2011 Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City

Race details[1][2][3]
Race 4 of 36 in the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
2011 Jeff Byrd 500 program cover, celebrating the 50th anniversary since the track first opened and started hosting races.
Date	March 20, 2011 (2011-03-20)
Official name	The Jeff Byrd 500
Location	Bristol Motor Speedway,Bristol,Tennessee
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	0.533 miles (0.858 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Weather	A few showers with a high around 68; wind out of the ESE at 6 mph.[4]
Pole position
Driver	Carl Edwards	Roush Fenway Racing
Time	14.989
Most laps led
Driver	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	164
Winner
No. 18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
Television in the United States
Network	Fox
Announcers	Mike Joy,Darrell Waltrip andLarry McReynolds

The2011 Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City was aNASCARSprint Cup Series stock car race that was held on March 20, 2011, atBristol Motor Speedway inBristol,Tennessee. Contested over 500 laps, it was the fourth race of the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The race was won byKyle Busch for theJoe Gibbs Racing team.Carl Edwards finished second, andJimmie Johnson clinched third.

There were ten cautions and 17 lead changes among eight different drivers throughout the race. It was Busch's first win of the 2011 season, and the 20th of his career.

As a tribute to the late president of the Speedway who died in 2010, longtime race title sponsorK-VA-T Food City, which celebrated the 20th year of race sponsorship in 2011 (as of 2013, the longest continuous sponsorship deal in NASCAR for a race), named the race in his memory.^[5]

The track,Bristol Motor Speedway, is one of fiveshort tracks to holdNASCAR races, the others beingRichmond International Raceway,Dover International Speedway,Martinsville Speedway, andPhoenix International Raceway.^[6] The standard track at Bristol Motor Speedway is a four-turn short trackoval that is 0.533 miles (0.858 km) long.^[7] The track's turns arebanked from twenty-four to thirtydegrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked from six to ten degrees. The back stretch also has banking from six to ten degrees.^[7]

Before the race,Tony Stewart was leading theDrivers' Championship with 113 points, tied withKyle Busch in second.Carl Edwards andJuan Pablo Montoya followed in third and fourth with 106 points, three ahead ofRyan Newman and ten ahead ofPaul Menard in fifth and sixth.Martin Truex Jr. in seventh had 95, the same number of points asDenny Hamlin in eighth. They were one point ahead ofA. J. Allmendinger in ninth, whileDale Earnhardt Jr. was tenth with 91.^[8] In theManufacturers' Championship,Ford was leading with 21 points, three ahead ofToyota in second.Chevrolet was placed in third with 16 points, whileDodge followed with 11.^[9]Jimmie Johnson was the race's defending winner from2010.^[10]

Three practice sessions were held before the race; the first on Friday, which lasted 90 minutes. The second and third were both on Saturday afternoon, and lasted 45 minutes each.^[11] Edwards was quickest with a time of 14.912 seconds in the first session, 0.076 seconds faster than Johnson.^[12]Greg Biffle was just off Johnson's pace, followed byKasey Kahne, Menard, andDavid Ragan. Kyle Busch was seventh, still within a second of Edwards' time.^[12]

Forty-four cars were entered for qualifying,^[13] but only forty-three could qualify for the race because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure. Edwards clinched the 9thpole position of his career, with a time of 14.989 seconds.^[14] He was joined on the front row of thegrid by Biffle.^[14]Regan Smith qualified third, Menard took fourth, and Ragan started fifth.^[14] Johnson,Jeff Gordon, Truex,Mark Martin and Kahne rounded out the top ten.^[14] The driver that failed to qualify for the race wasKen Schrader.^[14] Once the qualifying session concluded, Edwards stated, "I'm enjoying this. I'm having fun. I'm hoping it lasts, and I'm going to keep driving the way I'm driving until we win a championship, or this car won't go as fast."^[15]

In the second practice session, Stewart was fastest with a time of 15.364 seconds, more than six hundredths of a second quicker than second-placed Reutimann. Martin took third place, ahead ofJamie McMurray,Kurt Busch andJeff Burton.^[16] In the third and final practice, Martin was quickest with a time of 15.472 seconds.Brian Vickers followed in second, ahead of Hamlin andJoey Logano. Stewart, who was first in the second practice, was fifth quickest, with a time of 15.570 seconds. Montoya, Gordon, Truex, Menard, and Kurt Busch rounded out the first ten positions.^[17]

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The race, the fourth of the season, began at 1:00 p.m.EDT and was televised live in the United States onFox.^[1] The conditions on the grid were dry before the race, the air temperature at 60 °F (16 °C); mostly cloudy skies were expected.^[18] Mike Rife, reverend of the Vansant Church of Christ, began pre-race ceremonies with theinvocation. Actor and country music singerBilly Ray Cyrus performed the national anthem, while Claudia Byrd, Christian Byrd and Belton Caldwell gave the command for drivers to start their engines.^[18]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for the driver standings.

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• NASCAR driver Kyle Busch wins 2011 Jeff Byrd 500

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