Mark Martin waves to the crowd after taking his 6th victory of the season. (Christina Ramzel/High Sierra Photo)

Mark Martin played a patience game late in the going during the Ford 200, and when it came time to go he pressed the button and ran to the front, passing Brendan Gaughan with 31 laps to go to score his sixth victory of the 2006 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"It means a lot to me because this was an incredible team effort," Martin said. "This is the best program I have ever been affiliated with in my life. Mike Beam and the guys give me great trucks each and every week. We had huge horsepower under the hood tonight. This is a great way to end things with the 6 team."

Martin raced his No. 6 Scott's Ford side by side with a resurgent Brendan Gaughan late in the going. Gaughan qualified well and stayed near the front and before Martin's charge looked like he had a shot to win.

"That was a lot of fun racing the 77 like that," Martin said. "He had it wound up in the outside lane. That's why this type of track is so good. It has aged well and you have grooves all over that you can race. He was good up top and we were good down low. The good thing is we had the time to race him and do it right because we didn't have anyone behind us to pressure us. I wasn't going to do anything that crashed him or crashed us."

Gaughan was pleased with his effort against one of the "mega-teams" of the series.

Mark Martin battles Brendan Gaughan in the late stages of the event for the win. (Nate Mecha/High Sierra Photo)

"The South Point Racing Team is back on the right track," Gaughan said. "To come out and run this way against the Roush juggernaut says volumes about the work this team has done to get turned around. Tony Liberati came in and tore our shop apart and got us turned around. Now with Bryan Berry leading things we've stepped it up."

"I knew when Mark dropped back he was cooling his tires. My spotter called down and said we needed to get ours cool too. If we could have held him off for about four more laps his tires would have been as warm as ours and I think we could have given him a run for the money."

Erik Darnell closed the season with his third top-three finish in the last five races. Darnell locked up the 2006 NCTS Raybestos Rookie of the Year award with his finish.

"We kind of got bit on pit road a couple of times tonight," Darnell said. "The guys nailed the last stop and we got pretty good track position. John (Quinn) made the right adjustments on the No. 99 Woolrich Ford. I didn't quite have enough for Mark, but if we had another five laps I think we could have raced Brendan for second."

The race started off with a couple of quick yellows. First, Willie Allen and Chad Chaffin tangled in turn four on lap 6, sending Chaffin headlong into the wall and sweeping Michel Jourdain and Damon Lusk into the aftermath. Shortly after the restart, Mike Skinner was racing for the lead with David Reutimann off turn four when he lost traction and slid into the inside wall. Skinner's truck was heavily damaged, and he retired with a 35th-place finish.

The two championship contenders were not a factor in the race. Todd Bodine locked up the championship with a 21st-place finish on what was a entirely unspectacular day for the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota team. But even with their struggles in the final race, they locked up the title by 127 points over Johnny Benson after Benson was involved in two separate incidents.

On lap 96 Chase Miller spun into the infield in turn two, and just as Benson arrived on the scene Miller's truck backed up the banking. Benson made contact, damaging the left side of the No. 23 Exide Batteries Toyota, but he was able to continue on. Then, on lap 115 as he was racing for a spot in the top ten, Benson had a left front go down, ending his championship hopes.

Bobby Hamilton, Jr. had a strong run in the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge, finishing fourth just ahead of Jack Sprague in the No. 60 Con-way Toyota. Joe Nemechek ran up front early before finishing sixth in the No. 46 Ginn Clubs and Resorts Chevrolet, David Starr was seventh in the No. 11 ToyotaForklift.net Toyota, David Reutimann was eighth in the No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota, Dennis Setzer was ninth in the No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Chevrolet, and Terry Cook rounded out the top ten in the No. 10 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford.

The 2006 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing season is over, but the champion and remainder top-10 drivers will be feted at the NCTS Awards Banquet in Orlando on December 10.