| Race details[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 10 of 36 in the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
 The 2011 Showtime Southern 500 program cover. | |||
| Date | May 7, 2011 (2011-05-07) | ||
| Location | Darlington Raceway nearDarlington, South Carolina | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.366 miles (2.198 km) | ||
| Distance | 370 laps, 505.42 mi (813.394 km) | ||
| Weather | Partly cloudy and chilly in the evening; with temperatures hovering around 64.3 °F (17.9 °C) and wind speeds climbing up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Red Bull Racing Team | ||
| Time | 27.131 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Kasey Kahne | Red Bull Racing Team | |
| Laps | 124 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 78 | Regan Smith | Furniture Row Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy,Darrell Waltrip andLarry McReynolds | ||
The2011 Showtime Southern 500, the 62nd running of theevent , was aNASCARSprint Cup Seriesstock car race held on May 7, 2011 atDarlington Raceway inDarlington, South Carolina. Contested over 370 laps, 3 laps over the advertised distance, it was the tenth race of the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season out of thirty-six. The pole position was won byKasey Kahne ofRed Bull Racing Team. The race was won byRegan Smith ofFurniture Row Racing, the first win for both Smith and the team, withCarl Edwards in second andBrad Keselowski in third.
Darlington Raceway is the second oldest speedway on the NASCAR schedule next toMartinsville Speedway. From above, the track has been long described as being shaped similar to anegg. Consequently, the track's banking is also affected by its shape. The frontstretch and backstretch are banked at 3° and 2°, respectively. Turns 1 and 2, which have a wider radius, are banked at 25° and turns 3 and 4, which are much tighter than the first two, carry 23° of banking.
Prior to the race,Carl Edwards held the Drivers' Championship lead with 326 points. Defending championJimmie Johnson was in second place, 9 points back, followed byRichmondKyle Busch in third, 21 points behind Johnson. Four points behind Busch wasDale Earnhardt Jr. in fourth withKevin Harvick one point behind in fifth.Kurt Busch, with 289 points, was in sixth followed byClint Bowyer who was 5 points behind Busch.Ryan Newman,Matt Kenseth, andTony Stewart rounded out the top 10 in points, all 3 separated by 3 points. Defending race winnerDenny Hamlin was 17th in points.A. J. Allmendinger andJeff Gordon remained in the wild card positions.
In the owner points battle,Tommy Baldwin Racing moved into the top-35 in owners' points for the first time on the heels of a 13th-place finish at Richmond, leading to a 3-way tie for 35th between the #32 team ofFAS Lane Racing, the #13 team ofGermain Racing, and the #71 team ofTRG Motorsports.
*Withdrew.
Kasey Kahne would win the pole with a 27.131. Meanwhile,Scott Riggs would blow an engine coming into his second lap of his qualifying run. While he had set a time, it was not enough to get Riggs into the race, asJoe Nemechek would beat his time.
Regan Smith pulled off an upset and won the Showtime Southern 500 after holding off Carl Edwards on a late restart. There were 11 caution flags, the wildest one happening with 4 laps to go. During a 3 wide situation, Harvick got into Kyle Busch, who in turn got into Bowyer, who slammed the inside wall. He was not injured. Kyle Busch then turned around Harvick in Turn 1. After the race finished Harvick wanted to get Kyle Busch out of the car. After that didn't happen, Harvick went to Busch's car and threw a punch inside Busch's driver window, but Busch then drove off and Busch's car pushed Harvick's #29 car into the pit road wall instead. Tempers flared, and the incident further inflamed the tensions between the two men. After the race Busch and Harvick were both fined $25,000 and placed on probation for 4 races including theAll Star Race.
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