The 2006 Banquet 400 was the twenty-ninth stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the third in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 1, 2006, at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas before a crowd of 125,000. The 267-lap race was won by Tony Stewart of the Joe Gibbs Racing team who started from twenty-first position. Casey Mears finished second and Mark Martin came in third.
Pole position driver Kasey Kahne led the field until Jimmie Johnson moved into the first position after a caution period. Johnson lost the lead when he was passed by Kahne's teammate Scott Riggs on lap 28. He held the position for the next seven laps until Clint Bowyer took over the lead. Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved into first on the 64th lap and held it for sixteen laps when he was passed by Kyle Busch. Busch held the lead position for 64 laps. Bowyer reclaimed the first position and led for a further 17 laps, before Johnson moved ahead of him. After drivers made pit stops for fuel, Stewart took over the lead after electing to stay out, and held the position to win the race despite running out of fuel on the race's final lap. The race had a total of eleven cautions and twenty lead changes by thirteen different drivers.
It was Stewart's third win of the season, and the twenty-seventh of his career. The result kept Jeff Burton in the lead of the Drivers' Championship, sixty-nine points in front of Kevin Harvick. Martin moved up into third place, while Jeff Gordon fell to sixth because he retired with a broken fuel-pump. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, forty-seven ahead of Ford and forty-eight in front of Dodge with seven races left in the season.
Background
The Banquet 400 was the 29th out of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the third in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 1, 2006, in Kansas City, Kansas at Kansas Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at Kansas Speedway is a four-turn D-shaped oval track that is long. The track's turns are banked at fifteen degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is 10.4 degrees. The back stretch, opposite of the front, is at only five degrees.
Before the race, Jeff Burton led the Drivers' Championship with 5,351 points, with Jeff Gordon second and Matt Kenseth third. Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were fourth and fifth, and Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch rounded out the top ten drivers competing for the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup. Chevrolet led the Manufacturers' Championship with 213 points; Ford was second on 171 points, with Dodge a close third on 168. Martin was the race's defending champion.
After he was involved in a crash at the previous race (at Dover International Speedway), Kahne said he would attempt to improve his position in the championship by winning races: "I think we have an all right shot. If we do things like I know we can, like my team has done all year long, this team can definitely come back." Gordon said his team had been gaining momentum, and stated he felt comfortable with his position. Johnson stated he would attempt to lead as many laps as he could at Kansas Speedway, and felt it was a track where he could achieve a good result which would improve his position in the championship and aimed for a top starting place.
Practice and qualification
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race; one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second, and third sessions ran for 50 minutes. In the first practice session, Kahne was fastest with a time of 30.417 seconds; Johnson was second and Elliott Sadler third. Brian Vickers took fourth position, and Scott Riggs placed fifth. Kurt Busch, Gordon, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the session's top ten drivers. Carl Long crashed into the outside wall and switched to a back-up car.
Forty-seven cars were entered in the qualifier on Friday afternoon; according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure forty-three were allowed to race. Kahne clinched his fifth pole position of the season, and the eleventh of his career, with a time of 30.273 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Riggs, his Evernham Motorsports teammate. Johnson qualified third, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Vickers fourth, and J. J. Yeley fifth. Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Sadler and Burton rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Gordon, a Chase for the Nextel Cup driver, qualified eleventh, and Earnhardt recorded the twelfth fastest lap. The four drivers that failed to qualify were Scott Wimmer, Kevin Lepage, Chad Blount and Long (who hit the turn two outside wall after he spun on his first qualifying lap). After the qualifier, Kahne said, "I feel like I got just about everything out of it. I could have used more race track off turn four, but it was turning so good you didn't really have to."
On Saturday morning Greg Biffle was fastest in the second practice session with a lap of 30.994 seconds, ahead of Casey Mears and Bowyer. Johnson was fourth-fastest; Kurt Busch was fifth and Kahne sixth. Carl Edwards, Vickers, Harvick and Kyle Busch followed in the top ten. Of the other drivers in the Chase, Hamlin was twelfth-fastest and Burton set the thirteenth-fastest time. Later that day, Johnson paced the final practice session with a time of 31.240 seconds; Vickers was second and Reed Sorenson third. Kahne was fourth-fastest, ahead of Burton and Kurt Busch. Bowyer was seventh-fastest, Biffle eighth, Sadler ninth and Harvick tenth. Other chase drivers included Martin in twelfth, Kyle Busch seventeenth and Kenseth twenty-sixth.
Qualifying results Grid Driver Team Manufacturer 1 9 Kasey Kahne Evernham Motorsports Dodge 30.273 178.377 2 10 Scott Riggs Evernham Motorsports Dodge 30.348 177.936 3 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 30.528 176.887 4 25 Brian Vickers Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 30.535 176.846 5 18 J. J. Yeley Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 38.543 176.800 6 7 Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.548 176.771 7 2 Kurt Busch Penske Racing South Dodge 30.622 176.344 8 17 Matt Kenseth Roush Racing Ford 30.651 176.177 9 19 Elliott Sadler Evernham Motorsports Dodge 30.658 176.137 10 31 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.678 176.022 11 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 30.692 175.942 12 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 30.696 175.919 13 5 Kyle Busch Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 30.764 175.530 14 29 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30.803 175.308 15 12 Ryan Newman Penske Racing South Dodge 30.809 175.273 16 43 Bobby Labonte Petty Enterprises Dodge 30.823 175.194 17 22 Dave Blaney Bill Davis Racing Dodge 30.839 175.103 18 01 Joe Nemechek Ginn Racing Chevrolet 30.864 174.961 19 6 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 30.897 174.774 20 38 David Gilliland Robert Yates Racing Ford 30.904 174.735 21 20 Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 30.905 174.729 22 06 Todd Kluever Roush Racing Ford 30.938 174.543 23 1 Martin Truex Jr. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 30.941 174.526 24 45 Kyle Petty Petty Enterprises Dodge 30.957 174.436 25 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 30.965 174.390 26 41 Reed Sorenson Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 30.987 174.267 27 99 Carl Edwards Roush Racing Ford 31.005 174.165 28 14 Sterling Marlin MB2 Motorsports Chevrolet 31.019 174.087 29 16 Greg Biffle Roush Racing Ford 31.031 174.020 30 44 Terry Labonte Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 31.073 173.784 31 66 Jeff Green Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 31.095 173.661 32 88 Dale Jarrett Robert Yates Racing Ford 31.096 173.656 33 42 Casey Mears Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 31.098 173.645 34 61 Chad Chaffin Front Row Motorsports Dodge 31.099 173.639 35 55 Michael Waltrip Waltrip-Jasper Racing Dodge 31.129 173.472 36 21 Ken Schrader Wood Brothers Racing Ford 31.140 173.410 37 32 Travis Kvapil PPI Motorsports Chevrolet 31.159 173.305 38 96 Tony Raines Hall of Fame Racing Chevrolet 31.207 173.038 39 37 Bill Elliott R&J Racing Dodge 31.214 172.999 40 40 David Stremme Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 31.309 172.474 41 26 Jamie McMurray Roush Racing Ford 31.314 172.447 42 7 Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Motorsports Chevrolet 31.320 172.414 43 78 Kenny Wallace Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 31.306 172.491 44 4 Scott Wimmer Morgan–McClure Motorsports Chevrolet 31.389 172.035 45 49 Kevin Lepage BAM Racing Dodge 31.650 170.616 46 34 Chad Blount Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet 31.701 170.345 47 46 Carl Long Cupp Motorsports Dodge – –
Race Live television coverage of the race began at 1:31 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the United States on NBC. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were warm and sunny with an air temperature of . Cole Cochran, of Kansas City Raceway Ministries, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country music group Heartland performed the national anthem, and three-time Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and comic actor George Lopez commanded the drivers to start their engines. No driver moved to the rear of the field.
The race started at 2:22 p.m. Kahne maintained his pole position advantage, and led the first lap. Kenseth moved in front of Bowyer for fifth position on the third lap, and passed Vickers for fourth place four laps later. The first caution of the race was prompted on lap ten when Robby Gordon spun after leaving turn four but avoided damaging his car. During the caution, most of the field (including Kahne) made pit stops. Jamie McMurray ran into the grass near the pit road entry at turn four after contact with Sadler. Joe Nemechek and Riggs made contact on pit road which resulted in Nemechek spinning and hit the wall with his front-end. Ryan Newman chose not to pit and led the field at the lap-14 restart. Shortly afterward, he was passed by Johnson for the first position. Newman experienced oversteer one lap later in front of the leading drivers, and went up the track before he spun in turn four, which triggered the second caution. Johnson led at the lap-19 restart, followed by Kahne and Riggs. That lap, the third caution was issued when Sorenson's tire went down and had oversteer, causing him to hit the wall between turns three and four.
Johnson maintained the first position at the lap-25 restart; he was followed by Kahne. Riggs moved ahead of teammate Kahne for second on the following lap. On lap 28, Johnson was passed by Riggs for the lead. Bowyer moved up into second place after he passed Johnson on lap 32, and took the lead from Riggs before crossing the start-finish line at the start of the 35th lap, before Riggs reclaimed the position shortly afterward. Bowyer retook the first position two laps later, and pulled away from the rest of the field. After starting from twelfth, Earnhardt had moved up to third position by lap 45. Johnson lost sixth position after he was overtaken by Kyle Busch on lap 48. Riggs fell to fifth place when Kyle Busch and Johnson passed him. On lap 59, debris was spotted on the backstretch, which caused the fourth caution. The leaders, including Bowyer, made pit stops for tires and adjustments under caution. Earnhardt led the field back up to speed on the lap-64 restart. Bowyer passed teammate Burton for fourth one lap later. After he drove up the track, David Gilliland spun while leaving turn four but avoided hitting the wall, causing the fifth caution to be shown on lap 68.