2006 Daytona 500

The 2006 Daytona 500 was the first race in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. It took place on February 19, 2006 at Daytona International Speedway.

Qualifying and Gatorade Duels

Jeff Burton won the pole for the race with a speed of over 189 mph, and would start alongside Jeff Gordon in an all-Chevy front row. Gordon would win the second Gatorade Duel (his third career victory in a Daytona qualifying race) after Elliott Sadler won in race 1, which was delayed by showers.

The Race

The weather dawned cloudy and cold for the 48th running of "The Great American Race", as Jeff Burton led the field to the green at 2:45 p.m., the latest scheduled start in the history of the race. (The reason for this was that NBC chose it as its lead-in program to the primetime portion of its day's coverage of the Winter Olympic Games from Turin.) There were several lead changes in the early going en route to a race record of 32. Tony Stewart was a magnet for controversy, tangling with Jeff Gordon on lap 48 and Matt Kenseth on lap 106. Stewart was penalized for aggressive driving after the Kenseth incident, in which he blocked the 17 car down into the grass on the backstretch, which led to a Kenseth spin. Kenseth took matters into his own hands and was black flagged for hitting Stewart's car in retaliation on pit road. All three drivers involved in the incidents would repair their cars and get back into contention. Carl Edwards, a popular dark horse candidate for the Nextel Cup title, got off to a bad start when he was collected in a five-car incident on lap 80 that included Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty and two other cars. It was the biggest crash of the day, as the "Big One" never happened. Edwards finished 43rd.

Jimmie Johnson had one of the strongest cars all day. He took the lead with 10 laps to go just as the caution flag came out for an incident between Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray. It set up a 10-lap battle for the win, which was extended into "overtime" when McMurray and Jeff Burton collided on lap 197. The green-white-checker finish ended as Casey Mears and Ryan Newman battled for second, leaving Johnson to take the victory. The race ended under caution just before Johnson crossed the line after Greg Biffle crashed in the final turn. The 48th Daytona 500 was the first win for the 48 car on a restrictor plate track, his 19th career victory and the first win on his drive for five straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships (as of November 2010).

One surprise of the race was Kirk Shelmerdine, who finished 20th. He had barely qualified for the race and his independently-owned #27 finished the race with a borrowed engine, donated tires, and a volunteer pit crew.

Winning Team Penalized

Johnson's car failed pre-race inspection and as a result his crew chief, Chad Knaus was suspended for the first 4 races and the team was fined $200,000. As a result Darian Grubb replaced him as crew chief. Knaus was not blocked, however, from contacting the team and by many accounts still had significant input.

Johnson would go on to win his first championship that year.

Results

Fin	St	Driver	Car #	Make	Points	Bonus	Laps	Winnings
1	9	Jimmie Johnson	48	Chevrolet	185	5	203	$1,505,120
2	14	Casey Mears	42	Dodge	170		203	$1,095,770
3	18	Ryan Newman	12	Dodge	170	5	203	$796,116
4	3	Elliott Sadler	38	Ford	165	5	203	$684,076
5	15	Tony Stewart	20	Chevrolet	160	5	203	$537,944
6	37	Clint Bowyer *	07	Chevrolet	150		203	$411,683
7	35	Brian Vickers	25	Chevrolet	151	5	203	$347,583
8	7	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	8	Chevrolet	152	10	203	$377,694
9	23	Ken Schrader	21	Ford	138		203	$328,897
10	25	Dale Jarrett	88	Ford	134		203	$326,983
11	27	Kasey Kahne	9	Dodge	130		203	$307,347
12	10	Mark Martin	6	Ford	132	5	203	$292,383
13	20	Robby Gordon	7	Chevrolet	124		203	$269,558
14	28	Kevin Harvick	29	Chevrolet	126	5	203	$302,244
15	11	Matt Kenseth	17	Ford	123	5	203	$302,549
16	19	Martin Truex Jr. *	1	Chevrolet	115		203	$297,816
17	43	Terry Labonte	96	Chevrolet	87		203	$268,558
18	30	Michael Waltrip	55	Dodge	109		203	$274,241
19	33	Bill Elliott	36	Chevrolet	111	5	203	$257,758
20	42	Kirk Shelmerdine	27	Chevrolet	103		203	$272,008
21	29	Brent Sherman *	49	Dodge	100		203	$274,766
22	34	Dave Blaney	22	Dodge	97		203	$271,241
23	4	Kyle Busch	5	Chevrolet	99	5	203	$281,833
24	24	Mike Wallace	09	Dodge	91		203	$266,533
25	31	Kevin Lepage	61	Ford	93	5	203	$254,683
26	2	Jeff Gordon	24	Chevrolet	90	5	203	$334,879
27	40	Travis Kvapil	32	Chevrolet	87	5	203	$265,455
28	32	David Stremme *	40	Dodge	79		203	$263,358
29	22	Reed Sorenson *	41	Dodge	76		203	$262,908
30	17	Denny Hamlin *	11	Chevrolet	73		203	$254,833
31	16	Greg Biffle	16	Ford	75	5	203	$258,758
32	1	Jeff Burton	31	Chevrolet	72	5	202	$302,603
33	38	Joe Nemechek	01	Chevrolet	64		200	$279,453
34	39	Sterling Marlin	14	Chevrolet	61		200	$248,713
35	8	Bobby Labonte	43	Dodge	58		197	$294,674
36	26	Jeremy Mayfield	19	Dodge	55		197	$278,049
37	6	Jamie McMurray	26	Ford	57	5	196	$287,183
38	13	Kurt Busch	2	Dodge	54	5	187	$280,366
39	12	Kyle Petty	45	Dodge	46		173	$256,833
40	41	Hermie Sadler	00	Ford	43		169	$245,633
41	36	J.J. Yeley *	18	Chevrolet	40		157	$279,833
42	21	Jeff Green	66	Chevrolet	37		156	$253,153
43	5	Carl Edwards	99	Ford	34		78	$269,882

* Rookie

Failed to qualify: 10-Scott Riggs, 78-Kenny Wallace, 4-Scott Wimmer, 23-Mike Skinner, 74-Derrike Cope, 52-Larry Gunselman, 37-Chad Blount, 50-Larry Foyt, 59-Andy Belmont, 64-Randy LaJoie, 89-Morgan Shepherd, 92-Chad Chaffin, 80-Carl Long, 15-Paul Menard, and 95-Stanton Barrett.

References

• Official NASCAR results