2011 Quaker State 400
Race details[1][2] | |||||
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Race 18 of 36 in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||||
Date | July 9, 2011 | ||||
Location | Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, Kentucky | ||||
Course |
Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.4 km) | ||||
Distance | 267 laps, 400.5 mi (644.5 km) | ||||
Weather | Partly cloudy with a high of 88; wind out of the East at 5 mph. | ||||
Pole position | |||||
Driver | Joe Gibbs Racing | ||||
Time | 29.540 (in practice, grid set by practice times) | ||||
Most laps led | |||||
Driver | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | |||
Laps | 125 | ||||
Winner | |||||
No. 18 | Kyle Busch |
Network |
Turner Network Television | ||
Announcers | Adam Alexander, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Kyle Petty |
The 2011 Quaker State 400 was a
Report
Background
Kentucky Speedway is one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races.[3] The standard track at Kentucky Speedway is a four-turn tri-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long.[4] The track's turns are banked at 14 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is 8 degrees. The back stretch, opposite of the front, is at only 4 degrees.[4] The racetrack has seats for 107,000 spectators.[5] The track is also the most recent addition to the schedule since the 2001 season, when Chicagoland Speedway and Kansas Speedway were added to the schedule.[6]
Before the race,
Practice and qualifying
Four practice sessions were scheduled to be held before the Saturday race—two on both Thursday and Friday. The first session lasted 240 minutes, while the second session was 120 minutes long. The third session was scheduled to be 60 minutes, but was cancelled because of race,[9] while the fourth was 90 minutes.[10] Thursday's sessions was also used to test fuel injection, which the Sprint Cup Series will switch to for the 2012 season.[11] Johnson was quickest with a time of 30.703 seconds in the first session, five-hundredths of a second faster than Paul Menard.[12] Travis Kvapil was about one-tenth of a second slowing than Menard's pace, followed by Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, and David Ragan. Gordon was seventh, still within a second of Johnson's time.[12]
In the second practice session, Kyle Busch was fastest with a time of 30.193 seconds, only 0.155 of a second quicker than second-placed Kurt Busch.
Forty-eight cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three raced because of NASCAR's
Traffic issues
To a large extent, the race was overshadowed by major traffic issues in the vicinity of the track. Owner Speedway Motorsports had more than doubled track capacity to 107,000, but did not make any other significant upgrades to the infrastructure in and around the track in order to accommodate the sheer number of fans attending the race. According to Sports Illustrated NASCAR writer Brant James,
Kentucky Speedway's reputation as an epicenter of traffic mayhem preceded it. An increase in seating capacity to 107,000 and an inaugural Sprint Cup race guaranteed that the already troublesome venue would become one of the most inaccessible in all of NASCAR. Fatal vision fulfilled.[19]
Backups on
Bruton Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports, had joked on the day before the race that "we expect everyone to be home by Tuesday."[24] Smith was in a much less cheerful mood during the race, telling reporters:
There's 15 to 20,000 people that won't get in here today. Traffic is horrendous. Interstate 71 is a disaster. It may have been OK in 1955, but somebody should have rebuilt that thing 20 years ago.[28]
One of the thousands who never made it to the track was
ESPN.com NASCAR writer Terry Blount commented after the race,
This should have been a great day for NASCAR, a new Cup event for the first time in 10 years and a sellout crowd at Kentucky Speedway. Instead, the entire day was a horrible black eye for the sport at a facility that was completely unprepared for an event of this size and stature. Traffic jams are normal for a Sprint Cup race. This was not a traffic jam. It was a traffic catastrophe.[20]
On the Monday after the race, the track announced that unscanned tickets for the Quaker State 400 would be valid for any of the remaining six 2011 Sprint Cup races to be held at tracks owned by Speedway Motorsports, or for the 2012 Kentucky Sprint Cup race. In addition to the ticket exchange, fans with unscanned tickets would also receive an equal number of tickets to either of the two remaining major events at the track in 2011—the
Race
The race, the 18th in the
Results
Qualifying
Race results
Standings after the race
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References
- ^ a b "Sprint Cup Series Schedule". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
- ^ Brown, Brian. "The Quaker State 400". July 5, 2011. Rotoworld.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
- ^ a b "NASCAR Tracks—The Kentucky Speedway". NASCAR. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
- ^ "Track Fast Facts". Kentucky Speedway. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
- ^ Blount, Terry (July 5, 2011). "Something new, finally, for NASCAR". ESPN. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Driver's Championship Classification". NASCAR. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
- ^ a b "Manufactures' Championship Classification". Jayski.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
- ^ a b Hembree, Mike. "CUP: Cars Open Practice After Rains". July 8, 2011. Speedtv.com. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "THE RACE: Quaker State 400". Jayski.com. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- ^ Hembree, Mike. "CUP: Fuel Injection Testing Scheduled At Kentucky". July 6, 2011. Speedtv.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- ^ a b "Practice One Timing and Scoring". NASCAR. Retrieved July 7, 2011.
- ^ a b "Practice Two Timing and Scoring". NASCAR. Retrieved July 7, 2011.
- ^ Menzer, Joe. "All testing talk centers around fuel injection". July 7, 2011. NASCAR. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Practice Four Timing and Scoring". July 8, 2011. NASCAR. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Qualifying Entry List". NASCAR. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Kentucky Qualifying Rained Out". July 8, 2011. Motor Racing Network. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f "Race Official Lineup". NASCAR. July 8, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ James, Brant (July 10, 2011). "Five things we learned at Kentucky". Inside NASCAR. SportsIllustrated.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ a b Blount, Terry (July 10, 2011). "Traffic nightmare spoils NASCAR's party". ESPN. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "There's traffic and then there was Saturday". Shifting Gears. Cincinnati.com. July 9, 2011. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ The WORST Fan Experience In NASCAR History!, retrieved July 2, 2021
- ^ Kentucky Speedway Inaugural Nascar Sprint Cup Race Traffic Detour. (Fucked Up), retrieved July 2, 2021
- ^ a b c Kelly, Kevin (July 10, 2011). "Exhausting day for motorists". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
- Speed, July 10, 2011.
- ^ Kentucky Speedway apologizes to fans Archived May 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Speedway Motorsports, July 11, 2011.
- ^ Blount, Terry. Kentucky Speedway gets a mulligan. ESPN, July 12, 2011.
- ^ Groeschen, Tom (July 10, 2011). "Bruton Smith: Race great, traffic not". Shifting Gears. Cincinnati.com. Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ Blount, Terry (July 12, 2011). "Kentucky track offers ticket exchange". ESPN. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
- ^ a b "Race Summary". NASCAR. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
- ^ "Lineup Statistics". MotorRacingNetwork.com. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Jayski's® NASCAR Silly Season Site — Kentucky Sprint Cup Qualifying Order/Results, Lineup". Jayski.com. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Race Results".