2011 DRIVE4COPD 300

2011 DRIVE4COPD 300

Race details[1]
Map of Speedway
Date	February 19, 2011 (2011-02-19)
Official name	2011 DRIVE4COPD 300
Location	Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida
Course	Tri-oval
Course length	2.5 miles (4.023 km)
Distance	120 laps, 300 mi (400 km)
Weather	Sunny
Average speed	139.679 mph (224.792 km/h)
Attendance	82,000
Pole position
Driver	Clint Bowyer	Kevin Harvick Inc.
Time	49.773
Most laps led
Driver	Clint Bowyer	Kevin Harvick Inc.
Laps	40
Winner
No. 4	Tony Stewart	Kevin Harvick Inc.
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN2
Announcers	Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett, Andy Petree

The 2011 DRIVE4COPD 300 was a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was the first race of the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. It was the 30th running of the event. Clint Bowyer won the pole and led the most laps of the race but it was Tony Stewart who beat his Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate to win his 4th Nationwide Series opener in a row and his 6th in the last 7 Nationwide Series openers by 0.007 seconds in one of the closest NASCAR finishes ever.^[2]

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points

* – Brendan Gaughan was supposed to run the #15 for this event but was taken out for unknown reasons.

Qualifying

Clint Bowyer won the pole with a time of 49.773 and a speed of 180.821.^[3]

* – made the field via owners points.

** – Reed Sorenson had to start at the rear of the field for adjustments outside impound.

Race

Pole sitter Clint Bowyer led the first lap of the race. On lap 2, Joey Logano took the lead from Bowyer. Tony Stewart took the lead on lap 3 followed by Kyle Busch on the next lap. Joey Logano took the lead on lap 5. Tony Stewart took the lead on lap 8 from Logano. On lap 10, Stewart and his drafting partner Clint Bowyer swapped positions giving Bowyer the lead. On lap 16, the first caution flew for a 4 car accident in the tri-oval involving Landon Cassill, Brian Scott, Sam Hornish Jr., and Justin Allgaier. Clint Bowyer won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 21. Joey Logano took the lead from Bowyer on the restart with a push from Trevor Bayne. On lap 22, Kyle Busch took the lead with a push from Brad Keselowski. On lap 24, the 2nd caution flew for a 6 car crash in turn 1. It started when Todd Bodine was pushing Michael Annett when Bodine turned Annett and Annett collected Mike Wallace, Elliott Sadler, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Kenny Wallace. The race would restart on lap 29. On lap 30, Danica Patrick took the lead from Kyle Busch. Brad Keselowski would take the lead on lap 31. On lap 33, Joey Logano took the lead but immediately gave it back to Keselowski when he and Kyle Busch swapped positions. On lap 37, Keselowski and Trevor Bayne swapped positions giving Bayne the lead. Joey Logano tried to take the lead but could not do it and ended up swapping with Busch. On lap 40, Bayne and Keselowski swapped giving the Keselowski the lead. They two did it again on lap 52. On lap 56, the third caution flew when Sam Hornish Jr. crashed off of turn 4 after getting spun by Todd Bodine. Brad Keselowski won the race off of pit road but did not get enough fuel in the car and had to come back in. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in 2nd but was penalized for dragging equipment out of the box. Joey Logano led the field to the restart on lap 60. Kyle Busch tried to take the lead with help from Clint Bowyer but could not make it past and the two ended up finding different partners. On lap 67, Bowyer took the lead with help from Tony Stewart.

Race results

References