2007 Pepsi 400

The 2007 Pepsi 400 was the 18th race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season and held on July 7, 2007, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

2007 Pepsi 400
Race details
Race 18 of 36 in the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season
Track map of Daytona International Speedway showing mainly the speedway.
Date July 7, 2007 (2007-July-07)
Official name Pepsi 400
Location Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Course Permanent racing facility
2.5 mi (4 km)
Distance 160 laps, 400 mi (643.737 km)
Weather Temperatures reaching up to 93.9 °F (34.4 °C); wind speeds approaching 13.0 miles per hour (20.9 km/h)[1]
Average speed 138.983 miles per hour (223.671 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Hendrick Motorsports
Time 2007 Owner's Points
Most laps led
Driver Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing
Laps 55
Winner
No. 26 Jamie McMurray Roush Fenway Racing
Television in the United States
Network Turner Network Television
Announcers Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. and Kyle Petty

It was the final race at Daytona named the Pepsi 400; beginning in 2008, the race was sponsored by Coca-Cola's Coke Zero brand as the Coke Zero 400.

Qualifying

Boris Said was on the pole with 14 cars left to qualify until a rainstorm stopped qualifying. Eventually, it was cancelled outright, sending home, among others, Said, Michael Waltrip, and Jeremy Mayfield who had each posted three of the six fastest attempts.

All times that were recorded were eliminated, and the starting lineup was set according to the NASCAR rule book. The pole sitter was Jeff Gordon, and Denny Hamlin sat on the outside. Ironically, this was the reverse of the previous week's finishing running order.

It was the first time in the speedway's history that a qualifying session was not completed, covering a total of 97 races. As a result of what happened, on January 21, 2008, NASCAR changed the rules that put those not in the Top 35 Owners' Points into a separate session in order to make the race, also called "The Boris Said Rule".

Race

Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch created one of the most memorable finishes, running side-by-side for nearly 32 laps. McMurray defeated Busch to win the Pepsi 400 and claim his second victory and end a 166-race winless streak that had spanned since 2002, when he won in only his second start while subbing for Sterling Marlin. The final margin of victory was .005 seconds, tied for the second-closest margin in NASCAR history since electronic scoring and timing was adopted in 1993. The other Top 5 finishers were Kurt Busch in third, Carl Edwards in fourth, and Jeff Gordon in fifth.

As at the Daytona 500, some of the sport's biggest stars struggled. Kevin Harvick finished 34th while Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Stewart, and Denny Hamlin finished 36th, 38th, and 43rd respectively. Despite the fact there were many incidents throughout the race, most were relatively minor and the "Big One" never happened.

Top 10 results

Pos. No. Driver Car Team
1 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Roush Fenway Racing
2 5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
3 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Penske Racing
4 99 Carl Edwards Ford Roush Fenway Racing
5 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
6 16 Greg Biffle Ford Roush Fenway Racing
7 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
8 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Roush Fenway Racing
9 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Evernham Motorsports
10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports

Notes

  • Kyle Busch missed, by the slimmest of margins, being the first driver to win a Busch Series and a Nextel Cup Series race on the same day. That morning, he had won the Winn-Dixie 250, postponed from Friday night because of rain.
  • For the first time since 1965, no one from the Petty family was in the starting lineup for a race at Daytona. Kyle Petty was instead a broadcaster for TNT, and John Andretti took his place in the starting lineup.
  • This was the last race which combined the older-design cars with restrictor plates. The next such race, the 2007 UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, used the Car of Tomorrow which then became standard in 2008.
  • Two days after this race, International Speedway Corporation, which owns DIS, signed a multi-year deal with Coca-Cola to sell beverages at all its tracks. That meant that this race would be renamed the Coke Zero 400 as of 2008.

References

  1. Weather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac
Previous race:
2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300
Nextel Cup Series
2007 season
Next race:
2007 USG Sheetrock 400
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