The green flag will drop on NASCAR’s longest race at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday night, marking the start of the 66th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The event has become a Memorial Day tradition on the Cup circuit, and its prestige has risen to rival that of the Indianapolis 500. (More on that in a moment.) It’s one of the crown jewels of the NASCAR season.
With a field of 40 drivers and changing weather and track conditions—the race begins in sunlight and ends in darkness under the lights—the Coke 600 is a test unlike any other event on the schedule, both grueling and glorious.
“Memorial Day Weekend, what that represents, what that means, to have a name on the side of a race car, to share that with their family, it means more than motorsports,” said driver A.J. Allmendinger. “I think sometimes, I'll be 100% honest, I get lost. You know what our job is, you're out there to win, and that's all you focus on, but there's a brief moment there of all the prerace stuff at the 600 where racing doesn't mean anything, and that's very important.”
Here are five things to watch for Sunday.
Will Kyle Larson be able to pull off the Memorial Day Double?
For much of their histories, the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 (formerly the World 600) have both been run on or around Memorial Day weekend, and the temptation for drivers to cross over has always been there. In 1963, NASCAR legend Junior Johnson entered the 500, but did not qualify. Four years later, when the races were held two days apart, Cale Yarborough became the first driver to compete in both, finishing 41st at Charlotte and 17th at Indy. While crossovers weren’t frequent, they were still fairly regular. But they vanished completely from 1974 to ’92, when the races were both run at roughly the same times on the Sunday before Memorial Day.
That changed after the installation of lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1992 transformed the Coke 600 from a day race into a nighttime event—and essentially invented the Memorial Day Double, an enervating, cross-country test of high-speed stamina and skill. John Andretti was the first to try it, finishing 10th at the Brickyard and 36th in the 600. Just five other drivers have attempted the feat, and of those, only Tony Stewart, in 2001, was able to finish all 1,100 miles. More than seven hours of racing in two wildly different race cars is not an undertaking for the faint of heart.
Which brings us to Kyle Larson. The 2021 NASCAR Cup champion—who is currently leading the points standings—will be attempting the Double for the second straight year. In 2024, he finished 18th in a 500 that started four hours late because of rain. The weather problems meant that he wasn’t able to make it to Charlotte in time for the start of the Coke 600. In the end, he only finished half the job.
The experience hasn’t deterred him—far from it. Weather permitting, Larson will start his Sunday at the Brickyard at 12:45 p.m. before jetting to Charlotte, where the race is scheduled to begin at 6:00. “[Last year] I was really focused on it all ... but I was also trying to soak in the whole event and really just take it all in,” Larson told the Charlotte Observer. “Whereas this year, I’ve already done that side of it before, so I feel like I’m more prepared on what to look for in the car. Trying to be a little bit more aggressive on my cockpit adjustment tools that I have and all that.
So on the competition side, I just feel a little bit more prepared, because I’ve done it before, and have an understanding of the feeling that I need. Last year, I felt really prepared as well. It was different, I guess, going around your first time.”
Can Christopher Bell win his second Coke 600 in a row?
Only Larson has won more races (seven) than Bell (five) since his victory in last year’s 600. (Bell actually has six wins if you count his triumph last weekend in the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway). But Bell missed out on the Championship 4 last season and failed to win any of the last 18 races. This year he’s currently third in the points standings and searching for his fourth victory.
There’s reason to think he could reach Victory Lane again on Sunday night. He finished ninth on May 4 at Texas, and then placed second a week later at Kansas before heading to the All-Star Race. Both Texas and Kansas are intermediate ovals, which means they are 1.5 miles—as is Charlotte. Bell could be peaking at just the right time.
Will Tyler Reddick finally win NASCAR’s longest race?
Reddick has never won in six career starts at Charlotte, but that doesn’t mean you should leave him off your bingo card. In five Coca-Cola 600s, he’s finished in the top 10 every time—and he keeps getting better, surging from ninth in 2021 to fifth in ’23, and then to fourth last year. The fourth-place finisher in last year’s Cup standings, Reddick clearly loves the event, saying, “I think everything that they do in prerace for the 600, all the military presence that we have with us on the grid, everything they do to honor and recognize those at the racetrack—the flyover, when they drop in—just all the steps they do to take to recognize those in our military, I think, is what makes it really special.”
He should be a serious threat to win on Sunday night.
Welcome back, Jimmie Johnson.
Racing in the field of 40 drivers will be Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. He will be making his second start of the season—his first came in the Daytona 500 in February, when he finished third.
Johnson, who retired from full-time racing after the 2020 season, competed in the Coke 600 in both 2023 and ’24, finishing 37th and 29th, respectively. On Sunday he’ll be driving a car for a team he co-owns. Though he was known as an intermediate-track specialist during his decorated career, it’s unlikely he will be visiting Victory Lane as anything other than a spectator this time around.
Keep an eye on Connor Zilisch.
The 18-year-old rising star made his NASCAR Cup Series debut back in March at Circuit of the Americas. He qualified in 14th position, but crashed out of the race after 49 laps, ultimately finishing 37th. On Sunday, he’ll make his second start in the Cup's longest race. “It’s awesome to have the opportunity to race in one of NASCAR’s coolest events,” said Zilisch, who’s currently competing full-time in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports, the team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. “The [Coca-Cola] 600 is one of the most prestigious races in NASCAR. It’s going to be a physical and mental challenge because that race is so tough.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Coca-Cola 600 Preview: Kyle Larson Attempts the Memorial Day Double and More Story Lines to Watch.