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.

General info
2006 Meijer 300
Gilliland does burnouts
Series	Busch Series
Location	Kentucky Speedway
Date	June 17, 2006
Qualifying
Pole Sitter	Denny Hamlin
Pole Speed	177.772 mph
Race Data
Winner	David Gilliland
Margin of Victory	.306 seconds
Average Speed	116.004 mph
Cautions	10 for 47 laps
Points Leader	Kevin Harvick (+372)

Qualifying notes[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

Finish	Start	No.	Name	Sponsor	Make	Laps	Laps Lead	Status
1	4	84	David Gilliland (R)	Hype Manufacturing	Chevrolet	200	11	running
2	10		J.J. Yeley	Vigoro/The Home Depot	Chevrolet	200	54	running
3	1		Denny Hamlin	Rockwell Automation	Chevrolet	200	23	running
4	17		Mike Wallace	Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts	Chevrolet	200	0	running
5	32		Ashton Lewis	U.S. Marines	Ford	200	0	running
6	13		Kevin Harvick (W)	U.S. Coast Guard	Chevrolet	200	1	running
7	30		Greg Biffle	Cub Cadet	Ford	200	41	running
8	25	99	David Reutimann	Aaron's	Dodge	200	0	running
9	8	11	Paul Menard	Menards	Chevrolet	200	0	running
10	28		Stephen Leicht	CitiFinancial	Chevrolet	200	0	running
11	7		Steve Wallace	Jackson Roscoe Foundation	Chevrolet	200	9	running
12	21		Clint Bowyer	ACDelco	Chevrolet	200	0	running
13	9		Kyle Busch (W)	Lowe's/Hitachi Power Tools	Chevrolet	200	61	running
14	23	9	Boris Said	Hellman's Mayonnaise	Dodge	200	0	running
15	18		John Andretti (R)	Freedom Roads/Camping World/RVs.com	Ford	199	0	running
16	6		Regan Smith	McDonald's	Ford	199	0	running
17	15		Todd Kluever (R)	3M	Ford	199	0	running
18	22	15	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Kraft Foods/Double Stuf Oreo	Ford	199	0	running
19	20		Burney Lamar (R)	Dollar General	Chevrolet	199	0	running
20	14		Kenny Wallace	AutoZone	Ford	199	0	running
21	12		David Green	Kleenex/Meijer	Ford	198	0	running
22	19		Jon Wood	Clorox/American Red Cross	Ford	198	0	running
23	5		Danny O'Quinn (R)	Transamerica	Ford	198	0	running
24	29		Stacy Compton	Kingsford/Bush's Beans/Kroger	Ford	198	0	running
25	24		Kevin Grubb	Hanger 6 Inc.	Chevrolet	198	0	running
26	40		Mark McFarland (R)	U.S. Navy	Chevrolet	198	0	running
27	31	12	Joel Kauffman (R)	Supercuts	Chevrolet	198	0	running
28	16		Tim Sauter	National City Barnk	Chevrolet	198	0	running
29	26	01	Jay Sauter	Western Union	Chevrolet	198	0	running
30	35	43	Chris Cook	ShiftIntoGear	Dodge	197	0	running
31	34		Aaron Fike	Value City	Chevrolet	195	0	running
32	27		Johnny Sauter	Yellow Transportation	Chevrolet	195	0	running
33	37	70	Justin Diercks	Foretravel Motorcoach	Chevrolet	194	0	running
34	11		Auggie Vidovich	GEICO/DenBeste Transportation	Chevrolet	189	0	crash
35	41		Jamie Mosley	Advil Liqui-Gels	Ford	188	0	running
36	2		Carl Edwards (W)	Henkel	Ford	174	0	running
37	42	58	Chris Horn	Horn Auto Racing	Chevrolet	115	0	handling
38	43		Shane Hall	Speed Zone Energy Drink	Ford	73	0	handling
39	3		Reed Sorenson	Discount Tire	Dodge	59	0	crash
40	36		Jason Leffler	Great Clips	Chevrolet	46	0	crash
41	39	34	Jeff Fuller	Glow Buoy/KL Industries	Chevrolet	28	0	crash
42	33	0	Morgan Shepherd	RaceGirl/Racing with Jesus	Chevrolet	8	0	transmission
43	38	72	Eric McClure	MacDonald Motorsports	Chevrolet	5	0	engine