The 2006 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 was the thirty-third stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, and the seventh in the 10-round season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 29, 2006, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia before a crowd of 115,000 people. The 325-lap race was won by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Tony Stewart after starting from the eleventh position. Jimmie Johnson finished second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. came in third.
Although Matt Kenseth was awarded the pole position after qualifying was rained out and the starting order was determined by owners' points, he was immediately passed by Kevin Harvick at the start of the race. Earnhardt became the leader on lap ten, and held it for the next 14 laps when Stewart passed him on lap 24. Earnhardt, Johnson, and Stewart assumed the lead through the various pit stop cycles and cautions waved for incidents over the course of the race. At the race's final restart on lap 315, Earnhardt led the field back up to speed, and remained the leader until Stewart moved past him on the run to turn four on the lap. Stewart maintained the first position for the last ten laps to win the event. There were nine cautions and 24 lead changes by seven drivers.
Stewart's victory was his fourth of the season, and the 28th of his career. After the race, Matt Kenseth's lead in the Drivers' Championship over Johnson was lowered to 28 points. By finishing third, Earnhardt moved from eighth to fourth. Chevrolet maintained its unchallenged lead in the Manufacturers' Championship with 257 points, 72 ahead of Ford and 80 in front of Dodge with three races left in the season.
Background
The Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 was the thirty-third of thirty-six scheduled stock car races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the seventh in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 29, 2006, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR-sanctioned races. The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five.
Going into the race, Matt Kenseth led the Drivers' Championship with 5,848 points; his nearest rival Kevin Harvick thirty-six points behind in second, and Jimmie Johnson was a further five points adrift in third. Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton were separated by one point in fourth and fifth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch rounded out the top ten drivers competing for the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet (with 246 points) were confirmed as champions six races prior to the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500. Dodge was second with 185 points, and Ford were eight points behind in the battle for the position. Carl Edwards was the race's defending champion.
One driver made his debut appearance in the Nextel Cup Series at the race. Champ Car World Series driver A. J. Allmendinger replaced 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott in the No. 83 Red Bull Racing Team car. This was to help him acquaint himself with stock car racing, and for preparation for the team's full-time debut at the 2007 Daytona 500. Elliott was asked by the team to vacate the seat for Allmendinger, and he decided to join R&J Racing and drive its No. 37 car. Allmendinger spoke of his excitement over the switch to NASCAR, "To race against some of the best drivers in the world in front of fans that are as enthusiastic about racing as I am is going to be a pretty big thrill.” Elsewhere, David Ragan was not cleared by the NASCAR committee to run at Atlanta Motor Speedway because of his lack of experience driving on 1 mile tracks, and Roush Racing withdrew his entry.
Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were scheduled before the Sunday race: one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second 60 minutes and the third 45 minutes. Constant heavy rain forced NASCAR officials to cancel all of Friday's scheduled activity, including that afternoon's qualifying session. Thus, the starting order for the race was determined by where the drivers were placed in the Owners Championship. This gave Kenseth the pole position. He was joined on the front row of the grid by his nearest rival Harvick. Johnson, Hamlin, Burton, Earnhardt, Martin, Kahne, Gordon and Kyle Busch completed the top ten starters. The four drivers who failed to qualify were Derrike Cope, Kirk Shelmerdine, Mike Skinner and Allmendinger due to them being outside the top 35 positions in the Owners' Championship. Kevin Lepage withdrew from the race prior to qualifying for undisclosed reasons but was later restored to the entry list. Afterward, Kenseth spoke of his happiness over being awarded the pole position, "That means I start up front, and I probably wouldn’t have been starting up there without the rain."
The first practice session was rescheduled by NASCAR to Saturday morning, and would run for an hour, while the final practice session of 45 minutes would take place as scheduled. In the first practice session, Edwards was fastest with a lap of 29.516 seconds. Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Johnson, Harvick, Greg Biffle, Kenseth, Robby Gordon, Joe Nemechek and Earnhardt occupied positions two through ten. The engines installed in Robby Gordon and Ken Schrader's cars failed, and their respective teams changed engines. Earnhardt spun on cold tyres after leaving pit road, but managed to avoid colliding against a wall beside the track. Terry Cook, substituting for Kenny Wallace who was competing in the Sam's Town 250 Busch Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park, had the No. 78 car's right-side window detach. Kahne was fastest in the final practice session with a time of 29.512 seconds; Casey Mears was second, and Earnhardt placed third. Fourth position was taken by Nemechek, Kurt Busch was fifth-quickest, and David Gilliland sixth. Biffle was seventh-fastest, Johnson eighth, Burton ninth, and David Stremme tenth.
Race Live television coverage of the race on NBC began at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were clear and sunny. Bill Brannon, chaplain of Atlanta Motor Speedway, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Christian rock band DecembeRadio performed the national anthem, and television host Bill Dance led a group of conservationists and representatives from Bass Pro Shops in commanding the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Robby Gordon and Schrader moved to the rear of the field because they had changed their engines, and Elliott did the same for changing his car's transmission.
The race began at 3:08 p.m. Harvick got a better start as he accelerated faster than Kenseth off the line, and got past him around the outside to lead the field on the first lap. Earnhardt moved from sixth to third by the lap three. The first caution was displayed a lap later when the eighth-placed Kyle Busch lost control of his car in the outside of the track at turn three and spun. He slid down the track, and glanced Brian Vickers' car with the front of his vehicle. None of the leading drivers made pit stops. Harvick led the back up to speed at the lap-eight restart, with Kenseth second, and Earnhardt third. Earnhardt caught Harvick, and made the pass on the outside of the track to gain the lead on the tenth lap. On lap 15, Kenseth was on the outside of the track with Jeff Gordon on the inside lane. Kenseth overtook Gordon for second on the lap. Tony Stewart overtook Harvick, Kenseth, and Gordon over the next three laps to move into second place. On the 24th lap, Stewart went past Earnhardt for first place. Earnhardt fell to fourth as Gordon and Harvick passed him on laps 25 and 30. He made an unscheduled pit stop on the 31st lap to correct a vibration that put him a lap behind the leader in 41st.
Hamlin was passed by Truex for fourth on lap 46. Three laps later, the first round of green flag pit stops began when Kahne drove to pit road earlier than scheduled to remove a coil spring from the right-rear corner of his car, and correct a vibration that was caused by a heavily worn tire. Stewart made his stop for an air pressure adjustment on lap 55, handing the lead to Gordon. His teammate Johnson led for one lap before his pit stop on the 57th lap. After the pit stops, Earnhardt gained the lead since he was on a different strategy than other drivers around him. Earnhardt led Gordon by 7.871 seconds, but this was reduced to 2.605 seconds by the time of the second caution's deployment for debris in turn two on lap 82. During the caution, all of the leaders made pit stops. At the lap-85 restart, Earnhardt held the lead with Hendrick Motorsport's Johnson and Gordon second and third. Three laps later, Johnson lost second place to Gordon. Stewart steered onto the outside of the track on the backstretch to pass Truex for fourth . Gordon caught and overtook Earnhardt for the lead on lap 109. Earnhardt retook the lead from Gordon on the same lap. Continuous side-by-side racing enabled Gordon to claim the lead from Earnhardt on the outside five laps later.
Stewart moved past Earnhardt to take over second as Burton passed Johnson to move into fourth on the 125th and 126th laps respectively. Green flag pit stops were made from laps 133 and 150, with Gordon retaking the lead, and Stewart moving into second. Stewart gained on Gordon to lower the deficit to half a second, and was close enough to affect an overtake on lap 157. Gordon attempted to lap Nemechek, but the latter had an understeer that put Gordon into a wall, pushing his right-front fender in slightly. Stewart used the incident to pass Gordon for the lead and pull away from him. On lap 170, the third caution was necessitated when Gordon had his right-rear tire go flat in turn two, and the rear of his car was rammed by Jamie McMurray, who was blinded by sunlight glare in his eyes. Gordon spun and made two pit stops to repair car damage. All drivers chose to make pit stops under caution. Stewart maintained the lead at the lap-178 but he lost it to Earnhardt on the following lap. Stewart attempted to retake the first position by drawing alongside Earnhardt on lap 187 but was unsuccessful. On lap 194, Burton was passed by Kahne for fifth. A fourth caution was given on the 197th lap when race officials located debris in turn one.
Most drivers again took the opportunity to make pit stops for fuel and tyres during the caution. Racing resumed on the 202nd lap with Stewart leading Earnhardt and Kenseth. Earnhardt had a loose car, and Johnson passed him for second six laps later. He lost a further place to Kurt Busch on lap 209. By lap 212, Gordon had moved into the top ten and got past Burton for ninth four laps later. Johnson moved in front of Kenseth to get into second on lap 218, and Kahne got ahead of Earnhardt to take over fourth on the 219th lap. Johnson closed up to Stewart over the intervening laps, and overtook him for the lead in traffic on lap 238. As Johnson increased his advantage over Stewart to a half a second. the fifth caution was waved on lap 243 when Newman crashed into a wall on the backstretch, and scattered debris on the track. Johnson maintained the lead through another pit stop cycle, and held it at the lap-248 restart. On the next lap, Kahne steered right to go up the track on the run to the first turn, and went into the path of Stremme, causing the sixth caution. Both went into the wall heavily. Johnson again led at the restart on the 255th lap. He held it for the next five laps until Stewart passed him to reclaim the position.