The Coca-Cola 600 race is 600 miles long. NASCAR stages the event at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile quad-oval in Concord, North Carolina, so the scheduled distance works out to 400 laps.
The race began in 1960 as the World 600, created to showcase Charlotte's newly built speedway. Coca-Cola became the title sponsor in 1985, giving the event the name used today. It is traditionally held around Memorial Day weekend and is NASCAR's longest regularly scheduled Cup Series race.
The 600-mile distance can be confused with the track length: Charlotte's oval is only 1.5 miles per lap. Weather can also shorten an individual running, because NASCAR can declare a race official after enough scheduled stages have been completed. The event is famous for changing conditions, beginning in daylight and often finishing at night under the lights.