AN EVOLVING RACE
Coca-Cola 600 used to be a race of attrition, now it’s all out for 400 laps
CONCORD, N.C. – Six hundred miles of racing. Really? Yes.
The concept, which will be renewed in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, apparently didn’t seem that alarming in 1960 when CMS builder Bruton Smith, seeking an unusual hook for the opening of his 1.5-mile track outside Charlotte, went the extra mile — actually, 100 of them.
Five hundred was the magic number in racing in those days. The Indianapolis 500 had established the distance — 500 miles for bigger tracks and 500 laps for shorter ones — with its classic race, and NASCAR fell into that pattern. Some tracks were so in
love with the number they arranged for their mailing addresses to be PO Box 500.
But Smith had bigger (longer) ideas. As originally planned, his first race would be going up against the Indy 500 for attention on Memorial Day weekend, and making it the longest race of the year would add some panache.
That plan dissolved in the race’s first year when track construction delays pushed the date of the initial 600 to June 19. Smith stuck with the distance, though, and the race turned into one of
the biggest fiascoes in NASCAR history.
Chunks of fresh asphalt popped out of the track surface during the marathon, damaging cars and destroying tires. NASCAR allowed teams to put makeshift screens on the front of the cars to protect radiators from the debris.
The race was something less than a thriller. Driver Jack Smith built a lead of seven laps, only to see his victory chances disappear when debris sliced a hole in his car’s fuel tank. Repairs were not successful, and Smith parked. The disappointment left him in tears.
Joe Lee Johnson rolled under the checkered flag first, 5 hours and 34 minutes after the start of the race. He had a four-lap lead over second-place Johnny Beauchamp, and only two other drivers were within 12 laps of the winner.
Sunday, 58 years later, they do it again. Four hundred laps. Six hundred miles. Major punishment for driver and car. In a period when shorter races are being discussed because of shorter attention spans and limited television windows, there has been no serious talk about shortening NASCAR’s longest race.
Over the years, the team and driver approach to the 600 has changed. For a large chunk of its history, the race was mainly about survival — protect your car, make it to the end and have a shot at winning.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip won the 600 five times from 1978 to 1989.
“When I won the 1989 race, cars could run 31 flat (31-second laps),” Waltrip said. “But the tires were about ready to blow out. We calculated that if we ran 32 flat that we wouldn’t have any trouble and the tires would last. It was like planning for a 24-hour race. We wanted to run 32 every lap. I didn’t run 31 flat until I had to.”
But weren’t drivers’ tongues hanging out after 600 miles?
“Our tongues hung out every week,” Waltrip said. “At the end of every race, you were exhausted. No power steering. No full-containment seats. The cars didn’t handle well. Ours were difficult to drive because of the nature of the car. Now the cars are hard to drive because they go so fast.”
Jeff Gordon, a freshly minted Hall of Famer and a three-time winner of the 600 in the mid-1990s, said approaches to the race changed from his early years (his first 600 was in 1993) after aerodynamic changes around the turn of the century made racing quite different on faster tracks.
“The first handful of years I drove in the 600, you couldn’t run hard all day because the balance of your car was so loose,” he said. “You had to think about the longevity of the race, yourself physically, the car, not being hard on the engine.
“But when the aerodynamics started to change drastically, falloff was not as bad with the tires. Then the track was repaved. The reliability of engines, tires, brakes and other components got so much better. You didn’t have to worry any more. By 2004 or so, you just went.”
The 600 now is typically so competitive that pampering cars for part of the race isn’t good strategy.
“It’s 400 laps as fast as the car will go,” Kevin Harvick said. “If you don’t do it that way, you’re going to wind up a lap down. You’re going to make a mistake throughout the day that you’re going to need a cushion to not wind up a lap down because it’s just such a long race.”