1999 Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400

the following is a special presentation of tnn motorsports in the sandhills of north carolina stands a rock the nascar winston cup series will race here for the 69th time today champions have been crowned here and today another can all but lock up his first title while a seven-time champion has been showing his strength of late all of that and much more as we preview the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 live on tnn motorsports [Music] we're getting down to the nitty-gritty just four races remain to settle the 1999 nascar winston cup series championship and today the nascar winston cup teams have come to the rock the north carolina speedway the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is live on tnn motorsports good afternoon everybody i'm eli gold welcome to rockingham north carolina unseasonably cold but nevertheless a beautiful day to go racing and another chance for dale jarrett to try and put his name on this championship for the 1999 season buddy baker will be joining us later in the telecast he's bothered by what we in alabama call the creeping crud a bit of a cold and the flu and the cough and he'll be along a bit later on but dr dick bergeron as healthy as per usual is alongside and of all the story lines here this weekend maybe the new pit road is the biggest one of them all there's always something new at rockingham it seems and indeed the pit road is a huge story today it goes all the way through turn one and into turn two as well it's going to present new challenges for the drivers to be a major piece to talk about eli and why don't we start talking about it right now by heading down to our pit commentators for this afternoon steve burns the pit lane has been the talk of everybody in town yeah that's the headline this week let's elaborate a little bit guys for the first time since they've been racing here since 1965 all 43 cars will pit here on the front stretch track officials had to put down 3 500 tons of asphalt and concrete and it took 20 000 man hours to do it but really the big number here ralph shaheen is that pit road is now 1400 feet long that's right steve and the speed limit on pit road today will be 45 miles an hour now the entrance appeared road is pretty much the same but to get all the way down to turn number two at 45 miles an hour is going to take these drivers just about 30 seconds race speeds here glen jarrett per lap about 25 to 26. ah that's exactly right ralph you know it would appear that the man in black is back to his winning ways not just since 1995 has dale earnhardt and this is the man won more than two races in a single season now he starts from deep in the field today 37th but anytime you're racing at the rock back there a little ways anytime he races the rock you cannot count out the intimidator win loser crash earnhardt always stands tall in the eyes of his fans he's certainly been in the thicker things lately including a controversial spin of terry labonte on the last lap in bristol that enabled dale to claim the win amidst a mix i miss a mix of cheers and years but last week was vinnie earnhardt he charged from way back in the field 27 starting position took the lead from dale jarrett with four laps left to go in the race and went on to claim his third win of the year including a sweep with talladega right now he is wide open on my right foot moving around behind me and let's ask him the question things are obviously different this year dale you're a lot more racy a lot more competitive what is the difference well i think we found a balance on these monte carlos uh richard and the guys worked really hard and got the cars a lot better so just uh really understanding the race cars better we got the balance ready qualifying wasn't great down here so we missed the missed it big down here but mike skinner seemed to be a little off too so we're adjusting and i think raceway raised that setup we may be okay uh yeah but you like starting in the rear you like passing all those guys in the rear i don't like passing but i like to be out front all the time that's dale earnhardt eli of course qualifying wasn't all that great at talladega a weekend ago either look at those numbers three wins here at rockingham a lot of guys would love to have that but look how tough the tracks are where dale has done the best nine wins at bristol nine at darlington nine now at talladega it doesn't get any tougher than that and the man in black has always seemed to find his way to victory lane but as fine as his year has been no one season is any better than that of dale jarrett and steve burns right now it's a 246 point lead heading down the stretch run eli dale jarrett walks tall here in rockingham as the winston cup points leader last week in talladega dale jarrett started 17th deep in the pack found himself mired in traffic it was tough for him to move up but crew chief todd parrott and the team kept adjusting on the ford taurus for dale jarrett dj finally worked his way to the lead on lap 114 and led a total of 37 laps he was in contention to the checkered flag but finished second to dale earnhardt and i guess dale all things considered it might have been a victory here today you're going to start third a good place and you've got a race car you called old reliable maybe well yeah we hope that it is anyway it's a car that has been good to us as far as getting testing uh started with the taurus but uh we haven't run that many races with it but it's a good driving race car and uh hopefully by the end of the day we can get it to the front you guys feel pretty confident today i feel pretty good there's some cars that are quite a bit faster than we are our car seems to stay pretty good on the long run but we're not very fast on new tires and but that's been the history of our uh racing here and i guess that's the reason we finished second a number of times because we've had late cautions and and people have beat us on those shorter runs but uh i like our chances all right best of luck and eli that won't be the last time we hear tires today here at rockingham no tire wear tire management that's the by word or by words here at the rock there you see the nascar winston cup points you know the story lines already but taking you further back how dominant is dale jarrett right now look at that better than a thousand points back our ward burton and mike skinner but remember this folks 11th and 12th spot they are only separated by four points 13th and 14th they're only separated by 11 so there are a lot of battles on the line here today as we go racing in the pop secret microwave popcorn 400. when we come back jeff gordon and brian weitzel their story when we return to the rock would be so jeff gordon up on the stage here right now getting his victory or getting a accolades for pre-race stuff here today we hope to be able to have a word with him in just a second eli jeff gordon is going to start fourth here today he was the winner of the true value racer of the week award at talladega he ran more laps in first second or third spot a week ago than anybody else did over the course of that 500 miles and you see how good brian weitzel has been look at those two wins in three races and as you look back to year number one of many of those great crew chiefs careers look at ray evernham remember back in 1993 30 events and dick berger not a single win among that whole lot so year number one doesn't necessarily tell the whole story but you got to like brian weitzel's start do you wonder if they taught him tire management at virginia tech well probably not but this is the world's greatest college to teach someone tire management this racetrack is built with lots and lots of rocks in it it tends to chew away at the tires the tires don't really wear out they just get slower and so the real responsibility of a crew chief is get the car set up so you can get the most out of that set of tires you know what else we always talk about here at the rock we always talk about pontiac probably more so at this race track than we do anywhere else at the winston cup series goes well this is really pontiac's flat out best racetrack no question about that pontiacs have won six of the last 11 fall events here rusty wallace has won four out of his five races in a pontiac here kyle petty with a big win let all but eight laps in october of 92 today however they're going to be watching tony stewart you see his pontiac here winning for the first time in his winston cup career at richmond and john andretti has had a great year winning in a pontiac at martinsville however he's the guy that really is going to carry the flag today he's got four wins so far this year at a pontiac and glenn that green car is one that everybody is keeping an eye on here this afternoon yeah there's also been a car that everybody's been chasing for most of this year he has led i think uh some laps on every super speedway the every track over a mile in length this year you've had an incredible year but uh still looking for that first win here could it come today well i don't know uh this is uh not really been that great of a track for us but uh last spring we ran uh third had a good car and led some laps so uh you know hopefully we can uh learn off that and then you know make the right decisions today and uh get our car handled right you know as you know rockingham's a handling racetrack where the tires are the asphalt eats the tires up and the it'll change from the first lap to the 50th lap when you need a bid or when you want a pit and hopefully we can get it where it's good and consistent throughout that run well bobby goes off fifth today it's a great starting position eli it is and statistically pontiac's always behind the eighth ball they only have eight full-time pontiac teams compared to those for ford and chevrolet you see 21 and 16 respectively so just by sheer numbers it's likely that ford and chevy would outdo pontiac but this year and steve you've got to add ward burton's name to that mix this year particularly here at the rock pontiac's done well eli ward burton won his first and only wins to cut race here in 1995. it's been 123 races since ward has celebrated in victory lane but ward burton and car owner bill davis have had a strong 1999 season they threatened to win in las vegas when ward battled with his brother jeff in fact ward has led 11 different races in 1999 last week at talladega ward battled for a second win finished fourth his second consecutive top five finish in a row and ward if you believe in momentum being a factor in other sports being the same in motorsports today could be a good day for you yeah it could uh caterpillar team's been giving me better cars every week they're getting smarter with the cars and consequently it makes us run better communication is getting better we've we've learned even stuff from this latter part of the season about what i want in the car how to relay it to tommy so that we get the chassis handling right so we're really excited about today the car's been pretty good since they got off the truck and we'll just hopeful old lady luck can uh race hard all day all right ward burning starting 11th today eli currently ninth in nascar winston cup points not bad for a single car team when we come back ricky rudd is in the tnm spotlight right after these messages when we return to the rock [Music] it was a tough day on the track in the fall of 1996 robbie gordon and bill elliot collide early and turned three then robert presley and lake speed got together in a big way wally donovan back in jeremy mayfield felt the wrath of the rock but avoiding it all was ricky rudd who got his only win of 96 that extended his streak at that point to wins at least 14 years in a row well right now ricky rudd is looking to extend that winning streak to 17 years in a row of getting at least one victory a year now ricky last week at talladega you had a robert yates engine in the car and technical support from the crew now you're not running the yates motor this week how come and do you still get the tech support well we're kind of on our own i think it was kind of like cinderella last week we got a little taste of uh what it's like to have the you know the motor under the hood and like you say the technical support you know this week we're kind of on our own uh those guys they got more more important things for themselves to worry about like a winston cup championship so we pretty much left it where robert if you guys get caught up you got an extra motor laying around send it our way so maybe we'll get lucky it might be one in the car before phoenix so we'll just have to wait and see but uh sure it'd be nice if we had one today doing it on his own however eli will not be a problem he can certainly do it he'll start 15th here today he's got great support from the guys who have stayed with him look at those career numbers for ricky rudd but think about it many of the crew members working with ricky today were in elementary school when his 16-year winning streak began great honor there for ricky rudd and don't forget with races coming up at phoenix at homestead those are race tracks including here today where certainly ricky rudd could get himself to victory lane and now dick berger that brings us to the mark martin story qualifying at rockingham it's always the mark martin story it seems that way he himself called it a beautiful run and indeed it was a beautiful run he set a record for the fall race here in this qualifying run he already had the record for the spring race so that pretty well wraps it up it's his fifth pole ever here at rockingham first of the year though that's the surprise glenn jarrett we're standing alongside of bark he's uh putting the last minute stuff on and get ready mark we were joking around a little yesterday about calling this place markingham and you have had incredible success here 10 bush wins three winston cup wins you won the last race here in the spring what is it about this place you do so well well i don't know uh one of the things is the banking um i like bank race tracks and i like pretty good size race tracks a mile is about right for me and um it's just been real kind to me i don't know why i seem to find the chassis set up fairly fairly decent here well that's that's a mild understatement fairly decent he's got a great starting position eli but the pole position hasn't always been kind to the guys here it really hasn't glenn the pole sitter is finished on the average 11th place 17 times the pole winner has not even finished the event maybe mark changes that today we're back in a moment [Music] in october of 1997 race day was rain day so the event was postponed to monday points leader jeff gordon had a scare tagging the outside wall but he recovered to finish fourth bobby hamilton meanwhile grabbed the lead with less than 20 laps to go he hung on to win hamilton got quite a greeting from crew chief robbie loomis i remember that in victory lane welcome back to rockingham everybody dick you can i can just shake hands if you want to keep it at that if things go well let's talk about the pit crew championship that's always a great part of the fall race weekend here at rockingham and yesterday no exception as we take a look at some of the highlights oh the crews all brought special cars just for this event and i'll tell you what the crews are really into this deal you can see there the 21 team getting ready to go over the wall and do their thing uh the big winners bobby labonte's bunch did well joe nemechek's crew finished in second spot see the gas man here ready to go uh steve parks crew ready to jump over the wall awful lot of excitement here you're going to see much more of this thing later on tnn right so as you see some of the highlights of the action yesterday as the doctor mentioned bobby labonte's team did come away with the win and if you would like to see the entire coverage of that union 76 rockingham pit crew competition november 28th 5 o'clock eastern time and pacific time right here on tnn motorsports of course dick berggren is alongside us live right now but early this morning literally at the crack of dawn as per usual the doctor said see you guys later he went to the garage to find out what's going on so why don't we check in on that recorded report from dick bergeron earlier this morning in the rock's garage nobody slept in today crews were up at four o'clock in the morning to get here at the racetrack so they could work on the springs the shock absorbers the rear end gears and the weight distribution on the race cars see chassis are more important here than almost any other place because this place eats tires dale jarrett wasn't happy with his car in the final practice yesterday so they are changing 10 separate items in the front end of the race car their game plan in the race today try to win that way they lose no points at all jeff gordon has won three of the last five races here at rockingham they expect the groove to be a bit lower today as a result of the cooler weather and they are setting the car up for that he will take it easy on new tires you won't see gordon rocketing off when they both four on today many of the mechanics in the garage this morning picked tony stewart's number 20 pontiac to win the race the car was very fast in happy hour this morning they're changing one spring one shock and the anti-roll bar this will be quick this will be quick too mark martin's number six they were a little bit tight in happy hour they have adjusted for that this morning today is the 10th anniversary of his first ever win and that win happened right here at rockingham so that's what the doctor found for us in the garage this morning when we come back a final thought or two and we close in on the start winston cup racing from the rock is live on tnn motorsports [Music] welcome back to the north carolina speedway in rockingham here's a great way you can use your computer as an online garage pass for today's nascar winston cup race just log on to tnnracing.com it's tnn's special website with the latest news from rockingham in-car camera views and live scanner talk between the drivers and the crews log on right now if you'd like and get the latest multimedia motorsports information tnnracing.com closing in on the start let's go back to the pits a quick update on the latest bit of news glenn jarrett well thanks eli you know the biggest thing we noticed this morning was it it's considerably colder here today than it has been all during race weekend uh could create a few problems for the guys most of the crew chiefs say they built plenty of flexibility versatility changeability into the chassis spring rubbers everywhere except on the uh left front so uh they should be able to deal with it here's steve thanks glenn crew chief robbie riser the crew chief for matt castle told me this morning you want that car to be as soft as possible by that you want softer springs softer shocks that the car doesn't bounce a lot on the racetrack now the other thing that can really help those tires stay stuck to the racetrack is the driver if the driver's easy off the gas and easy back on it that'll keep that front end of the car from sliding ralph shaheen one more note about the new pit road here at rockingham here on the front straightaway everything is the same it's very flat all the way across as you get down around the corner there is an elevation change and it starts to slope off down towards the inside of the racetrack as the crews are changing tires if one starts to slip away from you it is eli gonna roll all the way to the inside and that can become a big problem and potentially a penalty we'll all find out as we watch that together bottom line dick bergeron you got to like the degree of competition and the parity you see here at rockingham i love this racetrack i really do because it's so much fun to watch puts a lot of pressure on the crews to get the cars just right the drivers have to conserve their tires but they have to go fast too it's a fun place to watch a race well folks kick back and join us we're together for the next three and a half hours get a bag of pop secret and pop it in the microwave we're coming back to go racing nascar winston cup competition from the rock is next here on tnn motorsports back in a moment the following is a special presentation of tnn motorsports it has been a storybook season replete with magical rain dances newly crowned princes cinderella stories rebounds devastating disappointments rejuvenated wizards but the book is not complete and as the final four chapters are written one man has focused all of his magic on being number one and to be number one the magic number for dale jared is 13. 13th or better in the remaining four races and a championship is his but here at the rock dale's number has always been two in six out of the last seven races at north carolina motor speedway the number 88 team has finished second whether the reason be pit strategy tire rotation or simply the will of the racing gods if you're dale jarrett and you cast your lot at rockingham history says you can forget about the other 42 possibilities but living in the past buys nothing in the quest for the winston cup [Music] [Applause] as remarkable as it may seem dale jarrett has started 24 races here at rockingham but he's never won but dale jarrett fans take heart today he's gonna start from the second row he goes off third and he's got nearly 20 cars at his disposal back at the shop in charlotte he's pulling out a race car he calls all reliable it's a car he hasn't raced in over a year but it's a winning race car for ricky rudd the magic number is 17. with a new robert yates gleam the number 10 car proved last week at talladega to be capable of extending the amazing 16 season winning streak and don't forget three years ago when the streak lay in the balance at 13 the rock yielded ricky his only victory of the year keeping the victory train and rudd's reputation at one mile tracks intact [Music] on ricky rudd's quest to find that victory for season number 17 here at rockingham he has chosen a race car that had never seen a racetrack until friday [Music] for those who are knocking on the door of their first winston cup win the magic number [Music] michael waltrip had positioned himself for a visit to victory lane last week [Music] kenny wallace has had victory in his sights this season but has yet to close the deal if you want to play the numbers today don't count out these three and once again this week michael waltrip may be the one of that trio that has the best chance to win here today at rockingham he starts 22nd and the other guys kenny wallace had to re-qualify his engine locked up in qualifying he goes off 26th and mike skinner he had to take a provisional could today be the day that one of these guys breaks through and gets that first win would it be walter wallace or maybe mike skinner we're gonna find out right here on tnn coming up next live from the rock [Music] a great look at the north carolina speedway in rockingham if you like your racing competitive you've come to the right place 10 different winners in the last 10 fall races here that's the name today the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 it is live from rockingham right here on tnn motorsports right now though time for the national anthem award-winning country music star lori morgan female vocalist of the year [Music] [Applause] 1992 oh say can you see what's so proudly real at the twilight's who's brought stripes and bright stars [Music] [Applause] let our plans [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] dna recording artist miss laurie morgan with our national anthem here at the north carolina speedway in rockingham the flyby taking place right now as we take a look at nascar winston cup series points you know the storyline 13th or better as you've already been told that's all dale jarrett has to do regardless of what bobby labonte does and the nascar winston cup championship would belong to dale jarrett here in 1999 the fans looking skyward as the jets fly overhead and we welcome you to rockingham i'm eli gold the pleasure to have you with us here for tnn motorsports live coverage from the rock and this truly has been one of the most competitive races we've seen as we said 10 different winners in the last 10 fall events here at rockingham he wasn't with us on the pre-race show bothered by a cold and the flu and a cough but buddy baker is alongside now he assures me he is no longer infectious but nevertheless buddy great day what's happened to me a lot of people have wished what happened to eli many times i do have a pretty bad cold i'm working on it and you're doing very well four old buddy he's been working with an apothecary lined up here on our desk right now he's got everything going and the bottom line is you talk about this race tracker a lot of guys have gotten sick at this race track been trying to battle car setup they're trying to battle tire wear tire management it's all part of the headache that at times can be rockingham well really what you have to do is just ease in the gas in the corner don't break the tires loose get that forward bite don't sound like me dick bergeron is alongside doctor you and i touched on the pre-race as well the fact that pit road is now merely on the front straightaway no longer is there a back pit but the design is something that's given some of these teams something to think about well it's a retrofit this racetrack was built in the 60s and to allow all the cars to pit in the front what's now going to happen is many of the top drivers are going to go down pit road down the straight part then they're going to face a real hard left you're looking at it here and the crews can't help talk them into the bits because they can't see them the drivers can't see the pit as they head for it so some of them have painted stock car graffiti on the outside wall their car numbers so they can find their way into the pits those pits are going to be a story today no doubt and certainly glenn and steven ralph will keep you updated down on the pit lane throughout the course of the day when we come back we'll fire the engines we'll be set to go racing as tnn motorsports is live at the rock back in a moment cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is being brought to you by pontiac who invites you to visit cnnracing.com to register for an online chat with tony stewart buy havilland formula 3 motor oil add more life to your car buy the more than 2500 autozone stores across america autozone the best parts and auto parts and by xi nascar select the official automotive battery of nascar [Music] gentlemen start your engine dave godfredson from food lion with the command to fire the engines here at the rock as we prepare to go racing here on a unseasonably cool day no it's cold it's past cool it was cold earlier this morning take a look at the layouts of this racetrack if you're not familiar with it 1.017 miles around so that means 393 laps we'll make up the 400 miles here today see how the banking varies from turns one and two to the other end of the speedway turns three and four now the autozone race analysis brought to you by the more than 2500 autozone stores across america autozone the best parts in auto parts 45 miles an hour dick berg we're not pit road speed and with this lane feet pit road it'll seem to these guys that they're out there all day sunday just going from one under the pit lane to the other it's going to take them longer to get down pit road than it will to make a lap at full speed in fact why don't we take a look at the starting lineup for this afternoon's events first poll of the year for mark martin jeremy mayfield's best start of the season dale jarrod he's finished second here at the rock in six of the last seven events jeff gordon's won three of the last five races here bobby labonte's in the title fight jeff burks had top fives last couple of visits here great effort for ricky craven nice to see him qualifying seven he's got a lot of his old-time people with him uh scott maxim is with him on the engine and uh he's got john munson there helping him and charlie presley all of them have been with him in good runs in the past chef rebo dime ken schrader ward burton turns 38 years of age tomorrow joe nemechek the winner in loudoun new hampshire terry labonte and wally dallenbach ricky rudd had the great showing at talladega a weekend ago rick mast has run well here matt kenseth in his fifth nascar winston cup race of the year john m's ready kenny irwin looking forward to going racing four top tens in his last six races and buddy baker i i know your voice is not doing all that well but confidence in what you're doing in the case of kenny irwin when all of a sudden you're starting to get a whole sack full of top tens it's got to help you yeah he's coming around every every uh race i think he next year will really be something to watch taking a look at the remainder of the starting grid kyle petty owned this race track for years three rockingham wins derek cope elliott sadler he had himself a good run going at the talladega last weekend [Music] look for your favorites 54th consecutive rockingham start for daryl waltrip bobby hamilton won here in 97 dale earnhardt third win of the year last week jimmy spencer he was real quick and happy hour here yesterday and look at the fellas who are new you saw stacy compton for the nascar craftsman truck series moving into the number nine melling car and there's mike bless second race of the year in that number 30. those who didn't qualify at barrier rich pickle the veterans dave marcus and strickland closing in on the start couple of laps away we'll be back to bring it to you when we return to rockingham field getting set to come to the green here at the north carolina speedway in rockingham we've got onboard cameras with you today for a number of teams you've got mark martin giving us rides today we've got bobby labonte giving us a ride kenny irwin is going to give us the ride around the rock so too will ted musgrave robert presley's got onboard cameras for you so too does dale jarrett the point leader bill elliott also so we've got you covered along with jeffer green flag is in the air we are going racing at rockingham 393 laps of competition [Music] now mark martin leads 22nd event this year that he has led this is the 31st race of the season and the 14th race here at rockingham and winston cup competition that he has led while he down and back as the sun now peeks out from behind one of the clouds illuminating this one-mile layout some of the strong contenders deep in the field are going to have to be very very careful with their tires that they don't burn them off and just charge to the front mike skinner past winner bobby hamilton dale earnhardt steve park daryl waltrip all deep deep in the field meanwhile mark martin's got a clear field right in front of him he doesn't have to worry at all he can take that car any place he wants on the racetrack the others are going to have to group gouge push and shove and heat up their tires maybe riding with kenny irwin right now he's an 18th spot trying the outside against 98 rick mast you see schroeder the skull machine just ahead of kenny irwin and schrader's not been able to get back to the low side of the racetrack got him set up a little bit tight today he's been too loose in the last three races so they're starting a little tight so he can hang on to it better there's the spread from first place on back to 8th 10th 15th 20th right there and look at mayfield just pulled over on the back straight away and let the 12s that jeremy mayfield just go right on by so we swapped the lead around in last number four jeremy mayfield showing the way martin and then jarrett running second and third first few laps on new tires are the most important laps in the entire life cycle of that tire mark martin does have a habit of taking a little easy on the first few laps don't think there's something wrong with either his car or the 24 car jeff gordon both those guys are going to cruise when they have brand new tires let the others go ahead and be the rabbit well if the air pressure in the tires you have to let them build up so they start working well he has a low air pressure in the tires right now as he runs along they get up whether he likes to feel in the car then he'll move back to the front dale jarrett last week took his time at talladega then all of a sudden there he was running up front so you're right early in these runs not always indicative of what the rest of the afternoon is going to hold for you big money on the line here this afternoon is the first ever rockingham purse of over two million dollars how would you like to have a one-third increase in the size of your paycheck as we watch the battle for first 27 increase in the money today over last year new leader is dale jarrett as he makes the pass to the inside of jeremy mayfield looking back from jarrett mayfield just settling right so in the first eight laps we've had mark martin jeremy mayfield and now dale jarrett as the race leader [Music] five points that's very important and and the points race to get that and jeff gordon back here he looks like his car is working very well if i don't pick up here i'm going to be in charlotte when this is over there you see mayfield come running right back inside of dale jarrett mayfield has been a rocket ever since they unloaded that car here at rockingham uh they have speed charts for each of the various practice sessions he has been in the top three in every single one of those including the last practice session last night mayfield remember ran in the top five all day here a couple of years ago in 97 he was fourth with 25 laps to go then there was a spinning car that put him into the wall and jeremy ended up finishing 14th but he's always been around the front [Music] his teammate rusty wallace has also run very well in practice sessions and they did absolutely nothing to that car this morning there's ricky rudd number 10 inside of the 42 of joe nemechek the 43 the stp car of andretti ricky rudd trying to keep that streak going he has won at least once but never more than twice in each of the last 16 seasons mark martin heading in the forward direction now running in third spot kicks dj back to fourth position [Music] now with jeff burton outside of wally darling back in the 25 that's for fifth place [Music] for change burton had a good qualifying run he's had a tough time qualifying this year started today's race in the sixth spot he said the only thing they're worried about that car is it does tend to slip and slide they can't seem to get quite as much grip into it as they'd like make some minor changes to it the changes to it this morning to try to help that i'm done and darling back there he started 14th and i'm gonna have to give it up here but i'm gonna take off are you really buddy yeah i might have to give it up well don't do that maybe give this double clutch i better head for the house well feel better okay thank you very much thanks for giving it a try yeah buddy baker unfortunately not uh feeling up to stuff here today and gave it the omens effort as you'd expect but uh doctor pull up a chair okay we're here and uh buddy's gonna rejoin us of course next week in memphis you'll be with us in memphis for the nascar bush series race the sam's down 250 and then on to phoenix to hawaii this season up that is jeremy mayfield the race leader by a half second gordon martin jarrod and burton here top five by the way if you're a bobby labonte fan he has now lost six spots in the last couple of laps there he is number 12 on the running order number 18 on the roof as we ride with bobby right now last couple of laps have not been particularly good ones for him we're early only 16 laps in [Music] gmn motorsports with you at the rock [Music] back with more in a moment [Music] welcome back everybody jeremy mayfield leads the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 live here at the rock good three wide battle ricky craven in the 50 there comes out with that position ricky's still running a strong sixth and he's running way up high on the racetrack almost into the wall in fact he's running so high the guy that's right in front of him is jeff burton in the number 99 car he doesn't like upstairs he calls running high a crutch for a bad handling car but he's going to have to go up there in order to keep craven from passing him [Applause] that's 10th place you're riding with right now let's see how high ricky craven in the 50 goes high enough to get alongside burton jeff gordon's line has moved up as well as has ward burtons that's for fifth place yesterday in the bush race here at rocky rockingham they pretty much ran the bottom of the racetrack but those cars don't have nearly the horsepower the winston cup cars do and already this early in the event we're seeing drivers testing the different lines some running low some running in the middle some running up high that's one of the things look at this get ready for three wide that's one of the things that's so much fun about rockingham is watching the drivers test all the different lines to see which one will work best for them steve they are using every inch of this racetrack right now yeah that's an interesting concept that uh dick burton was talking about eli one crew chief told me this morning you'll see guys run the high side you'll see someone on the low side but you'll also also see guys start on the low side and while it appears that they're washing up the racetrack in the middle of corners what they're really doing there is saving their tires if they jerk down on the steering wheel to try and hold it they're gonna wear those tires out so you might see some guys washing up early in the run second place about to swap right there but dale jarrett couldn't make the jump he also saw a quick look at ricky rug seconds ago while steve was chatting about on track strategies and ricky rudd is one of those whose car is not handling well he was all the way back to 18th there's ricky and you see him climbing the banking the 23 is jimmy spencer who was fifth and happy hour here yesterday afternoon now second place swaps around give it to dale jarrett three tenths of a second behind the race leader jeremy mayfield jeremy spotter has just called down to him to tell him nice job you're running nice and smooth they've done nothing but praise jeremy for this entire race as well as he should uh he's doing a great job jeremy's only top ten finish here was a fifth place this spring riding now in sixth jeff burton looking back to jeff gordon in seventh kenny irwin that havilland texas machine right there in the mix up front up goes mayfield low goes jarrett it happens that quickly swaps around again at lap number 28 ralph he just needed that little bit of an opening that's exactly right eli he also needed to wait a little bit for the tires and the car to come around the very beginning of the race dale wasn't exactly pleased with the setup todd parrott to just hang in there buddy it's going to come around to you and sure enough it did look where he's at it's about time you've won one of these things six second places here in the last seven starts that's tough to do even on purpose it really is uh after he qualified so well he did an interview with the media and if people asked about this second place thing he said i would take second place if i could have it right now but the strategy is to try to win the race because if they win the race they are guaranteed to lose no points and that is their focus [Music] high up the banking again craven you seem left to your screen number 50 that red car best run he's had so far this year craven's got four third place finishes as his career best two of them right here at rockingham the 1995 nascar winston cup rookie of the year ricky craven in the number 50. oh and here comes dale earnhardt now making his way closer to the front he's up to 24th position dale is started back in 37 second place craven got it outside groove continue to work what a run for ricky craven they brought charlie presley in charlie had been his crew chief back in the 41 team when craven won rookie of the year and john munson had been with him when he ran so well in the bush norris series and scott maxim had been his engine man for many many years and they were all huddled together in the garage this morning ricky with a big smile on his face and why not he's in second spot already a couple of thirds here at rockingham one in darlington one in daytona glenn he's climbing to the front yeah and i don't think he can fully appreciate just how high he is on the racetrack for you down here in the middle of the turns like i am he is at least and i see mark martin moving up there behind him now he's going to try that several other guys have tried it and haven't been able to make it work as well as ricky has but he is at least a sandwich shot higher than dale jarrod and jeremy mayfield up there he is way up the racetrack but i'll tell you what it's working and you don't turn the steering wheel as much as much up there you're getting better tire wear so wherever it'll work for you there you see mayfield he too climbs the banking jared is the leader craven is second then martin is third mayfield and terry labonte and there is the man point leader race leader dale jarrett by 1 and 2 10 seconds showing the way and you folks are joining us here on cnn we're back in a moment [Music] welcome back to the rock the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 led by dale jared he's got a second and a half with an advantage folks you can use your computer as an online garage pass for today's race just log on to tnnracing.com it's tnm's special website with the latest news from rockingham all the in-car camera views you want on live scanner talk between the drivers and the crews log on now and get the latest multimedia motorsports info at tnnracing.com dale jared continuing to leave but ralph apparently everything is not going as smoothly as they'd like huh no not right now eli there's a bit of a question over a vibration they're not sure where it is coming from he's been checking the gauges everything is fine the lap times are just fine they're talking about moving the car up maybe about a half a lane on the racetrack to see if that can change anything they're gonna maybe go up about half the lane so let's keep an eye on that now and see if that's what he does and look how those speeds have dropped off by virtue of a going through some traffic and be the wear on those goodyear tires [Music] he likes he's very still there in the corners with his hands the car is not handling badly it's just not able to stay right on the bottom now and the vibration that he's feeling in the car hey changing around on the racetrack is not going to get rid of evaporation we knew buddy baker wouldn't stay away he went out back and he uh gargled a little bit and they went to the garage they did a little work they could see nascar timing and scoring brought to you by napa we keep america running now you've got all the full run down going for you right there [Music] further back look at some of these guys who are moving up through the field they're on the high side the number four bobby hamilton he's come from 35th to 11th [Music] look at some of those guys rusty wallace has moved up and dale earnhardt to that list from 37th to 21st a lot of guys have hit the combination a lot of guys are already praying for a pit stop a lot of them wishing they had four fresh tires on those cars riding with ted musgrave as you see in 42nd position [Music] closer to the front the two rusty wallace 28 kenny irwin they are sixth and seventh respectively wallace was really disappointed with his qualifying run said he didn't know what was wrong with the car they just couldn't quite figure it out they went to work on that race car with the race at it and they absolutely hit it they hit it perfectly zero changes on that number two this morning uh watch rusty he's won more races here than any other driver in this event it could be his day-to-day and you know we talked so much about ricky rudd's streak you realize that guy rusty wallace is at least one win in the last 14 years so that is second only to ricky rudd streak of 16. here's a good second place scramble now 50 ricky craven is in second mark martin the six wants it the 22 the cat car of ward burton is right there yeah ward burton you know he won his first major race right here so he knows how to get oh did you see that little is it tougher and buddy i hate to make you talk extra but is it tougher to race a guy when you are a couple of groups higher than him on the racetrack as opposed to if you're following in his tire tracks and you see ward burton grab second away from craven is it tough to get a perspective on the guy you're racing when you're up by the wall and he's down by the apron yeah it is for curve the car on the bottom gets in the corner so much better and you're way up on the racetrack it looks like you're losing distance you get back in the throttle and and you know then you power right back up on it watch mark martin as it comes off the corner over here watch that white car in the middle yeah caleb just comes right around with a nice job he did hanging on to that ward burton saw opportunity and took advantage of it up on the high side mark martin he's finishing the top 10 points for ten straight years consistency middle of the field the four is hamilton he's an eleventh you've got everybody else there and ready the 43 main field of the 12 all battling for position and this guy jeff burke with uber riding he's now in 13th spot he's kind of done he's still outside remind you of the old dover races where harry gantt and a few of the guys are way up high and everybody else is down low and a couple of guys were in the middle that's a hairy gat groove right there yeah very top of the racetrack and bobby allison used to run right on the bottom of the racetrack [Music] jeff burton trying to figure out which of those three lines is best mayfield's way up top andretti is in the middle and he's looking at both those lines at the bottom looks pretty appealing as well here goes bobby lavonny riding with him now as he tries to grab 13th away again what we talked about lavonnie down low 99 up high jeff burton they're battling for position and glenn bobby had dropped back a little bit but now he seems to be a resurgence yeah but i think the reason is that the cars in front of him are slowing down worse than he was uh bobby's car was tight in the middle of the corner and he was having a tourniquet so far they was breaking the back tires loose as he was coming off so we're hearing everything from everybody down here some of them are tight the middle loose off some are loose in and tied off so there's a lot of uh adjustments gonna have to be made but bobby's car he just uh has pretty much set a steady pace and is holding on to that right now and those guys in front of him are kind of coming back to him now remember we talked on the free race about pontiac they have won 10 of the last 23 races here and bobby lavonny would like to add get another marker to that list we're early if you're just joining us 55 laps in no cautions no pit stops all's been clean and green thus far we have seen some teams [Applause] already have problems to the degree where they were getting lapped that's 10th place on your screen bobby hamilton john andretti interesting match up there hamilton has won he's now driving for the kodak team but he had won for the stp team here a couple of years ago in october john andretti working the bottom side trying to stay ahead of the guy that used to drive that same car he's in [Music] caution free so far still early good scramble there 18 and 12 mayfield and bobby lobotti penny schroeder is headed down pit road this is an early pit stop unscheduled it's too early for routine service but in back slid all the way to 40th spot and was losing a lap already this is a great battle here again 12th and 13th swap it around give it to bobby lavonte now ahead of jeremy mayfield so some good racing all around but up front it is still dale tarrant by one and one tenth seconds on roy burton john rouse his men are right now running second and third [Music] welcome back everybody hope you got a chance to experience country.com your personal source for all things country from race cars to country stars connect to country.com that is tnn's home on the world wide web eli gold buddy baker dick bergeron glen steve burns ralph shaheen the whole crew on hand i realized it went to commercial i said jack roush's guys are running first should be second and third obviously uh warren burton drives for bill davis and uh wanted to correct that didn't want to think that uh there have been a trade this weekend or something uh ward still very much with bill davis obviously jeff burton and a host of others running for red jack roush the 88 in the middle of that picture that's dale jarrett starting to put laps now on some of the back markers picking and choosing as he goes we've seen unscheduled stops already david green in the 45 about to go a lap down there's ward burt driving for bill davis racing we saw mike bliss in for an unscheduled stop lap number 59 whoa three wide coming out of the corner that's risky stuff that big pile of traffic allowed ward burton to close in on dale jarrett a few moments ago but look at what's happened as he's been in the midst of it rusty wallace has closed in on him all the way from fifth spot rusty wallace now in second position just found the opening and took advantage of it meanwhile ralph what's the deal once you go a lap down you might as well come in for tires is that why schrader put it early well eli kenny felt that the tires were driving like they were 10 pounds over inflated he was having a lot of trouble when he get on the brakes for the turns the car just wanted to jump around on him so they brought him in and changed tires now jeff horn is extremely loose in the 24 car having a lot of problems from the middle of the quarter off he's expecting to pin the 24 in about 20 laps so that's the update from down on the pit lane meanwhile look at number six mark martin he's running in fifth he's got bill elliot's machine there along with though bill is already a lap down and 36th position we're seeing pit stops for stacy compton david green is in as you ride with phil elliott now boy he's having to hold off on the throttle until he hits the straightaway he can't even touch the throttle pills so loose he can't get back in the throttle at all he's good here at rockingham elliott is three wins here 11 top fives at rockingham runs this racetrack extremely well 14th place a good scramble mayfield and spencer jimmy in the 23 main field in the 12. he feels guys i'm sure are disappointed that he has dropped that far back they really thought they could hang on to the very front of this pack but it just hasn't worked out for them so far today they are certainly anticipating their first opportunity to pit that car and make adjustments in it still early though jeremy's used to handling a car or a vehicle that doesn't always work as well as he'd like at times remember he ran go-karts and he was 13 years old so he's got experience in all forms of motorsports he then worked as a fabricator he's one of these great stories guy was a go-kart racer went to work for earl and check sadler with a fabricator there then he found himself a chance to go racing ricky craven peels off the banking he's going to come in kevin lepage is making a pit stop these are at lap number 69. daryl walter's been fighting with uh jarrett there to stay in the lead lap he's he's running just about as fast as charity is about to go a lot down daryl's at 33rd there you see ricky craven got himself up towards second spot earlier he just wants to hope that there is not a caution flag and give the leaders an opportunity to pit under caution while he's doing his pit stop under green this long pit road you just can't make a pit stop for four tires without losing the laps that suzuki atv pit stop brought to you by suzuki maker of fine motorcycles and atvs let's go to the fence eli we heard ricky craven call into john monson the crew chief moments ago and he had overdriven the race car he overheated the right rear tire and that's why he had started to backslide should also meant to one of his car owners hal hicks is here this weekend and enjoying his honeymoon he got married yesterday and our congratulations to what better place to spend once honeymoon than at a racetrack you have a strange sense of a concept of marital blessing i wouldn't want to be in your house when you walk in the door tonight on our honeymoon among other among other things among other things claudette and i sat on the beach and listened to the mrn radio broadcast from dover so there you saw ricky rudd making the stop this is third spot right now on the screen terry labonte in the five grabs it away from ward burton in the number 22 and here comes mark martin as well trying to take advantage of that inside groove working very well i tried to talk my wife into going to races as we're on our way to the motel and she just looked at me and said you better not even mention that again dale earnhardt in for a pit stop there he is coming in at lap number 73. dale had worked himself up by about 17 spots when he elects to make the stop these are all obviously within the expected pit window we have had no cautions if you're just tuning in it's been clean and green and earnhardt returns to the fray well back in february we went to lap 208 without a yellow flag and then we had a whole pile of them one after another well dw gave it a heck of an effort there in the 66 but daryl walchup goes a lap down now to dale jarrett so daryl walsh have gone and that means up to 29th spot has now already been lapped by our race leader dale jarrett led lap number eight for one lap and reassumed the lead at lap 28 we're now at lap 75 we're back in a moment there is your race leader rusty wallace but at lap number 81 he will make a pit stop and that will give the lead to terry laponte so rusty will lead for a lap because dale jarrett is fitted and then terry labonte will take over the top spot as most all of the machines now make their way down the pit lane for green flag stops at lap number 81 here comes kenny irwin he's in for service terry's coming down pit road kenny irwin almost clobbered the wall trying to come into the pits a lap before that locked the brakes right up black skid marks right up to the wall he didn't quite hit it but that's as close as you can come to hitting it without hitting him there's the skidmarks right there that's what happened to kenny irwin he's headed he headed to the pits couldn't quite make it and had to abort the run here's his second try crew going to work on that texas machine you saw the nascar official counting to make sure they were the correct number of crew members over the wall with a new crew chief this week on that race car ray fox the third is his crew chief that's his fourth crew chief in four rockingham winston cup starts [Applause] so everything is cycled back around now to dale jarrett he will reassume the race lead now at lap number 83 there is dale mark martin led the first three laps mayfield the next three jarrett led lap number eight mayfield led from nine through 27. then jared let again from 28 through 80. rusty wallace led a couple of laps and now dale jared again any surprises ralph the 88 eli did something really kind of interesting on their pit stop when they came in they waited till the very last second all the tires were down off the wall and all sudden todd parrot said pit now pit down they all threw the tires up and honestly went jumped up and ready to go now they put sticker tires on but nothing was said about the vibration eli apparently that story is going away for them well we were in mark martin and jeremy mayfield's pitch ralph and uh they have four tire changes and suggestion adjustments pretty significant adjustment on mayfield thought this car was very loose getting in the corner and tight coming off just an air pressure adjustment on mark martin's car he liked this car pretty much they adjusted it ever so slightly steve hey glenn ward burton was complaining supreme chief tommy baldwin about a push in the center of the turns so they came in put on four tires and the only adjustment they made was they took some air pressure out of the right front tire to help that 22 car turn just a little bit better so there you are up to speed lap 86 on the board right now and the lead is sharon burton running in second mark martin is third sterling marlin up to fourth and rusty wallace's fifth watch this before what dick was telling you about when kenny irwin was trying to come down the pit lane lock him up don't hit anything yeah he almost got it you can hear the rear end chattering where the brake's locked yeah well you want to come in as hot as you can there's no speed limit until you get to right now not that fast though you want to go as quick as you can and keep the car in control until you get to the white line that marks the entrance to pit road just a little bit too hot so pit stops the first round have now been completed no major story lines yet dale jarrett leaves at a racetrack where his dad ned drove his final race back in october of 66. thing they keep going around in circles cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is being brought to you by napa auto parts napa we keep america running and by brewery fresh budweiser official beer of nascar hey race fans this bud's for you welcome back everybody who is the leader going to be at halfway well enter the tnn rev it up sweepstakes you could be a winner tell us who is leading at lap number 197 and you could be one of eight grand prize winners to join us at a nascar winston cup event aired right here on tnn you'll also get a chance to meet and greet either terry lavonny jeff gordon or wally donaldback just go to your local participating advanced auto parts store for an official entry form or send your name age address phone number and the answer to who is leaving it halfway put it all in a postcard and send it to the address you see right there on the screen in southbury connecticut or if you'd like to enter online at country.com and hopefully you'll be able to join us out in the valley of the sun for the nascar winston cup race of phoenix upcoming i'm watching jeff gordon asics and go a lap down right now yeah jeff gordon is backslid to 21st position right now another guy who has also backslid a good bit is tony stewart there in the 20 car tony is running in 22nd glenn what was the deal he he didn't do it seemingly with the problem during the pit stop yeah eli they took a lot of extra time because they made a lot of adjustments to the car tony didn't like the car it was tied in and loose off so they made air pressure adjustments which obviously they did before he got here but they also uh went down around on the left rear spring and they also pulled a spring rubber out of the front of the car and they had a little bit of trouble getting it out and that's the reason that the pit stop took so long that tony lost some extra time yeah i kind of figured something had happened uh unusual for that team look at dale jarrett trying to put a lap on jeff gordon yeah and jeff gordon's he's pulling over in front of him down the straightaway so he can't get by much quicker in the corner of the 88 car but down watch where they come off here you'll see that well he finally made the pass there isn't that something you think back a year ago what was dale jarrett 620 points behind the point leader now he's 246 points ahead of the next man in line that's what we call a swing from one season to the next just look at the numbers here last year average finish for jarrett was seven youtubers eleven this year seven what a great improvement from one season to the next for dale and jeff gordon now a lap down at 22nd position well a few minutes ago tony stewart was a lap down as well he went into the pits they did a long pit stop adjusted the car he blew right on by dale jarrett got his lap back all he needs is a caution now he's right back in it again same thing could happen to gordon don't count gordon out just because he's going lap down we've got 101 laps right now without a caution we have been cautioned free a lot of teams just trying to find where their race car works the best johnny benson being bypassed by the leader we're riding now with bobby labonte all of a sudden back up to seventh spot he's out of one of those rubber band kind of days on the front to the back of snapping back to the front yeah he's right now very conservative and the way he goes through the corners and all and uh looks like he has a very good line if you notice they've been to the top of the racetrack to the bottom of the racetrack places that the car is good right now he told me what he was going to try to do in today's race was to drive the car as straight as possible turn it as little as possible in a method to try to conserve tires as we watch the on-board telemetry from robert presley's jasper car [Applause] [Music] buddy you see him on the brake pedal they're getting in the corner too you used a lot of break here there goes eighth and ninth rudd goes high in the ten hamilton the four earnhardt the three coming through here steve park in the one running in 13th position moments ago and he too is getting ready to pick up the spot mark with a wiggle in that yellow number one car on the bottom the boss is ahead earnhardt owns his race car i'll tell you what the crowd here this week has been sold with dale earnhardt when earnhardt came out to run his qualifying lap i don't think there was a human being in this grandstand that didn't have a fist in the air following that win last week at talladega this guy's popularity you know he's never won most popular but somehow or another there's something wrong there because this guy right now is probably the most popular driver in winston cup speaking there of dave earnhardt to right now sits in 11th with lots of racing yet to go here at rockingham laps on the board dale jarrett is the leader he's ready to put joe nemechek a lap [Music] [Applause] down it's new it's cool it's easy to use it's an internet site that features over 350 000 name brand products children instructions and a place for people who love their car wwe register now proud sponsor of nascar rockets [Applause] wrenching.com some of the folks down in the concourse area here at the rock checking out that freshly squeezed lemonade which goes so well with your top secret popcorn there's dale jarrett not thinking about the concession stand only thinking about that head table at the waldorf come the first friday of december as he is just cruising right now glenn apparently uh we've seen things clear up and ralph you've followed up on the same story apparently uh that vibration for jared has gone bye-bye well i went to check with tom perry crew chief for dale and i said todd i heard you talking about the vibration has it gone away and he just looked at me and smiled and said i hope so buddy what could that vibration have been that would go away might have been related to those tires or something well it could have been it could have been a wheel weight off anything you know a small vibration like that it could be in the drivetrain but a lot of times there's just center tires uh maybe a weight off of the right front or right rear glen what are you hearing on pit road eli i didn't hear a whole lot about what it was the only thing that i do know and we're not supposed to show favoritism but uh my dad is here today he's probably helping spot for dale and you know he has a lot of influence everywhere and he pretty much wheeled that vibration away now we know the rest of the story there is dale jarrett as well as he's running he just continues to mow down this field bill elliot you've not heard him talked about much today there's the mcdonald's machine steve he is back in 42nd and already five laps down yeah i'll tell you how he lost those laps eli he stopped on lap 79 they put the hood up on mcdonald's car because the throttle was sticking and again this isn't a good place to have that happen the team found a small rock in the throttle shaft so kind of appropriate here at rockingham but a bad break from bill elliot oh goodness there is bill elliot you can follow your favorite drivers there on the upper left of the screen nascar timing and scoring brought to you by mci on nets that's from mci worldcom your one connection to the world dale jarrod up front closing in on the 18th place runner wally dollenbach in that red and white number 25 bud car you know it looks so easy for dale jarrett right now but let me take you back one year to this very same race last year the week before dale jarrett left phoenix in a medevac helicopter with a gallbladder problem tough tough situation physically so sick he could barely walk they had to carry him out of the car came back here to rocky him last year for this race did no worse than finished second unbelievable can schrader in again left 117. steve yeah remember he stopped earlier than most of the other cars today i believe it was ralph talking about the problem of the tires feeling over inflated schrader said this time the car feels a lot better the car is just a little bit loose but this is a normal stop for him given the fact that they stopped earlier right he had come in at lap 57 now comes in at lap 117 so steve's indeed right on the money there he is in his own hit window but very much a scheduled stop we're seeing stacy compton come into the pit lane making an early stop he had pitted only a few laps after schroeder did earlier look how much new tires mean look at him just blow by everybody now yeah it looks like the other cars have spark plug wires off when they come off the corner he just rockets down the straightaway here's a good scramble now brothers the brothers side by side bobby on the bottom terry on the top the only set of brothers to win here at rockingham bobby and donny allison i thought terry was going to break out of his slump and win talladega last week but boy got into one of those little jams and broke the oil cooler line on that thing if somebody's got a four-leaf clover send it to these guys they sure needed what a tough year they've had so far terry only one top ten in the last 11 races that was that eighth place in bristol we all remember the finish of that event oh yes and looking at that car just behind those two guys at 36 car 21 times this year they've had crashed cars that they had to repair just remarkable yeah 20 clips they've gone through they've been a tough ride that that team has had a really tough ride today is the 96th time that team will have started the wins the cup race they've got a grand total of one top five to show for it kenny irwin having backslid all the way to 27th spot there you see john andretti he's still in sixth then the last car of the 28 and the 21 elliot sadler also a lap down you saw a quick clips of the wood brothers citgo machine there's 15th spot right there tony stewart well he's starting to show a little bit of muscle now he's picking it up uh he just got by earnhardt on the bottom side of the racetrack right against tony has run here well in the past particularly in the nascar push series could have showed a mighty one without a bush race back here in february of 1998 leading going into the third turn wasn't leaving coming out got a little tap in the back end from matt kenseth and that spoiled his win [Applause] or stewart is running incredibly well you know he's got to be leaning on those tires really hard to try and do what he is doing he after all was a lap down right after that pit stop and he's gone past dale jarrett and uh roll it on he's all the way up to 15 spot at this point he's 15.6 seconds behind the leader and again the bottom line is a zillion horsepower isn't going to help you here you've got to handle well that's what robert yates man dale jarrett is doing right now back in a moment [Music] [Applause] dale jarrett continues to lead and i hope you've had a chance to follow his exploits today with nascar online during the race after the race your 24-hour nascar garage pass and by the way has a special treat buddy baker is going to be joining you online yeah right supposed to be right there after the race you know you'll be able to call in your answers and it'll work out real well you'll be able to discuss the ins and outs of racing here at the rock so buddy who has been a trooper today bothered by the coals the flu and the bad voice he'll be checking things out and don't forget to nascar thunder the all-new and official store of you can hear the nascar thunder open in cities everywhere and for locations and more information just call that number you see on the screen 615-883-7000 that number is operational monday through friday and they'll give you what a great idea with christmas just around the corner now heard my first christmas commercial the other day we haven't even gotten to halloween yet i heard some christmas commercials but you're looking for somebody's special gift who's a big nascar fan remember nascar thunder locations lavonte he's one of the few still on the lead lap he's running in eighth moments ago dale earnhardt won a lap down in the 16th and that's what happened to the racetrack like this or for any racetrack for that matter if you have a guy who's really hooked up and there are no cautions a whole ton of guys are going to go a lap down yeah but jeff gordon's in real trouble right now he's backing up every corner right now he's almost three quarters to right behind again he's already one lap down he's fixing to go two left but ralph as poorly as gordon's doing that's how well bobby labonte's doing yeah eli but not all is well with him he is pushing real bad through the center of the corner the left side tires are not helping him turn the corner right here but he's got time to work on it just think about it the last six races for bobby labonte with whom we're riding he was second in richmond third in new hampshire fifth at dover eighth in martinsville second at charlotte seventh last week at talladega so his worst run has been eighth place in his last six races and this year you know the comparison from one year to the next this year he's only 246 behind dale jarrett last year at this time he was 883 points behind the point leader so he's picked up 630 some odd points from one year to the next you're a brett beaudine fan he has taken his car to the garage area so brett beaudine and the hood only retiree for the moment though the crew as dick says to taking the car back they're going to pop the hood and see what they might be able to do on brett's machine they lost an engine here earlier this week as well in the number 11 paychecks car look at it bobby labonte here he's led all but four races so far this year four wins four poles second in points just one dnf that means only that one race he has failed to finish five is terry labonte the 40 is sterling marlin [Music] looking at that battle from bill elliott's view the 43 is andretti so the 40 the 5 to 43 those three cars in a row all battling for position then the buffer car if you will the bill elliott machine then you've got bobby labonte closing in there goes a battle for fifth terry lobotti in the five his 633rd consecutive nascar winston cup start hasn't missed a race since the end of his rookie season back in 1979 that in its own right is beyond belief for this day and age it's incredible guys getting banged up and what have you yeah his 42nd consecutive start here at rockingham carlovani running on the high side he's got five top 10 finishes in a row in this race won here in 1983 with dale inman as his crew chief won again in 1986 with steve meal as his crew chief having a good run in that yellow number five car terry lavonnie in fifth spot right now riding with bobby lavonte still if you're just joining us no cautions everything has been nice and clean thus far routine pit stops for everybody only team going behind the wall thus far is brett beaudine [Music] watching sterling marlin there in the 40 with bobby labonte closing in that'll be seventh and eighth spot up for grabs [Music] we're also getting close to the next series of pit stops the early fellas guys like kevin lepage who stopped on the front end of the pit window before he is now presenting himself on the pit lane johnny benson pitted just a couple of laps to go at number 26 you see there on the bottom of your screen and that man dale jarrett by 4 and 1 10 seconds continues to lead here at the rock it's a sun-drenched crowd little chill in the air but we're glad you're with us here on tnn welcome back everybody by five and a half seconds dale jarrett continues to lead here at the rock pit stops are taking place but not for those guys rusty wallace in the two mark martin in the six they're staying out there battling for third and fourth spot but over the last few moments kenny wallace has pitted jeff burton michael waltrip daryl waltrip dale earnhardt's been back in jeff gordon has pitted so too ricky rudd we've seen matt kenship make some stops glenn and eli jeff burton has come in right now a little bit early i think for him that this time four tires fueling the chassis adjustment and kenny irwin is coming in right behind him in fact they thought that they might they would in fact they were going to come in on the same lap the crews got together they're printed right beside each other and worked it out to where kenny would wait a lap so uh martin's down in the way irwin on the way in so all of these stops are routine again we have had no cautions today jeffrey beaudine pits robert presley pitch and all the while that man right there dale jared in the 88 continues to be unchallenged thus far if you are a breto dying fan his day is done engine failure is what sent the paychecks car behind the wall and he is done for the afternoon bill elliot is pitting there's kenny irwin in first up and you see those numbers on the pit wall the outside pit wall those are the numbers that thick berger was talking about during the pre-race to help the guys find their pit stalls clint in that circular portion of the pit lane yeah it looks like the graffiti you used to see when you're in college they wrote it all over the walls when they were building stuff but it's definitely a help as we talked about early on those guys need that kenny irwin came in and has moved on out uh he uh the car was pretty good but i didn't understand why he had to fit them because you know he had that problem a while ago he was one of the last cars to fit and i would have thought this would have been about 10 or 12 laps early for kenny but uh evidently he wanted new tires and he's got him he's down in the way uh we're going to see other pit stops from tony stewart mark martin and bobby devonnie here very shortly and again when everybody else pitch they take on those new tires you got to make sure uh you don't go even farther behind what does a race fan do if they're in myrtle beach south carolina one night they're going to be in raleigh north carolina the next night obviously you stop at the racetrack in between lori morgan great to have you with us thank you i'm glad to be here and i guess you are indeed appearing at the fair here in the raleigh area i am i am i came from myrtle beach last night and kind of camped out here and slept and uh until the uh the big race began and i went down and sang the anthem so and you did it well last time we saw you i guess you the daytona 500 a few years ago yes right why don't you look at that fella with that looking contraption on the shoulder there that's bubba dean taking a quick picture how are things going with my heart your new uh your new album everything's going great we're on the my heart tour right now and um and we'll be until the end of the year and then we start the new tour beginning of next year and so everything's going really really good right now watching dale jarrett in the 88 continue on his way we're chatting with vna recording star one of the best in the business lori morgan tell me if if your children if morgan or jesse wanted to go racing would you let them oh yes yeah i think it's important that uh that you kind of back your kids up in what they want to do and and i know it's you know it's kind of a a very scary sport for any parent or loved one that watches but you got to let you got to let people do what what's in their heart if they felt like they needed to do it i'd be out there just rooting them on how about their music background though with you coming from a great uh musical family with your experiences at the opry since you were a child are they inclined in music they are jessie is a great singer and drummer and morgan's a great singer morgan's gone into drama actually she wants to be an actress and uh jessie's in sports and music and he just doesn't know what he wants because he's only 12. yeah yeah well listen buddy baker promises that he's not infectious so for that microphone you're using you should be okay but it's great to have you with us it's my pleasure it's been fun morgan one of the best in the business country music star she was here to sing the national anthem and indeed she performed in myrtle beach last night and she performs at the north carolina state fair in raleigh this evening great to see you thanks for coming by there you see sean andretti he's in sixth what is that flapping there looking a piece of molding let's go down to the andretti pits ralph what is that well eli you know there's braces on these windows that keep them supported in the car and one of those braces on the rear window of the number 43 of john andretti is flapping around loosely on the back side of the car no word yet as to what they're going to do and we're prepared for dale jared to come in probably on the next lap as well the 88 [Music] meanwhile mark martin is in glenn mark comes in he was really complaining about the tires telling jimmy fennick that the tires were gone i was watching jimmy as mark came down pit road jimmy was counting off the pit stalls let mark know for certain how uh just how close he was getting right-side ties are on left sides are going on right now slight chassis adjustment air pressure-wise just a little bit about 18.2 seconds mark is down and away we didn't hear no we did not hear him talk anymore about the brake problem that they had let's go to steve hey thanks when ward burton is in say how good this car is they don't make any changes to the 22 just four tires of gas raft shaheen well the 88 is in dale jarrett the nascar winston cup points leader makes his pit stop the second one of the day for this crew right side tires are just about done they come around to the left sides they will put sticker tires on no more word about that vibration he's been nice and calm about that the only thing todd here kritik has been talking to him about is reminding him to be nice and smooth a nice 17.3 second stop and dale jared is back underway that was the quality care pitch stop that you saw very much at the quality care service you get in your forward and thinking mercury dealers maybe not quite as clear around 4 000 seconds meanwhile the race leader bobby labonte comes onto the pit lane for service back downstairs yeah eli and uh as normal bobby levine's car got a little bit of fuel mileage i don't know that the uh the tire wear was any better but uh he has pulled in now they made some big adjustments on the car last time really seemed to help it out and they are adjusting the car again uh looks like a track bar adjusted that time so they're still working on the handle of that car the problem with doing that in the green flag is that you don't get to do as much as what you would like the car is down and away in 16.5 seconds wow that's a good stop under the gun particularly when they made a chassis adjustment also now dale jarrett reassumes the lead and that is again a battle for position fifth spot right there between the six of martin the two of rusty wallace martin will take fourth wallace is now back to fifth so that's how that settles it let's set it for you showered the leader warren burton second jeff burton third mark martin is fourth rusty is fifth terry labonte comes out now sixth and freddy is seventh dale earnhardt is eighth sterling marlin it's ninth and bobby labonte will cycle around in ten others on the lead lap includes steve park at 11 wally dominak 12 jeremy mayfield 13 14 spot belongs to ricky rudd back to rockingham after these messages cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is being brought to you by the more than 2500 autozone stores across america autozone the best parts and auto parts and by uaw gm assembly line to finish line teamwork wins eli gold buddy baker dick bergeron glenn jarrett ralph shaheen steve burns and dale jarrett who has just had things all his way today is the leader here at the rock also at a pretty darn good pit stop there 17-3 if you're curious whether i gave you the rundown before and told you that dale earnhardt was in the top ten remember that he pitted back at lap 147 pitted early along with some other teams and they made up a good bit of distance that's how he got back on the lead lap if you're curious remember we had talked too much about him losing a lap earlier that's how he picked up all of that uh track position the big loser in that sequence i guess will be tony stewart he was 10 in the lead lap before the pit stop and he is now 16th one lap down so tony stewart turns out to be the big loser in the on track uh situation there by virtue of that pit stop wrapped up moments ago there's ward burton he's running in second he is six tenths of a second behind the race leader 123 races since he last won his last win was in october 95 here always run well at rockingham qualified third in that same race that he ran he won first career bush series race was here as well there you see 20 tony stewart he's a lap down and 15th right now also on the racetrack that is the 30 being driven here this weekend by mike bliss mike bliss right now finds himself in 37th spot three laps down the 55 that's kenny wallace in the 25 gallon back down back is a lap down in 15th position ricky rudd trying to pick his way through traffic the lap actually two laps down now in 17th spot the 50 is ricky craven he's an 18th possession a lap down the 97 that's chad little haven't talked much about him today but chad is in 19th spot a lap down that number nine that's stacy compton and the 31 is mike skinner skinner is 20 at the lap down compton just pitted moments ago he is nine laps back in 42nd 99 that's jeff burton he is your third place runner he is six and seven ten seconds behind dale jarrett again compton and then the two car of rusty wallace rusty is fourth so he and the 99 battling four positions seven seconds behind the leader rusty is on the lead lap there's mark martin he's fifth on the racetrack he's nine seconds back and there's joe nemechek joe not on the lead lap right now went a lap down earlier he's in 36 now three laps behind our leader jared 36 machine jerry nedu he went down a lap early runs himself now in 32nd spot and here comes the lead battle warren burton makes the move and ward takes over the top spot he'll grab it at lap number 178 boy oh boy and he did that right easy he just went right on the bottom of the racetrack right on the white line and just blew by jerry so warren burton who turns 38 years of age tomorrow the most improved driver statistically of this season and as we said before he's the only driver in the top 10 not a member of a multi-car team back in the moments [Music] [Applause] we are back under the first caution flag of the day here at the north carolina speedway teams have made pit stops after rick mast had a problem on the racetrack the crew doesn't know if the car necessarily lost an engine but they are giving it a good look-see there that rick mast entry you see the team woody woodpecker car behind the wall if he is done for the day he will be the second retiree of the afternoon to go along with brett beaudine 12 teams are on the lead lap they've already made their pit stops on lap 180 now we're at lap 181 with all of the teams who are at least a lap down this is what happened to lapago the leader ward dale jarrett rusty wallace very much routine [Music] but again only 12 machines on the lead lap at this stage of the afternoon you know brickmast has lost an engine it's going to be an incredible record he will have lost five engines in a row in this race since having his best ever career winston cup finish here in 1994 when he finished second ralph give us a quick rundown well the 88 eli came in they made no changes they took four tires another solid pit stop a 17.2 the stop just before was a 17.3 so that was pretty strong as well now the 22 of ward burton came in they left the air pressure the same as on the previous stop they had made a slight air pressure adjustment ward liked it they clicked off a 17.8 second stop so whatever air pressure adjustment they're at currently is what he really likes glenn yeah i know we talked about the pit stop rusty wallace made him boy was it a good one he got out ahead of everybody four tires and uh no changes on the car four times the fuel and all the way down at the end of pit road mark martin came back in uh and took on four fresh tires at fuel as well no changes down here either in fact i didn't see anybody at this end make a change on their car other than tires and fuel so that's what's happening on the pit lane rusty wallace has led the most laps here at rockingham of any active driver he's in front again but the king says my guy can get there we're back in a moment motorsports back live with you here at the rock you see tony stewart got a great jump to bypass the race leader rusty wallace in fact was such a good jump nascar's put the black flag out they're gonna have to bring it back in for a stop and go penalty as tony stewart jumped the race start rusty wallace continues as the race leader number two then we've got the 22 of ward burton the 88 she scored already in the pitch now to take his punishment the penalty for having jumped that start there is tony stewart and clint jarrett this is going to be one of the longest rides in the world for a driver we already talked about uh how long it takes to get down pit road you guys have said he was in and he's just now coming into my sight pulls into the pits and he's just as simple as he wants to go he's gone again but uh i'll tell you that is costing here come the leaders by him so he loses more than allow probably about a half and a half until he gets back up to sleep that is tough to take so the stop and goal penalty at lap number 188 that's the battle for third spot dale jarrod who has led much of the day and jeff burton who has not yet led this afternoon there's a lot of clouds around the racetrack right now too you see the racetrack itself until black this is probably not as changeable of a track as charlotte is but any race track with older asphalt will be affected by the by the temperature absolutely and right now uh cars that we're having problems when the sun was out may be just right right now remember the point lead was 246 coming in it's grown a bit as burton makes the move around dale jarrett jeff burton having a really nice run this afternoon in that number 99 car [Music] fifth year last fall in fact he's been fifth three times over the last four fall starts here at rockingham problems for jeffrey beaudine in the number 60 as he gets the power team chevrolet wowed down and look at the damage to the right rear right right rear corner of that car is just really wiped out there so lap 191 looks as though tony stewart and bodine have gotten together and that's where that right rear goodyear got shredded in the process so an unscheduled stop remember jeffrey was eighth here in the spring watch it again yep he did i thought tony got a little piece of him yeah but uh the 60 of beaudine had already started checking up getting in the corner the tire was going flat down the back straightaway i think he got in the wall on the back straightaway the right side of the car is kind of mashed in they were all over him before that happened [Applause] meanwhile while they check over the power team machine remember rick mast went behind the wall earlier and if he does not come back this would be the first race that he would fail to finish all season long let's get an update and eli we're down here with rick mass he is still in the race car they are working feverishly he did not lose a motor he lost an oil line so they're working hard to get the oil line replaced they just changed four tires so they're hoping to keep that streak of dnf of not having a dnf alive will the crew go to work on rick mast's machine meanwhile rusty wallace has ward burton closing in from the rear flank we talked so much about pontiac and how they have been ten times a winner here in the last 23 races why is it buddy baker that at some race tracks a certain manufacturer's car just seems to fit in what they're doing right now handling handling handling they have good downforce sometimes too much to be real contenders at different race tracks but on the handling race track the pontiac is a great car well you really need downforce here at rockingham watching mayfield in the number 12 machine he's running in 10th they'll be halfway next time bye if you're going to enter that tnn sweepstakes and you need to jot down the name of the competitor leading in halfway we'll let you know in just one more elapsed time though it looks as though it's going to be rusty wallace number two says our version of vincent van gogh [Music] the cnn revving up sweepstakes john andretti has been in the picture all day long in that number 43 stp pontiac having a great run this afternoon right now he's in 11th spot good battle again joe nemechek in the 42 not on the lead lap he's in 34th four laps down and finally gives way clear high a lot of that spirit park has done very very well in this one car all day long this car right there you've got yourself basically a dozen teams on the lead lap that's all and park is one of those rick mast is coming back out of the garage he'll find himself 21 laps down now sixth place the brothers are battling bobby labonte in the 18 terry lobotti in the five that is sixth place off the gas not being able to apply the power all at one time puts a lot of pressure on the driver you really have to pay attention here they do use the brakes going in the corner a lot of throttle control in the turns themselves a lot of precision on that gas pedal to make sure they don't burn the tires off but still get the maximum possible amount of speed out of the car of course you know we don't talk that much today about terry labonte but he is one of those rockingham masters because he's finished eighth or better in seven of the last eight races here so some guys have just managed to master the racetrack terry labonte is one of those but the number two is the man everybody's watching right now rusty wallace took the lead at lap 182 we are now 20 laps further down the road and he continues to lead here at the right cnn motorsports back with you here at the rock the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 just past the halfway point you're riding with a man who is now in third jeff burton looking at his brother ward just ahead of him in the number 22 machine deja vu of las vegas where the brothers burton battled to the bitter end ward's car is starting to move around a lot like the back end of the car is not getting a good grip and getting in the corner 208 laps on the board [Music] you talked about ward turning 38 tomorrow his crew chief tommy baldwin turns 33 on wednesday i reminded him of that in the garage where he looked at his watch and said he hadn't even made out his birthday list i guess turning 33 you're pretty old you know you try to forget him at that point would you shut up actually birthdays are good as long as they keep coming yes you're doing well at this point you're right this is a good battle between the brothers burton second place half a second behind rusty wallace the leader and look at the different lines again hanging on right now i think jeff is a lot quicker but he just can't make the move on the inside those of you have been with us in the beginning you know this storyline but for those of you folks who might now just be tuning in we have seen guys use every inch of this racetrack today some on the apron some up against the walls some in the middle groove whatever works for you has been the way to get it done here today a lot of winners at rockingham over the years that are in the field here today of course you want to add to that list 11 wins for richard petty and seven wins for k.o yarborough and five for david pearson and four for bobby allison and there have been some great winners here over the years but uh this field is chock full of guys who have chiseled a piece of the rock for themselves and the sun is uh gone behind the uh it's back on the racetrack and you see dale jarrett coming back to the front again again for those of you just tuning in that is buddy baker no it's the frog but he's been fighting it cold and stuff over the last few days and we're glad he's able to work with us today and not feeling all that spiffy there goes that second place finally jeff got a good running start on his brother and just out dove ward into the corner and that blue thing right there is coming like a train right now it's good battle ralph looks like dale jarrett's back to second now he is on his way and todd parrott is on his way down the ladder to talk to me about it todd is of course a creature and buddy baker made an astute observation that when the clouds cover the sun dale seems to drop back when he comes back out he comes right to the front is that how your car is set up yeah i think our car is set up more for a long run situation and um still early in the race just halfway and you know no sense of getting too racy just yet we've led some laps and that's the things we need to do and um we'll just keep tweaking on a little bit i'm sure this racetrack is gonna change throughout the day so we just gotta keep working on it he said it's too early to get too racy at what point is this race will you really start to push hard probably uh after our last pit stop you'll see us get more aggressive with it okay there you have it thoughts from todd parrott dale jarrod now has led 149 laps today they've run 215 and there again is the magic number regardless of what bobby lavonte does well this is the way to win a championship running up front week after week after week dj last week second in talladega here he is this week well on his way to leading the most laps there is rusty wallace with 49 career nascar winston cup wins [Applause] looking for that number 50. he'd love to grab it today here in rockingham cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is being brought to you by the home depot the official home improvement warehouse of nascar and by midas go safely go midas how about that for the battle for the lead here at rockingham rusty's got it jeff burton wants it couldn't make it go he drew even you saw him there going into the corner thought he had the jump spotter just told rusty pick a lower line try downstairs see if he can hold him off that way this has not been a vintage year for rusty disappointing except for his bristol win every other stat this year regretfully is down from a year ago only six top fives this year he had 13 a year ago points position is eighth now fourth a year ago oh and watch this folks moments ago you want to be the meat and the sandwich watch what happened a few seconds ago when kyle petty found himself coming off the corner with company all around him watch this watch kyle petty right here that car right in the middle here ricky running on the bottom joe nemechek on top he got a piece of both of them as they squeezed and there was no room left hey not bad two camera angles are the same deal huh and eliot sandler right behind getting on those binders in a hurry to slow down as you see ricky rudd now remember ricky is already a lap down in 22nd and yes time is running out but remember he's got phoenix where he's done well as you see burton now make the move around rusty wallace and grab the lead and jarrod right there moving in on both of them so the new leader has rusty leads from 182 to 225 is now jeff burton i just pull right back over and let rusty go about that thanks for the five points got his five-point lead and rusty or his five-point bonus and rusty reassumes the top spot at lap 227 but now he's got dale jarrett behind him yeah he's already got his five-point bonus remember though rusty won both races here in 93 won the february race in 94. five wins in total here he wants that 50th win so bad rusty wallace does he he started talking about that in the middle of last year he wanted to get the 50th win for nascar's 50th anniversary celebration got just one last year got one this year as well in bristol he bad wants to win another one and you know he really deserves it because no team puts more into their racing than rusty does in his group they really go at this race car it's a it's a serious serious adventure for them they use streaker the name of the car here in february but they're using the car now that they debuted charlotte a few weeks ago which is called pc10 they just don't name their cars so they can get it to victory lane they probably would have used streaker if they could have used streaker but streaker got demolished at pocono that was the end of that game napa bringing you the nascar timing and scoring run down on the upper left of your screen so you'll know how everybody is running and exactly where your favorite is terry labonte dropping back from 6th to 12th in the span of the last 30 laps or so steve what's cooking there well he said his car has gotten bad loose the chevy of terry lavonny you know you've heard glenn and ralph and myself talk about teams experimenting with dropping air pressure and jerry says he doesn't like the way this set of tires feels so again he's just gotten bad loose in the five cars and again here's a guy who has led 100 or more laps here six times in his career he led as many as 198 one time here back in 1996 so again he has the feel for rockingham he also i guess knows when the feel isn't quite right 41 you see derek cope in the kodiak machine he's in 30th three laps behind the race leader rusty wallace so you got gotta think too that ricky rudd with phoenix flat and slip as it gets in the desert homestead basically flat and slick as it gets in deep south florida ricky ruxin a couple of really significant shots to keep that streak going yeah and he's done so well in the miles as well and you know phoenix is a mile this place is a mile it has 20 career wins to today eight have been on tracks that have been a mile in length five on road courses tracks like this cracks like phoenix coming up those are ricky rudd's very best i saw sterling marlon in the number 40 running in the eighth spot dale earnhardt in the three they're sterling again bobby hamilton you know hamilton and mayfield a couple of guys who won last year who haven't yet won this year and they're both in the lead lap now we're at lap 234 chad little making a pit stop [Music] while rusty wallace leaves and you get a look at the main grandstand here at the north carolina speedway in rockingham hey let me ask you a question are you a hardcore motorsports fan well if you are then you'll want to enter the tnn motorsports hardcore heat sweepstakes you could be one of 50 first prize winners of a sega dreamcast tnn motorsports hardcore heat game or the grand prize winner of a sega dreamcast game console and a tnn motorsports hardcore heat game all you have to do is enter via the internet by following the official online entry form instructions available at country.com or send your name age your complete address and phone number with area code on a 557 postcard for the address you see there on your screen tnn motorsports cnn station post office box 3582 south berry connecticut 06488 all entries must be received by midnight eastern time november 21st 1999. big wiggle by rusty wallace they are coming through the turn didn't come close to losing it but the back end of that car is not nearly as glued down to the racetrack as it might have been and you know as the laps begin to wind out here these guys are certainly going to be thinking about this same race back in 1998 last year they were in the lead with 10 laps to go rusty stayed on the bottom his tires went away he stayed down wound up third or in 96 when they tried a two-tire stop in this race in contention to win it backfired he finished at eighth spot but he's not on the bottom today no he's not he's all over this racetrack today he's doing a great job of picking the line that that car is happiest at [Applause] moments ago terry lavonnie went a lap down he was the 12th place winner so now only 11 remain on the lead left steve park is the last man on the lead lap the number one car he's seven and a half seconds behind the leader rusty wallace see what happens here in traffic nemechek the 42 he's 34th four laps down there's dj on the bottom trying to follow front row joe if he can 23 jimmy spencer jimmy's in 22nd two laps down oh three wide good thing he didn't see that replay of kyle petty a lot of giving tank there yeah a lot of take by rusty a lot of give by the two cars he was passing you got it and you're not gonna win this race at lap 245 you gotta be around at lap 393. you know when a guy gets dialed in though today if you happen to hit it like a shower like a rusty now if you get on your game you're tough to handle though you don't just you don't stay there all day it seems oh jared been darn close all day pit stops kyle petty is in he'll come in about 246. if you're a kyle fan scheduled stop for him he was last in about 153 14th spot oh the children's cars are side by side dale earnhardt the three mike skinner the 31 here comes the 28 kenny irwin that's all for position 14 15th and 16th as you ride with kenny irwin skinner has come from so deep in the field started 38 spot in that number 31 card robert presley in 32nd four laps down and for the lead can jarrett go yup rusty goes up the banking that's all it took dale jarrett takes over the lead lap 249 when he comes back to the strike [Music] one little i don't even want to say bobble there's one little move and the guy's going to jump on it well the tires are getting tired too now they like yeah and that's got to have something to do with it because the behavior of these race cars will change a good bit as the tires begin to go away lots of little granite and marble chunks in this racetrack and they they literally just chew away at the surface of the tire i mean goodyear's got a terrific tire here but if you ever went out on this racetrack and get on your hands and knees and looked at it and wonder how any tire could possibly survive at these incredible speeds they're running right now around 130 839 miles an hour going through the corners you just it's like sandpaper working on them and you know glenn you got to be impressed your brother showed some patience there he wasn't going to force the issue he was going to wait for something to happen no you're exactly right eli he can see what was happening to rusty's car the further into the tire run or the fuel run that they go the tighter rusty's car became it was burning that fuel load off the back end and so therefore it changed the handling on the car just like you were talking about dick and that's what he was waiting on and finally rusty's car pushed way up the racetrack and dale was able to go under him uh we should be seeing pitstop for the next 10 to 15 laps or so so they'll get a chance to to fill them up put fresh rubber on it and start all over again what do you got steve we're glad rusty wallace's problem is he's gotten just a little bit tight in the center of the corners when they make their next stop plan they're going to put a half a pound of air back in the right rear tire so again another one of the teams experimenting or adjusting the car rather with air pressure and you saw rusty's car kind of skate off the corner a short while ago johnny benson is pitting matt kensith is in michael waltrip makes a pit stop so does ken schrader but everybody now leaves their cruz to do the next bit of work pit stop time is upon us as the tnn crew bring you the pictures from the rock there is dale jarrett continues to lead by a second over rusty wallace by two seconds over ward burton and by five seconds over jeff burton we're in the thick of pit stops right now [Music] rusty wallace has just had a conversation with his crew he says the left front tire on that car he's now in second spot rusty wallace says the left front tire on that car is going away bad he says there's a good chance they're going to have to short pit it meaning that number two car in second spot may have to pit well before they'd like to well before the leader because of tire problems and again once the other guys come in for tires and they really just take off on you you can start losing a lot of additional distance on the racetrack watch rusty robert presley is in elliot sadler pits jerry naview comes in for service we're at lap 259 and if you're just tuning in only one caution rick mast lost an oil line lap 179 made repairs came back 21 laps later brett beaudine with engine failure the only retiree he's gone to the garage that has been it only the one caution and the one retiree [Music] a little bit of damage on the left front corner of that two car also is not as aerodynamic as it ought to be you see a little depth right there on the left front corner i'm not sure how much damage that's done but it couldn't help he's been in a good bit of traffic for much of the day run up front much of the day running a very aggressive race and obviously connected with someone lap 261 if you're a robert presley fan he'll be coming back in he was a bit too quick leaving the pit lane and he's coming in for a stop and go penalty steve park is in you saw dale jarrett peel off here comes rusty wallace right behind him it'll make jeff burton the race leader as ward burton will pit as well so jeff burton now leads here comes bobby lopani let's go back to the pitch dale jared comes in the 88 he has been talking about the car being just a little bit tight they were talking about whether or not they would make a wedge adjustment or an air pressure adjustment no working on the wedge so apparently they're going to go with the air pressure adjustment on the 88 steam well rusty wallace just made his stop and they also made a chassis adjustment to the right rear of that car route we talked about air pressure but they also made a chassis adjustment let's go to glen jarrett and we're down here the uh they're waiting on the 99 bobby labonte is in right now jeff burton was supposed to pit last lap and he came by he went by pit road he didn't get slowed down in time bobby labonte took four tires and fuel and made a chance he's just with the right hand now burton finally gets in here uh he burned her he said he wore the right front out pretty pretty bad on the car the car was real good early on in that run but now they're going to try to tighten the car up just a little bit just a little bit loose at the end of that run and he has down it away what a great pit stop they just keep getting quicker and quicker every week so all the stops now cycling back on around boy once dale jarrett decided he was going to pit everybody decided they were going to follow him rusty wallace had been anxious to pit the instant dale jarrett headed down pit road rusty followed and so did just about everybody else who was on the lead lap so rusty is the race leader again at lap 264. handed over the lead to jared and then jeff burton but now reassumes it ward burton is second let's set it for you dale jared is third jeff burton fourth and bobby lavonte fifth sterling marlin is up to six now john andretti seventh mark martin came off pit road in eighth ahead of jeremy mayfield bobby hamilton and steve park that's the position they're in on the racetrack those 11 drivers are still the only ones on the lead lap out of the 43 starters now take a look two seconds from the two of rusty wallace back to the 22 of ward burton that is first to second place 2.09 seconds ward burton one win four top tens here in ten winston cup starts remember he finished last year in february of a year ago a couple of years ago now had that early accident lap number 95 so he like a lot of fellas have had ups and downs here dale jarrett three and six ten seconds behind rusty wallace [Music] now for the time being as we look on the race track for the time being terry lavonte has unlapped himself so 12 cars now on the lead lap if you're a terry lobotti fan he is ahead of the number two meanwhile glenn mark martin comes out in eighth spot what's the deal there well they lost a little time on their pit stop eli i watched it at the very end of it i didn't think it was that bad but now mark he was getting ready to come back down pit rod he thought that the right front was going down but uh jimmy fanny told him to be patient let him press the bill back up in it and he should get a little better i've been watching him race uh jeremy mayfield he's been able to stay ahead of him and he's actually pulling away so uh they did make some chassis adjustments in the car it had gotten very loose and evidently it was just a different feel than mark had been used to all day and it took him a little while to get used to it so uh a moment of panic there the guys were up on the wall with right side tires but now they settle down looks like things are back to normal so that's the latest from down on the pit lane as you look at mark martin he and warren burton the only drivers to record their very first career winston cup wins here at rockingham talking to ward today he says he attacks rockingham that's the way he drives the place and he learned from mark martin he learned from steve meal pulls a bit of a lower gear than some of the other fellows does what does that do to a race car buddy when you pull the lower gear as ward likes to do well it just means it does not turn as many rpms when it's low gear or should i back up and apparently buddy's mic now has gone bye-bye so we'll get back to uh buddy on top of uh on top of that we'll hear from him in just a moment or so you heard the clunk and then the microphone went by so uh we'll get back and talk about lower gearing for you in just a minute the leader is rusty wallace there you see him you see the five we told you terry labonte had gotten back on the tail end of the lead lap fans are looking on back to the rock in a moment there a couple of good friends of racing kicks brooks and the reverend ronnie dunn as they like to call them come to the races all the time they've got those legends cars they run over the national speedway usa good to see what's running down and the music available to you okay we talked about low and high gear yes we were talking about the ward burton pulling a different gear than many of the other fellows here at the right if you have a load here that means it turns up high rpm's down the straightaway that means you can ease out the corner and then accelerate really quick down the straightaway safe tires too because you don't run as hard in the corner rusty wallace has that margin now on ward burt remember it was two seconds a while ago folks now it's only that margin there half a second maybe he's in 12 car lengths he's been just having a tough tough time trying to get past the 20 car tony stewart this has been going on lap after lap after lap rusty just can't seem to get him miner used up his tires i wonder well rusty almost crashed just a little while ago trying to go buy the 20th tony stewart off the uh back straight away over there tony come right up in front of him and they almost hit the wall together let's let burton close right in on ward burton just right on his back bumper and look at those numbers right there ward's the quickest nascar timing and scoring upper left of your screen brought to you by mci on net it is your one connection to the world state park fixing to go a lap down he fought a a real hard battle today just better with the leaders depends oil number one he's running in 11. this isn't over yet not by a long shot rusty's not got him yet there you see fellas who had first wins here we've talked about it most recently in the last couple of decades mark martin and ward burton you saw donnie as well going back to the 60s and there goes steve park gave it a great fight the 11th place man now a lap down only 10 remain on the lead lap burton has just run a terrific race that he's been second twice so far this year both times to his brother vegas and darlington been second wouldn't he love to pop off a win today for his car order bill davis and himself here he on the comes watch the two car when he starts down off the corner here he'll pull right away ward did lead a lap earlier he led lap 178 and picked up his five bonus points this is what we always talk about when folks always say well yeah it's it's one thing to capture one thing to pass this is everything right here in capsule form around kevin lepage the number 16. this is one of the really fun things about rocking him i mean this is a racetrack where if a guy's got a good race car and he's smart he's got a good crew chief and a good spotter and he can put all that together he can pass a lot of race cars witness all the people that started deep in the field earlier today that got themselves up toward the front watch what's going on here with ward burton and rusty wallace it's a real team racetrack everybody pulling together to make it happen well i gotta tell you mark martin's less than a straightaway of going a lot down right now these guys are mowing down from great race cars still plenty of racing though you see 107 laps to go [Applause] only one caution today rick mast lost an oil line at lap 179 returned 21 laps later and brett beaudine is the only guy in the garage engine failure put the paychecks machine out for the day [Applause] cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is being brought to you by pontiac who invites you to visit tnnracing.com to register for an online chat with tony stewart welcome back to the rock the north carolina speedway it opened in the fall of 1965 became the fifth super speedway to get a permanent spot on the nascar winston cup schedule and rusty wallace is happy it did because as you look from ted musgrave forward towards rusty wallace you see rusty is the man who now has his moment of the spotlight he's gotten the car dialed in and you know when rusty is good this year think about it he's 11 races including today of the previous 10 races five times he has let the most lap so when he gets good he gets real good oh yeah and he's real good today but what he needs to do is close and that's what they're working on for sure well he's got a good car today he's able to go up high down low anywhere he wants to go inside of a hundred laps remaining you know i was talking about mark martin he's just two cars right now looking back you can see rusty wallace right behind the 20 car there moving in on mark martin to put him a lap down mark running in tenth rusty has been dogging that number 20 of tony stewart for much of this tire run he just hasn't been able to get by him until this moment and tony stewart is already a couple of laps down in 18th position look at this he's going to lap mark martin on the outside on the outside of rockingham unheard of mark martin who won yesterday in the bush series race it was his 10th career bush series win here at rockingham going down a lap so 10th place now a lap down only nine on the lead lap and the man in length right now is jeremy mayfield you can see mark get absolutely no traction when he gets up to come off the corners his car is off just a little bit hey ralph we're getting a report that somebody got banged up down in schrader's pit when he came in for a stop a while ago what's the deal there oh that's rear tire changer jason anders uh jason slipped on some fuel eli as he came running around the back side of the car so the fuel is spilled onto the ground and he slipped on the surface went down and banged up a finger pretty good so car owner andy petry who used to go over the wall when he was just a crew chief and a crew member will go back to chasing tires he's going to take care of the front tires and alan whittaker is going to move back to the rear that's the update down there on the pit lane next year andy petry is going to go back to being a crew chief as well sammy johns who has been the crew chief in the number 33 all year is going elsewhere and petrie's going to take the job back over himself there you see ken schrader in the 33 machine meanwhile up front the two rusty wallace around matt kenseth and the 17 and still being hounded by tony stewart jeremy mayfield oh problems in the wall ricky there you see ricky craven ricky craven as caution is on the speedway second time today lap number 300 so ricky craven tags the wall in turn two he had such a good run going earlier this day ricky craven in the midwest trucking entry just can't seem to get a break now glenn what does this mean fuel wise for the folks who are just joining us we've got at this point 80 let's see now 87 laps to go roughly can the guys go that distance uh i think so eli they've been running about 80 82 laps most of most of the elite cars have and the reason they've been pitting at that time is they figured it out that's the interval they needed to fit for tires depending on how long this caution is and when they go back to actual green flag running i believe that that most of them will have enough fuel to make it it's going to be close it's going to be fun to watch if it does do that then the guys whose cars are set up for the long runs will absolutely have the advantage there if there are no more cautions because that will be the longest run that they've made all day and of course at this very moment there are 92 laps to go but when they come in and make their stop it'll be 91 and they'll run around under caution for a couple of three laps and that's how we came up with the number of roughly 87 laps of green flag racing barring any uh further cautions so the stops now being made lapped 302 wallace ward burke dale jarrett in that order steve and earl barbara the jack fan gets the right side of the car up in the air no chassis adjustments on the number two car four tires and gas for rusty wallace ralph shaheen a clean windshield along with four tires now they're going to take a half a pound out of the right run for dale jared the race leader and points leader at least at this point and he is down and away and we just pulled out in another fantastic pit stop 16.5 they changed four times the fuel made a very slight air pressure adjustment they talked about doing a track bar adjustment they decided not to do that so a great pit stop for jeff burton back up to eli that pit stop clock brought to you by quality care service the same kind you can get at your ford and lincoln mercury dealer so we are under caution only the second time today do the teams have enough fuel that's the question on everybody's mind we're back in a moment that graphic says it all top secret microwave popcorn 400 and it's been popping here today a lot of action here in the final few moments of this event one lap away from going back to green and ralph that'll mean about 88 laps if we don't have any more caution from here to the finish eli it's going to be very tight but i've spoken to both tommy following the crew chief for ward burton on the 22 and to uh todd paracrucci for dale jarrett and they both say that they can go all the way on fuel and tires from here but it's going to be awfully awfully close steve well ralph i just talked to robin pemberton rusty wallace's crew chief and just put the question to him robin can you make it the rest of the way on cass and he said yeah we can make it on gas it's the tires that bother me it's the end of the race if it stays green it's going to be quite a struggle for the drivers glenn jarrett exactly the same thing that was told to me down here by jeff burton's crew steve that they had no problems with fuel it was tires they were worried about i went and asked jimmy my car with uh crew chief for bobby labonte exactly the same word so they all know that they can make it on fuel tires are the big problems i guarantee you for the first 30 40 laps of this run you're going to be hearing crew chiefs admonishing their drivers take care of your tires we've got to go to the end of the race so let's see who can and [Music] mark martin's chance to get back on the lead lap if he can get by to 22. that shot brought to you by midas go safely go midas another of the midas wall cams [Music] saw the speeds flickering up there on the jugs gun readout tommy hamilton almost ate that camera he came off the corner so high ward burton rusty wallace jeff burke that's your front three dale jared fourth bobby labonte is fifth sixth the sterling marlin seventh jeremy mayfield john andretti is eighth bobby hamilton ninth tenth is mark martin steve park is running in 11. jeff gordon now in 12th not on the lead left remember only nine teams are on the lead lap back to andretti but the 24 haven't talked much about him today he was way behind but the rainbow warriors gave him a great bit of pit service and got him closer to the front now running in 13th the lap down is jeff gordon only mike bliss and brett beaudine in the garage and watch this scramble right here jeff burton for second [Music] [Applause] jeff burton he's been strong all day eli you're absolutely right i was just going to say that myself he has run a beautiful race and that car has been tough lap after lap after lap you know in the spring here well february i guess that wasn't really the spring in february here jeff burton won the bush series race mark martin won the winston cup race yesterday mark won the bush series race and i was talking with burton this morning in his trailer and he thought it'd be only fair if he won here today makes sense to me yeah he has five top fives in the last eight races here jeff burton does better top five percentage than anybody else in today's race in fact still looking to win here though so the brothers burton are first and second right now ward ahead of jeff well rusty's hanging right in there though he's not letting him have an inch on this deal so much for conserving tires we saw the leaders go around ricky craven and jared now moving in at just about uh eight or ten laps and here he comes after a restart the car is really good on long runs the longer they run the better that 88 goes for sure yeah i know you did i want i wanted i want to underline that make sure nobody missed that because that has really been the story of the day he's been so good on the green flag situations when they put four tires on that car dj is real careful he doesn't abuse him but as the race wears on he gets faster [Applause] remember the teams on the lead lap are the two burton brothers ward and jeff then rusty in third then bobby labonte in fourth then mayfield fifth sterling marlin sixth and freddy [Music] jarrett you see right there trying to find the opening he's in fourth place [Music] ricky craven has just pulled back into the pit area again well i'll tell you what it's tough to get a spot here look at the way these two cars are almost evenly matched right now that is third and fourth up for grabs jared with whom we're running and rusty wallace jarrett's never won a winston cup race here at rockingham rusty has won more than anybody else in today's race five times let's get her in the 31 he's running an 18 spot not on the lead lap [Music] jared has put him away take your time show some patience get the job done so jared is up the third behind the brothers burton who you see in the distance ward is the race leader he's got 2 and 3 10 seconds on his brother jeff and bert has 3 and 8 10 seconds on jared [Music] that is never a good scene particularly if you're a dale earnhardt fan we are under caution lap number 322 an accident back stretch wally dahlenbach and dale earnhardt the cars involved at lap number 321 there you see wally throwing out the uh looks like a soft drink or a drink canister of sorts as we are under caution here at the rock let's take a look at exactly what happened this came off turn two under the back stretch well there it is earnhardt tagged the wall coming out of the corner yeah the outside wall yeah then wally got hit from behind as he checked up and the fellas behind him didn't oh erner just nailed the wall coming out [Music] america's heart dale obviously okay but uh caution mark martin did get his lap back pit road is closed at this moment as they bring an ambulance around to check on the guys dale earnhardt now apparently will not finish this race so we'll have a couple of dnfs in 1999 previous to today he finished uh 41st here at rockingham back in february remember he had that accident and he was in 40th place in atlanta when handling problems put the good reds machine behind the wall so i'm waving the crowd last week's winner not gonna finish today he gave that wall a pretty good lick oh yeah there it is right there i mean he took a chunk out of that concrete in the uh and they see the metal bars there and all look out went uh up the wall there too it tried to climb the outside wall and remember too about ten laps earlier watch what happened here went way wide and then came down he and dj got into it so now they're going to open the pit road for lead lap cars how does jr roads on the right of your screen the public relations representative for dale earnhardt walking with his driver making sure he's okay and the pit stops are going to be made if the leaders choose to come in as one expects they would that lapped 325. [Music] that word did a little fake he didn't drop down instantly but he's coming down and so is everybody else on the lead lap so here they come lap 324 of 393 ralph it's yours well dale jarrett is planning on making a small change as far as pike they're going to take a little bit of bite out of the car they're dealing with the cloud cover the 22 is going to stay exactly the way they are with their setup they're very happy with it clinton and i'm down at jeff burton they have had fantastic pit work today his car is also a little tight wrap so they're going to take a round of bite out of the left rear there was a lot of discussion about where they were going to do it finally decided on the left rear right sides are uh on left sides down and once again [Music] 15.8 seconds another fantastic pit stop steve we're playing the two car had the same exact strategy they took a round out of the left rear four tires remember the last stop they didn't make any changes except to change the tires this time a more aggressive move one round out of the left rear of the number two car so you have all the action on the pit lane dale earnhardt wally darlenbach and jerry nadu all going to the garage as we work the third caution of the day on tnn motorsports we're back in a [Music] moment welcome back everybody reminder about wrench head.com the ultimate online automotive superstore it's available to you now it's the only site you need for all of your automotive repair maintenance and performance parts why not visit them today at www.branchhead.com under caution after dale earnhardt wally dahlenbach had their problem on the back stretch rusty wallace running in third let's see if we can chat with them a moment rusty wallace at stickberg ready tnn do you hear us well not clear how's your race car today yeah thank you come on back how was that race car today rusty the race car has been real good to the last set of dollars it got real all bound up and just couldn't get these i'm glad we got your caution what's the best line for your car today it's pretty well on the bottom it's a fast way and we thank rusty obviously a little uh little loose connection okay thanks good luck i don't know if there was a loose connection rather all the radio transmissions going on in and around the area might well have uh kind of nulled things down but we got the basics there a little uh set up in that tire that he didn't really like it up a little bit yeah and he likes the bottom as well it's a fast way around the racetrack if the car will work there if the track will accommodate it certainly you use a lot less distance there roger penske the captain he's here owns the rusty wallace and jeremy mayfield cars rusty's in third mayfields and seven hey if you're a jeff gordon fan you see jeff right there and that is he trying to get back on the lead level he is going to start inside of jeff burton he is the first driver a lap down in 11th spot we've seen this before he gets a lot back late and comes on to win let's see ready get ready [Music] 63 laps to go [Music] certainly no one wants to let jeff gordon back on the lead lap if they can possibly avoid doing that because this guy is a threat absolutely a threat in every race he enters now the blue and yellow machine right behind kenny wallace he is not on the lead lap but he is a lap down in 12th so he's chasing jeff gordon for position well boy these two cars right here are that's that's ward burton right now moving up with rusty wallace kenny wallace who you had mentioned has had just a terrific run the last few weeks he's got four career top fives two of them in his last three starts and very disappointed in his qualifying run the starter motor locked up they couldn't turn the engine over on that car so he had to start deep in the field but running well now meanwhile steve is with dale earnhardt downstairs hey dale first of all you hit the wall awfully hard are you okay and it looks like you're gonna try and get the car back in well it'd be worth three points i think beat the 25 up so i'm not sure i'm gonna do that i got the 28 and i got hooked up i think his bumpers stuck into my bumper and when i was trying to turn himself it just wouldn't go so we knocked the wall a ton but it was really suffering all day the way the car was handling anyway so i hate to be out i wanted to finish but we're just having a tough day anyway maybe we go go get him at phoenix dale earnhardt he did hit the wall a ton now again the 99 is the leader the 24 jeff gordon trying to get back on the lead left the 22 the cat car that's ward burton jeff's older brother who is now running in second then rusty's right behind in third jerry nadew is coming back out of the garage he'll be 13 laps down after being involved in the aftermath of that accident before rusty wallace on the bottom looking for seconds forward burton just outside him so gordon stays a lap down that's the battle for second [Music] burton mci world comp your one-stop connection to the world giving you those nascar timing and scoring updates you see burton and wallace then another wallace and a skinner now mike skinner in the 31 not on the lead lap he's a lap down in 17th again the 55 kenny wallace a lap down at 12. and notice again see how bright it is see how many times today the sun has come and gone i mean it has been a crew chief's nightmare in that regard first it's cloudy that it's right and it's halfway between the two then you don't know what to set up for now again it gets cloudy that quickly [Music] and brilliant sunshine yet again it's been that kind of a day and the nice thing about that kind of a day is if your car is handling poorly just wait a half a lap it'll handle better [Music] kind of like the weather up in your neck of the woods 55 laps to go jeff burton hoping he can pull off the win but tommy baldwin says my guy's not done battling yet there is the race leader jeff burton as we welcome you back to the rocket and motorsports is with you eli gold dick bergman buddy baker ralph shaheen steve burns glenn sharron the whole crew on hand jeff burton having things his way [Music] just taking the lead and pulling away there you see the 88 dale jarrett he has just picked up five more bonus points he will lead the most laps today and as you know or if you're new to the sport get five bonus points if you lead a lap five additional if you leave the most laps so right now 246 markers between jarrett and bobby lovani that was the havilan point recap brought to you by texaco a world of energy riding with dale jarrett right now [Applause] most recently rusty wallace led from laps 264 to lap 302 then roy burton led 303 through 325 jeff bert took over at 3 26. as you see the scramble there for third all of a sudden bobby labonte bringing his pontiac back into the picture labonte reminds me a little bit of daryl waltrip these days where year after year race after race you wouldn't see daryl walter till the end of the event that all of a sudden here he is and that's what we're seeing right now bobby labonte has just sort of hovered around this group stayed on the lead lap now it's getting close to checkered flag time here he comes pearson used to do that too a lot he'd look up and say where'd he come from and glenn all of a sudden here comes bobby labonte yeah they've been working on that car on every pit stop they've made some sort of chassis adjustment usually a track bar or some wedge out of the car bobby says the car is still a little bit pushy but it's not too bad which can tell me that rusty wallace's car still has a tight problem because he just can't seem to hold up bobby off he's rusty bobby's running pretty hard and uh i don't think that rusty's going to be able to hold him off but bobby has a started out with the car not so good they've worked on it all day and made a pretty good race car out of it they have been a great race car out of it you see jeff gordon up on the high side being bypassed by others gordon is still now a couple of laps down rather one lap down in 11th spot but drop it back on the leader he's got uh the car just is not good enough to be able to take that lead lap back again no change there in that battle for third still rusty wallace in the two bobby labonte in the 18. looks like bobby's trying a little bit more here comes jared looks like bobby's trying to back up his dive into the corner each time to see where he has to start if he can get off that banking and keep the car wound up yeah i will look in the mirror because the ada card dale jarrett figured it out he's really on the move right now probably bonnie's second in points right now [Music] and his third here in the spring february led 22 laps of that event [Music] not had great runs here his best finish ever in the october race is sixth and you've got two pontiacs in the top four right now pontiac's got six wins already this year more wins for pontiac than any other year in the 90s except 93 when rusty won 10 races and pontiac had 11 wins overall ray smith and fred simmons and the rest of the guys in pontiac have done a terrific job keeping good cars in the camp and working with their teams to make sure that they've got the best of everything and they've got some terrific cars and this is one of them right here bobby labonte the 18 with four wins for pontiac this year john andretti tony stewart each with one and there goes rusty he'll lose third spot maybe they even lose fourth yeah [Music] [Applause] it's so hard at the end of the race when you run up front like that to watch other people passing it [Applause] but all the while that man jeff burton continues to leave five super speedway wins already this year that's the most for anybody and his crew chief frankie stoddard they're leading at the rock near the finish welcome back everybody no change in the running order jeff burton ward burton bobby labonte and dale jarrett that's your top four rusty wallace back in fifth mark martin six sterling marlins seventh and john andretti jeremy mayfield bobby hamilton those ten battling amongst those on the lead lap everybody else at least a lot down there you see ward burton going around michael waltrip michael running in 26. not been a great track for michael is here remember back in the uh spring race or the february event ran the last hundred laps without breaks and not what's in a handful and a half for this place and kept going kept going yeah demonstration of either courage or well he finished 20th that day michael did he's going to run a marathon believe it or not michael's getting ready to run a marathon in south carolina in december sometime he's running 20 to 30 miles a week to prepare for that thing oh i thought you'd go two blocks long oh no michael's 26 miles he is 85 yards i'm telling you this guy's a terrific athlete he really really is and so long overdue to win gee everybody thought he was maybe going to win talladega i thought he had it last night oh yeah that engine blew up it just what a heartbreaker meanwhile rusty wallace is mired in fifth now seven and a half seconds behind the leader there you see rusty in the number two working around mike skinner who's a couple of laps down and 17. steve what's the deal all of a sudden he's up front now he's seven seconds nearly eight seconds back yep he's dropping back eli we just heard him radio in to crew chief robin pemberton and he said the car is too loose right now we need wedge back in the car if you remember on the last pit stop they took a round out of the left rear so i guess they went the wrong direction [Music] tough way to have to find it out now with less than 30 laps to go in the race here at rockingham [Music] needs a pit stop if you're just clicking in brett beaudine mike bliss dale earnhardt wally dollenbach the four drivers in the garage they have had three cautions rick mast lost an oil line back at lap 179. ricky craven tagged the wall of lap 300 and then dale earnhardt the wall lap 321 after he said he was hooked with the bumper of kenny irwin wally dahlenbach was there jerry nader hosting guys getting together i was at last number 321 and that's been the story of the carson's thus far look at the 36 if he's going by here he's got absolutely no hood on the car and he's keeping up with all these cars so much for aerodynamics right there after going into the pits coming out 13 laps later [Music] hendrick motorsports terrific ride for him that's 15th spot on your screen couple laps down steve park and terry labonte but they are battling for possession 15th and 16th well park better work hard get himself all warmed up right now because his ride home is a harley davidson he is going to be chilly he and several of these guys rode their bikes from charlotte gear that's a little over two hours on a motorcycle and they're gonna ride on home and they don't have the electric gloves or the electric suits tough guys tougher than me i'll tell you mine's in the well we're garage to take care of another little bit of business and we'll come back we'll stay with you right on through the finish to see whether jeff burton can pick up the wind yeah there's a bunch of hot air in the area but that one is the balloon from the bass pro shops we're back in a moment cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 is being brought to you by napa auto parts napa we keep america running and by ford outfitters no boundaries it was the fall of 1995 ward burton inherited the lead here at rockingham after dale earnhardt was forced back into the pitch to check for a missing luck nut burton held on to grab his only nascar winston cup win here at the rock if he's going to duplicate that today he's going to pick up about a second and a 10th bypass his brother jeff but ward is beginning to close in on his brother it was one and a half seconds and 1.3 now 1.1 there you see jeff burton and ward now is second and a tenth behind jeff has never finished better than third here he was third in february of 97 here at the rock there's jeff's wife tim all bundled up against the chill of the day crew is telling him you're doing fine jeff burton just be smooth be smooth remember in february here jeff burton led the most laps but he finished fourth the pit stop cost him the race maybe this place ocean one he was fifth year last november and we mentioned third back in february of 97 has always finished he never has failed to finish a race here at the rock in his nascar winston cup career you gotta wonder what's going on in board burton's mind now having finished twice to his brother already this year here he is in second spot race winding down gosh he definitely wants to win one of these things it's now 1 in 4 10 seconds so this last time by jeff burton picks up some distance on his brother ward there it is 1 in 4 10 seconds ralph do they think they have anything left for jeff down there well let's find out we got tommy baldwin right here the crew chief tom you got anything left for jefferson i can't hear what you said but uh you know i'm real proud of all these guys on this 22 team they worked their tails off here long all year long and uh you know that 99 got a good jump on us and i restart there i was going to real limit a little bit but i don't know if we're gonna have enough time well he didn't hear me but he got it right he sure did ward burton only one top five finish in the 10 previous visits he's made here to rockingham that was as we showed you on that vignette a short moment or so ago when he won here in october of 95. [Music] and tommy baldwin was not the crew chief that day if ward could win this should be tommy's very first ever winston cup victory as a current chief it'll be 10 laps to go next time bye and ward will be one in 3 10 seconds behind we saw mayfield just in your picture there the number 12 car there he goes a lap down that'll be the ninth place man being left jeff burton absolutely on a mission driving flawlessly at the end of this race he knows it's his to win no mistakes no caution flags it's gonna be tough for his brother to get him now glenn what's the tension level like down there well it's uh it's pretty hectic in fact frankie just jumped down from the toolbox and ran down to the other end and he says right now you don't want to talk to me he's talking jeff through every lap but what he did he went down and talked to the guys in the 12 crew that was the car that that jeff burton was going to lap next and he is talking to jeff almost all the way around the racetrack just been asking a lot of questions about how close ward's been getting to him so frankie declines to talk right now because he wants to talk to his driver well the driver's brother is now within one in 310 seconds you saw the differential there in this the 124th race since ward's last win is only one here at the rock yeah and heavy traffic right in front of our race leader right now with just a few laps to go around chad little there's second place one and two tenth seconds you see that countdown only eight laps to go [Music] and they're side by side right in front of jeff burton park in the one kevin lepage in the 16. of course once jeff gets through this traffic that's the same deal ward's gonna have to deal with exactly right [Music] fighting with jeff burton [Music] good clean entry out of that corner there you could hear the car really getting good forward bike in a turn three that's what this morning he said he needed was a little bit more bite they've got that fight dialed into the race car now it'll be five laps to go problems for matt kenseth and turns three and four as he is showing some smoke behind his automobile but he gets out of everybody's way there's kenseth taking to the apron of the racetrack in the dewalt tools entry rear end problem but he gets away and out of harm's way and we stay green [Music] talking to the spotter trying to persuade the spotter to run down to the number one car steve park ask him to move out of the way let the leader go kim burton worried looking on i don't think there's any wife out there who telegraps her emotions more than has kim burton over the years dating back to that very first win and right on through now and wins are coming with a more plentiful rate yeah you can see why ward is closing in quite quite quickly right now oh yeah they're both in the same picture four to go brother against brother as they close in here at rockingham matt kenseth takes his car to the garage but all the attention is on the brothers burton [Music] three miles to go eight tenths of a second to make up jeff burton looking for his sixth career win of 1999 sixth win of the year shall i say all on super speedways [Music] look at this look how close they are now with just two left to go it would be jeff burton's first rockingham win and the 11th victory of his career frank started in the background looking in every direction kim says i can't sit she said go go go white flag [Music] warren is closing in but in three quarters of a mile can he get there around kenny wallace two within a car length and a half up the banking goes jeff burton but ward is not gonna be able to get there out of turn four to the stripe give the checkers again to jeff burton by carly lanes over his brother ward bobby labonte crosses third then jared fourth rusty wallace stiff let's go to glen he's in the middle of that celebration somewhere i'm gonna climb up here and get a word with frankie snyder he's still talking driver jeff burton boy is a lot closer than you hoped but what a good car you had at the end of the race frankie well i'll tell you what i want a driver you know what a crew some guys uh i got us out in front right there at the end i'm glad that they let me still change tires you know if i don't do it next year that might have been my final glory uh what a great stop there at the end to beat the 22 out you know tommy baldwin does a great job in ward and uh you know those guys ran great today i don't know how we won this race uh we we were junk at the beginning of the race we've made so many changes on the car this is this is the greatest race we've ever won as far as making as many adjustments we never had a good enough guy to win and somehow we worked it out the guys just did a great job and jeff burton uh wow what a job exci batteries ford taurus everything great it was great it was a great car as i said they worked on it all day and did a fantastic job got it right at the right time and our congratulations to ward burton as well his sixth top five of the year his 16th top 10 finish of 19.99 [Music] the brothers burton gave us our money's worth today we're back victory lane next cnn motorsports live coverage of the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 has been brought to you by havilland formula 3 motor oil add more life to your car and by ac delco automotive parts if you're not asking for it you're asking for it [Music] come on down here man what a great job you guys did getting you in and out of the pits all day long and adjusting on that race car i know it wasn't what you wanted to first but boy that was right at the end let me tell you something this xxi ford was a lap car it was a lap car frank and everybody kept working on this thing and uh i had i mean we were a lab car literally and they kept working and working and working and they finally got this thing to where it would run and i just so proud of them i mean that's that's a never quit attitude right there goodyear tires were awesome today and it's pretty special when one of our sponsors one of our sponsors race that's always neat well it was neat well you got another sponsor there too with the with uh frozen coca-cola got the family in here with him jeff we saw a lot of guys including yourself uh at various times during the race today having to go to the very top on the very bottom trying to dig it around anywhere you could to find a group at the end there what worked best for you well the middle worked best for me up high i was too loose uh in the middle was i was better you know i just can't believe we won this race i hate it for water i really do i know that's a heartbreaker for him uh you know one day he's gonna turn this thing around he's gonna start kicking my butt but uh i really do hate it for him they had a great race car you know everybody says in the fun racing your brother well it's no fun you know having to beat your brother it's no fun at all and i i know they're disappointed but they did a hell of a job too well they did not you talk about heartbreaker turn her around here and introduce us to her what a good-looking little girl this is the boss of the house well actually my wife's the boss and then then my daughter and then jack that's kind of my that's kind of the way i work it's the hierarchy what about the dinosaur here what's his name i don't know what the dinosaur's name is she's probably just happy to still have it well we're gonna let them go celebrate they're throwing popcorn everywhere i tell you they worked awfully hard congratulations to jeff and all his crew they did a great job 25th different driver to win at rockingham over the years and the 13th ford win of 99. look what happened after the race jeff pulls over he and ward exchange a quick pleasantry but indeed it's going to be tough for ward third time he has finished second in 99 and all when his brother has won las vegas the southern 500 at darlington and ralph now today here at rockingham wow it's unbelievable isn't it eli i mean three times ward second and all to your brother uh what did you say when you when you guys when he stopped alongside you there on peer road i didn't say anything this time made me mad the other two didn't bother me as much but i was actually and still am just mad you know i don't even want to say how i feel right now but main thing is my caterpillar team keeps giving me better cars every week and uh they did it again today pit stops awesome motor awesome got the car better as we went had a lap car uh trying to get the lap back and it got him about 200 yards in front of me a few more laps would have got it but we just ran out of time you talk about being mad it's a competitive kind of mat isn't it and can you describe what what kind of a a competitive man that is for those of us that don't compete as athletes not only is he my brother but i've finished twice three times i mean we we want to win a race and hey i don't expect him anybody else to give it to us it's just just the circumstances um obviously not mad at him his team's been doing a great job for him and he's been with that team for a while but somebody won these days we're gonna turn around one of these funny you should say that because that's exactly what he said down in victory lane he figures you're going to be taking him pretty good here pretty soon what would you say is the one thing that's keeping this team from uncorking a big streak of four or five wins maybe nothing nothing i mean it's just circumstances uh i mean we could go back over this whole race from start to finish and i don't know what we'd do different uh it's just circumstances the car was a car good enough to win the race uh we just ran out of time there's nothing you could do over i'm not looking back um if we don't want to race this year we've got a winning season i'm i'm really happy for caterpillar and siemens and mountain dew mbna and all their sponsors and eliza you know this team is all staying together tommy baldwin is resigned and ward's not going anywhere so i think they're right but with their determination they're going to hit on this thing and once they do i think jeff's right look out yeah we'll be talking to them in victory lane there's no doubt about that so the cat team takes the war wagon back to the garage we've got some more coming up from rockingham there's your unofficial top ten the full rundown when we come back welcome back everybody the fans filing out here at the rock they saw quite a battle today the brothers burton jeff defeating ward with bobby labotti and dale jarrett rounding out the top four fifth place going to rusty wallace we are in there somewhere that's that new tower they built a few uh a couple of years ago now here at rockingham to accommodate the overflow media the luxury sweeps and so on meanwhile down in the garage area steve burns caught up with mark martin well mark sixth place finished today tell us about your day here at rockingham you had a great weekend overall we really did and we had a good run today we had a couple of problems and actually overcame them and still wound up finishing six so um probably you know probably couldn't have done a lot better than that if we hadn't had trouble so i guess it's a good day for the valvoline team we had a crew member get injured on pit road and we had several other glitch ups i uh slid through my pits on a green flag stop so you know it was just one of those days uh we had a couple of problems but it sure could have been worse and we had a pretty good race car we just uh we chased some stuff around today and didn't uh we were pretty strong there at the end but we had to come from way behind to you know come from 10th to 6th is all we could do mark you said uh made it public that you're going to have back surgery as soon as a season is over and i know you don't like people to feel sorry for you but how do you feel in the race car towards the end of the season and i feel good in the race car it's just the rest of it that isn't as much fun you know it doesn't bother me in the car at all thank you mark you're welcome mark martin down in the garage area with steve burns as jeff burton picks up the victory here today and our unofficial tallies glenn uh show your brother still with a 246 point lead leaving rockingham yeah eli that's what uh that's the way i figured it because he uh he got the five point bonus for leading the most laps and bobby labonte led a lap so for a couple of laps so it all washed out to uh to no difference here today dale your car was good early on i heard you saying that uh that you made an adjustment there at the end that uh evidently backfired on you but yeah you know you can only do what you think is right for the car and uh we just weren't very good on new tires we were willing to give that up but i thought i could make it a little bit better on the longer run and and we talked and it wasn't a lot of adjustment but it was enough that it just hurt the cars between that and maybe that set of tires uh just didn't stick the tires that i had on this right before that uh i was ready to go i had the car just what i thought would be perfect and we had about 85 laps or something there uh if we would have run to the end and that's just what i was looking for to try to make a run at them but all in all it turned out good you look at the big picture we did what we needed to do speaking of the big picture by our tally 19 is now the magic number you finish 19th or better in the final three races and if you lead one of those races that magic number goes up to 20 and so only a few more to go yeah we're gaining on it uh this is getting uh closer for us and a lot more exciting uh uh times for us uh these guys i hope are enjoying it and uh you know we've got three good races left for us we got a week off and we'll go to homestead and test and uh get ready for there so uh we just do our job uh things are in good shape but we have to make sure that we do that everybody including yourself seems to be handling the pressure of all this really well well yeah there's a certain amount of pressure but uh you know our guys i think are more excited than they are looking at the pressure uh they're just excited about the prospects of us winning a championship the hard work and the efforts that they've put forth uh you know not only this year but uh the three previous years and uh you know it'd be well deserved for these guys and certainly for robert yates so uh i think we're more excited than nervous well they're exciting guys i'll tell you what i'm nervous you know what i think is is a luxury to them fellas is the fact that even if the wheels came off the wagon even though they finished dead last and bobby levante won a race they'd still leave that racetrack at this stage of the season with the point lead that's a that's a pleasant luxury to have it's got to be wonderful to be in that position you know that dale jarrett everybody out there says they want him to win a championship he deserves one he's the type of driver that will represent our sport in the right way so there you see the numbers heading down the final stretch with phoenix and homestead and atlanta yet to go a good look at the rock back in the moment hey folks phoenix international raceway still has tickets available for the big weekend of racing november 5th 6th and 7th the featherlite southwest tour of nascar the inaugural appearance of the nascar push series for the outback steakhouse 200 and the 12th visit to the desert mile for the nascar winston cup series and the checker auto parts duralube 500 tickets are available just give the folks at phoenix international raceway a call you see the phone number right there give me yell because they are standing by for your phone call right now if you'd like or certainly any day leading up to their big race weekend november 5 6 and 7 out in the valley of the sun beautiful setting there adjacent to the estrella mountains phoenix international raceway ralph shaheen down in the garage bobby labani and eli we're just sitting here discussing points and so forth so i mean you had a great day but unfortunately don't pick up a whole lot of points right no not really but uh you know you know dale's great driver here i mean this is he's running so good here for so many years in the aids team and todd and all the guys they do i mean they've got great race cars week in and week out and this is one of the better racetracks so uh you know unless something happens you know we're just uh you know we're really just racing for position on the racetrack and points just keep trickling up and down but uh not making much change but the interstate batteries pontiac jimmy makar all the guys did a great job today we didn't have a third place car for the most today and we came on better at the end and could not run with jeff or ward on the after we went back to green but uh kind of even out with him there after about 20 laps was it one particular thing that you changed at the end that really made the difference in how the car performed well yes and no i mean we we adjusted on it throughout the day and we put it back where we had it the second stop and then we made some more adjustments after that we just dropped the track bar down just a little bit uh we had it up a couple times we had it back down a couple times and one time down wasn't good one time up wasn't good so uh we just kind of made one shot at it put a pound of air in the one of the tires and it seemed like that was a little bit better he told me just before here that you just come in from phoenix before this weekend have you been out there testing and are you ready for the upcoming race yeah we went out there uh last week and test a little bit and uh that's not one of my better race tracks either so i figured we'd go out there and see what we could do and they got a little different tire so i think i hope it helps us out we've uh you know seemed like we ran pretty decent out there this time so last time we just weren't we just didn't hit on anything so uh we're basically on vacation i think so this time i think if we get everything right we'll hopefully be a lot more more competitive okay bobby thanks a lot for sticking around eli hi guys thank you very much and a good job for bobby labonte coming home in third now as the fans file out time for us to bring you the autozone tech fact brought to you by the more than 2500 autozone stores across america autozone the best parts and auto parts here's glenn thanks eli and uh the fans may wonder why we waited until now to do this because i ain't going to stand out here on pit road during the race and get run over i got a few more years left what we're going to talk about here today is all the lines that are on pit road all the way down pit road from start to finish see this line here now you look all the way down there's another line there you can see my spotter through my camera that's jeff props he's at the next line all right there's a red line on the pit wall coordinating with these white lines what these are for are timing lines these are the lines that nascar uses to time the cars on pit road so they can time them from any one of these lines these lines are 150 feet apart speed or pit road speed is 45 miles per hour here at rockingham they have a conversion chart up there so they can time a car from any point to another as long as they're between these lines anywhere up and down pit road that's how they catch these guys for speeding now we saw it a couple of times in the bush race yesterday and particularly now that they have lengthened this road here the pit road at rockingham it's one of the longest that we see anywhere we go it's awfully tough to maintain your patience and your composure all the way down this thing to try to keep the car going the right speed and if you don't nascar will check your time from line to line and they'll nail you and have you come back in and visit with them and that's not what you want to do and we thank glenn jarrett for today's autozone tech fact and that's how they keep up with the speed limit on the pit lane jeff burton wins [Music] the pop secret microwave popcorn 400 more from rockingham when we come right [Music] back it just looks so natural welcome back to rockingham everybody glad you're with us as jeff burton enjoys the spoils of victory with the win here today in the pop secret 400. don't forget coming up next weekend the nascar bush series drivers will be in memphis tennessee and of course their season winding downs let's find out together who rocks on towards championship it is the sam's town 250 next sunday a week from the day at 1 o'clock eastern 10 a.m pacific time right here on tnn motorsports buddy and myself and uh larry mcreynolds going to be here glen jarrett the whole crew i had a chance to visit the memphis motorsports park the other day i was up there for another assignment and went over to see the uh the three-quarter mile oval that's a nice little racetrack oh you were out there cha-ching no no no i wasn't pulling the handle i was there for uh nhra winston drag racing event they're right next door at the drag strip there you see the full rundown let's take you back so you know where your favorite drivers came home today good run for sterling and for john andretti both rushing from 25th to 5th hamilton 35th to a top 10 finish terry labonte knocking on the door for a while but then went a lap down and comes home in 14th ricky rudd gonna have to try again to keep that streak of his going tough day for kenny schroeder finishing in 30th spot jeffrey beaudine had his problems daryl waltrip lost a number of laps then the fellas who were involved in accidents dale earnhardt not have good runs here at rockingham this year or ricky craven another tough finish way in the back of the field and brett beaudine the first retiree with an engine problem sending him to the garage now what happens at this stage of the day when the race is done and the fans are pretty well gone the chassis dyno rolls out and this is a device that nascar began bringing into the races a couple of years ago to try and find out who had a better engine than whoever else might be running in the race right now they got ward burton's car up there all the top five cars except the winning car which is still in victory lane are lined up to go on this thing you look at the back wheels of the car they're going to fire it up and underneath the back wheels they can determine the horsepower that is produced right to the ground uh this is better than an engine dyno an engine dyno they have to take the motor completely out of the car in order to do that here the power has to go through the clutch the transmission the rear end the rear axles before they actually measure it so this is the absolute best way to measure the amount of power any one of these cars is putting on the ground why is nascar interested they don't want to have anybody have an undue advantage either aerodynamically or horsepower-wise yeah and it's got rollers right there right in front of the wheels there that turn and actually tell you and also this fan right here keeps it just like the air is blowing down on the racetrack now that'll keep the engine cool so it doesn't overheat while all this is going on so the chassis dino rolling out front and center here in the nascar winston cup garage we're coming back we'll visit with others i think rusty's going to be with us when we come back as well we are back here at the rock the fans filing out and the race winners car now being pushed back towards the inspection station jeff burton gets the win mark martin at himself a good run we heard from mark earlier brought car number six home in six spot let's hear from jimmy fenig who calls the shots for that valvoline team ralph well eli uh just this past weekend nascar released a press release saying that they have okayed the body for the new torus for year 2000 and jimmy roush racing had a lot to do with the downforce body that was going to be built for the 2000 taurus what do you think do you like what you've got are you going to be happy with it well it's kind of early to tell you know we uh we kind of built a prototype uh model over at roush racing um so far everything looks okay it looks like we ain't gonna lose nothing it probably about the same as what we got right now but uh you got a different look a different front end and a different rear fascia but right now everything looks okay we don't look like we're gonna be any worse but um looks good right now eli the teams are just waiting on the last few templates before they can start building bodies it was penske racing that actually did the speedway prototype and then yates racing consulted with both rash and penske and there is uh jack who's down there you heard the uh chassis dino in the background just uh roaring as the caterpillar machine was put through its paces and a lot of the team owners and interested onlookers check out on those numbers and how about a round of applause for jack roush there have been four winston our four winston cup and bush races here this year total he won all four of them indeed so a few minutes ago steve burns chatted with rusty wallace let's uh revisit that conversation rusty wallace finished fifth today rusty on the last stop we heard you guys made a chassis adjustment uh tell us about the change did it help it looked like it hurts well what happened was the car was really good all day long i mean fantastic and i'm so proud of the car the team to have a car that could get me just driving from 25th to first it was that dominant today and everything was going great and then all of a sudden we changed tires we went back out and a car was just not handling nothing like it has been all day long so because of that we were kind of thinking the temperature was changing so we took some wedge out of it at the very end of the race and when he put another set of towers back on it we found out that set of tires just wasn't green with everything else in the car got real loose at the end and i just had to save it and bring it home fifth rusty i don't think people understand how difficult it is to win a race these days i mean you've been gunning for your 50th but gosh it's just everything has to be just right to win it really does and i got to tell you i really thought that i had it today uh when a car was that dominant when you qualify as bad as i did and we've been qualifying pretty good this year but qualified bad and got from actually drove from 25th up to the lead and led the halfway bonus and got all that money and and led a lot of laps i really thought the day was a day i thought we had our 50th victory today for myself the team mr penske all our sponsors everybody and then you get uh you changed tires and it went nuts on me and so then you find yourself chasing that but it does make you wonder if it's weather if it's tires or track conditions or what it is but whatever happened when i put the last set back on it was back okay but that adjustment we made in the chassis is what kayode thanks for your time thanks a lot rusty wallace says each other with steve burns and there's uh jeff burton's daughter playing with a little the popcorn in victory lane here at rockingham when you win the whole family enjoys when you don't you suffer together today is jeff burton's chance to smile [Music] welcome back everybody up atop the roof of the rock the north carolina speedway hey get ready for a full week of motorsports coming up before too much longer there's critical points races as you know in nascar winston cup the nascar bush series and the pennzoil world of outlaws plus there's all kind of racing specials throughout the week the fourth annual tnn salute to motorsports it starts on monday november the 1st check it out it's all right here on tnn i hope you can make your plans to tune in because we have got a bunch of racing coming your way here down the final stretch doing a little calculation here for dale jarrett to clinch the championship after phoenix to do it after the next race he would have to leave phoenix with a 371 point lead over over bobby labonte which would mean he'd have to pick up an additional 126 at phoenix not likely to see the title wrap up in the valley of the sun no in fact almost certainly it's not going to happen but dj by the same token has had just a terrific year today was his 22nd top five just five times out of the top ten incredible a lot of the interviews you'll see on your local news and the pictures you see in the paper being shot right now down in victory lane all the different sponsors getting their moment in the sun as they change the hats atop uh jeff burton and what's been really a beautiful day here at rockingham a little bit of a chill in the air but nevertheless the fans saw themselves some fine racing so again the magic number for dale jared is now 19th or better if he finishes 19th or better in all the remaining races regardless of what bobby labonte does the nascar winston cup championship will be his coming up next we've got more coverage for you on the east coast nascar garage she'll be coming up right here on tnn and those of you on the west coast race day is coming your way so wherever you are across this great country of ours we've got more racing goings on nascar garage on the east coast and race day coming your way live on the west coast right here on cnn motorsports next weekend we will be gathering in memphis tennessee that's the next stop for the nascar bush series only a few races left in their battle for the 1999 nascar bush series championship the sam's town 250 that is next sunday 1 eastern 10 a.m pacific right here on tnn motorsports buddy and i'll be there along with larry mcreynolds glenn jarrett and buddy glad you hung with it because your voice got better as the day went i know you don't feel all that great but it's been great having you on board today as always well thank you guys for having me up here i'll tell you i never realized what it means to have a voice even as bad as mine is when you lose it man you did just finally we'll see you in memphis next weekend and the doctor we'll see you in a couple of weeks out in phoenix arizona looking forward to it that like this is a fun place always a lot of fun we had a lot of fun today a little beating and banging to spice things up but that's racing dale earnhardt tagged the wall there climbed out okay but climbed out to a 40th place finish but conversely it was jeff burton who climbed out to the cheers of his wife kim and picked up yet another win on the nascar winston cup series uh thank you again to buddy baker and dick ferguson and for the guys in the pits on the garage steve burns ralph shaheen glenn tower job well done we'll talk to you next weekend from memphis for nascar bush series racing sunday at 1. i'm eli gold fitting you so long from rockingham

Channel: SMIFF TV

Views: 3,215

Rating: 4.875 out of 5

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Id: ELT6YjrQd_g

Length: 196min 0sec (11760 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021