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Jeff Burton breaking a winless streak that lasted nearly five years was one of the highlights of the 2006 Nextel Cup season, writes Allen Bestwick of MSNBC.com.

Too Many Late Cautions: It seemed to me like the pace of many races slowed to a crawl during the final laps this year as caution after caution would keep the field slowed.

Add in several red flags for track cleanup and you get races dragging to a finish instead of building to the finish. I know the competition’s tight and everyone’s fighting extra-hard in the final laps, but there’s nothing exciting about watching caution after caution.

Yates Woes: Just as with Richard Childress Racing in past years, this year Robert Yates Racing hit bottom.

One of NASCAR’s most storied organizations failed to crack the top 20 in points, and the year was one of personnel shuffles and general malaise.

How bad was it? Both drivers who started the year with the team will be elsewhere in 2007, and until the very last moments of the year there was genuine concern that sponsorship might not be found to continue the famed No. 88 car for next season.

Here’s hoping the Yates team enjoys a Childress-like resurgence in 2007.

Official Error: Perhaps the lowest moment of the season for officials running the races was NASCAR throwing the green flag for a restart in the October Charlotte event with safety vehicles still on the track.

A quick reaction by officials and the system of communication between officials, spotters and drivers worked as it should to prevent an unfortunate situation, but it sure wasn’t pretty.

Bad Finishes: Late controversies sure give us something to talk about, but knowing how much work goes into these cars I hate to see someone with a chance to win wind up wrecked.

I’m thinking about Matt Kenseth/Jeff Gordon in Chicago, Tony Stewart/Kenseth in the Daytona 500, and the Bristol spring race where Kenseth got bumped by Kurt Busch, then bumped Gordon. That was a mess.

Rule In Need of Review: At Watkins Glen in August, Kurt Busch is leading the race and nearing his pit window. His team spots a potential caution and calls Busch to pit road. Mere feet before he hits the pit “in” scoring line, and way too late to not go down pit road, NASCAR throws the caution and closes pit road.

Because of those few feet, Busch is penalized and drops to 40th. He eventually gets caught up in a wreck and loses any chance to win.

If the pit road closed is going to be that inflexible, then the place on the track where those lines are needs to be changed to give a driver a chance to go back on the track. 

No one was at fault, Busch or NASCAR, but at this particular track something needs to be adjusted so that doesn’t happen again.