Jimmie Johnson finally did it in 2006. But man, the road there was a total mess. People forget how weird the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season actually was because we usually just look at the championship trophy. We see the start of Jimmie’s five-in-a-row and assume it was a dominant stroll through the park. It wasn't. It was a year of massive rule changes, a rookie class that shouldn't have been that good, and a Chase for the Cup that almost fell apart for the guy who eventually won it.
Seriously, if you look back at the points, Johnson wasn't even the "best" driver for huge chunks of the year. He just survived the carnage better than everyone else.
The Year of the Rookie Takeover
Usually, rookies in the Cup series spend their first year hitting the wall and apologizing to veterans. Not in 2006. This was the year of Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer. Hamlin, driving that #11 FedEx Chevy for Joe Gibbs Racing, didn't just compete; he set the world on fire. He swept both races at Pocono. Think about that. A kid who had never seen the "Tricky Triangle" in a Cup car before went out and beat the best in the business twice in one summer.
It changed the way owners looked at talent. Suddenly, you didn't need five years of "seasoning" in the Busch Series. If you were fast, you were ready.
Then there was the Reed Sorenson and Martin Truex Jr. factor. While they didn't have the breakout year Hamlin did, the sheer volume of young talent pushed the old guard—guys like Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace (who had just retired)—further into the rearview mirror. It felt like the sport was shedding its skin.
Jimmie Johnson and the Chad Knaus Suspension
The 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season started with a literal explosion of drama at Daytona. Before the engines even fired for the Daytona 500, Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, got booted from the track. NASCAR found "innovative" (read: illegal) adjustments to the rear window of the #48 car.
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Knaus was suspended for four races. Most teams would have folded. Instead, Johnson went out and won the Daytona 500 with Darian Grubb calling the shots on the pit box.
It was a statement. It told the entire garage that even if you took away the "brain" of the 48 team, the driver and the equipment were still better than you. That win set the tone, but it also created a massive target on Johnson’s back. He spent the rest of the year being the "villain" in the eyes of many fans who were tired of the Hendrick Motorsports dominance.
The Toyota Shadow
While the racing was happening on the track, the biggest story in the garage was what was happening behind the scenes. Toyota was coming. 2006 was the final year of the "American Three" dominance before the Camry showed up in 2007. You could feel the tension. Teams like Bill Davis Racing were already getting heat for their "technical partnerships" with the Japanese manufacturer. It added this weird layer of political drama to every Sunday.
The Chase for the Cup was a Rollercoaster
The 2006 Chase was arguably the most stressful ten-race stretch in the history of the playoff format. It wasn't clean.
Kevin Harvick was arguably the fastest man on the planet that year. He won five races and absolutely dominated the Busch Series (now Xfinity) at the same time. But in the Chase? He had some bad luck that kept him from truly threatening Jimmie.
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And don't get me started on Jeff Burton. For a few weeks there, it looked like the "Mayor" was actually going to win the whole thing for Richard Childress Racing. He led the points for a good stretch of the postseason. But then the engines started failing. A mechanical DNF at Talladega basically ended his dream.
Johnson, meanwhile, had a terrible start to the Chase. He finished 39th at New Hampshire and 24th at Dover. After two races, he was basically counted out. Everyone thought it was Matt Kenseth’s year. Kenseth was the model of consistency in that #17 DeWalt Ford. But Johnson put together a string of finishes—2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd—that moved him back into contention.
Key Moments that Defined the Season
- The Finish at Talladega: Brian Vickers taking out his teammate Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap. The fans were livid. Vickers won the race, but he needed a police escort to get out of the track.
- Tony Stewart's Missed Chase: The defending champ didn't even make the playoffs. Smoke struggled with consistency and some bad luck, and even though he won three races during the Chase period, he was relegated to the "best of the rest."
- The Dodge Decline: This was a rough year for the Mopar fans. Evernham Motorsports had some flashes of brilliance with Kasey Kahne (who won a series-high 6 races), but the overall reliability just wasn't there compared to the Roush Fords or Hendrick Chevys.
Why 2006 Still Matters Today
When you look back at the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup stats, you see the end of an era. It was the last year of the "Gen 4" car being used for the full schedule before the Car of Tomorrow (CoT) started creeping in. The Gen 4 was arguably the most beloved car in NASCAR history—low, wide, and incredibly fast on 1.5-mile tracks.
It was also the peak of the sport’s cultural relevance. The stands were packed. The TV ratings were massive. Every driver was a household name.
If you’re trying to understand how NASCAR became the Jimmie Johnson show for a decade, you have to study 2006. It taught the #48 team how to lose, how to get caught, and how to claw back from a points deficit. It hardened them.
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Real-World Takeaways for Fans and Collectors
If you're a collector, 2006 is the "Goldilocks" year for diecasts and memorabilia. It's old enough to be "vintage" but new enough that the quality of the items was high. Specifically, look for the Kasey Kahne "Checkers" or "Revenge of the Sith" schemes—they are highly sought after because 2006 was his peak year.
For the stats nerds, go back and look at the average finish of the top 10 that year. You’ll notice that it was much harder to stay consistent back then because the cars were so much harder to drive than the high-downforce packages we saw in the late 2010s.
How to Relive the 2006 Season
You don't just have to take my word for it. Most of the full race broadcasts from 2006 are available on YouTube via the NASCAR Classics library.
- Watch the 2006 UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega. It’s the quintessential "chaos" race of that era.
- Analyze the Pocono sweeps. Look at Denny Hamlin’s line through the Tunnel Turn; he was doing things with the car that veterans couldn't replicate.
- Check the points swings. Use sites like Racing-Reference to track how Jimmie Johnson went from 9th in points to 1st in the final five weeks.
The 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup wasn't just a championship for Jimmie Johnson; it was the final stand for a specific type of gritty, high-stakes stock car racing before the sport moved into a more corporate, standardized era. If you missed it, you missed a wild ride. If you lived through it, you know exactly why we still talk about it.