Aric Almirola was ninth, and Mark Martin was tenth. Race The race, the thirty-second of thirty-six in the season, began at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and was televised live in the United States on ESPN. Prior to the race, weather conditions were sunny with an air temperature of around . During the race, the temperature was forecast to peak at . Eddie Barton of Raceway Ministries began the pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Next, Winston-Salem State University's Marching Band performed the national anthem and each of the race teams' pit crews gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Before the pace laps, Robby Gordon replaced Kevin Conway in the 7 car. Denny Hamlin accelerated from the start line more quickly than Marcos Ambrose, getting ahead of him down the front straightaway. After starting fifth, Juan Pablo Montoya had fallen to seventh by lap 5. Montoya continued to lose positions and had fallen to 11th as Jeff Gordon took over the eighth position from Carl Edwards. On lap 11, Ambrose became the leader after passing Hamlin. Two laps later, Hamlin had fallen to fourth after being passed by Biffle and Newman, while Tony Stewart fell to eighth position. By lap 21, Ambrose had a 0.9 second lead over the second position. After starting thirty-sixth, Kevin Harvick had moved to twenty-seventh by lap 23. Hamlin continued to lose positions, dropping back to eleventh in less than thirteen laps. Landon Cassill drove to the garage because of problems with his car's brakes on lap 28. Four laps later, Jimmie Johnson took over thirteenth after passing Scott Speed. Seven laps later, Harvick had moved up to the 20th position. On lap 46, David Gilliland took his car to the garage. On the next lap Travis Kvapil's tire blew and he crashed into the wall and brought out the first caution of the race. Tony Raines won the free pass under caution. The leading cars made a pit stop during the caution. Casey Mears stayed out and assumed the lead of the race. He made a pit stop on the next lap and handed the lead to Ryan Newman, who won the race off pit road. Jamie McMurray and David Ragan were caught for speeding on pit road and restarted at the back of the field. Newman led the field to the green on the lap 53 restart. By lap 60,