Bank of America 500

Bank of America 500

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Venue	Charlotte Motor Speedway
Location	Concord, North Carolina, United States
Corporate sponsor	Bank of America
First race	1960
Distance	501 miles (806 km)
Laps	334
Previous names	National 400 (1960–1965) National 500 (1966–1976, 1980–1982) NAPA National 500 (1977–1979) Miller High Life 500 (1983–1985) Oakwood Homes 500 (1986–1988) All Pro Auto Parts 500 (1989) Mello Yello 500 (1990–1994) UAW-GM Quality 500 (1995–2005) NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America (2009)
Most wins (driver)	Bobby Allison Mark Martin Jimmie Johnson Cale Yarborough (3)
Most wins (team)	Hendrick Motorsports (7)
Most wins (manufacturer)	Chevrolet (20)
Circuit information
Surface	Asphalt
Length	1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Turns	4

The Bank of America 500 is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that is hosted annually at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, United States, with the other one being the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, the 600-mile (970 km) race. The race is held in the middle of October, as part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup and it is a 501-mile (806 km) annual race, Prior to 1966, the race was a 400.5-mile (644.5 km) event.

Thanks in large part to the ratings boost NBC received from the 2002 race being run in primetime hours, NASCAR made a decision to move the race date from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night beginning in 2003. NBC retained their rights to broadcast the race, unlike in most of the night events aired in their part of the season's contract which normally aired on TNT. With the move, then-Lowe's Motor Speedway became one of only two tracks in NASCAR to have two night dates on the schedule.

In 2005, the start was delayed by the finish to the Notre Dame-Southern California college football game which ran late. While the game was in its final minutes, NBC, the broadcaster of both events, had the race engines start and the pace laps proceed. As the pace car pulled off the track to pit road to start the race, NBC had just switched coverage from the game to the race, and the broadcast began as the field took the green flag.

Past winners

Year	Date	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)	Report
					Laps	Miles (km)
1960	October 16	Speedy Thompson	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	267	400.5 (644.542)	3:32:50	112.905	Report
1961	October 15	Joe Weatherly	Bud Moore Engineering	Pontiac	267	400.5 (644.542)	3:20:20	119.95	Report
1962	October 14	Junior Johnson	Ray Fox	Pontiac	267	400.5 (644.542)	3:01:42	132.085	Report
1963	October 13	Junior Johnson	Ray Fox	Chevrolet	267	400.5 (644.542)	3:01:54	132.105	Report
1964	October 18	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody	Ford	267	400.5 (644.542)	2:58:35	134.475	Report
1965	October 17	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody	Ford	267	400.5 (644.542)	3:21:44	119.117	Report
1966	October 16	Lee Roy Yarbrough	Jon Thorne	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:49:55	130.576	Report
1967	October 15	Buddy Baker	Ray Fox	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:50:04	130.317	Report
1968	October 20	Charlie Glotzbach	Cotton Owens	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:42:08	135.234	Report
1969	October 12	Donnie Allison	Banjo Matthews	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:48:32	131.271	Report
1970	October 11	Lee Roy Yarbrough	Junior Johnson & Associates	Mercury	334	501 (806.281)	4:03:28	123.246	Report
1971	October 10	Bobby Allison	Holman-Moody	Mercury	238*	357 (574.535)	2:49:38	126.14	Report
1972	October 8	Bobby Allison	Richard Howard	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:45:37	133.234	Report
1973	October 7	Cale Yarborough	Richard Howard	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:26:58	145.24	Report
1974	October 6	David Pearson	Wood Brothers Racing	Mercury	334	501 (806.281)	4:10:41	119.912	Report
1975	October 5	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:47:22	132.209	Report
1976	October 10	Donnie Allison	Ellington Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:32:51	141.226	Report
1977	October 9	Benny Parsons	L.G. DeWitt	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:30:32	142.78	Report
1978	October 8	Bobby Allison	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:31:57	141.826	Report
1979	October 7	Cale Yarborough	Junior Johnson & Associates	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:43:53	134.266	Report
1980	October 5	Dale Earnhardt	Rod Osterlund Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:42:18	135.243	Report
1981	October 11	Darrell Waltrip	Junior Johnson & Associates	Buick	334	501 (806.281)	4:15:52	117.483	Report
1982	October 10	Harry Gant	Mach 1 Racing	Buick	334	501 (806.281)	3:39:05	137.208	Report
1983	October 9	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Pontiac	334	501 (806.281)	3:34:43	139.998	Report
1984	October 7	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:24:41	148.861	Report
1985	October 6	Cale Yarborough	Ranier-Lundy	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:39:48	136.761	Report
1986	October 5	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:47:02	132.403	Report
1987	October 11	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:54:02	128.443	Report
1988	October 9	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing	Pontiac	334	501 (806.281)	3:50:02	130.677	Report
1989	October 8	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:20:35	149.863	Report
1990	October 7	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:38:44	137.428	Report
1991	October 6	Geoffrey Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:36:17	138.984	Report
1992	October 11	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:15:47	153.537	Report
1993	October 10	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:14:31	154.537	Report
1994	October 9	Dale Jarrett	Joe Gibbs Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:26:00	145.922	Report
1995	October 8	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:26:48	145.358	Report
1996	October 6	Terry Labonte	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:30:00	143.143	Report
1997	October 5	Dale Jarrett	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:28:17	144.323	Report
1998	October 4	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	4:04:01	123.188	Report
1999	October 11*	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:07:31	160.306	Report
2000	October 8	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac	334	501 (806.281)	3:44:57	133.63	Report
2001	October 7	Sterling Marlin	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:36:15	139.006	Report
2002	October 13	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:32:28	141.481	Report
2003	October 11	Tony Stewart	Joe Gibbs Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:30:24	142.871	Report
2004	October 16	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:50:51	130.214	Report
2005	October 15	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	336*	504 (811.109)	4:11:18	120.334	Report
2006	October 14	Kasey Kahne	Evernham Motorsports	Dodge	334	501 (806.281)	3:47:29	132.142	Report
2007	October 13	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	337*	505.5 (813.523)	4:00:58	125.868	Report
2008	October 11	Jeff Burton	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:44:50	133.699	Report
2009	October 17	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:38:22	137.658	Report
2010	October 16	Jamie McMurray	Earnhardt Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:34:07	140.391	Report
2011	October 15	Matt Kenseth	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:25:37	146.194	Report
2012	October 13	Clint Bowyer	Michael Waltrip Racing	Toyota	334	501 (806.281)	3:14:01	154.935	Report
2013	October 12	Brad Keselowski	Penske Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:09:53	158.308	Report
2014	October 11	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	334	501 (806.281)	3:26:49	145.346	Report
2015	October 11*	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:35:05	139.76	Report

• 1971: The race was shortened due to rain.
• 1999: Race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain.
• 2005 & 2007: The race was extended due to a green–white–checker finish.
• 2015: Race postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain.

Multiple winners (drivers)

# Wins	Driver	Years Won
3	Bobby Allison	1971, 1972, 1978
	Cale Yarborough	1973, 1979, 1985
	Mark Martin	1992, 1995, 1998
	Jimmie Johnson	2004, 2005, 2009
2	Junior Johnson	1962, 1963
	Fred Lorenzen	1964, 1965
	LeeRoy Yarbrough	1966, 1970
	Donnie Allison	1969, 1976
	Richard Petty	1975, 1983
	Dale Earnhardt	1980, 1986
	Bill Elliott	1984, 1987
	Dale Jarrett	1994, 1997
	Jeff Gordon	1999, 2007
	Jamie McMurray	2002, 2010

Multiple winners (teams)

# Wins	Team	Years Won
7	Hendrick Motorsports	1989, 1996, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009
4	Junior Johnson & Associates	1970, 1979, 1981, 1991
	Roush Fenway Racing	1992, 1995, 1998, 2011
3	Ray Fox	1962, 1963, 1967
	Holman-Moody	1964, 1965, 1971
	Robert Yates Racing	1990, 1993, 1997
	Joe Gibbs Racing	1994, 2000, 2003
2	Wood Brothers Racing	1960, 1974
	Bud Moore Engineering	1961, 1978
	Richard Howard	1972, 1973
	Melling Racing	1984, 1987
	Richard Childress Racing	1986, 2008
	Chip Ganassi Racing	2001, 2002
	Team Penske	2013, 2015

Manufacturer wins

# Wins	Manufacturer	Years Won
20	Chevrolet	1963, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014
18	Ford	1960, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1978, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2015
7	Dodge	1966, 1967, 1968, 1975, 2001, 2002, 2006
5	Pontiac	1961, 1962, 1983, 1988, 2000
3	Mercury	1970, 1971, 1974
2	Buick	1981, 1982
1	Toyota	2012

Notable races

• 1964: Fred Lorenzen took lead with two laps to go after Richard Petty, who led 188 laps, blew a tire and crashed. Paul Goldsmith led 71 laps before blowing his engine.
• 1965: Lorenzen won for the second straight year after a wild three-abreast battle with Curtis Turner and Dick Hutcherson for first. The race was a tragic affair as a massive crash claimed the life of Harold Kite.
• 1970: Leeroy Yarbrough took what turned out to be his final Grand National win.
• 1971: Bobby Allison in the Holman-Moody Mercury battled Charlie Glotzbach, driving the Chevrolet Monte Carlo fielded by track president Richard Howard. Allison took the lead on Lap 177 and led when rain shortened the race at Lap 238. Leeroy Yarbrough drove a second Howard Chevrolet, reuniting with team manager Junior Johnson, for whom Leeroy had driven earlier that 1971 season.
• 1973: Controversies plagued the weekend. Charlie Glotzbach won the pole in Hoss Ellington's Chevrolet but NASCAR discovered a moveable restrictor plate after qualifying and put Glotzbach to the back of the field. Buddy Baker was pulled out of the race 228 laps in by team owner Nord Krauskopf when NASCAR said it wanted to reinspect the #71 Dodge after the race. David Pearson and Glotzbach crashed 40 laps in, leaving Petty, Cale Yarborough, and Bobby Allison in charge. Yarborough and Petty put Allison three laps down en route to the 1-2 finish. But following the race controversy ensued over the postrace inspection of the top three cars; Allison's Chevy cleared after one hour but six hours after the inspection NASCAR announced the results for Yarborough's #11 would receive further study, and Allison claimed to have seen Petty's team remove the air filter from the car before it could be inspected; track promoter Richard Howard threatened a lawsuit if the race results were changed. Allison claimed the top two finishers were illegal and threatened to sue NASCAR; Petty asserted only three of his engine's eight cylinders were checked; a later meeting between Allison and Bill France, Jr. settled the controversy.
• 1974: The race set an event record for lead changes at 47. David Pearson lost two laps 150 miles in but made up the deficit and surged to the win. The race was marred by ten-car crash in which Marty Robbins suffered serious facial injuries, a two-car crash involving Grant Adcox and Ramo Stott, and a pit fire in Richard Petty's pit.
• 1975: Petty took the win for a season sweep at Charlotte. The 500 was the final race for track under promotion of Richard Howard as Bruton Smith would take control of the speedway the following January.
• 1976: Donnie Allison surprised the field by winning, his first Winston Cup win since 1971 and the first for team owner Hoss Ellington. The engine measured slightly over the 358 cubic inch limit; after lengthy discussion the engine was allowed to cool down and it measured below 358 cubic inches; Ellington quipped, "This one's legal. We left all the cheater stuff at Darlington."
• 1978: Bobby Allison broke out of a competitive race to win handily. The lead changed 40 times. David Pearson won the pole, his 11th straight Charlotte pole.
• 1980: Dale Earnhardt edged Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough and solidified his point lead over Yarborough with three races to go in the season. The win was Earnhardt's fifth of his second career Winston Cup season. The weekend was dominated by controversy between Darrell Waltrip and the DiGard Racing team as Waltrip announced he was leaving the team after the season despite threats of legal action by team owners the Gardner brothers to retain him. Waltrip spun out after breaking a sway bar piece, then fell out with engine failure, angrily demanding afterward he needed to "get away from these Gardners."
• 1981: Darrell Waltrip's late-season victory surge included leading the final 61 laps of the 1981 500. Bobby Allison finished second and after leading the series in August was now trailing by 58 laps. Harry Gant led Lap 3 before his engine erupted in the first turn.
• 1982 Gant broke through to his first superspeedway win as he edged Bill Elliott in a ten-lap showdown after Bobby Allison, who led 280 laps, blew his engine. A ten-car crash erupted when Dale Earnhardt hooked Richard Petty into a spin.
• 1983: The race was marred by controversy involving an outsized engine for race winner Richard Petty as well as suspicion about runner-up Darrell Waltrip; Petty was subsequently fined $35,000 and 104 NASCAR points.
• 1985: Cale Yarborough lost a lap on five separate occasions and made them up all five times for his final NASCAR win.
• 1993: Ernie Irvan led race-record 328 laps for his second win with Robert Yates. NASCAR shaved spoiler size to five inches and raised the front airdam a few inches out of concern for escalating track speeds and believing, following driver lobbying, that reducing downforce would force drivers to slow down for the turns. The change did not reduce speeds.
• 1994: Dale Jarrett stole the win after engine failure eliminated Geoff Bodine and a late crash eliminated Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon; the win was Jarrett's final win with Joe Gibbs Racing.
• 1996: Terry Labonte dominated and erased a point gap of over 100 to Jeff Gordon, who fell out with engine failure. The race was marred by a brutal multicar crash involving Ernie Irvan when Irvan spun out and was center-punched by John Andretti.
• 2000: Bobby Labonte broke out of a fierce fight with Dale Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd, and Jeremy Mayfield to grab the win. The weekend was marred by a sudden shortage of tires available from Goodyear, but the race went with no problems with tires. The lead changed 46 times, the first Charlotte race to break 40 lead changes since 1988.
• 2002: Subbing for injured regular Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray grabbed his first win in his second career NASCAR start. A major crash erupted in the trioval and brought out a furious response from team owner Richard Childress.

Television history

The race was shown on TBS from at least the mid-1980s to 2000. From 2002 to 2006, it was shown on NBC, and from 2007 to 2014, it was on ABC.

The 2002 race was also known for beginning a practice where, if a race broadcast on a network was running long and ran into prime-time hours, the broadcast would not switch to cable. In this case, the race began as scheduled in the early afternoon but was delayed for hours due to weather. NBC did not move the race to TNT, and broadcast the race in its entirety; the race ended early Sunday evening with Jamie McMurray winning in only his second NASCAR Winston Cup start. Since ESPN took over the rights to the race and to most of NBC and TNT's former NASCAR package, that policy has been discontinued. Starting in 2015 the race will move back to NBC, after the network signed a 10-year, $4.4 Billion dollar deal with NASCAR, NBC has the rights for the final 20 races of the season(14 of 20) from the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, this event was on ABC for several years as part of ESPN before the departure.

The 2005 running of the race drew ire from fans due to the broadcast policy in which a college football game cut into NBC's NASCAR slot. Due to the excessive length, the pre-race show was not broadcast at all and the network finally started it as the field came to the green flag to begin the race. This race was known for the levigation disaster that made the track extremely fast causing the tires to blister and blow out after about 30 laps. It was due to this that Charlotte was repaved in early 2006 in time for their May events.

The 2014 race was known for the broadcast policy that drew the ire of fans once again. Because of the excessive length of the Baylor-TCU ESPN College Football game, the race would be shifted to ESPNEWS. But the station was airing an NBA preseason game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that ran long into overtime. The race broadcast started on Lap 27.

Year	Network	Lap-by-lap	Color commentator(s)
1964	ABC	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki
1965		Bill Flemming	Rodger Ward
1966		Jim McKay
1967		Keith Jackson	Ned Jarrett
1968		Jim McKay
1969			Chris Economaki
1970
1971		Keith Jackson
1972
1973		Jim McKay	Jackie Stewart
1974			Chris Economaki
1975			Jackie Stewart
1976		Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki
1977			Jackie Stewart
1978		Jim McKay
1979	NBC	Paul Page	Johnny Rutherford
1980
1981
1982	ABC	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki
1983	Mizlou	Ken Squier	Donnie Allison
1984
1985	Jefferson-Pilot	Mike Joy	Ned Jarrett
1986
1987	SETN	Eli Gold	Jerry Punch
1988	SCORE FNN		Johnny Hayes
1989	TBS	Ken Squier	Johnny Hayes Chris Economaki
1990
1991			Neil Bonnett
1992
1993
1994			Chuck Bown Cale Yarborough
1995			Richard Petty
1996			Buddy Baker Dick Berggren
1997
1998
1999		Eli Gold
2000		Allen Bestwick
2001	NBC		Benny Parsons Wally Dallenbach
2002
2003
2004
2005		Bill Weber
2006
2007	ABC	Jerry Punch	Rusty Wallace Andy Petree
2008			Dale Jarrett Andy Petree
2009
2010		Marty Reid
2011		Allen Bestwick
2012
2013
2014
2015	NBCSN*	Rick Allen	Jeff Burton Steve Letarte
2016	NBC

2015: Originally scheduled to be broadcast on NBC, the race was moved to NBCSN due to the postponement of the race.

External links

• Crittenden Automotive Library: Mello Yello 500
• NASCAR Banking 500 race page
• NASCAR Commentators Crews and Networks
• Ratings Drop Again, But NASCAR's Chase Hits High on ABC