The 2011 GEICO 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that was scheduled to be held on September 18, 2011 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.

The result advanced Stewart to second in the Drivers' Championship, seven points behind Harvick and three ahead of Carl Edwards.

[5] Before the race, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick each led the Drivers' Championship with 2,012 points, with Jeff Gordon in third place with 2,009.

Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the first 12 positions with 2,000 points each.

Gordon, Greg Biffle, Johnson, David Stremme, and Edwards rounded out the first ten positions.

[12] Kenseth clinched his sixth pole position in the Sprint Cup Series, with a time of 29.469 seconds.

[13] Johnson, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twelfth, while Harvick was scored thirtieth.

[13] The four drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Travis Kvapil, David Starr, Stephen Leicht and Mike Skinner (T. J.

I'm really happy to be on the pole, but it's just a starting position, and we've got to work really hard on the race, keeping up with our adjustments and that type of thing.