1993 Daytona 500

The 1993 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 14, 1993, before an audience of 150,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.

In the final laps of the race, Joe Gibbs Racing's Dale Jarrett, Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon and Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt engaged in a battle for the victory. Heading into two laps left in the race, Gordon was passed by Jarrett for second, allowing Jarrett to stay behind Earnhardt. Proceeding into the final lap, Earnhardt had let Jarrett get to the inside of his car, allowing Jarrett to pass Earnhardt for the lead by the time the two exited out of the second turn. Jarrett was then able to defend the rest of the field to take his second career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his only win of the season, and his first career Daytona 500 victory. To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Dale Earnhardt and Bud Moore Engineering's Geoff Bodine finished 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. 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 set by the 1993 Gatorade Twin 125 Qualifiers. The top two positions were set by qualifying speeds held for the Twin 125 Qualifiers held on Saturday, February 6, with the top two qualifiers in the session earning the top two positions for the Daytona 500. The rest of the starting was set in the Twin 125 Qualifiers, held on Thursday, February 11, during two races. The top 14 finishers in the first race, excluding the pole position winner, set the inside row from rows two to 15, and the top 14 finishers in the second race, excluding the outside pole position winner, set the outside row from rows two to 15. The remaining non-qualifiers set positions 31-40 based on qualifying speeds from the first qualifying session held on Sunday. If needed, up to two extra provisionals were given to teams high enough in the previous season's owner's standings that did not qualify for the race by either qualifying speed or from the Twin 125 Qualifiers.

Kyle Petty, driving for SABCO Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 47.512 and an average speed of 154.972 mph in Saturday's session.

13 drivers failed to qualify.

The start
The first lap was led by rookie Jeff Gordon, who was the youngest winner of a Gatorade 125-mile qualifier on Thursday. Shortly after this, CBS reporter Chris Economaki said that Rookie of the Year is an award he would be almost assured of. Engine failures for Dick Trickle and Jimmy Hensley (the latter would crash in Turn 1 in his substitution for the injured Jimmy Means) brought out the first two caution flags in the first 15 laps.

Mid-race summary
Over the next 110 laps, Dale Earnhardt, Ken Schrader, and Kyle Petty would lead the majority of the laps, with Jeff Gordon and Bobby Hillin Jr. leading a handful of laps as legitimate leaders. 1990 winner Derrike Cope and Harry Gant also led several of these laps, but they had pitted under the early yellows to stretch their fuel runs.

Meanwhile, two-time winner Bill Elliott dropped out of the race on lap 99, the victim of overheating in his #11 Ford Thunderbird.

Closing stages
Dale Earnhardt was the leader on Lap 130 when Wally Dallenbach Jr. brushed the Turn 4 wall. Sterling Marlin and Michael Waltrip were lined up behind him, and when Marlin backed off, Waltrip tagged him and sent him into a spin. Marlin caught air as he spun by Joe Ruttman, who was coming to pit road to retire with engine failure. 5 laps after the restart, Rick Wilson and Bobby Hamilton collided on the backstretch. Approaching 50 laps to go, 1991 Daytona 500 winner Ernie Irvan was turned into the wall exiting Turn 2, eliminating a possible winner. The first major wreck happened when Dale Earnhardt touched 1992 Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. (competing in his only Winston Cup Series race). His #46 Chevrolet crashed into the 90 of Bobby Hillin Jr., who spun into the path of polesitter Kyle Petty. Both had a heated verbal exchange, Hillin reportedly was telling Petty he had no brakes, but both were victims of circumstances. With 31 laps to go, Derrike Cope and Waltrip touched in Turn 2. Waltrip spun down into 1989 Winston Cup Champion Rusty Wallace and sent him into a horrific series of flips and rollovers in the grass. A little more than minute later, Ken Squier reported that Wallace came on the radio to crew chief Buddy Parrott and said, "I'm okay."

The finish
By this time, Hut Stricklin and Sterling Marlin presented themselves as contenders. Earnhardt led from the restart, only to be passed briefly by Dale Jarrett. The #3 was soon in the lead again, as he was pursued by the Chevrolets of Jarrett and Jeff Gordon, and the Fords of 1986 Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine, Hut Stricklin, Mark Martin, and Morgan Shepherd. The "Dale and Dale Show" commenced as Jarrett passed Earnhardt in the tri-oval as they took the white flag. As the leaders exited Turn 2, the CBS Sports producers told Ken Squier and Neil Bonnett through their headsets to let Ned Jarrett to "call his son Dale home". Jarrett held off Earnhardt by .16 (sixteen hundredths) of a second to claim his first Daytona 500 win.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.