| Race details[1][2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 33 of 36 in the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
| Date | October 30, 2011 (2011-10-30) | ||
| Location | Martinsville Speedway inRidgeway, Virginia,United States | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 0.526 miles (0.847 km) | ||
| Distance | 500 laps, 263 mi (423 km) | ||
| Weather | Mostly sunny with a high around 60; wind out of the NNE at 4 mph. | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Roush Fenway Racing | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | |
| Laps | 125 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 14 | Tony Stewart | Stewart Haas Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | ESPN | ||
| Announcers | Allen Bestwick,Dale Jarrett andAndy Petree | ||
The2011 Tums Fast Relief 500 was aNASCARSprint Cup Series stock car race held on October 30, 2011, atMartinsville Speedway inRidgeway, Virginia,United States. Contested over 500 laps on the 0.526-mile (847 m) oval, it was the 33rd race of the2011 Sprint Cup Series season, as well as the seventh race in the ten-raceChase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season. The race was won byTony Stewart for theStewart Haas Racing team.Jimmie Johnson finished second, andJeff Gordon clinched third.
Martinsville Speedway is one of fiveshort tracks to holdNASCAR races; the others areRichmond International Raceway,Dover International Speedway,Bristol Motor Speedway, andPhoenix International Raceway.[3] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short trackoval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.[4] The track's turns arebanked at elevendegrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has s zero degree banking.[4] The racetrack has seats for 63,000 spectators.[4]
Before the race,Carl Edwards led theDrivers' Championship with 2,237 points, andMatt Kenseth stood in second with 2,223 points.Brad Keselowski followed in third with 2,219 points, one ahead ofTony Stewart and eight ahead ofKevin Harvick in fourth and fifth.Kyle Busch with 2,197 was ten points ahead ofJimmie Johnson, asKurt Busch with 2,185 points, was 22 ahead ofDale Earnhardt Jr., and 30 in front ofJeff Gordon.[5]Denny Hamlin andRyan Newman was eleventh and twelfth with 2,153 and 2,149 points. In theManufacturers' Championship,Chevrolet was leading with 217 points, 44 points ahead ofFord.Toyota, with 164 points, was 14 points ahead ofDodge in the battle for third.[6] Hamlin was the race's defending champion.[7]
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Two 90 minute practice sessions were scheduled to be held on Friday in preparation for the race.[8] However, wet track conditions postponed and combined the sessions into one practice session on Saturday.[9] Afterward, the only session was delayed because of the wet track conditions.[9] Once the first and only session of practice began,[10]Michael McDowell was quickest with a time of 19.747 seconds in the first session, 0.023 seconds faster thanClint Bowyer.[11] Johnson was just off Bowyer's pace, followed by CarlJamie McMurray,Scott Speed, andPaul Menard.David Stremme was seventh, still within a tenth of a second of McDowell's time.[11] Also in the session, there was a collision involving Harvick andGreg Biffle. Neither car was severely damaged from the incident.[10]
Forty-five cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could qualify for the race because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure.[12] Wet track conditions before the scheduled starting time canceled the session, causing the grid to be created by Owners' Championship points.[13] Edwards was given thepole position.[14] He was joined on the front row of thegrid by Kenseth.[14] Keselowski started third, Stewart took fourth, and Harvick fifth.[14] Kyle Busch, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon completed the top ten.[14] The two drivers that failed to qualify for the race wereDennis Setzer andDerrike Cope.[14] Afterward, Edwards commented:
"We hope to have a good run here. We're leaning on Matt Kenseth’s success here from the last race and how well he ran, and I feel that we've got a good car, but you never know. This place has been a really tough racetrack for me and for our team, but we have had some really good runs here, and Matt's good run in the spring is really what gives us the confidence we have here, and, hopefully, we can go run well and keep this points lead or extend it moving forward toward some tracks that we're really confident about."[15]
The race, the 33rd in the season, began at 2:00 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States onESPN.[1] The conditions on the grid were dry before the race with the air temperature around 50 °F (10 °C).[16] Tony Beach, associate Pastor at Ft. Trial Baptist Church inStanleytown, Virginia, began pre-race ceremonies by giving theinvocation. Next,North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Blue and Gold Marching Machine performed thenational anthem, and Ashley Young, winner of the Tums Sweepstakes, gave the command for drivers to start their engines.[16] A late race caution set up a restart with 3 laps remaining, with Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart on the front row. Johnson chose the heavily-favored inside line, but Stewart had a great restart and cleared Johnson off of Turn 4 coming to 2 to go. Brad Keselowski was spun out on the restart, but was able to get back going and NASCAR decided not to throw the caution. Stewart would go on to win the race, his 3rd race victory of the 2011 season, all of them coming during the Chase.
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