It’s Golden: NASCAR Celebrates The 50th Coca-Cola 600
Cue the balloons and noisemakers.
When the green flag falls late Sunday afternoon at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers will contest the 50th running of one of the sport’s most notable events — the Coca-Cola 600.
As NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 has embraced career-defining debuts, victories and action each year since its 1960 christening — an inimitable formula of distance and difficulty that hasn’t mellowed with the years.
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“I think it’s more of a mental thing that our minds are programmed for 500 miles,” said three-time Coca-Cola 600 champion Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), “and when you hear halfway and you look up at the scoreboard and you realize you’ve gone 300 and you’ve got 300 to go, it’s kind of a mental thing that you have to focus on.”
Joe Lee Johnson won the first Coca-Cola 600 on June 19, 1960, also the first race at the then-new 1.5-mile track outside Charlotte, N.C. Intended as a new Memorial Day tradition, that first Coca-Cola 600 had to wait a few weeks as construction crews completed their work.
But since then, tradition has held firm. A quick statistical synopsis:
Beginning with Joe Lee Johnson, 14 drivers have won one Coca-Cola 600.
Thirteen drivers have won multiple Coca-Cola 600s, led by three-time series champion Darrell Waltrip’s five victories.
Six drivers have won three Coca-Cola 600s: David Pearson, Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) and Jimmie Johnson.
Six other drivers have won two Coca-Cola 600s: Fred Lorenzen, Jim Paschal, Richard Petty, Neil Bonnett, Jeff Burton (No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet) and Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge).
Reigning and three-time series champion Jimmie Johnson is the only driver to win three consecutive Coca-Cola 600s. He did it from 2003-05.
“I do like the 600-mile race from a history standpoint,” he said. “And I also like the challenge, to work on the car all night long. Start in the day, go to the night, the longer race, all the aspects that come with it .”
The Longest And The Toughest: Uniqueness Of Coca-Cola 600 Format
Four hundred laps and 600 miles usually equals approximately four-and-a-half hours behind the wheel at 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Add late May heat and humidity. Teeth-rattling speeds. The evolution of a daylight start, mid-race dusk and a checkered flag in the evening. Combined, all those factors pose unique challenges, making patience, endurance and focus the keys to thriving in — and winning — the Coca-Cola 600.
“The late afternoon start throws a wrench at you because your eating and sleep schedules change,” said Jeff Burton, the 1999 Coca-Cola 600 champion. “Then, you add 600 miles of racing on top of that. It’s a perfect storm of stuff going on that makes this race a challenge. Don’t get me wrong – there are no excuses. You have to be physically ready no matter what.”
Fuel mileage and pit-road strategy become paramount as the hours dwindle.
“The track will change a lot as the sun goes down,” said Matt Kenseth (No. 17 R&L Carriers Ford), the 2000 Coca-Cola 600 champion, “and you have to have your car set up where you can keep up with the track with different adjustments when needed. You’ll have to keep up with the track conditions and that usually means altering your setup throughout the race.”
“It’s tough on equipment and it’s tough mentally,” said Jeff Gordon, a three-time Coca-Cola 600 champion. “You have to mentally stay in the game and be focused for 600 miles.”
History-Maker: Coca-Cola 600 The Backdrop For Notable Victories, Career-Firsts
NASCAR’s longest event, the Coca-Cola 600, has yielded more than a few milestones through its first 49 years.
Some NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have defined their careers via a Coca-Cola 600 victory.
Others have used it to launch their careers.
The most recent first-time winner is Casey Mears (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet), whose 2007 Coca-Cola 600 win was the first of his series career. Then driving for Hendrick Motorsports, Mears and his crew used tenacity, endurance and timely pit-road strategy to snare the victory.
Other drivers who claimed their series-first wins in the Coca-Cola 600 include David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte (No. 96 ASK.com Ford) and Matt Kenseth.
Pearson, who won three Coca-Cola 600s, did so in 1961, 1974 and 1976.
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The 1960 series Rookie of the Year, Pearson nevertheless couldn’t find a ride in ‘61. When legendary car owner Ray Fox’s regular driver, Darel Dieringer, couldn’t compete in the second annual Coca-Cola 600 due to a conflict with a tire supplier, promoter Joe Littlejohn alerted the owner to Pearson, who was making a living doing roofing work.
The latter jumped into Fox’s car and won the ‘61 Coca-Cola 600 by two laps — his first series visit to Victory Lane.
It’s a routine Pearson would become accustomed to, racking up three series titles and second-place on the all-time wins list, with 105.
Gordon, currently sixth on the all-time wins list with 82 victories, raced to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory in the 1994 Coca-Cola 600.
As the reigning Raybestos Rookie of the Year, Gordon won the pole for the ‘94 Coca-Cola 600 with a track-record run. But after leading the first lap, he stayed invisible for much of the race, avoiding the attrition rate plaguing other drivers.
Gordon didn’t re-take the lead until Lap 300, and then only for two laps. He surged back in front for good on Lap 392, beating runner-up Rusty Wallace by nearly four seconds.
Labonte, the 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, was just getting started in 1995, his third full-time season. Then driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, he won his first series race in the ‘95 Coca-Cola 600, after starting on the outside pole.
His finish was a bit of a classic. He won by a whopping 6.28 seconds over runner-up and older brother Terry Labonte, the 1984 series champion. The elder Labonte would win his second series title a year later, in 1996.
“Memorial Day is huge for motorsports and obviously for our veterans and military,” Bobby Labonte said. “So, it’s a neat deal. Now that we live here and we race in it, it’s pretty neat. It meant a lot to win the Coke 600.”
Though he didn’t win the Coca-Cola 600 in his title season, the younger Labonte figured in Kenseth’s career-first victory that season.
Kenseth, who would win the 2003 series title, won the 2000 Coca-Cola 600 as a rookie. He edged Bobby Labonte by 0.573 seconds.
The Coca-Cola 600 also has been the race of choice for series debuts. Those drivers who turned their first official NASCAR Sprint Cup laps in the Memorial Day event at LMS include:
Dale Earnhardt (1975) finished 22nd;
Janet Guthrie (1976) finished 15th;
Michael Waltrip (1985) finished 28th;
Elliott Sadler (1998) finished 42nd;
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1999) finished 16th.
Guthrie’s debut also made history. She became the first female driver to race on a superspeedway in NASCAR competition.
It’s Johnson’s House, But Edwards And Kyle Busch May Have A Foot In The Door
The obvious favorite at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is Jimmie Johnson.
He’s the only driver with an average finish under 10.0 (his is 8.9).
He’s the only driver with a Driver Rating over 110.0 (his is 117.1). And he’s the only driver with an Average Running Position under 10.0 (his is 7.2).
But two other drivers in particular seem poised to steal Johnson’s “King of Lowe’s Motor Speedway” crown: Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.
Neither have won, but theirs statistics suggest it is just a matter of time.
Edwards has the second-best average finish – 10.8, the only other driver close to average a top-10 finish.
Likewise, his career Loop Data statistics at LMS are strong.
He has a Driver Rating of 89.0 (seventh-best), an Average Running Position of 16.8 (eighth), 61 Fastest Laps Run (13th), a series-high 604 Green Flag Passes and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 51.6% (10th).
Busch seems even more likely to nab his first LMS win, which would fit his success spectrum. He has 15 wins, and only at Bristol Motor Speedway is he a repeat winner. It’s almost as if Busch loves the element of surprise.
But if he wins at LMS, few will be shocked.
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Busch has finished in the top four in each of the last three LMS races, and has led at least one lap in the last five races there.
Busch’s Loop Data statistics are among the best. He is the only other driver beside Johnson to earn a Driver Rating over 100.0. His is 100.4.
Additionally, Busch has an Average Running Position of 12.2 (third-best), 183 Fastest Laps Run (third-most), an average Green Flag Speed of 176.233 mph (second-fastest) and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 75.1% (third).
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