Chase Briscoe wins pole for Coca-Cola 600; Jimmie Johnson’s milestone

Chase Briscoe will lead the Coca-Cola 600 field to the green flag Sunday at Charlotte.

A lap time of 29.532 seconds in Saturday’s qualifying session gave Briscoe the pole by just two one-hundredths of a second over Kyle Larson.

Briscoe, 29, is in his first season driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Sunday marks his second pole of the year after the Daytona 500. Larson, meanwhile, is pulling double duty, planning to run the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day before flying to Charlotte for NASCAR’s longest race.

“It’s definitely rough down there,” Briscoe said of Charlotte’s 1.5-mile oval, especially between its third and fourth turns. “It changes year to year — some of them get better, get worse — but honestly I feel like the Cup cars take them a lot better than the Xfinity car, for example. It’s definitely nice, I mean, it’s going to be great to start up front (Sunday).

“This is a long race, and having that No. 1 pit stall, being able to start up front, having that clean air is huge in these cars.”

Jimmie Johnson returns to Charlotte for 700th career start

One of the most elite drivers in NASCAR history remembers being captivated by the Coca-Cola 600.

Many aspects of NASCAR’s longest race — the endurance, strategy, sheer difficulty of winning such a race — stood out to a young Jimmie Johnson. Then there’s the patriotic pride of Memorial Day weekend, and the whole atmosphere made Charlotte’s spring race feel like something bigger.

Now, the seven-time Cup Series champion — and four-time Coca-Cola 600 winner — is back to compete once again, making his 700th career start in Sunday’s main event with Legacy Motor Club.

“I love endurance events, and this is our marathon,” Johnson said. “Cars back then had a tough time making it. The drivers did as well. But it’s in a space now where it certainly is hard on the drivers, and it is a long event. I think it’s probably more difficult on the party animal fans in the infield than to go those extra miles, but it’s just an incredible weekend with a ton of pride and prestige.

“You leave here after winning the 600 at this very difficult track, you hold your head high.”

Don’t win the Coca-Cola 600? Drivers won’t stop hearing about it

Joey Logano receives a photo of a Coca-Cola vending machine every May.

Among the handful of Cup drivers backed by Coca-Cola Racing, Logano is well aware of the prize that comes with winning this race: a full-size, functioning Coca-Cola machine.

The brand makes sure he doesn’t forget about it.

“We’ve been close before, but haven’t quite gotten the old Coca-Cola fridge that they hand out to the winners,” Logano said with a laugh. “I get a picture sent to me before every race here. As a Coca-Cola driver, they send me a picture of it, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know, I got it. I want to go get it. I understand. Message delivered.’”

Second-year Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar will roll off in 39th in the 40-car field, but he’s still eyeing the prize — and the prestige that comes with it.

“A lot of my crew guys like to drink, so they’re really wanting that,” Hocevar said. “I just want to win a race, and if you win here, that’s really big. It always seems like a few guys get their first win, and maybe, we can do it from last.”

Charlotte’s 1.5-mile oval hasn’t lost its bite

The Coca-Cola 600 remains one of the toughest tests in NASCAR.

Sunday’s race marks the longest — and arguably most grueling — race on the schedule. The surface is rough and worn, especially in the third and fourth turns. Tire falloff is high, and the weather’s always a factor, especially as the race goes from daytime into night.

Reigning winner Christopher Bell called it the “bucking bronco,” noting the physicality of this race track. He’s been consistent in saying that NASCAR should host one race at each track throughout the season, and he considers the Coke 600 and oval at Darlington as the sport’s toughest venues.

“(Charlotte) is up there,” Bell said. “Just the bucking bronco that you have to ride through Turns Three and Four, it gets your attention. Being 600 miles, it’s just a very long race. I applaud NASCAR for going shorter with races, whenever I first started in the series and certainly before that, there were a lot of 500-mile intermediate races. Now those have kind of gone away, and most of our intermediate races are 400 miles.

“That puts even more emphasis in making this weekend even more special. It’s the longest race of the year, but it’s really different than others. It’s a very physical race track, and it’s going to be a very physical race.”

They said it

“Six hundred miles. I know that’s a bit of a (smarty) answer, but (600 miles) is my only goal for the weekend,” Austin Cindric said. I really, truly mean that, because we had a tire failure in my first race I did here, I put myself in the wall the second one, and we got rained out in the third one. So I’ve yet to run all 600 miles, and I feel like that’s important. Execution has been the last little bit for us to really get to the next level as a group, and I feel like the cream rises to the top.”

Coca-Cola 600 starting lineup

This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Chase Briscoe wins pole for Coca-Cola 600; Jimmie Johnson’s milestone."

Shane Connuck

The Charlotte Observer

Shane Connuck is a former journalist for The Charlotte Observer