2006 Meijer 300

**The 2006 Meijer 300** was a Busch Series race that occured at Kentucky Speedway on June 17, 2006. David Gilliland won his first career race in his fifth career start in the Busch Series, driving for a single-car, unsupported race team. He was the first non-NEXTEL Cup driver to win a Busch race that season.

## Qualifying notes

Denny Hamlin won the pole with a lap of 177.772 mph. Carl Edwards qualified on the outside pole, but suffered mechanical faliures early in the race. Points leader Kevin Harvick qualified thirteenth.

Failing to qualify were: John Hayden (#85), David O'Dell (#07), Stan Boyd (#23)

## Race Recap

The race got off to a wild start, as Carl Edwards, who started on the outside pole broke a transmission on the start. Kevin Harvick then spun on lap four, saving his car while Jon Wood falls to pit road with a flat tire.

More trouble occured on the restart on lap eight, as Morgan Shepherd broke a transmission and stalled on the track. Once the race finally got a few laps under green, Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson and Hamlin got in a battle for the lead. Busch emerged by lap 23, when David Reutimann spun out. Reed Sorenson encounters trouble on the pit stop, missing his pit and having to repit.

On the restart, Jason Leffler lost his car by himself coming off of turn two. Trying to avoid the incident, Jeff Fuller smashes the inside wall on the backstretch. Fuller had to be extradicted from the car, causing the red flag. Fuller never lost consiousness, but couldn't climb out due to what turned out to be a broken wrist.

Leffler was the cause of the next caution, after once again losing it by himself in turn four on lap 49. Kyle Busch maintainedthe lead through this portion of the race but will lose the lead after pitstops after Clint Bowyer stays on the track.

A good night that had already gone bad got worse on lap 62 for Sorenson. He got tapped and smashed his back part of the car into the wall. He would be done for the day. At this point in the season, Sorenson's point situation is grim and will be replaced by teammate David Stremme the next week at Milwuakee.

Greg Biffle took the lead from Bowyer on the restart and drove his #66 Cub Cadet Ford comfortably in the lead until lap 99, when Busch moved back into position. Biffle and Bowyer would come back to pit road laps later from green flag pitstops. Unfortuantely for those drivers, nobody else pits under the green before the next caution comes out on lap 117 for a Burney Lamar incident.

Busch maintained the lead until a debris caution on lap 134. This caution was the turning point in the race. J.J. Yeley and Mike Wallace both got just fuel to the end and other pit strategies resulted. Yeley began to dominate, pulling away from Wallace and Kevin Harvick. On lap 151, Johnny Sauter was black flagged for smoking. At the same time the second-place battle went three-wide with Kyle Busch emerging in that spot. However, Busch's luck ran out laps later. He would pit with a flat right side tire. He would only recover to 13th by the end of the race.

The race stayed under green and two fast cars quickly emerged. Denny Hamlin, who took tires was in third while a shockingly-fast David Gilliland was rolling in fourth. On lap 177, while Hamlin and Wallace battled for second, Gilliland blew through both and began to cut down Yeley's five second lead.

On lap 183, Chris Cook crashed setting up crucial final pit stops. Half of the field did not stop, including Gilliland and Yeley. Biffle, who was closing in on both was penalized for passing cars on pit road ending his bid for the win. He would finish 6th.

Gilliland stayed with Yeley on the restart and with 10 laps to go, shocked the field and pulled up to the lead. Gilliland is barely in front of Yeley when Auggie Vidovich II wrecks to end his night. NASCAR reviews the pass and declares Gilliland the leader. On the ensuing shootout, Gilliland pulled away to win his seventh career start in what could only be described at "The Biggest Upset in NASCAR history" by TV commentator Hermie Sadler

## Race Results

* **(R)** - Denotes rookie
* **(R)** - Denotes former winner of the race

## Top Twenty Points

1. Kevin Harvick +372
2. Carl Edwards -372
3. Denny Hamlin -413
4. Clint Bowyer -416
5. Greg Biffle -506
6. J. J. Yeley -511
7. Kyle Busch -593
8. Paul Menard -616
9. Johnny Sauter -821
10. Kenny Wallace -822
11. Burney Lamar -889
12. Reed Sorenson -920
13. Jon Wood -951
14. Ashton Lewis -952
15. John Andretti -957
16. Jason Leffler -967
17. Todd Kluever -1005
18. David Green -1033
19. Danny O'Quinn, Jr. -1045
20. Mark McFarland -1075