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In 2006 Kurt Busch will grow tired of having to deal with the media's ongoing interest in the impact his run-in with Arizona police has had on his life and racing career, writes Allen Bestwick of NBCSports.com.

Allen Bestwick

With less than 90 days separating the final race of 2005 and the first race of 2006, there is always a frantic blur of activity that keeps the news flowing for NASCAR fans.

So here’s a look at what might be in store for the new season. Most of these things you will definitely see happen, but a couple are just hunches on my part.

Busch a hot topic
Every place he goes in 2006 Kurt Busch will be asked to talk about being a “changed” person in the aftermath of his traffic-stop incident last November with Phoenix police.

When he tests in Daytona, there will be stories about it. When he tests in Las Vegas, there will be stories about it. When he goes to Daytona for Speedweeks, there’ll be more stories about it.

In the weeks leading up to and during the Phoenix race weekend in April, there’ll be even more stories about it. Busch is going to get tired of talking about it, and I don’t blame him, I would be, too, but the questions will keep on coming for a while.

Much buzz about rookies
Let’s face it, we haven’t heard much about the Rookie of the Year battle in the last couple of years because pretty much there hasn’t been a Rookie of the Year battle in the last couple of years. That will change in 2006.

You’re going to hear lots about this year’s Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidates as there will be at least a half-dozen drivers competing for the title. Even more compelling is that all of those drivers will be with established teams and have veteran teammates to rely on for help.

You’ll have Clint Bowyer for Richard Childress Racing, Martin Truex Jr. for Dale Earnhardt Inc., Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley for Joe Gibbs Racing, and David Stremme and Reed Sorenson for Chip Ganassi Racing. What a class!

I think we’ll be hearing lots about this group of rookies, not just in the time between now and Daytona, but throughout the year.

Daytona testing – don’t believe all the speeds
When the preseason testing sessions are held at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 9-11 and Jan. 16-18, there will be much publicity concerning the sheet -- the listing of each car’s fastest lap that’s run during each day of the test, plus the cumulative speed listing after the sessions are over.

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Don’t believe all you see where those speeds are concerned. There are things a speed listed on a sheet of paper can’t tell you about the test, such as did the driver catch a bit of a draft during his fast lap, making his speed quicker?

Also, was the car legal on the fast lap? It’s not unheard of for a team needing a little pop for its sponsor or to lock up a sponsor to lower the car a bit and get to the top of the sheet because doing so certainly does get a brief flurry of attention.

And did a team not running all that quick a speed on the sheet even try a qualifying run? Are they really struggling for speed, or are they just working methodically through their test program, concerned more with gathering telemetry data than speed numbers?

Testing speed numbers are kind of like exit polls on election night. They give you a little glimpse of what might be happening, but come no where close to providing the total picture needed to predict results.

Hall of Fame to find a home
NASCAR is expected to select the city where its Hall of Fame will be built sometime in the next few months. There are five candidate cities that have bid on the project: Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, Daytona Beach and Kansas City.

There is much rumor and buzz about the Kansas City bid, but I believe that NASCAR will select one of the southeastern cities to host the Hall of Fame -- likely either Charlotte or Atlanta.

NASCAR is a sport with southeastern roots, and while I love going to the races in Kansas City, the historical connection to the sport’s beginnings is just not there like it is in the other cities with bids. I’m thinking that those historical ties will be the deciding factor when the final call is made.

Manufacturer maneuverings
All of the automobile brands fielding cars in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series have issues heading into 2006, and expect the attention paid to the car types to increase as a result.

Since NASCAR went to the common dimension car there’s not much difference between the different brands, but 2005 showed us that the few areas the cars are not alike can have a big impact on performance.

Recall that the Dodge Charger struggled this season on the fast, intermediate venues -- the 1.5 and 2-mile tracks. While the Charger had the same basic shape as the Ford and Chevy, the nose and tail sections, where the cars are distinct, created an aerodynamic balance issue the Dodge teams weren’t able to overcome on the fast tracks.

In fact, of the three races won by Dodge teams this year, two came on short tracks -- Richmond and New Hampshire -- while Jeremy Mayfield won at Michigan on fuel mileage after running in the middle of the field for almost the entire race.

Dodge is seeking permission from NASCAR to make changes to its car, but as of this writing NASCAR has said no. Will Dodge eventually get the green light for an aero tweak? We’ll see.

As for the other brands, Ford has a new car for 2006, the Fusion. It will be sorting through that car over the winter, looking to ensure that its handling characteristics and speed are at least equal to what was produced in 2005 with the Taurus model.

Chevy’s car is also updated for 2006 with a new nose, hood and tail to be sorted out. As the teams go through their winter testing at Daytona and Las Vegas, plus the unofficial testing they’ll do at other places, we’ll begin to hear from the various teams about which brand of car has a supposed advantage, and which is at a disadvantage on the different types of tracks as the teams get track time together.

We haven’t heard a lot of the brand positioning as I’ll call it since NASCAR went to the common dimension car, but I think there’s a real potential to hear much more of it this year than in the recent past.