FORD PERFORMANCE: NASCAR CHARLOTTE COCA-COLA 600 NOTES
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will remain at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend for the annual Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday evening. Ford has won the circuit’s longest race a total of 12 times with Fred Lorenzen and Jeff Burton being the only multiple winners among that group.
THE FIRST TIME…Ford won the Coca-Cola 600 came on May 27, 1962 when the race was still referred to as the World 600. This marked the third running of NASCAR’s longest race and in the end it was Nelson Stacy, behind the wheel of a 1962 Holman-Moody Ford, that ended up in victory lane. Stacy passed David Pearson, who developed engine trouble with eight laps to go, and went on to beat Joe Weatherly to the finish line by 32 seconds in posting the third of his four career victories. Fellow Holman-Moody teammate Fred Lorenzen finished third. The win was Stacy’s second straight after he took the checkered flag two weeks earlier in Darlington.
THE LAST TIME…Ford took the checkered flag in the Coca-Cola 600 was in 2002 when Mark Martin won the event and extended Jack Roush’s win streak in the event to four. Jeff Burton started the streak by winning in 1999 and then Matt Kenseth posted the first win of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career as a rookie the following season in 2000. Burton followed that with his second win in three years before Martin, who led the final 40 laps, was able to keep that streak going in 2002. The win was Martin’s 33rd career triumph, but it wasn’t easy as he had to hold off Kenseth down the stretch. The race ended with Ford sweeping the top four positions as Martin and Kenseth were followed across the finish line by Ricky Craven and Ricky Rudd, who was making his record 656th consecutive series start.
IN BETWEEN… The Wood Brothers have four Coca-Cola 600 victories to their credit with three different drivers. David Pearson won the first two events for the organization in a Mercury (1974 and ’76) before Neil Bonnett (1982) and Kyle Petty (1987) each went to victory lane in a Ford. In addition, Dale Jarrett’s first season driving the No. 88 Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Ford for Robert Yates Racing was 1996 and remains memorable because he won three of the sports biggest races, including the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jarrett also won his second of three Daytona 500s to start the year and later captured the first of two Brickyard 400 championships. Another Ford tidbit involves Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but it wasn’t in his current No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford Fusion. Stenhouse actually drove the Wood Brothers No. 21 Motorcraft Ford in the 2011 Coca-Cola 600 as he subbed for an ill Trevor Bayne and finished 11th.
FORD RACING COCA-COLA 600 WINNERS
1962 – Nelson Stacy
1963 – Fred Lorenzen
1965 – Fred Lorenzen
1970 – Donnie Allison
1982 – Neil Bonnett
1987 – Kyle Petty
1991 – Davey Allison
1996 – Dale Jarrett
1999 – Jeff Burton
2000 – Matt Kenseth
2001 – Jeff Burton
2002 – Mark Martin
