2011 Tums Fast Relief 500 Explained

The 2011 Tums Fast Relief 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on October 30, 2011, at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, United States. Contested over 500 laps on the 0.526-mile (847 m) oval, it was the 33rd race of the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season, as well as the seventh race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season. The race was won by Tony Stewart for the Stewart Haas Racing team. Jimmie Johnson finished second, and Jeff Gordon clinched third.

Report

Background

Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Richmond International Raceway, Dover International Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway.^[1] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526miles long.^[2] The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has s zero degree banking. The racetrack has seats for 63,000 spectators.

Before the race, Carl Edwards led the Drivers' Championship with 2,237 points, and Matt Kenseth stood in second with 2,223 points. Brad Keselowski followed in third with 2,219 points, one ahead of Tony Stewart and eight ahead of Kevin Harvick in fourth and fifth. Kyle Busch with 2,197 was ten points ahead of Jimmie Johnson, as Kurt Busch with 2,185 points, was 22 ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., and 30 in front of Jeff Gordon.^[3] Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman was eleventh and twelfth with 2,153 and 2,149 points. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 217 points, 44 points ahead of Ford. Toyota, with 164 points, was 14 points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third.^[4] Hamlin was the race's defending champion.^[5]

Practice and qualifying

Two 90 minute practice sessions were scheduled to be held on Friday in preparation for the race.^[6] However, wet track conditions postponed and combined the sessions into one practice session on Saturday.^[7] Afterward, the only session was delayed because of the wet track conditions. Once the first and only session of practice began,^[8] Michael McDowell was quickest with a time of 19.747 seconds in the first session, 0.023 seconds faster than Clint Bowyer.^[9] Johnson was just off Bowyer's pace, followed by Carl Jamie McMurray, Scott Speed, and Paul Menard. David Stremme was seventh, still within a tenth of a second of McDowell's time. Also in the session, there was a collision involving Harvick and Greg Biffle. Neither car was severely damaged from the incident.

Forty-five cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could qualify for the race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.^[10] Wet track conditions before the scheduled starting time canceled the session, causing the grid to be created by Owners' Championship points.^[11] Edwards was given the pole position.^[12] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Kenseth. Keselowski started third, Stewart took fourth, and Harvick fifth. Kyle Busch, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon completed the top ten. The two drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Dennis Setzer and Derrike Cope. Afterward, Edwards commented:

Race

The race, the 33rd in the season, began at 2:00 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN. The conditions on the grid were dry before the race with the air temperature around 50°F.^[13] Tony Beach, associate Pastor at Ft. Trial Baptist Church in Stanleytown, Virginia, began pre-race ceremonies by giving the invocation. Next, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Blue and Gold Marching Machine performed the national anthem, and Ashley Young, winner of the Tums Sweepstakes, gave the command for drivers to start their engines. 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.

Results

Qualifying

	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Grid
99				1
17				2
2				3
14				4
29				5
18				6
48				7
22				8
88				9
24				10
11				11
39				12
33				13
4				14
16				15
43				16
9				17
6				18
5				19
42				20
27				21
20				22
31				23
56				24
83				25
78				26
1				27
00				28
47				29
51				30
34				31
36				32
13				33
32				34
38				35
71				36
7				37
37				38
46				39
66				40
87				41
30		Inception Motorsports		42
55				43
Failed to Qualify
92
75		Stratus Racing Group

Race results

Pos	Grid	Car	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps Run	Points
1	4	14				500	47
2	7	48				500	43
3	10	24				500	42
4	5	29				500	41
5	11	11				500	40
6	23	31				500	38
7	9	88				500	37
8	24	56				500	36
9	1	99				500	36
10	12	39				500	35
11	16	43				500	34
12	33	13				500	32
13	26	78				500	31
14	8	22				500	30
15	15	16				500	29
16	35	38				500	0
17	3	2				500	27
18	22	20				500	26
19	13	33				500	25
20	28	00				500	24
21	34	32				500	23
22	20	42				497	22
23	32	36				497	21
24	21	27				497	21
25	14	4				495	19
26	36	71				493	0
27	6	18				493	19
28	19	5				491	16
29	17	9				488	15
30	25	83				484	14
31	2	17				477	14
32	29	47				464	12
33	18	6				444	11
34	31	34				357	11
35	27	1				85	9
36	37	7				77	0
37	39	46				74	0
38	42	30		Inception Motorsports		52	6
39	40	66				45	0
40	43	55				40	4
41	41	87				33	0
42	30	51				27	0
43	38	37				7	0

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Carl Edwards	2,273
2	Tony Stewart	2,265
3	Kevin Harvick	2,252
4	Brad Keselowski	2,246
5	Matt Kenseth	2,237
6	Jimmie Johnson	2,230
7	Kyle Busch	2,216
8	Kurt Busch	2,215
9	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	2,200
10	Jeff Gordon	2,197
11	Denny Hamlin	2,193
12	Ryan Newman	2,184

Manufacturers' Championship standings

Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	Chevrolet	226
2	Ford	177
3	Toyota	170
4	Dodge	153

• Note: Only the top twelve positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes and References

1. Web site: NASCAR Race Tracks . October 28, 2011 . NASCAR . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110207161158/http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/ . February 7, 2011 .
2. Web site: NASCAR Tracks—The Martinsville Speedway. Martinsville Speedway. October 28, 2011. October 7, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101007095733/http://www.martinsvillespeedway.com/About-The-Track/About-The-Track.aspx. dead.
3. Web site: Driver's Championship Classification. NASCAR. October 28, 2011.
4. Web site: Manufactures' Championship Classification. Jayski.com. October 28, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110901235750/http://www.jayski.com/stats/2011/manu2011.htm. September 1, 2011. dead.
5. Web site: 2010 Tums Fast Relief 500. racing-reference.com. October 28, 2011.
6. Web site: Jayski'sŽ NASCAR Silly Season Site – Sprint Cup Race Info / Rundown Page . Jayski.com . October 29, 2011.
7. Web site: NASCAR — CUP: Rain Only Winner At Martinsville . Speedtv.com . October 28, 2011 . October 29, 2011.
8. Web site: NASCAR — CUP: Harvick, Biffle Have bumpup in Practice . Speedtv.com . October 29, 2011 . October 29, 2011.
9. Web site: Practice One Timing and Scoring . NASCAR . October 29, 2011.
10. Web site: Qualifying Entry List . NASCAR . 2011-03-04.
11. Web site: Wet track forces cancellation of M'ville Cup quals . NASCAR . Sporting News Wire Service . October 29, 2011 . October 29, 2011.
12. Web site: Race Official Lineup: Tums Fast Relief 500 . NASCAR . October 29, 2011 . October 29, 2011.
13. Web site: Race Summary . NASCAR . October 30, 2011 .