The Coca-Cola 600, originally the World 600, is a NASCAR Cup Series race contested annually at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day Weekend.
NASCAR knew that, in order to make anything remotely comparable to IndyCar's Indy 500 on the same day, they had to make the World 600 big, and that is ultimately one of the main reasons why the race became the sport's longest annual race. It was created as the ultimate stock car endurance test.
This race is a 400-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Concord, North Carolina oval, and sellouts are not at all uncommon for the crown jewel event.
Charlotte, however, is nowhere near as big as Indianapolis Motor Speedway when it comes to seating.
While Indy seats over 250,000, and the venue can fit more than 350,000 on Indy 500 race day, there are just 79,000 seats at Charlotte, and even including standing room and infield areas, the attendance number only grows to 95,000.
Of course, 95,000 is still a massive number in the grand scheme of things, even if not quite the six-figure number NASCAR sees in the annual season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, another Cup Series crown jewel.
For instance, no NFL stadium has a listed seating capacity of more than 82,500, and like a lot of NFL games, the seats at Charlotte are generally pretty full on Coke 600 race day.
There used to be two Cup Series races per year at the Charlotte oval, three including the exhibition All-Star Race the week before the Coca-Cola 600. But in 2018, the track's playoff race was given to the Roval, which includes the venue's interior road course and only portions of the oval.
The Roval, a 17-turn, 2.28-mile (3.669-kilometer) course, has hosted an annual playoff race ever since.
As for the All-Star Race, it hasn't been contested at Charlotte since 2019, so the Coca-Cola 600 has been the oval's only Cup Series event since 2020. And it has regularly been one of the sport's most competitive races since the Next Gen era began in 2022.
The first All-Star Race was held at Charlotte in 1985, and after it was moved to Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1986, it was moved back to Charlotte in 1987. Its 2020 relocation ended a 33-year streak at Charlotte.
The All-Star Race was moved to Bristol Motor Speedway in 2020 before being relocated to Texas Motor Speedway in 2021. It remained at Texas in 2022 before being moved to North Wilkesboro Speedway, where it remains today, in 2023.