The 2006 NASCAR Season Review

Since entering NASCAR's top division in 2002, Jimmie Johnson has been the ultimate nearly man. Nobody doubted that he had the speed and consistency needed to win a title, but for some reason he was always coming up short, until now.

Johnson started 2006 with victory in the Daytona 500, and ended it with his first NASCAR Nextel Cup title secured. As if those two trophies weren't enough, he also wrapped up the non-championship All-Star race and took the spoils at Indianapolis.

Those stats paint the picture of a flawless year. But Johnson so nearly fell victim to the Chase for the Cup system, which was responsible for him missing out on the 2004 title by just eight points to Kurt Busch.

Johnson had made the top spot in the standings his own during the majority of the season running up to the Chase, where the top ten drivers have their points adjusted to close things up for the final ten races of the year.

Prior to the Chase, third was the lowest that the Hendrick Motorsports driver sat in the points standing, and that was after just five races. Johnson and Matt Kenseth were a long way clear of the field when the Chase for the Cup began, so it was fitting that they still occupied the top two positions come the end of the year, even if that had looked unlikely during the early stages of the Chase.

Stumbling out of the blocks

Johnson's Chase got off to the worst possible start, with a retirement at New Hampshire. It dropped him 139 points away from the championship lead, and two more difficult races followed, leaving him 165 points back.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers; at Talladega © NASCAR Media

But then it seemed that Johnson had got over his bad patch. On the last lap at Talladega he was battling with Dale Earnhardt Jr for the lead, with teammate Brian Vickers in tow.

It seemed a foregone conclusion that Vickers would push Johnson to victory, but the former Busch Series champion misjudged the movements of the pair in front of him, and spun Johnson into Earnhardt while he went on to take his first ever Nextel Cup win.

Despite finishing 24th, Johnson actually closed up slightly on championship leader Jeff Burton, as their opposite fortunes switched during the Chase.

While Johnson had been struggling to get any sort of good result at the beginning of the Chase, Burton had emerged as a surprise contender after he won his first Nextel Cup race in five years.

He carried that momentum on during the early weeks of the Chase, and even bounced back from his lowly Talladega result with a third place at Charlotte to hold on to the lead until Martinsville.

Fighting back

But Burton's championship lead went up in smoke along with his engine at the short oval, while Johnson followed up his second place at Charlotte with a victory. The momentum had shifted, and Burton wouldn't get it back.

With a bit of good fortune as others tripped up, Johnson had worked his way into contention. He was up to third in the standings, but he wasn't about to change his philosophy just because the title was a realistic target again.

"We're just going to keep doing what we are doing, and that's going for wins and having fun," he would say over and over gain.

No one could argue with that attitude, though, as it yielded three consecutive second places, meaning that there was little Kenseth could do by the time the season got to Homestead for the finale.

The 2003 champion had been even stronger than Johnson in the run up to the Chase, but failed to hit any sort of form once the decisive part of the season was underway.

His consistent finishes were usually just outside of the top ten, and it was enough to keep him at the sharp end as the likes of Burton, Johnson and Kevin Harvick were unable to stay out of trouble.

However, by the end of the season Kenseth admitted that he never felt comfortable in his Roush Racing Ford throughout the Chase.

Matt Kenseth © LAT

"If we could have run like we were running in August, then we would have won this thing," he said after Homestead. "But Jimmie has been the guy to beat for a few years now. He deserves the title."

Nobody should have been surprised to see Johnson bounce back from adversity after the way he started the season. Crew chief Chad Knaus was banned from the first four races of the year after Johnson's car failed post-qualifying checks.

Johnson took two wins, a second place and a sixth in Knaus' absence, and he was leading the standings by the time his regular crew chief was back. His rivals should have seen the signs that nothing was going beat Johnson this year.

Going out in style

By the middle of September, Tony Stewart knew for a fact that he wouldn't be able to retain the title he had won in 2005. At the final race before the Chase for the Cup began, Stewart was bumped down to eleventh place, having gone into the race eighth in the standings.

From then on, despite the one million US dollar prize fund awarded for eleventh place in the standings, Stewart's team went into each race as if they had nothing to lose.

While the drivers battling for the title couldn't take that one extra risk that could end in delight or disaster, Stewart could, and he took three wins after missing the cut.

Stewart's form prompted several people to wonder how the championship might have panned out had he made it into the Chase, but even he admitted that some of his results were down to a more aggressive approach.

Proof of this came at Kansas, where fuel mileage was an issue in the closing stages. Those chasing the title had to play it safe and pit, but Stewart tried to stretch his last tank of fuel, and rolled across the line to win after his engine died on the back straight.

While failing to make the Chase as the reigning champion isn't a statistic to be proud of, Stewart handled the situation perfectly, and still got that US$1 million prize despite all of those risks.

Rapid rookies

The rookie class of 2006 ended the season with some impressive statistics. Not only did Denny Hamlin win two races (both at Pocono), but he became the first rookie in the brief history of the Chase to make the top ten shootout for the title.

Denny Hamlin wins at Pocono © LAT

Hamlin's form was highlighted by several drivers, and at times some of his rivals even suggested that he didn't need the yellow 'rookie stripe' on the back of his car in the latter part of the season.

Over the course of the season, a rookie finished in the top 15 at every race. Clint Bowyer and two-time Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr had impressive debut seasons, while David Gilliland took pole at Talladega for just his ninth start after he replaced Elliot Sadler in the No. 38 car mid season.

Jimmie Johnson was a rookie not so long ago, and he made people take notice with three victories to end the 2002 season fifth in the standings. A year later he was runner-up to Matt Kenseth, and it would appear that there are plenty of fresh faces ready to make a similar impact just as quickly.

Remarkably, the rookie who attracted the most attention late in the season only made one Nextel Cup start, and in that race he didn't even finish.

But that's what happens when a name like Juan Pablo Montoya switches from Formula One to NASCAR. After a handful of starts in the ARCA and Busch Series, the Colombian made the grid for the season finale at Homestead purely on pace, as he was driving a car that was not guaranteed a place on the grid.

So far, the verdict on Montoya has to be that he's quick, but susceptible to crashing. There's clear evidence to support that theory, as his qualifying has been impressive so far, but he has often had accidents in the races, including a dramatic exit at Homestead when his car caught fire.

Team boss Chip Ganassi had said all along that Montoya was just taking small steps in preparation for 2007, and he would have been pleased to see the new boy get ahead of Casey Mears at Homestead, before taking over the No. 42 car from the American next year.