1989 Pepsi 400

1989 Pepsi 400

Race details
Race 15 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 Pepsi 400 program cover.
Date	July 1, 1989
Official name	31st 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	132.207 miles per hour (212.767 km/h)
Attendance	95,000
Pole position
Driver	Mark Martin	Roush Racing
Time	46.909
Most laps led
Driver	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing
Laps	50
Winner
No. 28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates 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 1989 Pepsi 400 was the 15th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 31st iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, July 1, 1989, before an audience of 95,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 160 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison would make a late-race charge to the front, passing for the lead with five laps left in the race to take his sixth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, RahMoc Enterprises driver Morgan Shepherd and Jackson Bros. Motorsports driver Phil Parsons would finish second and third, respectively.

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.

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, June 29, at 10:00 AM 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, June 30, at 11:00 AM 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,^[5] 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.

Mark Martin, driving for Roush Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 46.909 and an average speed of 191.861 miles per hour (308.770 km/h) in the first round.^[6][7]

Five drivers would fail to qualify.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,171 2 Rusty Wallace 2,047 (-124) 3 Darrell Waltrip 2,014 (-157) 4 Mark Martin 1,978 (–193) 5 Bill Elliott 1,973 (–198) 6 Sterling Marlin 1,940 (–231) 2 7 Ricky Rudd 1,887 (–284) 1 8 Geoff Bodine 1,879 (–292) 2 9 Davey Allison 1,861 (–310) 10 Terry Labonte 1,855 (–316) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.