The 2006 Coca-Cola 600 was the 12th stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series as well as the 47th running of the event. It was held on May 28, 2006, in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, before a crowd of 175,000 spectators. The circuit is an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. Kasey Kahne of the Evernham Motorsports team won the 400-lap race starting from ninth position; Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson finished second and Roush Racing's Carl Edwards was third.
Scott Riggs won the second pole position of his career by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, and led 47 of the first 49 laps until Jeff Gordon overtook him on lap 50. The lead changed a total of 37 times, with Kahne leading the most laps of any competitor (158). At the final restart on the 368th lap, Edwards led the field and held off Johnson in the second position. Kahne turned left to pass them both and reclaim the lead three laps later. He extended his advantage to more than two seconds and claimed his third victory of the season and the fourth of his career. There were a total of fifteen cautions during the race, and sixteen different drivers each led at least one lap.
The result of the race advanced Kahne to sixth in the Drivers' Championship, 292 points behind Johnson. Roush Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin each finished in the top ten, and moved to second and third, respectively. Tony Stewart of Joe Gibbs Racing fell from second to fourth after crashing heavily on lap 34. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet maintained its lead with 86 points, 14 points ahead of Ford in second, and 16 in front of Dodge (its first Coca-Cola 600 victory since 1977) in third, with 24 races left in the season.
Background
The Coca-Cola 600 was the 12th of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, and the event's 47th iteration. It was held on May 28, 2006, in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway (now Charlotte Motor Speedway), an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard layout is a four-turn quad-oval track. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees; both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch (opposite the front) have a five-degree banking.
Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 1,686 points, with Tony Stewart in second (1,593 points) and Matt Kenseth third (1,592 points). Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were fourth and fifth with 1,487 points and 1,460 points, respectively, and Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton rounded out the top ten drivers in the points standings. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 80 points; Ford was second with 68 points, followed by Dodge with 61 points. Johnson was the race's defending champion. NASCAR mandated that teams used a fuel cell instead of the standard so that there would be fewer laps between pit stops and more tire changes could occur. Control tire supplier Goodyear brought a supply of harder compounds to ensure longevity.
The Coca-Cola 600 was conceived by driver Curtis Turner, who built the track. It was first held in 1960 in NASCAR's attempt to stage a Memorial Day weekend race to compete with the open-wheel Indianapolis 500; the two races were held together on the same day from 1974 onward. The race is the longest in distance on NASCAR's calendar, and is considered by drivers to be one of the sport's most important races alongside the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500. It is NASCAR's most physically demanding event; teams adapt to changeable track conditions because it occurs between late afternoon and evening. It was known as the World 600 until 1984 when The Coca-Cola Company purchased the race's naming rights, renaming it the Coca-Cola World 600 in 1985. It has been called the Coca-Cola 600 every year since 1986, except for 2002 when the name changed to Coca-Cola Racing Family 600.
After the previous race at Charlotte (the 2005 UAW-GM Quality 500), the track's condition was beginning to deteriorate. Several cars sustained blown tires, and multiple crashes occurred on the worn bumpy surface due to levigation, a process where a circuit's hard bumps were smoothed out. When that did not work, the entire track (including the aprons and pit road) was completely repaved, with more than a of asphalt used. The work was completed two months before the Coca-Cola 600 began.
Practice and qualifier Three practice sessions were held before the race; one on Thursday and two on Saturday. The first session on Friday afternoon lasted 90 minutes, the second on Saturday afternoon 60 minutes and the third held later that day ran for 45 minutes. In the first practice session, Greg Biffle was fastest with a lap of 29.693 seconds, ahead of Kahne in second and Kurt Busch in third. Jeremy Mayfield was fourth-fastest; Harvick placed fifth and Reed Sorenson came sixth. Jeff Green set the seventh-quickest time, Scott Riggs eighth, Kyle Busch ninth, and Travis Kvapil completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Stewart spun leaving the second turn, but he avoided contact with the barrier beside the track. Tony Raines hit the wall, and his pit crew repaired minor structural damage to his car on pit road. J. J. Yeley pirouetted backward into the turn two wall late in the session. Robby Gordon's engine failed at around the same time, and his team changed engines.
Fifty-three cars were entered for the qualifying session on Thursday evening; according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Cars that ventured onto the track early in qualifying were at a disadvantage because the track temperatures lowered as night fell. Riggs was advised by his crew chief Rodney Childers to drive a different car, and he went onto the circuit in the middle of the session, taking his first pole position of the season, and the second of his career with a time of 28.744 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Mayfield, his Evernham Motorsports teammate. Johnson qualified in third, Yeley fourth, and Bobby Labonte fifth. Kenseth was fifth, with Biffle and Denny Hamlin seventh and eighth. Kahne and Green were ninth and tenth. The nine drivers who failed to qualify were Kevin Lepage, Hermie Sadler, Chad Chaffin, Michael Waltrip, Stanton Barrett, Mike Garvey, Chad Blount, Carl Long, Kirk Shelmerdine and Kertus Davis. After the qualifier, Riggs praised his car, "There was a lot of grip out there tonight and I didn't know if it was going to hold up for pole or not, but I got all I could out of it. All these guys did a good job of making sure we didn't tune ourselves out of it. We just kept making small changes and everything worked out."
Although Waltrip failed to set a fast enough lap time to qualify, he brought Derrike Cope's 74 McGlynn Racing car to enter the race, and renumbered it as No. 55, allowing him to extend his streak of consecutive starts to 262 races. On Saturday afternoon Mayfield was fastest in the second practice session with a time of 30.199 seconds; Martin was second-fastest and Labonte third. Fourth place was occupied by Riggs and his teammate Kahne placed fifth. Green was sixth-fastest, and Johnny Sauter, Kurt Busch, Casey Mears and Carl Edwards followed in positions seven through ten. Later that day, Kahne led the final practice session, setting a lap of 30.257 seconds. Martin duplicated his second practice session result in second, with Mayfield third and Edwards improved to fourth. Edwards' teammate Biffle was fifth- quickest; Riggs took the sixth position and Labonte came seventh. Kurt Busch was eighth, Burton ninth and Yeley completed the top ten ahead of Sunday's race.
Qualifying results Driver Team Manufacturer 1 10Scott RiggsEvernham MotorsportsDodge 28.744187.865 2 19Jeremy Mayfield Evernham Motorsports Dodge 28.832187.292 3 48Jimmie JohnsonHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet 28.931186.651 4 18J. J. YeleyJoe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 28.999186.213 5 43Bobby LabontePetty Enterprises Dodge 29.015186.111 6 17Matt KensethRoush RacingFord 29.029186.021 7 16Greg Biffle Roush Racing Ford 29.046185.912 8 11Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 29.076185.720 9 9Kasey Kahne Evernham Motorsports Dodge 29.080185.695 10 66Jeff GreenHaas CNC Racing Chevrolet 29.092185.618 11 31Jeff BurtonRichard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.100185.567 12 29Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.104185.542 13 24Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.153185.230 14 70Johnny Sauter Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 29.166185.147 15 07Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 29.176185.084 16 14Sterling MarlinMB2 Motorsports Chevrolet 29.182185.046 17 25Brian Vickers Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.201184.925 18 12Ryan NewmanPenske Racing South Dodge 29.262184.540 19 01Joe Nemechek MB2 Motorsports Chevrolet 29.266184.514 20 2Kurt Busch Penske Racing South Dodge 29.307184.256 21 6Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford29.319184.181 22 99Carl Edwards Roush Racing Ford 29.353183.968 23 41Reed SorensonChip Ganassi Racing Dodge 29.356183.949 24 44Terry Labonte Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.360183.924 25 40David Stremme Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 29.373183.842 26 38Elliott SadlerRobert Yates RacingFord 29.405183.642 27 1Martin Truex Jr.Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.410183.611 28 5Kyle Busch Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.416183.574 29 22Dave BlaneyBill Davis Racing Dodge 29.421183.542 30 42Casey Mears Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 29.423183.530 31 32Travis KvapilPPI Motorsports Chevrolet 29.427183.505 32 20Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 29.531182.859 33 26Jamie McMurray Roush Racing Ford 29.585182.525 34 8Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.612182.359 35 78Kenny WallaceFurniture Row Racing Chevrolet 29.636182.211 36 15Paul Menard Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 29.663182.048 37 88Dale Jarrett Robert Yates Racing Ford 29.673181.984 38 4Scott WimmerMorgan–McClure Motorsports Chevrolet 29.674181.977 39 45Kyle Petty Petty Enterprises Dodge 29.704181.784 4021Ken SchraderWood Brothers Racing Ford 29.725181.665 41 7Robby GordonRobby Gordon Motorsports Chevrolet 29.907180.560 42 96Tony RainesHall of Fame Racing Chevrolet 29.995180.030 43 74Derrike CopeMcGlynn Racing Dodge 29.696181.143 44 49Kevin LepageBAM Racing Dodge 29.779181.336 45 00Hermie SadlerMBA Racing Ford 29.878180.735 46 61Chad ChaffinFront Row Motorsports Ford 29.981180.114 47 55Michael WaltripWaltrip-Jasper Racing Dodge 30.018179.892 48 95Stanton BarrettStanton Barrett Motorsports Chevrolet 30.056179.665 49 51Mike GarveyCompetitive Edge Motorsports Chevrolet 30.248178.524 50 34Chad Blount Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet 30.299178.224 51 37Carl LongR&J Racing Dodge 30.560176.702 52 27Kirk ShelmerdineKirk Shelmerdine Racing Chevrolet 31.266172.712 53 72Kertus DavisCJM RacingDodge——
Race Live television coverage of the race began at 5:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (UTC–04:00) in the United States on Fox. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were sunny, with the air temperature in the high range, and the track temperature was . Country music singer Carrie Underwood performed the national anthem introduced by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, and Edward Angus Powell Jr., president and chief executive officer of the United Service Organizations, commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Robby Gordon fell to the rear of the grid because he changed engines, and Waltrip did the same for relieving Cope in the No. 74 McGlynn Racing car.