The pole position was won by Kasey Kahne of Red Bull Racing Team.

Prior to the race, Carl Edwards held the Drivers' Championship lead with 326 points.

A. J. Allmendinger and Jeff Gordon remained in the wild card positions.

Meanwhile, Scott Riggs would blow an engine coming into his second lap of his qualifying run.

Did not qualify: #81-Scott Riggs, #71-Andy Lally, #92-Brian Keselowski Withdrew: #75 Derrike Cope Regan Smith pulled off an upset and won the Showtime Southern 500 after holding off Carl Edwards on a late restart.

During a 3 wide situation, Harvick got into Kyle Busch, who in turn got into Bowyer, who slammed the inside wall.