Yeah the newer 06 rams are faster than what my buddy's 03 was stock, but i'm not sure by how much. I would think that at the least you'd be even...keep this in mind, if you do beat him in his "still stock" rig, all he has to do is put a chip on and he's going to walk on you all day. You'll have to start looking at a more extreme chip and some other mods.....
As to your reference on all the room in the dodge engine bay, it's just the 5.9 inline 6 that enables it to take up so little room versus our bigger, wider V8's.
A bb turbo is a ball-bearing turbo. I've been told what the benefit of a bb turbo is before, but I have since forgotten.
The 6 pos chip he's speaking of might be something like the banks 6 gun, or more likely the TS 6 position that i'm running in my truck. It's adjustable in-cab, and offers quite a bit more horsepower than the superchip. And on the max 140hp setting it'll blow smoke happily at low rpm's. It won't read codes, but just keep your superchips handheld tuner for reading any codes.