The 2001 Pennzoil Freedom 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on November 11, 2001 at Homestead Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) speedway, it was the 34th race of the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Bill Elliott of Evernham Motorsports won the race. The Freedom moniker was picked up following the events of 9/11.
Bill Elliott's 41st career win snapped his 226 race winless streak, the longest streak in between race wins, dating back to Darlington in 1994, as well as the 1st for Evernham Motorsports. The NBC Broadcast of the race featured a television appearance of Bill Elliott's son and future NASCAR Cup Series Champion Chase Elliott, who was 6 years old in 2001.
The event was marred by a pit road accident in which the Bill Davis Racing Dodge Intrepid of Ward Burton made contact with the Evernham Motorsports Intrepid of Casey Atwood while Burton was exiting his pit stall. Burton's car then spun and impacted members of Ricky Rudd's pit crew as they were servicing the car. The hit threw Rudd's front tire carrier, Bobby Burrell, head-first into the pit wall. The life-threatening injuries Burrell suffered in the accident resulted in NASCAR requiring all pit crew members to wear helmets. Top 10 results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer 1 9 Bill Elliott Evernham Motorsports Dodge 2 15 Michael Waltrip Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 3 19 Casey Atwood Evernham Motorsports Dodge 4 99 Jeff Burton Roush Racing Ford 5 40 Sterling Marlin Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 6 93 Dave Blaney Bill Davis Racing Dodge 7 29 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 8 18 Bobby Labonte Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac 9 31 Jeff Green Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 10 01 Jason Leffler Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge
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