2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series

The 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season will begin on Saturday, February 11 with the Bud Shootout and will end on Sunday, November 19 with the Ford 400. The Chase for the Nextel Cup will begin with the Sylvania 300 on Sunday, September 17.

The 2006 season will be the first for Ford's Fusion, replacing the Taurus, which is being retired by the manufacturer.

Several new drivers will have their first stint as a regular on the Nextel Cup circuit in 2006. Martin Truex Jr. will race the #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Monte Carlo for DEI after spending most of the 2005 season in the Busch Series.

Michael Waltrip and his sponsor, NAPA, will also be leaving DEI for the 2006 season for Bill Davis Racing. It was earlier speculated that Waltrip was a candidate for working with Toyota when they began fielding Nextel Cup teams as early as 2007. There may still be some veracity to the rumor as Bill Davis Racing is a strong candidate for being one of the first Toyota teams because, despite the fact that they currently race Dodges in Nextel Cup, they do it without Dodge's support because they race Toyotas in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Other drivers changing teams include Scott Riggs who is taking the #10 Valvoline-sponsored car to Evernham Motorsports, where they will switch from Chevy to Dodge. Sterling Marlin will move from the #40 to the #14 car with MB2 Motorsports. Jeff Green is likely to leave Petty Enterprises and move to the #0 car, which is being vacated by Mike Bliss at the end of the year. Kyle Petty, who is having problems finding a sponsor for the #45, is then likely to move to the #43 that Green leaves behind.

Hall of Fame Racing, a new NASCAR team created by football greats Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, will field their first car in the 2006 season, the #96 sponsored by Texas Instruments' DLP technology. No driver has been officially named yet, but speculation has landed on drivers Tony Raines and Terry Labonte.