Bank of America 500

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**Bank of America 500**

Venue	Lowe's Motor Speedway
Corporate sponsor	Bank of America
First race	1960
Distance	500 miles
Number of 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)

The Bank of America 500 is a NASCAR race that is hosted annually at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the United States. The race usually happens in month of October, and is 500 miles long. Prior to 1966, the race was a 400-mile event.

Following the increased ratings of the 2002 race, which started three hours late because of a rain delay, and finished at night in prime-time, track officials moved the 2003 race to a Saturday night. In 2005, the start was actually delayed by the finish to the Notre Dame-Southern California 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. When Brett Bodine pulled the pace car to pit road to start the race, NBC had just switched to the race and the broadcast began as the field came to the start-finish line with the green flag waving to start the race.

The 2007 date for this race is Saturday night, October 13th and will be shown on ABC or ESPN.

In 2002, while substituting for an injured Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray set the modern era record for fewest starts before a win at 2, beating Kevin Harvick's record by 1 start. The record stands to this day, as no driver has ever won in their first race in the modern era (post-1971) of Nascar, although other drivers have won in their first start when it was called the Grand National Series.