2011 Coke Zero 400

The 2011 Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola 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.

Daytona International Speedway was one of, at the time, six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway.^[4] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.^[5] The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.^[5] Kevin Harvick was the defending race winner.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Two practice sessions were scheduled before the race on Thursday. The sessions were scheduled to be 80 and 85 minutes long.^[9] However, because of wet weather the first practice session was cancelled, and the following session was shortened to 45 minutes long.^[10] In the only practice session for the race, Marcos Ambrose was the quickest with a time of 45.133 seconds.^[11] A. J. Allmendinger followed in the second position, two hundredths of a second slower than Ambrose.^[11] Kurt Busch was scored third ahead of Brad Keselowski, and Mark Martin in fourth and fifth.^[11]

During qualifying, forty-five cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.^[12] Martin clinched his 50th career pole position, with a time of 49.433.^[13] He was joined on the front row of the grid by 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne.^[13] Clint Bowyer qualified third, Jeff Gordon took fourth, and David Ragan started fifth.^[13] The two drivers that failed to qualify were Tony Raines and J. J. Yeley.^[13]

Pole sitter Mark Martin led the first lap of the race with his teammate Jeff Gordon pushing him. Outside pole sitter and reigning Daytona 500 champ Trevor Bayne attempted to take the lead on lap 2 with Clint Bowyer but failed to get in front of Martin and Gordon. Unfortunately for Bayne, his night would come to an early end as he would crash out on lap 5 after getting turned by Brad Keselowski and collecting Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, and Bobby Labonte in the process while bringing out the first caution of the night. The race would restart on lap 9. On lap 16, Martin's teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. would take the lead with the other teammate Jimmie Johnson pushing him. On lap 17, Kurt Busch would take the lead with Regan Smith behind him. On lap 18, Carl Edwards took the lead with his teammate Greg Biffle for a brief moment before Busch took it back in turn 3. On lap 19, Edwards would take the lead. Busch would take it back the next lap. Unfortunetly for Edwards, his chances on winning vanished as on lap 23 he got turned off of turn 4 by his teammate Greg Biffle and would hit the inside wall on the right rear of the car. This would also end up with him losing the points lead to Kevin Harvick. The race would restart on lap 27 with Kevin Harvick leading. On the restart, Harvick's partner Paul Menard switched spots with him and Menard was the new leader. On lap 28, David Ragan would take the lead with Matt Kenseth behind him. On lap 29, Regan Smith took the lead with Kurt Busch behind him. On lap 31, Martin Truex Jr. took the lead with David Reutimann behind him. On lap 37, David Ragan took the lead. On lap 41, Kasey Kahne took the lead with Brian Vickers behind him after Ragan and Kenseth swapped. On lap 42, Matt Kenseth took the lead but Martin Truex Jr. would take it on that same lap. Kenseth would take it and hold on to it the next lap. Unfortunately, a bad night would get a lot worse for Carl Edwards as Edwards had no crush panel to help him breathe from inside the racecar as he drove around without one for over 20 laps and ended up getting sick and actually throwing up from the inside of his helmet and all over his suit and the car. Edwards would come down pit road to get the crush panel on and to clean himself and his car. At the same time, the third caution would fly when Dave Blaney would get turned by Geoff Bodine and hit the wall on the frontstretch going into turn 1. Kasey Kahne won the race off of pit road and he would lead the field to the restart on lap 54. On the restart, Kahne didn't have a drafting partner as his teammate Brian Vickers restarted in 8th and lost the lead where Martin Truex Jr. would take the lead with his teammate David Reutimann. On lap 58, Regan Smith took the lead with Kurt Busch behind him. On lap 60, Matt Kenseth would take the lead with David Ragan. On lap 64, Kasey Kahne would take the lead with Brian Vickers. On lap 65, Paul Menard would take the lead with Kevin Harvick. Kahne would take it back the next lap. On lap 70, Tony Stewart would take the lead with David Gilliland. On lap 71, Martin Truex Jr. would take the lead. On lap 74, Kasey Kahne would take the lead. On lap 75, Casey Mears took the lead with Landon Cassill behind him. On lap 77, Joe Nemechek took the lead with Travis Kvapil pushing him. On lap 78, Kasey Kahne took the lead. On lap 86, Kyle Busch took the lead with Joey Logano behind him. On lap 89, Kasey Kahne took the lead. On lap 90, Paul Menard took the lead. Soon, green flag pitstops would begin on lap 91. On lap 93, Kyle Busch took the lead. Busch would pit on lap 94 giving the lead to Casey Mears. Mears would pit on lap 95 giving the lead to Jeff Burton. On lap 98, Clint Bowyer would take the lead as he and Burton swapped positions. Both Bowyer and Burton would pit on lap 99 giving the lead to Brian Vickers where he would be passed by Martin Truex Jr. by lap 100. On lap 101, Kyle Busch took the lead. On lap 103, Martin Truex Jr. would take the lead after Busch and Logano swapped positions. On lap 104, David Ragan would take the lead. On lap 106, Ryan Newman would take the lead with Denny Hamlin behind him. Newman and Hamlin would swap the next lap giving the lead to Hamlin.

With 50 laps to go, Martin Truex Jr. took the lead but got passed by Brad Keselowski and Keselowski took the lead with Greg Biffle behind him. With 49 to go, Keselowski and Biffle swapped and Biffle took the lead. With 48 to go, Martin Truex Jr. took the lead but got passed by Juan Pablo Montoya and Montoya took the lead with Jamie McMurray behind him. With 46 to go, Kevin Harvick took the lead with Paul Menard behind him after Montoya and McMurray switched. With 45 to go, Jamie McMurray took the lead. Harvick would take it back the next lap. With 39 to go, Harvick's teammate Clint Bowyer took the lead. With 38 to go, Ryan Newman took the lead. With 31 to go, green flag pitstops would begin once again for the last time. With 30 to go, Kyle Busch took the lead. With 26 to go, Kevin Harvick took the lead. With 19 to go, Harvick and his teammate Paul Menard pitted with Harvick keeping his lead until with 18 to go when Ryan Newman took the lead. With 7 to go Matt Kenseth took the lead with David Ragan behind him. With 3 to go, Ryan Newman took the lead. Newman was looking for his first win of the season. At the same time, the 4th caution would fly for a five car incident in turns 3 and 4 involving Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, and Juan Pablo Montoya that saw Gordon spin and somehow not damage his car. The caution would set up three attempts of a green-white-checkered. On the restart, David Ragan took the lead. Ragan was looking for redemption when in the Daytona 500, Ragan was leading on a restart but changed lanes before the start-finish line which was illegal and got him black flagged which handed the win to Trevor Bayne. But in turn 2, the first big wreck would occur taking out 15 cars and the 5th caution to fly. It started when Mark Martin tried to go down in front of Joey Logano but ended up turning across Logano's nose and getting sideways. This would cause multiple cars to check up and stack up which would cause the big wreck. The cars involved were Mark Martin, Brian Vickers, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Joe Nemechek, Regan Smith, Landon Cassill, Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, Travis Kvapil, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann, and David Gilliland. The wreck would set up a second attempt of a GWC. On the restart, David Ragan and Ryan Newman were side by side with Ragan getting pushed by Matt Kenseth and Newman getting pushed by Denny Hamlin. Eventually, Joey Logano had a big run and made it three wide for the lead with Kasey Kahne behind him and ended up causing Newman and Hamlin to fall back in the pack. Ragan would take the lead and take the white flag. On the last lap, 15 cars would be involved in two separate accidents on the final two turns. The first one being in turn 3 when Landon Cassill turned Marcos Ambrose while also collecting David Reutimann, Tony Stewart, and Brian Vickers. The second being off of turn 4 when Jamie McMurray got into Dale Earnhardt Jr. causing both to spin and collecting Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Travis Kvapil, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya, A. J. Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson, and Regan Smith. As a result of the accidents, the 6th and final caution would fly just before the cars crossed the finish line and David Ragan would make it up for the Daytona 500 mistake and score his first career Cup Series win in his 163rd Cup Series start. Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, and Kyle Busch would round out the top 5 while Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, Juan Pablo Montoya, and A. J. Allmendinger rounded out the top 10.^[14]