The race was televised on Fox and was also broadcast on MRN Radio at 12 p.m.[4] After Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman previous crash, officials decided that they would change from the rear wing to the rear spoiler which debuted in the 2010 Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500.

[6] Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing won the race, his first win of the season and his first since the 2007 Daytona 500, while the Earnhardt-Ganassi teammates of Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya finished second and third.

[8] The fastest in the final practice were Jeff Burton, Brad Keselowski, Mike Bliss, Denny Hamlin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.[9] In the final practice there were two caution flags – one after Ryan Newman spun on the back stretch after being tapped by Mark Martin and received major damage to his car, the other being when spotters noticed a small, black bird near the SAFER barrier, which a member of the safety team was able to grab.

[12] To begin pre-race events, Reverend Mark Stokes of Alabama Raceway Ministries gave the invocation.

At the restart on lap 24, Kurt Busch led the field to the green flag.

[14] On lap 79, Kurt Busch claimed the lead coming off pit road.

The other cars with damage were Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Max Papis, David Stremme, Paul Menard, Sam Hornish Jr., and Elliott Sadler.

Under the caution Ryan Newman and Travis Kvapil stayed out to lead a lap, but they ended up pitting anyway.

[13] On the restart, on lap 89, Jimmie Johnson led the field to the green flag.

There were 3 lead changes under caution; the drivers who led were Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, and Greg Biffle.

Kyle Busch led nine laps until giving up the lead back to Hamlin.

The motorsports record of 28 leaders was broken on lap 147 after Juan Pablo Montoya claimed the lead following pit stops.

On lap 176, the fifth caution came out when David Reutimann spun Bobby Labonte out on the back straightaway.

[13] On lap 181, McMurray was leading a single-file line of cars on the outside lanes, duelling with the drafting pair of Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. On lap 182, the sixth caution came out for a three car crash in the tri-oval.

It started when Jimmie Johnson blocked Jeff Gordon in turn 3, forcing Gordon onto the apron, which bunched up a number of cars, causing Jeff Burton to slow down, at which point Burton was pushed into the SAFER barrier in the tri-oval by Kasey Kahne, taking Gordon and Scott Speed with him as his car came back across the track.

[17] On the green-white-checkered restart, on lap 189, McMurray led the cars to the green flag.

One lap later, the seventh caution and second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish began when a large crash happened in turn 3.

It started when Joey Logano turned Ryan Newman loose, which spun him out and collected a group of cars including Bobby Labonte, Elliott Sadler, Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne, Marcos Ambrose, Sam Hornish Jr., and Brad Keselowski.

On lap 196, an eighth caution flag and third attempt was carried out, as Jimmie Johnson moved up, was clipped by Greg Biffle, and then smashed into the inside wall on the back straightaway.

Once they were in the middle of the tri-oval on the last lap, Harvick got McMurray just loose enough to turn left to get below under his car, but unlike the previous year, McMurray gave Harvick adequate room.

Greg Biffle maintained third in the point standings after finishing seventeenth in the race.