The Coca Cola 600 and Some NASCAR History

NASCAR and Charlotte, North Carolina; you can’t think of one without visions of the other coming to mind. If Daytona is the crown jewel of NASCAR, then the Queen City is its cradle. In the past, if the fact that nearly 20 NASCAR racing teams called the Charlotte area home didn’t seal the title, the newly opened NASCAR Hall of Fame in uptown Charlotte makes it an indisputable point.

Among the racing teams located in the Charlotte area, there resides several of NASCAR’s major icons. The names Petty, Earnhardt, Hendrick and Childress along with Rouse, Penske and Gibbs pop right out; making the Queen City a virtual Who’s Who of the sport.

Another icon of NASCAR also calls the Charlotte area his home. He has been a lightening rod within the sport. A promoter and entrepreneur who, when he came to the conclusion that he couldn’t compete with Bill France, Sr.’s vision of stock car racing, shut down a competing racing circuit he was instrumental in creating and joined forces with France’s National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Bruton Smith along with another entrepreneur and early NASCAR driver, Curtis Turner, joined forces and started construction of a super speedway just north of Charlotte in 1959.

Originally set for May 29th, the race had to be delayed for construction to be competed.

On June 19th, 1960 the inaugural World 600 race was included in NASCAR’s racing schedule and run on the new Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo on the right shows race winner Joe Lee Johnson accepting the trophy from Bruton Smith in the middle and his partner Curtis Turner who drove in the race too, finishing 39th in a field of 60.

Times were tough back then. The Smith-Turner partnership soon lost ownership of the speedway through a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceeding. Both Smith and Turner went right to work individually trying to regain control. While Smith concentrated on growing his auto dealership businesses, he soon began buying up shares in the Charlotte Motor Speedway Corporation.

Bruton finally re-realized his dream in 1975 when he gained controlling interest of the track. By this time he was also well on the way to establishing a premier new auto sales empire that today has resulted in Sonic Automotive, Inc. with 166 franchises, in 26 U.S. markets, from coast to coast.
The revenues generated through the Sonic Automotive phase of Smith’s automotive empire were in turn plowed into the purchase and development of several auto racing tracks scattered around the country.

You can’t be a friend to everyone when you start out life as a small town farm boy and then parlay your God-given talents into billionaire status and Bruton Smith is no exception. His process of acquiring ownership of older race tracks and constructing others has allowed Smith to shuffle race dates. This resulted in Smith shifting North Wilkesboro’s two NASCAR dates away from the older, less profitable short track venue. North Wilkesboro was the first track to hold a NASCAR racing event and this move has drawn on-going fire from the sport’s traditionalist fans, but, in my opinion, it was moves such as this that have grown the sport to the point that it rivals the National Football League in national popularity.

I noticed in Gene Haddock’s latest blog poll concerning who should be included in the second class of inductees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Bruton Smith’s name was left out. I believe this stems from Smith’s controversial moves, but it can’t be denied, Bruton Smith has been instrumental in the sport’s growth in nationwide popularity, and I, for one, believe he deserves this honor.

But enough of that; here’s a look at Bruton Smith’s Charlotte Motor Speedway and some of the NASCAR history that has been made there:

Built on a two thousand acre site, the facility, beyond the 1.5 mile tri-oval, features a 1/4 mile oval, a dirt track venue across the street, an off-road track, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, a driver's school, infield motorhome parking, concessions, restaurants and nearly 170,000 seats. Innovations include 52 condominiums built into the turn one grandstands. People living there are greeted with views of the track. This was a first for NASCAR. Another first was a lighting system installed in 1992 that was designed to keep the glare of traditional lights on standards to a minimum by using mirrors. This move made Charlotte's the first super speedway to put on night racing. More recently, the track was ground up and re-surfaced with a state of the art process developed in Texas and now in use on several SMI tracks. According to Bruton, more upgrades in terms of racing team and spectator comfort are soon to come.

Some History:

Remember those Dodges? Look pretty funky now but in 1969 they were really something!


Bobby Allison wins in 1971 (nice hair styles back then, huh klvalus?)

Dale Earnhardt solidifies his title as the "Intimidator" with the "Pass in the Grass" in 1987...



A young and emotional Jeff Gordon is pictured after his first NASCAR win in 1994.

A happy bunch of Pettys after Adam got his first win on a super speedway in an ARCA event.

Dale Jr. wins the 2000 All Star Shootout with a proud dad there to congratulate him. (For you, Athens!)

Tony Stewart grabs hold of his first NASCAR win as a team owner in last year's $1,000,000 All Star race. Not a bad way to start off as an owner! (That one's for you, SB!)

So who is going to make history at this year's Coca Cola 600?




Will Junior get a good ride?

Will Jeff finally deliver?



Will the Busch boys figure it out?

Will Denny Hamlin verses the rest of the field be Kurt or Kyle's undoing?



Will a bright new face adorn the winner's circle (Just for you tez!)



Or will it be (boring) business as usual?

Inquiring minds need to know! Like Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton pictured here at Lowe's. (That's right, Gene. This shot's for you!)

And last but not least, Jon, how'd you like to be in the back seat with those Shell Oil dudes?

Can Kevin hold off the hard chargers?

Hope you all enjoyed!