Changes mark Pepsi 400 history
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
June 19, 2001
11:20 AM EDT (1520 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Change has been a hallmark in the 43-year history of the Pepsi 400, the Winston Cup's "mid-summer classic" scheduled July 7 at Daytona International Speedway.
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Jeff Gordon leads Steve Park early in the 2000 Pepsi 400.
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Lately, the Pepsi 400 -- once known as the Firecracker 400 -- has demanded a balance between daytime practice and nighttime qualifying and racing.
This season's event opens on July 5 with Bud Pole Qualifying that night. Final practice and the daytonausa.com 150 for the Goody's Dash Series is set for Friday evening.
The move to a night race in 1998 -- following the lead of Lowe's Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway -- has been the event's most significant change. It allowed the Pepsi 400 to follow as a wildly successful phenomenon under the lights.
The Pepsi 400 originated as an Independence Day morning celebration of 250 miles in length.
Hometown favorite Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, 29, captured the inaugural Firecracker 250. He collected $4,100 out of the $25,525 purse and dominated the race with an average speed of 140.581 mph.
After four years, the first of 25 years of 400-mile July Fourth morning events was held in 1963. The second Firecracker 400 was especially significant as it marked Indy-car legend A.J. Foyt's first stock car victory, the first of two consecutive wins in the Firecracker 400 and Dodge's first of five wins in the event.
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Jeff Burton beat Dale Jarrett in 2000 for his first Pepsi 400 win.
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In the late 1980s the event was moved from July Fourth to the morning of the first Saturday in July. That was where it lived until John Andretti scored his first Winston Cup victory and the first for legend Cale Yarborough as an owner in the final daytime Pepsi 400 in 1997.
Tickets are available for the Pepsi 400 weekend, which includes the DAYTONAUSA.COM 150 NASCAR Goody's Dash Series race, online at www.daytonaintlspeedway.com or by calling (386) 253-7223.
This year, probably no change will be felt more than the absence of two-time Pepsi 400 winner and seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt when the race observes its fourth nighttime running on the first Saturday in July.
Earnhardt died in a crash in Turn 4 of the 2.5-mle speedway on the last lap of the season opening Daytona 500. Though the effort was great, the series picked up and ran its next race on schedule. The return to Daytona is sure to follow the same pattern.
While there was a major outcry after the Daytona 500 over the aerodynamic and engines rules package that was put in place for races at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, no changes were made for the Talladega 500 and a caution-free race was the result.
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Michael Waltrip returns to Daytona looking for a Daytona 500/Pepsi 400 sweep.
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Thus, Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip will return trying to capture the "Daytona 900" and set right a season gone all wrong since Feb. 18. Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett, currently atop the point chase, are former Pepsi 400 winners and Sterling Marlin, who figured in the wild Daytona 500 finish, has been a threat all season.
Gordon, Jarrett and Jeff Burton have won the three nighttime Pepsi 400s leading up to this year's event. Burton, the defending race winner who earned owner Jack Roush his first spot in Daytona's Victory Lane, is another who could challenge.
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