LOUDON, N.H. (AP) – There will be a rookie in Roush Racing’s No. 6 Ford next season, and it could even be Todd Kluever.

Team owner Jack Roush anointed Kluever two years ago as the driver to take over the 6 when longtime NASCAR star Mark Martin retires. But Kluever’s progress through the Craftsman Truck Series and Busch Series has been slow, and Roush said two weeks ago that Kluever might no longer be the driver to move up in 2007.

Before Sunday’s race, Roush team president Geoff Smith said the owner will make a choice for the 6 car within the next two weeks from among four rookies: Kluever, David Ragan, Danny O’Quinn and Erik Darnell.

“That’s Jack’s call,” Smith said. “He’ll make that decision. But there will be a rookie in the 6 next season and we’ll, hopefully, be able to build a very good program.

Ragan, 20, and Darnell, 23, are currently in the truck series, while Kluever, 27, and O’Quinn, 21, are in Busch. None has won a race this season.

Power failure

Electrical power blinked out just minutes before the start of Sunday’s race. But the 300-mile event started right on time, thanks to generators that kept all of NASCAR’s equipment up and running.

The TV broadcast by TNT also continued without interruption until full power was restored after just four laps had been run.

Ted Christopher’s car was held in the garage until after the power came on because his spotter, who apparently was stuck on an elevator, had not reported to the spotters’ stand at the top of the grandstand. Christopher started the race four laps behind.

Officials said an auto accident away from the racetrack knocked down high voltage lines and caused the brief outage.

—

SPARK PLUGS: Rookie Denny Hamlin finished fourth, his fifth top five and 14th top 10 finish this season. … Kevin Harvick’s victory Sunday was the 16th in 27 races this season for a Chevrolet driver and clinched the 2006 Manufacturers Championship for the General Motors brand. Chevy has now won that title 26 times. … Best-selling author and NASCAR fan Janet Evanovich was on hand to enjoy the race and plug her new book “Motor Mouth,” which has NASCAR as part of its theme and will be released Tuesday. … Harvick averaged 102.195 mph, a figure slowed by 10 caution flags for a total of 47 laps.