Contested over 160 laps on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) asphalt rectangular oval, it was the 20th race of the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season.

He remained 53 points behind tenth place driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and two ahead of Kasey Kahne in fifteenth.

A total of 138,000 people attended the race, while 6.4 million watched it live on television.

[8] Before the race, Carl Edwards led the Drivers' Championship with 652 points, and Jimmie Johnson stood in second with 645.

[13][14] Hamlin followed in third place ahead of Edwards, David Ragan, and Kurt Busch.

Montoya, A. J. Allmendinger, Kenseth, Brian Vickers, and Johnson rounded out the first ten positions.

[20] Johnson qualified third, Kurt Busch took fourth, and Brad Keselowski started fifth.

[20] Allmendinger, Montoya, Gordon, Kenseth and Edwards rounded out the top ten.

The five drivers who failed to qualify for the race were David Stremme, Travis Kvapil, Erik Darnell, J. J. Yeley, and Scott Wimmer.

[21]" The race, the 20th in the season, began at 1:00 pm EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN.

[1] Weather conditions were dry before the race, the air temperature at 80 °F (27 °C); clear skies were expected.

[22] Representative Howard Brammer began pre-race ceremonies, by giving the invocation.

Next, Rascal Flatts performed the national anthem, and Mari Hulman George gave the command for drivers to start their engines.

[22] Ragan retained his pole position lead into the first corner, followed by Kahne, who started second.

On the sixth lap of the race, Trevor Bayne was forced to go to the pit lane after overheating.

After starting eighth on the grid, Gordon had moved up to fourth, as Kurt Busch fell to seventh.

Everyone had made pit stops by the 30th lap of the race, which moved Kahne back into first.

On lap 45, Earnhardt Jr. made a pit stops to remove grass from his front grille.

On the 57th lap, Kenseth and Johnson passed Kyle Busch for fourth and fifth place respectively.

On the following lap, Montoya moved up to third, as Marcos Ambrose received a drive-through penalty after switching lanes before the start, finish line.

Keselowski continued to lead on the lap 126 restart, as Clint Bowyer moved into second.

On the 130th lap, Jeff Burton made a pit stop, as Gordon overtook Kenseth for fourth.

By the 155th lap, Gordon had moved up to fifth, as the drivers in front of him were at a slower pace from trying to get better fuel mileage.

On the final lap, Gordon moved into second, and Menard crossed the finish line first to score his first Sprint Cup Series victory.

"[24] In the subsequent press conference, Gordon stated his happiness for Menard by saying, "Just because he's been here so much as a kid experiencing Indy, he knows how special it is to compete here, let alone win here.

He probably has a greater appreciation for it than I did in '94, because while I was watching from a distance and my heroes were Indy 500 drivers, I wasn't in the garage like he was.