2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

The other first-time winners were Regan Smith at Darlington, David Ragan at Daytona in July, Paul Menard at Indianapolis, and Marcos Ambrose at Watkins Glen.

Jimmie Johnson's streak of winning five consecutive Cup Series championships ended in 2011, and he finished sixth in points this season.

The team moved Steve Letarte with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Alan Gustafson with Jeff Gordon, and Lance McGrew with Mark Martin.

[13] Kevin Conway, the 2010 NASCAR Rookie of the Year in the Sprint Cup Series, also made a change by moving to NEMCO Motorsports.

In the press conference, it was also noted that in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the eleventh and twelfth positions would be awarded to whoever has the most victories who are ranked from 11th to 20th in regular-season driver's points.

[41] Another change for the season involves the races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which had different starting times so they would not conflict with the beginning of NFL games.

NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton stated, "We'll have to get back and talk to the teams and look at the speeds from the last two days of testing.

[53] Four-time champion, Jeff Gordon claimed victory in the 2011 Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, after leading the most laps of 138, ending a 66-race winless streak.

[55] After winning the Nationwide race on Saturday, Kyle Busch held off Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson to take his fifth consecutive Bristol victory.

[56] Though Kyle dominated the race, Jimmie Johnson took the lead briefly but was passed on the last lap by Kevin Harvick, who took his first win of 2011 at Auto Club Speedway.

[59] In the Aaron's 499 Jimmie Johnson edged Clint Bowyer for the win at Talladega Superspeedway by .002 seconds, tying the closest finish in series history.

[60] For the third consecutive season, Kyle Busch dominated the spring race at Richmond, leading 293 of 400 laps en route to his second win of the season[61] After being denied victory at Talladega in 2008, Regan Smith stayed out on older tires and held of points leader Carl Edwards for his and Furniture Row Racing's first Cup Series victory at Darlington Raceway.

[63] At the second exhibition race of the season, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXVII at Charlotte Motor Speedway, David Ragan and Brad Keselowski finished 1–2 in the Sprint Showdown, while fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the fan vote to transfer into the main event.

[65] With the teams remaining in Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600, Dale Earnhardt Jr. came close to snapping his winless drought by gambling on fuel, but ran out of gas on the backstretch, allowing Kevin Harvick to drive to his 3rd win of 2011.

[67] At the inaugural STP 400 at Kansas Speedway, a dominant Kurt Busch was forced to stop for fuel with 7 laps to go, allowing teammate Brad Keselowski to take the lead and hold off a charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his second Sprint Cup victory.

[68] At the 5-hour Energy 500, a quick final pit stop enabled Jeff Gordon to beat polesitter Kurt Busch out of the pits, getting Gordon his 84th Sprint Cup victory, tying Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for third on the all-time wins list and also tying Waltrip for the most wins in NASCAR's modern era.

[69] The next week at Michigan, defending race winner Denny Hamlin got an excellent final pit stop, enabling him to hold off Matt Kenseth for his first win of the season.

[70] The next week at Infineon Raceway, Kurt Busch dominated the race and easily held off Jeff Gordon for his first win of 2011 and first on a road course.

Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne crashed out early, and David Ragan with help from teammate Matt Kenseth, rebounded from his late 500 loss to take his first Sprint Cup victory.

[72] The following week, at the inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, Kyle Busch dominated the race and held off a hard charging David Reutimann for his third win of the season.

The next week at Watkins Glen, Cup drivers returned to road course racing, and Marcos Ambrose held off Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch in a green-white-checker finish and avoided several violent crashes, including David Reutimann flipping in the esses on the final lap, to claim his first Sprint Cup Series win, becoming the fifth first-time winner in 2011.

Heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Labor Day weekend, the race was pushed to Tuesday September 6 due to Tropical Storm Lee dumping rain on the Southwest Sunday and Monday.

At the Wonderful Pistachios 400, the last race of the regular season was hotly contested with multiple drivers needing a win to break into the Chase.

Kevin Harvick would end up holding off the field for his 4th win of 2011 while Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski completed the two wild card spots in the top 12.

With the race delayed until Monday due to rain, Tony Stewart held off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick and outlasted the field on fuel to take his first win of 2011.

Once again, the race came down to fuel mileage as Tony Stewart passed Clint Bowyer with 2 laps to go and held on for his second consecutive win of the year.

Heading to Kansas, Jimmie Johnson once again dominated the race, but sealed up his second win of the season on a Green-white-checkered finish by holding off Kasey Kahne.

During the Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega, the controversial two-car draft dominated the race, as the RCR duo of Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer pulled away from the field on a late restart, though Bowyer would pass Burton on the final lap and beat him to the line by a fender for his second consecutive fall Talladega win.

Returning to Texas, Stewart dominated and passed a gambling Jeff Burton with 5 to go to hold off points leader Carl Edwards for his fourth win in 2011.

2011 saw 5 drivers win their 1st ever Sprint Cup race (Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, David Ragan, Paul Menard, and Marcos Ambrose).