Two 90 minute practice sessions were scheduled to be held on Friday in preparation for the race.[8] However, wet track conditions postponed and combined the sessions into one practice session on Saturday.[9] Afterward, the only session was delayed because of the wet track conditions.[9] Once the first and only session of practice began,[10]Michael McDowell was quickest with a time of 19.747 seconds in the first session, 0.023 seconds faster than Clint Bowyer.[11] Johnson was just off Bowyer's pace, followed by Carl Jamie McMurray, Scott Speed, and Paul Menard. David Stremme was seventh, still within a tenth of a second of McDowell's time.[11] Also in the session, there was a collision involving Harvick and Greg Biffle. Neither car was severely damaged from the incident.[10]
Forty-five cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could qualify for the race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.[12] Wet track conditions before the scheduled starting time canceled the session, causing the grid to be created by Owners' Championship points.[13] Edwards was given the pole position.[14] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Kenseth.[14] Keselowski started third, Stewart took fourth, and Harvick fifth.[14] Kyle Busch, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon completed the top ten.[14] The two drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Dennis Setzer and Derrike Cope.[14] Afterward, Edwards commented:
"We hope to have a good run here. We're leaning on Matt Kenseth’s success here from the last race and how well he ran, and I feel that we've got a good car, but you never know. This place has been a really tough racetrack for me and for our team, but we have had some really good runs here, and Matt's good run in the spring is really what gives us the confidence we have here, and, hopefully, we can go run well and keep this points lead or extend it moving forward toward some tracks that we're really confident about."[15]
The race, the 33rd in the season, began at 2:00 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN.[1] The conditions on the grid were dry before the race with the air temperature around 50 °F (10 °C).[16] Tony Beach, associate Pastor at Ft. Trial Baptist Church in Stanleytown, Virginia, began pre-race ceremonies by giving the invocation. Next, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Blue and Gold Marching Machine performed the national anthem, and Ashley Young, winner of the Tums Sweepstakes, gave the command for drivers to start their engines.[16] A late race caution set up a restart with 3 laps remaining, with Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart on the front row. Johnson chose the heavily-favored inside line, but Stewart had a great restart and cleared Johnson off of Turn 4 coming to 2 to go. Brad Keselowski was spun out on the restart, but was able to get back going and NASCAR decided not to throw the caution. Stewart would go on to win the race, his 3rd race victory of the 2011 season, all of them coming during the Chase.
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