Caution lap 172. 1 car had the engine let go. 38 is the free pass.
Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
- Thread starter bdcardinal
- Start date
Caution lap 172. 1 car had the engine let go. 38 is the free pass.
Stage 2 top 10:1. Larson
2. Elliott
3. Byron
4. Kyle Busch
5. Reddick
6. Harvick
7. Bowman
8. Buescher
9. Hamlin
10. Dillon
The 7 of LaJoie is the free pass.
Caution lap 295. 6 car into the wall in turn 3. The 43 is the free pass.
Stage 3 top 10:
1. Larson
2. Byron
3. Kyle Busch
4. Elliott
5. Bowman
6. Reddick
7. Hamlin
8. Dillon
9. Wallace
10. Harvick
1. Larson
2. Byron
3. Kyle Busch
4. Elliott
5. Bowman
6. Reddick
7. Hamlin
8. Dillon
9. Wallace
10. Harvick
23 car equipment interference, restarting at the tail of the longest line.
Green flag pit stops starting with 55 to go.
Kyle Larson leads
Yung Money wins it!!!Unofficial Top 10:
1. Kyle Larson
2. Chase Elliott
3. Kyle Busch
4. William Byron
5. Alex Bowman
6. Austin Dillon
7. Denny Hamlin
8. Chris Buescher
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Kevin Harvick
Put into perspective, Rick Hendrick fielded multiple NASCAR teams for decades, the best drivers money could buy, and it still took him over 35 years to eclipse Petty Enterprises record of 268 wins that Petty held for over 60 years. The vast majority of Petty Enterprises 268 wins were with 1 car and 1 driver. Richard won 201 races and his father Lee won 54. Buddy Baker, Pete Hamilton and a few others won the remaining 13 races for Petty Enterprises iirc.
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Put in perspective in an another way...
Richard Petty won many, many races having the best equipment money could buy... He won at short tracks like Hampton Virginia, North Wilkesboro Martinsville and many other races at other small towns or cities. Which Nascar left after 1972 season. Only short tracks after the "new" era in NASCAR started that they continued to visit were Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, Bristol, Richmond. Before the new era NASCAR went to many, many other short tracks. The race schedule was 48 races in one year. Richard won 27 races in a single season. Richard won many of those races at those small tracks against competition that was no where near as good or as capable of winning as his team. His team was sponsored and had factory support. Unlike many of his competitors.
Only a few other drivers had similar money and sponsor help behind them like Richard. The Silver Fox David Pearson won 105 races and Bobby Allison, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson and Cale Yarborough were Richards only real competition in Richard's heyday. Fireball Roberts died after a terrible crash at Charlotte. And Ned retired early in his career... I really wonder if he retired early because of what happened at Charlotte that day. I bet that is the case. Ned pulled Fireball Roberts out of that burning car that day.. it was one hell of a fire too. He saved Roberts life that day. Though Fireball died later from his terrible injuries suffered from that crash out of turn 2.
That started to change in the early 1980s with more and more money coming into the sport. Though Richard still was competitive all the way until the 1987 season. His last win was memorable in the 1984 Firecracker 400 with a bumper win over Cale Yarborough at the finish line. President Reagan in attendance and speaking with Richard after the race. Truth be told... Had Richard not suffered a motor failure earlier that year at the Daytona 500... He could have won his 8th 500 that day.
Richard is "The King" for good reason.
He deserves that title. He earned that title.
Though we must remember that his many of his 200 wins were in the 1960s and through the mid 1970s against much easier competition.
One thing that I think Richard Petty valued that other drivers did not... Was the season long points championship. That part I have a lot of respect for Richard Petty. He raced.... A lot. A whole lot. In order to win those 7 season long championships.
During most of his career most other drivers did not do that. Off the top of my head from memory I think David Pearson only ran the entire race schedule like 4 or 5 years. Cale Yarborough only did it 7-8 seasons. NASCAR back then many drivers cherry picked the top paying races and only raced in those races. Therefore putting them out of the season long championship hunt. Richard saw the value in the season long championship and he drove a lot of small race events like at Spartansburg or Hampton in order to win that season championship.
That trend in NASCAR continued into the 1980s with drivers cherry picking races and still able to be competitive and win those high paying races. Cale Yarborough won Daytona 500 in 1983 and 1984 doing just that. However by the late 1980s that ended and no one was cherry picking races and winning any of them. Only season long runners won races after that point.
Richard Petty's 200 wins will quite likely never be challenged or broken. He had a much easier task winning back in his time.
But "The King" wanting and desiring to be the season long points champion is really his greatest achievement. It added importance to that feat which by the mid 1980s became the new standard for driver achievement. It also became much more lucrative for the driver's by the bonus money put into that by RJR. I think it was $ 250,000 for Terry Labonte to win the 1984 season points championship. Well by 1990 I believe it was $1,000,000 for Dale Earnhardt.
Richard Petty won many, many races having the best equipment money could buy... He won at short tracks like Hampton Virginia, North Wilkesboro Martinsville and many other races at other small towns or cities. Which Nascar left after 1972 season. Only short tracks after the "new" era in NASCAR started that they continued to visit were Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, Bristol, Richmond. Before the new era NASCAR went to many, many other short tracks. The race schedule was 48 races in one year. Richard won 27 races in a single season. Richard won many of those races at those small tracks against competition that was no where near as good or as capable of winning as his team. His team was sponsored and had factory support. Unlike many of his competitors.
Only a few other drivers had similar money and sponsor help behind them like Richard. The Silver Fox David Pearson won 105 races and Bobby Allison, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson and Cale Yarborough were Richards only real competition in Richard's heyday. Fireball Roberts died after a terrible crash at Charlotte. And Ned retired early in his career... I really wonder if he retired early because of what happened at Charlotte that day. I bet that is the case. Ned pulled Fireball Roberts out of that burning car that day.. it was one hell of a fire too. He saved Roberts life that day. Though Fireball died later from his terrible injuries suffered from that crash out of turn 2.
That started to change in the early 1980s with more and more money coming into the sport. Though Richard still was competitive all the way until the 1987 season. His last win was memorable in the 1984 Firecracker 400 with a bumper win over Cale Yarborough at the finish line. President Reagan in attendance and speaking with Richard after the race. Truth be told... Had Richard not suffered a motor failure earlier that year at the Daytona 500... He could have won his 8th 500 that day.
Richard is "The King" for good reason.
He deserves that title. He earned that title.
Though we must remember that his many of his 200 wins were in the 1960s and through the mid 1970s against much easier competition.
One thing that I think Richard Petty valued that other drivers did not... Was the season long points championship. That part I have a lot of respect for Richard Petty. He raced.... A lot. A whole lot. In order to win those 7 season long championships.
During most of his career most other drivers did not do that. Off the top of my head from memory I think David Pearson only ran the entire race schedule like 4 or 5 years. Cale Yarborough only did it 7-8 seasons. NASCAR back then many drivers cherry picked the top paying races and only raced in those races. Therefore putting them out of the season long championship hunt. Richard saw the value in the season long championship and he drove a lot of small race events like at Spartansburg or Hampton in order to win that season championship.
That trend in NASCAR continued into the 1980s with drivers cherry picking races and still able to be competitive and win those high paying races. Cale Yarborough won Daytona 500 in 1983 and 1984 doing just that. However by the late 1980s that ended and no one was cherry picking races and winning any of them. Only season long runners won races after that point.
Richard Petty's 200 wins will quite likely never be challenged or broken. He had a much easier task winning back in his time.
But "The King" wanting and desiring to be the season long points champion is really his greatest achievement. It added importance to that feat which by the mid 1980s became the new standard for driver achievement. It also became much more lucrative for the driver's by the bonus money put into that by RJR. I think it was $ 250,000 for Terry Labonte to win the 1984 season points championship. Well by 1990 I believe it was $1,000,000 for Dale Earnhardt.
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Richard Petty had an easier time? Really? How many mechanics worked on the cars back in the day?how many cars did they have? Could they afford to crash a car or two? The mechanics pitted the cars also and drove the truck, built their own motors, all that's easier?
Hendricks had drivers, crew chiefs, cars, haulers, money and motors and Management coming out of his you know what! But that was harder to accomplish?
Hendricks had drivers, crew chiefs, cars, haulers, money and motors and Management coming out of his you know what! But that was harder to accomplish?
It was easier for Richard....
Way easier...
He had factory support... And sponsorship.
Early on. Well ahead of most of the other drivers at MANY of the small tracks Nascar used to go to.
He had family work on his cars.... Other employees too...
Did he work on the car ?
Sure. But he had a lot of help.
Those other cars running at Hampton, Spartanburg, Hickory NC, and many other short tracks had no where near the support Richard possessed..Not even close. A strong majority of Petty's wins came at those shorter tracks.
Most other teams were no where near as well funded or supported in the 1960s into the 1970s.
His only competition was really from the Wood brothers, Junior Johnson's team and like one or two more teams.
David Pearson and Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison we're Richards only competition in that time frame. Highly organized teams with similar support as Petty had. Some other Interlopers like Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt would be good competition too.
Again.... Those teams typically only ran big money races. Daytona 500, World 600, Talladega, Southern 500.
It was not really until the late 1970s that the number of teams running the full race schedule was over 10-12 plus teams was it much harder on team Petty.
Richard himself acknowledged that fact in the 1980 race season... It was far harder for him to win as much because there was so much more competition everywhere they raced. More well fully funded and sponsored teams racing the entire race schedule.
Hendrick Motorsports started extremely small by the way....
Nearly shutting down in the 1984 season. A win at Martinsville kept that team afloat.
Rick said in Dale Jr's podcast he rented motors, gears, haulers..... In the first season he ran Geoffrey Bodine.
Hendrick Motorsports was what Petty enterprises was in the 1950s. A start up operation.
When Richard Petty took on driving that team was well established. And as stated already... Had few competitive cars to run against. Especially at the short tracks that dominated that race schedule in the 60s through the early 70s. Which he won the string majority nof his races at.
Yes he won Daytona 7 times. And he won at Talladega 2 times. He won at Atlanta and Charlotte. He won at Darlington too.
But the strong majority of his race wins were at small tracks where he did not have all that much competition.
Richard is "The King"... And rightfully so in my opinion.
He raced hard and everywhere practically to win the season long championship.
He gave that priority which few other drivers did at that time.
Which later on it did become the standard by which all drivers were judged by. And RJR put more and more money into that season long championship as time moved forward. A lot more money from 1980 to just 1990...
Richard gave that accomplishment real credibility. He also raced very hard and at many, many,many race tracks most people have never heard of.
7 time champion. He made that matter and have real meaning.
Way easier...
He had factory support... And sponsorship.
Early on. Well ahead of most of the other drivers at MANY of the small tracks Nascar used to go to.
He had family work on his cars.... Other employees too...
Did he work on the car ?
Sure. But he had a lot of help.
Those other cars running at Hampton, Spartanburg, Hickory NC, and many other short tracks had no where near the support Richard possessed..Not even close. A strong majority of Petty's wins came at those shorter tracks.
Most other teams were no where near as well funded or supported in the 1960s into the 1970s.
His only competition was really from the Wood brothers, Junior Johnson's team and like one or two more teams.
David Pearson and Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison we're Richards only competition in that time frame. Highly organized teams with similar support as Petty had. Some other Interlopers like Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt would be good competition too.
Again.... Those teams typically only ran big money races. Daytona 500, World 600, Talladega, Southern 500.
It was not really until the late 1970s that the number of teams running the full race schedule was over 10-12 plus teams was it much harder on team Petty.
Richard himself acknowledged that fact in the 1980 race season... It was far harder for him to win as much because there was so much more competition everywhere they raced. More well fully funded and sponsored teams racing the entire race schedule.
Hendrick Motorsports started extremely small by the way....
Nearly shutting down in the 1984 season. A win at Martinsville kept that team afloat.
Rick said in Dale Jr's podcast he rented motors, gears, haulers..... In the first season he ran Geoffrey Bodine.
Hendrick Motorsports was what Petty enterprises was in the 1950s. A start up operation.
When Richard Petty took on driving that team was well established. And as stated already... Had few competitive cars to run against. Especially at the short tracks that dominated that race schedule in the 60s through the early 70s. Which he won the string majority nof his races at.
Yes he won Daytona 7 times. And he won at Talladega 2 times. He won at Atlanta and Charlotte. He won at Darlington too.
But the strong majority of his race wins were at small tracks where he did not have all that much competition.
Richard is "The King"... And rightfully so in my opinion.
He raced hard and everywhere practically to win the season long championship.
He gave that priority which few other drivers did at that time.
Which later on it did become the standard by which all drivers were judged by. And RJR put more and more money into that season long championship as time moved forward. A lot more money from 1980 to just 1990...
Richard gave that accomplishment real credibility. He also raced very hard and at many, many,many race tracks most people have never heard of.
7 time champion. He made that matter and have real meaning.
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Back when the race schedule was cut down a lot and where NASCAR raced was very different. There were many small tracks were no longer visited by the Winston Cup NASCAR circuit.
When that happened and those fans from those very small town/city tracks went to Daytona, Charlotte, Talladega, and Darlington. They all remembered Richard Petty going to their small tracks. Richard Petty made those races and tracks matter because he was trying to win the season championship. Those fans realized that other drivers did not bother to go to their tracks as well. They all remembered how good Richard was to them as fans. Thus why Richard Petty was to those fans "The King". And rightfully so.
When that happened and those fans from those very small town/city tracks went to Daytona, Charlotte, Talladega, and Darlington. They all remembered Richard Petty going to their small tracks. Richard Petty made those races and tracks matter because he was trying to win the season championship. Those fans realized that other drivers did not bother to go to their tracks as well. They all remembered how good Richard was to them as fans. Thus why Richard Petty was to those fans "The King". And rightfully so.
Hey @bdcardinal
Hope you have a great time at the track this weekend!
It's gonna be hard picking somebody other than the 9 car with Chase starting on the front row. Will be exciting to see if Truex can get to the front given his midpack starting spot. He hasn't had a good setup under him for a couple of weeks.
Either way, hope you have fun and that its a great race!
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