Contested over 400 laps on the 1.5–mile (2.4 km) oval, it was the twelfth race of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series championship.

Kasey Kahne followed in second while Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.

One of the most significant stoppages came from a fallen skycam cable that damaged several cars and injured spectators.

[4] The result moved Harvick to the seventh position in the Drivers' Championship, 83 points behind Jimmie Johnson in first and 15 ahead of Paul Menard in eighth.

[8] The Coca-Cola 600 was conceived by race car driver Curtis Turner, who built the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

[11] The long distance makes it the most physically demanding event in NASCAR, and teams adapt to changing track conditions because the race occurs between late afternoon and evening.

[14] During the first practice session, Kurt Busch was quickest with a time of 28.295, ahead of his brother Kyle and Kahne in second and third.

[16] Hamlin clinched his fourteenth career pole position, with a record-setting lap time of 27.604 seconds.

[3] Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, and Earnhardt Jr. completed the first ten positions on the grid.

[3] In the Saturday morning session, Kahne was quickest, ahead of Kurt and Kyle Busch in second and third.

[19] As it was Memorial Day weekend, NASCAR's pre-race would pay tribute to American war veterans.

Kahne continued to lead until the second caution on lap 112 for debris after Casey Mears hit the wall.

[20] Busch continued to lead on the restart on lap 131 and led until green flag pit stops.

Earnhardt's car dropped oil on the track in turn three and Greg Biffle slipped in it, then hit the wall, along with Dave Blaney and Travis Kvapil.

The caution trapped several drivers one lap down, most notably Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson (who got the free pass), and Jeff Gordon.

The ninth caution quickly came out on lap 325 when Aric Almirola made in three-wide on the frontstretch with Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.

Martin backed out and barely clipped Almirola, sending him head-on into the wall right in front of Gordon.

Six cars sustained damage from the crash: Almirola, Martin, Gordon, Stenhouse, Bobby Labonte, and Casey Mears.

Harvick pulled away from Kahne and third-place Kurt Busch over the last ten laps to pick up his 21st career win and his second Coca-Cola 600 in three years.