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A season of HIGHS and LOWS
best races of the 2006 season • Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway: Before the race, Tony Stewart warned that someone might die if something wasn't done about aggressive driving. NASCAR tweaked the rules, but Stewart turned out to be the driver at the center of most race incidents. He and Matt Kenseth staged a 190-mph collision that sent Kenseth spinning into the grass, and Stewart and Jeff Gordon collided early in the race with both drivers hitting the Turn 2 wall. Stewart also had a couple of encounters with second-year driver Kyle Busch. Almost overshadowed was a near-flawless drive by Jimmie Johnson, who won the sport's biggest race while crew chief Chad Knaus was at STEWART home serving a penalty for cheating during qualifying. • UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway: There were fears that a new paving job would bring a reduction in side-by-side racing. Wrong.
On the last lap, Dale Earnhardt Jr. led Jimmie Johnson with Brian Vickers in third. At the end of the backstretch, Johnson moved left to pass Earnhardt and Vickers pulled down to push Johnson. But he hit him in the right-rear corner instead, sending Johnson into Earnhardt. Both slid off the track, leaving Vickers to claim his first Nextel Cup trophy. • Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway: Fenders often get dented and tempers overheated on the high-banked half-mile oval, but the events surrounding the final laps of the Food City 500 were over the top. Kurt Busch shoved ex-teammate Matt Kenseth out of the way to get the lead and the eventual victory, while Kenseth moved Jeff Gordon aside to take third at the end. Gordon responded with a rare display of temper, using both hands to shove a startled Kenseth on pit road after the race. • The USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway: It was Jeff Gordon vs. Matt Kenseth Round 2. Kenseth led 112 of 270 laps and appeared to be in control when Gordon closed on him late in the race.With four laps to go, Gordon used his bumper to nudge Kenseth from the top spot and win the race. Kenseth dropped to 22nd after being involved in a second incident, this time with David Stremme. An unapologetic Gordon told reporters: "I'm not going to back down. I wanted to win." Kenseth's crew chief, Robbie Reiser, said in a television interview: "We just got spun out, I guess." • Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway: Jeff Burton ended a 175-race victory drought after prevailing in a dramatic, laterace duel with Matt Kenseth.
At a track that sometimes produces boring races, Burton and Kenseth kept fans standing with a 20-lap, door-to-door battle for the lead. The only downer was that Kenseth ran out of gas with two laps to go, but it was after he'd lost the lead to Burton for the final time.
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