Johnson grabbed the Nextel Cup title Sunday while Harvick – and his EMP Stewart Components cooled Richard Childress Racing Chevy – scripted a major burnout on the HMS front straight Saturday to celebrate the Busch Series crown he’d already locked up at Charlotte a month ago. On Friday, Bodine won his first-ever major NASCAR title leading a sweep of the first six spots by Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series standings.

Right in the middle of all the action was EMP Stewart Components. In addition to the NBS championship celebration with Harvick and his RCR Bowtie crowd, the company saw its Ford Pro Series Water Pump dominate the weekend events with Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin all powering to victories.

Biffle (left) won Sunday’s Ford 400 for the third consecutive year taking the lead for good on Lap 257. A late restart was short-circuited when the car of Juan Montoya – the former Indy 500 champion and Formula One star making his first-ever Cup appearance – burst into flames after heavy contact with the wall.

A second restart after a red flag to clear the damage from Montoya’s wreck saw Biffle drive away from runner-up Martin Truex, Jr. on a green- white-checkered flag finish to notch his second win of the season.

“I was as nervous as can be. I was just scared to death that I wasn’t going to be able to hold them off,” said Biffle after the race, “I was really nervous about (Truex). He was getting a good start, laying back on me.”

Denny Hamlin closed out a spectacular rookie season coming home third with Kasey Kahne, Harvick, Kenseth, Scott Riggs, Carl Edwards, Johnson and Clint Bowyer completing the Top-10 finishers in Sunday’s race.

Biffle’s winning average speed was 125.375 miles per hour in an event that was slowed 11 times for 43 caution laps.

Johnson’s ninth-place finish was more than enough to clinch his first Nextel Cup championship. Johnson – having only to finish 12th or better to win the title – had an adventurous day falling back to 40th after running over debris from a crash in the first 10 laps of the race.

The winner of five races this year including the Daytona 500 and the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis, Johnson raced his way back into the Top-10 by Lap 80 and then stayed there en route to the championship-clinching finish.

The Top-10 HMS effort topped a championship stretch run that saw Johnson rally from 156 points back with five-straight finishes of second or better beating Kenseth (right) for the title by 56 points (6,475-6.419).

“You always want to win, but with everything that has gone on in the Chase, I am happy to finish second to Jimmie,” said Kenseth, the 2003 Cup titlest. “Those guys have been the team to beat the past four years, really, for a championship – man, they’ve been unbelievably fast and consistent. They really deserve it.”

Hamlin moved up to third in the final standings thanks to his top run Sunday finishing 68 points behind Johnson. Harvick, tied for third with Hamlin in the standings going into the race, fell to fourth in the final rankings 78 points behind Johnson.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 19th in Sunday’s Homestead event – finished fifth in the Chase, 69 points behind Harvick.

Jeff Gordon (6,256), Jeff Burton (6,228), Kahne (6,193), Mark Martin ((6,168) and Kyle Busch (6,027) completed the Top-10 in the final 2006 Cup standings.

While the battle for the Cup Series title went right down to the wire, the Busch Series championship chase was long decided before they took the green flag in Saturday’s Ford 300.

With the title in hand, Harvick (No. 29 at right with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (8) at Daytona this season) was all about tying the single season wins record of 10 and might have done it if not for a dominating performance by Kenseth.

The winner at Phoenix a week ago, Kenseth and his EMP Stewart Components cooled Ford Fusion were fast enough to overcome a late race problem on pit road and score the Homestead Busch Series win in front of Edwards, Paul Menard, Hamlin and J.J. Yelley.

Harvick was sixth with Earnhardt, Jr., Kahne, Todd Kluever and Johnny Sauter completing the Top-10 finishers.

The win was Kenseth’s 21st in Busch Series competition. His winning average speed was 126.523 in an event slowed eight times for 32 caution laps. There were 15 lead changes among 11 drivers with Kenseth leading four times for 91 circuits.

Harvick (5.648) , meanwhile, finished his 2006 NBS championship campaign with nine wins and an incredible 824-point margin – the largest in series history – over runner-up Edwards (4,824). His 23 Top-5 and 32 Top-10 finishes were also tops in the division.

Most impressively, Harvick (left) completed 6,758 of 6,759 laps contested this season.

“To win nine races and run like we have this year is something I will probably never get to be a part of again in the Busch series and, hopefully, someday we can do this in the Cup series,” Harvick stated. “It’s been an incredible year.”

Clint Bowyer (4,683), Denny Hamlin (4.667), J.J. Yelley (4,487), Paul Menard (4,075), Kyle Busch (3,921), Johnny Sauter (3,794, Greg Biffle (3,789) and Reed Sorenson (3,670) completed the Top-10 in the NASCAR Busch Series standings this season.

Mark Martin closed the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season the same way he opened it – with a victory – by winning Friday’s Ford 200 at HMS.

Martin, the winner in the season lid-lifter at Daytona, closed the show with an impressive performance holding off Brendan Gaughan by 2.63 seconds at the finish.

In all Martin and his EMP Stewart Components cooled Roush Racing Ford F-150 (right) won a Truck Series division-high six races this year in just 14 starts.

“This team has been spectacular and this is the way to end it up,” Martin stated. “Driving this No. 6 truck has been the highlight of this year, that’s for sure. We’ve been on a roll all year with that truck. Great people and great equipment; it’s just been a lot of fun.”

Martin’s Roush teammate Erik Darnell was third in another EMP Stewart Components cooled Ford followed by Bobby Hamilton, Jr. and Jack Sprague.

Joe Nemechek, in a rare truck start, was sixth with David Starr, David Reutimann, Dennis Setzer and Terry Cook completing the Top-10.

Bodine rolled out of the throttle when title challenger Johnny Benson, Jr. was knocked out of contention spinning out after contact with Chase Miller late in the race. Bodine would idle to a 21st-place finish and take the title by 127 points (3,666-3,539) over Benson, who finished 26th Saturday.

Reutimann (3,530) was third in the final Truck Series standings David Starr (3,355) was fourth. Sprague (3,328) was fifth with 2005 champion Ted Musgrave (3,314) making it a Toyota sweep of the Top-6 positions in the championship standings.

Ron Hornaday, Jr. (3,192) and his Kevin Harvick-owned, EMP Stewart Components cooled Chevy broke the run of Toyotas finishing seventh in the standings on the strength of two wins and 12 Top-10 finishes.

Terry Cook (3,265) and his EMP Stewart Components Ford Pro Series Water Pump (left) cooled F-150 came home eighth in the standings scoring one win and 12 Top-10 finishes, while Rick Crawford (3,252) – in another EMP Stewart Components cooled entry – was ninth in the standings thanks to one win and 13 Top-10 finishes.

Mike Skinner (3,219) completed the Top-10 in a Toyota.

The Homestead weekend all but closed the book on touring series racing for the 2006 season. However, there’s still plenty of special-event action leading up to the opening of the 2007 tour-racing season in January.

Make sure you log on to www.stewartcomponents.com to read about all the racing highlights throughout the remainder of the 2006 special-event racing season and get a leg up on what’s happening as the racing industry prepares for the 2007 campaign.