Daniel Suarez wins the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600

Daniel Suarez claimed an emotional Coca-Cola 600 victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway on a night when NASCAR raced with Kyle Busch firmly in its heart.

The Mexican driver took his third career NASCAR Cup Series win after the race was called 27 laps short of its scheduled distance when heavy rain drenched the track, sealing a poignant victory after a week of grief across the garage.

Before the race, NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer addressed the drivers’ meeting with a simple message.

“Let’s put on a race Kyle would be proud of,” Sawyer said, referring to Busch, who died on Thursday after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis.

The field delivered exactly that, with a chaotic and competitive Coca-Cola 600 featuring 32 lead changes among 13 drivers, 12 cautions and a dramatic strategy call that put Suarez in position to win.

“It really means a lot,” Suarez said. “I’ve been saying for years this is my favorite race of the year. I get to have my family here every year. This is most of the time the only race they get to come.

The victory carried extra meaning for Suarez because of Busch’s influence on his career.

Busch had offered Suarez repeated encouragement and advice after the Monterrey native moved to the United States and began building his NASCAR career. Suarez later became an Xfinity Series champion, a breakthrough he directly linked to Busch’s support.

“Definitely, this one has a special flavor because of Kyle,” Suarez said. “This win is for him. If it wasn’t for Kyle, I wasn’t going to be an Xfinity champion. I wasn’t going to have my shot in the Cup Series. To win this race for him is unbelievable.”

The decisive call came from crew chief Ryan Sparks under caution for lightning on Lap 356. Suarez took only two right-side tyres, gaining 13 positions on pit road and leading the field back to green on Lap 360.

Rain slowed the race one lap later, with Suarez barely ahead of Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. When racing resumed on Lap 370, Suarez received a huge push from fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson, cleared Bell and stayed ahead until the rain returned heavily three laps later.

Bell, who won a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 two years ago, knew the restart had been decisive.

“I knew after the first restart, I knew he couldn’t get clear,” Bell said. “I was going to have to stay beside him. I couldn’t stay beside him. He cleared me. Once he cleared me, I knew it was going to be a really tough pass with it being a short run.

“If we would have had all the laps, he was going to block like hell and probably… yeah, he did a good job blocking, but he won the race.”