Coca-Cola 600 offers huge test
CONCORD, N.C. – The demands for today involve much more than making left-handed turns with cars buzzing by you at speeds faster than 150 mph.
The Coca-Cola 600 is the NASCAR equivalent of a marathon mixed with a quirky stack of logistical obstacles. Expect blisters on the brain instead of the feet.
The race will stretch the patience and expertise of crew chiefs, who have to adjust to the dramatic effect of performance and handling in a race that starts in daylight shortly after 5 p.m. EDT and ends about five hours later, long after darkness has enveloped Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
It will push the limits of pit crews, who will bounce over the wall more often than usual because of a NASCAR mandate requiring teams to use 14-gallon fuel tanks instead of the standard 22-gallon tanks.
It will place inordinate demands of strength and stamina on drivers in a race that will last 600 miles and 400 laps.
“It’s going to be survival,” Jeff Gordon said before qualifying Thursday night. “You have to be smart. You have to be aggressive. You’re probably going to be a lot less aggressive during the day than at the end. It’s going to be like two different races: a day race and a night race.
“If we ever needed an intermission in a race, it’s this one. Drop the green at 5:30 or whatever time this race starts, then when the sun goes down at 7:30, you stop the race and give us a 10-minute break to make adjustments to the car.”
That won’t happen.
Everything will be on the fly.
If the race is run without any cautions – likely impossible – drivers would have to make 12 pit stops for fuel alone.
“It is going to be tough on all the guys with all the pit stops we’re going to be making,” Scott Riggs, the top qualifier at 187.865 mph, said of the small fuel cells. “It’s going to give everybody a lot more opportunities to make mistakes over the course of the evening.”
A slicker compound on the newly surfaced track is the impetus for the switch. NASCAR officials were concerned that excessive tire wear between fuel stops might cause problems on the 1.5-mile speedway. The cars will run on harder Goodyear tires designed for the newer surface.
The repaving project was necessary because of a previous grinding process that failed to smooth out the bumps and caused tires to pop at an October race here last season. The new tires are outside the comfort zone of many drivers, and their concerns came to fruition last weekend when the harder tire was deemed the culprit of a crash that took out eight cars in the All-Star Challenge.
The echoes of discontent in the garage is strong, and should today’s race be cluttered by crashes and cars, Goodyear officials are going to be hard-pressed to appease what will be an angry group of drivers.
“There’s not a lot of grip with this hard tire on this race surface,” Kasey Kahne said.
“Michael Waltrip’s consecutive starts streak will not come to end. Waltrip failed to qualify for the race, putting his streak of 261 straight starts in jeopardy. But Derrike Cope, who did make the field, sold Waltrip his Dodge so that Waltrip can be in the race.