2006 Bank Of America 500 at Lowes Motor Speedway:
This weekend the Chase For The Cup rolls into the Charlotte, North Carolina area for the only night race in the 2006 Chase. The points battle is the tightest it has ever been at this point in The Chase. The only thing that is certain about this Saturday night's race is that anything could happen. The 2006 Chase has been one to remember, and we're only halfway through!
Tickets:
Speedway ticket office (800) 455-FANS or (704) 455-3200
Buy online from TicketsNow (direct link)
The Track:
Lowes Motor Speedway is a mile and a half tri-oval with 24 degrees of banking in the turns. The track is fast and even though there is a preferred groove there is still enough room for a faster car to get by.
Lowes Motor Speedway is the home track for NASCAR. The majority of the teams are based within 30 miles of the speedway and everybody brings their best stuff to Lowes because everybody wants the bragging rights of winning their home race.
Race Distance:
334 Laps = 501 Miles
The Big Picture:
At this point in the season this is the closest points battle in the history of The Chase. Jeff Burton is still the leader but his lead is now a mere six points over Matt Kenseth. Back in fifth, Denny Hamlin is only 51 points out of the lead. This is a great battle for the title.
The current points top ten are:
- Jeff Burton -0
- Matt Kenseth -6
- Mark Martin -10
- Kevin Harvick -33
- Denny Hamlin -51
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -106
- Jeff Gordon -147
- Jimmie Johnson -156
- Kasey Kahne -185
- Kyle Busch -185
Storylines:
Last season Lowes Motor Speedway was a mess. Tire problems caused a R record number of cautions in a 500 mile race. This year NASCAR and Lowes Motor Speedway made changes to avoid another mess like they had last season.
Here are the three big changes for the 2006 events:
- Lowes Motor Speedway has been completely repaved
- Goodyear brought an extremely hard tire compound
- NASCAR mandated 14 gallon fuel cells instead of the regular 22 gallons
Big Changes For 2006 Lowes Motor Speedway Races?
Media Coverage:
TV: NBC Saturday, October 14th, 7:00PM Eastern.
Radio: PRN and XM Satellite
Actual Race: 7:10PM Eastern
Posted Awards:
$5,078,500
Last Year:
This race was a mess as drivers were just trying to survive the tire problems instead of really racing each other.
This race came down to a green-white-checkers dash to the finish. Jimmie Johnson had the lead on the restart and held on to claim his fourth win in-a-row at Lowes Motor Speedway.
Predictions:
Given his incredible statistics at Lowes Motor Speedway over the last three years one driver clearly stands out among all current drivers. I have to go with Jimmie Johnson to win. This is an obvious pick.
Kasey Kahne won here in May but, while I believe his is a good pick, he is too obvious of a choice for my backup.
In Carl Edwards' three previous NEXTEL Cup races at Lowes Motor Speedway he has never finished worse than tenth. Edwards doesn't get a lot of attention when the series comes to Lowes but clearly he has a comfortable setup for this speedway and the knowledge of how to run up front here.
