FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top Drivers at Home for Long Charlotte 600

Most NASCAR drivers and teams have been home in the Charlotte area before and since the All-Star race, and they will be for the Coca-Cola 600 on the 1.5-mile track at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday in Concord, North Carolina as well.

Since the Kansas Speedway race on May 9, no driver has earned a win or any points that count for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship run, so team efforts now shift.

Drivers who made the All-Star race love their experience and data-gathering that transfer to NASCAR’s longest race at CMS.

Only eight drivers have wins in 2015 that virtually assure them a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs. Perhaps a winless driver will join that group this weekend.

Seven top drivers shared their thoughts heading into a hometown event that doesn’t have home-field advantages. Perhaps their comments will help fans prepare for the action.

Martin Truex Jr. has had an impressive year that has lifted him to a solid second-place position. Truex mentioned the Coca-Cola 600 challenge.

“Since this is the longest race of the year, you hope you're at your best with 100 miles to go,” he said. “The track changes a lot. The race starts in the daytime and ends at night. You need to make the proper adjustments and peak at the right time.”

Jimmie Johnson has a trio of 2015 Sprint Cup Series wins to bolster his strategies. He stressed the importance of the Memorial Day weekend.

“When we line up for the national anthem at the 600, and I’m wearing this red, white and blue fire suit,” he said. “You can’t help but be thankful for all the men and women who fight for our country. It’s a long night—strategy and pit stops will be really important.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned his thoughts to the CMS track.

“The track is going to get tighter and tighter all night long, so it’s going to be important to get the car to turn,” he said. “If you need to move around, you need to be able to get up to the high side and make the car competitive.

“If you can’t use the high side, you’re going to get stuck behind guys without any way to get around them in the dirty air. If you can’t get to the top and make some passes, you’re going to have a long night."

According to NASCAR.com's Reid Spencer, Matt Kenseth will start his Coca-Cola 600 weekend from the front on the pole.

“We were able to learn a lot from the All-Star Race as we look ahead to the 600,” he said. “The challenge about this weekend and it being the longest race of the year is that you want your car to handle well at the start of the race, but also at the end.”

Jamie McMurray stressed the time at home.

"I'm excited to be home at Charlotte for two weeks,” he said. “This track has been good to me. It is hard to believe that this is my 450th career start. Looking forward to many more, but focused on having a good weekend.”

Jeff Gordon will move from his car to the Fox booth next year, but for now, he's concentrated on racing.

“We didn’t win the race Saturday night, but we had a strong effort and finished fourth,” he said. “We learned a lot for this weekend. We have a few areas that we can work on and improve on so that we can hopefully be better and faster this weekend.”

Kasey Kahne talked about improved results this year.

“It’s been nice not to be so far behind early in the year,” he said. “I feel like we’re doing a good job. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re much closer and we know the things that we need to keep working on.”

Credit: Dwight Drum

Fans without tickets to the fast and lengthy action at CMS on May 24 can skip the giant screen at the track and catch the race on Fox at 6 p.m. ET.

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of topics by Dwight Drum at RaceTake.com. Unless otherwise noted, information and all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official release materials provided by sanction and team representatives.