500 and 600
by Serendipitous | Published on May 22nd, 2008, 10:22 am | Sports
500 and 600. Two numbers and two meanings... at least for me anyway. 
First, the IRL's Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 are this weekend. Second, and of course as luck would have it, my 500th Greensboring post would sync up with the Sprint Cup race that is 600 miles!!!
So here it comes! The Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. A race to rival the Indianapolis 500. A race to see which NASCAR fans and drivers can hold up through an extra 100 miles.
Here's a Coca-Cola 600 history lesson from Wikipedia.
The event was started as an attempt by NASCAR to stage a Memorial Day weekend event that would rival the open-wheel Indianapolis 500 in fan interest and it has succeeded, gaining larger TV ratings than the Indianapolis race from 2002-2004. It was not until 1974, however, that both races competed head-to-head on the same day[1]. Prior to 1974, the two races were held on different days of the week, and on a few occasions, some drivers drove in both; this continued even after the 600 was moved to the same day, albeit to a smaller degree.
Any previous winners have a good shot?
Let’s start with last year’s winner, Casey Mears. He not only celebrated a Coca-Cola 600 victory, but it was also his first career win. Based on this year’s stats so far, I’m not sure that we’ll see a repeat win from him this year. One can always hope!
Kasey Kahne won the 600 in 2006 and is coming off his 2008 All-Star Race victory. He’s 13th in the standings and is “in it to win it” but I don’t know if he’s going to hold off some of the other drivers.
And with LMS being “Jimmie’s house”, there is always a chance that with 3-consecutive Coca-Cola 600 wins (2003-2005) Jimmie Johnson will get it back from Casey and Kasey.
Then there’s Jimmie’s teammate, Jeff Gordon, who is also a 3 time winner. Sure, Jeff has a chance to win too.
Other previous winners / current drivers include Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth. Check out the Wiki article for more names; I've prolly forgotten some!- lms-beast.jpg (11.32 KiB) Viewed 1189 times
What can we expect to see this year?
I dunno. But what I would like to see is someone putting Kyle Busch in his place. I’ll admit two things: 1) I’ve seen him do less stupid things on the track compared to previous years, and 2) He is a very talented driver. HOWEVER his attitude has GOT to go. He was already my least favorite driver before the run-in with Dale Jr, but the I Hate Kyle klub has grown since Kyle frakked with Jr Nation and what could've been the end of Jr's winless streak.
Is 3 a magic number?
3 is a magic number according to SchoolHouse Rocks! and your elementary school math teachers.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is currently 3rd in the standings. Maybe this 600 (ooh! it is evenly divisible by 3) will end the streak of 70-some-odd races without a win. Maybe Dale Jr will go on to be a 3-time winner of the Coca-Cola 600, like his father, the driver of the 3 car.
Three. Tres. Trois.
Trinity. Triology. Trio.
Okay, so maybe I’m just getting a little silly here, throwing you a bunch of number three bulls#it, much like throwing chicken bones at the track (or my still unfulfilled dream of throwing a punch at Kyle Busch)...all because it's fun and you can make coincidence seem significant when it's really not .
The one thing that doesn’t change is the Coca-Cola 600 is this weekend… and (coincidentally to see 3 races), I am soooooooooooooo there!
