Beccas Pace Lap

Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte -- 05/24/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Friday May 22 2009 10:01pm

Becca's Pace Lap: Coca-Cola 600 @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway

• Front Row: Ryan Newman (P1), Kyle Busch (P2)

• Pole Qualifying Speed: 188.475 mph

• Highest Starting Rookie: Joey Logano - starts 14th

• To the Rear: None at present.

• Fastest Qualifier by Manufacturer:
Chevy: Ryan Newman (1st)
Dodge: Kasey Kahne (6th)
Ford: Bill Elliott (10th)
Toyota: Kyle Busch (2nd)

• Outside the Top 35 Who Made the Field:
Dave Blaney
Mike Bliss
Bill Elliott
David Gilliland
Joe Nemechek
Max Papis
Scott Riggs
Scott Speed

• Outside the Top 35 Who Missed the Cut:
Todd Bodine
Mike Garvey
David Starr
J.J. Yeley

• Weather Forecast: Mostly cloudy, 30% chance of rain, 81°F, SE winds at 5-10 mph

• Race Notes:

Last year's race winner: Kasey Kahne (May race)

Most recent winner here: Jeff Burton (October race)

Tony Stewart won the All-Star Race last weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway; his Stewart-Haas teammate Ryan Newman captured the pole for the Coca-Cola 600.

The schedule for this weekend calls for one practice session and qualifying on Thursday, rather than the Friday practice/qualifying schedule that typifies a Sunday race. There will be two additional practices on Saturday, along with the Nationwide Series qualifying and race. There are no on-track NASCAR activities Friday.

The race is scheduled to start at 5:35 PM EST on Sunday. With an average running time of 4+ hours, the race will likely go until 9:30-10 PM on the east coast and will transition from daytime to nighttime.

The last time a driver won the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same season was last year by Kasey Kahne; prior to that, Jimmie Johnson did so in 2003, Jeff Gordon in 1997, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1993 (active drivers).

Although Kyle Busch has not won a Cup race at LMS, he has won at least one segment in each of the past four All-Star races.

Chevy has dominated here recently, winning nine of the last 12 races. The other three were all won by Kasey Kahne in a Dodge. Ford drivers did not do well in this year’s qualifying , though Matt Kenseth was strong in the All-Star Race and Carl Edwards has the second-best average finish among active drivers at LMS.

• Quotes of the Week:

“That’s a tough one to answer, but yet it’s easy to think about that this race is so long, that sometimes your setup is good at the beginning of the race that it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a good setup at the end. When the track continues to cool down, it can bring forth a car that you never expected that can be running 15th during the day or even go a lap down, and that setup continues to get better and better and the race track comes to them. When you’re a first-time winner, a lot of times you don’t have a pre-conceived notion of what to put (tune-up) in your car. This is what we did in the past to win here, and this is what we need to do. Sometimes you just roll with it.” – Kurt Busch, Penske Racing No. 2, on why the winner of the Coca-Cola 600 is sometimes the ‘improbable’ driver.

“It is really no different. You are in that mode. You are used to running 500-mile races at Atlanta, here and Texas. What it boils down to is, there is 67 more laps - 67 laps is a long time, but at the same time, once you have made it to 500 miles, you are in good enough -- drivers are in better shape than they have ever been. Excluding myself.” – Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14, on the final 100 laps of the Coca-Cola 600.

• Current oddsmakers' favorite:
Jimmie Johnson +450 (starts 5th)
Kyle Busch +550 (starts 2nd)

• Long shots to watch:
Kasey Kahne +1500 (starts 6th)
Matt Kenseth +1800 (starts 30th)

* All information current at press time

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