Sterling Marlin won the race for the second straight year, his second Daytona 500 win, after leading 105 laps, including the final 20.

[7] It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is virtually unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start.

The 2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers.

The first yellow flag came out on lap 9 when Joe Nemechek (in his first race for his own team) crashed and collected Brett Bodine.

Two laps after the restart, IMSA and IndyCar veteran Davy Jones touched with fellow rookie Randy LaJoie exiting turn 4, clipping the wall and spinning the Jasper Motorsports No.

Before 30 laps were put on the board, sprint car king Steve Kinser crashed with Phil Parsons.

On lap 58, Mike Wallace got loose in turn 2 and tagged Jeff Purvis, sending both cars into the wall and the 1994 and 1993 ARCA 200 winners respectively were finished for the day.

Jeff Gordon led Marlin, Todd Bodine, Earnhardt and Ken Schrader when the red flag was withdrawn.

On lap 97, Todd Bodine spun exiting turn 4 (whether or not contact with Robert Pressley caused it was unclear), and engine failure soon took him out after the restart.

Earnhardt was the new leader, and at halfway he led Michael Waltrip, Morgan Shepherd, Marlin and Ken Schrader to the restart.

Meanwhile, Gordon was reclaiming lost ground quickly and passed Michael Waltrip in turn 2 on lap 109 to re-enter the top 10.

Just before the restart, rookie Robert Pressley spun in the short chute before turn 1 after contact from Dick Trickle.