Why Is the 2011 NASCAR Cup Season Beloved by Fans?

The NASCAR Cup Series has been around for 75 years and is still going strong. During this time, there have been multiple champions across different Cup seasons. Many of these seasons have been exciting, with maybe a few being a little monotonous. However, one particular NASCAR Cup Series championship season stands out for many of the fans. This was none other than the 2011 NASCAR Cup season when Tony Stewart clinched his third and final title.

Well, there was no singular factor that made it memorable, like Ross Chastain‘s Hail Melon in 2022. Instead, as pointed out by The Iceberg YouTube channel, it was a combination of multiple factors, storylines, and incidents. The first and most glaring storyline was the Cup Series championship dogfight between the protagonists Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, who was fighting for his maiden title.

How was the 2011 NASCAR Cup Season title fight different from any other season?

Throughout the season, Carl Edwards was a portrait of consistency. He practically earned the most points out of any other driver. Meanwhile, Tony Stewart had had a juddering start to his 2011 campaign. However, in the last 10 races of the season, he suddenly came to life. Stewart won half of the races, including the all-important season finale to clinch the title, tying with Edwards.

Since both drivers were level on points, it was all down to the win count. Stewart clinched a whopping five, compared to one win for Carl Edwards. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver’s tally was a bit of an outlier compared to the rest of his rivals. This was because there were so many first-time winners during the season, and many of them at big races, another reason for the season being a fan favorite.

Trevor Bayne set the ball rolling with his only win at the Daytona 500. It was a bittersweet victory because he was 20 years old, and thus could not drink alcohol in Victory Lane. This win felt earned because this was before a time when any driver who survived a late wreck lucked out with the win. The next unexpected winner was Regan Smith, who won the Southern 500, followed by David Ragan at the Coke Zero 400. For Ragan, this was his redemption arc, because he could have won the Daytona 500 before Bayne pipped him.

At the Brickyard 400, Paul Menard was the next driver to etch his name in history. He triumphed thanks to a strategic masterstroke, beating none other than Jeff Gordon. Finally, Marcos Ambrose triumphed at Watkins Glen and practically invented the term ‘road-course ringer’.

All that is just a taste of what was to come in the 2011 NASCAR Cup season. Among them was a return to form for Jeff Gordon, after beating Kyle Busch to victory at Phoenix. This would be his first of three wins, the other two being Pocono and Atlanta. The latter race was a difficult one because he had to fend off his teammate and 5-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson. Speaking of Johnson, he lost out on another victory at Auto Club Speedway. This time, his opponent was Kevin Harvick.

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What else happened during this crazy whirlwind of a Cup season?

This was also a redemption story for Dale Earnhardt Jr, who lost two wins to Harvick. Although he didn’t win a race, he came close on multiple occasions. Then, at Talladega, there was a truly immortal moment with the infamous two-car tandem. For the uninitiated, eight drivers went two-by-two on the run-up to the line. Jimmie Johnson pipped Clint Bowyer by 0.002 seconds.

Of course, this is NASCAR, and feuds were a dime-a-dozen. One of the biggest feuds was between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. It was triggered at Darlington and almost took away the spotlight on Regan Smith. Another storyline was the slow and steady rise of Brad Keselowski. He struggled a lot in 2010 and in early 2011 but redeemed himself at Kansas. From there, a fire lit under him and Keselowski got his mojo back. Dale Jr and Tony Stewart just about managed to squeak into the Chase for the Championship.

At Chicagoland, there was a crazy scene, where multiple drivers ran out of fuel. It was also the year when the Busch brothers were at their lowest points. Kyle Busch had his run-in in the Truck Series with Ron Hornaday Jr, missing the race weekend entirely as a suspension. Meanwhile, Kurt Busch had a bit of a meltdown as well during his Team Penske stint. All in all, there was so much to talk about that it would take a full-length novel to write everything down.

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