Lifelong Coca-Cola 600 fans struggle to adapt
CONCORD, N.C. — Harry and Judy Wiley plan to walk down their driveway in Johnson City, Tennessee today, climb inside their 39-foot motorhome, flip on the television and do the best they can to enjoy NASCAR’s CocaCola 600 — a staple of their Memorial Day weekend for decades.
It won’t be the same as being in North Carolina.
“To me, I feel lost,” Harry Wiley said.
The crown jewel race will go on as planned as NASCAR cranks up its schedule following a 10-week shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic. There are 20 races scheduled through June 21 but NASCAR does not plan to allow spectators.
It’s heartbreaking for the Wileys, who have made the yearly pilgrimage to Charlotte Motor Speedway since the late 1970s to see the longest race on the NASCAR calendar. They spend about 18 days every May camping at the track and reuniting with lifelong friends amid the backdrop of auto racing.
The Wileys plan their entire year around the event.
“When I pull into the Charlotte Motor Speedway every year it’s like the golden gates of heaven to me,” said Wiley, who is 73. “So this is like losing a friend. I have nothing to do now. I look forward to this so much.”
The race can draw as many as 100,000 spectators, though numbers have dwindled in recent years. This will be the first time no one is there besides the tenants of a 52-unit condominium tower located outside the first turn.
The speedway is offering fans a 120% credit toward future races or fans can choose a full refund.
“This is the most bittersweet of circumstances for our entire team at the speedway,” said Scott Cooper, the speedway’s vice president of communications. “We work year-round to produce memorable experiences for our fans. The last thing we would ever want to is to run a race without spectators but these are unusual times. But it is rewarding for our staff to know we’re at least playing a big role in bringing the races back to television.“
Mike Kleban, a 78-yearold fan who lives a few miles from the track in Harrisburg, North Carolina, has attended the last 54 Coca-Cola 600 races. He dreads the thought of his streak coming to an end.
“I asked the folks at the track if they would let me in at the start of the race to watch the first three or four laps just to keep (the streak) alive,” Kleban said with a laugh. “But they said, ‘We can’t do that.’”
Kleban feels even worse for the military service members he annually hosts as part of the speedway’s Memorial Day weekend tribute to the armed services.
Last year, Kleban and friends rented 20 infield campsites and hosted more than 60 members of the military and their families, many of whom are a part of the Wounded Warrior program.
■ 1905 — Harry Payne Whitney’s Tanya becomes the second filly to win the Belmont Stakes. Ruthless was the first filly to win the Belmont, in 1867. Whitney would also win the Kentucky Derby with a filly, Regret, in 1915.
■ 1935 — In the first major league night game, the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 before 25,000 fans in Cincinnati.
■ 1936 — Tony Lazzeri of the New York Yankees drives in 11 runs with a triple and three home runs — two of them grand slams — in a 25-2 rout of the Philadelphia A’s.
■ 1967 — The AFL grants a franchise to the Cincinnati Bengals.
■ 1980 — Bobby Nystrom’s overtime goal gives the New York Islanders a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 for their first Stanley Cup title.
■ 1981 — The Indianapolis 500 ends in controversy when Mario Andretti, who finished second to Bobby Unser, is declared the winner because Unser broke a rule during a slowdown period near the end of the race. The decision is later reversed, giving Unser credit for the victory, but he is fined $40,000.
■ 1986 — The Montreal Canadiens win their 23rd Stanley Cup, beating the Calgary Flames 4-3 in five games.
■ 1988 — The fourth game of the Stanley Cup finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins is postponed with the score tied 3-3 and 3:23 left in the second period when a power failure hits Boston Garden.
■ 1992 — Al Unser Jr. wins the closest finish at the Indianapolis 500, beating Scott Goodyear by 43-thousandths of a second, barely half a car length. Lyn St. James, the second woman to race at Indy, finishes 11th.
■ 1995 — Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley becomes the sixth pitcher to record 300 saves, in a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
■ 2001 — John Lieber of the Chicago Cubs tosses a 79-pitch, one-hit shutout in a 3-0 blanking of the Reds. It’s the first shutout of the Reds in an NL-record 208 games.
■ 2009 — Brazil’s Helio
Castroneves becomes the ninth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 three times. Castroneves pulls away over the final laps to beat Dan Wheldon of England and Danica Patrick, who eclipsed her fourthplace finish as a rookie in 2005 by crossing the strip of bricks in third.
■ 2010 — Lukas Lacko of Slovakia beats American Michael Yani in a 71-game match that ties for the most in the French Open since tiebreakers were instituted in 1973. Lacko wins 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 12-10 in a first-round match that takes two days to complete.
■ 2014 — Maya Moore scores 30 points on a record-setting night as the Minnesota Lynx defeats the New York Liberty 87-82. Moore becomes the first player ever to score at least 30 points in four straight games.
■ 2014 — Real Salt Lake stretches its unbeaten streak to 12 games with a 0-0 draw with FC Dallas, matching Major League Soccer’s record undefeated streak to start the season with a 6-0-6 mark.