Memorial Day Weekend is this week and NASCAR will continue its tradition of the longest race of the season to celebrate, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers and teams have been in Charlotte for more than a week for last weekend’s All-Star Race and remain at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the next points race of the 2017 season. The race is 400 laps around the 1.5-mile track for a total of 600 miles of racing.
That means the cars, drivers and teams are in for a long competition. They will all need to be ready for the demands of the race in order to have a chance to win one of NASCAR’s crown jewel races.
The track has plenty of room to race side-by-side and is big enough to reach speeds of 200 mph at points. The cars will need to be set up with speed and handling to make sure that they can pass without the fear of getting lose and spinning out.
The drivers will need to be focused and remain that way for a long race. The lack of focus can result in a driver losing control or not reacting fast enough to avoid being caught in a crash caused by another driver losing control.
The teams will need that focus to adjust the cars to the changing track conditions in the pits as the race transitions from day to night. Any mistake by the crew on a pit stop could cost valuable time and positions on the track.
Which active drivers have performed the best at Charlotte Motor Speedway over their NASCAR Cup Series careers? Let’s take a look…
Top 10 Driver Ratings at Charlotte Motor Speedway
- Jimmie Johnson – 110.6
- Kyle Busch – 104.8
- Denny Hamlin – 95.6
- Matt Kenseth – 95.2
- Kasey Kahne – 95.1
- Joey Logano – 93.0
- Chase Elliott – 90.6
- Brad Keselowski – 89.7
- Kevin Harvick – 89.7
- Kurt Busch – 87.4
(NOTE: Driver Ratings compiled from 2005-2016 races {22 total} among active drivers at Charlotte Motor Speedway)
Jimmie Johnson is the all-time leader on the wins list at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has scored a total of eight victories at the track including the last time the NASCAR Cup Series raced at Charlotte in the fall of 2016. Half of Jimmie’s Charlotte wins (4) have been in the Coca-Cola 600.
Kasey Kahne has done well at Charlotte in his racing career with four wins at the track in NASCAR’s top division of which three of them have been wins in the 600.
Kevin Harvick has two Coca-Cola 600 wins and three total wins at Charlotte.
Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray have a pair of Charlotte wins each. One of Matt’s wins is a Coca-Cola 600 win while Jamie has yet to be out front at the end of the 600-mile race.
Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. can each claim a single Coca-Cola 600 victory in their careers as their only Charlotte win. Martin will be defending his win of this race last season this coming weekend.
Three active drivers have scored a single win at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Cup Series careers, but those wins were not in the longest race of the season. Those drivers are Clint Bowyer, Bard Keselowski and Joey Logano.
If you ask the NASCAR drivers what are the races they want to win the most each season, the answer would be more times than not the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Coca-Cola 600. These three races are pretty much the triple-crown of NASCAR racing.
You know that the teams and drivers will be doing everything they can (and even perhaps some things they don’t know if they can) to be the winner this weekend. We will see what happens and who gets to claim a crown jewel victory for their racing resume when the green flag starts the Coca-Cola 600 this Sunday, May 28th at 5:00 PM central time (6:00 PM eastern time) in the Memorial Day Weekend NASCAR tradition.
To all of the past and present members of our military, Thank You!
To those who paid the ultimate price for this Country and our Freedom, Thank You will never be enough…
By: Buck Stevens
