Dr. Diandra: Season’s longest race tests man more than machine

The nature of the Coca-Cola 600 has changed since the first race in 1960. At the time, 600 miles was a test of mechanical endurance. Cars were erected so close to their failure points that DNFs – not done – were frequent.

Why 600 miles? One reason manufacturers will chase is to prove that their cars are not only fast and sporty, but also reliable. The 600-mile Charlotte race started as Nascar 24-hour lemane. So as we approach This year’s marathonLet us investigate the DNF tariffs and how it has changed over the years.

DNF records

The chart below shows DNF tariffs – the number of DNFs divided by the total number of cars – from 1960 to 2024. I deliberately did not number the individual bars so that you can see the overall trends better. However, I will point out some cases of interest.

In the first 1960 race, 70% of the 60 cars – that is 42 vehicles – did not complete the race.

• Only 10 of the 42 DNFs (23.8%) were due to accidents.
• Six drivers (14.3% of all DNFs) were disqualified. These include Lee and Richard Petty, who mark the only time and father and son, are disqualified from the same race.
• The remaining 26 DNF drivers failed equipment. Engine -related problems were half the failures.

Just the winner – Joe Lee Johnson – End on the lead shot and mark one of his two wins in the Career Cup. He only led 48 of the 400 rounds and took home $ 27,150. Second place manager Johnny Beauchamp Four laps closed.

Although 70% is large for a DNF rate, the first year did not keep the record long. In the 1966 race, 33 of the 44 cars (75%) could not cross the finish line.

• Only three (9.0%) of the DNFs were due to accidents.
• Engine -related failures were responsible for 24 DNFs (72.7% of all DNFs)

Only 11 drivers were on track for the last round of the race. Marvin Panch Win, GC has exceeded two full rounds.

DNF trends

The Coca-Cola 600 opponents Daytona and Talladega for DNFs are as a whole. Out of 66 races to date:

• Less than 50% of the field could not end in 15 races or 22.7%.
• Thirty-four races (51.5%) had a DNF rate of 30% or more.

But the graph also shows that the DNF rate is falling overall over the years. If we only consider races from 1995, about:

• No breed had more than a 50% DNF rate.
• Only four races out of 30 (13.3%) have a 30% DNF rate or higher.
• In 24 of these races, more than 90% of the field completed the race.

There were even two years in which only one car could not finish the race.

• In 2009, Mike Bliss’s car retired to just 42 laps with a vibration.
• In 2021Kurt Busch’s car lost its engine after 139 laps.

The highest DNF rate since 1992 is 45.9%, or 17 DNFs under 37 cars. It was the 2022 race – The first year of the Gen-7 car.

• Fifteen of the 17 DNFs were due to accidents, including drivers who do not pass the Damaged vehicle policy clock.
• Two drivers (11.8% of DNFs or 5.4% of the full field) had engine errors.
• Of the 20 drivers who completed the race, 17 finished on the front round.
• Denny Hamlin’s victory was 0.12 seconds, one of the nearest finishes for the Coca-Cola 600.

Thus, although the DNF rate is comparable to some breeds from earlier times, the reasons for the DNFs have shifted significantly. For one engine errors are very rare these days, though Ryan Blaney has managed to have two of them this year.

One positive for drivers in this long of a race is that they have time to return from penalties and mistakes if made early enough. In the 2022 race, Cliff Daniels, Kyle Larson chief, pointed out that they were not just the most penalized team (with three penalties), they also crashed and set on fire. They ended in ninth place.

On the other hand, the three drivers combined to lead 143 out of 413 rounds (34.6%) 15th, 25th and 33rd.

The Coca-Cola 600 remains unpredictable

If there is one feature that has retained this marathon race over the years, it is unpredictability. For example, consider recent margins of victory. Since 2001, the time difference between the leader and the second place ranging ranged from 0.027 seconds (Jimmie Johnson, 2005) Up to 10.2 seconds (Kasey Kahne, 2008).

The margins of the victory were closer in the Gen-7 era: 0.119 seconds in 2022 and 0.663 seconds in 2023. Of course the race of last year was, of course, of course, Shortly cut by rain and ends under the red flag.

Although we have not seen any finishes as close as with the previous two generations of car, we also did not see a driver running away with the race.

So far.

What to expect for warnings

The unpredictability of the breed extends to the number of unplanned warnings. (Unplanned warnings exclude any prior caution known, such as caution of the stage and the warnings of competition.) The graph below shows how the number of warnings over the past 24 years, from two in 2021 to 22 in 2005.

That 2005 race However, was an exception. Before 2005, this race did not see more than 14 warnings (in 1980.) that the number contains all breeds that have numbers of warnings Racing-refereence.info. Most race had between six and nine warnings.

But Charlotte Motor Speedway ‘heffy‘(ie Diamond Ground) the track surface before the race. Drivers struggled just to keep their cars in the right direction. Multiple turns and accidents delayed the race – although the end was an exciting, close finish.

That makes the 2022 race, the first race with the Gen-7 car, most warnings in a normal race. The race had 18 warnings for 90 rounds, which means that 21.7% of the race was performed under caution. Three of these warnings were warnings on stage. Of the 15 unplanned warnings there were:

• Seven spin
• Seven accidents
• One debris carefully

It was not the longest race in terms of time, but it lasted 619.5 miles, making it the longest Nascar race in history with miles.

What to expect from this year’s Coca-Cola 600

None of these data helps us to predict what will happen this weekend. What I can say is that the Coca-Cola has become a test of people than machines. Which pit staff can quickly pull out fast stops in a race that often has the most in the season? Which driver can stay focused enough for four-plus hours to make mistakes on Pit Road and avoid any massacre on the track?

And how many fans will make it through the biggest day of racing of the year without having to need a nap at some point?