 Coca Cola History
With the new start time also came new challenges for the Coca-Cola 600; not only do race teams have to deal with the blistering Carolina heat during the day, but now, with considerable temperature changes at night, track conditions can became completely different. The nighttime portion of the Coca-Cola 600 is lit with a system which uses parabolic reflectors to minimize, if not completely eliminate, the dangerous glare that would otherwise be in the drivers' eyes.
Initially, the move of the race to early evening also increased the possibility of drivers being able to participate in both the Indy 500 and Coke 600, flying from Indianapolis to Charlotte as soon as the Indy race ended. The experts still disagree whether or not, for health and safety reasons, any driver should be allowed to race 1100 miles in one day but, beginning in 2005, this became fairly unimportant once the state of Indiana finally made the decision to observe daylight saving time. This left only about one hour between the end of the Indianapolis race and the start of the Charlotte race, and not nearly enough time to make it from one to the other.
Even though it is NASCAR’s longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600 has been the event in which many drivers tallied their first wins – including future champions David Pearson (1961), Jeff Gordon (1994), Bobby Labonte (1995), and Matt Kenseth (2000), as well as a couple without a championship yet at this point, such as Casey Mears (2007) and David Reutimann (2009).
Between the unique length of the race and all of the previous history behind it, there are plenty of reasons to come witness it at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Tickets for the next Coca-Cola 600 are a definite must for any NASCAR fan, so make plans today to be in Concord, North Carolina for the race on Sunday, May 30, 2010.
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