The 2006 Bank of America 500 was the 31st stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fifth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 14, 2006, before a crowd of 175,000 in Concord, North Carolina, United States, at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The circuit is an intermediate that holds NASCAR races. The 334-lap race was won by Kasey Kahne of the Evernham Motorsports team, who started from second position. Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson finished second and Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton was third.
Burton led the Drivers' Championship by six points over Matt Kenseth going into the race. Although Scott Riggs won the pole position by setting the fastest lap time in the qualifying session, he was immediately passed by teammate Kahne at the start of the race. Riggs regained first place twelve laps later, only to lose it to Tony Raines on the 19th lap. Riggs retook the lead on lap 31 and maintained it for the following 16 laps until he was passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. who led for the next 31 laps. Kahne moved back into the first position on lap 96, with Raines reclaiming the lead on the 123rd lap. Kahne passed Raines to move back into the lead 15 laps later. Johnson moved into the lead on lap 168 and held the position for a total of 72 laps. At the race's final restart on lap 307, Johnson led until he was passed two laps later by Kahne who maintained it to win the race. There were ten cautions and 34 lead changes by thirteen different drivers.
The victory was Kahne's sixth of the season, and the seventh of his career since he debuted in 2004. After the race, Burton maintained his lead in the Drivers' Championship, which increased to 45 points over Kenseth in second position. Kahne's victory moved him from ninth to eighth, while Jeff Gordon dropped from seventh to tenth because he failed to score enough points due to an engine failure in the race's closing laps. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, 48 points in front of Dodge and 54 ahead of Ford with five races left in the season.
Background
The Bank of America 500 was the 31st of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, and the fifth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It ran for a total of 334 laps over a distance of , and was held on October 14, 2006, in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, an intermediate track. The layout used was a four-turn, -long, asphalt quad-oval track. The track's turns are banked at 24 degrees; both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch (opposite the front) have a five-degree banking.
Before the race, Jeff Burton led the Drivers' Championship with 5,598 points, with Matt Kenseth sixth points behind in second, and Mark Martin was a further four adrift in third. Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin were fourth and fifth. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top ten drivers competing in the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup. Johnson was the race's defending champion. Chevrolet was leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 231 points; Dodge was second with 170, and Ford was a close third with 169. NASCAR mandated that teams use a fuel cell for the second time in the season so there would be fewer laps between pit stops and more tire changes could occur. Tire supplier Goodyear brought a supply of new right-hand tires, which were tested at the track on August 29 by drivers Joe Nemechek and Kurt Busch. The duo believed Goodyear had rectified problems with harder-compound tires that had been raised at the previous round at Charlotte (the Coca-Cola 600).
After he was rammed by his teammate Brian Vickers in the preceding UAW-Ford 500, Johnson said the expectations for him to succeed at Lowe's Motor Speedway were high and hoped the track's surface would be more predictable than the last race at Charlotte. Martin said he was in the best position he had been in for several years to win the championship, and spoke of his waning interest in looking at race results. Having secured one top-ten finish in the season's first four Chase for the Nextel Cup races, Earnhardt stated he needed to secure a top-five finishing position and was determined to get his team more involved in the championship battle. Gordon had driven well at the circuit, but without finishing. His team brought the car he drove to victory in the season's 18th race at Chicagoland Speedway. Gordon felt it would help him at intermediate tracks and return him to championship contention. Although Kahne had a poor start in the Chase, he rectified this by finishing second at Talladega Superspeedway. He believed the momentum would be carried into Charlotte and stated he would push hard to win races.
One team made its début at the race. Red Bull Racing Team elected to start operations early as part of a warm-up exercise to running a full-time schedule in the 2007 season with the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott driving the 83 car. Elliott would attempt to qualify the car at three races towards the end of the year. He said his decision to join Red Bull was because of the organization's willingness to become competitive. Elliott said he was required to qualify the car for the race and then move up the field and provide input that would allow the team to be prepared for the 2007 Daytona 500.
Practice and qualification
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race, one each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first practice session lasted 90 minutes, the second 60 minutes, and the third 50 minutes. Kahne set the fastest time in the first practice session with a lap of 28.834 seconds; Scott Riggs, Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler, Martin, Johnson, Nemechek, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Green, and Hamlin rounded out the session's top-ten fastest drivers.
A total of 52 cars were entered in the qualifier, according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, only 43 could race. Each driver was limited to two timed laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Riggs clinched the third pole position of his career, and his third consecutive at Lowe's Motor Speedway, with a fastest time of 28.203 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Kahne, his Evernham Motorsports teammate, who held the pole position until Riggs' lap. Kurt Busch originally qualified in third, but his car's right-rear shock absorber was found to have violated NASCAR regulations during the post-qualifying inspection because it did not bounce back. Busch was required to start from 42nd position after using a provisional. Hence, Casey Mears inherited third, Sadler fourth, and Harvick fifth. Burton, Martin, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson and Johnson rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Kenseth, a Chase for the Nextel Cup driver, qualified eleventh, while Earnhardt took 16th and Kyle Busch 18th. The nine drivers who failed to qualify were Elliott, Kevin Lepage, Derrike Cope, Chad Chaffin, Hermie Sadler, Kirk Shelmerdine, Kenny Wallace (who crashed on his first timed lap), Morgan Shepherd (who withdrew due to a lack of preparation), and Carl Long (who crashed while attempting to record a timed lap). After the qualifier, Riggs said his team knew his car was decent and revealed that they wanted to get back into a rhythm of starting and finishing in a top position.
On Friday afternoon Kyle Busch was fastest in the second practice session with a time of 29.378 seconds, ahead of Kahne and Robby Gordon. Bowyer was fourth-fastest; Johnson was fifth and Truex sixth. Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Burton, and Martin followed in the top ten. Of the other drivers in the Chase, Edwards was eleventh-fastest, Hamlin set the twelfth-fastest time, and Harvick was fifteenth. Ryan Newman crashed and switched to a back-up car. Later, on Saturday afternoon, Earnhardt led the final practice session with a time of 29.357; Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Kahne, Johnson, Bowyer. Biffle, Truex, Riggs, and Robby Gordon made up positions two through ten. Other Chase drivers included Jeff Gordon in 13th and Burton in 15th; all were within three-tenths of a second of Earnhardt's time.
Qualifying results Grid Driver Team Manufacturer 1 10 Evernham Motorsports Dodge 28.203 191.469 2 9 Evernham Motorsports Dodge 28.392 190.194 3 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 28.479 189.613 4 19 Evernham Motorsports Dodge 28.568 189.023 5 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.611 188.739 6 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.636 188.574 7 6 Roush Racing Ford 28.636 188.574 8 07 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.650 188.482 9 41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 28.687 188.239 10 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.694 188.193 11 17 Roush Racing Ford 28.747 187.846 12 40 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 28.749 187.833 13 14 MB2 Motorsport Chevrolet 28.760 187.761 14 4 Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevrolet 28.765 187.728 15 12 Penske Racing South Dodge 28.772 187.682 16 8 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 28.802 187.487 17 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford 28.832 187.292 18 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.833 187.285 19 7 Robby Gordon Motorsports Chevrolet 28.845 187.208 20 66 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 28.849 187.182 21 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge 28.861 187.104 22 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 28.867 187.065 23 55 Waltrip-Jasper Racing Dodge 28.880 186.981 24 49 BAM Racing Dodge 28.896 186.877 25 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.923 186.703 26 1 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 28.925 186.690 27 26 Roush Racing Ford 28.929 186.664 28 99 Roush Racing Ford 28.939 186.599 29 72 CJM Racing Chevrolet 28.961 186.458 30 01 Ginn Racing Chevrolet 28.965 186.432 31 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 28.982 186.322 32 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge 29.009 186.149 33 16 Roush Racing Ford 29.027 186.034 34 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford 29.055 185.854 35 38 Robert Yates Racing Ford 29.072 185.746 36 22 Bill Davis Racing Dodge 29.093 185.612 37 06 Roush Racing Ford 29.119 185.446 38 32 PPI Motorsports Chevrolet 29.122 185.427 39 96 Hall of Fame Racing Chevrolet 29.149 185.255 40 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 29.237 184.697 41 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.492 183.100 42 2 Penske Racing South Dodge 28.462 189.713 43 44 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 44 83 Red Bull Racing Team Dodge 29.131 185.370 45 34 Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet 29.182 185.076 46 74 McGlynn Racing Dodge 29.301 184.294 47 61 Front Row Motorsports Dodge 29.316 184.200 48 00 MBA Racing Chevrolet 29.886 180.687 49 27 Kirk Shelmerdine Racing Chevrolet 31.667 170.525 50 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet – – 51 89 Shepherd Racing Ventures Dodge – – 52 46 Cupp Motorsports Dodge – –
Race Opening laps Live television coverage of the race on NBC began at 7:04 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were sunny with an air temperature of which was forecast to drop as the event progressed. Dr. William K. Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. American Idol contestant and country music singer Kellie Pickler performed the national anthem, and Mickey Jackson, the winner of a sponsored Grand Marshal contest, along with his five-year-old son Kalob, commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Ryan Newman moved to the rear of the field because he switched to a back-up car.