The NASCAR Sprint Cup tradition of racing the longest race of the year on Memorial Day Weekend continues with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway this Sunday.
Last week’s Sprint All-Star Race was the shortest race of the year, also held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That race was 110 laps in total and raced in four 25-lap segments with a 10-lap shoot-out at the end to determine the winner. That race tested both drivers’ and teams’ abilities to adjust quickly to have a shot at winning. It was Denny Hamlin and his team that proved to be the quickest in all categories to capture the Sprint All-Star win.
Since the race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the evening hours as this week’s race will be also, there will be some notes that the teams and drivers can use from last week to this week. However, the Coca-Cola 600 will also be very different in many ways from last week’s race.
This Sunday, May 24th the race will start in the sun (or at least daytime if there are clouds) and finish well under the cloak of the night under the lights of Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race runs nearly four times the laps that the All-Star race had with 400 laps scheduled to reach the 600 mile mark for the checkered flag.
That means the cars will need to handle well for a long time and the teams will need to adjust them to the changing track conditions as the night sets in and the air and track cool down. The drivers will need to adjust how they are driving the car as the conditions change to avoid wrecking or blowing up the engine in the later stages of the race.
Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick have been the kings of the mile-and-a-half intermediate tracks as of late. However, let’s take a look at the top ten in driver ratings at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
#1 – Jimmie Johnson 111.6 driver rating with 7 wins
#2 – Kyle Busch 106.7 driver rating with 0 wins
#3 – Kasey Kahne 100.8 driver rating with 4 wins
#4 – Matt Kenseth 95.5 driver rating with 2 wins
#5 – Denny Hamlin 92.8 driver rating with 0 wins
#6 – Jeff Gordon 91.6 driver rating with 5 wins
#7 – Carl Edwards 89.6 driver rating with 0 wins
#8 – Greg Biffle 88.7 driver rating with 0 wins
#9 – Joey Logano 88.4 driver rating with 0 wins
#10 – Brad Keselowski 86.5 driver rating with 1 win
As pointed out previously Jimmie and Kevin have been dominant on the intermediate tracks recently. Jimmie is obviously a serious threat to win at Charlotte having racked up seven wins and the highest driver rating. In fact, Jimmie is the defending winner of the 2014 Coca-Cola 600.
Kevin is not in the top ten for driver ratings at Charlotte, but he has won three times at the track including the fall Chase race at the track from last year. Add that to the fact that he is the defending Sprint Cup Champion and that makes him a serious threat for the win Sunday as well.
However, there are two drivers that I will be keeping an eye on through the 600-mile race at Charlotte this week. They are Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon.
Kasey has won four times at Charlotte and Jeff has five wins at the track. They have both done very well at times this year and had their share of misfortune at other times. Their Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson (3 wins) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1 win) have already secured a spot on the Chase Grid for this year. I have a feeling that either Kasey or Jeff could be a good bet to get the win this week and make it three drivers from Hendrick Motorsports on the Chase Grid.
Martin Truex Jr. is my dark horse pick for this week. While Martin has no wins, no top fives, only four top 10s and an average finish of 18.5 at Charlotte Motor Speedway during his NASCAR Sprint Cup career, he is second place in the point standings. He has managed to remain high in the point standings without a win for the 2015 season by being strong week in and week out. In the 11 races this season he has two top five finishes and ten top ten finishes. A couple of times it looked as though Martin could chase down the leader of the race if the race had been just a little bit longer. Well guess what … this weekend the race IS longer.
No matter which driver gets to celebrate in Victory Lane this weekend you can count on a few things for sure. The drivers and crews will be exhausted after racing for 600 miles. The fans could be equally worn out after watching the comers and goers over the 400 laps of racing. And, the race will likely have many thrills and spills before the checkered flag flies to bring the Memorial Day Weekend tradition to an end.
The excitement will begin at 5pm central time Sunday, May 24th in the Coca-Cola 600 live from Charlotte Motor Speedway.
By: Buck Stevens
