Entry List

• (R) denotes rookie driver
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points

Final laps

With 49 laps to go, McMurray and his partner Elliott Sadler decided to switch spots and Sadler was the new leader. On that same lap, the 5th caution flew when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. turned across the nose of Trevor Bayne and Stenhouse hit the outside wall on the backstretch. The race would be red flagged for a few minutes after Stenhouse's car leaked oil and caught on fire. Jamie McMurray won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 43 laps to go. With 42 to go, Carl Edwards took the lead with Trevor Bayne behind him. With 41 to go, Kyle Busch took the lead with Clint Bowyer. With 40 to go, Jamie McMurray led that lap but could not get in front of Busch. But on the next lap, Trevor Bayne took the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr., who passed Busch but did not lead the lap. With 37 to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead. Trevor Bayne took it back with 36 to go but Junior took it back with 35 to go. With 35 to go, the 6th caution would fly when Donnie Neuenberger got spun by Mike Bliss off of turn 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 30 laps to go. But on the restart, the 7th caution would fly for the big one that occurred down the backstretch. It started when Kyle Busch got bumped too hard from behind by Clint Bowyer and started a chain reaction where Busch came up into Michael Waltrip and Waltrip spun down collecting Jamie McMurray and sent a lot of other cars scrambling to avoid and end up running into each other and wrecking. The wreck collected a total of 20 cars. The cars involved were Jamie McMurray, Brian Scott, Eric McClure, Kyle Busch, Mike Bliss, Tim George Jr., Brad Keselowski, Robert Richardson Jr., Derrike Cope, Justin Allgaier, Clint Bowyer, Josh Wise, Scott Wimmer, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Jeremy Clements, Danny Efland, Michael Annett, Steve Wallace, Blake Koch, and Michael Waltrip. The race was red flagged for a short bit to clean up the mess. The race would restart with 25 laps to go. With 24 to go, Trevor Bayne took the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr. With 17 to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead with Aric Almirola but were passed by Brad Keselowski and Keselowski led with 17 to go with Sam Hornish Jr. With 15 to go, Junior took the lead but Keselowski took it back on the next lap. With 13 to go, Mike Wallace took the lead with Joe Nemechek behind him. With 12 to go, Keselowski took the lead back from Wallace. With 11 to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead but Keselowski immeadietly passed him. With 10 to go, Mike Wallace took the lead back. With 9 to go, Trevor Bayne took the lead. With 8 to go, Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead. With 7 to go, Trevor Bayne took the lead. On the same lap, the 8th caution flew when Sam Hornish Jr. spun down the backstretch after getting turned by Brad Keselowski. The race would restart with 3 laps to go. On the restart, Joe Nemechek took the lead. Nemechek was looking for his first Nationwide Series win since 2004. But on the same lap, the 9th caution would fly for a 4 car crash on the backstretch. It started when Michael Annett got hooked by Brian Scott and Annett hit the outside wall and came down and collected Scott, Joey Logano, and Reed Sorenson. The wreck would set up 3 attempts of a green-white-checkered finish. On the restart, Mike Wallace took the lead from Nemechek. Wallace was also looking for his first Busch Series win since 2004. But the 10th caution would fly on the backstretch when the Turner Motorsports cars in James Buescher, Reed Sorenson, and Jason Leffler crashed. This would mean a second attempt of a green-white-checkered. On the restart, Joe Nemechek took the lead with Brad Keselowski pushing him. Coming through the tri-oval, Trevor Bayne took the lead with Carl Edwards pushing him and took the white flag. Nemechek and Keselowski attempted to take the lead from Bayne and Edwards but they left the middle open and Kyle Busch snuck through the middle with Joey Logano and Busch took the lead. Down the backstretch, the 11th and final caution would fly for a 5 car crash. Elliott Sadler hooked Mike Wallace sending Wallace sideways up to the right where Wallace overcorrected to the left and spun where he got hit in the left front by Jason Leffler. The impact lifted Wallace's rear into the air and ended up flipping car over while spinning nearly 270 degrees before it landed on all four wheels. The wreck also collected Reed Sorenson and Carl Edwards. Kyle Busch was in front when the Caution flew and Busch scored the victory. The win would be Busch's 4th of the 2011 season and his first at Talladega in the Nationwide Series. Joey Logano, Joe Nemechek, Brad Keselowski, and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top 5 while Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Reed Sorenson, and Aric Almirola rounded out the top 10. The race featured 56 lead changes among 18 different drivers which is currently the most at Talladega in Nationwide Series history.^[7]