Rating the Race: Lowe’s – Coca Cola 600

Image details: Coca-Cola 600 served by picapp.com

In the longest race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, Kasey Kahne proved that attrition pays off, as he was setup in the right place at the right time in the closing laps of the Coca Cola 600 to put his no. 9 Dodge into Victory Lane at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the second time in as many weeks for car owner Ray Evernham.

After cruising to a victory in last week’s All-Star Challenge, and then earning himself the outside pole position through qualifying, Kahne looked as though he was in position to potentially run away with the race at the drop of the green flag, but that wasn’t the case. Kasey immediately faded from the frontrunners in the early stages of the race, but as the sun went down and the track got cooler, the no. 9 car seemed to get some life back in it. Kahne didn’t lead the race until lap 207 when he snuck around Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead, but he surrendered the front position twenty laps later as the field came around for a round of greenf flag stops.

Kahne got the lead two more times before getting passed by Tony Stewart with only 17 laps remaining. Kahne made his final pit stop for fuel just a few laps later, but his stop took nearly 3 seconds longer than Stewart’s, and as the field cycled through their stops, Stewart’s lead over Kasey opened up to nearly half a track length. Misfortune struck the no. 20 team on lap 397 of the 400 lap race, though, as Tony blew a right front tire and was forced to pit, handing the lead over to Kahne for the final time of the evening.

For Kahne, it was his first points race win since the Fall race at Lowe’s in 2006, and it was enough to move him back into the top-12 in points, and the first top-five finish for Evernham Motorsports all season long. For Stewart, it was a frustrating ending to a near-perfect night. Smoke had started the race from 31st position, but his crew worked all night long to get his car up to the front, and it appeared as though he had his first Coca Cola 600 victory well in-hand. Instead, he went onto finish 18th.

Greg Biffle bounced back from a flat tire earlier in the evening that put him a lap down on lap 135. He was able to race his way back onto the lead lap just before a lap 170 caution that was brought out when Patrick Carpentier spun Juan Pablo Montoya through the infield. Biffle was able to avoid further troubles and went onto finish second.

Third place went to Kyle Busch, who was pretty much all over the map all night long. After leading the first 33 laps of the race, his car started to slip a little through the pack as his car started to lose some power. He then had to make an unscheduled stop on lap 150 when he thought he had a tire going down, but was able to race his way back onto the lead lap less than 15 laps later. He went onto lead three more times throughout the race before settling for a top-five finish.

Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. used some fuel strategy to sneak their way into top-five finishes, as they finished 4th and 5th, respectively. As the rest of the field made their final stops, both drivers stayed out on the track after topping off their fuel tanks on the final caution that occurred with 66 laps remaining. For Gordon, a top-five was a mental victory for the team after running outside of the top-15 for the majority of the race. For Junior, this was a way to salvage a race that had previously taken a turn for the worse. After leading the most laps of the race, Earnhardt blew a right front tire while leading on lap 296. He got into the wall, and then was run into from behind by JJ Yeley. The no. 88 team made several attempts to repair the damaged race car, but in the end, it was a little bit of strategy combined with some good luck that saved the day.

Jeff Burton had a solid day, and wound up finishing 6th. He was followed by Matt Kenseth, who had a pretty uneventful evening and finished 7th. In 8th place was Elliott Sadler, who used some pit strategy to gain some much needed track position around the halfway point of the race. Carl Edwards started the race in 30th, but wound up 9th despite running out of fuel on the final lap. David Reutimann came home in 10th to earn himself his first career top-ten in the Cup Series.

Along with Stewart, several of the race’s other dominant cars were also taken out through a variety of misfortunes. After leading more than 65 laps of the race, and having just surrendered the lead over to Jimmie Johnson, on lap 185, Brian Vickers’ tire actually flew off of his race car, sending him hard into the inside SAFER barrier. The tire then proceeded to smack the no. 38 car of David Gilliland before bouncing down the track and into the trackside camping area. After leading on four different occassions, Johnson would later blow his motor with only 49 laps to go. Kurt Busch had also led more than 50 laps of the race before he had a tire go down, sending him into the wall and ending his bid for his first win of the season.

And, the most interesting statistic of the evening belongs to Ken Schrader. He was given the task of debuting the RCR no. 33 car this weekend, which he successfully qualified 33rd … and, then raced to a 33rd place finish.

Grades:
the Race: 96%
the Drama: 97%
Coverage: 89%
Pre-Race: 76%

Overall Grade: 92.8%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):