Memorial Day Weekend. Definitely one of the best weekends in auto racing. Where else can you sit on the couch and watch 1100 miles of auto racing. In NASCAR it’s definitely the most patriotic and Charlotte Motor Speedway knows how to pay tribute to the men and women who have died or still serve in the United States military.
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The Ford’s of Richard Petty Motorsports started on the front row in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, but it was the Chevrolet driven by Kasey Kahne that is celebrating the victory tonight. While Kahne didn’t have the strongest car for much of the race, that honor goes to Greg Biffle who led a race high 204 laps, he had the card with the most get up and go when it counted.
Chalk the extra motivation to win up to the 200th Cup win victory party that was held in honor of Rick Hendrick on Tuesday night. Kahne wasn’t on stage as drivers for the organization that have won a race for Hendrick, however; he was introduced as the new driver for the organization during the event. After the race, Kahne climbed out of his car and said “It’s so special and awesome to drive for Rick and Linda Hendrick, we’re making big strides.”
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While the race was very anticlimactic for the most part, four of the five cautions were for debris, the most exciting moment of the 600 miles was when 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart spun out on pit road and did a sideways burnout in order to avoid Brad Keselowski.
Biffle, the leader in points, looked good in the first half of the race but the car under-performed as the race went deeper into the night.
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The most disastrous portion of the night goes to Jimmie Johnson, who was having a great run, who dragged the fuel can out of his pit stall under green and had to serve a stop-and-go penalty.
Kahne is the ninth different winner in 12 races this season.
Note: This is the fastest Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Race finished in 3 hours, 51 minutes, 17 seconds. The last record was 3 hours, 56 minutes, 55 seconds in 1995.
The Sprint Cup Series will head to Dover next week for the FedEx 400. Race coverage will begin at 12:30 on FOX TV.
Unofficial Race Results:
1. Kasey Kahne
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Kyle Busch
4. Greg Biffle
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Carl Edwards
10. Matt Kenseth
11. Jimmie Johnson
12. Martin Truex, Jr.
13. Clint Bowyer
14. Ryan Newman
15. Paul Menard
16. Aric Almirola
17. Regan Smith
18. Landon Cassill
19. Jeff Burton
20. Juan Pablo Montoya
21. Jamie McMurray
22. Casey Mears
23. Joey Logano
24. Trevor Bayne
25. Tony Stewart
26. David Gililand
27. Kurt Busch
28. Bobby Labonte
29. Travis Kvapil
30. Danica Patrick
31. TJ Bell
32. Marcos Ambrose
33. AJ Allmendinger
34. Mark Martin
35. David Ragan
36. Michael McDowell
37. Scott Speed
38. Davis Stremme
39. Stephen Leicht
40. Dave Blaney
41. Joe Nemechek
42. Cole Whitt
43. Josh Wise
