page_title: 2006 Banquet 400
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2006 Banquet 400 / Background
caption_attribution_description: The front stretch of Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: 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 1.5 miles (2.4 km) 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.
caption: Kansas Speedway, where the race was held.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2010:05:02 13:59:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1002", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6509", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1600", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:05:02 13:59:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:05:02 13:59:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "878", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "f2b4c2186513a2a3c612d012a90819ee"}