This Memorial Day weekend saw a by-the-numbers F1 race at Monaco, followed by a zany 109th edition of the Indy 500. It looked like William Byron would run away with the Coke 600 tonight, but Ross Chastain had different plans as he passed the Daytona 500 winner with less than 10 to win his first race of the 2025 season.
The journey started around 30 hours before the 600 when Ross Chastain wrecked in practice, which led to the Trackhouse team working until 2 AM to get the backup car ready for the race on Sunday. Ross was able to get to the top 10 by the halfway point, and he was able to take advantage of multiple pit road problems and put himself in position to win his first crown jewel race of his Cup Series career, and lock himself into the playoffs after missing it last year.
From the jubilation to the heartbreak. For almost the whole race, it looked like Charlotte native William Byron was the man to beat as he led 283 of the 400 laps, including all 3 stage wins, but it wasn’t enough as multiple factors including lap traffic, and Ross Chastain getting hot late caused William to not become the first driver since Jeff Gordon in 1997 to win both the Daytona 500 and Coke 600 in the same year.
All eyes in the motorsport world this weekend were watching Kyle Larson as he attempted to do the Memorial Day Double for the 2nd time, unfortunately, it was a house of horrors for Larson. His Indy 500 came to an end on lap 91 when he lost control of his car in turn 2, which led to a 27th-place finish. In Charlotte, things got worse in Charlotte when he wrecked twice and made another trip to the infield care center before he finished 37th. As of this writing, there are no plans for Larson to attempt the Double next year.
The Summer swing for NASCAR is right around the corner now, as the next stop is at Nashville with coverage beginning on Prime at 7 PM.