Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports won the race, his sixth win of the season, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second and Joey Logano finished third.

Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth were considered the most likely to win this race according to the pundits while Brad Keselowski, Elliott Sadler and Juan Pablo Montoya were considered the extreme underdogs.

Some of the racing experts predicted that Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle would initially make great lap times during the race but would ultimately falter in the end.

Before the race, the championship lead would be split between Kenseth and Johnson.

With three racing remaining, it looked like a tiebreaker would have been needed if the stalemate had carried over into Homestead-Miami.