2008 Coca-Cola 600

The 2008 Coca-Cola 600, the 49th running of the race, is the longest race on the NASCAR schedule in terms of distance by miles. It was the 12th race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and was held at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, outside of Charlotte on Sunday, May 25. The USA telecast on Fox started at 5 PM US EDT with radio being handled by Sirius Satellite Radio and the Speedway Motorsports, Inc.-owned Performance Racing Network on terrestrial radio stations.

Background

Lowe's Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the Bank of America 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.

1980 Coca-Cola 500

The 1980 Coca-Cola 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on July 27, 1980, at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, U.S.

By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore. Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.

Summary

It took four hours and one minute to complete 200 laps; Neil Bonnett defeated Buddy Baker by 6/10ths of a second. There were forty American born drivers in the race. Travis Tiller achieved the last-place finish of the race due to a problem in the ignition system during the pace laps of the race. Five cautions were given out for 26 laps while 49 lead changes took place from the green flag to the checkered flag. The other drivers who finished in the top ten were: Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, Terry Labonte, Kyle Petty, Dave Marcis, Richard Childress (now the owner of Richard Childress Racing), and Ricky Rudd. Most of the drivers competed with the Chevrolet marquee.

2014 Coca-Cola 600

The 2014 Coca-Cola 600, the 55th running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on May 25, 2014, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Contested over 400 laps on the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) oval, it was the twelfth race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Jimmie Johnson won the race, his first of the season and fourth overall Coca-Cola 600 win, while Kevin Harvick finished second and Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top five. The top rookies of the race were Austin Dillon (16th), Kyle Larson (18th) and Cole Whitt (27th).

Previous race

Two weeks prior at Kansas Speedway, Jeff Gordon held off a last lap charge by Kevin Harvick to win the 5-hour Energy 400. The first night Cup race at Kansas Speedway was delayed about 30 minutes by rain, saw a bank of backstretch lights go out and featured two multi-car crashes. It ended with Gordon, the points leader, scoring his 89th career Sprint Cup victory. "I don't know what it is about this team, this '24' car and us here at Kansas on inaugural days, but I love this place," Gordon said. "What an incredible job ... by this race team. They have been giving me the best racecars all year long. I'm going to be 43 year this, but I feel like I'm 25." Kevin Harvick had one of the strongest cars and was leading before he made his final pit stop but exited behind Gordon and couldn’t get around him the rest of the race, finishing second. "What put us in second is I just didn't get down pit road very good. I was paying attention to the fuel pressure gauge instead of the pit lights."