You have the current
stars from the Sprint Cup Series: Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and others. You
have the rookies and the younger drivers from Sprint Cup: Dario Franchitti, Patrick Carpentier, David Reutimann, David Ragan
and more. You have drivers that may have tried the Sprint Cup series without much success, so they have stepped back
to the Nationwide series: David Stremme, Kenny Wallace and Jason Leffler just to name a few. You also have the regulars,
guys who have made their entire career running this series: Jason Keller, Kevin Lepage and Bobby Hamilton, Jr. Then you have
those drivers who are using the series to audition for a Sprint Cup ride, guys like Brad Keselowski, Brad Coleman, Kelly Bires
and Kertus Davis. You also have Morgan Shepherd who at 66, seems to find a way to show up most every weekend with an
unsponsored car and make the field.
As the race starts, you
had Tony Stewart going for his third win in a row and Kyle Busch trying to take the points lead in all three series, Cup,
Nationwide and Trucks. No one had ever accomplished either of these feats but everyone thought that there was a good possibility
of new records being set. From the start, it looked like both Stewart and Busch had the cars to accomplish their goals.
As the race progressed, everything
changed. Both Stewart and Busch ended up crashing and not finishing the race. In the final laps, you had the two
JR Motorsports cars running up front. Brad Keselowski looking for his first win, and Mark Martin, who holds the record for
the most wins in the series, going for his first win since 2005. One has to believe that Martin would have
been perfectly content to help Keselowski get the win but as so often happens in this sport, things took another strange turn. As
Carl Edwards moved under Brad Keselowski for the lead, he got a little loose and Martin tapped him from behind. Edwards
spun and collected Keselowski and Martin went on to win the race. Of course, Martin was upset that he had played a part
in the accident, especially since Keselowski, his teammate was involved. So often in our sport, victory comes with a
price but it is still a victory.
2006 StockCar Review.
