A tough race and elite atmosphere: What makes the Coca-Cola 600 important for NASCAR
A victory at the Coca-Cola 600 is one of the biggest on the NASCAR calendar — not just because the spring race at Charlotte Motor Speedway is the longest of the season, though that in itself is a challenge.
The sun will probably be shining when the green flag is waved just past 6 p.m. Sunday — beaming into the drivers’ eyes as they come off Turn 4 — before the checkered flag comes beneath the night sky.
The daytime-to-nighttime, 600-mile marathon will kick off the second half of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, which has already seen eight different drivers win races and likely secure spots in the playoffs.
“That’s obviously a long night,” Ryan Blaney, reigning Coca-Cola 600 winner, recalled recently. “It was nice for it to all come together. And then being from just down the road was super cool with my family there and a bunch of buddies, so it would be nice to do it again. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
Blaney, who grew up in High Point, was in the midst of a 59-race winless streak when he made it to Victory Lane at the conclusion of NASCAR’s longest race in 2023.
His triumph at Charlotte catapulted the 30-year-old driver into the Cup Series playoffs — barely. But, that’s all he needed.
Coke 600 to Cup Series champion
Blaney is not the first driver to translate a Coke 600 win into a series championship. Two years before Blaney went on to win his Cup Series championship, Kyle Larson dominated the 2021 Coke 600.
Larson, who is also attempting to run the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, went on to win his first NASCAR title. He won a record 10 races that season.
Coke 600 winners have also fared well in seasons following their victories.. Martin Truex Jr. (2016) and Kyle Busch (2018) won the 600-mile race a year before winning the Cup Series title.
Denny Hamlin, currently third in the series in points and tied with Larson for most wins, won the Coke 600 in 2022.
A marathon in NASCAR’s hometown
William Byron, this year’s Daytona 500 champion who was born and raised in the Queen City, has plenty of memories watching this race.
He was having a conversation with one of his childhood friends recently about how cool the Speed Street is, and how much the pre-race buzz adds to the event. Now title-sponsored by BetMGM, Speed Street opens Friday and will feature performances from Hairball and Kameron Marlowe.
“It just creates a really fun atmosphere,” Byron said. “Getting to drive back home after this race and just sleep in your own bed.”
Four stages, 400 laps, 600 miles — one winner
Sunday’s race around the 1.5-mile quad-oval in Concord will be broken up into four stages of 100 laps each. Most NASCAR races include shorter Stages 1 and 2, followed by a lengthy green-flag run representing the Final Stage.
It’s an intimidating race when you run it for the first time, Noah Gragson explained recently. But with how durable Cup cars have gotten, there’s a renewed mindset on how drivers prepare for a race of this length.
“Actually, the back straightaway is downhill and the front straightaway is uphill,” Gragson said. “You wouldn’t know that, but if you ride a bicycle, it’s like a two-gear difference if you kept the same RPM. Up the hill you need to downshift two gears to carry the same RPM, the same miles an hour. We don’t really feel that inside the car, but it’s definitely a challenging racetrack.
“And then 600 miles, the mental side of it. You need to be 100-percent focused until the end.”
