page_title: 2012 Bojangles' Southern 500
section_title: Practice and qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Bojangles' Southern 500 / Practice and qualifying
caption_attribution_description: NASCAR driver Greg Biffle
context_page_description: The 2012 Bojangles' Southern 500 was the eleventh stock car race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on May 12, 2012, at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. The 368-lap race was won by Jimmie Johnson for the Hendrick Motorsports team. It was Johnson's first win of the season, and Hendrick Motorsport's 200th in NASCAR; Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing finished second and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Tony Stewart took third.
  Greg Biffle won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying. He led the first 48 laps until the first round of green flag pit stops in which Kyle Busch emerged in the lead. Biffle retook the lead on the 73rd lap and again lost it after the second pit stop cycle. Johnson took the lead for the first time on lap 101, and led a total of 134 laps, more than any other competitor. At the final restart on lap 368 for a green–white–checker finish, extending the race to 368 laps, Johnson led the field and maintained it to win the race. Hamlin finished second after passing Stewart who had problems with his car's fuel pressure. There were eight cautions and 22 lead changes among eight drivers during the race.
context_section_description: Two practice sessions were held on the Friday before the race. The first session lasted 120 minutes, and the second 45 minutes. In the first session, Harvick was quickest with a time of 27.769 seconds, around one-tenth of a second faster than Biffle. Kurt Busch was third, followed by Edwards, Stewart, Truex, Johnson, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, and A. J. Allmendinger in positions four to ten. Aric Almirola spun 360 degrees leaving the fourth turn, but he avoided contact with the wall beside the track. In the second practice session, Allmendinger was fastest with a lap of 28.097 seconds. Biffle followed Allmendinger in the second position, with Edwards third quickest. Johnson, Travis Kvapil, Paul Menard, Landon Cassill, Josh Wise, Michael McDowell, and David Stremme rounded out the session's top ten fastest drivers.
  Forty-seven cars were entered in the qualifying session on Friday evening, due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Biffle clinched his second pole position of the season, his second at Darlington Raceway, and the eleventh of his career, with a time of 27.281 seconds, the only qualifying lap to go below 27.300 seconds. Johnson and his teammate Kahne qualified 0.105 seconds behind, but Johnson joined Biffle on the grid's front row because of a better Owner's Championship position compared to Kahne. Newman took fourth place, ahead of Kyle Busch and Truex in fifth and sixth. Edwards qualified in seventh place, while Hamlin followed in eighth. Smith and Jeff Burton completed the first ten starting positions. The four drivers who failed to qualify were Scott Riggs, McDowell, Stephen Leicht, and Mike Bliss.
  Once the qualifying session concluded, Drivers' Championship leader Biffle stated, "This is what a race car driver looks forward to, showing up every weekend and having a really fast car to drive. They're making me look good so far." Afterward, he described his qualifying lap, "It was a pretty uneventful lap. The car just had a ton of grip — it stuck to the race track really, really well. I felt like I was a little bit light down in Turns 1 and 2 — I should have been a little bit quicker down there — but I got a lot out of it in 3 and 4, so it was a great lap."
caption: Greg Biffle (pictured in 2004) had the eleventh pole position of his career with a time of 27.281 seconds.
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