Ronda Greer Photo

Sometimes the calendar can stop momentum cold but not in 2006 and not for Todd Bodine and his No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota team.

Bodine closed out 2005 with three consecutive victories and hated to see the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season end at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

His Germain Racing team, assuming its late-season record would put a figurative bulls-eye on the tailgate of Bodine's yellow and black Tundra, refused to lose its edge during the winter months.

Bodine's March 17 win at Atlanta Motor Speedway followed a pair of runnerup finishes - both to Mark Martin driving the No. 6 Scotts Ford - and further established the 42-year-old New Yorker as the driver to beat for this year's title.

Assuming, of course, that Martin sticks to his original schedule of seven races.

"I don't know," was Martin's post-Atlanta response, accompanied by a sly grin, to the question of his next series appearance, previously penciled in for Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 19.

That, of course, was before Martin got off to the best start in series history. He holds a 25-point championship lead - 560 to 535 - over Bodine with three of 25 races complete.

Martin is having the time of his life, a fact not lost on team owner Jack Roush, who persuaded his longtime driver to stick around for another season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. Martin previously had planned to move fulltime to NASCAR Craftsman Trucks this year.

"I love this racing," said Martin after finishing .354-second behind Bodine after the pair swapped the lead 12 times during the John Deere 200.

Martin's performance also has been redemptive for Ford, which matched its all-time low in the series in 2005 with just two wins. Four F-150 drivers rank among the current top 10 after placing none in final rankings a year ago.

Martin's teammate, Raybestos Rookie of the Year leader Erik Darnell (No. 99 Woolrich Ford) is the first freshman to show among the top 10 since David Reutimann (No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota) stood fourth in September 2004.

The No. 9 Toyota pits in Atlanta. (Ronda Greer Photo)

Back to Bodine, he's not alone at Germain Racing at the top of the point chase. Teammate Ted Musgrave (No. 9 Team ASE/Germain Motor Company Toyota) logged his third top-five finish in Atlanta. The defending series champion put something of an exclamation point on his fourth-place performance, which came from a start of 36th.

Musgrave stands third in points after finishes of third, third and fourth.

It's a fact that Germain and Roush have done their homework well. Safe to predict, however, their rivals will be burning the midnight oil and hitting the books as the schedule shifts from Atlanta's 180 mph-plus speeds to the April 1 Kroger 250 at .526-mile Martinsville Speedway, the first of five short tracks on the 2006 schedule.