The 2004 MBNA America 400 "A Salute to Heroes" was the 13th stock car race of the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season and the 36th iteration of the event.

[2] Jeremy Mayfield of Evernham Motorsports would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 22.393 and an average speed of 160.764 miles per hour (258.725 km/h).

[3] The second and final practice session, sometimes referred to as Happy Hour, would occur on Saturday, July 24, at 11:10 AM EST and would last for 45 minutes.

[2] Kurt Busch of Roush Racing would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 23.155 and an average speed of 155.474 miles per hour (250.211 km/h).

[5] Jeremy Mayfield of Evernham Motorsports would win the pole, setting a time of 28.776 and an average speed of 132.360 miles per hour (213.013 km/h).

[8] Three drivers would fail to qualify: Hermie Sadler, Todd Bodine, and Larry Gunselman.

Tony Stewart won the race off of pit road but a majority of cars stayed out including Jeff Burton who led them back to green on lap 38.

On lap 158, the 5th caution flew when Joe Nemechek crashed on the frontstretch after he got turned by Terry Labonte.

The 6th caution would fly on lap 222 when Jeff Gordon blew a right front tire and hit the wall in turn 2.

On lap 320, Newman attempted to come down pit road but came in too fast and ended up spinning out and hitting the tire barriers which brought out the 8th caution of the race.

This would cause a massive chain reaction crash to occur which also collected Ward Burton, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Scott Riggs, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Jeremy Mayfield, Ricky Rudd, Kevin Harvick, Sterling Marlin, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Green, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jarrett, Kurt Busch, and Jeff Burton.

With 27 laps to go, the 10th caution flew when Rusty Wallace blew a right front tire and hit the wall.

Robby Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Brian Vickers also crashed behind Kahne which brought out the 11th and final caution of the race.

Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jeff Burton and Scott Riggs rounded out the top 5 while Michael Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Jeremy Mayfield, Scott Wimmer, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.

[9] In an interview 16 years later on the NASCAR Weekly Podcast on YouTube with YouTubers Eric Estepp, Jaret Lundberg (The Iceberg), Darian Gilliam (Black Flags Matter), Matthew Henson (S1apSh0es), and Daniel Baldwin (DannyBTalks), Mark Martin talked about the race when he mentioned Kahne's spin saying that he "never felt nor saw" any oil on the racetrack.