Welcome to racing tradition and history.
The impassioned stars of the NASCAR Cup Series share the honor of running 600 miles over 400 laps around Charlotte Motor Speedway after rumbling in the foothills of North Wilkesboro.
Last week’s All-Star Race took place at the newly-renovated and repaved North Wilkesboro Speedway. Contact in lap 1 on the exit of turn 2 materialized in a caution when Kyle Busch mowed down Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in turn 1 on the event’s second circuit.
Stenhouse’s vehicle sustained terminal damage, leaving the steaming metal carcass in Busch’s pit stall to show his displeasure. The 2023 Daytona 500 champion made a promise to confront the prickly veteran at the conclusion of the race.
The race continued with pole sitter Joey Logano casually outdueling his competition before approaching lapped traffic as the race crept towards the halfway point.
Logano’s strongest competitor of the evening was a determined Bubba Wallace. The 23XI driver advanced through the All-Star Open and clung to the outside of Logano’s Pennzoil yellow submarine until the race’s next scheduled caution when Wallace’s Alltroo Camry maintained his lead-lap standing.
Sunday’s race featured the introduction of the Option Tire, a new experimental compound that is built softer than the typical Prime Tire teams race most Sundays, but it appeared that the softer red Option Tire endured the wear and tear of the new track surface better than the tire giant anticipated.
The result was a hungry Logano pacing the field for all but one of the race’s 200 laps, claiming his second All-Star Race victory and visiting winner’s circle for the first time since Atlanta last March.
The two-time champ acknowledged the Goodyear testing he participated in during the spring was the primary reason for his domination, saying he ran 800 laps in the session.
Kyle Larson’s Indy 500 qualifying delayed the start of the event by a little bit. After putting Arrow McLaren’s #17 Chevy into the Fast 6 in qualifying, the 2021 Coke 600 winner hopped in his HendrickCars Chevy Camaro and logged a 4th-place finish, unable to defend his win from last year.
The real story of the All-Star Race was all the stars seen by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s dad when the JTG Daugherty driver met Kyle Busch at his hauler while Logano celebrated. A quick conversation broke out between the two as Ricky insisted he didn’t put the RCR pilot in the fence on the first lap.
Then, Stenhouse reared back and swung at Busch’s head before security and crew members inserted themselves between the two angered men.
Being held on his back by a security guard, the Kroger driver — decked out in a grey t-shirt and yellow swimming trunks — craned his head upward to see his father follow his son’s lead and swing at Kyle.
Childress’ top signing might have avoided being hit by both Stenhouses, but I was under the impression that Kyle connected on a few wallops aimed at the elder Stenhouse.
Social media caught wind of the feud, putting NASCAR in front of multitudes around the world. The confrontation handed NASCAR another viral moment in an already-packed year of historic battles both on and off the race track.
Bucking conventional wisdom and decrying their own promotion of the fracas, NASCAR fined Stenhouse a record-breaking $75,000 and suspended two of his crewmen for their involvement in the incident. This decision has come under fire from several drivers, including Daniel Suarez and Chase Elliott.
Meanwhile, Busch dodged any punishments, ending all talk of a possible suspension for either driver.
Homecoming arrives at the best possible time as NASCAR’s snarling beasts take their twisted road show to the heart of Concord, North Carolina for the 65th edition of the Coca-Cola 600.
Originally dubbed the “World 600”, the 400-lap affair grinds the usually energetic and prepped horde of jockeys down as the day coalesces into the cool, inviting evening.
Teams will be tasked with the unenviable position of keeping up with an ever-changing, dynamic circuit as the track’s decreasing temperatures will change the balance over the course of the enervating 600-mile trek.
Cars descend from the banking of turn 4 onto the flat quad-oval frontstretch, crossing the finish line before cranking left through the first dogleg. A short chute emerges until ripping into the 24 degree turns 1 &2.
Committing to the top, the middle, the bottom, or somewhere in between matters very little. If a driver can get enough clean air on their car and bide their time, they’ll march to the front by making moves down the 1,500-foot backstretch.
A bump welcomes the huffing and puffing mechanical boars into the third turn (also banked at 24 degrees) with speed being made up by wrapping the apron or skirting the outside wall.
Turn 4’s exit narrows up and pushes cars taking the low line towards the outside wall, and a final short straight plays opener to a final left-handed dogleg that points the car to the finish line.
Charlotte’s most recent repave occurred prior to the 2006 installment of the Coke 600, thus giving the track a renewed reputation for multi-groove racing and promoting tire wear on the 1.5-mile intermediate.
North Carolina’s crown jewel race follows up both Formula’s annual trip to Monte Carlo for the Monaco Grand Prix as well as the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500-mile race for the NTT IndyCar Series.
With a complete look at the race track, let’s take a look at the weather and fast facts for NASCAR’s marathon.
The Weather & Fast Facts
Concord, North Carolina’s 1.5-mile intermediate quad-oval sat dormant last year on The Day of Racing as the Cup Series played spectator to showers that postponed the event to Memorial Day.
That was the third instance in the last 10 years that rainfall arrived in Concord on race day, but with just a 20% chance of showers on Sunday, fans should expect to see cars on track, on-time.
Tomorrow’s forecast prepares us for a hot spring day topping out at 89°F dropping all the way down to 75°F in the heart of the night, both exceeding the average highs for this race weekend over the past decade.
While the World 600 is notorious for its attrition, the past two events have been especially caution-filled, combining for 34 cautions and 173 caution laps.
These are a far cry from averages of 10 cautions for 54 laps under yellow, so it’s anyone’s guess if tomorrow’s crown jewel event carries the two-year streak of cautions since the introduction of the NextGen car.
NASCAR’s late-May classic is conducive to passing. Even in the oft-derided NA18D aero package run from 2019-21, the field put on a show by eclipsing 3000 green-flag passes in two of those events.
The 10 previous Coke 600 races saw averages of 3,323 green-flag passes as well as 23 lead changes, with both NextGen-era races seeing the point change hands 31 times.
If you’re looking for a brief race, this might not be your cup of tea as the World 600 lasts nearly four-and-a-half hours, longer than any other race on the NASCAR calendar. Patience wears thin in drivers’ minds as the laps tick off the scoring pylon, resulting in two Overtime finishes over the past four years.
The final caution for the past decade comes out with 46 to go with all but one in the last five events coming within the final 25 laps, so odds are this race will provide opportunities to put on fresh tires before the final sprint to the finish.
Today’s race is slated to start at 6pm Eastern time on FOX with three stage breaks taking place at the end of lap 100, lap 200, and lap 300, meaning 30 stage points and three additional Playoff points are on offer.
With the Coca-Cola Company’s pleas to “try it first”, let’s head on over to the refined version of The Odds with betting lines from DraftKings.
The Odds
I teased a change in the format that this will be done to make it more relevant to the season rather than playing entirely into the oddsmakers’ predictions.
I’ll present the top-3 favorites that are already in the Playoffs as well as two drivers not in the postseason yet to give a more holistic approach to each race weekend.
We’ll be starting with who else other than Mr. Double himself, Kyle Larson (+550). Mr. Hendrick’s brightest star is set to shine against open-wheel racing’s finest fleet in the Indy 500 earlier in the day before flying into Charlotte for 600 more miles of action.
Larson’s 2021 victory in this even saw the Elk Grove native scorch the competition, winning all three stages before capturing his second of what would become a 10-win championship campaign.
Looking to equal his feats of three years ago, the 31-year-old former champion rolls into his 15th start at the speedway with six top-10s at the Charlotte oval, so if Larson outlasts the fatigue of driving 1100 miles, he has a great chance to complete the Double and win not just one, but both legs.
Next in line is Denny Hamlin (+500). The JGR vet followed in Joey Logano’s tire tracks for the final segment of last week’s All-Star Race, and after a busy week as 23XI team owner, Hamlin aims to get back to his day job this Sunday evening.
His 2022 win in the series’ most taxing affair came with its fair share of detractors as Hamlin watched as practically every contending driver in front of him wrecked, but make no mistake: Denny Hamlin competes every time he arrives in the 704.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s senior driver may not be around when the green-and-white checkered flags fly in the middle of the race as he’s only accumulated 59 stage points in his eight eligible starts. That said, the Mavis Tires & Brakes machine seeks to deny Larson of the chance to win.
Rounding out the locked-in Playoff drivers is Hamlin’s driver Tyler Reddick (+800). In his second year at 23XI, Reddick scooted by Brad Keselowski and a wrecking Michael McDowell to win at Talladega.
Now, the Corning, California driver returns to the Charlotte oval where his #45 Tar Heel blue Toyota Camry competed with Ryan Blaney and William Byron for the win, ultimately ending up 5th.
Reddick wheels into the weekend as the driver with the highest average finish at the Charlotte oval, finishing in the top-10 in all but one start, so the Beast Unleashed car should be lurking up against the fence as the night sky cools the track.
My two non-secure picks are Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch. Truex (+1100) delivered an all-time thumping to the field in the 2016 version of this event and tacked on another 600 to his resume in 2019 when he came back from a blown tire. I’d be the opposite of shocked if Truex found a way to capture a third win here Sunday.
Writer’s Pick
As I alluded to earlier, Kyle Busch (+1800) is my pick to win this year’s Coca-Cola 600.
Last week’s pick Joey Logano made good on my confidence by becoming my second chosen winner of the year behind Daniel Suarez in Atlanta.
After Busch’s fist-flinging antics in North Wilkesboro, the two-time champion needs something to go his way as he’s reached the halfway point of the season without a win for the second time in five seasons.
The all-time great put together a solid effort in the Xfinity race this weekend, and that extra track time could be pivotal for him, Chase Elliott, Noah Gragson, and Ty Gibbs going into NASCAR’s longest night.
With all of the attention on Kyle Larson this weekend, I think another Kyle is going to grab headlines for the second-straight week, this time by punching his Playoff ticket and hoisting up a second World 600 trophy.
(Top Photo Credit: Herald-Journal)
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