2006 Dollar General 300

The 2006 Dollar General 300 was a NASCAR Busch Series race held on Friday October 13, 2006 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The race was the 34th iteration of the event. The race was the 31st race of the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series. The race itself was Friday the 13th fashion as Carl Edwards won the pole and led the most laps but he was taken out with just two laps to go racing for the lead with Casey Mears and he handed the win to Dave Blaney who beat a hard charging Matt Kenseth to take home the win.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver

Qualifying
Carl Edwards won the pole with a time of 28.994 and a speed of 186.245 mph.

* – made the field via owners points.

** – Michael Waltrip had to start at the rear of the field for a backup car.

Race
Pole sitter Carl Edwards led the first lap of the race. The first caution did not take long as it flew on lap 2 for a three car crash in turn 1. It started when David Reutimann was pushing Kasey Kahne and Reutimann bumped Kahne turning Kahne around. Kahne backed into the outside wall and spun down and collected Greg Biffle in the process. Edwards led the field to the restart on lap 7. The second caution flew on lap 14 when Shane Huffman spun all by himself in turn 4 and hit the outside wall drivers side first.

The race would restart on lap 19. On lap 21, the third caution would fly when Jimmie Johnson hit the outside wall in turn 4. The race would restart on lap 28. On lap 35, the fourth caution flew when Jeff Burton's car stalled in turn 3 after the carburetor broke. Carl Edwards won the race off of pit road but many others including Jason Leffler did not pit and Leffler led the field to the restart on lap 40. On lap 46, Matt Kenseth took the lead from Leffler and held the lead for the next 51 laps. On lap 95, the 5th caution flew when Reed Sorenson hit the outside wall in turns 1 and 2 after cutting a right front tire. Carl Edwards won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 102. On lap 103, the 6th caution would fly for the big one that occurred off of turn 4 and collected 10 cars. It started when Tony Stewart and David Reutimann both spun almost simultaneously off of turn 4 and caused a chain reaction crash collecting Mike Wallace, Auggie Vidovich, David Ragan, Mike Skinner, Regan Smith, Stacy Compton, Brad Baker, and Michael Waltrip. The race would restart on lap 113.

On lap 115, the 7th caution would fly for a hard 3 car crash down the backstretch. It started when Auggie Vidovich spun all by himself off of turn 2 and spun down the track and collected Jeff Burton. Both Vidovich and Burton would hit the inside wall but Vidovich would back into the opening where all the safety trucks go hard enough where it shot his car back across the track right in front of the field. Brad Keselowski, making his 4th Busch Series start, went left to avoid Vidovich but his car spun and he hit the inside wall. A red flag was issued the clean up the mess. The red flag was lifted after about 10 minutes and the race restarted on lap 121. On lap 123, the 8th caution would fly when rookie Danny O'Quinn Jr. spun all by himself off of turn 2 and narrowly missed the inside wall.

Final laps
The race would restart on lap 127. With around 33 laps to go, green flag pit stops began. With 30 laps to go, Carl Edwards handed the lead to Paul Menard as he went to pit. On the next lap, Menard pitted handing the lead to Jamie McMurray. After everything cycled through, Casey Mears was the new race leader. Mears was looking for his second career Busch Series win after he had won at Chicagoland earlier in the year. But with 18 to go, the 9th caution flew when Jamie McMurray crashed in turn 2. The top 2 cars in Mears and Dave Blaney pitted.

During the caution, a controversy ensued. Despite Mears already pitting, Mears was still credited with lead. This made Carl Edwards and his crew upset because they think they should be the leader because Mears had already pitted and Mears should be around the last car on the lead lap which would be around 6th or 7th place and that there was no way he made a legal stop and still be in the lead. Mears' team argued they beat Edwards to the line at the end of pit road which should make them the leader. NASCAR spent 9 caution laps and red flagged the race with 11 to go to check the video to see who was in front when the caution came out. The race was red flagged for six minutes before they eventually said Edwards was the race leader and Mears was in second.

The race restarted with 8 to go. Mears attempted to take the lead from Edwards but couldn't. With 7 to go, the 10th caution flew when Jason Leffler crashed in turn 3. The race restarted with 4 laps to go. Mears was all over the rear bumper of Edwards right away. With 3 to go, Mears attempted to pass Edwards on the outside in turns 3 and 4. Edwards got loose in turn 4 and slid up into Mears. Mears got sideways and turned left and collected Edwards in the process and both hit the outside wall head on ending their chances to win. The wreck also collected Danny O'Quinn Jr.

Eventually, the wreck would end up having Kevin Harvick clinch the Championship by 775 points over Edwards. The race was red flagged for a short bit. Dave Blaney was the new leader with Matt Kenseth right behind as the wreck would set up a green-white-checkered finish. On the restart, Kenseth laid back and got a good run on Blaney. Blaney would overdrive turns 3 and 4 allowing Kenseth to get to Blaney's inside and the two raced hard side by side for the lead. Kenseth beat Blaney to the line to take the white flag. On the last lap, the two kept racing side by side all around the track. It looked like it was going to be a photo finish. But in the middle of turns 3 and 4, Kenseth got loose and spun around and bringing out the 12th and final caution and giving Dave Blaney the win. The race would be Blaney's first and only win in his Busch Series career and would be the second win for owner Todd Braun in the Busch Series. Michael Waltrip, Stacy Compton, Matt Kenseth, and Danny O'Quinn Jr. rounded out the top 5 while Johnny Sauter, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, and Mike Skinner rounded out the top 10.