2006 Banquet 400: Tony Stewart Wins on Fuel Strategy at Kansas

Kansas Speedway hosted the twenty-ninth of the season's 36 scheduled stock car races on October 1, 2006, and it was the third round of the ten-race Chase for the Nextel Cup. The crowd was 125,000. Tony Stewart won from the 21st grid position, with Casey Mears second and Mark Martin third.

What was the 2006 Banquet 400?

The 267-lap race was won by Stewart of Joe Gibbs Racing. The event produced eleven cautions and twenty lead changes among thirteen different drivers. Stewart's victory came from a fuel-saving call in the closing laps rather than from outright speed.

Jeff Burton stayed at the top of the drivers' championship, while Martin finished third on the day and moved into third in the standings. Jeff Gordon retired with a broken fuel pump and dropped to sixth.

Tony Stewart won a Chase race at Kansas on a final-lap fuel finish, with a 12.422-second margin over Casey Mears.

What was the track like at Kansas?

Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile D-shaped oval with turns banked at fifteen degrees. The front stretch, where the finish line sits, is banked at 10.4 degrees, and the back stretch at five degrees. Over 267 laps that made for a long test of setup.

The track was a Chase venue, and the title contenders had to manage their cars across the full width of the racing surface. Kahne had said before the race that his team still had a reasonable shot at the title if it kept performing as it had all season.

How did the championship stand before the race?

Before the race Burton topped the drivers' table on 5,351 points, ahead of Gordon in second and Kenseth in third. Hamlin and Harvick were fourth and fifth, and Martin, Earnhardt, Johnson, Kahne and Kyle Busch completed the top ten.

In the manufacturers' table Chevrolet topped the list, with Ford standing on 171 and Dodge on 168. Martin was the defending race winner, and Kahne had crashed at the previous race at Dover.

How did practice and qualifying go?

Kahne was fastest in the first practice at 30.417 seconds, with Johnson second. Greg Biffle led the Saturday morning session at 30.994 seconds, and Johnson set the pace again in the final session at 31.240 seconds. His time was the fastest of the weekend's last practice.

Carl Long crashed into the outside wall in the first practice and had to switch to a back-up car. Biffle, Mears and Bowyer were among the strongest runners in the morning session.

Qualifying gave Kahne a pole at 30.273 seconds, his fifth of the year and the eleventh of his career. Scott Riggs, his Evernham teammate, started second, while Johnson was third and Brian Vickers fourth. J. J. Yeley took fifth, and Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler and Jeff Burton completed the top ten.

Forty-seven cars entered qualifying, and only forty-three could race. Gordon qualified 11th and Earnhardt recorded the 12th-fastest lap. Scott Wimmer, Kevin Lepage, Chad Blount and Carl Long failed to qualify.

How did the race unfold in the early laps?

Live coverage on NBC started at 1:31 p.m. Eastern, with the air temperature at 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Jackie Joyner-Kersee and George Lopez gave the command for the drivers to start their engines, and the race began at 2:22 p.m.

Kahne led the first lap, but Johnson passed him early on. Robby Gordon spun after leaving Turn Four, which brought the first caution. Newman then led the lap-14 restart, and Johnson took the lead from him soon after.

Riggs passed Johnson for the lead on lap 28, and Bowyer passed Johnson on lap 32 to take the lead himself. Earnhardt had driven forward from twelfth to third by lap 45, and debris brought out the fourth caution.

Earnhardt got the field back up to speed at the lap-64 restart. Gilliland spun while leaving Turn Four, bringing out the fifth caution, and Kyle Busch then took the lead and started to pull away.

How did the middle stint change the order?

Earnhardt reported smoke coming out of his cockpit, although the problem later stopped. Kyle Busch's margin over Earnhardt shrank to 0.612 seconds at one stage, but Kyle Busch pulled away again and was 1.694 seconds clear before the stop cycle.

Green-flag pit stops began when Harvick came in for four tires and adjustments. Kyle Busch made his own stop later, and Johnson took the lead for a lap before his pit stop. McMurray spun and hit the wall in Turn Two, bringing out the sixth caution.

Kenseth lost his car off Turn Four, and Sadler spun trying to avoid him, bringing out the seventh caution. Hamlin lost control soon after and touched the wall, bringing the eighth. Bowyer led the lap-150 restart, and Burton briefly moved in front before Bowyer took the lead back.

Johnson reclaimed the lead from Burton. Bowyer then had oversteer and slammed the wall on lap 173, which brought out the ninth caution. Edwards took the lead for the restart after putting on only two tires, but he later slipped to fifth as Kyle Busch, Stewart and Biffle passed him.

How did the final laps play out on fuel?

Newman spun to bring out the tenth caution, and David Stremme hit the wall to produce the eleventh and final one. Johnson led the lap-200 restart, and Biffle briefly took the lead before Johnson retook it. The closing stint was decided by fuel rather than by a late pass.

Fuel became the teams' main worry late in the race, because many drivers did not have enough to reach the end. Gordon's fuel pump broke, and he stalled on the backstretch before his teammate Terry Labonte pushed him back to his pit stall.

Johnson had built a five-second lead by the time the second round of green-flag stops began. Stewart and Edwards avoided contact while battling for second, and Kahne ran out of fuel after spinning while entering pit road.

Kahne, who had taken the pole, was one of the cars caught out by fuel. He ran dry on lap 262, which left him stranded on pit road, and that stoppage did not need a caution.

Johnson slowed to avoid a collision and missed the pit entry, so he had to take an extra lap at racing speed. After his stop he was seen speeding as he left pit road, and that penalty cost him places he had been hoping to gain.

Stewart took over the lead after the pit stops. He slowed on the final lap as his car ran out of fuel after leaving the second turn, placed the car in neutral and coasted across the line. Mears also ran dry as he reached the final turn, which let Stewart win.

What did the finish mean for the Chase?

Stewart won by 12.422 seconds, and the result was his third win of the season and his twenty-seventh career victory. The win earned him $346,361, and he credited crew chief Greg Zipadelli's strategy rather than performance.

Mears was second, and he credited Wingo's late call to save fuel on the last run. Martin came third, saying the team had put a little fuel in the bank, and Dale Jarrett finished fourth. Burton came home fifth.

The remainder of the top ten included Edwards, Kyle Busch, Vickers, Bowyer and Earnhardt. Johnson led five times for 105 laps, more than any other driver, and Bowyer led 43 laps before his crash.

How did the standings change after the race?

Burton stayed on top with 5,511 points, Hamlin was on 5,442, and Martin reached third with 5,441. Kenseth fell to fourth, and Gordon's retirement with a broken fuel pump had cost him dearly. Harvick stayed fifth, while Gordon dropped four places to sixth.

In the manufacturers' championship Chevrolet kept its lead with 222 points, and Ford stayed second on 175, one point ahead of Dodge. Gordon had been running in contention before retiring with a broken fuel pump, and Johnson was unhappy about a speeding penalty that cost him a chance to score more points.

What did the cautions do to the race?

The race had eleven cautions, and most of them came from spins, contact and debris rather than planned stops. Several reshuffled the leaders, including the caution for Bowyer's crash on lap 173 and the one that followed Newman's spin on lap 181.

The early cautions came from Robby Gordon's spin after Turn Four and debris on lap 59. Gilliland's spin on lap 68 and McMurray's wall strike on lap 131 also brought the field together, and each restart gave the teams another chance to reshuffle their order.

Kenseth's spin on lap 145 caused Sadler to spin in avoidance, and Hamlin later lost control and touched the wall. The final caution came when David Stremme hit the wall on lap 195, and by then the fuel question had begun to decide who could win.

What did the drivers say after the race?

Stewart credited his crew chief's strategy more than his car's speed, and Mears said the late fuel call gave him a chance at the win. Martin praised the team's fuel plan, and Burton said he had feared a finish outside the top ten.

Mears credited crew chief Donnie Wingo for the fuel call on the final run. Johnson was upset by his speeding penalty, saying he had been trying to get back into the race and that he had wanted more points. Bowyer admitted that the lap 173 crash was his fault, and Riggs said he had been trying to give Bowyer more room.

Earnhardt was not pleased with a tenth-place result, but he enjoyed running at the front even though the car had problems. He felt his team deserved a top-three finish, because a scoreboard does not always show how good a team is. Gordon, who retired, said the team had put up a great fight.

Race facts at a glance