The 2011 Subway Fresh Fit 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on February 27, 2011 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. Contested over 312 laps, it was the second race of the 2011 season and was won by Jeff Gordon for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing finished in second, while Gordon's teammate, Jimmie Johnson, finished third.
Carl Edwards led the first lap from pole position ahead of Kurt Busch who started second on the grid. The race was caution free until lap 29 (debris), and then 48 laps later a multiple crash occurred involving 13 drivers. Later there were several lead changes, and another four cautions. With nine laps remaining, Gordon took the lead from Kyle Busch to win his first race of the season, his first in more than 60 races.
There were eight cautions and 29 lead changes among 12 different drivers during the race. Gordon's win moved him to sixth position in the drivers' championship, 15 points behind leader Kyle Busch and one ahead of Bobby Labonte in seventh. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet had 12 points, four ahead of Dodge. A total of 75,000 people attended the race, and 10.36 million watched it on television.
Report
Background
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. The racetrack has seats for 76,800 spectators.
Before the race, Carl Edwards was leading the Drivers' Championship with 42 points, and David Gilliland stood in second with 41 points. Bobby Labonte followed in third also with 41 points, one ahead of Kurt Busch and two ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in fourth and fifth. 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
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. Also in the session, Trevor Bayne collided into the wall, so the team had to go to their back-up car. 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.
Forty-four cars were entered for qualifying, 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. Kahne qualified third, Kyle Busch took fourth, and Smith started fifth. Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., McMurray, Keselowski, and Biffle rounded out the first ten positions. The driver who failed to qualify for the race was Brian Keselowski, who had a time of 27.431 seconds.
Race
The race, the second in the season, began at 3:00 p.m. EST and was televised live in the United States on Fox. The conditions on the grid were dry before the race with the air temperature at . 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.