2011 Kobalt Tools 500

Race details[1][2][3]
Race 35 of 36 in the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date	November 13, 2011 (2011-11-13)
Location	Phoenix International Raceway inAvondale, Arizona
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	1 miles (1.6 km)
Distance	312 laps, 312 mi (502.115 km)
Weather	Rain showers with a high temperature around 62.
Average speed	112.909 miles per hour (181.709 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Matt Kenseth	Roush Fenway Racing
Time	26.258
Most laps led
Driver	Tony Stewart	Stewart Haas Racing
Laps	160
Winner
No. 4	Kasey Kahne	Red Bull Racing Team
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Allen Bestwick,Dale Jarrett, andAndy Petree

The2011 Kobalt Tools 500 was aNASCARSprint Cup Seriesstock car race held on November 13, 2011 atPhoenix International Raceway inAvondale,Arizona. Contested over 312 laps, it was the thirty-fifth as well as the ninth race in theChase for the Sprint Cup during the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The race was won byKasey Kahne for theRed Bull Racing Team.Carl Edwards finished second, andTony Stewart clinched third.

Phoenix International Raceway is one of fiveshort tracks to holdNASCAR races; the others areRichmond International Raceway,Dover International Speedway,Bristol Motor Speedway, andMartinsville Speedway.^[4] The standard track at Phoenix International Raceway is a four-turn short trackoval that is 1 mile (1.6 km) long.^[5] After theFebruary race, PIR was significantly reconfigured. The first two turns are nowbanked from 10 to 11degrees, while the final two turns are banked from 8 to 9 degrees.^[6] The front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at three degrees. The back stretch, nicknamed the 'dogleg', varies from 10 to 11 degree banking.^[6] The racetrack has seats for 76,800 spectators.^[5]

Before the race,Carl Edwards led theDrivers' Championship with 2,316 points, andTony Stewart stood in second with 2,313 points.Kevin Harvick followed in third with 2,283 points, five ahead ofMatt Kenseth and 16 ahead ofBrad Keselowski in fourth and fifth.Jimmie Johnson, with 2,261 was 24 points ahead ofDale Earnhardt Jr., asJeff Gordon with 2,235 points, was six ahead ofKurt Busch, and 18 in front ofDenny Hamlin.^[7]Kyle Busch andRyan Newman was eleventh and twelfth with 2,216 and 2,213 points. In theManufacturers' Championship,Chevrolet was leading with 235 points, 52 ahead ofFord.Toyota, with 174 points, was 18 points ahead ofDodge in the battle for third.^[8] Edwards is the race's defending champion, after winning the race in2010.^[9]

Two 120 minute practice sessions were held before the race on Friday.^[10]Jeff Burton was quickest with a time of 25.702 seconds in the first session, more than two-hundredths of a second faster than Kenseth.^[11]David Ragan was just off Kenseth's pace, followed byPaul Menard, Newman, andDavid Reutimann.A. J. Allmendinger was seventh, still within a second of Burton's time.^[11] Also in the session,Kyle Busch's team changed his car's engine after engine problems.^[12] In the second practice session, Menard was fastest with a time of 25.510 seconds, seven-hundredths of a second quicker than second-placed Edwards.^[13]Regan Smith took third place, ahead ofBrian Vickers, Kyle Busch andJamie McMurray. Stewart could only manage 36th place.^[13]

Afterward, during qualifying, forty-six cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to race because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure.^[14] Kenseth clinched his thirdpole position during the season, with a time of 26.258 seconds.^[3][15] He was joined on the front row of thegrid by Allmendinger.^[15]Marcos Ambrose qualified third,Mark Martin took fourth, andMartin Truex Jr. started fifth.^[15] Stewart, one of the drivers in theChase for the Sprint Cup, qualified eighth, while Edwards was scored ninth.^[15] The three drivers that failed to qualify for the race wereScott Riggs,David Stremme, andAndy Lally.^[15] Once the qualifying session completed, Kenseth commented, "Jimmy Fennig, had a strategy to go fast in the first practice to go out late. Even though we knew the temperature would be hotter he thought the track could be faster with more cars having run on it. A lot of people chose the opposite strategy and worked on race set-up in the first practice and did their qualifying stuff in the second practice to go out early."^[3]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Carl Edwards 2,359 2 Tony Stewart 2,356 (−3) 3 Kevin Harvick 2,308 (−51) 1 4 Brad Keselowski 2,294 (−65) 1 5 Jimmie Johnson 2,291 (−68) Source:[19]

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 239 2 Ford 189 (−50) 3 Toyota 183 (−56) 4 Dodge 159 (−80) Source:[8] Note: Only the top five positions are included for the driver standings.

• 2011 in sports in Arizona
• 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
• NASCAR races at Phoenix Raceway
• November 2011 sports events in the United States

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