Earnhardt, Johnson, and Stewart assumed the lead through the various pit stop cycles and cautions waved for incidents over the course of the race.

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.

[1] It was held on October 29, 2006, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia,[2] an intermediate track that holds NASCAR-sanctioned races.

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.

[6] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet (with 246 points) were confirmed as champions six races prior to the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.

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.

[1] Constant heavy rain forced NASCAR officials to cancel all of Friday's scheduled activity, including that afternoon's qualifying session.

[12] Johnson, Hamlin, Burton, Earnhardt, Martin, Kahne, Gordon and Kyle Busch completed the top ten starters.

[13] 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.

[12] Kevin Lepage withdrew from the race prior to qualifying for undisclosed reasons but was later restored to the entry list.

Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Johnson, Harvick, Greg Biffle, Kenseth, Robby Gordon, Joe Nemechek and Earnhardt occupied positions two through ten.

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.

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.

[1] 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.

[18] 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.

[18] 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.

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.

[17][18] 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.

[18] 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.

This caused Sterling Marlin to brake heavily; he was hit on the outside by Martin, who in turn, got rammed by Dale Jarrett.

[17] Stewart held the lead for the remainder of the race to clinch his fourth victory of the season,[20] and the twenty-eighth of his career.

Stewart appeared in victory lane in front of the crowd of 170,000 to celebrate his fourth win of the season, which earned him $373,286.

[2] Stewart was happy with the victory, saying not being in the chase helped ease the pressure placed upon him, and spoke of his feeling that he could not attained his recent successes had he been contenting for the championship, "Sometimes it gets you off your game a little bit.

''[23] Third-placed Earnhardt stated that he was not prepared to make a pit stop during the eighth caution, "They were doing everything, swapping, and juking, and carrying on, I just kind of got left out there.

''[21] Television footage broadcast after the race appear to show Robby Gordon throwing a roll bar out of his car.

[21] Nextel Cup Series Director John Darby stated that inspectors would search all cars as they were transported into their haulers to see whether any lacked a roll bar.

[19] Later, series officials investigated Robby Gordon after an initial search discovered nothing, and gathered all information regarding the incident to come up with a conclusion.

Ford moved three points closer to Dodge in the battle for second position with three races left in the season.