NASCAR has made some excruciating fumbles before; Homestead 2016 & Talladega’s Fall race in 2014 come to mind. Here’s the thing, not often does it leave the fans so pissed off that they say they will never attend again. Well, this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 (or 373.5 depending on how you look at it) did just that.
The Coke 600 is one of NASCAR’s Crown Jewel races. Run at Charlotte Motor Speedway it is NASCAR’s home race and, outside of the Daytona 500, their most prestigious. So when NASCAR goes and cancels this race just not much more than halfway through, you know there’s a problem.
First, we want to congratulate Christopher Bell and the entire 20 team. Despite what many say, a race win is a race win. Without a doubt, if anyone does, he deserved that win with the most laps led and strongest car all afternoon long.
NASCAR’s 2024 Coke 600 was not only one of the most anticipated mile and half races due to the competitive nature of the current GEN 7 race car on intermediate race tracks, but the MASSIVE storyline of Kyle Larson running Double Duty in the Indy 500 and the Coke 600.
Mother Nature had different plans than our “Storyline.” The Indy 500 was delayed for several hours due to rain and lightning, forcing Kyle Larson to choose to run the Indy 500 over making the trip back to Charlotte to start the Coca-Cola 600 on time. Larson would run the full 500 mile distance before proceeding to Charlotte.
Justin Allgaier was substituting for Larson in the 600, quite admirably might I add. Up until the caution on lap 246 for precipitation, the race went off without a hitch. Fantastic racing, battles throughout the field, exactly what the capacity crowd at Charlotte was hoping for. To top it all off, just as the rain came, so did the helicopter carrying Kyle Larson.
The fans sat back and waited for what was bound to a fantastic finish to the Coca-Cola 600, and I talked to several of them.
Following the first rain delay, fans were told that there would be a wait of 30-45 minutes before they could begin drying the track. About 11pm, the track told fans they would be back to racing about midnight.
Michael Edwards on X stated, “Track PA announced there would be a short storm and they would dry the track after to get the race restarted… a good amount of people stayed.” He added, “Track drying began and people returned to their seats, we didn’t really get any updates… All of a sudden, they announced the race was over and that Bell had won. Lots of boos… I’m a Bell fan so I wasn’t really upset about that, more that I waited so long. It wasn’t humid, it was windy and I was cold.”
@GeminiMind1990 said, “I feel robbed.” saying he was willing to wait it out all night or into Monday. He feels pissed off.
@nccopperhead36 “I feel like NASCAR dropped the ball on us… Extremely disappointed on how the weather situation was handled.”
There are dozens of comments and posts and re-tweets just like these, some just disappointed, others pissed off. Fans booed Christopher Bell in Victory Lane just due to the circumstances. Many in the industry jumped to defend the decision to end the race. Even Dale Earnhardt Jr who on Dirty Mo Media said just because a track looks dry doesn’t mean it always is. “You can’t take that risk.”
NASCAR’s Sr VP of Competition, Elton Sawyer stated on NASCAR Radio on SiriusXM, “We wanted to make a run at it, we knew it was going to be a challenge, but we for sure wanted to give every effort we could. Our fans deserve that.”
Yes, the rule is that if the race is past half way, they can end it, and I respect that. The buildup, the paying fans, our nations heroes in the stands and the fans on TV don’t appear to have been this disappointed in a VERY long time and that’s on NASCAR.
In my personal opinion, NASCAR shit the bed on this one… Bad words? Yes, but in my opinion they are deserved.
Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images
