Practice #1 : Charlotte Motor Speedway

• Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service -

Coca-Cola 600 sells out for third consecutive year

The 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 is sold out, Charlotte Motor Speedway officials announced this week. This marks the third consecutive sellout for the legendary test of man and machine at America’s Home for Racing, with fans attending this year from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, plus 14 foreign countries including Australia, Tanzania and the Czech Republic.

Like the drivers at the end of 600 miles, reserved grandstand and premium seating, standing-room-only ticket and reserved camping inventory is exhausted.

“For more than six decades, the Coca-Cola 600 has long been a crown jewel event for our sport,” said Greg Walter, executive vice president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Outstanding on-track action, combined with a full weekend of music and patriotic military salutes on the eve of Memorial Day make this a bucket-list event for so many.

“Fans from around the world continue to make Charlotte their destination not only to take in the grand finale of the greatest day in motorsports, but to enjoy the NASCAR Hall of Fame, motorsport charity activities and the many fan days at the race shops across the region. May in Charlotte and Concord is a motorsports celebration and we’re honored to be a part of it.”

Matchbox Twenty to rock NASCAR fans prior to Coca-Cola 600 –Cranking out hit after hit for more than three decades, the multi-time GRAMMY Award-nominated band,Matchbox Twenty, is set to rock the infield ofCharlotte Motor Speedwaywith an electric pre-race concert on Sunday, May 26. The platinum-recording band will rev up America’s Home for Racing before the green flag falls on the historic 65th running of theCoca-Cola 600 with a 60-minute set, featuring songs woven into American pop culture's fabric with generational hits including the diamond-certified, 12x-platinum “Yourself or Someone Like You,” quadruple-platinum “Mad Season,” double-platinum “More Than You Think You Are” and gold-certified “North,” which marked their first No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

“Matchbox Twenty’s music embodies the meaning of rock and roll,” said Greg Walter, executive vice president and general manager at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “We are excited for fans to experience the magic of Matchbox Twenty at the track. Their live performances are legendary and it's a fantastic addition to an already spectacular race weekend.”

For their first album in 11 years and fifth overall LP “Where The Light Goes,” the band that includes Rob Thomas, Brian Yale, Paul Doucette and Kyle Cook are ready to rock the house at Charlotte Motor Speedway and celebrate their journey throughout the past 30 years.

“We’ve heard there’s no place like Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day Weekend to get NASCAR Nation rocking,” said Thomas. “We’re looking forward to bringing the party to the fans and having a blast to kick off the Coca-Cola 600.”

The pre-race concert, which will take place on the infield of the 1.5-mile superspeedway, is free for fans with a Sunday Coca-Cola 600 ticket. Fans can upgrade to a Track Pass for stage-front access to the concert and driver introductions.

Van Gisbergen to make first start on a 1.5-mile track in the Cup Series –New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen busted on the NASCAR scene last season with his big win in the inaugural Chicago Street Race and this season is running full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and doing a limited schedule in the NASCAR Cup Series including this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway – his debut on a 1.5-mile track in the series. This weekend, van Gisbergen will be piloting the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet alongside crew chief Travis Mack.

So far this season, van Gisbergen has made two NASCAR Cup Series starts for Kaulig Racing, posting a 20^th-place finish at COTA and a 28th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

Other drivers back in the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend are Ty Dillon, driving the No. 50 Team AmeriVet Chevrolet and JJ Yeley, driving the No. 44 NY Race Team Chevrolet.

Milestone Watch: Charlotte Motor Speedway –Below are a few of the possible milestones that can be achieved this weekend and over the next few weeks in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Starts

Corey Lajoiewill make his 250th NASCAR Cup Series career start at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend becoming the 116th different driver to make 250 or more starts in the series. In Lajoie’s previous 249 starts he has posted four top fives and nine top 10s.

Chase Elliottwill make his 300th NASCAR Cup Series career start at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend becoming the 103rd different driver in the series to make 300 or more starts. In Elliott’s 299 previous starts, he has won a NASCAR Cup Series championship (2020), posted 19 wins, 98 top fives, 158 top 10s and 12 poles. He has also led 5,226 laps.

This weekend at Charlotte, Elliott will look to become the seventh different driver to win on their 300th start, joining Rusty Wallace, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Kyle Larsonis expected to make his 350th NASCAR Cup Series career start at Nashville Superspeedway.

Austin Cindricis expected to make his 100th NASCAR Cup Series career start at Pocono Raceway

Kyle Buschis expected to make his 700th NASCAR Cup Series career start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Wins

Denny Hamlincurrently has 54 NASCAR Cup Series wins, if he were to win another race, he would tie NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time wins list with 55 victories each.

Martin Truex Jr.currently has 34 NASCAR Cup Series wins, if he were to win another race, he would tie Brad Keselowski for 24th on the all-time wins list with 35 victories each.

Joey Loganocurrently has 32 NASCAR Cup Series wins, if he were to win another race, he would tie NASCAR Hall of Famer Fireball Roberts for 27th on the all-time wins list with 33 victories each.

Kyle Larsoncurrently has 25 NASCAR Cup Series wins, if he were to win another race, he would tie Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Fred Lorenzen for 32nd on the all-time wins list with 26 victories each.

Laps Led

Eight drivers could reach milestones in laps led this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway (400 lap event).

If Hamlin were to reach 15,000 laps led, he would become the 12th driver all-time to accomplish the feat.

If Johnson were to reach 19,000 laps led, he would become the 10th driver all-time to accomplish the feat.

Crew Member Spotlight: Charlotte Motor Speedway Weekend –This weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway we wanted to highlight several of the team’s crew members that are from the surrounding areas of the track in North Carolina.

• Saturday, May 25th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Ty Gibbs scores first career NASCAR Cup pole in Coca-Cola 600 qualifying

Ty Gibbs saved the strongest performance of the day for the money lap in time trials for the Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Streaking around 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying session for NASCAR’s longest race, Gibbs covered the distance in 29.355 seconds (183.955 mph) to claim the first Busch Light Pole Award of his career.

Gibbs edged William Byron (183.580 mph) by 0.060 seconds to become the second youngest Coca-Cola 600 pole winner at 21 years old. Byron was roughly a month younger than Gibbs is now when he won the pole for the Memorial Day weekend race at age 21 in 2019.

“I’m really excited for it,” said Gibbs who a day earlier won the pole for Saturday’s BetMGM 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. “And hopefully I can go out there and get my first win tomorrow.

“It really helps to start up front in clean air — it’s really nice. And having that first pit stall as well is great also.”

Two of Gibbs’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammates qualified third and fourth, respectively, behind Byron — Christopher Bell (183.461 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. (182.871 mph). Truex had the fastest lap in the opening round at 182.902 mph but couldn’t improve in the second round.

Gibbs, on the other hand, cut 0.266 seconds off his first-round time when the pole was at stake.

Byron had three teammates in the top 10 — Chase Elliott (fifth fastest), Alex Bowman (sixth) and Kyle Larson (10th). Larson planned to leave for Indianapolis after Charlotte time trials in anticipation of running the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double.

Larson was fifth fastest in Indy 500 qualifying last Sunday.

Ross Chastain was seventh fastest in Coke 600 qualifying, followed by Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell (the only Ford to make the final round) and Larson.

Reddick, however, will not start in the spot he earned. His 23XI Racing team made unapproved adjustments to the underwing of the No. 45 Toyota after passing pre-race inspection.

NASCAR penalized the team with the ejection of car chief Michael Hobson, loss of pit selection and a pass-through penalty after starting from the rear of the field on Sunday.

Reddick still had to qualify so as not to have a tire advantage in the race. All cars must start the event on their scuffed qualifying tires.

• Coca-Cola 600
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Ty Gibbs
• Age: 21
• Team : No 54 - Monster Energy/Interstate Batteries Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Chris Gayle
• Ty Gibbs won the Pole Award for the Coca-Cola 600 with a lap of 29355 seconds, 183955 mph
• This is his first pole in 65 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his first pole and eighth top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in two races at Charlotte Motor Speedway
• William Byron (second) posted his eighth top-10 start of 2024 and his seventh in eight races at Charlotte Motor Speedway
• Christopher Bell (third) posted his third top-10 start at Charlotte Motor Speedway It is his seventh in 14 races this season
• Josh Berry (13th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Monday, May 27th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Christopher Bell wins rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600

A lightning delay that turned into a heavy rainstorm made a winner of Christopher Bell in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Not that Bell didn’t deserve the victory in the rain-shortened race, which NASCAR was forced to call after 249 of 400 laps were complete.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota started third, led a race-high 90 laps and won the second stage of the 14th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.

The decisive juncture in the Memorial Day weekend race came when Bell held off Darlington winner Brad Keselowski during a 10-lap run after a caution for Corey Lajoie’s spin in Turn 2 on Lap 229.

On the ensuing Lap 236 restart, Bell and Keselowski lined up side-by-side at the front of the field, with Bell prevailing and pulling out to a lead of roughly six car-lengths before NASCAR called the seventh caution for lightning in the area.

After the lightning came heavy rain, and though NASCAR attempted to dry the track when the rain subsided, heavy humidity thwarted efforts to do so in a timely manner.

As a result, Bell collected his second victory of the season, his first on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval and the eighth of his career.

The victory was a welcome momentum shift for Bell, who had finished outside the top 10 in five of his previous six races.

“Man, it feels so good—to win or lose—just to have a great race to go off of,” Bell said. “A race where we led laps. We were able to pass cars. We lost the lead at times and were able to drive back to the lead.

“We had great pit stops. It was a team effort, and it was amazing to have a good race. Hopefully, this is something we can build on and get back to being more consistent.”

Keselowski, who posted his third runner-up finish of the season, was convinced he had the fastest car.

“We just didn’t have time for it to play out,” said the driver of the No. 2 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford, who pressured Bell throughout the final 10-lap run before weather intervened.

Stage 1 winner William Byron ran third behind Bell and Keselowski, with Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Pole winner Ty Gibbs finished sixth after leading 74 laps, including the first 42 of the race. Chase Elliott finished seventh, followed by Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry.

After finishing 18th in his Indianapolis 500 debut, Kyle Larson arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway just before weather forced the stoppage. Larson intended to take over his No. 5 Chevrolet from Justin Allgaier, who had started the race at Charlotte because the Indy 500 was delayed by rain.

Allgaier was running 13th when the race was called, and Larson never had a chance to drive the car.

Defending race winner and reigning series champion Ryan Blaney slammed the outside wall in the second stage and exited the event after 143 laps.

“We’ll have to look if I hit something or… I don’t know,” Blaney said. “I just went into (Turn) 3 getting up to speed and blew a tire and hit the fence. It’s an unfortunate end to our night. That sucks.

“We’re not even halfway and just wanting to work on your stuff all night. I thought we were getting it a little better here and there, but won’t get a shot.”

• Drivers Entered: 40
• Laps Scheduled: 400
• Laps Actual: 249 - Race Shortened
• Margin of Victory: Under Caution Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 2 Minutes 7 Seconds
• Average Speed: 123.053
• Cautions: 7 for 46 laps
• Lead Changes: 21
• Green Flag Passes: 4,485 (22.1 passes per green flag lap)

• Coca-Cola 600
• Race Winner: Christopher Bell
• Age: 29
• Team : No 20 - Rheem Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Adam Stevens
• Christopher Bell won the Coca-Cola 600, his eighth victory in 158 Cup Series races
• This is his second victory and seventh top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in six races at Charlotte Motor Speedway
• Brad Keselowski (second) posted his 11th top-10 finish in 25 races at Charlotte Motor Speedway It is his seventh top-10 finish in 2024
• William Byron (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in eight races at Charlotte Motor Speedway
• Josh Berry (10th) was the highest finishing rookie
• Denny Hamlin leads the point standings by 5 points over Martin Truex Jr