Chevrolet Takes Two out of Three Memorial Day Races

            Memorial Day weekend is a weekend all race fans look forward to.  That is because three big races occur on the same day.  The day of races starts off in Europe with the Grand Prix at Monaco. Then at noontime begins the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500.  In the evening, the longest race in NASCAR starts, the Coca-Cola 600.  Chevrolet got victories in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 taking two out of the three Memorial Day races. There were no Chevy entries in the Grand Prix, so naturally a win in that race wouldn’t occur.

            The grand prix at Monaco would go to Mercedes driver, Nico Rosburg.  Rosburg got the pole position to start the race and would go on to lead all 78 laps and score a victory for Mercedes.  Sebastian Vettel of team Red Bull would finish second, almost four seconds behind Rosburg.  Mark Webber finished third six seconds behind the leader.  Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil would round out the top five.

            The 97^th annual Indianapolis 500 began with Ed Carpenter on the pole.  This race smashed previous records of the race.  There were 68 total lead changes, breaking the previous record of 34 set in 2012. 14 different drivers would go on to lead the race, which broke the record set in 1993 with 12 different leaders. This year also had the most cars finishing the race than any other previous Indy 500.  27 cars were running at the finish, breaking the record of 26 that was set all the way back in 1911. This was also the fastest Indianapolis 500 ever run with an average speed of 187.433mph.

            The winner of the 500 would go to Chevy driver Tony Kanaan.  This was TK’s 12^th try and winning the biggest Indy car race of the year and he finally was able to do so.  Rookie Carlos Munoz finished 2^nd, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Justin Wilson to finish up the top 5. Chevrolets took seven of the top 10 spots at Indianapolis.

            Once the Indianapolis 500 was over, it was time to get ready for the Coca-Cola 600, the longest NASCAR race of the year.  Denny Hamlin, in the number 11 Toyota was the pole sitter for the race, who would later go on to finish 4^th.  The first half of the race was run mostly under green with Matt Kenseth becoming the guy to beat.  After a miscommunication with his team and pitting early, the caution came out and that set him back in the pack.  This would prove costly as a Jimmie Johnson spin would get Matt hit from the back, and that would end his hopes at winning the 600.

            Cautions continued to wave for subsequent wrecks and debris.  The most spectacular would probably be when Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Aric Almirola went three wide, down the front stretch.  Mark went a little low and touched the right rear of Almirola’s car sending him towards Jeff Gordon and causing a six car wreck. 

            After that, the race went under green for awhile with Kasey Kahne in the number five Chevy taking the lead by a large margin.  However a debris caution would come out with 14 laps to go.  Everybody elected to pit except Kahne.  This would be Kasey’s downfall as Kevin Harvick on fresh tires passed him on the restart and would continue on to win the race. Kasey Kahne finished second and Kurt Busch finished third.  The first Toyota was Denny Hamlin finishing fourth.  Joey Logano was the first Ford in the finishing order at fifth.

            It was a great weekend for race fans and for Chevrolet.  Now we have to wait another year until the next set of Memorial Day races.

Matthew Colan

Handy Chevrolet