diff --git a/doc/release_notes.rst b/doc/release_notes.rst
index 705fad4f..26ebd5d8 100644
--- a/doc/release_notes.rst
+++ b/doc/release_notes.rst
@@ -17,10 +17,10 @@ Release notes
    For release notes (sparsely) kept prior to 1.0.0, look at the `releases page
    on GitHub <https://github.com/numpy/numpydoc/releases>`__.
 
-1.6.0rc1
+1.6.0rc2
 --------
 
-Release date: 7 July 2023
+Release date: 21 August 2023
 
 Requires Python 3.8+ and Sphinx 5+.
 
diff --git a/numpydoc/_version.py b/numpydoc/_version.py
index 1da1ef83..26ccac74 100644
--- a/numpydoc/_version.py
+++ b/numpydoc/_version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "1.6.0rc2.dev0"
+__version__ = "1.6.0rc2"