1993 Pepsi 400

Race details
Race 15 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Pepsi 400 program cover.
Date	July 3, 1993
Official name	35th 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	151.755 miles per hour (244.226 km/h)
Attendance	102,000
Pole position
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Time	47.287
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	110
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, Ned Jarrett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Pepsi 400 was the 15th stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, July 3, 1993, 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. At race's end, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to fend off the field on the final restart with nine to go to take his 57th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his fourth victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Stavola Brothers Racing driver Sterling Marlin and Hendrick Motorsports driver Ken Schrader 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. 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.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, July 1, at 2:30 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 Friday, July 2, at 1:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,^[3] 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; up to two provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Ernie Irvan, driving for Morgan–McClure Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 47.287 and an average speed of 190.327 miles per hour (306.302 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

20 drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,342 2 Dale Jarrett 2,091 (-251) 3 Rusty Wallace 1,997 (-345) 1 4 Morgan Shepherd 1,991 (–351) 2 5 Ken Schrader 1,977 (–365) 2 6 Kyle Petty 1,946 (–396) 1 7 Davey Allison 1,934 (–408) 2 8 Jeff Gordon 1,905 (–437) 2 9 Ernie Irvan 1,889 (–453) 2 10 Mark Martin 1,873 (–469) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References