2011 Aaron's 499

2011 Aaron's 499

Race details
Race 8 of 36 in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date	April 17, 2011 (2011-April-17)
Official name	Aaron's 499
Location	Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Alabama
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.66 mi (4.28 km)
Distance	188 laps, 500.08 mi (804.8 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching up to 75 °F (24 °C); wind speeds up to 7 miles per hour (11 km/h)[1]
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	53.723
Most laps led
Driver	Clint Bowyer	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	38
Winner
No. 48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company
Announcers	Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds

The 2011 Aaron's 499 was the eighth race of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season out of thirty six total races. The race was held on April 17 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. Jeff Gordon won his 70th pole position, leading a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the top four starting positions (Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in row 1; Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in row 2). Nearly the entire race, in similar fashion to the 2011 Daytona 500, was marked by the prevalence of 2-car drafting. On the last lap, four 2-car drafting teams contended for the win (Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.; Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin; Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick; Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle), and all eight cars finished within about three car-lengths of each other. Johnson, pushed by Earnhardt, won the race by .002 seconds over Clint Bowyer, the 2010 fall race winner at the track.

The finish is tied for the second closest in the Sprint Cup since NASCAR adopted electronic timing in 1993 tying the record of the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway.