Guide to Memorial Day Weekend Racing: Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600

At Charlotte Motor Speedway, flags fly to commemorate Memorial Day.
Credit: Charlotte Bray/Skirts and Scuffs  

Memorial Day weekend means different things to different people. Gratitude for those who served our country. Beaches. Backyards. Barbecue. But in the world of motorsports, the last Sunday in May is the closest thing to a high holy day as it gets.

For NASCAR fans, it's the longest race of the year, one of the crown jewels of the sport, the Coca Cola 600. Formerly known as the World 600, it's a race that challenges the endurance of both man and machine. It's the marathon of stock car racing.

Outside the world of NASCAR, the day is held in reverence for the running of two of the most famous races in the world: the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500. From the hairpin turns of the streets of Monte Carlo to the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it's a global celebration of speed and skill.

For this one day, NASCAR Nation steps outside the comfort zone of fenders and roll cages to watch the best of open-wheel racing. To truly appreciate the spectacle, though, you'll need to know some background. Skirts and Scuffs has you covered. Here's a breakdown of each race, with the starting grids.

Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco   

Points leader Lewis Hamilton on the Circuit de Monaco
©2014 MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team 

NBC Pre-race coverage 7:30 a.m ET, Green flag 8 a.m. ET 
Circuit de Monaco, Monaco
78 laps on a 3.340-kilometer street course (260.5 kilometers)

Lewis Hamilton started from the pole for three of his four wins thus far in the 2014 season, and aimed to do so again during qualifying on Saturday, but his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg thwarted his efforts. Rosberg laid down the fastest lap then had a problem that resulted in him going onto the escape road, which brought out a caution, effectively ending the session. Hamilton leads Rosberg by three points in the F1 championship standings, and while this is only the sixth of 19 grands prix, the tension between the teammates is palpable.

Other drivers to watch: Four-time series champion Sebastian Vettel, the 2011 race winner, and Fernando Alonso, two-time series champ and two-time winner at Monaco.

Qualifying results for this race:
Rank	Car No.	Driver	Abbreviation	Team	Speed (km/hr)
1	6	Nico Rosberg	ROS	Mercedes	158.233
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	HAM	Mercedes	158.111
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RIC	Red Bull Racing	157.415
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	VET	Red Bull Racing	157.080
5	14	Fernando Alonso	ALO	Ferrari	156.795
6	7	Kimi Raikkonen	RAI	Force India	155.371
7	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	VER	Toro Rosso	155.068
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	MAG	McLaren	155.038
9	26	Daniil Kvyat	KVY	Toro Rosso	153.976
10	11	Sergio Perez	PER	Force India	153.510
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HUL	Force India	154.459
12	22	Jenson Button	BUT	McLaren	154.178
13	77	Valtteri Bottas	BOT	Williams	153.992
14	8	Romain Grosjean	GRO	Lotus	153.767
15	13	Pastor Maldonado	MAL	Lotus	153.453
16	19	Felipe Massa	MAS	Williams	-----
17	21	Esteban Gutierrez	GUT	Sauber	152.703
18	99	Adrian Sutil	SUT	Sauber	152.695
19	17	Jules Bianchi	BIA	Marussia	151.566
20	4	Max Chilton	CHI	Marussia	150.435
21	10	Kamui Kobayashi	KOB	Caterham	150.051
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	ERI	Caterham	147.115

Verizon IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500

Kurt Busch leaving pit lane for his qualifying attempt.
Credit: Walter Kuhn, Verizon IndyCar

ABC Prerace coverage 11 a.m. ET, Green flag  12:12 p.m. ET
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, IN
200 laps on a 2.5-mile paved track (500.0 miles)

For most NASCAR fans, the main storyline for the Indianapolis 500 revolves around Kurt Busch's attempt at running both the 500 and NASCAR's Coke 600 in the "double." His IndyCar ride is from Andretti Autosports, his NASCAR gig is for 1997 IRL Champ Tony Stewart, who tried five times to win the Borg Warner trophy, including two doubles of his own. Busch starts the 500 in 12th, outside the fourth row.

That fourth row is oddly interrelated. Immediately to Busch's left, in 11th, Scott Dixon makes his twelfth start at the Brickyard. The New Zealander, known as Dixie, won the 2008 Indy 500 and finished second in 2007 and 2012. Dixon scored the IndyCar Championship for Target Chip Ganassi in 2008 and 2013.

On the inside of the row, in P10, sits Juan Pablo Montoya. JPM won the 2000 Indy 500 for Target Chip Ganassi and he returns to the Brickyard in an open-wheel car after spending the last seven years driving stock cars. With the exception of his five-and-a-half seasons in F1, Montoya drove exclusively for Ganassi, but his return to open wheel is for Team Penske, for whom Kurt Busch drove stock cars between 2006-2008.
Side note: Montoya earned more than three times as much for his 39th-place finish in the 2013 Daytona 500 ($318,693) than he's earned so far this season in four IndyCar starts ($98,236.)

Watch for Row Four to try to move up fast.

But keep an eye on Helio Castroneves, who wants to win for the fourth time, and his Team Penske teammate Will Power who's hungry for his first Brickyard win.


Qualifying results for this race:

Rank	Nbr	Driver	Team	Speed
1	20	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	231.067
2	27	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	230.839
3	12	Will Power	Team Penske	230.697
4	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	230.649
5	77	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	230.614
6	25	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	230.544
7	34	Carlos Munoz	Andretti Autosport	230.146
8	67	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	229.893
9	21	J.R. Hildebrand	Ed Carpenter Racing	228.726
10	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	231.007
11	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	230.928
12	26	Kurt Busch	Andretti Autosport	230.782
13	98	Jack Hawksworth	BBA/BBM with Curb-Agajanian	230.506
14	19	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	230.256
15	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	230.049
16	10	Tony Kanaan	Target Chip Ganassi	229.922
17	11	Sebastien Bourdais	KV SH Racing	229.847
18	16	Oriol Servia	Rahal Letterman Laningan Racing	229.752
19	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	229.719
20	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Laningan Racing	229.628
21	18	Carlos Huertas	Dale Coyne Racing	229.251
22	63	Pippa Mann	Dale Coyne Racing	229.223
23	14	Takuma Sato	AJ Foyt Enterprises	229.201
24	68	Alex Tagliani	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	229.148
25	6	Townsend Bell	KV SH Racing	229.009
26	83	Charlie Kimball	Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing	228.953
27	5	Jacques Villeneuve	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	228.949
28	33	James Davison	KV Racing Technology	228.865
29	41	Martin Plowman	AJ Foyt Enterprises	228.814
30	8	Ryan Briscoe	NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing	228.713
31	22	Sage Karam	Deyer & Reinbold Kingdom Racing	228.436
32	17	Sebastian Saavedra	KV AFS Racing	228.088
33	91	Buddy Lazier	Lazier Partners Racing, Inc.	227.920

NASCAR Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600

Jimmie Johnson on the pole for the Coca-Cola 600
Credit: Charlotte Bray/Skirts and Scuffs

FOX Pre-race coverage, 5:30 p.m. ET,
Green flag: 6:16 p.m. ET
Charlotte Motor Speedway,
Concord, NC
400 laps on a 1.5-mile paved track (600.0 miles)

Kurt Busch's drama continues at Charlotte Motor Speedway after he's completed a full day's work in Indianapolis. He's got Parker Kligerman on standby in case the timing doesn't work out but since The Outlaw sits 28th in points, he'd like to avoid having Kligerman start the race for him, and having Kligerman finish the race would be almost as bad.

As compelling a storyline as "The Double" is, just as at Indy, it's not the only story.

Jimmie Johnson scored his first pole of the season and hopes to notch his first win of the season at the track formerly known as "Jimmie's House." Johnson's been on the pole for the 600 twice before and won from it once.
Johnson's Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon only ran 11 laps of practice Saturday because of debilitating back spasms. Gordon has Regan Smith ready to climb in the No. 24 if necessary. While Gordon, who has the longest streak of consecutive starts of all active drivers,  may turn the car over to Smith after starting the race, it would have to be a dire situation for the three-time 600 winner not to take the green flag.

Other points of interest:

Brad Keselowski starts from the front row for the seventh time in 12 races.
Danica Patrick rolls off fourth, her second-best Cup start and only her fifth from the top ten. Third-fastest in final practice, she hopes to follow up her seventh-place Kansas finish with an even better one in the 600.
Kyle Busch was fastest in final practice but will start in the back of the field because he crashed his primary car in that practice.

Qualifying results for this race:

POS	Car #	Driver	Sponsor	Best Speed
1	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's Patriotic	194.911
2	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite	194.567
3	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance	193.618
4	10	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy	193.334
5	15	Clint Bowyer	Cherry 5-Hour ENERGY	193.244
6	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Office	193.119
7	18	Kyle Busch	M&M's	193.092
8	22	Joey Logano	Pennzoil Platinum	192.472
9	9	Marcos Ambrose	Twisted Tea	191.673
10	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	National Guard/Superman	191.272
11	4	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser Folds of Honor	193.959
12	20	Matt Kenseth	Home Depot Husky	192.898
13	43	Aric Almirola	United States Air Force	192.692
14	21	Trevor Bayne	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & AutoCtr	192.486
15	78	Martin Truex Jr	Furniture Row	192.438
16	55	Brian Vickers	Aaron's Dream Machine	192.027
17	51	Justin Allgaier	Hendrickcars.com	191.945
18	14	Tony Stewart	Bass Pro Shops-Mobil 1 Chevrolet	191.925
19	33	Brian Scott	Shore Lodge	191.884
20	47	AJ Allmendinger	Bush Beans	191.829
21	27	Paul Menard	Serta / Menards	191.707
22	99	Carl Edwards	Fastenal	189.98
23	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Fastenal	189.208
24	16	Greg Biffle	Fastenal	184.344
25	42	Kyle Larson	Target	190.84
26	1	Jamie McMurray	CESSNA	190.255
27	24	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger	189.673
28	41	Kurt Busch	Haas Automation Made in America	189.553
29	23	Alex Bowman	Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry	189.514
30	95	Michael McDowell	JPO Absorbents	189.148
31	26	Cole Whitt	Speed Stick Toyota Camry	189.115
32	3	Austin Dillon	Cheerios	189.062
33	38	David Gilliland	Love's Travel Stops	188.732
34	13	Casey Mears	No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS	188.534
35	34	David Ragan	Taco Bell	188.455
36	83	Ryan Truex	Burger King Toyota	188.422
37	98	Josh Wise	Phil Parsons Racing	188.258
38	66	Joe Nemechek	Testoril	187.963
39	7	Michael Annett	Pilot Flying J Chevrolet	187.806
40	40	Landon Cassill	Hillman Racing	187.559
41	36	Reed Sorenson	TBA	187.207
42	31	Ryan Newman	Quicken Loans	186.89
43	32	Blake Koch	SupportMilitary.org	185.931