Account
NASCAR at Charlotte 2020: Start Time, Lineup, TV Schedule and More
May 23, 2020
The NASCAR schedule features plenty of changes, but the one race that remained in the same place was the Coca-Cola 600.
The traditional Memorial Day weekend event at Charlotte Motor Speedway is the third race in a week for the NASCAR Cup Series. Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin enter Sunday's competition off wins at Darlington. They are two of four drivers with victories from the season's first six races. Joey Logano and Alex Bowman are the others.
Unlike the two Darlington races, there will be a qualifying session at Charlotte on Sunday afternoon, four hours before the longest event on the NASCAR calendar begins.
Coca-Cola 600 Information
Date: Sunday, May 24
Start Time: 6 p.m. ET
TV: Fox
Live Stream: Fox Sports app or FoxSports.com.
Preview
The Joe Gibbs Racing teams should have the upper hand going into Sunday's race.
The team has won the past two races at Charlotte and three of the previous five, and it placed all four of its cars in the top 10 Wednesday at Darlington.
Denny Hamlin owns the team's two wins this season, while Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. all have multiple top-10 finishes.
Busch is at the center of the sport's top storyline heading into Charlotte. The driver of the No. 18 car wrecked Chase Elliott on the final green flag lap Wednesday, which spurred discussions as to whether it was an intentional move.
Busch told reporters he had a conversation with Elliott to work through the issue, per NASCAR.com's Chase Wilhelm.
"Yes, Chase and I talked and it went really well," Busch said. "He's a class act. We've all seen that. The conversation overall was good."
Elliott addressed the incident Friday and understood Busch made a mistake in their fight for second place, per the Charlotte Observer's Alex Andrejev:
"I get that mistakes happen and that's part of life. I get it. He's just not a guy that makes many mistakes, so for me to be on the poor end of a rare mistake on his end is, at the end of the day, unfortunate for me and my team."
While it looks like tempers have cooled, it will be interesting to see how both drivers react if they are fighting for position at the top of the grid Sunday.
Elliott will try to end Hendrick Motorsports' five-year drought in Victory Lane at the Coca-Cola 600. The driver of the No. 9 car is the top-ranked racer in the points standings without a victory, and teammate Alex Bowman had one of the strongest rides during both Darlington competitions.
Jimmie Johnson can't be counted out since he has won the 600-mile race on four occasions and has run well for most of the season. The 44-year-old, who will retire at the end of the season, earned top-12 finishes in four of the past five races and was at the front Sunday at Darlington before he crashed.
Kurt Busch is another older driver to keep an eye on, as he owns a trio of top-10 finishes this year and won the Coca-Cola 600 in 2010.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90. Statistics obtained from NASCAR.com.