KVAPIL BACK TO ROUSH IN 2007
Jack Roush has signed up Travis Kvapil to his organization in 2007 to race in the Craftsman Truck Series, although at the moment the team has not secured a sponsor. Kvapil will replace drivers Mark Martin and David Ragan that had been sharing the responsibilities this season, he had been driving in the Nextel Cup Series for Cal Wells this season and has secured an unnamed sponsor for the thirty-two car. Kvapil was the 2003 Craftsman Truck Champion, 2001's Rookie of the Year and between 2001 and 2004 collected five wins, forty top five finishes, sixty-four to ten finishes. "It's a great opportunity to join an organization that constantly demonstrates it's ability to compete successfully in all areas of competition.” Kvapil said. As far as a sponsor Roush Racing President Geoff Smith feels that now that a driver has been chosen a sponsor will be named soon. "Our sponsor prospects have been waiting for us to settle on the driver and now that Travis is on board, we expect to close a sponsorship,” Smith said.

WALTRIP TAPS WISE TO JOIN TEAM
Josh Wise the 2006 USAC National Sprint Car Series Champion has been named by Michael Waltrip Racing to drive in a few different divisions of NASCAR in 2007. Wise ha already done some testing in a Craftsman Truck for Waltrip's team which the team plans to have him run in a few races in 2007, as well as the ARCA ReMax Series and some other short track race events.

Wise not only has the 2006 Championship, but in 2005 he won the Midget Championship, and all parties are excited about 2007 with plans of a lot of success.

LEICHT AND CITI FINANCIAL IN 2007 WITH YATES
CitiFinancial has extended it's contract with Robert Yates Racing in 2007 as primary sponsor of the number ninety Ford Fusion that will be driven by Stephen Leicht in the Busch Series. Leicht in 2006 made nineteen starts in the Busch Series where he had one top ten finish at Kentucky and made his Nextel Cup debut in July at Pocono where he finished thirty-third. CitiFinancial will also stay on board as an associate sponsor for David Gilliand's ride in the Nextel Cup Series in the 2007 season.

SKINNER WILL BE BACK WITH DAVIS IN 2007
Bill Davis Racing has made it known that 1995 Craftsman Truck Series driving Mike Skinner will be back in 2007 driving the number five Toyota Tundra through the 2009 season. Skinner has been driving for Davis Racing since September 2004 where he has collected three wins, seventeen top five finishes and twenty-eight top ten finishes. Skinner also has sixteen Bud Poles in his fifty-six starts since starting with Davis.


CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
MARTIN AND BODINE WINNERS AT MIAMI

Mark Martin may be leaving Roush Racing this year to race for the Wood Brothers in the Craftsman Truck Series in a partial schedule for 2007, but he sure made it an awesome farewell in Friday night's Ford 200 winning his sixth race of the 2006 season. It was also a good night for Todd Bodine who was also finally able to win his first Craftsman Truck Series Championship, when he finished twenty-first.

"Number Six, golly, this team is just spectacular. The only thing better would be to win Sunday night too. This has been the time of my life. Driving this (number) six truck has been the highlight of the year, for sure. This is sweet,” Martin said after the race. He followed up by saying about leaving Roush, "It's not like it's getting cut way to short, if it had happened ten years ago, then I'd be emotional. But it's been a good long ride.”

The other big race that had to be settled was the championship and the award goes to Todd Bodine who came into the race one hundred twelve points ahead of Johnny Benson. Bodine fought a vibration all night that got worse during the race, but still was able to keep it together to win his first Craftsman Truck Championship. Johnny Benson had a not so great night as well, he got tangled up with a spinning Chase Miller, but was able to keep his truck on the lead lap. Unfortunately later on he cut down a tire and had to pit under green flag conditions which caused him to lose three laps and wound up finishing twenty-sixth, finishing second in points.

Brendan Gaughan finished second behind Martin, Erik Darnell finished third, Bobby Hamilton finished fourth and former champion Jack Sprague finished fifth. At the end David Reutimann ended the year third in points, David Starr finished fourth and Jack Sprague rounded out the top five in points.


CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
TOP TEN FINISHERS
1. Mark Martin
2. Brendan Gaughan
3. Erik Darnell
4. Bobby Hamilton Jr
5. Jack Sprague
6. Joe Nemechek
7. David Starr
8. David Reutimann
9. Dennis Setzer
10. Terry Cook


TOP TEN IN POINTS
1. Todd Bodine – 3666
2. Johnny Benson – 3539
3. David Reutimann – 3530
4. David Starr – 3355
5. Jack Sprague – 3328
6. Ted Musgrave – 3314
7. Ron Hornaday Jr – 3313
8. Terry Cook – 3265
9. Rick Crawford – 3252
10. Mike Skinner – 3219

BUSCH SERIES
KENSETH WINS RACE, HARVICK TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP

Matt Kenseth came back to win his second race in two weeks in the Busch Series when he won Saturday night's Ford 300 at Miami-Homestead. With eleven laps to go Kenseth passed teammate Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick was able to finally celebrate his second Busch Series title. With a three lap battle Kenseth had to stay cool and collected with Harvick in hot pursuit of tying Sam Ard's ten wins in one season, but he was able to hold off Harvick to get his third win of 2006. Kenseth said after the race regarding his trailing Jimmie Johnson by sixty-three points heading into Sunday's final Nextel Cup race, "Oh man, I learned some stuff, Jimmie's in big trouble.” Carl Edwards had to battle with Paul Menard, but held him off finishing second, Menard finished third, Denny Hamlin grabbed fourth place and J. J. Yeley finished fifth.

Kevin Harvick starting the race from the pole, hoping to tie Sam Ard's record already had the championship in hand and slowly drifted back into the pack and had to settle for a sixth place finish, and won the championship by eight hundred twenty-four points ahead of Carl Edwards. Harvick said after the race about winning his second championship, "I think the second time around, we're a lot more aware of how hard it is to get here and what it takes to win this sport.”

BUSCH SERIES
TOP TEN FINISHERS
1. Matt Kenseth
2. Carl Edwards
3. Paul Menard
4. Denny Hamlin
5. J. J. Yeley
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr
8. Kasey Kahne
9. Todd Kluever
10. Johnny Sauter

TOP TEN IN POINTS
1. Kevin Harvick – 5648
2. Carl Edwards – 4824
3. Clint Bowyer – 4683
4. Denny Hamlin – 4667
5. J. J. Yeley – 4487
6. Paul Menard – 4075
7. Kyle Busch – 3921
8. Johnny Sauter – 3794
9. Greg Biffle – 3789
10. Reed Sorenson – 3670

NEXTEL CUP

When the Nextel Sup season started with the Daytona 500, Jimmie Johnson was the winner, when the series went to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400 Johnson was the winner. the forty-eight team had their real highs and real lows in the 2006 season, but stayed the path and coming to the final race at Miami-Homestead Johnson won the 2006 Nextel Championship for the first time and Greg Biffle won the race. For the third time in a row Biffle held off rookies Martin Truex Jr and Denny Hamlin. Kasey Kahne finished fourth and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.

The Chase for the Cup started with Johnson in ninth in the ten driver, ten race shoot out, many were skeptical of Johnson, who during the year led the series for twenty-two of the twenty-six weeks, wouldn't win the championship. But he slowly chipped away at the field and only had to finish twelfth or better taking the championship. Johnson said after the race, "I think we knew in our hearts we could do it all along, we just had some bad luck at the beginning. That's what let us get momentum, let us sleep well at night, is because we knew this team was capable of winning a championship. We just had to have some good luck.” With Johnson winning the championship it gave team owner Rick Hendrick his sixth championship.

Well, another season is done, now what do we do??!!