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really? and handsome. get me outta here. we know just the place. no matter what you need or when you need it,check yelp first. >>> such a great initiative. our thanks to all of our servicemen and women. there you see charlotte motor speedway. let's take a look at this week's drive tothe championship moment.
brad keselowski has yet to win in the chase. however, he's the only chase driver to posttop-five finishes in each of the three races. he won here in the fall of 2013. >> we're having a seat here before driverintros. one of the drivers slated for 800 miles ofracing today. the only driver to get top-five finishes inall three of the first chase races but kind of under the radar. how much is this 2 team being overlooked? >> who knows.
each round is different. every race is different. you history to do the best you can in everyrace. certainly the consistency is important. winning is good, consistency is even better. >> you'll be starting right in the middleof the field where track position is so key, how do you overcome that? >> it's a long race. you have a lot of pit stops and if you havethe speed in your car and you have a great
team on pit road, you'll get to the frontpretty easily. >> brad keselowski starting 20th. >> what's it going to take to maintain yourposition here in the round of 12? >> it's been a challenging weekend so far. we didn't qualify well and had some problemswith some parts this morning and lost our starting spot. so we got our work cut out for us. it's going to be an aggressive race. we'll hopefully work our way toward the front.
>> what happened this morning? >> i'm not sure. they had some problem with the front. they treat it like an unimproved adjustmentand you have to go to the back. we'll be charging hard, hope flip get up tothe front. >> wish you the best of luck. >> matt kenseth breaking news, he'll startat the back. >> kevin harvick will start at the front todayas he kicks off the first round here. how does the first und to the second roundstart here in the chase?
>> as you go through the rounds the stakesget higher and higher and the competition gets closer and closer with the group of guysyou're racing. we don't know exactly where the track is goingto be. it's going to change throughout the day. that's a characteristic of charlotte. hopefully we can keep up with it. >> you practiced on thursday, didn't knowwhat the conditions were going to be. now we've had two days of rain, how differentthe track might be this afternoon. >> you know it's probably going to be prettyfast to start with because the racetrack is
going to be cleaner, like it was to startpractice. so you know you're going to have some speedin the car but then things are really going to rapidly change after that first pit stopafter the track rubbers in. >> kevin harvick starts on the pole. first time when we've had qualifying all yearlong when they've gotten the poll. that might be a bad sign for the rest of thefield. >> thanks, marty. matt kenseth talking about a part problemthis morning and what that means for his part of the race.
>> you have to get that track position backnow. it is 500 miles so you have plenty of timeto do that. it just shows the extent these teams are goingin trying to give their driver the most advantage they possibly can. >> we've seen this through the year. we saw it in recent weeks with kasey kahne. you have to change a part and it is an unimprovedadjustment and they send them to the back so this is not uncommon. >> harvick's streak, he's never been eliminatedsince the chase elimination format began.
let's make some elimination picks. i guess my point is does harvick continue? dale, who do you have being eliminated inthis round? >> i don't think there's any doubt. harvick goes on. i still say we change this to guesses, notpicks. you look at the drivers and a lot of thisis based on experience, some of it is based on who doing the best right now. i think this is a tough elimination, threerounds here.
carl edwards and busch, their teams haven'thad that speed that you really need, especially in the first two races. if they get going talladega, things couldbe rough for him. >> i was with him on carl edward and kurtbusch. i chose denny hamlin. and guesses was a perfect way to put it. we talk about how the gibbs organization havebeen fast all years but these two guys have been quiet. we've seen kyle up front, matt up front ashlittle more than we've seen denny and carl
for me. i look at those two and say they're not goingto make it through this round. kurt busch has been extremely quiet and i'vegot jimmie johnson, for all you people getting ready to tweet me, i've got jimmie johnsonbecause he's never made it past this round. he continues to make mistakes. could have won chicago, would have won atdover and been assured to move on. didn't. had mistakes. can they clean up their mistakes?
most are looking at this as a two-race round,talladega being the wild card. >> look at it as an opportunity. that's what makes this so difficult. they might have two terrible races and goto talladega and go through to round. >> there's kurt busch. what about jimmie johnson? he's had speed, that team has also had mistakes. what's the state of the 48? we discuss that next.
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two first-time chasers remain in contention. rookie chase elliott starts third today. dave? >> joey logano, he's already spoken on our"countdown to green" show, we'll let him go. but for yourself, chase, where did this comefrom? >> our group especially has been working reallyhard. our whole company has been over the past fewweeks, past few months. it takes a while to get things down the pikeand get things made, new pieces, get them on the race car, it doesn't happen overnight.
i just appreciate everybody's hard work. happy to be in charlotte and happy to havea good run for all those guys. >> you told me charlotte hasn't been historicallygood for you. are you ready to change history? >> i hope so. it hasn't been a very strong racetrack forme personally. so i was happy that we qualified. we haven't qualified worth a blip here thelast few times. it's just a starting spot so we want to tryto better that.
500 miles is a long time. we'll give it our best shot. >> up front any time is good, kelli. >> as you said earlier this week, now you'retied for first in the points. how does this team now step things up so youcan advance to the round of eight? >> i think we make sure we do what we've doneto get us here and that's finish these races and show some more speed than we have thelast couple weeks. i'm excited for the next three and just wantto do my job. >> strong tracks indeed here at charlottehas been one of your best.
why is that? >> i don't know. i figured something out here a while backtesting and it's just worked out the way you drive the track and good racetracks from rcr. >> looking at this first race, what is thestrategy? how do you make up track position over sucha long period? >> i feel like in the sun these cars startfreeing up and you start handling cars. as long as we keep up with our adjustmentsand have good pit stops and no mistakes, we'll be at the front.
>> we just heard from the two drivers, dale,two of the drivers you picked to be eliminated. he'll be in first. >> make i should put this mic down and walkout of here. basically those two picks were done becauseof experience. and not understanding exactly what it's goingto take and how the competition ramps up in this round here. i think that's going to make it very difficultfor these two drivers. could they each go on a tear and be just asgood and final themselves in the round of eight?
yes, they could. but i just think there's something about tryingto get all can you get, especially with changing conditions. today's the perfect example. they don't know exactly what to expect fromthis racetrack and how this race may go. so those type of things and not having thisexperience that could hinder them and make life more difficult but they've done an outstandingjob of getting to this point. >> they're climbing a mountain that kevinharvick and kyle bush has already put their flag atop of it.
it is the inexperience that's the huge questionmark. i think there's moments and times in thissport when you look at things that happen, you don't really pay attention and then youlook back and you notice it. i think we're seeing a changing of the guardat hendrick motorsports with chase elliott. he's the future of that team. i know jimmie johnson will continue to winraces and kasey kahne and junior. those guys will continue to win. we see the same thing, though, at richardchildress racing with austin dillon. this is a changing of the guard.
these will be the leaders of this team infive or ten years. that's something you'll look back on and saythat happened in 2016. >> it's a great time for fans, they're gettingto watch the jimmie johnson and also the changing of the guard. >> kelli is with jimmie johnson. >> i'm not so sure he's ready for the changingof the guard yet. he still has a seventh championship he'd liketo pursue. the theme of this team has been of late alot of speed but also a lot of mistakes. where's the confidence level of this team?
>> our confidence is high. we have the speed. we just need to clean up a few things. we're making a ton of progress in a lot ofareas. we're very confident about our performancetoday. we're alive in this round of 12, we're tiedfor the championship and, sighted about our lowe's chevrolet for today. >> you know how this championship can comeup and bite you, you did last year for you. just to get that out of way this year, wasthat a relief this year?
>> yeah, that was the best car we've had atdover. stuff happens. we recovered well from that and still finishedseventh with no real cautions to kind of bunch field up. so a lot of good things, a lot of things tobuild on but, yes, we're looking forward to a good, clean race today. >> since you touched on the 78, how much hasthis team closed the gap in terms of speed and competition with that program? >> i think we're knocking on the door.
i really do. you know, we're all bringing our best stuffto the track now and i think we're separating the field a little each week and i feel likewe're staying in that first cut. so very excited about where we're at. >> jimmie johnson starring a the-- starting 11th today. >> and it seems like his daughter, lydia,has a quiet confidence about her. it's hard to find any category where jimmiejohnson is not good but, yeah, they've had speed trials the last few weeks where they'vecome into their own but they've had mistakes. >> i don't think anybody as ever been betteron the mile and a half track bar none.
but let's go back. how many times in interviews leading up tothat opportunity to win have we heard jimmie johnson say we've still got things we've gotto clean up. that's the part of this team that bothersme. there's still things that they need to cleanup. they acknowledge it, which means they knowit's on their radar screen and they're working towards it but that to mes could-- me does not equate to a championship team. martin truex, other teams, they're performingat that level. jimmie gets to that level and then somethingknocks them back.
>> here's one thing that i think because theyare championship material, they've proven that over the years, that they understandthe situation and where they're at now. they were making a lot of these mistakes becausethey didn't have speed in their race car. it was taking them basically out of theirgame and they were having to do things that they weren't accustomed to doing and i thinkthey were all pressing issue and then you start making mistakes. now they have better race cars and jimmieunderstands that now. he can go back to being the championship driverthat he is. he doesn't have to push the issue in everysingle element.
look for him to be a factor here this afternoon. >> i'm going to asterisk beside this. dale jarrett wins championships. he and that team held themselves the nextyear to a higher standard. i think we as fans watching jimmie johnsonhold them to a higher standard. we think they should be invincible, shouldn'tmake mistakes and we criticize too much when they do make mistakes but it is an issue rightnow. >> i want to go back to what we talked aboutat the beginning of the show. what was supposed to be a night race is aday race.
you see people out with coats buttoned up. it's fall out there. this track is so temperature sensitive. does a team like jimmie johnson have an edge? >> yes, the temperatures still might be alittle bit cool so the track temp is not going to get that high. but sun shines down on this racetrack. not on does it change the racing surface butit changes the driver's mindset on what he's racing on, too.
>> and this track to jimmie johnson is likean old friend. he's won so many races here, he knows everynook, cranny, he knows what it does at 3:00 in the afternoon and when it does at 6:00in the afternoon. >> let go with your picks. >> i'm going half of jimmie johnson, i'm goingwith chase elliott. i think chase gets his first win here. there's something in the air, something aboutthis kid. been knocking on the door. i had him out in the first round.
i'm a firm believer. i think he gets his first win here. >> dale? >> i'm not sure we could get further apart. i'm taking the guy that set a record hereback in may, martin truex. i've been riding him. he's my champion eventually to all of this. i really believe that a day like today alsofavors someone like this race team that really has things going their way and i don't thinkconditions chang their race car and his driving
as much as it will affect some others. >> and we only have a couple of seconds butwhat does a win give a driver knowing talladega is looming, a win today? >> we talked about a went in chicago beinga relief. this win, i'm telling you, man, take two weeksoff, baby, because this is perfect. >> you can take all the money away, just letme have the trophy. >> drivers and teams have been waiting anextra day for this. the sky is clear, the track is dry. the chase is on.
a beautiful day for racing. opening ceremonies here are next.g ceremonieshere are next if carl wins today, i'm gonna do a backflip. maybe when you're dreaming. guys, i'm telling you, i can do a backflip. i've seen carl do it a million times. well that's neighborly. enough. you're good, man.
that is a banner. hand me one of the wings? uh, this one? oh yeah, that's good. toyota. let's go places. all right dude you got this. you gotta stick the landing. carl!
hey man, you want a wing? people know me as dale earnhardt jr., racecardriver. but there's more to me than that. at my office, they call me boss man. i scout the talent, close the deals, do itall with a firm handshake. (loud clap noise) gentlemen. (loud clap noise) to others, i'm water coolerdale. so i got this new chair, had it for a coupleof weeks. somebody keeps lowering it.
ah, dang it! i mean i reset it to where i want it and igo back to my office, and i sit down and it's lower. do you have a warranty on the chair? no! someone is lowering it! (dale) for protecting my small business andmore... >> every position matters, every point matters. points are going to get it and when guys arelooking at the from the outside in.
>> kevin harvick has been able to keep hischampionship hopes alive. >> there are moments in any athlete's careerthat are formed under pressure. the more we experience those pressure-packedmoments, the better we are. >> after a weekend of waiting out weather,it's time. let go trackside for today's opening ceremonies. >> ladies and gentlemen, at this time we askthat you please rise and remove your hats, as the university of north carolina at charlotteair force rotc color guard present our nation's colors. please remain standing as the ceo offers ourinvocations.
>> many are still dealing with the challengesand devastation of the last few days. we pray not only for them but those who arecaring for them and pray for the drivers and bless them with a safe day of racing. the fans that have come out today, may todaybe a wonderful day. father, in all of these things we also rememberthe men and women that are serving our countroth at home and abroad and ask you to watch overand protect them. may peace be with us all. it's in our holy name i pray. >> announcer: here to perform our nationalanthem, please welcome country music recording
artist danielle peck. o say, can you see by the dawn's early lightwhat so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? whose broad stripes and bright stars throughthe perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantlystreaming? and the rockets' red glare the bombs burstingin air gave proof through the night that our flagwas still there oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yetwave o'er the land of the freeand the home of the brave?
>>> let's hear it for danielle pec and herperformance of our national anthem. >> announcer: race fans, please remain standingand raise your sign and turn your attention to turn three to join bank of america as wesalute our troops. >> and we stand and salute today. the command at nascar's home game is next.car'shome game is next burnin' through the fogif you see me at the crossroads you can hear me wail and moanbut if you hear that fiddle rolling down the highway, burning throughthe fall you can see me at the cross roads, you canhear me hear me
i'm bringing back the sunshine, bringing backthe sunshine baby it's about time, whoa, whoabring it back, bring it back, oh yeah >>> and indeed the sunshine is back at charlottemotor speedway as we welcome you to nascar on nbc's coverage of the bank of america 500. the chase for the sprint cup enters the roundof 12 and all eyes are on martin truex jr., who had an historic performance in may. looking to challenge is joey logano. he swept the round of 12 in last year's chaseand it started with a victory right here. they and nine other title contenders lookto win at the sports home track and move one
step closer to a championship. pressure continues to mount on all of thedrivers. let's get the 40 cars to come to life as wego trackside for today's command. >> announcer: and now for the most famouswords in motorsports, please welcome your grand marshall, the uso of north carolina. >> drivers, start your engine! >> 40 cars are fired up. we're fired up here as well, as we get readyfor this race in charlotte. a lot of people are looking at this roundof 12 as a very difficult round because talladega
is the last race in this round. that makes charlotte and kansas very important,jeff. >> yes, it does. talladega is one of those races that anythingcan happen. you're riding along, doing nothing wrong,all of a sudden you're in a wreck and finish dead last. all these teams have to approach this raceas if it's one of two race, not one of three in this segment. >> and to make it even more difficult, theweather.
it's been an issue all weekend long. the teams qualified thursday, washed out onfriday, washed out on saturday. it's been nearly 72 hours since they've beenon the racetrack. >> let me ask you, which teams stand out asthey can handle the pressure? >> i think you have to look at jimmie johnson,while he hasn't won since 2014, can they eliminate the mistakes? >> martin truex jr. keep your eye on him. >> th's 38 other drivers in this race.
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>>> charlotte, north carolina, home base forso many of nascar's teams and today charlotte motor speedway is the site for the first raceof the round of 12, second round of the playoffs. win this afternoon for any one of 12 daringdrivers would guarantee their dream of winning the sprint cup championship remains alive. >> you gotta block out the pressure, blockout all those things that could potentially happen and get the job done. >> martin truex jr. sending a strong, strongmessage to the rest of this entire field. >> you're pretty much back to zero and youhave to prove yourself again and over and over and over again.
the next three weeks the intensity will definitelyramp up. >> it doesn't matter what you did or whatyou're going to do. it's really about now. >> welcome to nascar racing on nbc. it's the bank of america 500 from charlottemotor speedway. let's take a look at the chase grid. you see that after last week in dover, thereare now just 12 drivers who still have a chance at the championship. seven races remain, and the stakes keep gettinghigher.
it's win and advance. two drivers on this list, chase elliott andaustin dillon are looking for their first win and a victory here at charlotte wouldensure a spot in the next round of the playoffs for one of these 12 drivers. welcome to the bank of america 00. steve letarte, jeff burton i'm rick allen. really this round of 12 ends with talladega,probably one of the most unpredictable races we could have. that makes charlotte and kansas even moreimportant, jeff.
>> it does. at talladega anything can happen. we've seen the wrecks, we've seen people runningreally, really well and to mog sanctify issue for these teams many believe this is the mostcompetitive 12 teams that ever moved into the round of 12 so you need a good finishhere but it's going to be very difficult to get. >> if the pressure of this race wasn't alreadyhigh the schedule for the weekend has been a struggle, while the teams were on trackpractice, practiced in qualifying, friday was washed out, saturday's been washed out.
it's been nearly 72 hours since these teamshave been on the racetrack. some prepared for a night race. now we have a day race. which team guessed right on the setup theyneed in their car. >> steve, who has the advantage to a day racehere at charlotte? >> you have to look at jimmie johnson, hehasn't won a race here since 2014 they showed a lot of speed lately. they have to clean up a few pit road mistakes. >> i have to believe the 78 of martin truexjr., won two of the first three races in this
format. this team dominated this race in the spring,they won last week. they have momentum going. don't forget the pole setter kevin harvick,you have consider he'll be a threat as well. >> you can never forget the guy who startsup front. you can see the bank of america startup screenat the top there. as far as the practice time they were on thetrack on thursday, that was it. friday and saturday they've been sitting eitherin their buses or at home watching it rain here.
what does that do for the mentality of a driverand a team? >> i think these drivers have to remain calmbecause the pressure of the chase is here, and when you sit with all that pressure, itcould become overwhelming at times. so how do you deal with the pressure? can you stay calm? can you stay poised? we know there's a caution coming on lap 25due to the weather, rick, we have a competition caution coming. more importantly the drivers need to staycalm and relax.
it's a 500-mile race. >> the unknown is what they're afraid of. is the track going to be loose, is it goingto be tight? how much is it going to change? with limited practice and the practice theydid there was more rubber on the racetrack. so many unknowns. >> there is going to be a competition cautionat lap 25 as we take a look at the ge track facts for charlotte motor speedway. the race length 334 laps, 500 miles.
pit road speed 45 miles per hour. that is a pedestrian speed when they comeonto pit road, because they'll be going upwards of 200 miles an hour when they enter turnnumber one but the fuel window, steve, 57 to 60 laps. >> your goodyear tires to easily go 57 to60 laps. i expect the teams to push the speed. 500 miles, seems like we forget the lengthof the race and how important it is for the crews, teams and creigh chiefs on top of thepit box to have a good strategy throughout the day.
>> strategy is going to come into play veryquickly now as the pace car exits on to pit road. the field in the hands of kevin harvick andalex bowman making up row one. as they come to the green flag, we're racingin the round of 12. >> bowman is a rookie on the outside of thefront row, did not get a good restart. kyle busch three wide on the outside. >> all the way up to the wall on the firstlap. we saw jamie mcmurray up there, also the 18of kyle busch takes second away. >> could be very interesting to see how thistrack is early, rick.
we mentioned the weather, mentioned the rainbut also the sunshine. this is a race normally run at night, the600 earlier in the year ends at night. how is this track going to react to a dayrace? >> right here when they ender turn numberone they'll be going the fastest, over 00 miles an hour. slow down to 17 omiles an hour so they don'tthrow is down much through the center of the turn but right down on the gas and the backstraight. >> we're seeing right now, some guys makingmoves on the outside lane but kyle larson the back of your screen will be one of thefirst guys to jump up on the outside and trying
to advance his position. this group will move around all day long asthe rubber gets laid on the racetrack. >> 500 laps, excuse me, 500 miles, 334 laps. kevin harvick out front, chase elliott hastaken over second. kyle busch drops to third. alex bowman and tony stewart are the top five. martin truex jr. on the joao side at the 78 and the 48 of jimmiejohnson making his move on the inside. riding along with martin truex jr., we seehim moving the high line getting by the 10
of danica patrick coming up on the 19 of carledwards. >> 17 is ricky stenhouse jr. and joey logano one of our chase contenders,bottoms out big time, almost gets into the side of the 22 of logano. fortunately they did not make contact andmoved forward but that right there is a great example of how all these drivers are nervousabout the unknowns and what can happen. look behind, look right here this car, thered and white car the 42, he is absolutely flying already. kyle larson started 25th, and working thatoutside lane has moved himself up to 12th
in only four laps. >> you mentioned the 22 of joey logano inthe close call with ricky stenhouse jr. another chase competitor that has to be patientin this race. matt kenseth in the 20 car had to go to thetail of the field and make an adjustment in inspection, they found an issue in the racecar already presented for inspection. you see going along the outside of chris buescher. matt kenseth having to remain patient andget track position. >> you watch matt kenseth move up to the fieldthe left side of your screen. already gained seven positions, make it eightwhen he crosses the finish line this time.
he preached that to me as well about the patiencehe has to exhibit early in this race. you can work your way up but look at whathe's doing, middle of the groove he's been running this entire time. the track at charlotte motor speedway laiddown a lot of rubber before the cars showed up. the rubber seemed to have stayed through therain the last couple of days. drivers were watching that during preracing. you can use that high lane if the rubber andgrip is there but it's tough to be the first guy up there.
>> we saw kyle larson make it work and joeylogano cleaned jamie mcmurray on the outside. to be 100% honest i'm surprised it's goodalready. if it's this good now it should only get betteras the race moves forward. >> i loved when people use the word patienceand racing. there's a difficult balance you would haveto have, be patient and yet at the same time you've got to race like i said, 200 milesan hour into turn one and be literally inches away from your competition. >> we ride on board with the 4 car of joeylogano, that's what makes theses drivers the best in the world.
they can thrive on the edge of chaos. they can be 1% or 2% away from out of controlbut be completely in control, understand their surroundings and truly it's like a premierathlete, pushing their exertion level. how much can their heart rate take? joey logano is one with this race car. he knows how much he can push the issue sopatience is a awe neek word when it comes to racing but the great ones have it. >> they do have it. we're on the 4 in-car camera with joey logano.
watch what joey logano is doing. it's not by chance he has the car the wayhe wants it to be. much like a fb with football he has to executeand when to desomething sell rate and when to reaccelerate to build that speed comingoff the corner. people think about driving a race car as justdriving as hard as you can. that's not the way you drive a race car. you drive a race car with precision, withyour brain. it is a game of tenths of a second, hundredthsof a second. see how smooth joey logano is.
lot of what's going on right now in this racecar he's trying to understand what does my car do well? what doesn't it do well to communicate thatwith his team so on the lap 25 caution they can make their car better. >> joey logano continuing to battle to tryto move forward. we heard from marty snider down on pit roadtoday, dave burns, mike massaro and kelly stavast will continue to give you the storiesdown on pit road as they develop. again, the 20 of matt kenseth having to startat the back because of an unapproved adjustment prior to the start of the race.
we'll watch him battle uhm as chase elliott'sbiding for the lead. elliott goes to the inside and takes the topspot away from kevin harvick. >> kevin harvick had a little problem on turnfour. chase elliott's car handling much better atthis point in the race than kevin harvick. the rookie has made his way into the chase,showing some muscle early in this race. >> what is it about charlotte motor speedway? we've seen nascar superstars get their winhere. another one that comes to mind the young guythat drove the 24 before chase elliott, jeff gordon, first ever career win at charlottemotor speedway.
>> chase elliott out in front at charlotte. and go from serving their country to rejoiningtheir families, we're helping to connect them to an even better future. if carl wins today, i'm gonna do a backflip. crowd: danica! danica! yeah, you. danica, you had a rough run in the last lapthere, how do you adjust? can you feel it?
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welcome back to charlotte motor speedway. out in front it is the 24 of chase elliott,young 20-year-old has still yet to find victory lane in his sprint cup series career. has won an xfinity series championship butyet to get that first win, although he is one of the 12 drivers still fighting for achampionship. the 48 though with six championships definitelyhad his hands full as we went to commercial break. >> yes he did, driving to the bottom of theracetrack in turn one, gets to the bottom and no longer can turn the car.
obviously got really loose right there andhad to chase the car up the racetrack. allowed denny hamlin in the 19 and also carledwards to get by him. so a little bit of a handling issue rightnow. he did end up getting back by carl edwardsbut obviously nobody is happy with their cars except for chase elliott. >> jimmie johnson knows how to get aroundthis racetrack, most of all-time as far as wins go at charlotte motor speedway. seven wins for jimmie johnson here. sprint's network reliability, within 1% ofverizon.
switch today. save 50% on most verizon, at&t and t-mobilerates. visit sprint.com/network today. mike? >> not only does jimmie johnson have sevenvictories here he's led over 1700 laps on this racetrack. suffice it so say it's been pretty good forhim. the car's been a little bit tight and edgyand going into the race felt pretty comfortable with this racetrack.
he knows he can make some ground and builda cushion as he heads into the round of 12. >> rick, when you look at the 48 of jimmiejohnson, this is the team that has won six championshipless in the chase format of tenraces but in the elimination format of the chase he never advanced out of this round,never made the round of eight so he has to have in my opinion, jeff, more pressure onthe team. to have such a great career and resume butnever advanced. >> you add what happened to him this yearwhile leading races and running well they've had continuing issues on pit road that havecost him, so speedy having a good run in chicago leading the race, they got penalized.
then comes down pit road, this has been acontinuing problem, comes down pit road at dover, once again in the pit box you see onthe right-hand side of your corner there's a pit crew member that's on pit road too soon,another pit road penalty. we talk about jimmie johnson a six-time championand how good this race team is, they've got to clean these mistakes up. they brought more speed, steve, in the racesbut they haven't been executing. >> jeff, you brought up a great point at thestart of the show and the fact that this is most certainly the 12th best drivers thatwe have seen fighting for a championship since this format has been put in place.
so not only does very to be on his game eachand every week, but he's competing against 11 of the best in the sport. you can't make mistakes and hope to advance. >> well, he is competing against the 11 best. people say why -->> caution has come out. the competition caution comes out, everyonefrozen in their positions that they're in right now. >> so this is an opportunity to gain spotsor lose spots. we were just talking about it.
all these cars will be on pit road at thesame time, you're competing against the best in the business, on pit road in every way,down pit road speed, the pit crews, who falls under pressure and who executes with the pressure? that's been the problem with the 48. see if they can have a good pit stop here. >> about to see the first run of pit stopsfor these teams as we look at the spotters up on top of the press box, spotter coveragebrought to you by liberty mutual insurance, helping drivers worry less on the track andthe road. >> spotters will be busier than normal todaywith the weather, with the day race, with
the moving around of the preferred lines. we've seen cars already up against the wall,these cars will have to be more than just clearing their race car driver from traffic. they're going to have to be informing theirdrivers what lines should they be in, what looks like the fastest around the racetrack. >> 35 cars on the lead lap coming to pit roadat one time. these spotters have to be paying attentionwhat's going on around their drivers. >> great aerial views right nou brought tous by our partners at smithfield foods. it will be a great vantage point to wat especiallythe restarts here at charlotte, when they
are two-wide going into turn one trying tofight for position. >> we were talking earlier about the strategy. it's already into play with only 25 greenflag laps, it will be interesting to see who is going to be aggressive. alan gustavsson for chase elliott, will heput two or four tires on the car. will he try to guarantee the race late orwill jimmie johnson or carl edwards take advantage only putting two tires. >> pit road open and they're coming towardsyou, mike. >> jimmie johnson giving up the seventh positionon the racetrack as he comes down pit road.
the car has been a little bit edgy. stopping short in the box so he can get outeasier. they'll make a wedge adjustment and four-tireplacement on the 48. >> kyle busch says the car is good, a littleloose. four tires, air pressure, fuel. >> chase elliott fired off well and got snugand started to free up, they made a small wedge adjustment to the right wheel tire andfour wheels. >> rodney childress says wedge and air pressurefor harvick, comes in third, out third. >> race off pit road brought to you by geicoand oh, it's so nice of you and your friends
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there you see charlotte motor speedway. let'stake a look at this week's drive to the championship moment. brad keselowski has yet to win inthe chase. however, he's the only chase driver to post top-five finishes in each of the threeraces. he won here in the fall of 2013. >> we're having a seat here before driverintros. one of the drivers slated for 800 miles of racing today. the only driver toget top-five finishes in all three of the first chase races but kind of under the radar.how much is this 2 team being overlooked? >> who knows. each round is different. everyrace is different. you history to do the best you can in every race. certainly the consistencyis important. winning is good, consistency is even better.>> you'll be starting right in the middle
of the field where track position is so key,how do you overcome that? >> it's a long race. you have a lot of pitstops and if you have the speed in your car and you have a great team on pit road, you'llget to the front pretty easily. >> brad keselowski starting 20th.>> what's it going to take to maintain your position here in the round of 12?>> it's been a challenging weekend so far. starting spot. so we got our work cut outfor us. it's going to be an aggressive race. we'll hopefully work our way toward the front.>> what happened this morning? >> i'm not sure. they had some problem withthe front. they treat it like an unimproved adjustment and you have to go to the back.we'll be charging hard, hope flip get up to
the front. >> wish you the best of luck.>> matt kenseth breaking news, he'll start at the back.>> kevin harvick will start at the front today as he kicks off the first round here. howdoes the first und to the second round start here in the chase?>> as you go through the rounds the stakes get higher and higher and the competitiongets closer and closer with the group of guys you're racing. we don't know exactly wherethe track is going to be. it's going to change throughout the day. that's a characteristicof charlotte. hopefully we can keep up with it.>> you practiced on thursday, didn't know
what the conditions were going to be. nowwe've had two days of rain, how different the track might be this afternoon.>> you know it's probably going to be pretty fast to start with because the racetrack isgoing to be cleaner, like it was to start practice. so you know you're going to havesome speed in the car but then things are really going to rapidly change after thatfirst pit stop after the track rubbers in. >> kevin harvick starts on the pole. firsttime when we've had qualifying all year long when they've gotten the poll. that might bea bad sign for the rest of the field. >> thanks, marty. matt kenseth talking abouta part problem this morning and what that means for his part of the race.>> you have to get that track position back
now. it is 500 miles so you have plenty oftime to do that. it just shows the extent these teams are going in trying to give theirdriver the most advantage they possibly can. >> we've seen this through the year. we sawit in recent weeks with kasey kahne. you have to change a part and it is an unimproved adjustmentand they send them to the back so this is not uncommon. let's make some elimination picks. i guessmy point is does harvick continue? dale, who do you have being eliminated in this round?>> i don't think there's any doubt. harvick goes on. i still say we change this to guesses,not picks. you look at the drivers and a lot of this is based on experience, some of itis based on who doing the best right now.
i think this is a tough elimination, threerounds here. carl edwards and busch, their teams haven't had that speed that you reallyneed, especially in the first two races. if they get going talladega, things could berough for him. >> i was with him on carl edward and kurtbusch. i chose denny hamlin. and guesses was a perfect way to put it. we talk about howthe gibbs organization have been fast all years but these two guys have been quiet.we've seen kyle up front, matt up front ash little more than we've seen denny and carlfor me. i look at those two and say they're not going to make it through this round. kurtbusch has been extremely quiet and i've got jimmie johnson, for all you people gettingready to tweet me, i've got jimmie johnson
because he's never made it past this round.he continues to make mistakes. could have won chicago, would have won at dover and beenassured to move on. didn't. had mistakes. can they clean up their mistakes? most arelooking at this as a two-race round, talladega being the wild card.>> look at it as an opportunity. that's what makes this so difficult. >> there's kurt busch. what about jimmie johnson?he's had speed, that team has also had mistakes. what's the state of the 48? we discuss thatnext. i absolutely love my new york apartment, but the rent is outrageous. good thing geicooffers affordable renters insurance. with great coverage it protects my personal belongingsshould they get damaged, stolen or destroyed.
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90 minutes every day and it starts a halfhour earlier. 5:30 eastern beginning monday on nbcsn. two first-time chasers remain incontention. rookie chase elliott starts third today. dave?>> joey logano, he's already spoken on our "countdown to green" show, we'll let him go.but for yourself, chase, where did this come from?>> our group especially has been working really hard. our whole company has been over thepast few weeks, past few months. it takes a while to get things down the pike and getthings made, new pieces, get them on the race car, it doesn't happen overnight. i just appreciateeverybody's hard work. happy to be in charlotte
and happy to have a good run for all thoseguys. >> you told me charlotte hasn't been historicallygood for you. are you ready to change history? >> i hope so. it hasn't been a very strongracetrack for me personally. so i was happy that we qualified. we haven't qualified wortha blip here the last few times. it's just a starting spot so we want to try to betterthat. 500 miles is a long time. we'll give it our best shot.>> up front any time is good, kelli. >> as you said earlier this week, now you'retied for first in the points. how does this team now step things up so you can advanceto the round of eight? and show some more speed than we have thelast couple weeks. i'm excited for the next
three and just want to do my job.>> strong tracks indeed here at charlotte has been one of your best. why is that?>> i don't know. i figured something out here a while back testing and it's just workedout the way you drive the track and good racetracks from rcr.>> looking at this first race, what is the strategy? how do you make up track positionover such a long period? be at the front.>> we just heard from the two drivers, dale, two of the drivers you picked to be eliminated.he'll be in first. >> make i should put this mic down and walkout of here. basically those two picks were done because of experience. and not understandingexactly what it's going to take and how the
competition ramps up in this round here. ithink that's going to make it very difficult for these two drivers. could they each goon a tear and be just as good and final themselves in the round of eight? yes, they could. buti just think there's something about trying to get all can you get, especially with changingconditions. today's the perfect example. they don't know exactly what to expect from thisracetrack and how this race may go. so those type of things and not having this experiencethat could hinder them and make life more difficult but they've done an outstandingjob of getting to this point. flag atop of it. it is the inexperience that'sthe huge question mark. i think there's moments and times in this sport when you look at thingsthat happen, you don't really pay attention
and then you look back and you notice it.i think we're seeing a changing of the guard at hendrick motorsports with chase elliott.he's the future of that team. i know jimmie johnson will continue to win races and kaseykahne and junior. those guys will continue to win. we see the same thing, though, atrichard childress racing with austin dillon. this is a changing of the guard. these willbe the leaders of this team in five or ten years. that's something you'll look back onand say that happened in 2016. of the guard.>> kelli is with jimmie johnson. >> i'm not so sure he's ready for the changingof the guard yet. he still has a seventh championship he'd like to pursue. the theme of this teamhas been of late a lot of speed but also a
lot of mistakes. where's the confidence levelof this team? >> our confidence is high. we have the speed.we just need to clean up a few things. we're making a ton of progress in a lot of areas.we're very confident about our performance today. we're alive in this round of 12, we'retied for the championship and, sighted about our lowe's chevrolet for today.>> you know how this championship can come up and bite you, you did last year for you.just to get that out of way this year, was that a relief this year?>> yeah, that was the best car we've had at dover. stuff happens. we recovered well fromthat and still finished seventh with no real cautions to kind of bunch field up. so a lotof good things, a lot of things to build on
but, yes, we're looking forward to a good,clean race today. and competition with that program?>> i think we're knocking on the door. i really do. you know, we're all bringing our beststuff to the track now and i think we're separating the field a little each week and i feel likewe're staying in that first cut. so very excited about where we're at.>> jimmie johnson starring a the -- starting 11th today.>> and it seems like his daughter, lydia, has a quiet confidence about her. it's hardto find any category where jimmie johnson is not good but, yeah, they've had speed trialsthe last few weeks where they've come into their own but they've had mistakes.>> i don't think anybody as ever been better
on the mile and a half track bar none. butlet's go back. how many times in interviews leading up to that opportunity to win havewe heard jimmie johnson say we've still got things we've got to clean up. that's the part of this team that bothersme. there's still things that they need to clean up. they acknowledge it, which meansthey know it's on their radar screen and they're working towards it but that to mes could-- me does not equate to a championship team. martin truex, other teams, they're performingat that level. jimmie gets to that level and then something knocks them back.>> here's one thing that i think because they are championship material, they've proventhat over the years, that they understand
the situation and where they're at now. theywere making a lot of these mistakes because they didn't have speed in their race car.it was taking them basically out of their game and they were having to do things thatthey weren't accustomed to doing and i think they were all pressing issue and then youstart making mistakes. now they have better race cars and jimmie understands that now.he can go back to being the championship driver that he is. he doesn't have to push the issuein every single element. look for him to be a factor here this afternoon.>> i'm going to asterisk beside this. dale jarrett wins championships. he and that teamheld themselves the next year to a higher standard. i think we as fans watching jimmiejohnson hold them to a higher standard. we
think they should be invincible, shouldn'tmake mistakes and we criticize too much when >> i want to go back to what we talked aboutat the beginning of the show. what was supposed to be a night race is a day race. you seepeople out with coats buttoned up. it's fall out there. this track is so temperature sensitive. doesa team like jimmie johnson have an edge? to get that high. but sun shines down on thisracetrack. not on does it change the racing surface but it changes the driver's mindseton what he's racing on, too. >> and this track to jimmie johnson is likean old friend. he's won so many races here, he knows every nook, cranny, he knows whatit does at 3:00 in the afternoon and when
it does at 6:00 in the afternoon.>> let go with your picks. >> i'm going half of jimmie johnson, i'm goingwith chase elliott. i think chase gets his first win here. there's something in the air,something about this kid. been knocking on the door. i had him out in the first round.i'm a firm believer. i think he gets his first win here.>> dale? >> i'm not sure we could get further apart.i'm taking the guy that set a record here back in may, martin truex. i've been ridinghim. he's my champion eventually to all of this. i really believe that a day like todayalso favors someone like this race team that really has things going their way and i don'tthink conditions chang their race car and
his driving as much as it will affect someothers. is looming, a win today?>> we talked about a went in chicago being a relief. this win, i'm telling you, man,take two weeks off, baby, because this is perfect.>> you can take all the money away, just let me have the trophy.>> drivers and teams have been waiting an extra day for this. the sky is clear, thetrack is dry. the chase is on. a beautiful day for racing. opening ceremonies here arenext.g ceremonies here are next if carl wins today, i'm gonna do a backflip. maybe when you're dreaming. guys, i'm tellingyou, i can do a backflip. i've seen carl do
it a million times. well that's neighborly.enough. you're good, man. that is a banner. hand me one of the wings? uh, this one? ohyeah, that's good. toyota. let's go places. all right dude you got this. you gotta stickthe landing. carl! hey man, you want a wing? people know me as dale earnhardt jr., racecardriver. but there's more to me than that. at my office, they call me boss man. i scoutthe talent, close the deals, do it all with a firm handshake.(loud clap noise) gentlemen. (loud clap noise) to others, i'm water coolerdale. so i got this new chair, had it for a couple of weeks. somebody keeps loweringit. ah, dang it! i mean i reset it to where i want it and i go back to my office, andi sit down and it's lower. do you have a warranty
on the chair? no! someone is lowering it!(dale) for protecting my small business and more... >> every position matters, every point matters.points are going to get it and when guys are looking at the from the outside in.>> kevin harvick has been able to keep his championship hopes alive.>> there are moments in any athlete's career that are formed under pressure. the more weexperience those pressure-packed moments, the better we are.>> after a weekend of waiting out weather, it's time. let go trackside for today's openingceremonies. colors. please remain standing as the ceooffers our invocations.
>> many are still dealing with the challengesand devastation of the last few days. we pray not only for them but those who are caringfor them and pray for the drivers and bless them with a safe day of racing. the fans thathave come out today, may today be a wonderful day. father, in all of these things we alsoremember the men and women that are serving our countroth at home and abroad and ask youto watch over and protect them. may peace be with us all. it's in our holy name i pray.>> announcer: here to perform our national anthem, please welcome country music recordingartist danielle peck. o say, can you see by the dawn's early lightwhat so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?whose broad stripes and bright stars through
the perilous fighto'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in airgave proof through the night that our flag was still thereoh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet waveo'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?>>> let's hear it for danielle pec and her performance of our national anthem.>> announcer: race fans, please remain standing and raise your sign and turn your attentionto turn three to join bank of america as we salute our troops.>> and we stand and salute today.
on nbc's coverage of the bank of america 500.the chase for the sprint cup enters the round of 12 and all eyes are on martin truex jr.,who had an historic performance in may. looking to challenge is joey logano. he swept theround of 12 in last year's chase and it started with a victory right here. they and nine othertitle contenders look to win at the sports home track and move one step closer to a championship.pressure continues to mount on all of the drivers. let's get the 40 cars to come tolife as we go trackside for today's command. grand marshall, the uso of north carolina.>> drivers, start your engine! >> 40 cars are fired up. we're fired up hereas well, as we get ready for this race in charlotte. a lot of people are looking atthis round of 12 as a very difficult round
because talladega is the last race in thisround. that makes charlotte and kansas very important, jeff.>> yes, it does. talladega is one of those races that anything can happen. you're ridingalong, doing nothing wrong, all of a sudden you're in a wreck and finish dead last. allthese teams have to approach this race as if it's one of two race, not one of threein this segment. >> and to make it even more difficult, theweather. it's been an issue all weekend long. the teams qualified thursday, washed out onfriday, washed out on saturday. it's been nearly 72 hours since they've been on theracetrack. the mistakes?>> martin truex jr. keep your eye on him.
>> th's 38 other drivers in this race. keepyour eye on them.our eye on them. to rejoining their families, we're helping to connect themto an even better future. from financial education and wellness programs to job training andhousing assistance, we're partnering with military nonprofits dedicated to helping ourtroops succeed here at home. welcome to stouffer's fit kitchen. prime cuts of meat. 25 gramsof protein. and savory, mouth-watering sides. it's the perfect balance of delicious andnutritious. making it just the right fit for you. stouffer's fit kitchen meals. this isfit. upgrade season's here. i got my new iphone 7 from sprint. sprint? i'm hearing good thingsabout the network. all the networks are great now. we're talking within a 1% differencein reliability of each other. and, sprint
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one hundred calories. available at these finestores. welcome to stouffer's fit kitchen. prime cuts of meat. 25 grams of protein. andsavory, mouth-watering sides. it's the perfect balance of delicious and nutritious. makingit just the right fit for you. stouffer's fit kitchen meals. this is fit.>>> charlotte, north carolina, home base for so many of nascar's teams and today charlottemotor speedway is the site for the first race of the round of 12, second round of the playoffs. the sprint cup championship remains alive.>> you gotta block out the pressure, block out all those things that could potentiallyhappen and get the job done. over and over again.>> every position matters, every point matters.
>> it doesn't matter what you did or whatyou're going to do. it's really about now. >> welcome to nascar racing on nbc. it's thebank of america 500 from charlotte motor speedway. let's take a look at the chase grid. you seethat after last week in dover, there are now just 12 drivers who still have a chance atthe championship. seven races remain, and the stakes keep getting higher. it's win andadvance. two drivers on this list, chase elliott and austin dillon are looking for their firstwin and a victory here at charlotte would ensure a spot in the next round of the playoffsfor one of these 12 drivers. welcome to the bank of america 00. steve letarte, jeff burtoni'm rick allen. really this round of 12 ends with talladega, probably one of the most unpredictableraces we could have. that makes charlotte
and kansas even more important, jeff.>> it does. at talladega anything can happen. was washed out, saturday's been washed out.it's been nearly 72 hours since these teams have been on the racetrack. some preparedfor a night race. now we have a day race. a lot of speed lately. they have to cleanup a few pit road mistakes. format. this team dominated this race in thespring, they won last week. they have momentum going. don't forget the pole setter kevinharvick, you have consider he'll be a threat as well.>> you can never forget the guy who starts up front. you can see the bank of americastartup screen at the top there. as far as the practice time they were on the track onthursday, that was it. friday and saturday
they've been sitting either in their busesor at home watching it rain here. what does that do for the mentality of a driver anda team? and when you sit with all that pressure, itcould become overwhelming at times. so how do you deal with the pressure? can you staycalm? can you stay poised? we know there's a caution coming on lap 25 due to the weather,rick, we have a competition caution coming. more importantly the drivers need to staycalm and relax. it's a 500-mile race. >> the unknown is what they're afraid of.is the track going to be loose, is it going to be tight? how much is it going to change?with limited practice and the practice they did there was more rubber on the racetrack.so many unknowns.
facts for charlotte motor speedway. the racelength 334 laps, 500 miles. pit road speed 45 miles per hour. to 60 laps.>> your goodyear tires to easily go 57 to 60 laps. i expect the teams to push the speed.500 miles, seems like we forget the length of the race and how important it is for thecrews, teams and creigh chiefs on top of the pit box to have a good strategy throughoutthe day. road. the field in the hands of kevin harvickand alex bowman making up row one. as they come to the green flag, we're racing in theround of 12. >> bowman is a rookie on the outside of thefront row, did not get a good restart. kyle
busch three wide on the outside.>> all the way up to the wall on the first lap. we saw jamie mcmurray up there, alsothe 18 of kyle busch takes second away. >> could be very interesting to see how thistrack is early, rick. we mentioned the weather, mentioned the rain but also the sunshine.this is a race normally run at night, the 600 earlier in the year ends at night. howis this track going to react to a day race? miles an hour. slow down to 17 omiles an hourso they don't throw is down much through the center of the turn but right down on the gasand the back straight. to advance his position. this group will movearound all day long as the rubber gets laid on the racetrack.>> 500 laps, excuse me, 500 miles, 334 laps.
kyle busch drops to third. alex bowman andtony stewart are the top five. martin truex jr. on the joao side at the 78 and the 48of jimmie johnson making his move on the inside. >> 17 is ricky stenhouse jr. and joey loganoone of our chase contenders, bottoms out big time, almost gets into the side of the 22of logano. fortunately they did not make contact and moved forward but that right there isa great example of how all these drivers are nervous about the unknowns and what can happen.look behind, look right here this car, the red and white car the 42, he is absolutelyflying already. kyle larson started 25th, and working that outside lane has moved himselfup to 12th in only four laps. >> you mentioned the 22 of joey logano inthe close call with ricky stenhouse jr. another
chase competitor that has to be patient inthis race. matt kenseth in the 20 car had to go to the tail of the field and make anadjustment in inspection, they found an issue in the race car already presented for inspection.you see going along the outside of chris buescher. >> you watch matt kenseth move up to the fieldthe left side of your screen. already gained seven positions, make it eight when he crossesthe finish line this time. he preached that to me as well about the patience he has toexhibit early in this race. you can work your way up but look at what he's doing, middleof the groove he's been running this entire time. the track at charlotte motor speedwaylaid down a lot of rubber before the cars showed up.
the rubber seemed to have stayed through therain the last couple of days. drivers were watching that during preracing. you can usethat high lane if the rubber and grip is there but it's tough to be the first guy up there.>> we saw kyle larson make it work and joey logano cleaned jamie mcmurray on the outside.to be 100% honest i'm surprised it's good already. if it's this good now it should onlyget better as the race moves forward. >> i loved when people use the word patienceand racing. there's a difficult balance you would have to have, be patient and yet atthe same time you've got to race like i said, 200 miles an hour into turn one and be literallyinches away from your competition. best in the world. they can thrive on theedge of chaos. they can be 1% or 2% away from
out of control but be completely in control,understand their surroundings and truly it's like a premier athlete, pushing their exertionlevel. how much can their heart rate take? joey logano is one with this race car. heknows how much he can push the issue so patience is a awe neek word when it comes to racingbut the great ones have it. >> they do have it. we're on the 4 in-carcamera with joey logano. watch what joey logano is doing. it's not by chance he has the carthe way he wants it to be. much like a fb with football he has to execute and when todesomething sell rate and when to reaccelerate to build that speed coming off the corner.people think about driving a race car as just driving as hard as you can. that's not theway you drive a race car. you drive a race
car with precision, with your brain. it isa game of tenths of a second, hundredths of a second. see how smooth joey logano is. lotof what's going on right now in this race car he's trying to understand what does mycar do well? what doesn't it do well to communicate that with his team so on the lap 25 cautionthey can make their car better. stavast will continue to give you the storiesdown on pit road as they develop. again, the 20 of matt kenseth having to start at theback because of an unapproved adjustment prior to the start of the race. we'll watch himbattle uhm as chase elliott's biding for the lead. elliott goes to the inside and takesthe top spot away from kevin harvick. >> kevin harvick had a little problem on turnfour. chase elliott's car handling much better
at this point in the race than kevin harvick.the rookie has made his way into the chase, showing some muscle early in this race.>> what is it about charlotte motor speedway? we've seen nascar superstars get their winhere. another one that comes to mind the young guy that drove the 24 before chase elliott,jeff gordon, first ever career win at charlotte motor speedway.>> chase elliott out in front at charlotte. to an even better future. from financial educationand wellness programs to job training and housing assistance, we're partnering withmilitary nonprofits dedicated to helping our troops succeed here at home. if carl winstoday, i'm gonna do a backflip. maybe when you're dreaming. guys, i'm telling you, ican do a backflip. i've seen carl do it a
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>>> nascar on nbc is brought to you by bankof america. life's better when we're connected. sprint, proud sponsor of the nascar sprintcup series, and by mcdonald's. i'm lovin' it. welcome back to charlotte motor speedway.out in front it is the 24 of chase elliott, young 20-year-old has still yet to find victorylane in his sprint cup series career. has won an xfinity series championship but yetto get that first win, although he is one of the 12 drivers still fighting for a championship.the 48 though with six championships definitely had his hands full as we went to commercialbreak. obviously got really loose right there andhad to chase the car up the racetrack. allowed denny hamlin in the 19 and also carl edwardsto get by him. so a little bit of a handling
issue right now. he did end up getting backby carl edwards but obviously nobody is happy with their cars except for chase elliott.>> jimmie johnson knows how to get around this racetrack, most of all-time as far aswins go at charlotte motor speedway. seven wins for jimmie johnson here. sprint's networkreliability, within 1% of verizon. switch today. save 50% on most verizon, at&t andt-mobile rates. visit sprint.com/network today. mike?>> not only does jimmie johnson have seven victories here he's led over 1700 laps onthis racetrack. suffice it so say it's been pretty good for him. the car's been a littlebit tight and edgy and going into the race felt pretty comfortable with this racetrack.he knows he can make some ground and build
a cushion as he heads into the round of 12.>> rick, when you look at the 48 of jimmie johnson, this is the team that has won sixchampionshipless in the chase format of ten races but in the elimination format of thechase he never advanced out of this round, never made the round of eight so he has tohave in my opinion, jeff, more pressure on the team. to have such a great career andresume but never advanced. leading the race, they got penalized. thencomes down pit road, this has been a continuing problem, comes down pit road at dover, onceagain in the pit box you see on the right-hand side of your corner there's a pit crew memberthat's on pit road too soon, another pit road penalty. we talk about jimmie johnson a six-timechampion and how good this race team is, they've
got to clean these mistakes up. this format has been put in place. so notonly does very to be on his game each and every week, but he's competing against 11of the best in the sport. you can't make mistakes and hope to advance.>> well, he is competing against the 11 best. people say why -->> caution has come out. the competition caution comes out, everyone frozen in their positionsthat they're in right now. >> so this is an opportunity to gain spotsor lose spots. we were just talking about it. all these cars will be on pit road atthe same time, you're competing against the best in the business, on pit road in everyway, down pit road speed, the pit crews, who
falls under pressure and who executes withthe pressure? that's been the problem with the 48. see if they can have a good pit stophere. the moving around of the preferred lines.we've seen cars already up against the wall, these cars will have to be more than justclearing their race car driver from traffic. looks like the fastest around the racetrack.>> 35 cars on the lead lap coming to pit road at one time. these spotters have to be payingattention what's going on around their drivers. >> great aerial views right nou brought tous by our partners at smithfield foods. it will be a great vantage point to wat especiallythe restarts here at charlotte, when they >> we were talking earlier about the strategy.it's already into play with only 25 green
flag laps, it will be interesting to see whois going to be aggressive. alan gustavsson for chase elliott, will he put two or fourtires on the car. will he try to guarantee the race late or will jimmie johnson or carledwards take advantage only putting two tires. the car has been a little bit edgy. stoppingshort in the box so he can get out easier. >> kyle busch says the car is good, a littleloose. four tires, air pressure, fuel. to visit me, alex. slim jim? thank you. thanks.oh alex, i made you a little something. wow, it's beautiful, but i think it's way too big. that's what she said.[snickering] i doubt she's ever said that to you. snap into a slim jim. throughout history,there are those who evolved... ...to control
energy, teleport, and even fly. still othersevolved so much... ...they don't even need to wear pants. with hanes x-temp technology,you'll stay cool under pressure. even when saving the world from apocalypse. wait...whatnow? hanes x-temp technology. because when you're cool, you're comfortable. x-men apocalypse,look for it on blu-rayâ„¢, dvd and digital hd.>>> quoemp tigs caution has come and gone as the teams get ready to line back up twopi two. penalties on pit road, the 43, the 27, the 32 and the 20, all had penalties onpit road, over the wall too soon. we saw that with jimmie johnson. want to take a look though at the 24 gettingon to pit road. jeff you noticed this.
>> talking about pit road and everybody pushing.the 24 accelerates and gains a car length on the 18, getting on to pit road, and heneeded every bit of that car length. leading in pit road he wins by maybe two feet so withoutaccelerating getting to the pit road the 18 car beats the 24.>> one of the things we've seen this season from chase elliott he's raced well out frontbut struggled on restarts. the first restart he'll be going up against probably one ofthe best in the sprint cup series in kyle busch, as far as restarts goes. what doeschase elliott need to do right here? >> well, the first thing he needs to do ispay attention to himself. don't let the 18 suck you in to doing something. you're theleader. you control the restart. you're the
one that takes advantage of being the leader,so when you get into the restart zone do what you do. don't let the 18 talk you into doingsomething you don't want to do. >> coming into the restart zone, chase elliottoption to start earlier, green flag back in the air. side by side as they go into turnnumber one. >> jimmie johnson all the way up three wide.>> three wide for third as chase elliott tries to side draft the 18 of kyle busch, goinginto three. and chase elliott will hang on to the lead. so check the box of a good restartfor chase elliott. >> you can see how these restarts how crazythey are. this is a chance to pick up spots. you have to be exceptionally aggressive. theguy that's not fighting in there we saw working
his way up is matt kenseth, the 47 makinga move on the 4 but matt kenseth got penalized earlier in the race, had to go to the back,got penalized again and had to go to the back again, cannot continue to have the mistakes. >> another car we didn't get a chance to showit to you live, brad keselowski had a little bit of traffic problem on pit road. not amajor issue for the 2 but he has to take time. >> riding along with kevin harvick lookingout of the busch beer on-board camera. >> look at it, a.j. allmendinger did not makethe chase, sort of underperformed this year, did not run the way you expect him to runor they wanted to run and having a really good day today. kevin harvick into the topfour.
>> i wonder you have to look at the lack ofpractice, the 47 of a.j. allmendinger had speed thursday in the first day of practicebut without the practice on friday didn't catch some other cars off guard, did theynot have time to catch up to the 47. good run so far using what he showed.>> you mentioned the 2 and issues on pit road. let's go to pit road with kelly.>> remember brad keselowski the only driver to finish in the top five all three racesin the first round of this chase. he started 20th. told me he felt like they could makeup some of those positions on pit road. but during that competition clock a little bitof trouble. here's what they said on the team radio.>> that was kind of painful there, lost two
spots with all the traffic.>> we'll be all right. >> just the go got to be patient.>> a long race, just under 300 laps to go. >> they just clicked over, it's 300 to goand chase elliott has about a 0.6 of a second lead over kyle busch. everyone else jockeyingfor positions feeling out their cars. >> i liked what brad keselowski said overthe radio but more importantly i like how he said it, his demeanor. he could have beensitting next to us in the booth very calm, no urgency in his voice. he wasn't just sayingit's a long race, he sounded like he really believed it.>> mike ma sar row? >> so far during the chase jimmie johnsonled over 200 laps but does not have a victory
to show for it thanks to miscues on pit road.you can't blame them being self-conscious going continue to pit road the first timetoday. >> i was curious about how that was for boxapproach and where i positioned the car. >> honestly that's about the best we'll beable to do until we get ahead of that 47. >> so jack talking to him about being consciouson the top. after a speeding penalty at chicagoland they went in the parking lot and set up timingzones, five of them and they practiced coming down pit road with various settings on thedigital dash trying to make sure they did not have a similar problem to what they encounteredin chicagoland. as for last week the jack man jumping over the wall quickly chad sayingit was a sequence of events led to the man
jumping off the wall too quickly because thedriver had to brake early on pit road. >> that issue of being over the pit wall tooearly is the same thing that got the 20 of matt kenseth on the latest round of pit stops.we talk about the game of inches, it's a game of seconds. the same way for the pit cruise.they need to try to get over pit walls as early as possible. there's a crew member forthe 20 team on pit road and the 20 of matt kenseth has yet to come to that line, thatred line is imposed by nascar, one pit box away. you're not allowed to be on the groundbefore that red line for safety, they don't want the cruise out there early. the 20 wastoo early, marty, and it cost them. >> the 20 is at the start of the back of thefield, restarted 31st and already gained a
few positions on this one. here was the radiotraffic after they told matt about the kenseth. >> we jumped earl i will, too?>> yes, 10-4. that's what we're saying. >> i don'ted, kind of confused but okay.>> matt told the team, hey, listen, we've all got to get my act together. we can't keephurting ourselves, jeff. we talked about all the penalties on pit road, teams need to getthat cleaned up in the chase especially if you want to win a championship.>> marty, you're right. it does have to get cleaned up. difficult but it's your job. gao to the makeit happen. >> chase elliott out front, matt kenseth running23rd. tender, center-cut sirloin. i'll raise
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in america beginning at 7:00 p.m. easternonly on nbc. good battles taking place on the track all the way around this mile anda half, 24-degree bank in the turns track. chase elliott out in front of kyle busch bya pretty good margin now, 2.2 seconds. hasn't been able to put this one almost in cruisecontrol and start lapping cars. right now there are 36 cars on the lead lap, just wentby cole whitt to put cole a lap down. want to listen on spotter communication from the2 team. >> 77 to 81 in front. 90 behind you. no worriesbehind you look ahead. >> fair to say a tire run 60 to 65? 10-4.>> so that was spotter coverage presented by liberty mutual insurance, helping driversworry less and a lot of numbers thrown out
there, guys. >> quite simply they were giving brad howfast he is compared to the guy in front him and to the guy behind him, so you heard thosenumbers and basically he was a tenth quicker than the guy in front of him and a tenth quickerthan the guy behind him. no need to look in the mirror, focus on what's in front.>> joey myers on top of the roof trying to understand the layout of the race. what isthe fuel line, how long do we expect cars to run? that will help joey manage this racewith brad keselowski, are they closing in on the pit stop whether he should push hisdriver to run harder or get him to relax to get to the next pit stop.>> one of the things that has changed pause
of digital dashes this year is the driversactually see their lap times so they can look at their lap times and understand if thatwas better than the last one, because they're constantly searching around the racetrackfor a grip trying to find the best line. >> that is exactly right a great tool thedriver has. in the past you get times from your crew chief or from your spotter and asyou moved around the racetrack you determine if what you did was better or not. now yousimply look down the dash and come to that conclusion. you do not have the times if you'recompetitor. s you can only compare yourself to yourself. we heard that spotter givingtime it was in comparison to other cars. >> riding along with the chevy onboard cameraof chase elliott. he is out front again by
three seconds now. let's go through the fieldbrought to you by carl's jr. we start with kelly stavast.>> chase elliott now the only rookie left in this chase and his crew chief alan gustavssontelling me this morning that lack of experience might actually be a positive. he said sometimesignorance really is bliss. he doesn't really know what to expect. they feel they're a teamthat has nothing to lose, but has all the equipment and the drivers to go out thereand win right now. they're happy with the lap times chase is putting down, telling themto take care of this car for the long run. >> kyle busch loves charlotte motor speedwayand why not with 14 career wins here. all of those wins came in other series. theway he's running today, kyle certainly could
break through finally in sprint cup todayand maybe make an early break for the round of eight in the chase. alex bowman didn'thave the best initial start on the afternoon. i checked in with his team and if he had anycomments about that. he didn't say anything on the radio until ten laps later when hesimply reported the handling of the race car. very professional move for the young driver.>> better on this one so far, told rodney childress last year he was famous for theline in the toyota saying we're going to "pound them in the ground." this year "i'm not worriedabout the other teams. i feel like we have the keys to get it done this year to win achampionship and our experience also a tremendous help forethe race team." ?>> carl edwards had one top ten finish, his
crew chief told me it was "pitiful. no oneis satisfied but there is no internal frustration no, finger pointing. we're all in this togetherand we know we have to get better. they said they are out here to win this race today,but he also pointed out hey, if we can put together a string of top five finishes weknow we'll advance to the round of eight." he's running fifth now.>> kyle larson got knocked out of the chase at dover last week, and so i checked in withhis crew chief, chad johnson, about it. what was the takeaway from that? he goes "we'resad we're no longer in the chase but okay we got knocked out on exkugs, not speed. ourperformance was really good. we'll work on the execution." mike?>> jimmie johnson celebrating an anniversary
of sorts this weekend. it was 15 years agothis weekend at this very track he made his debut, finished 39th place. he feels prettygood about it right now. he told me before the race "we're not dwelling on the mistakeswe made in round number one. eyes forward. let's go race and get it done at charlotteonce again." marty?>> i talked to the crew chief for joey logano he said "honestly i feel the two most importantraces in the chase other than homestead, miami, charlotte and kansas the next two weeks. youhave to win to not worry about talladega." the 2 team won the first race in the roundof 12, hoping they can do that again today. behind him martin truex jr. maybe surprisedthe 78 struggling a little bit this afternoon
right now in the ninth position as carl edwardshis corps teammate said "no doubt martin truex jr. is a rabbit we're all chasing." truexsaid "we're used to flying under the radar but still acting like underdogs like we havesomething to prove." >> a.j. allmendinger has something to prove,he's not a chaser, racing with plenty of motivation however and a heavy heart. chip warren, along time nascar official, began his career with nascar in 1978, passed away after a battlewith cancer on wednesday. most recently, warren had been a member of the marketing team withj.p.g. dougherty and the 47 team. the 47 team paying tribute with a decal on the seat postof the race car trying to put in a very good run here, so far inside the top ten.>> a great run for the 47 early in this one.
again it's chase elliott out in front. leadingby 3.5 seconds. people know me as dale earnhardt jr., racecar driver. but there's more to methan that. at my office, they call me boss man. i scout the talent, close the deals,do it all with a firm handshake. (loud clap noise) gentlemen.(loud clap noise) to others, i'm water cooler dale. man we got those tiny trash cans inour offices. somebody keeps putting their lunch in mine.(all) what? everyday. smells like mac n' cheese. ew.(dale) lobster mac n' cheese, maybe? so weird... so weird. have any of y'all seen who it is?no. kick. do the dew. a man attacked me in a parkinggarage. tried to stab me with an 8-inch knife.
but i carry a pistol. i fight back. that'swhy i'm still here. every woman has a right to defend herself with a gun if she chooses.hillary clinton disagrees with that. don't let politicians take away your right to owna gun. donald trump supports my right to own a gun.>>> moments ago the second caution has come out at charlotte motor speedway. the 88, alexbowman, subbing for dale earnhardt jr. collects into the wall. casey mears look.>> smoking real bad he knew something was wrong, trying to get out of the way and geton pit road but the 13 on the outside of casey mears did nothing wrong, just in the wrongplace.
>> running third alex bowman, having a lefttire issue, spins him up into the wall and so now they have to go behind the wall intothe garage to begin working on that car. you hee earnhardt jr. still the banner on topof the wooind shield, dale earnhardt jr. suffering from concussion symptoms and so he has toldeveryone he will not behind the wheel of the car for the remainder of the season. alexbowman and jeff gordon will be substituting for dale jr. the remainder of the season.>> he's stuck on pit road. trying to get it to roll but the car is damaged so badly can'tget it to move to the garage area. can't get the car to roll.>> you can watch the chase for the nascar sprint cup series with nbc sports app andget closer with additional camera angles,
driver stats, track information, you can watchlive anywhere on any device. find out more at nbcsports.com/live. crews trying to figureout how to get that car behind the wall so they can work on it.>> what the accident for the 88 car done made 12 nervous crew chiefs. looked like the leftfront was flat on 88 going into turn three, saw smoke ing out of the corner. what causedthe flat tire. you think with all the points and the championship on the line they wantto know what happened with the 88 car. >> a tow truck on pit road right now, thecar is stopped on the entrance to the garage. an ambulance is there so they will not beable to open pit road until pit road is cleared and when they do open pit road, will we seea lot of cars take advantage of it? it's only
been about 40 laps since the caution cameout the first time. they can go quite a bit further on fuel, butwe would assume that everyone on the lead lap especially would be coming onto pit road,maybe try some pit strategy at this time, maybe two-tire stop as opposed to a four totry to gain some track position. want to look at this week's ford drive to the championship.joey logano was perfect in the round of 12 a year ago, won all three chase races, andyou can't get better than what joey logano did a year ago, winning at charlotte, winningat khan kans kansas and winning at talladega. they continue to work on pit road to cleanup the 88, and get him off of pit road. we'll take a quick break and be back for pit stops.see me. see me. don't stare at me. see me.
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is spelled b-o-x. say hello to a powerfultool that gives you options to fit your budget. oh, i'm tied to this chair! dun-dun-daaaa!i don't know that an insurance-themed comic book is what we're looking for. did i mentionhe can save people nearly $600? you haven't even heard my catchphrase. i'm all done withthis guy. box him up. that's terrible. >>> pit stops happening at charlotte motorspeedway. second place kyle busch will take four goodyear tires and sunoco fuel.>> the 24 was happy with the changes they made last time around. four tires and fuel.carl edwards made an air pressure adjustment. >> kevin harvick said he was tighter but theback end was better and they used the first stall to their advantage and gained a spoton pit road.
>> kyle busch dropped a couple >>> nascar on nbc is brought to you by pennzoilsynthetics. make the switch to pennzoil synthetics today. sonic, fly on over for buy one getone free boneless wings, monday through thursday after 5:00 p.m. and by chevrolet, the mostawarded car company two years in a row. we mentioned you can't make mistakes, if youwant to win a championship, brad keselowski, the latest to be called for a penalty.>> it's that same penalty, rick, about the crew members being over pit wall too soon.let's review. crew member on the ground, left foot touching the concrete of the pit box,the nose of brad keselowski's car a foot maybe two feet before what is considered one pitstall away. the rule is here for safety, it's
here because they do not want the teams overpit wall early, waiting for their car. imagine a car gets spun out come into a pit box withsix guys waiting for the car. it will be a major issue. nascar has the rule one pit stallaway. we've seen this penalty a handful of times today.>> we have' seen it five times and we're only on lap 69.>> listen to the 2 team. >> jack man over the wall early. we have along ways to go. >> a long ways to go.>> charlotte the pit stalls are four feet shorter than chicago. you get one pit boxbut four feet less than chicago roughly the same pit road speed.>> chase elliott has chosen inside line and
kevin harvick on the outside for the restart.three wide going into turn one. martin truex jr. in the middle. joey logano in the 22,on the inside. the 11 of denny hamlin trying to make themiddle of the track work from three and four. >> carrying a little bit of speed, just enoughi think he'll clear the 22. not quite. >> is it down at the bo tom, the middle orthe top for their preferred? >> the restarts have a lot to do with what'sgoing on in front of you. if you can get clean air if they're all on the bottom you wantto be in the middle. not way at the top but the middle of the racetrack. it did not workfor the 11 of hadment hmm. joey logano was able to clear him.>> here comes the 48 of jimmie johnson working
to the inside of that 11 of denny hamlin.we ride along with the chevy onboard of chase elliott. excuse me that's not chase elliottthat's joey logano we're riding along with. chase elliott out front, kevin harvick second,edwards, kyle busch and kyle larson the top five. logano, johnson, hamlin, allmendingerand mcmurray top ten. >> the battle between the 78 of martin truexjr. chases the 5 of kasey kahne, the 21 of ryan blaney. i believe when it comes to therestarts especially earlier in the race, only 74 laps in, the advantage has to go to thenon-chasers, rick. they can push the issues. they know martin truex jr. has more to losethan they do. you can almost lean on that guy a little bit, jeff, and force him intoletting you go.
>> you wonder what's going through martintruex jr.'s mind right now. remember in this spring race he met 392 of the 600 laps. hedominated the race and won last weekend. he stuck it back in 14th and showed no signsof moving forward. you wonder is panic setting in, are they going to have to start makingmajor changes? this is not the scene we've seen in this team so far in the chase andas you talked about at the beginning of the race, this race is hugely important for talladega. >> this race car is extremely tight and doesn'tseem to be getting better. cole perkins made several changes on this race car. martin toldhim a moment ago "it's gotten worse" if anything he's struggling in the 14th position. thisis a car that led all the laps here in may
and also the won that won chicago a coupleweeks ago. amazingly enough they're going to retire that after this race. i asked ifthe car's been that good wouldn't you want to keep it around? no, the cars have a lifecycle three to four races, that's it, we have brand new cars coming. even though cars winraces we aren't necessarily able to keep them around. they'll retire this car that had somuch success in may after this race, mike. >> marty, alex bowman just left the care center.good to hear you're okay. we saw it looked like a tire was going down. any idea why?>> we didn't hit anything. nobody's faul. [ inaudible ].>> awfully disappointing at the end of the day, rick after having a career best racetwo finishes ago at chicagoland.
>> it's been so strong even in the practices,the practice that was run and this qualifying able to qualify up on the front row to a lotof speed shown by the 88 team and is he already out of the car.>> he showed a lot of speed in every race he's been in. i don't think he's finishedas well as he run in any race we an opportunity to race this year so a lot of talent for thatyoung man. this race is long, if he can find a way to get it finished.>> we always mention in racing, on board with kevin harvick, chase elliott with a big entryinto turn three, jeff, kind of took my breath away as he turned into that corner. the leadis under one second still. seems like the 4 of kevin harvick, rodney childress on topof the pit box are making adjustments.
the 24 extended out toe a two-second leadeasily here in this run having more trouble getting away from kevin harvick.>> i always get a little bit nervous for the car that dominates the race early on a racelike this, where we had a lot of rain, no rubber on the racetrack. the racetrack isgoing to change so much, in many cases a guy that runs so well early, cannot run well later,because the setup is not adjustable enough to get it where he can run well later, sowe'll see if the 24 and chase elliott can keep up with the racetrack.>> right along board with kevin harvick. we talked to him abouthe adjustability. afterrain all week long and two adjustments from rodney childress it's going in the right direction."we're running well in the second position."
i've been hearing a lot more in this chasethan ever about points racing. you can see a battle behind them between kyle larson andkyle busch. harvick said "i don't believe you should points race in this chase. i thinkyou should stick with trying to to get wins. we went for that win in new hampshire. howbig was that for us, dover the very next week." as he pointed out you have to go for the wins.they won that last week. you never know how valuable that win is.>> absolutely. only three drivers will have the opportunity, there are only three racesin this round, rick, so only three can win a race so points are still going to matter.as you pointed out all afternoon and will continueto point out with talladega being race three,
only the winner of charlotte and the winnerof kansas is really going to be saturday night in talladega.>> chase points run on the left side of your screen, again, early in this round of 12 butat the same time so important that you have a good run, as for lat and kansas with talladegalooming. chase elliott having a great run out front..gilman: go get it, marcus. go get it. ...coach gilman used his cash rewards credit card frombank of america to earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. at places like the batting cages.[ crowd cheers ] 2% back at grocery stores and now at wholesale clubs. and 3% back ongas. which helped him give his players something
extra. the cash rewards credit card from bankof america. more cash back for the things you buy most. one smart choice leads to thenext. the new 2017 ford fusion is here. it's the beauty of a well-made choice. this isme, using a wrench to build a jet engine. well we thought ge programmed machines totalk. ge is an industrial company that actually builds world-changing machines. machines thatcan talk to each other digitally. hello? they don't talk to each other like that, ricky.shhhh, you'll anger it. he looks a little ticked off now. gps: turn right.gps: turn right here. gps: casey, go right. for a racecar driver,turning right is hard.
gps: come on casey. no daddy! turn right!>>no daddy! turn right! but saving money with geico is easy. geico, see how much you couldsave. >>> chase elliott's son of hall of famer billelliott. bill elliott won at this race twice and now at 20 years old from dawsonville,georgia, the son of awesome bill of dawsonville. is he out front. looks as though there areissues with the 18 of kyle busch. he was slow on the back stretch.>> i think i got some tire debris or something. >> when he came to pit road it looked likethere might have been even some of that styrofoam that's in the side coming out of the backof the car on the right side. dave?>> that could be, rick, because that tire
when it comes apart it's a steel belted radialand beats everything up in its path so we'll take a look as it comes off. kyle could feelit was the right front and you heard him trying to say exactly for the crew what he thoughtit was. doesn't appear to be a lot coming off of the right front from what i can seebut there's definitely separation on the inner tread of the right front.>> so a tire issue for kyle busch has put him on to pit road, not in cycle with everyoneelse. >> one of things that you get concerned aboutwhen you have these rain delays and we've had a tremendous amount of rain in charlotte,is there is nrubber on the racetrack. it will be harder on the tires. so far today we seetwo issues. we don't know perhaps he ran over
something but something to consider is withthe lack of rubber on the racetrack, that makes is much more difficult for the tireto last future a full fuel run. >> the team has to understand the situationthey're in, currently one lap down that's not going to take them out of this race atall. they just have to be efficient. they can't compound this with another mistake beingable to get on and off pit road without penalty. kyle busch methodically canoire work his wayup through traffic and see when the next caution comes out where they cycle out. >> you get a good look at the inner shoulderthe right front tire. they thought they had a good run going and did and somebody else'smistake, kyle larson coming to pit road cost
him on the day. they thought they'd be goodin the day again and this set him back and like you said they need to pick their wayback to the front. >> that was a great shot of the right fronttire. you saw with the tread it separated and that's really where the corner of thetire rides on the racetrack. kyle busch could feel the lack of grip, diagnosed the issuevery well. >> the right front looked like it dealmostnoted. everything looked fine all weekend for everybody so probably just a bad tire.we are in the lucky dog spot here. >> now you hear his crew chief adam stephensexplaining the situation to kyle busch, that he then can kind of grasp the idea of whathe needs to do, letting him know he's in the
free pass position, he talked about the rightfront tire, they hadn't seen any issues but that tire definitely had an issue. he feelsit was a one-off tire. we'll see as the race continues on whether it was or wasn't.>> one of the issues kyle busch will run into if this race stays under green flag conditionsis race leader chase elliott can put drivers a lap down and then kyle busch is going tohave to make sure to get past those cars so that he can be in that lucky dog positionor the free pass position. >> you saw crew member with a torch and sortof a scraper. >> like a putty knife.>> scraping across the tire. what they're doing right there is they're getting all theold rubber off the tire. rubber gets picked
up while he's coming on to pit road, gettingall of that off the tire so they can measure the wear across the tire to see if they havetoo much, if the tire is leaning in too much so learn as much as they can, maybe that'swhy the tire failed, maybe it's not. all of that information will have to be used to helpdetermine what caused that tire problem. >> with more on his teammate carl edwardslet's go to kelly. >> rick, there was a little bit of movementin the pit box for carl edwards. he came over the radio to say hey, guys, are you sure thatwe got all these wheels on tight? he can't tell if he has a potential tire goingdown or a loose wheel. the team's been watching the monitors closely. they told him aboutthe problems of teammate kyle busch. they
are leaving him out but monitoring that situation.>> so now you know that your teammate had a problem. so now when you have a vibe operation,you're terrified. you're scared to death that you have that same problem. here's the trouble.you dealt with this. every vibration is not a problem. these cars vibrate and shake andhave issues and there can be nothing wrong. now the fear is you have a vibration, feelsomething and come down to pit road and change tires and they feel nothing wrong. that'sall in the back of the drivers minds. >> just mentioned one of his teammates hadan issue. what about your setup is the same as your team mate that had the issue? we havethe ability to show the fans at home something these drivers and teams can adjust to so wego here to a nascar heat evolution animation
and show you camera, basically the angle ofthe front tire, what the crew chiefs are allowed to adjust. you can tip the top of the firein or left out to help the front of the car turn. you hear about cars being tight? morecamera helps the car turn, creates a better handling condition but what that does is yousee at the bottom of the tire, the inside of the right front, the outside of the leftfront where it's highlighted in red that small little area of the racing tires is all thattouches the surface, that can force a tire issue. that may not be what happened to the18 but if you're one of his teammates, rick, you'll want to know where his camera settingis versus yours so understand you want to pit a little short and not run on entire fuelrun.
>> the nascar heat evolution is in storesnow, pick up your copy and play aening lo, race against some of the best in the worldin the stock cars, as we see kyle larson chasing after the 11 of denny hamlin. larson in the42, the big target on the front hood of that car. riding along with denny hamlin and the coca-colaonboard looking back at the 42 of kyle larson, as we're watching the bank of america 500from charlotte motor speedway. 101 laps already in the books, and chase elliott has led 88of them. i'm ryan. ryan, nice to meet you. i'm john. elena. nice to meet you. where'sthe rest of the car? this is the new 2017 chevy cruze. i'm only going to show you halfof it...what do you think? i think it looks
very sleek. the lights remind me of audi lightswhich is pretty neat. i'm really curious to see the rest of the car, if i get to. it hasbuilt-in 4g lte wifiâ®. i like that. it comes with apple carplay compatibility. and it startsat $22,190. nice. that's a great price. i'm impressed. but there's another side to thiscar. oh, wow. i love it. this is the first-ever chevy cruze hatch. well, that's impressive.so check it out. this has got a lot of space. yeah, that's awesome. i do like it a lot.what's your first impression of seeing the whole car? looks good from all angles. itactually reminds me of like a small suv. let's see what we've got in here. this is probablya tent. shuttlecock? anybody? you wanna go in the lake, ryan? yeah, let's go. now thatyou know it's a hatchback, what does it make
you think of? me, i wanna drive it. i feellike a young professional slash weekend warrior. the whole business in the front, party inthe back sort of thing. carl! carl! can we get a selfie? if nice guy carl edwards treatedhis fans like greasy fast food treats your body. yeah? he wouldn't be the fan favoritethat he is. the key is to enter the corner... so say no to greasy fast food... and treatyour body to something better... like tender, all-white meatchicken raised without antibiotics...with the rotisserie-style chicken sandwich. it's a better sandwich, for a better subway.upgrade season's here. i got my new iphone saves you 50% on most current national carrierrates. if you got 1% more haircut than me today,would you really pay twice as much? no i wouldn't.
copy that!(vo) switch to sprint and get iphone 7. plus save 50% off most current national carrierrates. don't let 1% difference cost you twice as much. for people with hearing loss, visitsprintrelay.com. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com. whoooo!>>> nascar on nbc is brought to you by liberty mutual insurance, helping drivers worry lesson the track and on the road. get your nascar coverage when you're on the go with nascarmobile, the official app of nascar puts race coverage in live in-car coverage at your fingertips.listen to drivers and teams discuss race strategy. welcome back to bank of america 500, out front,the 24 of chase elliott has about a three-second lead once again. this time over kevin harvickwho is running second, carl edwards in third.
joey logano and jimmie johnson are the topfive. the 42 of kyle larson came on to pit road, they felt like they had an issue withthe tire and so they had to come to pit road. dave, what happened?>> eerily similar to the 18 coming off the right front. the tire looked similar. yousee the inside shoulder coming apart a little bit and kyle told the team "i heard it comingapart a couple laps ago." chad johnson the crew chief said you better get it in here.they changed all four tires to be safe. another top five car that's been bitten by this situation.>> running fifth was kyle larson when he had the tire issue. we know that kyle busch wasrunning a little bit closer to the front when his tire issue happened, and kyle busch stilla lap down, had not been in the free pass
position anymore because chase elliott continuesto put cars a lap down. now chris busher is in the free pass position. mike?>> a.j. allmendinger now coming on to pit road, making his stop here. his car has beengetting tighter and tighter as the run goes on. four tires and fuel for the 47.>> and once again now, green flag pit stops look like they're about to happen as the 19of carl edwards is also on pit road. kelly? >> remember he recorded that vibration butthey weren't too concerned about the tire. he said he started that run off way too tight.they'll make an air pressure adjustment, and also going to give sunoco fuel for carl edwardswho had been running third. >> as quickly as carl edwards is coming offof pit road, brian scott has coming to pit
road.>> that's a little early. i was expecting to see more than 50 laps on the run to pit.this is about 42 or 43 laps but we heard earlier the 19 of carl edwards had a little bit ofvibration, maybe he's feelinging with with that tire. you're much better off if you pitif you think you have an issue and put four tires on it than to have an issue on the racetrack.the second place car the 4 of kevin harvick coming off the bank and onto pit road. >> stopped by the 19 of carl edwards. hada little bit of fire and fuel had spilled and so they went out there with the extinguishersand put that out. marty? >> and rick all these crew chiefs are seeingthe tires, saying not worth the risk. harvick
said the car is loose off two, that's thebiggest issue. you saw the wedge tightened up and four fresh tires. martin truex jr.said the car fired off terrible on this run. it was awful in traffic and can't get threeand four right. big changes. talk about a long stop for the 78 team as well, can't afforda long stop like this under green flag conditions. >> nearly 17 seconds marty, normally whenthey're doing them under 13 seconds for these stops. kelly?>> that's kyle busch his car is starting up tight. his last one got ose. he's still tryingto figure out turns one and two, it's going to be four tires and fuel. meanwhile chaseelliott who has led the majority of this race said that his car was just a little bit tightat times, loose at other times. it has good
turn and just before he came to pit road hesaid that the right front was starting to feel weird so they brought him down, dave.>> forget about the balance for the 3 of. how about a couple of good pit stops in arow here. they had two bad ones, lug nuts on the left side and the rear to begin withand last time a misfortune the fueler slipped on the way. that was a little tighter andbetter for chase contender. >> tony stewart number 14 too fast on pitroad so that team tony will have to bring the car back to pit road. marty?>> matt kenseth coming down pit road. they've had a variety of issues all day long.he said the car was a little bit tighter on that run. couldn't seem to make any ground.it was weird how the car was driving. air
pressure trying to free that car up for mattkenseth, four tires, pressure and fuel. >> looks as though smoke rolling out underneath292 and the caution has come out. 22 hitting the wall. after winning this race last year,up into the wall he goes, looks like he might have had a tire issue.>> like we mentioned you're better pitting off than waiting. i know it's a gamble. thetire is down, nothing you can do, the wheel turns.>> be ready for a little wraparound damage. >> he said he hit pretty hard. the race teamis used to having success, they won the first race in the round of 2014, able to securethemselves into that final round and they're going to change four goodyear tires and seehow bad that damage is on the right front,
todd gordon telling guys to get the rightfront clear. get your tires and evaluate the damage. heavy hit for a championship contender,rick. >> the free pass will go to the 4 of kevinharvick. harvick was just on pit road, the way the free pass works it is the first carscored a lap down. >> they're only showing seven cars on thelead lap so this joey logano calls a caution in the middle, so that will shuffle up thefield quite a bit. >> and quite a few drivers we would expectto take the wave around, also they had just been an pit road so they will have the opportunityto get back on the lead lap, but they can't come to pit road.>> surprisingly enough this is a really good
break for kyle busch and kyle larson. remember, both of those drivers had to makeearly green flag pit stops. now they'll have the opportunity to take the wave around, kindof reset and the whole field will really be reset with 215 laps to go.>> and you could gear up with the pit crew and get the latest nascar t-shirts, hats anddiecast at the nascar.com superstore. visit nascar.com/superstore today for all of yourfavorite drivers and gear. already the third caution of the day, only 118 laps completeof the 334 scheduled. marty? >> and they have sent car chief raymond foxover the wall looking down to that flap to see how bad the damage is forjoey logano on that right front. that's their
main concern trying to get that fix up forjoey logano and he's the only one on pit road trying to get this damage fixed and at leastassessed to see what they need to do. joey did say it was one click to the left, jeff,for a tow out on the steering wheel. that's going an issue all day long.>> what marty is talking about it means the steering wheel moved to the left so typicallythe steering wheel there's a center, mark on the wheel he can see the white mark whereit is. currently not where it was. meaning something is wrong with the front suspension.>> mike massaro? >> jimmie johnson will relinquish the leadcoming down pit road, lacks grip in the rear and the bumps make it hard. he hases to waitto get back to the throttle especially off
turn four. wedge adjustment, four tires andfuel. >> greg biffle on the upper right, even thoughhe has the track position the front end won't turn, shims in both friends and the 11 ofdenny hamlin, the car was tight in the center and they'll get a wedge for that. kelly?>> brad keselowski said his car wasn't bad, he was just lacking some speed to which paulwolfe said your speed is fine. you need to get track position. they need to have a cleanpit stop and it's four tirlz and fuel and air pressure adjustment for the 2 of bradkeselowski. >> pretty good run for the 2 of brad keselowski.comes off of pit road third. johnson and hamlin first and second.[ indistinct shouting, whistles blowing ]
[ male annnouncer ] with customink, you candesign custom t-shirts and other great products for every occasion -- from the first day ofschool to game day and everything in between. with the best collection of styles and graphicsto choose from, it's easy to go online and create custom t-shirts and more for all oflife's events. [ all shouting ] get free shipping and on-timedelivery guaranteed. go to customink.com to get started today. mmm i love bloomin' onions.>> that is awesome, so good. i wish i knew how to make one.>> i bet we could turn this into a friendly competition. i'm pretty sure i could makea better bloomin' onion than you.
>> you're not serious.>> have you ever known me to joke? >> no.>> yeah. >> then it's a challenge.>> it's official. >> challenge accepted. right after i havea little bit more of this one. >> this will be easy.>> ha, ha, the bloomin' onion challenge airs this week in "nascar america." if you can'twait to see who wins visit nbcsports.com/bloominchallenge to find out the battle between the bull, kevinharvick, and rutledge wood. "nascar america" big news coming out this weekend or it willbe starting at 5:3090-minute show starting at 5:30 for "nascar america quegs gettingall of your nascar information.
>> what a fun show and a great time discussingall the action. we'll have a lot to talk about tomorrow. i'm not on the show tomorrow it'sall on steve, d.j., too. >> two races today are surely a lot to talkabout and after this race on nbc sn we'll have the first cut rate of the xfinity chase.>> that's right. we have a lot going continue to talk about.>> i think on wednesday we'll still be talking about these.>> we mentioned a wave around. quite a few drivers, 22 actually taking the wave around.>> so basically the wave around is an area where what happens is the lead lap cars pitand the cars still on the racetrack are in front of the lead lap cars so as you see herethe green dot cars come to pit road, other
cars stay on the racetrack. those cars arelined up between the race car and the race leader, on the tail end of the lead lap. nascardecided over the years starting the cars there is never a good situation. they allow thosecars to drive past the pace car, putting them back on the lead lap, now they're just allthe way at the back of the field. it's really almost like earning a free lap, but what happenswhen we have a caution during green flag pice stops we get the wave arounds and come outof the animation, there are 22 cars taking the wave around in this situation. >> a lot of them have taken advantage of thisto get back on the lead lap. this caution came right in the middle of green flag pitstops.
>> the 6 of trevor bayne, the first guy linedup behind the pace car after everyone pitted so all the cars behind trevor bayne followhim up, he pulls up behind the lead lap cars or the cars that didn't take the wave aroundand line up behind him accordingly. >> two by two once again, behind jimmie johnsonand denny hamlin. jimmie johnson has chosen the inside line for the restart. denny hamlinwill restart on the outside line. >> big winner and when this caution came outin my eyes, the 22 of keselowski, he's had two troubles earlier in the race, found away to just stay on the racetrack, caution the right time and now back in third place.>> the 2 of brad keselowski, as you mentioned currently third. aerial coverage providedby our partners at smithfield foods and it
will be an interesting restart as you cana few drivers that stayed out to receive the wave around so they'll be on a little bitolder tires than the guys that are up front. >> and you saw those the 14 car stopped onthe racetrack. the reason he was stopped is he wanted to take a wave around but got penalizedfor speed so long he was not eligible to take the wave around.>> erik almirola with the smithfield onboard camera, looking back at almirola.>> he's serving his penalty. that made him not eligible to take the wave around.>> tony stewart will still be a lap down. kelly?>> earlier we heard carl complaining of a vibration, thought it might be an issue withthe exhaust. moments ago hear what he told
his team.>> that vent does not sound good. >> what does everything tell?>> 13.9 volts, i got 16 oil pressure, 6 rpm. >> said it was riding rough and the team tellinghim maybe it's a cracked exhaust. it's backfiring, carl said.>> you hope it's a cracked exhaust. >> that's something you can deal with. ifit's something bigger than that, it could spell trouble.>> once again, two by two as they come out of turn number four. we'll track the restartnow and jimmie johnsonchosen the inside line and denny hamlin on the outside, keselowski,buescher, biffle. green flag back in the air. kyle busch jumps to the outside right afterthey cross the start/finish line. he's trying
to make up some ground on the high line. greatside by side battle for the lead. denny hamlin on the outside, jimmie johnson on the inside.hamlin makes the high line work. can he complete the pass? he will. he'll get in front. dennyhamlin leads at charlotte. riding along with denny hamlin looking back from the coca-colaonboard. >> kyle busch chose to come to pit road. rememberthey had an issue a while ago, low on fuel. kyle busch still a lap down but currentlythe first car one lap down so he's not racing for the free pass.>> 20 cars on the lead lap. >> that put him back in the same predicamentas everybody else. had he not pitted if it goes green he'd have to pit under green. theymade the calculation get out there. we think
we can be the first car a lap down but notget ourselves in trouble. little bit of a cautious play here. i like it.>> i liked the call. we have 208 laps to if in this race. there's no reason to panic.the caution was timely for the 18. take what was given to them, which you said puts themback on the cycle of the leaders which really is the entire.>> he's close enough to the leaders and really essentially at the spot. he's close enough to the leaders, he can lappeople, too, and gives him the best chance to save the first car one lap down.>> you see the onboard of denny hamlin out front, but he will have a mere full of the48 of jimmie johnson.
>> this is really a great opportunity forboth denny hamlin and jimmie johnson. they really have run decent all day long but they'rein that situation because of the caution during the pit cycle. this allows them to do muchlike brad keselowski back at third, get a better understanding of their car. we alwayshear about how much traffic affects your handling, how dirty it affects your handling. the threecars are running in the top five. maybe the car wasn't bad as they thought, maybe it'sworse. they can let their crew chief know and make a plan for the next round of adjustments.>> two different lines here, between the 11 and the 48. little bit of contact here betweenthe 44 and 23, look at bryan scott in the 44, comes up the racetrack, gets in to davidragan, just in front of matt kenseth.
>> matt kenseth has had an event. day so far.he needs something clean and easy to happen but nothing's been easy so far. four wide.>> four wide after that little bit of contact. once again out in front it's denny hamlin,five different drivers have been out in front, chase elliott has led 101 laps, kevin harvick12 laps, jimmie johnson led seven, denny hamlin led seven. continues to add to that number.joey logano has led three laps today. >> join on the green the green and white ofkyle busch. he was in position for the free pass. i think kyle busch is thinking aboutunlapping the leader. >> the number 11 car denny hamlin the coca-colainstar camera paying attention to what is in front of him but he knows he has jimmiejohnson behind so he's mostly paying attention
to what's in front of him so he can have thebest possible lap but if you watch denny hamlin right now he's completely focused on the racetrack. not worried about the 48 but as he comes onthe racetrack watch his helmet. little move, now he looks at jimmie johnson. now he saysokay, how did i do in that corner? now he's about back in the corner completely focusedon the corner. not worried about the 48 at all, trying to hit your marks. straightawaya little glance right there is a little glance. you're gauging pits did i have a good corner,is the 48 beating me? you only glance twice, once off of each corner. other than that youignore what the 48 is doing. >> clean racetrack in front of denny hamlin,after this restart, and so hamlin has about
a 0.3 of a second lead over jimmie johnson.brad keselowski as you mentioned the way the cautions have fallen, keselowski has beenable to move up and hold onto a third place position. kevin harvick in the top five aswell as chris buescher running fifth. hey, track bar's broken. she keeps jumpin' outof gear. whadya wanna do? can you feel it? can you feel it?oh, coca-cola. can you feel it? can you feel it?oh, coca-cola. eh, i should probably go. can you feel it? can you feel it? i was madein the shadows of greatness. shaped by the hands of legacy. forged in the fires of racing.(engine revving) i've been challenged, tested
and proven. whether it's on that track oroff, the truth is- what you're made of... is what you're made to do.you don't own me don't try to change me in any wayoh don't tell me what to dojust let me be myself that's all i ask of you the new 2017 corollawith toyota safety sense standard. you don't own me toyota. let's go places.>>> nascar on nbc is brought to you by toyota, let's go places. private financial. drivenby inspiration, visit private racing.com to learn more. and by sprint. proud sponsor ofthe nascar sprint cup series. denny hamlin out in front, leading jimmie johnson by ahalf a second, and tong look in the mirror
as he's gapped him by about ten more feetwhich is not much over a mile and a half. >> marty what's happening with kevin harvick?>> rick, remember they got the free pass under the last caution? they got caught out by thatcaution coming out until the middle of green flag. got that free pass, came down pit road,took on four fresh tires, made an adjustment, restarted seventh now running fourth so movingforward for kevin harvick and the 14. jl yl is back in 19th and somehow they saved a leadlap through all of that, a left front was the issue for logano, it was down, they wereable to fix as much of the right side damage as they could. steering wheel tracking straightnow for joey logano. they kept him on the lead lap but the car extremely tight. he saidhe is up 8.1 on the track bars. i think that's
between zero and ten. big adjustment tryingto free that car up for joey logano but again still on the lead lap, still with a shot towin this race. >> you can't count anyone out. there's stillquite a bit of racing to go, 193 raps remain in this one.>> two drivers in taking advantage of a little bit of luck, a little bit of strategy, a littlebit of luck. caution was timely for the 16 and the bright pink car for greg biffle andbehind him, the bright yellow car of the 34, chris buescher, both cars were running decent.you see greg biffle started 14th, had been down to the 27th position, but got a luckybreak, got into the top five with the strategy and was able to keep it and run it.>> just behind him, the 24 of chase elliott,
who was out in front, the most laps that he'sever led in a race, 101 earlier in this race, and now still running in the seventh position.again, only 20 cars on the lead lap. >> well, this is the exact moment of the racethat will test the young driver like chase elliott. he still has the same race car hehad earlier in the race when he was leading laps. they can't control when the cautioncomes out. as good it was for the 34 of chris buescher it hurt the 24 of chase elliott,put it behind. luckily they were able to take the wave around. the race has been reset.he took over the sixth position. now it's really what i consider an impressivepoint of chase elliott, his maturity. he always acts like a veteran driver, it's what theteam needs, stay calm, understand what's ahead
of him, everything is fine for this youngman. >> you really have to look at what they broughtto the chase. they brought speed to the chase. you talked about it leading the number oflaps he's led. prior to that, chicago in the chase. he led 75 laps which is the most lapshe led in his career there so in two of the four chase races he's led the most laps inhis career. so that's a positive on what this driver as a rookie, as a team have.>> four spots in front of him, jimmie johnson looks as though he might be closing the gapa little bit on denny hamlin. mike? >> and he's got a pretty fast race car andcertainly his eyes on the rear bumper of the leader hamlin now. with multiple tire problemsso far, rick, in this race the 48 team taking
precautions. you can see that rob lowe, thetire specialist, alex bowman driver of that car had a tire issue earlier in the race.he debriefed the 48 team trying to give them an idea of the things they can do to avoidthe problems they have. chad knause told his driver a piece of advice.>> let's go toward the bottom of the racetrack. couple of guys have had tire issues, we don'tneed to be the next one. i think that middle bottom area the guys are running is safe butthe tiptop area i'm nervous about. >> that's one detail the 48 team is payingattention to, trying to preserve the tires and avoid any problems that plagued anybodyelse in the race. so far the tires that come off the 48, guys, have looked pretty good.>> i think the concern, though, is you see
the 48 a little wiggle in three, four. they'regoing to look good until they come apart. rick?>> it's not like the tires are wearing through and showing signs of wear. while the issuesmight be wear related it's kind of like a light switch. kyle larson everything was goingfood and all of a sudden he could hear the issue, came to pit road. chad knause is encouraging jimmie johnson,let's run where there's more rubber on the racetrack.>> the 16 back on pit road. they were just on pit road moments ago and so now an issuefor greg biffle. >> looking at the tires as they come off,the right rear has come off. looks funny.
he had some wall contact earlier and thisone has some damage to it. greg hit the wall earlier in the day but since they took a shimout of each right front shock the car was handling a lot better. he did say it was alittle bit loose at the beginning of this run.>> less than 20 laps ago they were on pit road, and once again, back to pit road forthe 16. denny hamlin still out front. when a moment turns romantic, why pause to takea pill? or stop to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectiledysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night.tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthyenough for sex. do not take cialis if you
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you made the most of your retirement plan,so you better learn to drive that rv, man. so many things you're doing in your life.nationwide is on your side. look, anyone who thinks you gotta make a truck heavier to makeit stronger, has been working' too long without a hard hat. meet the all-new 2017 ford super duty. theycut weight with a high-strength, military grade, aluminum alloy body and reinvesteda big chunk of it to beef up the high-strength steel frame. forging the most capable heavy-dutypickup in america. time to punch work in the face. this is the next level. this is theford super duty. >>> the 4 is slow in traffic. something wrongwith the 4 of kevin harvick. came off of turn
four, he was running fourth and for some reason,looks like the car is almost shut off. >> i don't know if he has an electrical issueright there. the big red you're dealing with the master power on/off.>> nothing. >> shut it off.>> nothing on. >> now he's going to reach down, turn it backon try to reset the power. we saw this with the 42 last week, it was a battery issue onthe 42. >> yes, it was out.>> oh and up into the wall in turn two. >> that's the 22 i think.>> that's either leegano, sure enough logano up into the wall in turn two while all ofthis was happening with harvick.
>> that car is hit hard. you can see the damageon the right front hood and fender area of the 22.>> logano was running 16th. harvick as i mentioned was fourth before the looks like an electricalissue has happened with the 4 of harvick. >> the reason i say that electrical he wasswitching the switch. if it's oil pressure the switches aren't goingto help but seemed like kevin harvick felt there was an issue he was trying to fix.>> he was trying to recycle the system. he has power on the digital dash, you can seethere's power. >> the 18 will get the free pass. look atthe 22 of logano hard into the wall. >> that was a hard impact. they have to gobehind the wall and fix that, i'm sure another
tire problem. you have one, oh, you can see.>> that's the difference a year makes. difference a year makes for joey logano. he won all threeraces in this round last year and now issues for he and the 4. marty?>> kevin harvick on pit road. honestly, rick, they don't know what happened. the car shutoff with no power. rodney childress said get it to pit road if you can. he was able tocoast his way here. the superior guy working on things inside the car and robert smiththe car chief as well trying to get it figured out. kevin can fire up the car. he's ableto do that but with won't run. robert smith shaking his head no to rodney childress. assoon as kevin lets off the gas it completely dies. they had a problem getting the ecu totalk to the computer. they have that issue
this morning and saying right now let's getthe codes and the computer out to see if we can recycle the ecu, perhaps that could bean issue of what's going on with the 4 car. >> one of the issues, marty, they're not allowedto plug that computer on pit road. rule nascar has, if you want to download the ecu or youwant to try to reboot the ecu using the computer the 4 of kevin harvick must go behind pitwall. >> so somebody climbing into the car.>> status two, 1024. >> they're giving them codes right now asthey go to work on the car. somebody actually in from the passenger side is working on that4. we'll ride along again with the 22, to syncup the driver on the right side looking out
the car.>> listen to the tire. boom, right there. >> oh.>> and that's how hard of a hit that was. >> you can see joey logano leading his headup after the impact, that hurt. that's a high speed impact. you can see how vicious it was.that's terrible position for the driver to be in.>> jeff, you mentioned it, he had an accident earlier, they fixed the sheet metal. you don'thave time to fix the suspension. perhaps it bent the spindle and the tie rod. these arethe issues when you have any issue they start to compound and instantly this 500-mile raceis returning into a race of endurance. >> on a day where you have tire issues andpotential tire failures. the more you stretch
that tire the more opportunity to have failure.misalignment on the front end can put too much load on the tire.>> cars making their way on to pit road now for servicing. mike?>> among those cars, ricky, excuse me, rick, the 48 of jimmie johnson coming in the secondspot on the grid, having a solid run. real happy with the race car so far. little bittight. four tires and fuel. >> denny hamlin got a wedge adjustment.>> chase elliott saying his car was pretty good. he's three and four. loose in one andtwo, air pressure adjustment, four tires and the 2 of brad keselowski said his biggestissue was that he was a little bit loose on initial throttle and told his crew chief goingto need more rear drive. four tires for the
2.>> denny hamlin holds onto the lead. jimmie johnson, we asked people to write down thethings they love to do most on these balloons. travel with my daughter. roller derby. nowgive up half of 'em. do i have to? this is a tough financial choice we could face whenwe retire. but, if we start saving even just 1% more of our annual income... we could keepdoing all the things we love. prudential. bring your challenges.>>> nascar on nbc is brought to you by ford. we go further so you can. coca-cola. tastethe feeling. and by nationwide. nationwide is on your side. how quickly things change.from a year ago, the 22 and 4, they finished first and second in this race last year. nowthe 22 and the 4 are both in the garage.
>> not even half way in this race and twoguys, two favorites you mentioned joey logano won every race in this round last year. currentlywith some heavy repairs in the garage and then the 4 i'm not sure which is worse. youhave the 22 trying to repair the car, the 4 is trying to make repairs but inside theengine or electrical issue those can be frustrating, jeff, very hard to diagnose. >> we're not sure what happened yet with the4, but remember last week, kendrick motorsports who does the engines had an engine failurewith jamie mcmurray's car. >> so the penalties continue. the 18 had thejack man too early over the wall, and they had an uncontroled tire.>> this is not a big penalty. they were the
car that was going to get the free pass. sothey were going to have to start toward the back of the pack anyway so not a huge penaltyfor the 18 car. >> denny hamlin has chosen the inside linein jimmie johnson. side by side on the restart. great restart for denny hamlin. that 48 holdingthe outside line just a bit that allows of 2 of brad keselowski to move up to second.>> look behind the 48 of jimmie johnson jimmie johnson, chase elliott lost a little bit ofground through that cycle. led a lot of laps early, trying to work his way back to thefront. >> denny hamlin has never won a championshipin the sprint cup series. he's being chased by two sprint cup champions. six-time championjimmie johnson, brad keselowski, also a cup
series champion on the inside. those two fightingfor second. keselowski is going to get second away from jimmie johnson, but back to theinside comes the 48. andbehind those two champions chase elliott in the 24, led 101 laps earlyin this race, and now fighting for the fourth spot. marty?>> fantastic action out on the track, rick. frustrating moments for the 4 team and kevinharvick. sitting back here trying to diagnose this issue, exactly what might be going on.they've gone through three problem-solving phases, number one tried to read the codesoff the ecu, put those in the computer, that didn't work. they took the primary ecu out, tried to getthat to hook up to the computer, that didn't
work so had to push kevin harvick behind thewhaul. they have the advantage of the number one pit stall because literally an openingto go behind the wall 15 feet in front of the pit stall. scott max yim from hendrickmotorsports is looking at the ecu trying to figure out what's going only. steve, i can'timagine how frustrating and helpless this must feel as a crew chief to know you havea fast car and can win this race but now you have a problem you can't diagnose.>> marty unfortunately after you go three or four laps down the race is over so whileit is helpless, the 4 car of kevin harvick ten laps down of the leader denny hamlin,this race is over for him. the electronic control unit the ecu runs the fuel injectionsystem, the electronics of the race car. simple
fact is, when the car lets you down, the pointsare given up and in the chase points currently 23 points behind this 4 of kevin harvick hascome out. >> one thing i remind everyone watching andeveryone will have to believe me on this, he's never been eliminated. since this formathas been started, he has never listen eliminated from any round of this chase. and right nowhis back is definitely against the wall. >> two shots at kansas next week and talladega.having to get a win or have a great finish there so he will have opportunities but itwon't be easy. >> mike, what about the driver of the?>> he's just catching his breath, gathering his thoughts. that's joey logano, two tireissues here. are they related?
>> well, first it was the left front, secondwas the right front. once you hit the wall it bends everything and everything gets screwedup. wrong time of the year for it. just we're going to have two races coming up. our teamis strong. we could have won the race today. best carwe've had in a while, felt really good to drive that but you know, we have to come back.we'll get our car back out there and maybe gain a point or two if we're lucky and goon to kansas and talladega and win. >> what is your crew chief telling but thetire? >> we don't have time, working on this tofix it all i can do is keep driving it. >> thank you. rick?>> very fortunate as battle for the lead is
brewing here between the 48 and the 11. dennyhamlin trying to hold off the 48 but the 48 has been charging ever since dropping backto third. he was able to get right up next to the 11. they were fighting for that topspot. >> denny hamlin did a great job of battlingand keeping that position, they're going back to the bottom of the racetrack in turn oneand taking the line away from the 48. you see the gap created by that. once he tookthe air away from the 48 line, the 48 has to grind all the way back up there to do thatwork just to get beside denny hamlin. >> we have passed the half way point. onlyfour cautions. >> battle for the lead here.>> absolutely, it is heating up, up front.
>> look at the run the fourth car line, thatwhite 3m 24 of chase elliott. he ran atop the corner and got a run on the 2 of bradkeselowski. this time brad gives chase at the bottom of the racetrack knowing chasewas better up top. instantly the 2 of brad keselowski carries him off. what do you doat this end of the racetrack? >> go to the bottom and take the air awayfrom it, it affects the 24 when the two went to the bottom, he knew the 24 wanted to beon the bottom, took his line, took the air away from him. what does he do now? he goesback to the bottom and gives the outside to the 24 and chase elliott carries off the corner,which is you heard him had to get out of the throttle, tried to carry that momentum offthe corner but couldn't stay in it. i agree,
we heard chad knause telling jimmie johnsonlet's run the bottom of the racetrack. debris with that strategy. i think when yougo somewhere you have tire problems you want to run where the most rubber is. try to takeit as easy on the tire as you can. i like that strategy. these guys battle for the lead.they're not going to follow each other. the front of the line the 48 was at the top and11 at the top. i'm in the going to make it that easy for but>> so many decisions to be made and now the 2 of brad keselowski trying to catch the 2in front of him but trying to keep the 24 behind him.>> he says he wept through the middle but feels he's losing time to chase elliott'slate center and off. the team asked him if
he's loose or tight, he said a little bitof both. both at the same time but bigger issues like crew chief paul wolfe reassuringhim about their tire situation after the issues and now a pass there for the lead and lookslike denny hamlin. >> denny will hold onto the top spot, kelly,as here comes the 48 once again. has that lower line. see if it works for him throughone and two. >> continuing to keep the four drivers noseto tail, very tightly connected. >> i think these cars are quicker than dennyhamlin, but denny hamlin is doing a really good job taking the line away from the 48.when the 48 gets underneath him he crowds the 48. doesn't let the 48 breathe comingoff the corner.
>> great runs right now for all four driversas denny hamlin trying to hang onto that top spot. once again the 48 of jimmie johnsoncomes out of turn number two, looks to the bottom. can't get by. lifted his rear tiresoff the ground he'll get out of the way. >> he's got it down.>> great pass by jimmie johnson. >> great job, bud.>> seven times we have seen jimmie johnson go to victory lane at charlotte motor speedway. the winningest driver at this track.>> whoa, big slide for the 2. >> way up the racetrack, he's able to catchit but that allows the 24 to get by. >> i agree i think the 48 was much betterthan the 11 of denny hamlin. remember these
have history at loudoun. you wonder if that'swhy denny was racing the 48 so hard. >> he heard his spotter talk about what agood save it was. the 2 car is out of control right here. he is sideways, had to lift allthe way off the throttle. chase elliott was saying please don't come back down acrossthe racetrack. you see having to lift how much momentum they gave up. right along withchase elliott watch how loose the 2 gets as he tries to jumble the outside of denny hamlin.right here is where it starts. >> he goes sideways.>> all good, all good. >> a lot of times what happens right thereis the 2 car is behind the 11. he goes down behind him, jumps to the outside. when hejumps to the outside it floods the front of
the car with air and makes a tremendous amountof front downforce. if you don't have the steering wheel where it needs to be next thingyou know you're loose. >> caught it saved it, he's out[ distorted voice ] progressive claims to show people their competitors' rates alongsidetheir direct rate to save you money. but what's really going on? when played backwards at1/8th speed you can clearly hear... what could that mean?woman: tom? tom! they're just commercials. or are they? you're waking the neighbors.well, mom, maybe the neighbors need to be woke. i think it's actually "awoken." no,that doesn't even seem right. no, it's "awoken." revealing the truth to help you save.(sloshing)
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>>> tallest building in the uptown charlotteskyline there, the bank of america building. we're located just northeast of there in concord,north carolina for the bank of america 500 as we are on lap 185. let's check out theram guts and glory of this race, and already has to be penalties, tire issues and powerissues. >> look at the lift. all chase drivers withall of these issues today, penalties, tire issues, power issues. jeff, it seems likethis is going to be the true 500-mile test. i think we take it for granted some of thecars can easily run 500 miles but today a lot of issues.>> you think it's easy. hey, don't make mistakes. it's difficult to run 500 miles, difficultto be competitive. it's not easy to do those
things and really good racing championshipcontending teams are having issues. >> very hard on equipment. martin truex jr.maybe not having the day he was expecting to have but he led nearly 188 miles in may,the most all-time by a race winner, once again running 12th today and has yet to lead a lap.sprint network's reliability within 1% of verizon. visit sprint store or sprint.com/networktoday. trying to get by the 3 of. two chase drivers, as you see the yellow on the splitter,yellow on the spoiler, as well as the yellow banner across the top of the windshield. that'sindicating chase drivers. >> this is the mark of a championship team.not every race is going to go well. races aren't going well you've been doing, leadinglaps doing all those things, what can you
do to follow that finish out. lot of lapsleft in that race. we saw them win darlington without the best car all day long. can they find themselves a way to get backin contension and at the very least have a good finish but be a contender for the winby the time the race is over. >> marty?>> i chad with rick heimer from goodyear. tires an issue today. two left front issuesnow three right front issues. in goodyear's assessment what's going on?>> what we found on the right front of the 18 and the 42 in the shoulder area was treadanimation, the result of something compromising the adhesion between the tread compound andthe body ties. the engineers don't see any
correlation between the tires.
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