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, andJeremy 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 wasJeff Gordon, andDenny 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".
Jamie McMurray andKyle 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 forSterling 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 wereKurt Busch in 3rd,Carl Edwards in 4th, andJeff Gordon in 5th.
As at theDaytona 500, some of the sport's biggest stars struggled.Kevin Harvick finished 34th whileDale Earnhardt Jr.,Tony Stewart, andDenny 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.
Kyle Busch missed, by the slimmest of margins, being the first driver to win aBusch Series and a Nextel Cup Series race on the same day. That morning, he had won theWinn-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, andJohn Andretti took his place in the starting lineup.
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.[1]Archived 2007-07-11 at theWayback Machine That meant that this race would be renamed the Coke Zero 400 as of2008.
Clint Bowyer finished 7th in the #07 car, the date was 07/07/07.
