page_title: 2007 Coca-Cola 600
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Coca-Cola 600 / Race
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken June 29, 2007 at New Hampshire International Speedway
context_page_description: The 2007 Coca-Cola 600 was the 12th stock car race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the 48th iteration of the event. It was held on May 27, 2007, before a crowd of 175,000 in Concord, North Carolina at Lowe's Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The 400-lap race was won by Casey Mears of the Hendrick Motorsports team, who started from 16th position. J. J. Yeley finished second and Kyle Petty came in third.
  Ryan Newman won the pole position and led the first ten laps before his Penske Racing South teammate Kurt Busch moved into the lead on lap 11. Busch held the lead for 107 laps until Brian Vickers moved into the lead after the first round of green-flag pit stops. Jimmie Johnson gained the lead from Vickers on lap 185 and held it for 83 laps, battling with Vickers and Matt Kenseth for the position. At the race's final restart on lap 342, Tony Stewart led and maintained his position until he made a pit stop for fuel 51 laps later. Mears became the leader after Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Denny Hamlin made similar pit stops; Mears held the lead after slowing to conserve fuel to win the race.
context_section_description: Live television coverage of the race began at 5:00 p.m. EDT in the United States on Fox. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were partly cloudy with an air temperature between 70 and 87 °F (21 and 31 °C) and a track temperature which ranged between 85 and 130 °F (29 and 54 °C). William K. Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country and pop music singer LeAnn Rimes performed the national anthem, and sponsored contest award winners commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, three drivers moved to the rear of the field because of unapproved changes; Boywer had switched to his back-up car, and David Ragan and Harvick had changed their engines.
  The race began at 5:52 p.m. Newman maintained his pole-position advantage heading into the first corner. After starting 21st, Jimmie Johnson moved to 15th position by lap eight. Kurt Busch passed teammate Newman for the lead three laps later. By the 20th lap, Kurt Busch, Newman, Earnhardt, Kenseth and Yeley were running in the top five positions. Earnhardt got ahead of Newman for second place four laps later. Hamlin moved to third position by lap 32. Hamlin made up a further position on lap 43 after he passed Earnhardt for second and was 1.2 seconds behind race leader Kurt Busch. The first caution of the race was shown four laps later when Biffle hit the turn two wall after his right-front tire had been cut and dropped debris on the track. Biffle's car sustained heavy damage to the right-hand side, ending his race. All drivers elected to make pit stops for tires and fuel during the caution.
  Kurt Busch, who made a 10.4-second pit stop for fuel and no tires, maintained the lead on the lap-52 restart ahead of Hamlin, Kenseth, Earnhardt and Johnson. One lap later, a multi-car collision occurred on the front stretch when A. J. Allmendinger lost control of his car in turn two and collided with the right-rear quarter panel of Johnson's car, which had a cut left-rear tire that burst after leaving turn four. Johnson's burst tire caused Blaney and Stewart to collide after Stewart slowed to avoid a collision with Johnson. Both drivers slid, collecting Gilliland, Sadler, Juan Pablo Montoya, Green, Bowyer, Truex, Marlin, Johnny Sauter, Kyle Petty and Harvick, all of whom had damage to their cars. The incident triggered the race's second caution. Johnson and Stewart made pit stops to repair the damage to their cars; both rejoined the race in eighteenth and twenty-fifth positions.
  Kurt Busch led on the lap-62 restart, ahead of Hamlin, Kenseth, Earnhardt, and Gordon. The third caution was prompted on the same lap when Tony Raines lost control of his car and slid sideways into Jeff Gordon, and both drivers were sent into the infield grass. Jeff Gordon went back up towards a right-hand wall and was hit by Allmendinger at the start-finish line, resulting in the former going airborne; Robby Gordon and Burton were also involved in the accident. Gordon was unhurt; drivers involved in the accidents, that caused the second and third cautions, made pit stops for repairs. Kurt Busch maintained his lead at the lap-70 restart, followed by Hamlin and Kenseth. Eight laps later, Burton caused the fourth caution after heavy contact with the turn three wall. During the caution, most of the leaders made pit stops; Newman stopped for a track bar adjustment and had a new shifter ball installed. Kurt Busch and Kenseth chose not to pit and remained the leaders at the lap-83 restart, with Rudd in third place. Ten laps later, Newman, who was in eighth position, reported his car was "extremely tight" after the adjustments made at his pit stop. Stewart had moved back to eleventh and Johnson was thirteenth by lap 96. Kurt Busch's lead was four seconds over Kenseth after 100 laps, with Brian Vickers following in third, Ragan fourth and Kyle Busch in fifth. Johnson passed Yeley for seventh position eleven laps later.
  Green-flag pit stops began on lap 112, with Kenseth pitting on the same lap for tires and a 
caption: Casey Mears won the race which was his first and (as of 2019) only win in the Nextel Cup Series.
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