Coke 600 2012: Kasey Kahne Wins At Charlotte Motor Speedway

Kasey Kahne may have won Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but he remained shy of one of the two Chase Wild Card spots despite his victory.

The win vaulted Kahne to 15th in the Sprint Cup Series standings, but he’s still seven points behind Ryan Newman for the second Wild Card position.

Kasey Kahne continued his emphatic turnaround Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, handily winning the Coca-Cola 600.

In his 300th NASCAR Sprint Cup start, Kahne posted his first victory of the season, his first since joining Hendrick Motorsports and the 13th of his career. Kahne beat runner-up Denny Hamlin to the finish line by 4.295 seconds.

The Coca-Cola 600 started under blue skies and bright sunshine at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Off to the east a line of showers and storms began to form.

This activity is associated with tropical storm Beryl that is preparing to make landfall later tonight in north Florida and southeast Georgia. That is why the storms are coming from the east moving west.

Kicking off what is one of the biggest auto racing weekends of the year, Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR Nationwide Series History 300 Saturday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Keselowski started the race in the 10th position, but led 67 laps en route to his first Nationwide Series win of 2012. Kevin Harvick, who led the most laps with 92, finished fourth. The History 300 is the first race of a busy auto racing weekend which also includes the Coca Cola 600 and Indianapolis 500.

CONCORD, N.C. -- The Richard Petty Motorsports teammates who will start Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 side-by-side on the front row have the same short-term objective -- to lead the first lap.

After winning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole in Thursday’s time trials, Aric Almirola will lead the field to green to start NASCAR’s longest race. Marcos Ambrose, who hasn’t won a Cup pole yet, will take the green flag in whichever lane -- outside or inside -- Almirola doesn’t choose.

A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would cut military spending toward sponsoring NASCAR teams has struck a nerve with fans of the sport. Patriotism and auto racing have long been intertwined, but members of Congress are questioning whether the $26 million spent to sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s National Guard car and Ryan Newman’s U.S. Army car is really money well spent, considering that zero people reportedly actually joined the National Guard as a result of the sponsorship.

Newman defended his sponsors in a statement, saying he and Earnhardt Jr. are proud to represent military and help raise awareness.

Danica Patrick is starting the Coca Cola 600 in the 40th position, but she’s excited to be on the racetrack.

“I’m racing in the Coke 600, and that’s a pretty darn big event. It’s a new challenge. It’s a big challenge,” Patrick told Brian Hall of WFMY. “I’m sure there are going to be some points in time that I feel like it’s going on forever, and that’s because it is. But that’s the fun of the Coke 600, lots of time to have fun.”

The weather forecast for NASCAR’s longest race -- the Coca-Cola 600 -- and today’s Nationwide race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be mostly dry, hot and humid. There’s just the smallest threat of an isolated storm on Sunday.

High pressure will provide mostly sunny skies, hot temperatures and humid conditions for this afternoon’s Nationwide race. The high temperature will be 90 degrees.

Jimmie Johnson said his team considered bringing the car that won last Saturday’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte back for the Coke 600.

Logistically, that would have been difficult, given that the 48 team didn’t get the car back from NASCAR’s tech center in Concord, N.C., until Tuesday afternoon.

It wasn’t how he said it or the even the words he used, but the one thing that was unmistakable as Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke Thursday in the media center at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the confidence he has in himself, his team and in his car.

Although Earnhardt Jr. made no bold predictions that this was going to be the weekend he finally snapped his nearly four-year winless drought, it was obvious he thought he had as good a chance as he’s had in a while to get back to Victory Lane in a actual points-paying NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Basking in the public spotlight is nothing new for Danica Patrick. She’s been a media darling since 2005, when she became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500.

But that was in IndyCar, where she was a big fish in a small pond – at least in terms of visibility.

The No. 43 is back on the pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway -- without a Petty behind the wheel.

In a car owned by three-time Charlotte Motor Speedway pole winner Richard Petty, Aric Almirola blew the doors off his competition in Thursday night’s time trials for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, touring the 1.5-mile track in 27.988 seconds (192.940 mph).

NASCAR continues to get spoiled by another rain-free weekend, as we stay at Charlotte Motor Speedway for NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600.

Not only will it be mostly dry, but it will once again be hot. High pressure is going to dominate the eastern third of the United States this weekend. This will provide lots of sunshine, highs reaching the upper 80s to near 90, and it will be humid.