CONCORD, N.C. -- A few years ago, Ray Evernham tried to get Kasey Kahne to eat something during the Coca Cola 600.

Eat? During a race?

No, thanks, Kahne replied. That was a little strange.

But Evernham persisted, "Just try it. Just do it," and Kahne finally tried a snack. An energy bar.

"It was night and day how much better I felt for the next 100, for the final 100 miles of the race," Kahne said. "And so I think, yeah, having something there, 400 miles in or so, plus the water and the Gatorade and the things you're drinking throughout the races really helps just being in the car for five and a half hours."

NASCAR's Coca Cola 600 is the longest race on the circuit -- 100 miles longer than most races, 200 miles longer than some of them. When the Speedway wanted a race to take away attention from the IRL's historic Indy 500, they decided the best way to do it was make it bigger.

Indy 500, meet the World 600. Corporate sponsorship has changed its name and more races have appeared on NASCAR's circuit that start during the day and end at night. But this one's length is unmatched. Some drivers don't feel the extra 100 laps, others do and just gut through it.

And others deal by having some snacks.

Jeff Gordon eats during every race. He keeps nutritional packets in his car and it's crew chief Steve Letarte's job to remind Gordon to eat every hour.

Mark Martin has a turkey sandwich on wheat bread with mustard as soon as he gets out of the car. Adrenaline keeps him going up to that point. He'll eat during red flags sometimes, but that's about it.

Martin, a health and fitness nut, eats on a schedule every 2.5 hours, and races often take longer. On his way to victory lane in Phoenix and Darlington, he had his snack.

Snacking during a race might seem weird. It's hard enough to snack on the way to work in the morning. For me, that requires driving with the knees and maybe one hand. Don't think that would fly for these guys. So if eating is part of the plan, they make it as simple as possible.

"I hear that some guys are eating sandwiches and stuff," Jimmie Johnson said.

That's not for him, though.

"They just cut up bars into like fourths or thirds, and on that pit stop they will hand it to me in the pits with the guy that services the window and stuff," Johnson said. "It's really amazing how much better you feel once you get some food in your system. Like 10 minutes later you just feel your energy coming back and you are like, I needed that."

There's only one problem.

Johnson drinks red Gatorade during the race. Red Gatorade plus chocolate protein bars doesn't really taste all that great. A small sacrifice in the name of performance.

Formula One leader Jenson Button earned the pole position for today's Monaco Grand Prix. The Brawn GP driver will start first on the grid for the fourth time after setting a fastest lap of 1 minute, 14.902 seconds around the famous street circuit. Ferrari starts on the front row for the first time this season after Kimi Raikkonen finished 0.025 seconds behind. Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull make up the second row.