Race Report.

The smart money going into the Pepsi 400 was on Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Michael Waltrip. Little wonder: Waltrip had won three of the last five Cup races at Daytona International Speed-way and Earnhardt Jr. is a former Pepsi 400 winner who also had four straight restrictor-plate victories at Talladega.

But the race is not always to the swift or the strong. Sometimes, it's to those who take a chance and get a good roll of the dice. Which is why rookie Greg Biffle, crew chief Randy Goss and team owner Jack Roush won the Indepen-dence Day weekend race in Daytona Beach. Goss gambled with a fuel top-off seconds before a restart under caution at lap 80. That final splash meant his Grainger-backed Ford could finish the 160-lap race with one more stop, one fewer than teams that didn't stop during that mid-race caution. The strategy played out perfectly when the final 80 laps were under green. As faster cars made their final stops Biffle kept coming. He inherited the lead at lap 140 and held on for his first Cup win in his 23rd career start.

His Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton was second, followed by Ricky Rudd, also in a Ford. The Chevys of Terry Labonte and Bobby Labonte were fourth and fifth with Winston Cup points-leader Matt Kenseth sixth. Biffle is the first rookie to win at Daytona since Mario Andretti in 1967; he is the 14th winner in 17 races this year and the most improbable Cup winner in years.

Biffle went to Daytona Beach mired 25th in points. He missed the Las Vegas race in March and had only ...