Kevin Harvick, driver of the #29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26, 2013
Photo – Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

The longest race of the season had some of the most bizarre events unfold throughout the night. It started out with a cable falling from the sky (actually a camera) and then the full-moon implemented a series of accidents towards the end of the race. Once the smoke settled, Kevin Harvick was standing in victory lane for the second time in the Coca Cola 600. This race always features a twist of events around the 500 mile mark and Sunday night’s event didn’t disappoint in that category. The action was all-over the track throughout the night and each occurrence in the race will be making headlines in the week to come.

Matt Kenseth won the Coca Cola 500 on Sunday Night. He was able to stay up front for a good part of the race until about the last hundred miles. That was when his involvement in an accident derailed his night. It didn’t take long for Kenseth to get to the front to start his dominance during the race and he was leading by lap seven. The other dominant driver of the night was Kasey Kahne and he took the lead away from Kenseth on lap 24.

Kyle Busch saw his short-lived time at the front come on lap 76, but four laps later, Kahne was back in command. After the second caution of the day for debris, Busch was back in the lead on the restart and that was the last place Busch wanted to restart the race. Just a few laps after the restart, a cable from FOX’s Sprint Unlimited Cam that glides high above the track, broke and fell on the racing surface, in the grandstands, and across the infield grass. The caution couldn’t come soon enough since drivers were unaware of the cable and ran over it coming out of turn four to complete lap 120.

When NASCAR eventually threw the yellow-flag, the damage on the track and in the stands was already creating chaos. Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose suffered severe damage from the cable and both now had heavy damage to their cars. To clean the mess up, there was a red-flag and cars were parked on pit road. They sat there for about twenty minutes and at that point, NASCAR decided to allow the teams to work on their cars to repair the cable damage. Teams were realigned in  their positions on the track once the race restarted.

While all of this was going on, the cable had fallen in the grandstands as well. There were injuries to fans, that were later confirmed by Charlotte Motor Speedway. In all, there were ten fan injuries with seven treated on the scene and three taken to a local hospital and kept for further evaluation. The condition of fans taken to the hospital didn’t sound serious, but there will likely be more information by Monday morning.

After a wild red-flag period ended, the race was set to resume, but not until this twist changed the course of the event for some drivers. Busch continued to lead on the restart and his teammate, Matt Kenseth, would take the lead once again after a round of green-flag pit stops. Kenseth led at halfway followed by Busch and Kahne.

The fifth caution of the night came out on lap 258 for various reasons. First, Dale Earnhardt Jr. blew his engine in turn three. The oil laid down by the No.88 car caused Greg Biffle to slide into the turn four wall and behind Biffle, Dave Blaney and Travis Kvapil wrecked after slipping in Earnhardt Jr.’s oil. A massive clean-up occurred after the incidents.

Just before the caution flew, Kyle Busch reported engine troubles and was falling back through the pack. Under the yellow-flag, Busch took his car behind the wall to end his night. A few laps after the restart, Kahne retook the lead from Kenseth.

The full-moon’s fury took over for the next twenty laps with thirteen cars somehow involved in a wreck. The restarts were always chaotic in that period of the race and the action was non-stop.

The first caution during the wild period of the race occurred with 82 laps remaining. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Danica Patrick, and Brad Keselowski were running three-wide, when Stenhouse Jr. slipped up the track, tagged Patrick and then she slid into Keselowski causing her car along with Keselowski’s to slide up and into the wall.

A wild restart after the incident left Kurt Busch in the lead, after Kahne had a hard time with his restart. The good news for Kahne was that he would have a second chance to regain the lead since another wreck unfolded at the end of the frontstretch. A massive incident occurred while Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, and Aric Almirola ran three-wide down the frontstretch. As they turned in the second part of the dog-leg, Martin came down on Almirola which turned Almirola back up across the track and in-front of the pack. Cars had nowhere to go and a massive pile-up was the result of three-wide racing on the restart. The red flag waved for the second time of night as safety workers cleaned up the mess. Other cars involved in the wreck, Bobby Labonte, Casey Mears, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Last week’s All-Star Race winner found trouble a few laps after the restart when he brought out the tenth yellow-flag of the night. Johnson got loose in turn 4 and spun around. The cars behind him checked-up when they saw him spin and that caused Juan Pablo Montoya to run into the back of Matt Kenseth which sent both of them into the wall. Kenseth had the dominant car of the night, but now his car was a torn-up machine that wasn’t going to celebrating in victory lane. Tony Stewart and Paul Menard were also involved in the incident which added to the number of damaged cars in the race.

That incident ended the twenty laps of destruction and the rest of the race went on fairly calmly. Kahne was leading after the last round of green-flag stops, but the eleventh and last caution of the day for debris hurt Kahne severely. He was the sitting-duck on the track and when everyone else came down pit road, he stayed out. On the restart, he wasn’t able to hold his ground for long and Kevin Harvick snuck to the front, with eleven laps to go.

Harvick had no challengers for the final ten laps and he was able to make it to the finish and win his second Coca Cola 600 in three years. He won in 2011 after Earnhardt Jr. ran out of fuel, but Harvick didn’t need strategy to win this one and won in pure Kevin Harvick fashion. ‘The Closer’ nickname shined true again and he picked up his second victory of the season. One common aspect between both of his victories is that they both featured Harvick taking the lead on the final restart. A win is a win and it doesn’t matter how you get it done and Harvick has grown to like making a late-race pass to claim victory.

One of the toughest tracks on the circuit is next in Dover and the monster will be hungry to create havoc on the track next Sunday afternoon.

Results via ESPN.com