NASCAR Cup Series winners and losers after the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte

An emotional NASCAR weekend wrapped up at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night with an extraordinary Coca-Cola 600.

The race began with tributes to Kyle Busch after his sudden and untimely death on Thursday at the age of 41 – with a ceremony before drivers went to their cars, and drivers adopting the missing man formation on the pace lap.

It's impossible to separate this weekend's race from that tragedy, so we won't make the attempt. Consider the NASCAR family entrants in both categories – the loss of Busch is a devastating one, and will impact many in the sport for years to come, but everyone in and around the sport did Rowdy and his family proud all weekend long, on and off the track.

WATCH: NASCAR's emotional Kyle Busch tribute video

As for the rest of proceedings...

Winners

Daniel Suarez, and bold pit calls

Let's be very clear about this: it took an absolutely incredible overlap of events for Suarez to win his first Crown Jewel. A Hail Mary pit decision to only throw two tires on at a late caution, none of the 13 drivers ahead of him on track doing the same, more cautions, and the race being cut short. But hey, when you're running in the mid-teens, why not take a shot at glory?

Suarez himself deserves a heap of credit for making the strategy work, too. A pair of absolutely flawless restarts (with a little help from Kyle Larson) kept him out front long enough for the yellows to come back out twice, and for the rain to come in for good.

For a driver mentored by Busch, who drove for his KBM team and later became his team-mate at Joe Gibbs Racing, to win the race thanks to boldness and brilliant restarts? It couldn't have been more fitting.

Shane van Gisbergen

Ignore the fact that he finished 11th. Sunday saw the most complete oval performance of SVG's NASCAR career by an absolute mile – the kind that could turn him from fringe Chase hopeful to locked in.

The Kiwi ran comfortably inside the top ten for much of the 600-mile spectacle, even ending up in the lead at one mid-late race restart and more than holding his own up front.

Van Gisbergen's improvements on ovals have been clear to see since the back half of his rookie season, but this was a whole new step. Unfortunate to lose a few spots in the late-race shuffle of cautions, but still a statement race.

Joe Gibbs Racing

If the season to date hadn't already been a massive waving flag pointing out that Toyota teams have the edge this year – and that JGR are overall taking best advantage of that – then Sunday was an unavoidable reminder.

JGR cars went 1-2-3-4 in the third stage, the first time since Hendrick at Dover in 2021 that a team has done that, and just the fourth time ever (SHR twice at the 2018 Talladega fall race).

The front of the race was essentially a 4-on-2 'JGR vs anyone else' battle for hours, with only Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson able to hang with them on pace. Hugely impressive all-round, with Chase Briscoe's final stage wreck the only blemish.

Losers

Joe Gibbs Racing

Well...okay, not the only blemish. The sharp-eyed of you will notice that despite the team's dominance, the race winner didn't drive for JGR.

Part of that, of course, was the decision for Suarez to take two tires at the final round of stops, and his restart excellence. Some things you just can't account for.

...However.

We'll never know, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that one of the JGR cars could've walked away from the race with a vintage Coke machine is Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin hadn't fought like rats in a sack to be the man to take the challenge to Suarez – even making hard contact at one point.

Having a fast racecar is one thing. A good thing, even. But it certainly isn't everything.

Ross Chastain

One of the most electric drivers in the sport when he's on, Chastain is now at serious risk of missing the postseason for just the second time in the last five years.

Van Gisbergen has truly been the only shining light for Trackhouse this year, with the team as a whole appearing to have taken a step back over the winter. Chastain entered the weekend already outside of the top 16, but dropped to 23rd after failing to finish – with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to thank for that.

The driver of the No. 1 car now sits a full 65 points from the cut line at the halfway point of the regular season, with no sign of a drastic turnaround on the horizon.

Still, at least he's having a better season than Connor Zilisch.