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2001 Mountain Dew Southern 500

Race details
Race 25 of 36 in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
2001 Southern 500 program cover
Date	September 2, 2001 (2001-September-02)
Official name	Mountain Dew Southern 500
Location	Darlington Raceway, Darlington County, South Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.800 km)
Weather	Temperatures hovering around 82.4 °F (28.0 °C); wind speeds reaching up to 10.2 miles per hour (16.4 km/h)[1]
Average speed	122.773 miles per hour (197.584 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Kurt Busch	Roush Racing
Time	29.263
Most laps led
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	138
Winner
No. 22	Ward Burton	Bill Davis Racing
Television in the United States
Network	NBC
Announcers	Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach Jr.

The 2001 Mountain Dew Southern 500, the 52nd running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on September 2, 2001 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Contested at 367 laps on the 1.366 mile (2.198 km) speedway, it was the 25th race of the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Ward Burton of Bill Davis Racing won the race.

Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.

The track, Darlington Raceway, is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) oval. The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees.

NOTES:

• Steve Park was injured during the support race Saturday. Kenny Wallace started the car.
• (o): Teams that did not qualify were awarded owner points based on speed. (The procedure ended in 2011.)

• Time of race: 4:05:00
• Average Speed: 122.773 miles per hour (197.584 km/h)
• Pole Speed: 168.048
• Cautions: 11 for 51 laps
• Margin of Victory: under caution
• Lead changes: 19
• Percent of race run under caution: 14.2%
• Average green flag run: 28.6 laps