Monday, May 23, 2011

2011 Coca-Cola Odds & Ends: Charlotte Track Facts

At Charlotte Motor Speedway:


Johnson is a six-time winner at Charlotte (Getty)
History
· Construction began on Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1959.
· The track’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on June 19, 1960.
· The track was repaved midseason in 1994.
· The track name changed from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1999. It changed back to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 2010 season.
· The track was re-paved again before the 2006 season.

Notebook
· There have been 104 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races at Charlotte 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 Charlotte from the fall of 1973 through 1978.
· Ryan Newman leads all active drivers in poles, with nine. Jeff Gordon has eight.
· Jeff Gordon won five straight poles for the spring races between 1994 and 1998.
· 43 drivers have won races, led by Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson, with six each.
· Joe Lee Johnson won the first race, in 1960.
· There have been 13 back-to-back victories, including three consecutive 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.
· 14 races have been won from the pole, the last by Jimmie Johnson (October 2009).
· Jimmie Johnson won the 2003 Coca-Cola 600 from the 37th starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
· Joey Logano is one of two drivers with more than two Charlotte races to average top-10 finishes (8.5); Jimmie Johnson is the other, with an average finish of 9.8.
· A number of active drivers earned their first win at CMS: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears and David Reutimann. Inactive drivers David Pearson, Buddy Baker and Charlie Glotzbach also got their first series win at Charlotte.

NASCAR in North Carolina
* There have been 512 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in North Carolina.
* 424 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as North Carolina.
* There have been 43 race winners from North Carolina in NASCAR’s three national series; 28 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Charlotte Motor Speedway Data
Race #: 12 of 36 (05-29-11)
Track Size: 1.5 miles
· Banking/Corners: 24 degrees
· Banking/Straights: 5 degrees
· Frontstretch: 1,980 feet
· Backstretch: 1,500 feet

Driver Rating at Charlotte
Jimmie Johnson 114.7
Kyle Busch 108.2
Joey Logano 102.8
Kasey Kahne 95.7
Mark Martin 92.6
Matt Kenseth 89.4
Jeff Gordon 88.9
Brian Vickers 88.0
Jeff Burton 87.3
Greg Biffle 86.6
Note: Driver Rating compiled from 2005-2010 races (12 total) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Qualifying/Race Data
2010 pole winner: Ryan Newman (187.546 mph, 28.793 seconds)
2010 race winner: Kurt Busch(144.966 mph, 05-30-10)
Qualifying record: Elliott Sadler (193.216 mph, 27.948 seconds,10-13-05)
600-mile race record: Bobby Labonte (151.952 mph, 05-28-95)

- compiled by Ray M. Smith, NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications

Coca-Cola 600 Odds to Win

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