NASCAR Podcast
SHOW #255 – Guest: Sam Hornish Jr. – We recap and compare the All Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte, Hall of Fame announcement, News Of The Week (queue the music!) Preview of the Coca-Cola 600, and Fantasy Racing. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Toby Christie.
(47:55 mins)
CREDITS:
Hosts: Kerry Murphey & Toby Christie
Executive Producer: Kerry Murphey
Music: Russell Nash Radium Sound
Voice Over: Thomas Moog
Pole Winners Most Have Struck Out In Recent 600s
A Coors Light Pole will get a driver attention – and a spot in next year’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona – but it’s hardly a ticket to the Coca-Cola 600’s Victory Lane. Beginning in 1998 just two pole winners – Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson (2004) have won the 600. Other winners have come from throughout the starting field including Johnson’s all-time deepest-in-the-field start of 37th in 2003.
Several Past Coca-Cola 600 Winners Nabbed First Sprint Cup Victory
Gordon isn’t the only Coca-Cola 600 starter to win for the first time in Charlotte’s spring race. The list of current drivers includes Sprint Cup champions Matt Kenseth (2000) Jeff Gordon (1994) and Bobby Labonte (1995); and Casey Mears (2007) and David Reutimann (2009). NASCAR Hall of Fame member David Pearson scored the first of his 105 Sprint Cup victories in the second running of the Coca-Cola 600 in 1961. Jamie McMurray’s first Sprint Cup victory came in Charlotte’s 2002 fall race.
2014 NASCAR Hall Of Fame Class Announced
Flock, Ingram, Jarrett, Petty and Roberts Comprise List Of New Inductees
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 22, 2013) – NASCAR announced today the inductees who will comprise the 2014 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The five-person group – the fifth in NASCAR Hall of Fame history – consists of Tim Flock, Jack Ingram, Dale Jarrett, Maurice Petty and Fireball Roberts. Next year’s Induction Day is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, broadcast on Fox Sports 1 from Charlotte, N.C.
The 54-member NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel met today in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C., to vote on the induction class of 2014. NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France made the announcement this evening in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s “Great Hall.”
Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600 is a race for champions. All but three NASCAR Sprint Cup titleholders from 1993 through the present have a least one victory in the season’s longest race. Among the missing – surprisingly – is three-time champion Tony Stewart, whose only Charlotte victory came in the track’s 2003 fall race. Stewart has just one Coca-Cola 600 top-10 finish – sixth in 2007 – in his most recent eight races. His best finish, third, came in 2001. Reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski also searches for his first Coca-Cola 600 victory. Keselowski finished fifth a year ago in his third 600 start. Terry Labonte, the 1996 series champion, is the third. He won the fall 1996 race at Charlotte, but never the 600-miler.
