In Charlotte, it was almost as if Kyle Busch were beside the No. 7 car, guiding his former protégé through the storm. Because on a night where Daniel Suarez looked completely out of contention after going a lap down because of an early loose wheel, everything suddenly started falling perfectly in place for him. A two-tire strategy call launched him 13 spots forward into the lead, right before the skies opened up. But while everything aligned for Suarez, it felt like nothing did for Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin had spent most of the Coca-Cola 600 looking like the driver to beat. He won Stage 2, led 75 laps, and was battling Christopher Bell for the lead when the caution came out. He wasn’t too happy afterward and blamed NASCAR’s race structure for how the race unfolded.

“It’s hindsight. It’s all hindsight because this storm didn’t just pop up. It’s not like we saw this thing coming from forever away,” Hamlin said sarcastically on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

Towards the final stage of the Coca-Cola 600, the warnings of approaching rain were sent out to the teams, and on lap 373, the final caution was pulled because it started pouring on the track. The race was then called off. But NASCAR had enough time to finish the race, considering the skies in Concord were clear for most of the day. Hamlin, who felt he lost a win, slammed NASCAR for not taking the necessary steps.

“Man, I wish there was a way we just moved everything up an hour, or, you know, not having as long of cautions for stages and just… If we could just tidy that up just a little bit,” he .

Because so many laps had already been spent under caution during the night, there was less room left for teams to recover once the rain arrived. The stoppages and stage breaks had already eaten into the race distance, and when the final caution came out, Hamlin simply ran out of time. This became another example of why stage in NASCAR.

At the end of every stage, the field is automatically put under caution, and those yellow flag periods can last several laps depending on the track. Normally, it is just accepted as part of modern NASCAR. But in a race as long as the Coca-Cola 600, the caution laps start adding up quickly. The race already had four stages instead of the usual three, which naturally meant more stoppages and more laps spent under yellow. Ironically, the ending feels almost poetic.

Suarez, after climbing from the car in victory lane, immediately dedicated the win to the late Kyle Busch, the same man who helped shape his career years ago.

“The first thing to come to my mind was Kyle,” Suárez said emotionally. “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.” However, the rain-soaked ending did more than just give Suarez an emotional victory. It may have changed the direction of his season too.

Before Charlotte, Suarez and the No. 7 team had spent most of the year hovering around the playoff bubble. But after the Coca-Cola 600 win, Suárez suddenly jumped to 10th in the standings with a 62-point cushion above the cut line. And interestingly enough, even Hamlin admitted that Spire Motorsports had been surviving more on execution than on raw speed for most of the season.

“It feels like they’ve been living a little bit in the ‘got good track position’ thing,” Hamlin explained. “The minute they kind of get shuffled out of that track position, it’s like where are they really at on speed?” Still, Hamlin gave Suarez his flowers for maximizing what the team has had.

“I think that’s what the 7 team is doing,” Hamlin added. “Their pace has been average… but the bubble is average too. Nights like last night are like a hell yeah. Especially in this format. It gives you some breathing room.”

For Suárez, Charlotte instantly changed the conversation around his season. For Hamlin, though, the night still became one giant “what if.”

Hamlin hints he could have won the race if it were the complete 600 miles

Considering the Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race on the calendar, teams usually consider a number of strategic options before the race begins. And for Denny Hamlin, it was all about maintaining decent pace through the first three stages before pushing all out towards the end.

“We were really, really fast, and you know, all the cars had shots to win it at some point,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver told the media after the race.

Hamlin started in 11th, but was already in the top five by the end of the first stage. He maintained his pace thereafter and was consistently in the mix for a win, which would have marked back-to-back victories for the veteran, who was coming off an All-Star Race win in Dover.

However, when Daniel Suarez clinched the lead in the final stage, Hamlin was left helpless as he struggled to chase him down with Bell in the middle. For the latter, the win seemed even more important, as he is yet to win a race this year. But this was the time for Hamlin to shine, as the team had strategized to make a strong run in the closing laps.

“We had planned all day for the last 50, like to get our car right for the last 50, and I just felt really confident that those last few restarts, like, I could really get some speed going. It just was a matter of like who could clear between me and the 20, and we couldn’t clear each other,” he added.

Hamlin still seemed to have a chance to pull off an overtake for the lead. However, the final caution came out a bit too early, which eventually led to the remainder of the race being called off. Suarez instead went on to win his first race of the season.