Coca-Cola 600 Race Review

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

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Tuesday May 26 2009 3:49am

Under ordinary circumstances, people call the Coca-Cola 600 a ‘marathon’ simply because of its 600-mile length.

But after yesterdays’ weather-related postponement and today’s lengthy rain-interrupted race, the term ‘marathon’ took on a whole new meaning.

The race, which was supposed to start at 5:35 PM EST yesterday, got underway Monday morning under threatening skies, and ran only 227 of the scheduled 400 laps before rain forced its early conclusion. When NASCAR threw the caution at Lap 221, most of the leaders pitted, though David Reutimann, Ryan Newman and Robby Gordon (in that order) stayed out.

Six laps later, the race was red-flagged for rain. It never went back to green, giving David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip Racing their first Cup series win, and Toyota its first Cup win with a driver not from Joe Gibbs Racing.

“It certainly wasn’t the prettiest win, but somebody has to win these things,” said a restrained Reutimann after the race. “Rodney (Childers, crew chief) made a great call and told me to stay out. We need to come in and work on this thing to make it as good as we need to anyway, and we’re probably going to lose some positions on pit road, so we just stayed out and took a gamble.”

Unfortunately for Kyle Busch, it was the second time this weekend that he led the most laps in a race but lost the lead due to rain. It happened to him in the Nationwide Race Saturday, when Mike Bliss inherited the lead under caution and won the race when the rain did not abate. On Monday, Busch was absolutely dominant in the Cup race, leading 173 of 227 laps, but eventually losing to the rain and Reutimann.

In fact, the race was pretty much all Kyle Busch, with Brian Vickers the only other double-digit lap leader with 33. Busch started on the outside pole, but overtook polesitter Ryan Newman on Lap 3 and led most of the rest of the race.
Following Reutimann, Newman and R. Gordon across the finish line were Carl Edwards, who took two tires on the final pit stop to finish fourth, and Brian Vickers in fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kyle Busch (6), Kasey Kahne (7), Juan Pablo Montoya (8), Joey Logano (9), and Matt Kenseth (10).

A few notables finished 30th or worse, including Kurt Busch, who had a strong run going before pitting under green for a vibration and finishing 34th; Clint Bowyer, who started 24th and finished 36th; Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose team seemed to completely miss the set-up, 40th; and Kevin Harvick, who never recovered from an early collision with Sam Hornish Jr., 41st.

Overall, 26 cars finished on the lead lap and just one – Mike Bliss – suffered a DNF.

Current Sprint Cup points leader Jeff Gordon held on to the points lead over Tony Stewart with a 14th-place finish, as Stewart finished 19th. In fact, no one in the top five in points changed positions and no one moved into or out of the top 12.

Reutimann’s win boosted him two spots in the points to 13th, now just six points behind Mark Martin in 12th. Just 75 points separate the seven drivers from 8th-14th in points.

This week, the series heads to the one-mile oval of Dover, Delaware, where the winner of the spring race last year was none other than … Kyle Busch.

Please check back later in the week for our race preview.

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