There were so many different big racing stories of the season like:
Two come to mind in NASCAR with the first one coming in July with an announcement made by Chip Ganassi Racing that Juan Montoya will be coming to NASCAR in 2007 to drive his #42 Texaco Dodge in the Nextel Cup Series. Even bigger was that his debut would come in the season finale at Homestead after he had already made his ARCA and Busch Series debuts just weeks ago.
The other one in NASCAR reads simple as Jimmie Johnson is the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Championship after a tight points race at the season finale in Homestead. What a victory for that entire team and for Jimmie Johnson and in doing so won 5-times in 2006 including winning both the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. He will make a great champion.
How about in Formula 1 when Fernando Alonso began the youngest driver to win the World Championship for the second year in a row. Fernando Alonso did all of this by beating one of the best in F1 Michael Schumacher in both seasons.
The American LeMans made history twice as an Audi diesel-powered R10 TDI there way to victory in the 12 hours of Sebring and then backed that up with another historical victory in winning the 24 hours of LeMan a couple of months later. That huge in so many ways, it was the first diesel car in the world to win a major sports car race.
And then of course there was that story coming out of NASCAR that kept making headlines with everybody commenting in and outside the NASCAR community, you know it, its simply NASCAR's Car Of Tomorrow. I wrote on this subject at least 3-4 times with its highs and lows of what this expenive car might do. All of NASCAR and beyond will be watching this one when this supercar makes it debut at Bristol next season.
With all that said, none of those stories make the biggest headline as in the Formula 1 when Michael Schumacher announced his retirement, the sports greatest driver of all time with 7 World Championships is going to step down at the end of the 2006 season. When fans think of Formula 1, one driver in most cases comes to mind, Michael Schumacher.
Thats it for the 2006 racing season, I can't wait until the 2007 season begins with the 24 Hours of Daytona and The Daytoan 500
