•
(W) denotes past 500 winner. •
(R) denotes rookie driver. •
(i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Practice and qualifying won the pole position. Seven practice sessions were held before the race. The first two on February 12 ran 120 minutes and 105 minutes each. The next two on February 16 were for shortened 90 minutes and 55 minutes long after rain delays.
Mark Martin was quickest with a time of 48.681 seconds in the first session, less than one-tenth of a second faster than
Jeff Gordon.
Paul Menard was just off Gordon's pace, followed by
Dale Earnhardt Jr.,
Jeff Burton, and
Bill Elliott. Burton took third place, ahead of
Trevor Bayne, Menard and Gordon. Also in the second practice session, McMurray collided into the
wall after his tire failed, and had to move to his back-up car. Forty-nine cars were entered for qualifying, but only 43 raced per NASCAR's
qualifying procedure. Unlike most races during the season, the qualifying session only determined the first two positions, while the rest of the drivers qualified by the
2011 Gatorade Duels. Earnhardt clinched his 10th
pole position during his career, with a time of 48.364 seconds. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Jeff Gordon. followed by
Greg Biffle, Earnhardt, Johnson, and
Juan Pablo Montoya. Earnhardt and Truex collided and hit the wall, both needing to use their back-up cars which meant Earnhardt forfeited pole position.
Kasey Kahne led fourth practice with 44.985 seconds, only one-thousandth of a second faster than Joey Logano. Gordon was third ahead of
David Ragan and Kyle Busch.
Kurt Busch and Burton were the winners of the Gatorade Duels. The qualifying grid was finalized with Busch in third and Burton fourth.
Regan Smith qualified fifth ahead of Bowyer,
Kevin Harvick, Waltrip,
Matt Kenseth, and Kyle Busch. Drivers who failed to qualify were 1990 winner
Derrike Cope,
Kevin Conway,
Todd Bodine,
Michael McDowell and
Casey Mears.
Norm Benning was entered in his no. 57, but withdrew before qualifying after his car failed to make a lap in practice. Burton was fastest in fifth practice with a 45.767 seconds lap, ahead of Menard, Ragan,
Marcos Ambrose and Hamlin. Martin led the sixth session ahead of Johnson and Kahne.
Brian Vickers was next with a 46.225 seconds lap ahead of Biffle with 46.426 seconds. Burton's 44.929 seconds topped the final practice session, followed by Bowyer and Keselowski.
Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five drivers, claiming the fourth and fifth positions respectively.
Race The race began at 13:00
local time (
UTC−05:00), and was televised live in the United States on
Fox.
Rev. Dr. L. Ronald Durham, senior pastor of the Greater Friendship Baptist Church of
Daytona Beach, Florida, began pre-race ceremonies by giving the
invocation. Country music artist
Martina McBride performed the
national anthem, and
Josh Duhamel,
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and movie director
Michael Bay of the upcoming film
Transformers: Dark of the Moon, gave the command for the drivers to start their engines. During the
pace laps,
Dale Earnhardt Jr.;
David Ragan,
Joey Logano, and
David Reutimann had to move to the rear of the grid due to changing to their back-up car.
Transformers themed vehicles painted in the color schemes of Earnhardt Jr.'s,
Juan Pablo Montoya's, and
Jimmie Johnson's cars led the field during the pace laps as well. 's
death.
Kurt Busch retained his pole position lead into the first corner, followed by outside polesitter
Jeff Gordon. On the following lap, Smith began to assist Busch by
drafting. On lap 3, NASCAR held a moment of silence to honor
Dale Earnhardt, who died ten years ago in the
2001 race. On lap 4,
A. J. Allmendinger and
Mark Martin moved to the first and second positions. A lap later, the first caution was flown when
Kyle Busch got turned sideways. Under caution, he made a pit stop to have his car's toe plate checked and to have the front end aligned. When the race restarted on lap 8,
Kevin Harvick led but after one lap, Martin and Allmendinger passed him. Three laps later, the second caution came out when
J. J. Yeley had an engine failure. Most of the drivers made pit stops under the caution, except for
Brad Keselowski. At the restart, he would lead and
Bobby Labonte passed him for the lead on the next lap. He also became the second driver to win the race in his first attempt, with the other being
Lee Petty who won the
1959 Daytona 500, which was the inaugural race. With the win coming in his second start in the Sprint Cup Series, Bayne also matched Jamie McMurray for quickest victory at the start of a career (the modern-era record was ultimately broken over 12 years later when
Shane van Gisbergen won the
2023 Grant Park 220 in his Cup Series debut); however, since Bayne was racing for the
Nationwide Series points championship, he did not earn any Sprint Cup points for the win. Edwards commented, "A new winner, up-and-coming guy that's tied to so much history. This is as good as it gets. If people aren't watching, that's their problem, because we got some great stuff going on here." As Bayne was running for the
Nationwide Series Championship and was thus ineligible to receive points, the result left Edwards leading the Driver's Championship with 42 points. Gilliland, who finished third, was second with 41, which was tied with Bobby Labonte and was one point ahead of Kurt Busch. 15.6 million people watched the race on television. The race took three hours, fifty-nine minutes and twenty-four seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 0.118 seconds. ==Results==