2001 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 4 of 36 of in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
Atlanta Motor Speedway (after 1997, before Atlanta International Speedway)
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| Date | March 11, 2001 | ||
| Location | Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Georgia | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km) |
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| Distance | 325 laps, 500.5 mi (805.4 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures reaching up to 68 °F (20 °C); wind speeds up to 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 143.273 mph (230.576 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Yates Racing | ||
| Time | 28.763 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Laps | 118 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 29 | Kevin Harvick | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox Broadcasting Network | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, Darrell Waltrip | ||
| Nielsen Ratings | 5.7 | ||
The 2001 Cracker Barrel Old County Store 500 was the fourth of the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. It was held on March 11, 2001 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, in Hampton, Georgia. The 325-lap race was won by Kevin Harvick of the Richard Childress Racing team after starting from fifth position. Jeff Gordon finished second and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jerry Nadeau came in third.
Pole position driver Dale Jarrett maintained his lead for the first six laps of the race, but Harvick, who started fifth, passed him on the seventh lap. Gordon soon became the leader and would lead the race high of 118 laps. Five laps from the finish, Harvick took the lead after a five-car battle. On the final lap, Harvick managed to win his first Winston Cup Series race from Gordon by .006 seconds in his third start.
There were 8 cautions and 25 lead changes among 11 different drivers. The result left Gordon in first position of the Drivers' Championship, thirty-seven ahead of second place driver Sterling Marlin and seventy-three ahead of Johnny Benson. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, fourteen points ahead of Ford and twenty ahead of Pontiac, with thirty-two races remaining in the season.
The track, Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of three quad-oval tracks to hold NASCAR races, the others being Charlotte Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval that is 1.54 miles (2.48 km) long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the straightaways are banked at five degrees. Atlanta Motor Speedway can seat up to 99,000 people.
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