Last spin around the track

As NASCAR completes its 2006 season with five drivers still chasing the Nextel Cup, several others will bid farewell to their teams in search of better racing next year.

Mark Martin, Casey Mears, Brian Vickers and Dale Jarrett are among those hoping Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be a parting gift for the teams they’re leaving and a springboard into 2007 for the teams they’re joining.

They’ll also try to steal part of the spotlight from the Chase, which Jimmie Johnson is favored to win because he holds a 63-point lead over Matt Kenseth entering the last event of NASCAR’s 36-race season.

Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, 90 points behind Johnson, also still have a chance, as does Dale Earnhardt Jr., 115 points behind.

The other five drivers in the 10-race Chase were eliminated last week in Phoenix: Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Martin, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.

The remaining Cup drivers hope to conquer Homestead’s 1.5-mile oval simply to end the series’ long, grueling year on a positive note. And one, former Formula One racer Juan Pablo Montoya, will inaugurate his Cup career.

Evernham Motorsports’ Dodges swept the front row in qualifying Friday, with Kahne winning his sixth pole of the year at 178.259 mph, followed by teammate Scott Riggs at 178.218 mph.

Johnson qualified 15th in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and Kenseth will start 19th in a Ford for Roush Racing.

Montoya qualified 29th in a Dodge as he continues to tune up for a full Cup season in 2007 for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

“They gave me a great car; it was quick enough to get me into the show,” Montoya said.

Among those changing teams after Sunday’s race is Martin, whose No. 6 Ford has been a fixture with Jack Roush’s team for 19 years. Martin plans to drive the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet on a partial schedule for MB2 Motorsports next year.

At 47, Martin has finished second in the Cup standings four times and is perhaps the series’ best driver to have never won a title. He made the Chase this year and hoped to finally win the Cup for Roush but fell short.

“Instead of being emotional and broken-hearted, I’m more philosophical, like, ‘This has been awesome,’ ” Martin said. “It’s been great for [Roush]. It’s been great for me. It’s been a long run and the time is up.”

Mears, meanwhile, is moving to Hendrick from Ganassi, where he has been since joining the Cup circuit in 2003. Mears has struggled this year with only two top-five finishes and no wins.

“It has been a great four years working with the team and for Chip and Felix,” said Mears, part of the famed Mears racing family of Bakersfield.

Montoya is succeeding Mears at Ganassi, and Mears is replacing Vickers at Hendrick. Vickers, in turn, will be part of Toyota’s entry into the Cup series next year as a member of the new Red Bull team.

Michael Waltrip and Jarrett, a Robert Yates Racing driver for the last 12 years, also will drive Toyotas in 2007 for a new team formed by Waltrip.

“Robert and the Yates family have treated me like family, and it will be very difficult when I climb out of that car for the last time on Sunday,” Jarrett said.

If Johnson wins the Cup, it will be a reprieve of sorts for Vickers, who deprived Johnson of a victory in the fourth Chase race in Talladega, Ala., when he clipped Johnson just as Johnson made a last-lap pass of Earnhardt for the lead.

Earnhardt and Johnson went sliding into the infield, Vickers got the win and Johnson -- suddenly 156 points behind in the Chase -- later griped about being crashed by a teammate.

But Johnson climbed back into the Chase lead by winning at Martinsville, Va., and placing second in four other races.

“Anyone that counted them out in the early going should be kicking themselves,” Vickers said of Johnson’s team.

Johnson, Harvick and Tony Stewart all have five victories this season, and only Kahne has more with six. But Kahne struggled in the Chase with finishes of 33rd or lower four times.

Even so, “I’m having a good time,” Kahne said.

“This week is relaxing, and it’s going to be a blast trying to finish the year off with a lot of momentum.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com