2009 Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola

The 2009 Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola was the eighteenth race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, marking the halfway point of the season, and the third of four restrictor plate races on the season slate. The 160 lap, 400 miles (640 km) event was held on Saturday night, July 4 (Independence Day in the USA) at the 2.5 miles (4.0 km) Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The race was broadcast on TNT with pre-race activities beginning at 6:30 PM US EDT, and radio being handled by Sirius XM Radio (satellite) and MRN (over-the-air) starting at 7 PM US EDT. The green flag waved shortly after 8:15 PM US EDT.

Old School 4th of July Date

This marked the first time that the race was run on the 4th of July since 1992. The 1998 event, which was to have been run on Independence Day, was postponed due to the wildfires in Florida that year and was raced in October. The event also commemorated the 25th Anniversary to the date of Richard Petty's 200th - and final - victory in this race in 1984. Before 1988, the race had always been held on the morning of the birth date of the United States; since then, it has been held on the Saturday closest to the Fourth.

Pre-Race News

• A Federal judge in Charlotte gave a restraining order to Jeremy Mayfield following his appeal of overturning his drug test suspension announced at Darlington before the Southern 500. However, he missed the inspection deadline; it was not clear if he would become a replacement driver in case of an emergency.
• The first 25 nominees for the Charter Class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame were announced. Among them are former Series champions Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, who were the first two nominees announced two days before the formal announcement. A 49-member panel and the fans will select the five enshrinees from those 25 in October, and will be formally inducted during All-Star Race XXVI weekend. Among the other 23 finalists are circuit founder Bill France, Sr. and his son, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty (who was also nominated along with his father, Lee), the only seven-time winners of the Sprint Cup Series, along with owner Richard Childress, and Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett, who like Waltrip, both had successful broadcasting careers after retiring as a driver.

Broadcasting

TNT announced that Ralph Sheheen, who was a pit reporter, would replace Bill Weber in the lead play-by-play position for the last two races on their "Summer Series" schedule. According to The Charlotte Observer, Weber was in a verbal dispute with someone at a New Hampshire hotel one week earlier before the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 was run and Sheheen took over in the announcer's booth.

TNT presented the race in their "Wide Open Coverage" format. As a result, this was the first points race in NASCAR history to be broadcast with all green flag laps shown. During the two previous attempts at Wide Open Coverage, local cable & satellite company agreements prevented 9 laps between the two races from being shown.

Qualifying

Qualifying was rained out for the second straight weekend, so again, the NASCAR rulebook was used to set the order of the field, and Tony Stewart would be on the pole.

Race Recap

The invocation and the national anthem were preempted in favor of the trailer for the movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, causing an outrage among NASCAR fans. The first big one happened in the second half of the race, when Kasey Kahne got into David Stremme, bouncing him off the wall and collecting at least a dozen cars. Tony Stewart led the most laps, with Denny Hamlin leading the second-most, combining to lead all but eleven of the 160 laps. Like the prior super speedway race at Talladega, a car was wrecked on the last lap. Kyle Busch ended up being the victim of this wreck. Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch made contact, sending Busch spinning hard into the outside wall. After hitting the wall, Busch was rammed hard from behind by Kasey Kahne, destroying Busch's in-car camera. He then was hit hard by his teammate, Joey Logano, on the drivers side. At least a dozen cars wrecked before and after the start/finish line as the race officially ended under caution, with Stewart picking up his second points race victory of the 2009 season, extending his points lead over Jeff Gordon by 180 points.

Results