Coca-Cola 600 runs Monday after weather causes havoc

CHARLOTTE — Wet weather caused havoc for a Memorial Day Weekend of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Obviously a lot of challenges the last couple of days with some difficult weather conditions but really excited about the fans that stuck it out with us,” Jonathan Coleman with Speedway Motorsports said.

Rain caused the Coca-Cola 600 to be postponed until Monday, which also cause the Xfinity Series race to be pushed back as well.

This led to a very rare doubleheader with a total of 900 miles of racing to be performed in one day.

“Having it delayed like we did Where it was postponed to a completely different day has really only happened one other time in the last 20, 25 years,” Coleman explained.

Speedway officials said it was a monumental effort the racing audience more than deserved.

“It’s memorial day weekend. This year it’s memorial day proper. It was important to us to be able to recognize and carry on that tradition that we have for so many years,” Coleman said.

Each year the Coca-Cola 600, stock car racing’s longest race, honors servicemembers who are no longer with us, as well as those who are still here.

Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe spoke with Randy Erickson, who served as a nuclear submarine engineer in the Navy, about what the race means to him.

“My family has a tradition of being in the military. My dad was in the marine corps and Vietnam. So this is a way of honoring him,” Erickson explained.

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