My Take on the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Championship and Season Comments.

What are you going to remember about the 2006 Nextel Cup season? Thats the burning question, for me, this racing fan, this writer, this blogger, this person who watched every race this season and for the most part wrote the good and bad about it all, I will remember this..season for its great racing, its couple of sleeper races, its rookie crop, its two demition derby namely at Talladega, its final chase top 10 and its first time champion.

Looking at the 2006 season, it was Darrell Waltrip who wrote, "It's always something", "Folks, it seems like there's some issue that we have to deal with every week other than the race itself.". I believe that statement to be true, whether it was the most talked about or talked down it in the garage area namely the Car Of Tomorrow or some fight, it was always something. Ironically, this year started off and ended with same name and team coming to mind...Jimmie Johnson, Jimmie Johnson and that #48 Lowe's Team from Hendrick Motorsports.

The #48 Team that made the most news for a team this season, they were at the center of a suspendition at the beginning of the season before the Daytona 500 when Knaus was thrown out of the speedway and even four races later when Knaus returned from his suspendition, to the final ten chase races when they started there come back four-five races in and finally, the crowning of the 2006 NASCAR Nexel Cup Series Champion, Jimmie Johnson. They did it all and made it.

Going beyond all of that and to what I said at the beginning of this piece, for the most part, I wrote all season long that racing was good to great, there were some races that were at total shocker, the fall race at Phoenix was one, it was a sleeper race with Kevin Harvick leading most of the laps and the points leader Jimmie Johnson once again coming home in second place..those were the only headlines there, but two races that I would like to forget, Talladega, those two race with my headline being.."Demotion Derby at Talladega.... for NASCAR" in two parts, its survival, period. Thats It, thats not entertainment and its not Richmond, Bristol or Martinsville racing, but what were they thinking. Thats all I have to say about that.

How about the good, The Daytona 500 would fall in to that category as well as the Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville, Atlanta, Atlanta races, were both highlights of the season, ofcourse the fall race was overcome with NBC's investigation followed by NASCAR's investigation into the debris caution that turned out to be Robby Gordon found guilty of throwing a piece of rollbar padding on to the track to cause a caution. How about the spring Richmond race with Dale Jr coming away with victory or Darlington on Mothers Day Weekend. One race that I will remember as being good was the fall Dover race when Jeff Burton battled Matt Kenseth for several laps for the lead in a clean fashion and finally grabing the lead and his what some say come back victory. That was interesting to see.

The headlines this season...Denny Hamlin's spin to win his first cup race at Pocono, Hamlin said that before that weekend, he had only raced Pocono on his video game, Hamlin had spin going into turn 2 down to the inside of the track only messing up the fron valence and he fought his way back up to the front to win. Another racing headline this season was, will it be Smoke's summer when he on the Pepsi 400 and he's one I bet most fans will remember, I wrote this after Chicago.."Jeff Gordon spins out Kenseth with four laps to go to win at Chicagoland." I don't need to explain that one and speeking of Chicagoland, the headline that made lots take notice of NASCAR, "Juan Montoya coming to NASCAR in 2007" and fans say that at the fianle in Homestead, when Montoya made the race, but end in a ball of fire.

One of the biggest things this past season will be "Who's in and who's out in the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship." This one had 11 drivers going for ten spots and the headline wasn't won was in, but who was out..Tony Stewart, despite being the defending Nextel cup champion, he didn't get it and the talk came up with should there be a past champions spot or extending it to 11-12 drivers. the top 10 is for the best of the 43 drivers and yes there are more than 10.

The chase races themselves...really no one could runaway with the championship lead, bad luck come on with every chase race and every contender had at least two-three bad races. Some high notes were Rookie Denny Hamlin made the chase and finished 3th with Kevin Harvick finished 4rd & Dale Jr coming home in 5th spot. The points racing man himself Matt Kenseth finsihed 2nd.

The Champion, I have to say, Jimmie Johnson as the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup series champion was big and still is. He deserved it, he didn't points race, but instead he won races and over came lots of big problems including his victory in the Daytona 500 without his famous crew crief or winning the Brickyard 400, in total of five victories, with one Bud Pole, 13 top-five finishes, 24 top-10 finishes and more (Thanks Jayski for the Stats).

I know that this was just a sample of what happened this past season in Nextel Cup, but boy what a season and what a champion. What will happen next year with Toyota and the Car of Tomorrow making there debuts and what others things will make headline and who win be in the chase and fianlly who will be champion...think about it, 2007.

Finally, I leave you with this, thoughtout all of the good-great racing, the sleepers, the headlines on and off the track, the its always something beside the race itself, I am a NASCAR fan though and though and if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't sit down in front of my television for 3-4 hours on a Saturday or Sunday watching the Nextel Cup races, nor would I get up before dawn, get in the car with my father and go to the track twice a year, battle traffic in and out, park, walk 1 mile or more to the speedway, pay the ticket prices and sit in the grandstands for hours watching it and even more, I wouldn't spend all that time and money watching and buying collectibles/appeal, if I don't enjoy, and that goes for wroting on it. This is what I love period.

See Yeah next season...its the Daytona less than 81 days away.