and he ties Lee Petty for 10th all time. Grade: A
3. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson sniffed the lead after the final restart, but Superman said no. Instead, Johnson will be the answer to the trivia question: Who led the second-most laps (five) of the 2016 Coca-Cola 600? Sort of like: Who was the second-leading scorer the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game? And, no, I don’t know. Grade: A
4. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin picked up 5 seconds on leader Martin Truex Jr. on the night’s second pit stop … and still lost by 6.4 seconds. That’ll happen in a 600-mile race. Grade: A
5. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Keselowski and Kevin Harvick raced so close to each other for the first half of the race, you’d have thought a big ol’ magnet in one of the cars was keeping them side by side. Grade: A
6. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Busch increased his series-leading top-10 finishes to 11 and also moved up a spot to second in the standings behind Kevin Harvick. Grade: A
7. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Disaster came knocking on a green-flag pit stop late in the first half of the race when Austin Dillon fired out of his pit stall and went way wide into Kenseth. Fortunately the impact was minimal. Grade: A
8. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott was running eighth when he was hit with a speeding penalty on the first pit stop; 373 laps later he finished eighth. Nice job. Grade: A
9. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Not that Logano would have been able to run down Martin Truex Jr., but any chance at the win went away during green-flag pit stops around Lap 254 when a crew member was over the wall too soon. After serving the penalty, Logano was 21st, one lap down, which effectively ended his night. The team battled back, but that’s a mistake that can’t be made, especially with your driver running so well in such a big race. Grade: D
10. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman was penalized for speeding on pit road during the third caution but battled back to post his fourth top 10 of the season and move up a spot to 16th in the standings. Grade: B
11. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle posted his best finish of the season but couldn’t end his drought of top-10 finishes. His previous top 10 was last September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when he finished fourth. Grade: B
12. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Dillon started 28th and needed all 400 laps to claw his way up. Grade: B
13. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Larson made a lot of noise early and was running fourth at the halfway point before fading. Grade: B
14. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Junior was on pit road when the final yellow flag came out, and he took the wave-around to return to the lead lap … albeit a little deeper in the field for the final restart with 56 laps to go. He was never vying for a win, but that cost him a higher finish. Grade: B
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse was the lucky dog on the final caution, enabling him to score his sixth finish in the teens (13th through 16th) in the past seven races. Grade: B
16. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger’s 19.3 average running position was highest among drivers finishing in the top 20 and his 10 laps in the top 15 were the lowest. Grade: C
17. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard’s 11th-place-finish at Dover coupled with his 17th Sunday gave him his second-best back-to-back finishes of the season, behind his 15th-8th at Auto Club and Martinsville. Grade: C
18. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Edwards was a fixture in the top 10 and running third when he was hit with two green-flag pit-road speeding penalties. The first came when he was too fast entering the pits on Lap 298. The second came when he was too fast entering pit road to do his pass-through penalty, which required him to do a stop-and-go on the next lap. That put a fork in any chance for a decent finish: Grade: D
19. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. McMurray’s average running position was 19.1, and that’s exactly where he finished. Grade: C
20. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Not a bad finish considering Blaney was hit with his first pit-road speeding penalty of the season on the competition caution, had to return to pit road because of a loose wheel during the third caution and had his right rear tire go down with three laps to go. Grade: C
21. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Danica’s consistent: Sunday’s finish was her eighth in the 20s this season. Grade: C
22. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne’s right front tire went down early putting him two laps back, and he spent the rest of the night slowly making up ground. Grade: C
23. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Bowyer was never a factor and saw his string of top-20 finishes end at three. Grade: C
24. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart qualified 21st but rolled off the grid 39th when NASCAR caught a crew member making an unauthorized change to the car on pit road before the race. A pit-road penalty for speeding during the third caution didn’t help things, either. Grade: D
25. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Since getting his first top 10 of the season at Bristol, Bayne has had a top-10 finish every other race. If the pattern holds, he’ll get his first top 10 at Pocono next week. Grade: C
26. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola finished outside the top 10 for the 14th consecutive race, the fourth-longest such streak of his Cup career. Grade: C
27. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Of the season’s 13 races, Cassill has finished 25th, 26th, 27th or 28th six times. Grade: C
28. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith posted his second-best finish in his past eight races. Grade: C
29. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Scott finished in the top 30 for the fourth race in a row. Grade: C-
30. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears’ finish is his worst in the 600 since a 33rd-place finish in the rain-shortened 2009 race while driving for Richard Childress Racing. Grade: D
31. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan finished seven laps back but was running at the finish; he had DNFs in both Charlotte races last year. Grade: D
32. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. Although he finished 32nd, DiBenedetto was running at the finish, unlike in two of the previous three races. Grade: D
33. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch was running 10th and flirting with a top-10 finish when he cut a tire with seven laps to go and smacked the outside wall hard. Instead, he finished with his second straight DNF. Grade: B-
34. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. McDowell posted his worst finish of the season. Grade: D
35. Cole Whitt, No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Whitt was running at the finish, nine laps back. Grade: D
36. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett finished 10 laps back. Grade: F
37. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Buescher could not build on his career-best 18th-place finish at Dover. Grade: F
38. Josh Wise, No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsports Group. Wise finished 13 laps back but was running at the finish for the fourth time in the past five races. Grade: F
39. Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 32 Ford, Go Fas Racing. Earnhardt’s finish was a season low. Grade: F
40. Reed Sorenson, No. 55 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Sorenson completed 200 laps before clutch issues ended his night. Grade: F