The Double DNF: Kyle Larson’s day ends in a Coke 600 pile-up

In the third stage of the Coca-Cola 600, a three-wide situation ended in disaster exiting Turn 4. Ryan Blaney was on the outside, polesitter Chase Briscoe in the middle, and Daniel Suarez on the bottom.

They quickly ran out of room, sending Suarez spinning across Briscoe’s nose and into Blaney. Both Suarez and Blaney slammed the outside wall before Suarez spun back across the track, collecting Justin Haley and Kyle Larson.

Two races, two crashes for Larson

Larson has officially become the fifth driver to run the rare Indy 500-Coke 600 Double and the first to do it since 2014, but it was still a bitter disappointment as he failed to finish both races. After crashing out of the Indy 500 a few laps shy of the halfway point, finishing 27th, he headed to Charlotte looking for redemption. He led the race early, but hit the wall and spun from the top spot in the very first stage.

The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team worked diligently to fix the toe of the car as NASCAR’s longest race continued on. He remained on the lead lap, and had clawed his way back inside the top-20 when he was collected in the Lap 246 pileup. In the end, he completed roughly 599 of the 1,100 miles he planed to run on Sunday.

Along with Larson, both Suarez and Blaney fell out of the race due to crash damage. Only Haley was able to continue.

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images

“I saw smoke and I tried to get left to the infield and i just couldn’t get far enough left so, yeah, I got tagged and that ended our night,” said Larson. “Just a bummer of a day all around.”

Reflecting further on his tumultuous day, Larson continued: “It got super loose out of nowhere early in the race and I popped the wall, but I thought the team did a good job to get us back to where we were somewhat comfortable there that last 100 laps. Just eager to kind of chip away at it and I thought we could still end up okay. Yeah, not the day that I wanted.”

Larson will finish the Coke 600 in 37th place.

As for Blaney, he said of the incident: “Finally got back close to the top ten and I feel like we were just tight off of (Turn) 4 and three wide, and just kind of bounced off each other. Unfortunately, we’re not gonna finish.” 

This will be Blaney’s fifth DNF of the 2025 season. He will finish 38th and Suarez 36th.

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