2006 Subway 500
The 2006 Subway 500 was the 32nd stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the sixth in the ten-race Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 22, 2006, before a crowd of 65,000, at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, a short track that holds NASCAR races. Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson won the 500‑lap race starting from the ninth position; Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing finished second, and Petty Enterprises' Bobby Labonte was third. Jeff Burton was the driver who led the Drivers' Championship going into the race with a 45-point margin over Matt Kenseth in second. Kurt Busch won the pole position with the fastest lap time in qualifying. He was immediately passed by Jeff Gordon at the start of the race. Gordon held the lead for 143 laps, until Johnson took the lead for one lap. Gordon regained the lead on the next lap, only to lose it to Johnson again on the 153rd lap. Labonte moved into the lead on lap 406 and held it with 55 laps remaining when he was passed by Johnson. At the race's final restart on lap 495, Hamlin challenged Johnson for the lead, but the latter held off Hamlin's passing maneuver and won the race. There were 18 cautions and 16 lead changes by five different drivers during the race. It was Johnson's fifth win of the 2006 season and the 23rd of his career. The result advanced him from to third in the Drivers' Championship, 41 points behind Kenseth (who took over the championship lead when Burton retired during the race; this caused Burton to fall to fifth in the championship, one point behind Hamlin). Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, 53 points ahead of Dodge, and 61 ahead of Ford with four races left in the season. Background The Subway 500 was the 32nd of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the sixth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. On October 22, 2006, it was held at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, a short track that holds NASCAR races, and ran for a total of 500 laps over a distance of . The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn, paperclip-shaped oval. Its turns are banked at eleven degrees, and neither the front stretch (the location of the finish line) nor the backstretch is banked. Before the race, Jeff Burton led the Drivers' Championship with 5,763 points, with Matt Kenseth second on 5,718 points and Kevin Harvick with 5,674 points in third. Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were fourth and fifth, and Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top ten drivers competing for the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet led with 237 points; Dodge was second with 179, followed by Ford with 173. Gordon was the race's defending champion. After falling from seventh