Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious
Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the
NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the
UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of
Bruton Smith) as track president.
Qualifying was split into three rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, May 21, at 4:00 PM
EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 15 drivers in the round were guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Thursday, May 22, at 2:00 PM
EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. Positions 16-30 were decided on times in the second round. The third round was held on Friday, May 23, at 12:30 PM
EST; if a driver was not able to guarantee a starting spot in the previous two rounds, they had the option to scrub their time again and run in the third round. As with the previous two rounds, each driver had one lap to set a time. Positions 31-40 were determined on times in the third round.[5] Depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given.
Geoff Bodine, driving for
Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole, setting a time of 32.824 and an average speed of 164.511 miles per hour (264.755 km/h) in the first round.[6]
Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.
Notes
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abPetty crashed his car in a Friday practice session, terminally damaging his only car. As a result, both Petty and his sponsor, STP, paid D. K. Ulrich to drive his car for the race.[4]