| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 of 31 in the1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
 1995 Daytona 500 program cover | |||
| Date | February 19, 1995 (1995-02-19) | ||
| Location | Daytona International Speedway,Daytona Beach, Florida | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.02336 km) | ||
| Distance | 200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures reaching as high as 66.9 °F (19.4 °C); wind speeds approaching 12 miles per hour (19 km/h)[1] | ||
| Average speed | 141.710 miles per hour (228.060 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Robert Yates Racing | ||
| Qualifying race winners | |||
| Duel 1 Winner | Sterling Marlin | Morgan-McClure Motorsports | |
| Duel 2 Winner | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Sterling Marlin | Morgan-McClure Motorsports | |
| Laps | 105 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 4 | Sterling Marlin | Morgan-McClure Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | CBS | ||
| Announcers | Ken Squier,Richard Petty andNed Jarrett | ||
| Nielsen ratings | 7.8/20 (11.4 million viewers) | ||
The1995 Daytona 500, the 37th running of theevent, was held on February 19 atDaytona International Speedway inDaytona Beach, Florida.Dale Jarrett won his first careerWinston Cuppole.Sterling Marlin won the race for the second straight year, his second Daytona 500 win, after leading 105 laps, including the final 20.
Daytona International Speedway is arace track inDaytona Beach, Florida that is one of sixsuperspeedways to holdNASCAR races, the others beingMichigan International Speedway,Auto Club Speedway,Indianapolis Motor Speedway,Pocono Raceway andTalladega Superspeedway.[2] The standard track at Daytona is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track also features two other layouts that utilize portions of the primary high speedtri-oval, such as a 3.56-mile (5.73 km)sports car course and a 2.95-mile (4.75 km) motorcycle course.[3] The track's 180-acre (73 ha) infield includes the 29-acre (12 ha) Lake Lloyd, which has hostedpowerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated byInternational Speedway Corporation.
The track was built by NASCAR founderBill France, Sr. to host racing that was being held at the formerDaytona Beach Road Course and opened with thefirst Daytona 500 in 1959.[4] The speedway has been renovated three times, with the infield renovated in 2004,[5] and the track repaved in 1978 and 2010.[6]
The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar.[7] It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is virtually unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start. Since 1995, U.S.television ratings for the Daytona 500 have been the highest for any auto race of the year, surpassing the traditional leader, theIndianapolis 500 which in turn greatly surpasses the Daytona 500 in in-track attendance and international viewing. The2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers.[8]
Outside polesitterDale Earnhardt led the opening lap for the first time in his Daytona 500 career. Lap 3 sawSterling Marlin in theMorgan-McClure Motorsports No. 4 car take the lead. The firstyellow flag came out on lap 9 whenJoe Nemechek (in his first race forhis own team) crashed and collectedBrett Bodine. Two laps after the restart,IMSA andIndyCar veteranDavy Jones touched with fellowrookieRandy LaJoie exiting turn 4, clipping the wall and spinning theJasper Motorsports No. 77 car into the pits. Before 30 laps were put on the board,sprint car kingSteve Kinser crashed withPhil Parsons.Jeff Gordon took the lead from Marlin during the yellow flag pit stops. After the restart,Mark Martin and1985 and1987 winnerBill Elliott stopped for flat tires. On lap 43,John Andretti and1990 winnerDerrike Cope collided exiting turn 2. Both drivers continued with minimal damage, but as Cope came through the tri-oval to catch up to the field, both rear tires suddenly blew out, sending him into a harmless spin but rendering his car disabled as he could get no traction with both rear tires flat. On lap 58,Mike Wallace got loose in turn 2 and taggedJeff Purvis, sending both cars into the wall and the 1994 and 1993ARCA 200 winners respectively were finished for the day. Caution flag pit stops resulted inDave Marcis staying out to lead one lap (a regular practice for Dave), andMark Martin'sRoush Racing crew placed his car in front. On lap 68, Gordon retook the lead.
On lap 70, rain interrupted the race for 2 hours.Jeff Gordon led Marlin,Todd Bodine, Earnhardt andKen Schrader when thered flag was withdrawn. On lap 97,Todd Bodine spun exiting turn 4 (whether or not contact withRobert Pressley caused it was unclear), and engine failure soon took him out after the restart. He joined Purvis, Mike Wallace, Kinser Parsons, and Nemechek as the 6 cars out of the race. During the pit stops, Gordon dropped from the lead to 20th after a very long pit stop. Earnhardt was the new leader, and at halfway he ledMichael Waltrip,Morgan Shepherd, Marlin andKen Schrader to the restart. With help from Marlin, the younger Waltrip took the lead from Earnhardt for 2 laps before thedefending 500 winner retook the lead. Meanwhile, Gordon was reclaiming lost ground quickly and passedMichael Waltrip in turn 2 on lap 109 to re-enter the top 10.
On lap 131,Dave Marcis hit the turn 3 wall and slowed to a stop in the middle of turns 3 and 4. After the restart, a small dispute developed in his pits centering on the status of his unused tires.The Penske team showed up to make an offer for the tires, but Marcis wanted the tires to go toRichard Childress Racing and Earnhardt, for whom Marcis and his team had done many miles oftesting and from whom he had received an engine for the race. "I may not have been in the Daytona 500 if it wasn't forRichard Childress," said Marcis of the former owner-driver.
Going through all of this, Marlin retained the lead until, with 40 laps to go,rookieRandy LaJoie spun on the backstretch and lost hiswindshield. As the yellow flag was being waved,Bobby Hamilton made contact withRusty Wallace, resulting in Wallace's fifth straightDaytona 500 crash (4 of which resulted in aDNF, with the1992 running as the exception).Rick Mast led a lap during the caution.1989 winnerDarrell Waltrip had a transmission failure that would cost him 20 laps to repair. Meanwhile, Gordon suffered an aerodynamic setback that would cost him the race. The jack was let down too soon on the driver's side during the tire change, and the fender was bent by the left front tire. Earnhardt would lead the field to the restart, and afterward, Gordon would brush the wall in his now ill-handling car. He brought theHendrick Motorsports No. 24 car in for a correctional pit stop and lost a lap.
With 20 laps to go, Marlin passed Earnhardt for the lead on the back straightaway. With 15 laps to go,Bobby Labonte (in his first race forJoe Gibbs Racing) crashed in turn 1, nearly collecting his older brotherTerry. Earnhardt came in for 4 new tires, gambling that maneuverability would be more valuable than track position. Just before the restart, rookieRobert Pressley spun in the short chute before turn 1 after contact fromDick Trickle. When the green was waved Earnhardt quickly re-entered the top 10, and with 10 to go, he was side by side withRicky Rudd for 9th. He passedMark Martin for the second position with 4 laps to go, butSterling Marlin'sChevrolet was not to be denied. This wasSterling Marlin's secondWinston Cup win, both of which were in theDaytona 500. Marlin also joinedRichard Petty (in the1974 race) andCale Yarborough (in1984 race) as the only drivers who have won back-to-back Daytona 500's; this feat was not repeated until the2020 race whenDenny Hamlin joined the ranks of back-to-back winners. Martin went to third while his teammateTed Musgrave finished fourth and1993 winnerDale Jarrett (who started on the Pole) finished 5th.
This wasRichard Petty's only Daytona 500 as a broadcaster, and the first Daytona 500 to be broadcast with a reduction in availability. As a result of theFox affiliate switches of 1994, many markets where CBS lost major affiliates and were relegated to minor affiliates could not receive the race, including three markets where a NASCAR-sanctioned national series races were held --Atlanta,Milwaukee, andDetroit. The Atlanta market losses affected North Georgia, whereBill Elliott is based, as mountainous areas of northern Georgia could not receive the race becauseWGCL had a much weaker signal than the station that defected (WAGA). That situation was resolved in 1996 whenWSPA in Spartanburg launchedWNEG as a CBS affiliate in September 1995.