The 2007 Coca-Cola 600 was the 12th stock car race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the event's 48th iteration. It was held on May 27, 2007, with 175,000 spectators in attendance, in Concord, North Carolina at Lowe's Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. Casey Mears of the Hendrick Motorsports team won the 400-lap race after starting 16th. Joe Gibbs Racing's J. J. Yeley finished second and Kyle Petty of Petty Enterprises took third.
Before the race, Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship by 231 points over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in second. Ryan Newman took the pole position by recording the fastest lap in the qualifying session and led the first ten laps before his Penske Racing South teammate Kurt Busch took over on lap 11. Busch led for 107 laps (the most of any driver in the race) before Brian Vickers took the lead after the first round of green-flag pit stops. Jimmie Johnson took the lead from Vickers on lap 184 and held it for 83 laps, battling for the position with Vickers and Matt Kenseth. Tony Stewart led at the race's final restart on lap 342 and held it until he made a pit stop for fuel 51 laps later. Mears took the lead after Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin made similar pit stops, slowing to conserve fuel and winning. There were thirteen cautions and 29 lead changes among fifteen drivers during the race.
, the 2007 race is Mears' only win in the Nextel Cup Series, now known as the NASCAR Cup Series. After the race Gordon's lead in the Drivers' Championship was reduced to 132 points over Johnson because he crashed early in the race. Chevrolet increased its points advantage to 41 points ahead of Ford in the Manufacturers' Championship. Dodge moved further ahead of Toyota in the battle for third place, with 24 races remaining in the season.
Background
The Coca-Cola 600 was the twelfth scheduled stock car race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, out of 36, and the event's 48th iteration. It ran for 400 laps over a distance of , and was held on May 27, 2007 in Concord, North Carolina at Lowe's Motor Speedway, now called Charlotte Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at Lowe's Motor Speedway is a four-turn, -long, quad-oval track. The track's turns are banked at 24 degrees; both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch (opposite the front) have a five-degree banking.
Before the race, Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 1,881 points, with teammate Jimmie Johnson 231 points behind in second and Matt Kenseth a further 68 points behind in third. Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton were fourth and fifth, and Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top twelve. Chevrolet led the Manufacturers' Championship with 96 points, 35 points ahead of its rival Ford in second. Dodge with 52 points was 19 points ahead of Toyota in the battle for third place. The race's defending champion was Kasey Kahne.
The Coca-Cola 600 was conceived by race car driver Curtis Turner, who built the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was first held in 1960 in an attempt by NASCAR to stage a Memorial Day weekend race to compete with the open-wheel Indianapolis 500; the two races were held together on the same day starting from 1974. The race is the longest in terms of distance on the NASCAR calendar, and is considered by several drivers to be one of the sport's most important races alongside the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500. The long distance makes it the most physically demanding event in NASCAR, and teams adapt to changing track conditions because the race occurs between late afternoon and evening. It was known as the World 600 until 1984 when The Coca-Cola Company purchased the naming rights to the race and renamed it the Coca-Cola World 600 in 1985. It has been called the Coca-Cola 600 every year since 1986 except for 2002 when the name changed to Coca-Cola Racing Family 600.
In preparation for the race, NASCAR held several test sessions on May 7–8, 2007, to allow teams to prepare for the May races at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Sessions began at 2:00p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on May 7 and concluded at 9:00p.m. On May 8, sessions started at 1:00p.m. and stopped at 9:00p.m. Eighty-two cars participated in the May 7 afternoon session; Martin Truex Jr. was quickest with a speed of and David Stremme had the highest speed of the two days at in the evening session. Towards the end of the second session, Hamlin lost control of his car and made heavy contact with an outside SAFER barrier; he was evaluated at the infield care center and was later released to continue testing. During the third session with eighty-four cars, Jeremy Mayfield had the fastest speed of and Kurt Busch set the fastest speed of in the fourth and final session held in the evening. David Gilliland spun but avoided contact with a wall.
There was one change of driver before the race. Starting at the 2007 Coca-Cola 600, 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott returned to NASCAR on a part-time schedule for Wood Brothers Racing, replacing the team's regular driver Ken Schrader, who drove in the season's first eleven races. Elliott was eligible to use six Champion's Provisionals if the need arose. Elliott was looking forward to returning to racing: "I was pretty honored to get a call from the Wood Brothers to drive the 21 car. I've seen them struggle the last few weeks, being outside the top 35, and it breaks my heart to see them miss races. I hope I can get in the car, get us qualified well every week and see what we can make up in the points battle along the way."
Practice and qualification
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race; one on Thursday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second 50 minutes and the third 60 minutes. In the first practice session, Elliott Sadler was fastest with a time of 29.697 seconds; Kahne, Ricky Rudd, Johnson, Casey Mears, Kenseth, Joe Nemechek, Kyle Busch, Scott Riggs and Jamie McMurray completed the session's top-ten drivers. Sterling Marlin hit one of the walls lining the track and switched to a back-up car. Michael Waltrip did not need to switch cars after a similar collision.
Forty-nine cars entered qualifying on Friday evening; due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Drivers who set their laps late in qualifying had an advantage because the track was at its coolest. Ryan Newman clinched the 39th pole position of his career, with a time of 29.140 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by his Penske Racing South teammate Kurt Busch, and was the second-to-last driver to record his lap. Sadler qualified third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth, and Kenseth fifth. Hamlin, Rudd, Dave Blaney, Bobby Labonte and Stremme rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Jeff Green crashed in the second turn while on a lap and used a provisional to qualify. The six drivers who failed to qualify were Kevin Lepage, David Reutimann (who crashed on his lap) Waltrip (who lost control of his car in the second turn on his second qualifying lap, tearing off a front tire after hitting an inside wall and made contact with it a second time before stopping), Mike Bliss, Paul Menard and Ward Burton. After the qualifier, Newman said he felt pressure to achieve Penske's Racing South's first victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway: "He's only been trying here for like 20 years, so yeah it would be special. It's been something that weighs on the drivers and the teams". He also said he felt he could have recorded a faster lap time and was worried about teammate Kurt Busch's qualifying form.
On Saturday afternoon in sunny and warm weather conditions, Newman was fastest in the second practice session with a time of 30.562 seconds, ahead of Sadler, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Earnhardt, Edwards, Rudd, McMurray and Kahne. During the session, teams were scuffing their tires; in the first minute, Bowyer crashed after he spun in turn two and switched to a back-up car in which he set five more lap times. Shortly afterward, Nemechek spun after exiting the second turn but avoided damaging his car. Later that day, Edwards led the final practice session with a time of 30.043 seconds; Biffle, Newman, Sadler, J. J. Yeley, Truex. Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Kenseth, and Jeff Burton were in positions two through ten. Kyle Busch damaged his right-rear quarter after hitting a right-hand wall, but did not switch to a back-up car.
Qualifying results + Qualifying results Grid Driver Team Manufacturer 112 Penske Racing South Dodge 29.140 185.312 22 Penske Racing South Dodge 29.179 185.065 319 Evernham Motorsports Dodge 29.189 185.001 48 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.247 184.634 517 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.311 184.231 611 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 29.312 184.225 788 Robert Yates Racing Ford 29.355 183.955 822 Bill Davis Racing Toyota 29.370 183.861 943 Petty Enterprises Dodge 29.422 183.536 1040 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 29.423 183.530 1101 Ginn Racing Chevrolet 29.437 183.443 1218 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 29.458 183.312 136 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.469 183.243 1420 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 29.493 183.094 1510 Evernham Motorsports Dodge 29.506 183.014 1625 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.526 182.890 175 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.557 182.698 189 Evernham Motorsports Dodge 29.557 182.698 1938 Robert Yates Racing Ford 29.575 182.587 2042 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 29.579 182.562 2148 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.585 182.525 2221 Wood Brothers Racing Ford 29.601 182.426 2344 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.607 182.389 2436 Bill Davis Racing Toyota 29.621 182.303 2531 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.624 182.285 2683 Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 29.626 182.272 2729 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.627 182.266 2826 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.630 182.248 2984 Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 29.630 182.248 3014 Ginn Racing Chevrolet 29.631 182.242 311 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.637 182.205 3224 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.674 181.977 3313 Ginn Racing Chevrolet 29.683 181.922 3441 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 29.701 181.812 357 Robby Gordon Motorsports Ford 29.781 181.324 3645 Petty Enterprises Dodge 29.828 181.038 3796 Hall of Fame Racing Chevrolet 29.865 180.814 3816 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.897 180.620 3999 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 29.926 180.445 4070 Haas CNC RacingChevrolet 30.067 179.599 4107 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.776 175.461 4266 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 4378 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 29.633 182.229 4415 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.646 182.149 4555 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 29.795 181.238 464 Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevrolet 29.821 181.080 4737 Front Row Motorsports Dodge 29.916 180.505 4849 BAM Racing Dodge 30.490 177.107 4900 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota
Race Laps 1–112 Live television coverage of the race began at 5:00p.m. EDT in the United States on Fox. Commentary was provided by Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were partly cloudy with an air temperature between and a track temperature which ranged between . William K. Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country and pop music singer LeAnn Rimes performed the national anthem, and sponsored contest award winners commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, three drivers moved to the rear of the field because of unapproved changes; Bowyer had switched to his back-up car, and David Ragan and Harvick had changed their engines.