1997 Coca-Cola 600

1997 Coca-Cola 600

Race details
Race 11 of 32 in the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Date	May 25, 1997 (1997-05-25)
Location	Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, North Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Distance	333 laps, 499.5 mi (803.867 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 600 mi (965.606 km)
Weather	Temperatures averaging around 72.4 °F (22.4 °C); wind speeds up to 17.2 miles per hour (27.7 km/h)[1]
Average speed	136.745 mph (220.070 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Most laps led
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Laps	83
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Buddy Baker, Dick Berggren & Geoff Bodine

The 1997 Coca-Cola 600, the 38th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on May 25, 1997 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. Contested at 333 laps – shortened from 400 laps due to a rain delay and a 1 a.m. curfew – on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) speedway, it was the 11th race of the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports won the race.

On the day of the race, 0.25 inches of precipitation were recorded around the speedway.^[2]

Background

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and The Winston, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI).

Top 10 results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
2	2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South	Ford
3	6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford
4	94	Bill Elliott	Bill Elliott Racing	Ford
5	99	Jeff Burton	Roush Racing	Ford
6	18	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac
7	3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
8	5	Terry Labonte	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
9	1	Morgan Shepherd	Precision Products Racing	Pontiac
10	10	Ricky Rudd	Rudd Performance Motorsports	Ford

Race statistics

• Time of race: 3:39:10
• Average Speed: 136.745 miles per hour (220.070 km/h)
• Pole Speed: 184.3
• Cautions: 7 for 50 laps
• Margin of Victory: 0.468 sec
• Lead changes: 27
• Percent of race run under caution: 15%
• Average green flag run: 35.4 laps

^[3]

References

1. Weather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac
2. "Charlotte NASCAR Climatology" (PDF). SERCC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
3. Race statistics at Race Database