The 2009 Coca-Cola 600 was the twelfth stock car race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the fiftieth iteration of the event. It was held on May 25, 2009, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina after being postponed on May 24 because of inclement weather. Scheduled for 400 laps on the quad-oval, the race was won by David Reutimann of Michael Waltrip Racing after being shortened to 227 laps because of poor weather conditions. Ryan Newman finished second ahead of Robby Gordon, Carl Edwards, and Brian Vickers, who completed the first five positions.
Fox Sports televised the event in the United States, while the race was broadcast on radio by Performance Racing Network (over-the-air) and Sirius XM Radio (satellite)
On the day of the race, 1.33 inches of precipitation were recorded around the speedway; a significant amount of rain for the Charlotte area for the month of May.
Background
Lowe's Motor Speedway, now called Charlotte Motor Speedway, is one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. The standard track at Lowe's Motor Speedway is a four-turn, -long, quad-oval track. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees; both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch (opposite the front) have a five-degree banking.
The Coca-Cola 600 was conceived by race car driver Curtis Turner who built the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was first held in 1960 in an attempt by NASCAR to stage a Memorial Day weekend race to compete with the open-wheel Indianapolis 500; the two races were held together on the same day starting from 1974. The race is the longest (in terms of distance) on the NASCAR calendar and is considered by several drivers as one of the sport's most important races alongside the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500. The event was known as the World 600 until 1984 when The Coca-Cola Company purchased the naming rights to the race and renamed it the Coca-Cola World 600 in 1985. It has been called the Coca-Cola 600 every year since 1986 except for 2002 when the name changed to Coca-Cola Racing Family 600.
Entry list
Qualifying
Pre-race festivities
Air Force Tops in Blue sang the national anthem. Bobby Allison, the race's grand marshal, gave the command to start engines. (It was not televised on Monday, instead, it was preempted by commercials.)
Race recap
Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch started on the front row followed by Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin in the second one, and Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne in the third. Newman decided to start the race from the outside, switching positions with Busch.
At 12:12 pm EDT, the green flag waved marking the start of the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600. After lap 1, Newman led the first lap with Busch in 2nd and Martin in 3rd. Two laps later, Busch took the lead from Newman while out of turn 4. On lap 7, the first caution flag was waved for light rain. Before the caution, Brian Vickers was in 5th after starting in 8th and Denny Hamlin was in that position after starting 13th. Dale Earnhardt Jr., starting in 27th, was in 31st. Eleven drivers entered pit road. Among them were Earnhardt Jr.; Kevin Harvick; Michael Waltrip; Greg Biffle; and Matt Kenseth.
When the restarted on lap 12, Busch had the lead followed by Newman, Martin, Kahne, and Vickers behind him. Shortly after, Harvick and Sam Hornish Jr. made contact on the backstretch. On lap 17, Harvick made contact with the outside wall entering turn 1, causing damage to his car and bringing out a caution. Busch reported an electrical problem with his car.
On lap 19, the race restarted with Busch, Newman, Martin, Kahne, and Gordon in the Top 5. By lap 35, Busch had opened a 2-second lead over Martin, who was 2nd. Tony Stewart, starting in 28th, was now in 15th. During pit stops on lap 42 after a competition caution, Johnson had the lead off pit road and gained 16 positions, followed by Busch and Martin. Newman had to come back to pit road for a lugnut replacement and Mike Bliss drove his car to the garage.