The 2006 Bank of America 500 was the 31st stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fifth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 14, 2006, before a crowd of 175,000 in Concord, North Carolina, United States, at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The circuit is an intermediate that holds NASCAR races. The 334-lap race was won by Kasey Kahne of the Evernham Motorsports team, who started from second position. Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson finished second and Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton was third.

Burton led the Drivers' Championship by six points over Matt Kenseth going into the race. Although Scott Riggs won the pole position by setting the fastest lap time in the qualifying session, he was immediately passed by teammate Kahne at the start of the race. Riggs regained first place twelve laps later, only to lose it to Tony Raines on the 19th lap. Riggs retook the lead on lap 31 and maintained it for the following 16 laps until he was passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. who led for the next 31 laps. Kahne moved back into the first position on lap 96, with Raines reclaiming the lead on the 123rd lap. Kahne passed Raines to move back into the lead 15 laps later. Johnson moved into the lead on lap 168 and held the position for a total of 72 laps. At the race's final restart on lap 307, Johnson led until he was passed two laps later by Kahne who maintained it to win the race. There were ten cautions and 34 lead changes by thirteen different drivers.

The victory was Kahne's sixth of the season, and the seventh of his career since he debuted in 2004. After the race, Burton maintained his lead in the Drivers' Championship, which increased to 45 points over Kenseth in second position. Kahne's victory moved him from ninth to eighth, while Jeff Gordon dropped from seventh to tenth because he failed to score enough points due to an engine failure in the race's closing laps. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, 48 points in front of Dodge and 54 ahead of Ford with five races left in the season.

The Bank of America 500 was the 31st of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, and the fifth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It ran for a total of 334 laps over a distance of 501 mi (806 km), and was held on October 14, 2006, in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, an intermediate track. The layout used was a four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.4 km)-long, asphalt quad-oval track. The track's turns are banked at 24 degrees; both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch (opposite the front) have a five-degree banking.

Before the race, Jeff Burton led the Drivers' Championship with 5,598 points, with Matt Kenseth sixth points behind in second, and Mark Martin was a further four adrift in third. Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin were fourth and fifth. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top ten drivers competing in the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup. Johnson was the race's defending champion. Chevrolet was leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 231 points; Dodge was second with 170, and Ford was a close third with 169. NASCAR mandated that teams use a 13.8-US-gallon (52 L; 11.5 imp gal) fuel cell for the second time in the season so there would be fewer laps between pit stops and more tire changes could occur. Tire supplier Goodyear brought a supply of new right-hand tires, which were tested at the track on August 29 by drivers Joe Nemechek and Kurt Busch. The duo believed Goodyear had rectified problems with harder-compound tires that had been raised at the previous round at Charlotte (the Coca-Cola 600).

After he was rammed by his teammate Brian Vickers in the preceding UAW-Ford 500, Johnson said the expectations for him to succeed at Lowe's Motor Speedway were high and hoped the track's surface would be more predictable than the last race at Charlotte. Martin said he was in the best position he had been in for several years to win the championship, and spoke of his waning interest in looking at race results. Having secured one top-ten finish in the season's first four Chase for the Nextel Cup races, Earnhardt stated he needed to secure a top-five finishing position and was determined to get his team more involved in the championship battle. Gordon had driven well at the circuit, but without finishing. His team brought the car he drove to victory in the season's 18th race at Chicagoland Speedway. Gordon felt it would help him at intermediate tracks and return him to championship contention. Although Kahne had a poor start in the Chase, he rectified this by finishing second at Talladega Superspeedway. He believed the momentum would be carried into Charlotte and stated he would push hard to win races.

One team made its début at the race. Red Bull Racing Team elected to start operations early as part of a warm-up exercise to running a full-time schedule in the 2007 season with the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott driving the No. 83 car. Elliott would attempt to qualify the car at three races towards the end of the year. He said his decision to join Red Bull was because of the organization's willingness to become competitive. Elliott said he was required to qualify the car for the race and then move up the field and provide input that would allow the team to be prepared for the 2007 Daytona 500.

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race, one each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first practice session lasted 90 minutes, the second 60 minutes, and the third 50 minutes. Kahne set the fastest time in the first practice session with a lap of 28.834 seconds; Scott Riggs, Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler, Martin, Johnson, Nemechek, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Green, and Hamlin rounded out the session's top-ten fastest drivers.