[4] Before the race, Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 1242 points, and Jimmie Johnson stood in second with 1157.

At 1:08 pm, University of Alabama head football coach, Nick Saban, delivered the starting command.

Before the green flag, six drivers (including all four Richard Petty Motorsports cars) had to move to the back of the field due to engine changes: Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, David Stremme, Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, and A. J. Allmendinger.

Robby Gordon was also forced to start at the rear as his car height was too low and failed post-qualifying inspection.

At the drop of the green flag at 1:20 pm, polesitter Juan Pablo Montoya claimed the lead and stayed in that position for four laps.

Matt Kenseth, while in the middle groove, moved up in front of Jeff Gordon (driving a retro Pepsi Challenge paint scheme used by Darrell Waltrip in 1983) and made contact, causing Gordon to wobble and get loose on the high side.

Gordon then made contact with David Gilliland, getting him loose, then came down and collected 14 more cars, including Allmendinger, Kahne, Sadler, Casey Mears, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Max Papis, Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Scott Riggs, and Bobby Labonte.

Martin, who had won the Phoenix race the previous week, took a very hard hit, as his car went over the hood of Riggs', smashed into the wall driver's side first, and got fishtailed by Kahne as his came to a rest in the infield grass.

As the caution period continued, John Andretti, Greg Biffle, and Ryan Newman each led a lap before making their pit stops.

On lap 38, Truex Jr. briefly took the lead on the back straightaway before Busch repassed him with a shove from Michael Waltrip.

In the middle of the next lap, Truex Jr. passed Ky. Busch, but lost the lead coming into the tri-oval.

On lap 60, the fourth caution waved when Kurt Busch spun out in the tri-oval after being touched in the left-rear by David Stremme.

[8] The Top 4 drivers — Truex Jr.; Sadler; Earnhardt Jr.; and Kyle Busch —were able to get a strong start and pull away from the lead pack.

On lap 82, Earnhardt Jr. and his JR Motorsports driver Brad Keselowski got together on the back straightaway and went below the yellow line.

Under the yellow flag, Jeremy Mayfield stayed out to collect five bonus points for leading a lap as most of the drivers took their final pit stops of the day.

Matt Kenseth claimed the lead and led the field to the green flag on lap 175.

It started when Montoya, running in the middle of the lead pack, was touched by Hamlin, causing Montoya to spin into Bobby Labonte and collected seven more cars, including Martin Truex Jr., Robby Gordon, David Stremme, Jeremy Mayfield, Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, and Sam Hornish Jr. Gordon took the worst of it, as his car was sent head on into inside wall, caving in the entire front portion of his car.

Eight fans were injured by flying debris; the most serious one being a woman whose jaw was broken, and was airlifted to a nearby hospital.

After a few moments, Edwards climbed out of his car and jogged to the finish line to a standing ovation from the crowd, which Mike Joy described as having "shades of Ricky Bobby".

"[10] In the wake of the crash, the catch fence was raised by 10 feet and was strengthened for the fall race in order to prevent such an incident from occurring again.

In addition, NASCAR implemented a rule for the fall race at Talladega in which drivers were not allowed to bump draft in the corners as an attempt to reduce multicar crashes that often took place at that part of the track.

NASCAR on Fox analyst Darrell Waltrip compared Edwards' crash to a one in 1987, when Bobby Allison blew a tire and went into the catchfence near the start/finish line, ripping out several feet of it and injuring several fans.

That crash made NASCAR mandate restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega to slow down the cars from such extremely high speeds.

Although Edwards quickly congratulated Keselowski for the win, the two drivers began a rivalry that heated up almost every year.

In return, Edwards spun Keselowski into the pack in turn 4 of the final lap, causing in a multiple car collision and won the race.

Keselowski climbed out with minor injuries and a grimace on his face and in victory lane, Edwards confessed publicly that the crash was not an accident.

That week, Edwards and Keselowski met with NASCAR, who penalized both drivers' points for the Nationwide Series championship standings, fined them both $25,000, and requested them to calm down the rivalry or face indefinite suspension from the sport.

[12] Their rivalry did not end until the 2012 Nationwide race at Watkins Glen, where the two rivals finished 1-2 and confirmed it in both their interviews.