Late pit stop costs Chase Elliott win in Coca-Cola 600

Charlotte, N.C. – Chase Elliott was two laps away from claiming his first victory at the Coca-Cola 600. Instead, it ended in devastation after a late-lap caution and call to pit.

No. 2 driver Brad Kese­lowski emerged as the first-time race winner.

"At the end, we caught a break," Keselowkski said after the race. "Made the most of the break. Life is just as much about catching the breaks as it is making the most of them. Today, we did both."

Elliott led Keselowki by half a second in the final two laps when a caution was called for No. 24 driver — and Elliott's Hendrick Motorsports teammate — William Byron, who spun out around a turn. With the race forced into overtime, Elliott's team then had a decision to make, and pitting for new tires didn't work out.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't," Keselowski said about the call to pit. "Just a tough spot to be in. I've been in that spot. Lost races that way. It stinks. It hurts."

Eight leading drivers stayed out instead of pitting, including Keselowski. Elliott veered into pit road to have all four tires changed.

"You just make the best decision you can based on the information you have," Elliott said. "When you are leading the race like that, people behind you are going to do the exact opposite of what you do."

"We stuck with it, and it didn't work out," Elliott said.

The No. 9 driver then fell to 11th place after re-emerging from the pit stop, but raced his way back to a third at the checkered flag.

"It's very unfortunate," Elliott said. "I hate it for both myself and my team, our sponsors, the whole nine yards. Unfortunate."

Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line in second place, but his No. 48 car failed postrace inspection and he was disqualified early Monday morning. Cup Series director Jay Fabian said that Johnson's car's rear alignment failed in the Optical Scanning Station (OSS) portion of technical inspection. Johnson was relegated to a last-place finish (40th) and Elliott was bumped up to second.

Johnson stayed out on the final caution to run side-by-side with Keselowski on the restart before Keselowski pulled ahead.

Johnson said that the silver lining was the speed Elliott demonstrated. NASCAR's Most Popular Driver led 38 laps of the 405-lap race, all of which he led in the fourth and final stage until overtime.

"This is only making them stronger and only making Chase more of a fierce competitor than he already is," Johnson said, adding that an incident from Wednesday night's race between Elliott and Kyle Busch that forced Elliott from a top-three finish would also help fuel the young driver.

Like Johnson, Keselowski noted Elliott's speed.

"I also recognize that Chase was really fast today," Keselowski said. "Probably if it had been just a raw speed race, he would have won.

"Life is not always fair like that both ways. You just try to take advantage of it when it's on your side."

The tungsten is required to meet minimum weight requirements on the car and the NASCAR rulebook states if it is separated at any point it is an automatic four-race suspension for the crew chief, car chief and engineer.

Chris Gabehart, the crew chief, was suspended along with car chief Brandon Griffeth and engineer Scott Simmons.