The very first NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway was 600 miles, and I may or may not have triggered some memories with the featured photo.
More than 50 years later, we’re still doing it, and it’s part of the Greatest Day in Motorsports, during which Sunday (May 29) features Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, the NTT IndyCar Series’ Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 unfolding back-to-back-to-back. It’s a trio of superlatives: F1’s most prestigious race, Indy’s biggest event of the season and NASCAR’s longest contest in terms of distance.
Bridging evening to sunset to night, the endurance event is the longest race on the NASCAR schedule, period, and has been run to its full distance or farther (thanks to caution laps) all but five times. That quintet attributes its shortenings to three instances of rain, one early-morning noise ordinance and an energy crisis.
It’s had its share of chaotic and memorable moments: 2011 featured the cars of Mark Martin and David Gilliland getting stuck together after crashing, Landon Cassill‘s No. 09’s splitter being violently ripped off by the infield grass and leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. running out of gas in the final corner, extending his winless drought.
Dominance has been key of late, though: three of the past six Coca-Cola 600s have featured the winner out front for well over 300 of the 400 scheduled laps. Defending winner Kyle Larson led 327 last year en route to his first victory in the race, while Kyle Busch (2018) and Martin Truex Jr. (2016) led 377 and 392 circuits in their wins, respectively.
In the beginning, though … there was chaos.
Kidding. Joe Lee Thompson won the first-ever Cup race contested there, a 600-miler (then called the World 600) featuring 60 cars, just 18 of which were running at the end, and six disqualifications before the race even started. The 600 was Johnson’s second (and last) triumph at…
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