1995 Pepsi 400

1995 Pepsi 400

Race details
Race 15 of 31 in the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1995 Pepsi 400 program cover, featuring Jimmy Spencer and Ernie Irvan.
Date	July 1, 1995
Official name	37th Annual Pepsi 400
Location	Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.0 km)
Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643.737 km)
Scheduled Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643.737 km)
Average speed	166.976 miles per hour (268.722 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Time	47.033
Most laps led
Driver	Sterling Marlin Jeff Gordon	Morgan-McClure Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	72
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, Ned Jarrett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

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

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