Three observations from the Coca-Cola 600

CONCORD, N.C. – Here are three observations after the “10 Days of Thunder” at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Carl Edwards’ victory in the Coca-Cola 600:

1. Chevrolets still on top

Although a Toyota and Ford finished 1-2 on Sunday night – and in one of NASCAR’s most telling tests of strength on intermediate tracks – the Sprint Cup Series is still a Chevrolet world.

“I’m not saying we’ve caught up,” said Joe Gibbs, whose Toyotas swept the Charlotte races.

“We certainly haven't come anywhere close to catching (the top Chevy cars),” said Greg Biffle, who finished second in his Ford.

Those might sound like odd comments based on the results, but Chevrolets led 275 of the 400 laps on Sunday night. Toyotas led 104 laps and Fords led 21 laps.

“It looks like (the Chevys) are head and shoulders better than the Toyotas and Fords,” Biffle said. “You know, they definitely have kind of a stranglehold on it, it seems like.”

Aside from a fuel-mileage race like Charlotte, which mixed up the running order, Chevrolets will continue to win most of the 1.5-mile track races which make up the majority of NASCAR’s schedule.

2. Frustration increasing at 1.5-mile tracks

Since the Chevrolets are fastest – particularly the Hendrick Motorsports group (which includes Stewart-Haas Racing) – you’d think those drivers would be happy with the current rules package.

But not all of them are.

Jimmie Johnson last week said the “brutal truth” was the leader had a huge advantage in clean air and the current rules weren’t helping. And on Sunday night, teammate Kasey Kahne was vocal about the topic after finishing 12th.

Kahne said if another driver 10 car lengths in front of him – a significant distance – would run the same line, it would immediately affect how his car handled. He called it “a complete pain” and said it was hard to even pass a lapped car in 28th place while he was racing in the top 10.

“This was the most difficult 600 to pass that I have ever been involved in,” he said. “You can take that for what you want.”

The race had nine different leaders in the first 100 laps but no additional leaders the rest of the night. The 22 lead changes were the fewest for a 600-mile race since there were 16 in 2004.

“Everybody has to keep working if we want to actually be able to race these cars," Kahne said. "Not just the teams, it’s the sanctioning body needs to work on what we’ve got.”

Unfortunately for Kahne and others, NASCAR has recently indicated few if any changes are planned for next season's rules package.

3. Next safety enhancement: Closing pit openings

For the second time this month, a driver came somewhat close to going through one of the openings in a pit road wall.

First, it was Brendan Gaughan during the May 2 Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. On Sunday, it was Johnson after he slid out of control toward the inside pit wall and hit a SAFER barrier there.

But what if those cars had gone a few feet further and slid right into the area filled with crewmen and pedestrians? If NASCAR can’t figure out a way to close up the pit road openings at tracks with no wall separating pit road from the racing surface, a disaster could be in the making.

“I could see that opening and I could see the No. 2 pit,” Johnson said. “I was frightened I was going to get through that hole. It wouldn’t have been pretty for me, but to have teams and stuff there, that was something I was staring at sliding for a long ways.

“I … wish we could find a way to extend a wall out and redirect the car away from that opening or close that opening up.”