| Race details | |||
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| Race 1 of 30 in the1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1993 Daytona 500 program cover, featuringDavey Allison andBobby Allison. | |||
| Date | February 14, 1993 (1993-02-14) | ||
| Official name | 35th Annual Daytona 500 By STP | ||
| Location | Daytona Beach, Florida,Daytona International Speedway | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 2.5 miles (4.0 km) | ||
| Distance | 200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Average speed | 154.972 miles per hour (249.403 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 150,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | SABCO Racing | ||
| Time | 47.512 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 107 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 18 | Dale Jarrett | Joe Gibbs Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | CBS | ||
| Announcers | Ken Squier,Neil Bonnett,Ned Jarrett | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The1993 Daytona 500 was the firststock car race of the1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of theevent. The race was held on Sunday, February 14, 1993, before an audience of 150,000 inDaytona Beach, Florida atDaytona 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'sDale Jarrett,Hendrick Motorsports'Jeff Gordon andRichard Childress Racing'sDale 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 careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his only win of the season, and his first career Daytona 500 victory.[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Dale Earnhardt andBud Moore Engineering'sGeoff Bodine finished second and third, respectively.
Daytona International Speedway is one of threesuperspeedways to holdNASCAR races, the other two beingIndianapolis Motor Speedway andTalladega 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 31degrees, while thefront stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.
Qualifying was set by the1993 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 forSABCO Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 47.512 and an average speed of 154.972 miles per hour (249.403 km/h) in Saturday's session.[4]
13 drivers failed to qualify.
The first lap was led byrookieJeff Gordon, who was the youngest winner of aGatorade 125-mile qualifier on Thursday. Shortly after this,CBSreporterChris Economaki said thatRookie of the Year is an award he would be almost assured of. Engine failures forDick Trickle andJimmy Hensley (the latter would crash in Turn 1 in his substitution for the injuredJimmy Means) brought out the first twocaution flags in the first 15 laps.
Over the next 110 laps,Dale Earnhardt,Ken Schrader, andKyle Petty would lead the majority of the laps, withJeff Gordon andBobby Hillin Jr. leading a handful of laps as legitimate leaders.1990 winnerDerrike Cope andHarry Gant also led several of these laps, but they had pitted under the earlyyellows to stretch their fuel runs.
Meanwhile, two-time winnerBill Elliott dropped out of the race on lap 99, the victim of overheating in his #11Ford Thunderbird.
Dale Earnhardt was the leader on Lap 130 whenWally Dallenbach Jr. brushed the Turn 4 wall.Sterling Marlin andMichael 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 byJoe Ruttman, who was coming to pit road to retire with engine failure. 5 laps after the restart,Rick Wilson andBobby Hamilton collided on the backstretch. Approaching 50 laps to go,1991 Daytona 500 winnerErnie Irvan was turned into the wall exiting Turn 2, eliminating a possible winner. The first major wreck happened whenDale Earnhardt touched1992 Indianapolis 500 winnerAl Unser Jr. (competing in his onlyWinston Cup Series race). His#46Chevrolet crashed into the90 ofBobby Hillin Jr., who spun into the path of polesitterKyle 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 into1989 Winston Cup ChampionRusty 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 tocrew chiefBuddy Parrott and said, "I'm okay."
By this time,Hut Stricklin andSterling Marlin presented themselves as contenders.Earnhardt led from the restart, only to be passed briefly byDale Jarrett. The#3 was soon in the lead again, as he was pursued by theChevrolets of Jarrett andJeff Gordon, and theFords of1986 Daytona 500 winnerGeoff Bodine,Hut Stricklin,Mark Martin, andMorgan Shepherd. The "Dale andDale Show" commenced as Jarrett passed Earnhardt in the tri-oval as they took thewhite flag. As the leaders exited Turn 2, theCBS Sports producers toldKen Squier andNeil Bonnett through their headsets to letNed Jarrett to "call his son Dalehome". Jarrett held off Earnhardt by .16 (sixteen hundredths) of a second to claim his first Daytona 500 win.
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