SM Staff

With the focus on America’s military, past, present and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the Memorial Day running of the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon is a 4-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion or as he's more recently been known as; the unluckiest man in NASCAR. He's won at nearly every track on the circuit and Jeff is still running competitively in his 22nd year of competition but luck has not been in his favor at all recently.

Many racers realize along the way that another career may be awaiting them other than being behind the wheel. This week’s edition of NASCAR BTS goes behind the scenes with Jason Trinchere to learn more about his journey from short-track racer to design engineer at Penske Racing.

From surviving two red flags, one for a bizarre camera cable snap that injured cars on the track as well as some fans in the stands, to the second red flag for a Talladega-style pile up, Kevin Harvick survived it all to live up to his moniker as the ‘Closer’, going to Victory Lane for the second time this season.

This weekend marked the 54th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the longest race of the NASCAR season. However, it also marked the annual gathering and honoring of America's true heroes. As Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North said, "America's true heroes where helmets and combat boots". Those in attendance Sunday were provided a moving salute to the men and women who serve our great country.

A full moon in the air usually means that strange and crazy things can happen during the race event. Today was no different than expected. In fact in F1, the Indy 500 and at today’s Coca Cola 600 we were spectators to unusual crashes and door banging style battles for the lead.

A two tire pit stop with a couple laps left would pay off for Kevin Harvick as he would take the lead on the restart and go on to win the Coca Cola 600.

In a race that saw a record 68 lead changes amongst 14 leaders, the race would end under caution and see an emotional driver Tony Kanaan go to victory lane. After suffering defeat many years in a row, Kanaan’s move on the restart with three to go would pan off to be the move of the race.

With a three-wide move for the lead past Carlo Munoz and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan would take the lead and hold on to it till a caution came out with three laps to go. That caution would result in the race ending under caution.

Busch’s Monster Energy Toyota led 186 of the 200 laps and moved him ahead of Mark Martin as the all-time winningest driver at Charlotte Motor Speedway.