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.

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 1.5 mi (2.4 km) 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 14 US gal (53 L; 12 imp gal) fuel cell instead of the standard 22 US gal (83 L; 18 imp gal) 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 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) of asphalt used. The work was completed two months before the Coca-Cola 600 began.

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.