Memorial Day weekend: better known as North American auto racing fans’ Christmas.
It’s an action-packed weekend that features not one, not two, but three prestigious races on a single Sunday: Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, the NTT IndyCar Series’ Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600.
Three races, one day. But all good things eventually come to an end, and with Monaco’s move to the first weekend of June for 2026 and beyond, the Memorial Day Triple as we know it will be no more the moment all three checkered flags wave May 25.
But in order to pay proper tribute to the end of the Triple, we must first look at its beginnings.
All three races have decades — and in the case of Indy, a century — of history behind them. The Indianapolis 500 was first contested in 1911, followed by Monaco in 1929 (with the first race counting toward the F1 World Championship in 1955) and the Coke 600 (then named the World 600) in 1960.
But it wasn’t until the late 20th century that even the Double, let alone the Triple, became a reality.
Unlike the other two races, the Indy 500 has always been synonymous with Memorial Day weekend, and one date in particular has been host to nearly half of the 109 editions: May 30.
From 1868 to 1968, May 30 was the fixed observance date for what is now Memorial Day. Since then, Memorial Day has officially been observed as the last Monday of May.
From 1911 to 1970, all but four Indy 500s were contested on May 30. The four exceptions were each held on May 31, either due to weather or years when May 30 happened to fall on a Sunday. The first Indy 500 to buck that trend was 1971, which was held on Saturday, May 29. The 500 was then moved back to Sunday — the day before Memorial Day — for 1974, and it’s remained there ever since.
The first Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 wasn’t held in late May, but rather on June 19. It didn’t take long for the race to become NASCAR’s signature event for Memorial Day weekend, however, as the race has been contested on the last Sunday of May (excluding rainouts) every year since 1967.
That made 1974 (the year the Indy 500 returned to Sunday) the first-ever Memorial Day weekend that the 600 and the 500 were run on the same day. It’s a tradition that’s now 51 years in the making.
The installation of the lights at Charlotte in 1992 for the “One Hot Night” All-Star Race was such a smashing success that the Coke 600 was moved to the evening as a day-to-night race for 1993 and beyond. That implementation made it possible for a driver to run both events, and John Andretti became the first driver accomplish the feat in 1994.
He’s since been joined by Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, and Kyle Larson will look to become the fifth driver to complete the Double this weekend.
As Memorial Day only holds significance to the United States, it’s not a surprise that the Triple is a relatively new phenomenon.
Monaco has been held anywhere from early May to early June since it became a stop on the F1 calendar in 1955, and while there were a handful of years where Monaco happened to fall on the same day as Charlotte and Indy — 1976, 1979, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2002 — it wasn’t until 2006 that Monaco was scheduled as the last Sunday of May and the Triple became an annual occurrence.
The aforementioned seven years, plus every year between 2006 and 2025 (with the exceptions of 2010, 2020 and 2021) equals 24 years where the Indy 500, the Monaco GP and the Coke 600 were run on the same day. Nearly a quarter-century’s worth of history, all coming to an end.
So sit back and enjoy what might be the last Memorial Day Triple we ever see.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf