Background , the race track where the race was held. , the venue where the race was held.
Phoenix International Raceway is one of five
short tracks to hold
NASCAR races; the others are
Richmond International Raceway,
Dover International Speedway,
Bristol Motor Speedway, and
Martinsville Speedway. The standard track at Phoenix International Raceway is a four-turn short track
oval that is long. The track's turns were
banked from 9 to 11
degrees, while the
front stretch, the location of the finish line, was banked at 3 degrees. The back stretch had a 9 degree banking. In the
Manufacturers' Championship,
Ford was leading with nine points, three points ahead of their rival
Toyota.
Dodge, with 4 points, was one point ahead of
Chevrolet in the battle for third.
Ryan Newman was the race's defending winner.
Practice and qualifying won the
pole position, after having the fastest time at 26.224 seconds. Two practice sessions were held before the race on Friday. The first session lasted 80 minutes long, while the second was 85 minutes long. Kurt Busch was quickest with a time of 26.366 seconds in the first session, more than five-tenths of a second faster than
Jeff Burton.
Denny Hamlin was just off Burton's pace, followed by
Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and
Brad Keselowski.
Kasey Kahne was seventh, still within a second of Kurt Busch's time. In the second practice session, Kyle Busch was fastest with a time of 26.454 seconds, only one-hundredth of a second quicker than second-placed
David Ragan. Edwards took third place, ahead of
Jamie McMurray,
Greg Biffle and Martin. Newman only managed seventh place. but only forty-three raced because of NASCAR's
qualifying procedure. Edwards clinched his eighth
pole position during his career, with a time of 26.224 seconds, which was a new track record. He was joined on the front row of the
grid by Kurt Busch. Phoenix International Raceway Chaplain Ken Bowers began pre-race ceremonies, by giving the
invocation. Actress
Emmy Rossum then performed the
national anthem, and
Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Before the start of the race, a
competition caution was scheduled for the 40th lap in the race. "I was feeling the emotions, but to see (the fans) react like that. Then the push truck pushed me around and to see them all the way down (the frontstretch) doing that, I was like, ‘I don't know if I've ever experienced something like that.’ And that to me made it all worth it right there to have that feeling," said Gordon of his triumph. In the subsequent
press conference, pole position winner, Edwards, stated his frustration at his accident, "I’m not exactly sure what happened. I’ll have to talk to Kyle about it. I thought at first he was just frustrated and he turned left to get back in line and he didn’t know I was there, but I watched the tape and I think he really did get loose. He hit me hard and I was left with nothing. I got rammed to the infield." Kurt Busch, who finished eighth, was second with 77, eight points ahead of Stewart and Allmendinger. The race took three hours, one minute and forty-nine seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 1.137 seconds. ==Results==