| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 15 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1994 Pepsi 400 program cover. | |||
| Date | July 2, 1994 | ||
| Official name | 36th 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 | 155.558 miles per hour (250.346 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 100,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Richard Childress Racing | ||
| Time | 47.037 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Ernie Irvan | Robert Yates Racing | |
| Laps | 86 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 27 | Jimmy Spencer | Junior Johnson & Associates | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | ESPN | ||
| Announcers | Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, Ned Jarrett | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The 1994 Pepsi 400 was the 15th stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 36th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, July 2, 1994, 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 last-lap battle to the finish, Junior Johnson & Associates driver Jimmy Spencer would manage to best out Robert Yates Racing driver Ernie Irvan in one of the closest NASCAR Winston Cup Series finishes in history, besting Irvan by eight one-thousandths of a second. The win was Spencer's first career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish third.
Background
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.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, June 30, 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 1, 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, 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.
Dale Earnhardt, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 47.037 and an average speed of 191.339 miles per hour (307.930 km/h) in the first round.
Six drivers would fail to qualify.
Full qualifying results
Race results
Standings after the race
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- Hembree, Mike (July 3, 1994). "One lap proves good enough for Spencer". The Greenville News. p. 11. Retrieved December 6, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- Harris, Mike (July 3, 1994). "Spencer slips past Irvan at Daytona". The Times-Mail. p. 19. Retrieved December 6, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- "NASCAR.COM : Tracks". 2010-08-11. Archived from the original on 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
- "Daytona International Speedway: The World Center of Racing". 2010-08-30. Archived from the original on 2010-08-30. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
- "NASCAR today". The Charlotte Observer. June 30, 1994. p. 29. Retrieved December 6, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- Long, Gary (July 1, 1994). "Earnhardt wins pole for 400". The Miami Herald. p. 35. Retrieved December 6, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
| Previous race: 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400 (Michigan) |
NASCAR Winston Cup Series 1994 season |
Next race: 1994 Slick 50 300 |
| NASCAR on ESPN/ABC | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Networks |
| ||||||
| NASCAR Countdown | |||||||
| Pit reporters | |||||||
| Race coverage |
| ||||||
| Former key figures |
| ||||||
| Major races |
| ||||||