compiled by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services
At Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
History
• Construction began on Charlotte Motor Speedway, as Lowe’s Motor Speedway was then known, in 1959.
• The track’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on June 19, 1960.
• The first NASCAR Nationwide Series race was May 29, 1982.
• The track was repaved midseason in 1994.
• The track name changed from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1999.
• The first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at LMS was on May 16, 2003.
• The track was re-paved again before the 2006 season.
Notebook
• There have been 101 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, two races per year since the track opened in 1960. In 1961, there were two 100-mile qualifying points races held the week before the May race. The first six fall races at Charlotte were 400-mile events (1960-65).
• 37 drivers have posted poles, led by David Pearson with 14.
• Fireball Roberts won the pole for the first race, in 1960.
• David Pearson posted 11 straight poles at Lowe’s from the fall of 1973 through 1978
• Ryan Newman leads all active drivers in poles, with eight.
• Jeff Gordon won five straight poles for the spring races between 1994 and 1998.
• 42 drivers have won races, led by Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip with six each. David Reutimann became a first-time series winner in May after winning the Coca-Cola 600.
• Joe Lee Johnson won the first race, in 1960.
• Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lead all active drivers in victories, each with five.
• There have been 13 back-to-back victories, including three in-a-row by Fred Lorenzen (fall 1964 and both 1965) and four straight by Jimmie Johnson (both in 2004 and 2005).
• A sweep has occurred eight times, including each season from 2004-2007.
• 13 races have been won from the pole, the last by Jimmie Johnson in the 2004 Coca-Cola 600.
• Jimmie Johnson won the 2003 Coca-Cola 600 from the 37th starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
• Jimmie Johnson is the only driver with more than one LMS race to average top 10 finishes (9.1). He comes just short of the all-time best average finish there, held by Rex White (9.0).
• A number of active drivers earned their first win at LMS: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears and David Reutimann.
NASCAR in North Carolina
• There have been 509 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in North Carolina.
• 414 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as North Carolina; 342 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
• There have been 42 race winners from North Carolina in NASCAR’s three national series; 28 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
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