2011 Coke Zero 400

2011 Coke Zero 400

Race details[1][2]
Race 17 of 36 in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
Date	July 2, 2011 (2011-July-02)
Location	Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4 km)
Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643.7 km)
Pole position
Driver	Mark Martin	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	49.433
Most laps led
Driver	Ryan Newman	Stewart Haas Racing
Laps	25
Winner
6	David Ragan	Roush Fenway Racing
Television
Network	Turner Network Television
Announcers	Adam Alexander, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. and Kyle Petty

The 2011 Coke Zero 400 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 2.5-mile (4.0 km) 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.

Contents 1 Report 1.1 Background 1.2 Practice and qualifying 2 Results 2.1 Qualifying 2.2 Race results 3 Standings after the race 4 References

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.^[3] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.^[4] The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.^[4] Kevin Harvick is the defending race winner.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions were scheduled before the race on Thursday. The sessions were scheduled to be 80 and 85 minutes long.^[8] However, because of wet weather the first practice session was cancelled, and the following session was shortened to 45 minutes long.^[9] In the only practice session for the race, Marcos Ambrose was the quickest with a time of 45.133 seconds.^[10] A. J. Allmendinger followed in the second position, two hundredths of a second slower than Ambrose.^[10] Kurt Busch was scored third ahead of Brad Keselowski, and Mark Martin in fourth and fifth.^[10]

During qualifying, forty-five cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.^[11] Martin clinched his 50th career pole position, with a time of 49.433.^[12] He will be joined on the front row of the grid by Trevor Bayne.^[12] Clint Bowyer qualified third, Jeff Gordon took fourth, and David Ragan started fifth.^[12] The two drivers that failed to qualify were Tony Raines and J. J. Yeley.^[12]

Results

Qualifying

No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time	Speed	Grid
						1
						2
						3
						4
						5
						6
						7
						8
						9
						10
						11
						12
						13
						14
						15
						16
						17
						18
						19
						20
						21
						22
						23
						24
						25
						26
						27
						28
						29
						30
						31
						32
						33
						34
						35
						36
						37
						38
						39
						40
						41
						42
						43
Failed to Qualify
Source:

Race results

Pos	Grid	Car	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps Run	Points
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
Source:

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 2 3 4 5

Manufacturers' Championship standings[7] Pos Manufacturer Points 1 2 3 4 Note: Only the top five positions are included for the driver standings.

References

Previous race: 2011 Toyota/Save Mart 350

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2011 season

Next race: 2011 Quaker State 400