The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway is NASCAR’s longest race.
Not every NASCAR driver wants to see the sport’s longest race taken off the schedule. In fact most want it to stay.
Last Friday prior to NASCAR’s All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said that NASCAR doesn’t need a 600-mile race.
“The sport doesn’t need any particular thing,” he said. “I don’t think that anything is totally necessary. If the race was 300 miles, you’re going to have the same, I believe, core group watch the race and possibly even more that are interested because it’s not five hours long.”
The 600 has been a Memorial Day institution for nearly its entire 60-year existence. The entire Sunday before Memorial Day has become a tradition for many fans outside of NASCAR with racing across the world starting with F1 in Monaco, followed by the IndyCar series Indy 500 and ending with NASCAR’s 600 at Charlotte.
“Tradition, ‘shmadition.’” Hamlin said. “It’s whatever. All sports adapt and change. I hate it when people say, ‘well, that’s the way it always was.’ Things are different. I’d be just as happy with a Coke 300 trophy as a Coke 600 to be honest with you. I’m for whatever, but I certainly know that from my friends, they choose to come All-Star week and not 600 week because it’s just too long and they don’t want to sit here for five hours.”
Fast forward to Thursday and it seems Hamlin is in the minority. The majority contingent is led by 2012 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion Brad Keselowski.
“We don’t need to do anything in this sport,” Keselowski said. “But just because you don’t need to do something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something.”
“I think it’s the right thing to do, to run this race as 600 miles and to keep that tradition going,” he continued. “Like I said, it’s unique challenges. The biggest thing this sport needs is to stay fresh and this race is a different challenge than anything else we have by a good bit, and I appreciate that so much about this race. I appreciate that you’re gonna go through the daytime and you’re gonna be burning hot and the car is gonna be out of control and then we’re gonna transition to night time and the cars are gonna be just crazy fast, and you’re gonna see a lot of great side-by-side action as we get into night time. I think that’s tremendous, so I’m really looking forward to it to be quite honest. That’s only possible because of the 600 miles, and then you have some other things.
“I think it’s a big part of this sport and a big part of being a race car driver is managing the systems that make up a car and with that in mind having 600 miles to do it means more opportunities for that to go wrong and I like that about it, but I really like the history of this race in general and it seems like for whatever reason over the last few years that question keeps coming up more and more and more and I resist it so much because of how much respect I have for this race that I’d hate to see it ever change.”
Reigning Cup champion Joey Logano was a bit upset when asked if NASCAR needs to keep the 600.
“This is a special race,” Logano said. “The Coca-Cola 600 has been around for a very long time. Yeah, you keep it. That’s what makes it so special. It makes it unique. It makes it different. Does every other race have to be 500 miles? Probably not. Maybe certain ones, the iconic ones need to be. This is an iconic race. It’s 600 miles. That’s what makes it special. That’s what makes it a crown jewel event. Yeah, you keep the 600 miles. That’s a no-brainer. I get mad when someone asks me that question. It’s a no-brainer. I’m not mad at you, I know other people are asking, but I’m just saying that is the heritage of this event and you can’t change that.”
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Bryon is new to the sport. The 21-year old has one start in the Coca-Cola 600. He started 21st and finished 39th in last years race. For him his 600 experience is a bit different.
“I went to this race growing up in Charlotte and I went to this race every year for a long time,” Byron said. “And, it was obviously a long race to watch from the stands, but there was a lot that came with it that was really cool. Not too long ago, I was already racing, but I came when Martin Truex Jr. won and dominated that race and that was a huge deal, I thought. To be able to dominate for that long of a period in a race takes a lot of things to go your way and a lot of execution as a team. So, I think it’s really a special even for this time. I look at the Southern 500 as being in this category too. Those are races, as a driver and a team, just mean more. So, it’s in its own space. As a fan, it’s a really long race but you kind of know what to expect and you know the guy who won is typically one of the dominate people of the year.”
The last word on the subject came from Hamlin’s JGR teammate Kyle Busch:
“In my opinion I think there is tradition,” Busch said. “I think Denny (Hamlin) thinks otherwise. To me, I just remember being a kid growing up watching the 600 miler on TV. It certainly meant a little bit more years ago. The farther back you went, I think it meant even more because it was kind of man versus machine. Would the machine make it? Would the man make it through the 600-mile endurances race? These days the cars are essentially almost bullet proof and so are some of us drivers – just kidding.”
“I think it’s just today’s society is just different than what it used to be,” he added. “If that means that a shorter race will be a better race, then I’m all for it. I’ve also been on the flip side of that where I go run some short track races across the country and they used to be a 100 lappers and now they’re 200 lappers or they used to be 200 lappers and now they’re 300 lappers because they think longer is better. It depends on who you talk to and what side of the bed they woke up on.”
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