The “Greatest Day of Racing” will take place Sunday as the green flag will wave in three marquee races across the world, one right after the other: the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. The latter event may provide the toughest challenge: Drivers will compete against each other for 400 laps and battle changing track conditions as the sun sets over the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway track in Concord, N.C.
Last week at Charlotte, Denny Hamlin led the final 10 laps of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race after beating the field off pit road (prematurely?) on the final restart to give Joe Gibbs Racing its first victory in the event since entering the Sprint Cup Series in 1992.
MORE: Classic photos from the Coca-Cola 600 | Coca-Cola 600 odds, driver analysis | Terry Labonte leads Hall of Fame class
In Sunday’s Cola-Cola 600, Hamlin will look to become the eighth driver to win both May Charlotte races. Jeff Gordon, meanwhile, will be seeking the first win of his final season on a track that took him to victory lane for the first time in his career almost 21 years ago.
There are not many places Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson would rather race than Charlotte Motor Speedway. Harvick has three wins and nine top two finishes in 15 starts at 1.5-mile tracks dating to last season. Johnson owns a track-record seven wins.
NASCAR’s longest race also welcomes the return of Kyle Busch to his first points-paying race since breaking his leg in February’s Xfinity Series race at Daytona.
The weekend’s races are Saturday’s Xfinity Series Hisense 300 and Sunday’s Cola-Cola 600.
The weekend schedule; all times Eastern:
THURSDAY
2:30 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, Fox Sports 1
4 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series practice, Fox Sports 1
5:30 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, Fox Sports 1
7:15 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, Fox Sports 1
SATURDAY
10 a.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, Fox Sports 1
11:15 a.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, Fox Sports 1
1 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice, Fox Sports 1
2:30 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series Hisense 300 (200 laps, 300 miles), Fox
SUNDAY
6 p.m.: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 (400 laps, 600 miles), Fox
Sprint Cup: 2014 Cola-Cola 600 recap
Last year, Johnson “finally” got his first win of the season. He beat out Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray.
Kurt Busch, who finished sixth in the Indy 500 earlier in the day, had an adventurous race. Starting at the rear of the field, he got lapped early, got his lap back and then suffered a tire rub after getting clipped on pit road. He then suffered a broken shock, and his engine soured and eventually blew on Lap 273, sending him to the garage. Busch finished 40th, coming up 194 miles short of his 1,100-mile goal.
The win was the 67th of Johnson’s career and his seventh at Charlotte, surpassing Bobby Allison for the most points wins at the track.
2014 Coca-Cola 600 results
(Start position in parentheses)
1. (1) Johnson, Chevrolet, 400 laps, 140.8 rating, 48 points, $465,626.
2. (11) Harvick, Chevrolet, 400, 128.2, 43, $304,313.
3. (12) Kenseth, Toyota, 400, 117.7, 42, $249,941.
4. (22) Edwards, Ford, 400, 90, 41, $174,980.
5. (26) McMurray, Chevrolet, 400, 100.4, 40, $186,219.
6. (16) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 400, 101.9, 38, $166,870.
7. (27) Gordon, Chevrolet, 400, 106.7, 38, $169,906.
8. (21) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 400, 83.5, 36, $150,834.
9. (7) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400, 84.7, 35, $164,761.
10. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400, 107.1, 35, $166,653.
11. (13) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400, 86.2, 34, $154,546.
12. (8) Joey Logano, Ford, 400, 95.2, 32, $151,501.
13. (18) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 400, 79.7, 31, $148,468.
14. (3) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 399, 85.2, 30, $131,660.
15. (42) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 399, 73.2, 29, $121,260.
16. (32) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 399, 70.3, 28, $156,696.
17. (5) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 399, 105.4, 27, $146,026.
18. (25) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 398, 71.8, 26, $134,680.
19. (10) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 398, 100.6, 26, $115,460.
20. (14) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 398, 58.8, 0, $103,435.
21. (24) Greg Biffle, Ford, 398, 63.6, 23, $146,385.
22. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 398, 78.9, 22, $112,985.
23. (20) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 398, 59.9, 21, $121,518.
24. (34) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 398, 55.6, 20, $126,643.
25. (15) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 398, 83.3, 19, $129,593.
26. (23) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 397, 57.9, 18, $137,310.
27. (31) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 397, 47.4, 17, $96,960.
28. (39) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 396, 40.8, 16, $113,893.
29. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 396, 51.8, 15, $126,255.
30. (30) Michael McDowell, Ford, 396, 44.1, 14, $97,685.
31. (35) David Ragan, Ford, 395, 43.2, 13, $118,793.
32. (19) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 395, 48.7, 0, $108,457.
33. (29) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 392, 34.1, 11, $98,760.
34. (38) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 390, 29.1, 0, $106,135.
35. (43) Blake Koch, Ford, 390, 28.5, 0, $95,485.
36. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 382, 35.6, 0, $95,385.
37. (17) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 378, 60.5, 7, $103,154.
38. (36) Ryan Truex, Toyota, engine, 303, 29.9, 6, $89,350.
39. (4) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, engine, 281, 63.5, 5, $95,850.
40. (28) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, engine, 271, 51.6, 4, $81,350.
41. (37) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, accident, 229, 30.4, 3, $77,350.
42. (41) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, engine, 162, 32.9, 2, $73,350.
43. (33) David Gilliland, Ford, accident, 160, 39.7, 1, $77,850.
Race statistics
Average speed of race winner: 145.484 mph
Time of race: 4 hours, 7 minutes, 27 seconds
Margin of victory: 1.272 seconds
Caution flags: 8 for 44 laps
Lead changes: 34 among nine drivers
Recent non-exhibition Charlotte winners (spring)
2014: Johnson
2013: Harvick
2012: Kahne
2011: Harvick
2010: Kurt Busch
Recent Charlotte winners (fall)
2014: Harvick
2013: Keselowski
2012: Bowyer
2011: Kenseth
2010: McMurray
Top five drivers at Charlotte since 2010 (10 races)
Harvick (three wins, eight top 10s, 6.0 average finish)
Hamlin (eight top 10s, one pole, 8.9 average finish)
Kenseth (one wins, six top 10s, 9.5 average finish)
Kyle Busch (eight top 10s, one pole, 10.4 average finish)
Johnson (one win, four top 10s, one pole, 16.0 average finish)
News and notes
— Kyle Busch’s 9.8 average running position, 106.7 driver rating and 177.219 mph average green-flag speed at Charlotte all rank second in the Sprint Cup Series.
— Landon Cassill will run 14 miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in uptown Charlotte after he drives in the Coca-Cola 600.
— In four races at 1.5-mile tracks this season, Harvick owns one win and four top two finishes and has led 34.1 percent of all laps (407 of 1,193).
— Fan favorite Earnhardt has never won in 30 career points races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Xfinity Series
Last year, 21-year-old Kyle Larson captured his second career series win in the HISTORY 300. He outlasted a bevy of NASCAR veterans, including second-place finisher Keselowski, third-place finisher Kyle Busch and fourth-place finisher Harvick.
Scott, Kenseth, Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher and Ty Dillon completed the top 10.
Camping World Truck Series
The series returns to action May 29 with the Lucas Oil 200 from Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del.
