2011 Coke Zero 400


The 2011 Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that was held on July 2, 2011 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 160 laps on the asphalt tri-oval, it was the 17th race of the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season. The race was won by David Ragan of Roush Fenway Racing, his first in the series. Ragan's teammate Matt Kenseth finished second and Joey Logano finished third.

Report

Background

Daytona International Speedway is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees. Kevin Harvick was the defending race winner.
Prior to the race, Carl Edwards led the Drivers' Championship with 573 points, and Harvick stood in second with 548 points. Jimmie Johnson was third in the Drivers' Championship with 540 points in a Chevrolet, Kurt Busch was fourth with 539 points, and Kyle Busch was in fifth with 536 points. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 108 points, 15 points ahead of Ford. Toyota, with 84 points, was 17 ahead of Dodge in the battle for third.

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions were scheduled before the race on Thursday. The sessions were scheduled to be 80 and 85 minutes long. However, because of wet weather the first practice session was cancelled, and the following session was shortened to 45 minutes long. In the only practice session for the race, Marcos Ambrose was the quickest with a time of 45.133 seconds. A. J. Allmendinger followed in the second position, two hundredths of a second slower than Ambrose. Kurt Busch was scored third ahead of Brad Keselowski, and Mark Martin in fourth and fifth.
During qualifying, forty-five cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Martin clinched his 50th career pole position, with a time of 49.433. He was joined on the front row of the grid by 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne. Clint Bowyer qualified third, Jeff Gordon took fourth, and David Ragan started fifth. The two drivers that failed to qualify were Tony Raines and J. J. Yeley.

Race results

  1. 6-David Ragan, Led 15 of 170 Laps
  2. 17-Matt Kenseth, Led 14 Laps
  3. 20-Joey Logano
  4. 4-Kasey Kahne, Led 19 Laps
  5. 18-Kyle Busch, Led 11 Laps
  6. 24-Jeff Gordon, Led 1 Lap
  7. 29-Kevin Harvick, Led 16 Laps
  8. 27-Paul Menard, Led 5 Laps
  9. 42-Juan Pablo Montoya, Led 2 Laps
  10. 43-A. J. Allmendinger
  11. 14-Tony Stewart, Led 1 Lap
  12. 83-Brian Vickers
  13. 11-Denny Hamlin, Led 4 Laps
  14. 22-Kurt Busch, Led 6 Laps
  15. 2-Brad Keselowski, Led 1 Lap
  16. 34-David Gilliland
  17. 9-Marcos Ambrose
  18. 16-Greg Biffle, Led 1 Lap
  19. 88-Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Led 1 Lap
  20. 48-Jimmie Johnson
  21. 31-Jeff Burton, Led 3 Laps
  22. 1-Jamie McMurray, Led 1 Lap
  23. 39-Ryan Newman, Led 25 Laps
  24. 78-Regan Smith, Led 4 Laps
  25. 00-David Reutimann
  26. 51-Landon Cassill, 1 Lap Down
  27. 71-Andy Lally, 1 Lap Down
  28. 32-Terry Labonte, 1 Lap Down
  29. 38-Travis Kvapil, 1 Lap Down; Led 1 Lap
  30. 87-Joe Nemechek, 1 Lap Down; Led 1 Lap
  31. 47-Bobby Labonte, 2 Laps Down
  32. 13-Casey Mears, 6 Laps Down
  33. 5-Mark Martin, 6 Laps Down; Led 15 Laps
  34. 7-Robby Gordon, 7 Laps Down
  35. 56-Martin Truex, Jr., Completed 162 Laps ; Led 16 Laps
  36. 33-Clint Bowyer, 162 Laps ; Led 3 Laps
  37. 99-Carl Edwards, 26 Laps Down; Led 1 Lap
  38. 35-Geoffrey Bodine, 143 Laps
  39. 36-Dave Blaney, 47 Laps
  40. 60-Mike Skinner, 5 Laps
  41. 21-Trevor Bayne, 4 Laps
  42. 66-Michael McDowell, 2 Laps
  43. 97-Kevin Conway, 1 Lap

    Failed to qualify

PosDriverPoints
1Kevin Harvick586
2Carl Edwards581
3Kyle Busch576
4Kurt Busch570
5Matt Kenseth564
6Jimmie Johnson564
7Dale Earnhardt, Jr.534
8Jeff Gordon519
9Clint Bowyer505
10Ryan Newman498