2001 Talladega 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 9 of 36 in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
Map of the Talladega Superspeedway
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| Date | April 22, 2001 | ||
| Official name | Talladega 500 | ||
| Location | Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Alabama | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.660 mi (4.280 km) |
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| Distance | 188 laps, 500.1 mi (804.8 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures ranging between 57.9 °F (14.4 °C) and 82.9 °F (28.3 °C); average wind speeds of 11.1 miles per hour (17.9 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 184.003 miles per hour (296.124 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Mark Melling | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Sterling Marlin | Chip Ganassi | |
| Laps | 51 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 55 | Bobby Hamilton | Andy Petree | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox | ||
| Announcers |
Mike Joy Darrell Waltrip Larry McReynolds |
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The 2001 Talladega 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on April 22, 2001, at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. A prize purse with a grand total of $3,233,740 was used ($4,373,844.54 when adjusted for inflation); with $173,855 being used as the winner's portion of the earnings ($235,150.24 when adjusted for inflation).
Kenny Wallace, Kyle Petty, Rick Mast, Hut Stricklin and Andy Hillenburg would fail to qualify for this race.
Stacy Compton would be credited with a last-place finish due to his troublesome engine on lap 116 of this 188-lap race. All 43 of the drivers that appeared on the grid were American-born.Bobby Hamilton would defeat Tony Stewart (who drove the #20 Pontiac for Joe Gibbs Racing at that time) by nearly 2/10ths of a second after racing a completely caution-free race for almost three hours. The last-place finisher, Compton, would qualify for the pole position with speeds up to 184.661 miles per hour (297.183 km/h). Other notable drivers in this race included: Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Joe Nemechek, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton.
Before this race, the last event to end without any caution periods was in 1999. It would be Hamilton's last win. He died 6 years later from head and neck cancer.
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