track's turns are banked at 24 degrees; both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch (opposite the front) have a five-degree banking. Before the race, Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 1,881 points, with teammate Jimmie Johnson 231 points behind in second and Matt Kenseth a further 68 points behind in third. Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton were fourth and fifth, and Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top twelve. Chevrolet led the Manufacturers' Championship with 96 points, 35 points ahead of its rival Ford in second. Dodge with 52 points was 19 points ahead of Toyota in the battle for third place. The race's defending champion was Kasey Kahne. The Coca-Cola 600 was conceived by race car driver Curtis Turner, who built the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was first held in 1960 in an attempt by NASCAR to stage a Memorial Day weekend race to compete with the open-wheel Indianapolis 500; the two races were held together on the same day starting from 1974. The race is the longest in terms of distance on the NASCAR calendar, and is considered by several drivers to be one of the sport's most important races alongside the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500. The long distance makes it the most physically demanding event in NASCAR, and teams adapt to changing track conditions because the race occurs between late afternoon and evening. It was known as the World 600 until 1984 when The Coca-Cola Company purchased the naming rights to the race and renamed it the Coca-Cola World 600 in 1985. It has been called the Coca-Cola 600 every year since 1986 except for 2002 when the name changed to Coca-Cola Racing Family 600. In preparation for the race, NASCAR held several test sessions on May 7–8, 2007, to allow teams to prepare for the May races at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Sessions began at 2:00p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on May 7 and concluded at 9:00p.m. On May 8, sessions started at 1:00p.m. and stopped at 9:00p.m. Eighty-two cars participated in the May 7 afternoon session; Martin Truex Jr. was quickest with a speed of and David Stremme had the highest speed of the two days at in the evening session. Towards the end of the second session, Hamlin lost control