1995 Pepsi 400

15th race of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

Motor car race

The 1995 Pepsi 400 was the 15th stock car race of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 37th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, July 1, 1995, in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 160 laps to complete. In a one-lap dash to the finish, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon would manage to defend the field to take his sixth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his fourth victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Sterling Marlin and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Daytona International Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Daytona International Speedway is one of three superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other two being Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.^[3] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.^[4]

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, June 16, at 3:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, June 17, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-38 would be decided on time,^[5] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points.

Dale Earnhardt, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 47.033 and an average speed of 191.355 miles per hour (307.956 km/h).^[6]

Three drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

References

1. Newberry, Paul (July 2, 1995). "Gordon wins battle of 'Big Three' in Pepsi 400". Indiana Gazette. p. 22. Retrieved November 4, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
2. Long, Gary (July 2, 1995). "Wonder Boy Gordon catches on in a hurry". The Miami Herald. p. 52. Retrieved November 4, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "NASCAR.COM : Tracks". 2010-08-11. Archived from the original on 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
4. "Daytona International Speedway: The World Center of Racing". 2010-08-30. Archived from the original on 2010-08-30. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
5. Laye, Leonard (June 29, 1995). "Odds don't favor sweep at Daytona". The Charlotte Observer. p. 20. Retrieved November 4, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Coble, Don (June 30, 1995). "Earnhardt charges back to take Daytona pole". Press and Sun-Bulletin. p. 23. Retrieved November 4, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.