The 2011 Wonderful Pistachios 400 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. ...

stock car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

race held on September 10, 2011, at

Richmond International Raceway Richmond Raceway (RR) is a , ''D''-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Known as ...

in Richmond, Virginia. Contested over 400 laps, it was the 26th race of the 2011 season and the final race before the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. The race was won by

Kevin Harvick Kevin Michael Harvick (born December 8, 1975) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick is the 2014 Cup Series champion, ...

for the Richard Childress Racing team.

Carl Edwards Carl Michael Edwards II (born August 15, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Prior to that, he drove the No. ...

finished second, and

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

clinched third. For only the second time in modern-Sprint Cup history, an event was followed four days after another one. In this case, the AdvoCare 500 was held four days earlier than this event.

Summary

This race was dominated by accidents both involving single cars and multiple cars. Each green flag run averaged almost 20 laps while more than 21% of the race would be held under a caution flag. Kevin Harvick would dominate a good portion of the race while

had a reasonable chance to win the race between laps 378 and 384. Scott Speed was the last-place finisher of the race due to a crash on lap 7. Despite

Paul Menard John Paul Christian Menard (born August 21, 1980) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver who last competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 66 Toyota Tundra for ThorSport Racing. M ...

's awful finish, he was the last driver to finish the race without any mechanical issues.

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born September 20, 1975) is a Colombian racing driver. He won the International F3000 championship in 1998, the CART FedEx Championship Series in 1999 in his debut year in the series, and the IMSA WeatherTech ...

's 15th-place finish and

Marcos Ambrose Marcos Ambrose (born 1 September 1976) is an Australian former racing driver and current Garry Rogers Motorsport competition director. He won the Australian V8 Supercar series' championship in 2003 and 2004. In 2006, Ambrose relocated to the Un ...

's 21st-place finish were respectable finishes for the token foreigners in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. According to the gambling pundits,

Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and part-time ...

was the mostly likely to win prior to the checkered flag while Ambrose, Regan Smith and

Bobby Labonte Robert Allen Labonte (born May 8, 1964) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and current analyst for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He also currently competes full-time in the Superstar Racing Experience, driving the No. 18 car. L ...

were the three dark horses of the event. Each finisher was given a different amount of money as his/her individual winnings. These winnings were given out in addition to the driver's weekly salary as a part of a multi-car team. While Kevin Harvick received $256,736 for his valiant effort ($ when considering inflation), last-place driver Scott Speed received a meager $66,860 ($ when considering inflation).Individual winnings information
at Driver Averages

Top ten finishers

Timeline

* The Voice of Sarge in

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...

R. Lee Ermey gives the command to start engines * Start of race: Jamie McMurray led the Racing grid as the green flag was waved * Lap 20: Jimmie Johnson took over the lead from Jamie McMurray * Lap 58: Kevin Harvick took over the lead from Jimmie Johnson * Lap 59: Matt Kenseth took over the lead from Kevin Harvick * Lap 74: Kevin Harvick took over the lead from Matt Kenseth * Lap 157: Greg Biffle took over the lead from Kevin Harvick * Lap 163: Kevin Harvick took over the lead from Greg Biffle * Lap 202: Carl Edwards took over the lead from Kevin Harvick * Lap 315: Kevin Harvick took over the lead from Carl Edwards * Lap 378: Jeff Gordon took over the lead from Kevin Harvick * Lap 385: Kevin Harvick took over the lead from Jeff Gordon * Finish: Kevin Harvick was officially declared the winner of the event

Championship standings

References

{{2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup , state=collapsed Wonderful Pistachios 400 Wonderful Pistachios 400 NASCAR races at Richmond Raceway September 2011 sports events in the United States