2011 GEICO 400

Race details[1][2][3]
Race 27 of 36 in the2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date	September 19, 2011 (2011-09-19)
Location	Chicagoland Speedway,Joliet, Illinois
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	1.500 miles (2.414 km)
Distance	267 laps, 400.5 mi (644.5 km)
Weather	Few rain showers with a high temperature around 74 °F (23 °C); wind out of the SSE at 10 mph (16 km/h).
Pole position
Driver	Matt Kenseth	Roush Fenway Racing
Time	29.469
Most laps led
Driver	Kurt Busch	Penske Racing
Laps	46
Winner
No. 14	Tony Stewart	Stewart Haas Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Allen Bestwick,Dale Jarrett, andAndy Petree

The2011 GEICO 400 was aNASCARSprint Cup Series stock car race that was scheduled to be held on September 18, 2011 atChicagoland Speedway inJoliet, Illinois. However, because of wet track conditions, the race was postponed until September 19, 2011. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.500-mile (2.414 km) asphalt oval, it was the 27th race of the2011 Sprint Cup Series season, as well as the first race in the ten-raceChase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season.Tony Stewart ofStewart Haas Racing won the race, whileKevin Harvick finished second, andDale Earnhardt Jr. clinched third.

This was Stewart's first win in the 2011 season, and the 40th of his career. The result advanced Stewart to second in theDrivers' Championship, seven points behind Harvick and three ahead ofCarl Edwards.Chevrolet maintained its lead in theManufacturers' Championship, thirty points ahead ofFord and thirty-eight ahead ofToyota, with nine races remaining in the season. A total of 95,000 people attended the race, while 3.68 million watched it on television.

Chicagoland Speedway is one of tenintermediate to holdNASCAR races; the others areAtlanta Motor Speedway,Kansas Speedway,Charlotte Motor Speedway,Darlington Raceway,Homestead Miami Speedway,New Hampshire Motor Speedway,Kentucky Speedway,Las Vegas Motor Speedway, andTexas Motor Speedway.^[4] The standard track at Chicagoland Speedway is a four-turntri-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long.^[5] The track's turns are eachbanked at 18degrees and have a turn width of 55 feet.^[5] The racetrack has a grandstand capacity of 75,000.^[5]

Before the race,Kyle Busch andKevin Harvick each led theDrivers' Championship with 2,012 points, withJeff Gordon in third place with 2,009.Matt Kenseth had a total of 2,006 points, whileCarl Edwards andJimmie Johnson,Kurt Busch, andRyan Newman were tied for fifth place with 2,003 points.Tony Stewart,Dale Earnhardt Jr.,Brad Keselowski, andDenny Hamlin rounded out the first 12 positions with 2,000 points each.^[6] In theManufacturers' Championship,Chevrolet was leading with 171 points, 27 points ahead ofFord.Toyota, with 139 points, was 21 points ahead ofDodge in the battle for third place.^[7]David Reutimann was the race's defending champion.^[8]

Two practice sessions were held in preparation for the race; both on Friday. The first session lasted 90 minutes long, while the second was 60 minutes long.^[9] Reutimann was quickest with a time of 29.486 seconds in the first session, 28 milliseconds faster thanClint Bowyer.^[10]Mark Martin was just off Bowyer's pace, followed by Kyle Busch,Trevor Bayne, and Newman. SomeChase for the Sprint Cup participants were not scored high in the first practice, such as Johnson and Hamlin, who were 36th and 40th in the session.^[10]

In the second and final practice,Brian Vickers was quickest with a time of 29.304 seconds.Kasey Kahne followed in second, ahead of Kenseth andPaul Menard. Harvick was fifth quickest, with a time of 29.455 seconds. Gordon,Greg Biffle, Johnson,David Stremme, and Edwards rounded out the first ten positions. Kyle Busch, who was third in the first session, could only manage forty-fourth.^[11]

Forty-seven cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could race because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure.^[12] Kenseth clinched his sixthpole position in theSprint Cup Series, with a time of 29.469 seconds.^[13] He was joined on the front row of thegrid by Menard.^[13] Kurt Busch qualified third, Newman took fourth, and Edwards started fifth.^[13] Johnson, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twelfth, while Harvick was scored thirtieth.^[13] The four drivers that failed to qualify for the race wereTravis Kvapil,David Starr,Stephen Leicht andMike Skinner (T. J. Bell was gonna enter the race but withdrew).^[13]

Once qualifying concluded Kenseth said, "I think starting up front is nice, having a good pit stall. Hopefully, you can get a good start and get a bonus point for leading a lap and try to keep up with the track a little better. We've been qualifying a lot better, if you throw Richmond out, but we've been slipping a little at the end of the race. I'm really happy to be on the pole, but it's just a starting position, and we've got to work really hard on the race, keeping up with our adjustments and that type of thing."^[3]

The race, the twenty-seventh of the season, was scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. EDT on September 18, but wet track conditions postponed the race to September 19, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. EDT.^[14] The race was televised live in theUnited States onESPN.^[1] The first caution was the competition caution on lap 31. The next 2 cautions came out for debris on laps 72 and 146. The 4th caution came out on lap 165 whenJamie McMurray blew an engine. On lap 205, the 5th caution came out whenJ. J. Yeley crashed in turn 3. The final caution came out for debris on lap 214. Towards the end of the race, a majority of cars ran out of fuel.Tony Stewart was able to hold on for his first win of the season.

• 2011 in sports in Illinois
• 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
• NASCAR races at Chicagoland Speedway
• September 2011 sports events in the United States

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