2000 Coca-Cola 600 Charlotte Motor Speedway: Classic NASCAR Full Race Replay | NASCAR Cup Series

let's go topside here's Allen Bestwick Kent thank you welcome to Charlotte we're looking forward to bringing you an absolutely terrific race tonight you know the two thousand ask our Winston Cup season has been terrific so far because of two things parity and unpredictability take a look at the championship standings after the first 11 races of the season just 78 points separate the entire top five only 201 points all the way back to ninth place Jeff Gordon ten different winners in 11 races you just never know who's going to wind up in victory lane and that's certainly the case tonight joining me for our call of the coca-cola 600 a man who knows well what it takes to get the job done here 1968 1972 and again in 1973 Buddy Baker a little tired they're put in victory lane celebrating a win in the longest race on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series buddy pleasure to have you with us 600 miles how does it affect the drivers how does it affect the cars well they tell me that a picture is worth a thousand words and you can see I was spent let me tell you when you get down to that last hundred miles that form-fit seat all of a sudden don't fit so good your arms begin to get tired the sweat runs into your eyes and you thank God to be able to have a chance to win the longest race that we run all year long and you go after it but let me tell you you're a wimp up when it's over buddy appreciate you being with us look forward to a great race tonight also joining me for the call the executive editor of Speedway Illustrated magazine dr. dick Berggren dick glad to have you with us the talk for the last five days here in Charlotte's been about one guy there are 43 drivers in tonight's race but the spotlight has shown most brightly on 25 year-old Winston Cup rookie Dale Earnhardt jr. and why not already this year he has won two-point races last Saturday night at this very racetrack he won the Winston he won the pole for tonight's race he even won the hour last night all week long every time the crowd has seen Earnhardt they have absolutely gone berserk a rookie one of the favorites tonight may be the favorite tonight the cars are beginning to roll off let's go down to pit road for more of the stories in tonight's coca-cola 600 here's Marty Snyder Pilon if Dale Earnhardt jr. is the hottest young driver on the circuit Jerry Nadeau is not far behind he won two races last week he's qualified on the outside pole today and tonight he has perhaps his best ever shot at a win but the 600 is an endurance race a test of stamina and your equipment they do has had problems all year long getting the results that he deserved bottom line and they don't beat themselves Jerry Nadeau and his team might find their way into the top 10 by the end of the night and just maybe into Victory Lane - Mike hog would I'm in the pit of John Andretti he's gonna try his best to make it to the first caution flag tonight he has a crack plate livvie is in terrible pain it happened last Saturday night in the Winston of all-star race he injured him further in practice yesterday standing by here in the pits is Busch Series driver Tim Fedewa he has told me yes he will be getting in the car at the first caution flag today it's been five years since he's had a Winston Cup ride now to Mike Massaro while all the talk this weekend seems to be about Dale Earnhardt jr. but let's not forget about his father the seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champ made his debut 25 years ago this weekend and again is a strong contender to win he has since made 46 stars here he was 7th past isn't happy on our last night he has a brand new paint scheme he doesn't really care for it though but he wouldn't mind putting it in victory lane 43 drivers set to go in the coca-cola 600 let's take a look at the starting lineup Dale Earnhardt jr. is on pole for tonight's race the only two top winners so far in the NASCAR Winston Cup season Jerry Nadeau seeking his first win outside of row one he'll start there row number 2 Bill Elliott seeking his first win since 1994 and Jeremy Mayfield the winner in California earlier in the month of May row number 3 Mike Skinner finished third here last race at Charlotte last October and Kevin LePage from Vermont at one of his best racetracks row number fours the current point leader Bobby Labonte at alongside the body the Winston Cup champion from 99 Dale Jarrett row number five is Tony Stewart last to fourth in 1999 in this race and Kenny Wallace trying to turn around a tough luckier bow number six Jimmy Spencer alongside Michael Waltrip the all-star race winner here in 96 row sevens Bobby Hamilton alongside Jeff Gordon a 3-time coca-cola 600 winner row number eight Dale Earnhardt the seven-time Winston Cup champ and Rusty Wallace who's finished second and two over the last three 600 row number nine is John Andretti who you just heard will give way to Tim feet away in this race and Steve Park could win number one come tonight row number 10 Mark Martin always a favorite of three-time Charlotte winner and Ricky Rudd who makes his 48 Charlotte start row number 11 as Matt Kenseth the Rookie of the Year leader and Ricky Craven making justice pit start in 2000 row 12 Rick mast in the AJ Foyt car alongside Robert Pressley the thirteenth row fretful ride at Winston Cup rookie Scott Pruett the fourteenth row is Joe Nemechek at the defending 600 winner Jeff Berkey in row 15 Geoffrey Bodine makes his second start of the season alongside rookie Dave Blaney the 16th row is Ward Burton just three points behind Bobby Labonte in the championship alongside Wally Dallenbach the 17th row is Kenny Irwin and former Charlotte winner Ken Schrader row number 18 five times six hundred winner Darrell Waltrip and a ride they bought earlier this week and Marlon terry labonte got his best finish of the season at Richmond a few weeks ago he's alongside Chad little in row 19 the 20th row Johnny Benson and rookie Stacy Compton Elliott Sadler had a top-ten car in happy hour yesterday he's alongside PJ Jones starting in place of Robby Gordon and bringing up the rear of the field would be Mike Bliss in his Pontiac starting 43rd now the visa race analysis we're gonna go 400 laps is 600 miles on a mile and a half quad oval hole speed 186 bo3 for a new record hit Windows 65 to 70 laps they'll be in four tires and fuel the old coming down just about to complete the second of their parade and pace laps and look at the weather conditions in that bottom line there's the one that could have an effect on the race there are thunderstorms in the area there are thunderstorms forecast for later tonight and I suspect the crew chiefs are going to get a little bit antsy around the halfway point of this race watching the skies got a great lineup of onboard cameras for you on CBS tonight Ward Burton will take us along he starts in 31st position we'll ride with the defending 600 winner Jeff Burton starting back in 28th he'll also be on board with Mark Martin you see him strapped into the office and ready to go to work and the three times 600 winner Jeff Gordon who starts 14th Tony Stewart one of the drivers eligible for the million dollar bonus he has a camera for us tonight as does his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bobby the body who starts seventh the ride with Bill Elliott from inside of roll number two the Georgian always a fan favorite and the man who starts on pole will also give us a ride tonight Dale Earnhardt jr. missed her headline over the last 10 days of Winston Cup competition here in Charlotte so the field half a lap away from the green buddy driver's thoughts now before they start a 600 mile race or what well they're going back and forth across the racetrack right now getting all the excess rubber off the tires that they pick up going around here slow also right now into the pit crew telling them what they want to know as far as though everything's checking out all pressure water temperature all that Tony Eury is crew chief right they're getting the information time we can see the pit crew ready for the race to get get underway spotters up top ready to do their job as we get set to go in a three million dollar event 400 laps 600 miles the 41st running of the coca-cola 600 some 175,000 fans on their feet as we come down for the start [Music] Dale Earnhardt jr. gets the jump on Nadeau he leads in the turn one down the 1360 foot back straightaway 8590 it's about you can see Terry Naidu's car moving up as bill Albin makes a run at me Eliot going for second spot as they complete lap number one Dale jr. leads Elliot is second they knew his third mate Bo takes fourth ahead of Mike Skinner who spit strong breeze here at the speedway has blown a good bit of paper on to the racetrack that could get caught in somebody's radiators Skinner after Mayfield for Fort spot there's still side-by-side that's a good part of the early part of this race so it's in good shape you can run side by side and make it very competitive now we did have some rain earlier today that was it enough to wash the rubber off the track and make this a really green surface buddy what that did was just clean the surface get the excess oils off but it still has the rubber in it still watching the race for fourth Mike Skinner down low Jeremy Mayfield up high Skinner's car not carrying its usual paint scheme carrying one of the military designs this weekend diving down to the low side gets a good run as it gets back at the throttle if they come off turn four it looks like Skinner has his mine not by much Skinner has never won a Winston Cup points race he has a car that nearly won earlier maybe tonight's his night they learned Hart jr. leads you see Bill Elliott in second closing quickly on his back bumper earlier today told me like the star Ray Evernham it it's going to move to the dog racing team all right he's got a great crew and a very fast car she gets well soon a long time since bill Elliott's won a NASCAR Winston Cup race and there's a long time to go in tonight's but they certainly feel like they have a machine capable of winning see the front screen opened up a little bit of daylight on 4th place now mostly because Nadeau and Skinner race side by side therefore that couple of laps Iran Oh sporty Tony Eury Jr said he wasn't sure that fast at the beginning they were really setting the fire up more for the end of the race the beginning so far so good Owens been able to really even gonna jump blowing around I kind of tell you something that could be a problem these cars they tape the front of the Taurus up it didn't see on the front of these cars to get down for if you get a food wrapper on the front [Music] like Dale Junior's car already has picked up a little piece of trash right underneath the Chevrolet bow-tie symbol by Coughlin what about it from Dale Junior's bid L del Junior has been very quiet on the radio he just came on at the moment ago and said to three words actually guys it's good that's not good news for the competition that's for sure well that's good but they lemon is probably telling his true exactly the same thing rot on the bottom of the racetrack and back in the pack here they're getting at it Geoffrey Bodine has lost a couple of positions here in this last lap the race in here for 32nd and 33rd position Jeff Burton down low and bow tied up top Jeffrey's been working out if he makes it through this race it's by far the longest he will have gone we've worked it out trying to get himself in shape told me this morning you think she's up for it he can go all the way down Jeffrey that's all I can say right there he went down at the corner it's a good thing Jeff Burton the defending 600 winners starting way back in the pack in tonight's race took the green flag in 28th position as the change for the lead off of turn number 4 here comes Bill Elliott crowd cheering over the noise of the cars as they came by they love the faith in jerry nadeau now moving up on the back of they weren't in this car also that was only the sixth lap that Bill Elliott has led so far in 2000 he's not been in the lead a lot here's a look at what happened off of tow in Africa the car jumped sideways you can see the back of Earnhardt jr. step back only the second race that Bill Elliott has led here at Charlotte since 1990 we let 30 laps in the 697 but Elliot has not spent a lot of time at the front of the back at this racetrack in recent history to see another lead change here Elliot up the racetrack Bernard you just get to the throttle they're going to run side by side all the way down the front straightaway there Oh [Music] the other cars behind him to close in Elliott up the banking Navy's gonna try and take advantage of that open e to get second that means thermal stay low almost into the knocks off turn 2 over there Jerry Nathan bat by side as they head into turn 3 stay lower you think he's just not trying to force it knowing the junior was going to come back and be a little more desperate to leave that he was and they knew probably a little more desperate for second that Elliot's going to be at this point I mean Bill's got so much experience he knows this is a 600-mile race you know you brought up a good work place on the racetrack to sit the car to make the carriage last for a long time I noticed Jeremy Mayfield's car what's up there just that [Music] Dale Earnhardt jr. reassuming to leave the Phil Elliott we're just underway the 41st running of the coca-cola 600 in Charlotte [Music] the coca-cola 600 is underway at Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte just 17 of 400 laps in you looking at the race leader Dale Earnhardt jr. he and Bill Elliott swapped the lead twice between them in the opening 10 laps and jr. now with that advantage you see over the Georgia veteran while we were away in the British age for the position we saw Mike Skinner bypassed Jeremy Mayfield for that spot earlier now Mayfield is made Jeremie up the fourth skinner is dropped back to fifth just ahead of Tony Stewart who's in sixth now the man on the move in the early going is Dale Earnhardt he started the race in 15th position and he is about to take the sixth spot pick at the eighth spot away from Kevin LePage and you have to remember how well he ran into the track there and Atlanta this year he won the race over Bobby Labonte by less than a half a car length but he really gets around this racetrack extremely well remember too he's led more laps at this racetrack than any other driver in tonight's feel that he has won this race three times senior I should call him yeah it's Madison like that Earnhardt the elder crew guy said he won is incredibly good here and he has run really really well all year I want to be there when you call anyone the first time but that car does look strange yeah that's the Peter max paint job that you so weaker so here in Charlotte move it up and moving back while Chad littles gave a handle on the spots Jeff Burton dropped a little bit the opening laps from his starting spot now has begun to pick him back off and subscribers slipping back a little bit look at Bobby Hamilton he's dropped some spots in the opening laps 11 to 26 tell you another one who started to slip back a little bit that would be the Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett he started in eighth position which lost four slots back to 12 Allen this is one of the most heinous attacks that we run on and right now we have Sun on the back straightaway it's really tough right now to pick what you really want to the car on the first pit stop but a lot of them out there right now are talking to their crew chiefs and going we have to change it is pushing near doing that they're still Jarrett he's falling back to 12th spot Mike Massaro what's up with DJ's car Allen evidently Darrin has been developing a push in the middle of the quarter he's already radioed in and they're planning on making a left side air pressure adjustment at the first stop if you're new to NASCAR push means the front ends not gripping as much as the back in the car wants to keep going straight when he tries to turn it left into the corners 21 laps complete they'll chair at the Winston Cup champion running an eighth spot behind Dale Earnhardt jr. the leaders were coming back to Charlotte a moment [Music] today log on to TBS superstation calm and follow live in car camera action for the coca-cola 600 as Elliott Sadler making his way up through traffic back in 35th position I think he was templates in the last practice yesterday in the 21 car so he drill excited about today but he has to deal with this heavy traffic here's a race for second spot off of turn four Jerry Nadeau and the Bluenose machine with the orange stripe around the bottom putting some pressure on Bill Elliott who's putting some pressure on the race leader as well Elliott's just using a higher line at both ends of the racetrack and that's kind of that's like waving the carrot in front of the horse for Jerry Nadeau that bottom lane is just awfully tempting look at this bunch so they don't even care where they run three wide coming off the corner there and down the front straightaway these guys are going at it that's back for 31st and 32nd position Kenny Irwin Chad little Bobby Hamilton Elliott Sadler surprised to see Ward Burton back in the middle of his group they're the golden black car the middle of at the 22 machine he had been really fast in the happy hour session and they thought they had a great car for today but so far it hasn't shown a whole lot on the other hand it's still daylight we've got a long way oh boy Sterling Marlin and then to Ford he got really squirrely there he almost got in the back of Burton the 22 car as they got very close to each other you can see the 40 car just go all over the racetrack I think he was trying to cut down behind Ward and follow him underneath Bobby Hamilton but then realized he didn't have him cleared yet was going to run into the back of him to beat if he yanked that steering wheel to the left and Hamilton's car has had a wiggle in traffic the whole time here at Lowe's recap he started 13th he's back in 35th now his perspective see that Sun glare off the windshield before he gets behind the shadow of the grandstand in turn four or second in points just three out of the lead this driver has never led the Winston Cup boys he's got a taste of it now though one of the fastest cars on the racetrack belongs to Tony Stewart he is working on Mike Skinner they are trying to get the fitness model Stewart started back in 9th position he was a couple of seconds behind Skinner but 7 8 months ago now close he is still now so it's team onerous Joe gives mike hogewood is with him down on the road we're just talking Tony Stewart really moving up there pretty fast bobby labonte run as well put your strategy here early in the race no actually both [Music] surly feel the cars out fake Bobby right now pretty happy a long night and it's still early might mention to bobby labonte did have some paper on his grill it cause the oil temp to go up to 200 here in the Labonte pit there you see the piece of paper there on the right side of the grill let me show you get it right on the car and you'd probably want to know why the oil kept there would go out for girl from home oh here's a challenge for second spot off of turn number four Jerry Nadeau is going to finally make that move underneath Bill Elliott in that group in front of him for a while and got it made yet Bell fighting back on the outside he'll get a great run off out of the corner there on the high side and while they race side by side the fourth place car Jeremy Mayfield closing in quickly they didn't get him yet that's one of the great things about this racetrack is they can run side by side all the way around and neither group is necessarily faster than the other and they do has not gotten it done he's given up now try to tell you why it was running off the oil coolers up there in the grill and what something gets over at the front like that dip tear just goes sky-high a lot of cars it's a paper on a drill paid fields got a little bit of something on the bottom of his becomes a problem sometime through the course of the night this is for second spot you're watching second third and fourth all bunched together and may feel they're the last cart and frame there is absolutely flying he's able to go high or low so he's working very very well right now that's Darrell Walter for the 85 that if anything is in the way right now let's call there now I said that this tracks great for having two loops that are equal three that's a different story hey who's going to finish the pass on Elliot finally maybe working on it for about 15 20 laps down with Karen a - that's absolutely I know get day I learned art juniors been a big stories and so as they do he won twice last week first time ever in Weston tuck and the qualifying race here to get into the Weston and he's just had a great week in that car at this drone Tony fer really proud that's PJ Jones and that bright orange car subbing for Robby Gordon the Indy 500 was rain delayed earlier today if you're not familiar the race just ended a little while ago juan Montoya was the winner Robby Gordon finished sixth I believe was the information I got and obviously since that race just ended he's not made the trip to Charlotte yet so it's PJ Jones in his car Mayfield around Elliott to third behind that man Dale Earnhardt jr. who leaves the coca-cola 600 [Music] Budweiser the official beer of NASCAR presents the bud pole award the coca-cola 600 is one of the most difficult NASCAR races to win the list of winners looks like a who's who in NASCAR history only the best of the best win at Charlotte although a driver can improve his chances of a good finish by winning the bud pole award only four different drivers have won the bud pole and the race in the same year Fred Laurentian was the first to do it winning from the pole in 1965 then Buddy Baker started first and won the Memorial Day Classic back in 1973 the very next year David Pearson matched Baker by taking the pole and the race Pearson became the first driver to turn the trick twice winning again in 1976 then it was nearly 20 years before another bud pole winner drove all the way to Victory Lane young Jeff Gordon got his first Winston Cup victory in the 600 back in 1994 in fact all three of Gordon's wins in the 600 came was starting on the bud pole and there's the man who was the bud pole winner for the coca-cola 600 Dale Earnhardt jr. his first career Winston Cup bud pole award means make a good use of it in the early going in the race looking at the intervals now as we take a little look back through the field upper left of your screen you see the distance in seconds up to the race leader and what you're going to see there fairly quickly is that this field has gotten strung out play smart 13 seconds behind now here's Ward Burton riding back in 32nd position and very much in danger of getting overtaken by the race leader Dale Earnhardt jr. let's get an update from his pit with Marty Snider now and they start a 31st and they're now running there are troubles on the second place man in points car he has a bad vibration and he said flies as far as trunk they were kind of surprised because they thought they would be a little better today the car has a very bad vibration he's loose and he's not gaining spots they're going to try and fix him when he comes in originally thought it was a tire that people [Music] Ward Burton only three points behind Bobby Labonte in the NASCAR Winston Cup championship standings and as tight as things are 78 points all the way back through the top five crew chief Tommy Baldwin talkin award there he cannot afford to run in the back of the pack all night tonight that's for sure now we've had a little bit of shuffling in the top five Jeremy Mayfield has gone to third position Tony Stewart's a fourth and Bill Elliott has fallen back to fifth now we told you at the top of our broadcast that John Andretti had injured himself yesterday actually he injured himself last week Tim Fedewa will get aboard that car Mike Massaro is in his pit with him rib injury earlier this week on Tim Fitte was standing by to replace him in the cockpit in the 43 machine Tim what's the plan well right now John hadn't said a whole lot the critical plan was first caution and Get Set a whole just wait to hear from him from whatever he decides what we'll do right now john andretti 24th on the racetrack the last time Tim Fedewa was in Winston Cup competition was in 1995 at Dover and ready right now running track in 20 still on the lead lap just broke in a practice session incredibly enough John Andretti was just out there in the racetrack went hard into a corner and bang cracked rib broke yeah he said he heard it crack yes that's that's bad but he's showing a lot of guts out there right now he's racing Jimmy Spencer knows guys and not giving up a lot of ground schools between the top two closing up a little bit as Dale Earnhardt jr. caught up in some laps closed in behind him there's jr. in the red car Nadeau the next one behind him on the back of Wartburg the 32nd place car to try and put him a lap down having been overtaken already by the leader Kenny Irwin Sterling Marlin Dave Blaney Wally Dallenbach Stacy Compton Geoffrey Bodine Bobby Hamilton PJ Jones Darrell Waltrip Scott Truitt Mike Bliss you're setting a pretty good pace around here and they said they had the car set up for later I just can't imagine how it could be much better than it is right now Warburton fighting so very well through one and two but when he gets down to the next corner you'll see the car go straight up the hill they're already through the 50 mile mark of the coca-cola 600 Dale Earnhardt jr. 'he's led just about all the laps so far back with more of our live coverage on TBS shortly you can see to the west whether moving in half way which makes it an official race they've got a lot of going to do to get to halfway back to Allen Bestwick can we Avenue leader in the coca-cola 600 this is a moment ago while we were in the break Dale Earnhardt jr. appeared to slow a little bit off of turn two Jerry Nadeau went blasted on by well then he picked the pace right back up I don't know whether he was just maybe looking at the line that the 25 cars running on the racetrack or what but he's still sticking right with they do well it happened right when he was beside the 22 car of Ward Burton that he'd been trying to put a lap down for a long while they got awfully close together coming off the second corner Earnhardt jr. get out of the throttle just a tad stayed on to the throttle long enough and they knew went blasting on by little patience shown there by Dale jr. not wanting to put the car in a bind maybe he listened to Otis Redding instead of Eminem today Ward Burton on pit road lap 55 Marty and again Ward has that vibration his car [Music] back out on the racetrack but again the vibration his car was also very loose on that run Ward just overtaken by the leaders and put a lap down before the stop as Marty said here's Bobby Hamilton troubles there on the right front Hamilton all the way back in 41st positions going to go a couple of laps down with this stop we're just getting near the hundred mile mark now and expected the next seven or eight laps we're going to see all of the leaders onto pit road Circuit City telemetry onboard Bobby Hamilton scarf okay you have a speed limit you see him going right down on the speed limit as soon as he passes the lap down here's the RPM of though whom he did a nice job kept him right on the speed limit until he got passed that way ha feet wet however that these cars don't have speedometers on now he's not allowed to go up over that white line until he gets on the back straightaway for safety reason now he goes right up but he does not go out the racing line if you notice until he gets speedo [Applause] position Tony Stewart has gotten around Jeremy Mayfield to pick up third as we look at the leader picking through some more lap traffic John Andretti Jimmy Spencer going a lap down story line of the first part of this race has been people get put a lap down early into the 600-mile race to have that done before you're even a hundred miles in that is not going to be a good night well one of the great things that happened to me yesterday he went in and got under a car and lost the back of the car and they think that we'll have that fifth place cars on pit road Bill Elliott he's in for service Mike Massaro and the drive through crew goes to work on the right side right away they're going to try to free it up with an air pressure adjustment going up a half a pound on both left side tires now they swing around to the left side they'll make the four-tire change two pieces of 76 racing buoys finally down it away seventeen point five seconds of good stuff for Billy competitive stop Jeremy Mayfield is in getting service on his machine Rusty Wallace comes down pit road also Judy Spencer's in there's rusty Robert Presley's just leaving pit road as we look at Wallace's true go to work it's the official single signal it's something rusty is going to get a penalty for being too fast entering pit road that's going to be a 15 second penalty once they finish the work on the car so when everybody steps away there it is that was a brave official to stand there rusty did put it in gear made as if he was going to go far the official timing it now 15 seconds is a long time it's forever twenty-nine three that's almost a full lap around this racetrack Stacy Compton is also going to be coming back to pit road he was speeding leaving the pit lane he's going to get a stop-and-go penalty they enforced the penalty if they can get it while you're still there your speed coming in they enforce it while you're on control if you do it when you're landing you got to come back in Augusta more costly in the 15 second your steep Park on the pit lane traitor the freighter in the grasp trying to get out there that's brave or he leave into pit road Neela Tony Stewart is on pit road as well PJ Jones has been in for service in the Robby Gordon car John Andretti is also coming down pit road we'll keep an eye out there to see if they make the driver change parks crew going to work mark Barton feminine 18:8 on the park car he heads off there's the Tony Stewart true going to work on the Home Depot machine good stop look at that 15.4 terrific job by that true meet some high fives in that pit crew and then when they get him that back on the racetrack here comes my own ears on the pit road there's tension here come in time this is lap 63 just shy of 100 miles mike hogewood Dale junior has told his jacket fellas our war the right rear - you're heading up this tires of full tank of Steel 16:5 what a stop is in on pit road Tony Perez called him and there aren't going to be no adjustments here Jerry Nadeau has been very happy with this car they do have some plans adjustments to make with air pressure when it gets a little cooler on the track but they're not making them now down around to the left side sorry the jack tires are on the funke's good stop for Nadeau feel it should shut off got it fired these aways it they learn how to reseat jerry nadeau back off into the corner shouldn't be a contest because of that little glitch that they knew had trying to leave the pit lane where is he maybe it's going to be more of a contest than I thought yeah Nathan is going down the back straightaway he'll advantage he has he's already into turn three jerry nadeau gets off of pit road ahead of Dale Earnhardt jr. despite the little hiccup there when he dumped the clutch now Jeff Gordon is the race leader he's not yet visited the pit road it's Gordon Kenny Irwin and then Jeremy Mayfield who will apparently win the race off the pit lane there's Gorton who just came down the pitlane made his stop is beginning to head back up onto the racetrack [Music] so it looks like Jeremy Mayfield will win the exchange on this round of pit stops and he should take over the race lead in just a couple of more laps here in Charlotte [Music] exciting racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the 40 Stanley will coca-cola 600 100 miles and for the moment Tony School we've just swept around they filled after those first pit stops to take first place the leader six lead changes mariya caution 167 well that would give us a new record but there's a long pit stops and everyone is still running back topside with Al investment with a new leader Ken it is jerry nadeau sweeping by tony stewart off of turnover floor to reassume the top spot may be out in front as we artists across the hundred-mile Mart caution free so far we've had seven now lead changes about six different drivers they do getting instructions Wow I thought he was gone he should have been gone he was that far out of shape could Stewart in a brilliant job gathered the car back up again and partly lost it he spun field summary up were left of your screen but you know where everybody stands at this point in the coca-cola 600 nice job Tony there we go there's our field summary see they do the race leader over Mayfield at Stewart Dale Earnhardt jr. fell back to 6th after the pit stops he has just moved back up to the fourth position Junior rebellion drivers who was chasing Earnhardt jr. and in fact led a couple of laps early in the event he's now fit you could say that they do has about a 15 car left lead right now and the reason they filled up with Nick targets ad wait a second ago Dale Jarrett fell back some in the opening laps he's up tonight position Mark Martin has moved up to 12 he started the race back in back in the field you will see Steve fog she'd be the Ricky Rudd car and Jeff Burton he had dropped back to some 30th in the opening laps of this event first back up nicely after the round of kid stops - 19th position Rusty Wallace got penalized they're on pit road he was tenth before the stops he's back in 16th now [Music] Jeff Burton is running in 19th position as we continue our rundown top left of your screen at this point on the lead lap 25 Mars laughs Kenny Wallace and Ward Burton be the final car on the roof flap and now here comes Dale Earnhardt jr. as we focus back up but tearing his way back up through the field as he's around like Skinner to grab forth Skinner's around him to grab forth [Music] six spot right now the 18 car currently the points leader junior on the outside of them my body's second in both races here at Lowe's last year and come much motion that without winning this thing [Music] so tell juniors car not behaving quite as well at this point in the race as it did on that first set of tires from the start CDL junior just then waved in Levani said thanks very much you were very polite in the way you've asked me appreciate that but now I'm going by on the high side [Music] let's go back a minute ago to Tony Stewart as he overtakes Jeremy Mayfield and reclaims the second spot Stewart had a close call up in turn three this is Stewart right here and as he starts off the corner watch the back to the car to step out he hits up the hill that's great driving to just maintain control Stewart there you know what he hit did you see that little black thing come through the bottom of the screen there's a patch on the racetrack into her four and turn three rather I think he caught that with the left side tires in his car just broke traction yesterday the racetrack broke up just a little bit they pulled it freed in a boxy lash site that's where the patch is well they just went through that same pad but what happened there is he went into the left side as you said hit that in that patch and he had to we have turned back to the right all those years on dirt tracks I'll tell you what right there Thunder crashes bounced around and try to gather the car back up constantly and Stewart as a master at it see Tony Stewart's interval to the leader he's losing ground to Jerry Nadeau right now natives last lap 170 miles an hour and Stewart's was a hundred sixty-nine seven now let's take a look at that black patch here look for it right under Stuart's car coming right out there it is there's two things to watch the 12th car there on the end side actually pushing a wall of air up towards the back of the car also add we're under caution for the first time in the coca-cola 600 Steve Park just did kind of a lazy spin off of turn number four and wound up down in the tri-oval grass he's driven the car away there was Park running in 19th position at moment and the yellow flag waving for the first time here at 80 laps into the event so Steve Park who looks like none the worse for wear other than probably needing a new set of tires on that machine in a minute to catch his breath and get his heart stop to stop beating so fast there's John Andretti's car let's go to pit road Mike Massaro and Allen we've waited most of the afternoon for this John Andretti now slowly rolling down pit road Tim Fedewa waiting to jump into the cockpit of that STP machine as the team now waits to do service on that car but John Andretti named readies rib injury has gotten to the point where he can go no further well he's got 120 miles which is probably as far as you could expect the driver to go with a broken rib and especially a freshly broken rib well I'll tell you what I've had them and they hurt so bad you can't get your breath that's the bad part and thready going to give up the 30th position at this point to come off the racetrack and most of the other leaders are going to commit as well for service stops going to be at lap number 81 of 400 NATO is in Stuart Mayfield Skinner all in everybody on the lead lap has come in for tires and fuel Marty Tony Stewart is in his car a little bit loose just before that caution came out he radioed the crew I'm starting to feel a slight vibration in the pedal so we have to keep an eye on that for Tony Stewart Jeremy Mayfield was also in he is at third Stewart away now down to go back upstairs check it to see who's gonna win the race off the pit lane it's going to be Stewart out second and there's the driver change with Tim Fedewa going in Mike that's right into the cockpit of the 43 machine there now cinching up the seatbelts and fixing everything inside that car so that it is appropriate for ten feet away John Andretti has now gotten out he sits on the wall right now collecting his thoughts catching his breath and now finally removing his helmet we'll get a word from him in just a minute that's Phil Horton the gentleman in the red shirt standing right behind Andretti he's an athletic trainer and physical therapist that works with a lot of the drivers and mode out there to tend to John Andretti's needs Jerry Nadeau leads were under the first caution of the coca-cola 600 under caution for the first time in the coca-cola 600 because of that now unwrapped myself off turn four is the back to stepped out he even fluckey nobody collected him back underway there no harm no foul just rat on that would be Steve parks car going around here's a look back Robert Presley's camera she leaves park behind spinning in kenseth taking evasive action going through the infield in 17 Park in 22nd position on the lead lap as the field comes off turn four for the restart Jerry Nadeau his crew fabulous job on the pit stop he holds on to the top spot as we get back at it how leaving the green flag atop the starters stand look at the jump that Nate who got on Tony Stewart big jump big you're laughing Baker what are you laughing about I'm just looking back here you think you're not running art these guys that are lap down or trying to get a lot back in a guy like this get such a great job there's no way to get a lot back because paint like a rocket ship on restart second spot Tony Stewart they're little ways behind there is John and shreddies car now being driven by Tim Fedewa let's go back to the petty teams pit Mike Massaro and Alan John Andretti has come out of the car and has received some treatment from team trainer Phil Horton and now his collected his thoughts and his breath and well John I think the thing that we need to address is how disappointing is is it for to have an injury sidelined you for such a big event it's just disappointing for any event I've never had to get out of a race car for any reason other than the fact that you know you got a 24 hour race [Music] a little better [Music] like I need to turn it and wrestle the car like I need to wrestle it to give these guys everything they deserve so it makes more sense for somebody in there that's healthy and I get ready for Dover well guys the SDP car had to come in a second time because the first time they weren't able to change tires and that car back in 37th position one lap down to the race leader's Jeremy Mayfield around Tony Stewart for second this is a little farther back in traffic there's Dale Earnhardt jr. he's running in sixth spot he's just taken that position away from Bill Elliott follows him around the outside of Terry Labonte father and son going down the back straightaway Dale Earnhardt jr. on the inside bill they're putting a lot of pressure on the outside that is not a sorry ass all the wrong car there ain't got me all fooled with a sterile Abati's car in Texas Terry not having a good day 29th position a lap down here comes Dale Jarrett up through the field Jarrett's finding himself moving forward onto this run he's up to eighth spot trying to take seven the way for Bill Elliott [Music] now that's Earnhardt senior moving into the picture now yes it is there's Dale jr. up ahead to the outside of Bobby Labonte that'll be for fifth spot Pizza Park Martin here is well Martin curtly running it six car seven top fives in a row here at Lowe's Motor Speedway Dale jr. around Bobby Labonte 4/5 when up and moving back subscribers having good runs in the early going Mark Martin gaining six spots getting urban escapes in Brown here are some drivers who had some problems Steve Park with the spin a little while ago losing seven positions Kenny Wallace has fallen back to 25th watching Dale Jarrett there in the 88 for our Heath moves it backwards also he's not able to keep the car down where he wants to have it and he'd lose the position after position not able to stay on the bottom of the racetrack spotty just lost a Kevin LePage he may lose 11th to Rusty Wallace muskan fighting back after that penalty on pit road his team has been as happy with that car as any race car they've had all year long both rusty and crew chief Robin Pemberton have been simply delighted with the performance of the car we haven't seen the kind of performance tonight that we had seen earlier in the practice sessions Dale Jarrett from Elliot Seth Sadler's machine running in 29 position a lap down let's talk about Jeff Gordon for a minute got up and led a lap on an exchange of pit stops but right now he's mired back in 60 position they laugh get an update on Jeff Gordon's machine from pit row Thorton is running 16th at the moment and he's a little frustrated says the car is really very loose his crew headed up by Robby Loomis keeps telling him to be patient this track is going to come to us the car is going to come in later on they keep reminding him it is one long race if you're a racer like Jeff Gordon you want to be able to take it to the front at any time he's just not able to do it right now those track conditions are something that we need to address a little bit here you could see from that shot from Jeff Gordon's car as Dale Earnhardt makes a woman even bother the body to try and get a position away that sixth spot you can see the clouds have kind of eased up a little bit the rain has moved away from us and the sun's back out on parts of the speedway we've been saying the cars go from the shaded part of the racetrack onto the the bright sunshine down the back straightaway there that's very very difficult to have a break the cars are that sensitive to the temperature difference on this pavement they are back in the dark in the shadow behind the main grandstand in the luxury suites they'll pop back out into the daylight that difficult on your eyes buddy from inside the race car you know it is and that's always been a problem when you go into turn three and go into almost a dark shade and it takes a second for to see eyes if somebody throws up front of it no not them and as sensitive as the cars are here to the temperature on the pavement that can meet your car can be great on the backstretch and lousy on the front because it's sunny back there and dark over here cherry Gangu is the race leader 95 laps into the coca-cola 600 at Charlotte coming right back in a minute looking down on most Motor Speedway in twilight of Memorial weekend Sunday night from the Circuit City aerial platform before long you'll be able to see that 3 million watt lighting system bright as day over this racetrack and it really is a spectacular sight here at night in person if you've never been here the hundred seventy five thousand looking on to the 41st coca-cola 600 or watching Jerry Nadeau who lead he's out in front of Jeremy Mayfield by two point seven seconds there's they do the race leader Tony Stewart his third Dale Earnhardt jr. fourth and Mike Skinner his fifth at this point the rest of the top ten for Dale Earnhardt Bill Elliott Mark Martin Kevin LePage and Rusty Wallace here's the second-place car Jeremy Mayfield let's get an update from pit road on him and Marty Snider and water onto Jer trying to catch jerry nadeau this is the same car that won California for Jeremy and his car right now is a little bit loose but he is right now because we're hoping that the night time has come over the shot and cool the track down to tighten up the track this kind of setup for the night time runs with Jeremy with a great run going he turns 31 yesterday and what a birthday present a coca-cola 600 win would be guarantee he would enjoy that very much we're just across the one quarter point of the race 102 of the 400 laps complete story in the first quarter of the distance Dale Earnhardt jr. dominated the opening laps and then it was Jerry Nadeau who moved past him about 50 laps in and he's been the Dominator since Bill Elliott was up there led for a couple laps earlier at lap 3 and lap 4 but since then he has fallen back into the field a little bit actually he let it lapse eight and laps 9 but his fastest lap of the day wasn't lap three he's now falling back to the seventh spot let's get an update from Mike Massaro on bill Elliott's car and Allen he had dropped his farm action before the moving up to seventh where he is right now we're talking with Kevin crab the crew chief rebellion he says he's really not saying too much his heart might be just the brain trusted heads up the Billy Elliot team that's Kevin crammed on the right and my Ford on the left they are the two of the three who make that make the calls on Elliot's car of course with Ray Evernham advice on the outside now and it's really really worked for them but what this guy has got going for him Jerry Nadeau is almost beyond imagination his best finish this year 13th his career best finish in Winston Cup nobody even knew who this guy was then a fella named Tom Cotter took a liking to Jerry Nadeau put together a sponsorship deal for him with Michael Mulligan got it hooked up with the Hendrick operation looked at the results out front today do you know the Jerry Nadeau and his Winston Cup career before today had only led a total of 14 laps total he has far surpassed that here in the coca-cola 600 let's get an update on NATO's machine down on pit road one guy who's got a smile and Jerry Nadeau Fitness the team owner Rick Hendrick he's led more laps today than the misfire win some tough career you've got to be one proud owner huh yeah he's doing a heck of a job we just trying to give him to pace himself and he says he's really comfortable so he's doing a heck of a job has been a good two weeks for Jerry Nadeau Tony for the crew chiefs has told him you're so fast coming up on these lapped cars you've got to be careful but when you lap these cars you're so fast getting viable I'm not sure I heard you but you know he's running to a great chance quicker than the other guys and we just want to be there at the end of this thing he is just he really has adapted to Charlotte Tony's giving him a good good car and I want to tell my mom and dad hello at home I know my dad would she was here to see this this is a great performance for the 25 team and Papa Joe is done listed as the owner of this car would we consider this an update if Jerry Nadeau wins tonight huh maybe she'll but he's doing a fabulous job so far Porter the way into the 41st coca-cola 600 [Music] back at Lowe's Motor Speedway under caution for the second time in the coca-cola 600 Stacy Compton the reason why apparently cut down a right rear tire going into turn one didn't hit the wall but did drop some debris absolutely see the yellow flag absolutely and the tire was real hot they had a hard time getting it off so Stacy lost some time but it won't really matter because he just lucky to have a race car after going that high up towards wall now getting some reports that there may be some showers skirting the area of the Speedway again so these pit stops may turn out to be really important if weather comes to shorten the event you look at Nadeau Mayfield and Stewart we have a triple box left of your screen let's watch how the crews do here going head to head well that jerry nadeau on the top Jeremy Mayfield don't extort there you see everybody taking on four tires that [Music] nice job they do with the store isn't stopping a top-three and it's gonna cost him the race lead here comes Mayfield set Dale Earnhardt yep Earnhardt is going to get out second and you can hear the crowd we have a virtually soundproof booth here but we could hear the crowd when Earnhardt came out in second spot Mayfield Earnhardt Nadeau most be the first three that it's going to be Tony Stewart Mark Martin's gonna come out fifth so great job there by the Mayfield team to get him out ahead and a great job by Earnhardt's crew he was one fifth or sixth going down pillar for that stop let's take a break while run to the caution flag and come back for the restart of the coca-cola 600 [Music] the coca-cola 600 its 41st running live from Charlotte on superstation TBS glad that you join us we're getting ready for the restart about another lap away let's get some recaps on those pit stops we saw a moment ago here's mike hogewood well Jerry Nadeau stopped there was a bit of a glitch changing the left rear tire they were down in a way and then the concern was did they get all the lug nuts on well they have watched it closely here under the caution laps and our huge sigh of relief in these pits all the lug nuts are there Jerry Nadeau is okay and in third position to Marty Snider well Jeremy Mayfield came in second and out first they were a little loose they put a half around into the left side that should tighten him up from the middle of the corner off at the car drive a little better and as he was screaming down pit road he knew he had a great stop he said you guys are unbelievable on the radio Tony Stewart came in third out fourth I took a little time he was also loose they handed a pound of air pressure to the left rear tire and also happened round into the left side that should also tighten him up let's go to Mike Massaro the three pit stop after Dale Earnhardt came in just took on four tires and fuel no adjustments the team was extremely happy they came in fifth came out second Allen well Dale Earnhardt's got a sniff of the lead here he's going to restart in second spot now Rusty Wallace and Bobby Hamilton have dropped to the tail end the line for this restart Rusty Wallace was too fast speeding leaving pit road now he came down pit road here he didn't really have to all he had to do was go to the back of the line for the restart but he made the true anyway and he is at the tail of this group in 25th position all right let's keep our eye on Earnhardt see if he goes after Mayfield pretty fast we dispense with the lap traffic of Sterling Marlin into the corner and on the top too hard here and up to speed on the back straightaway the traffic there but he down them to turn three back into the car with look at her NAR if you close your eyes and just listen for the crowd you'll know if he finishes the pass here he comes [Applause] they love Dale Earnhardt hometown boy drives the way they'd like to see a fella drive look at that entire audience is applauding Dale Earnhardt's [Music] he's going to get you for that yeah he is seventh leader of the night here's Dale Earnhardt now a new pressing Mayfield per second they feel have some very fast car down the straightaway you can see a little bit quicker than Earnhardt all the strength birthplace Tony Stewart trapped behind a couple of lap cars Oh Lucinda got hard up into the Intimidator ey intimidated well somebody's going to have to give Sparta showers in the cars well it's not going to be nade to what a drowned rat bad on the inside there to take over the biggest night of his racing career Jerry Nadeau back in the lead Mayfield for second the three cars behind those two are all the lap down then you get to Tony Stewart the fourth place car and Mark Martin who's just gone by him to put Martin the fourth and Stewart back to him sheeted party who's just overtaken it and the lap traffic that's got them bottled up and separated from the front three now the racetrack so it ought to be very consistent just caught a glimpse of ahead of Dale Earnhardt's car when we were riding with Stuart really the top side of turf wars he tried to get off that corner look at it Wow back in just shake it back and forth yeah he's probably talking to him right now saying this set of tires is not exactly the way I want [Music] and everybody is waiting for the racetrack you can see the lights are starting to come up on the car trying to get better and the cars that are loose and get better fastest on the racetrack at the moment there's ricky rudd running back at night position Tony Perez just called and they do and said don't punish your tires you just got brand new tires on take care of those tires he doesn't want him to run off with this thing even if they do ten at the field summary running up a left of your screen to let you know were your favorite driver is at this point a hundred twenty laps in make up this 600-mile event just about to hit the 200 mile mark you like a race with some underdogs up front you got it here's Nadeau never won a race in Winston Cup in his whole life got a points race at any rate right behind him Mayfield never even once led a lap here at Charlie Skinner in our heart jr. racing for sixth and seventh kid you just keep the power on there Mike Skinner knows there's always to go round Jimmy Spencer right behind them [Music] machine the bright green card [Music] 27 spot Phil Elliott with some problems Elliott's slowing on the racetrack it's done in the apron it's down on the apron that won't bring the costume now I did notice the flames coming out the exhaust pipe so they turned the power off and that's it son Phil if you're looking at was running in the 11th spot they had a choice of a couple of different engines in that car they went with the lighter weight components and I wonder I wonder durability reliability it's a factor in a 500-mile race let alone a 600-mile ways the attention of his crew momentarily falling aside from the 11th spot here at this point in the event then since 1994 since Elliot's gone to Victory Lane obviously the dry spell continued for at least one more week as we watched jerry nadeau who again had led only 14 laps in his entire Winston Cup career before tonight not in front for 64 circuits of this coca-cola 600 now now the gloves are off he's taking it right behind the wall not a good sign for Bill Elliott he obviously knows that whatever it was that happened is going to put him out of the race you take the sorriest ride that any race driver can take yeah you headbutt and you see there in the middle of the dash that means the motors wrong jerry nadeau leads by 1.3 seconds over Jeremy Mayfield under 25 laps into the 400 and tonight's race [Applause] under caution for the third time in the coca-cola 600 single car spin off turn 4 much like the Steve Park spin of a little while ago Mike Bliss went for a lazy spin down into the tri-oval grass separating the pit lane from the front stretch blood as you see is continued on the way and all the fenders look to be in their proper place let's go into the garage a Marty Snider well you see Bill Elliott is still in the car and what they're doing the oil belt fell off and they're putting a new one on and they're gonna do that right now as Tony Santana Cola the engine builder for Bill Elias team's going to go underneath the car the oil something came up and knocked the oil belt off so they had a great race car that's an odd problem to have happened but it is something that does happen on occasion the oil belt knocked off the Bill Elliott they will get him back out on the racetrack chances are he's run that car without oil pressure the engine may well be damaged as everybody heads down pit road stops going to be at lap 131 they do let last time coming down pit road went out in third position let's see what happens on this exchange of stops you look at Nadeau Mayfield and Dale Earnhardt in the triple box on the left of your screen last time mater's crew had a 17-second stop her heart spitted way a pit road from day two and talked about a two-tire change on the 25 car 20 person no way four tires for two who's going to win the race off the pit lane it looks like it's gonna be Mike Skinner believe that Skinner's car that was first off the pit road and DJ's right behind him bill Jarrett Dale Jarrett had a great stop I think we might have just seen some two-tire stops we'll go back and check with our pit reporters and recap things for you but score Skinner to go in sixth and come out in the race lead I'm gonna wager he might have just gotten a pair of right sides only under caution in the coca-cola 600 will come right back [Music] why're with you here on TBS circus city aerial platform giving you this shot of a double dogleg we have seen just an outstanding performance by a dark horse in this race Danbury Connecticut Jerry Nadeau's and after 195 miles race summary is looking like this Mike Skinner making a two-tire change has taken first place 11 lead changes we have had three cautions for 12 laps and 42 of 43 starters are still out here and competing let's go to Marty Snider what a heartbreaking day for Bill Elliott bill what happened we had something it took the teeth off the oil pump belt we run an external oil pump and it's a rubber belt and we came in the teeth were going off the belt and it I noticed it didn't have any old pressure not a lot when I went down in we want to start it down the back straightaway I got nearly two nearly into three and it went down and I cut it out but it was too wide it's eat some I try to put a belt on and they did try to fix it but it would not start Bill Elliott will be done for the night I could just about that kid that he lost the oil pump quit turning and that was cher the belt we're getting set to go back racing as the field is sponged up double wide up in turn number three lap cars to the inside let's tell you that Mike Skinner our pit reporters say Dale Jarrett the second place car and Jeff Burton the fourth place car got right side tires only on their stops Dale Earnhardt the third place car Jeremy Mayfield Tony Stewart the rest of them all got four tires and by the way Jerry Nadeau who was the leader going in he is going to restart in eighth position as the green flag is back out [Music] great race car but he sacked other methanol here comes Earnhardt inside of Jarrett Jarett to the outside of skinner this is for the race lead call it back in the green car out front not contending for the lead [Music] Jarett the knife different driver to the coca-cola 600 Dale Earnhardt to second Mike Skinner back to third remember Jared only got two tires on the dips off her heart got four let's see what the seven-time champion do with the defending NASCAR Winston Cup finalists ironheart car is so very clip in the air when dropping back a little bit you can say I'm going on both sides am as they go down new leader back out in front Akhtar is not jumping around like it was just a second ago it looked like it's on a rail now so I'm sure they did McCarthy looks very good now Ricky Craven has just taken his car behind the wall started there is some weather anyone there's a storm brewing right over the racetrack right now terribly a fatal down on the bottom you see a very careful hitting in the corner there if you run too close to the car on the outside it's a turbulent 22 cars no hole event [Music] who's not on the lead lap he is in 26th position the second lap down the wall-e download back in the green car he's in front of leader Dale Earnhardt and if he can stay there and get a quick caution flag he'll get to come all the way back around and be back on the lead lap exactly right he hasn't lost anything at all - they learn or he's been out there just about the distance of past four or five laps but I think now is in the draft they starting to get you carnivals cheer tomorrow magic yeah that's gotta make him feel pretty good then he's got a decent car because that's the leader of the race trying to catch him right now [Music] here is Dale Earnhardt jr. trying to fend off Jerry Nadeau Nadeau had taken fifth position from Earnhardt jr. lap ago and our our jr. right back around him Tony Stewart right behind them making this a three-way race for the number 5 spot charlie marlin and the 40 not on the lead lap neurotically making his 40th start here [Music] back and forth and that means racetrack like he walked it's sky from the view ahead into turn three and out the back back down the back straightaway the horizon really can varying shades of colors here as weather threatens this coca-cola 600 and Mike Skinner is on the move right now I'm sure that Larry McReynolds his crew chief is saying you better get on up there great race back for third fourth fifth actually for second spot that's Dale Jarrett the number there's Skinner and third Mayfield right behind them dealing with the Sterling Marlin black car that Dale jr. that Jerry Nadeau then Tony Stewart jr. right now two or three times he's trying to make it three wide and just couldn't quite make it happen we mentioned a second ago the Greek Raven took his car behind the wall let's find out why party sliders with it and let a heart break from Ricky Craven started 22nd has got as high as eight what happened way back well I'm really not sure what happened extremely proud of these guys the way things started this year was very different for everybody we turned it around the last month and a half make a lot of progress I just wish I could talk to you at the end of the race instead of like this but progress in owner in the engine they're gonna change the battery as well as all the spark quotes and get him back out on the racetrack for position the third spot maybe fourth and fifth Jeremy Mayfield on the booth got around Mike Skinner a lap ago now Dale jr. and Jerry Nadeau are going to try Skinner said get back in the car opposed givers they come out of turn four right away [Music] Skinner's driving incredibly hard tonight a few laps ago he was involved in a three-wide deal he just put the left side wheels right through the infield kept on going [Music] we are 200 miles into the coca-cola 600 upper left of your screen a full field summer unless you know where everybody stands Dale Earnhardt leading the race Dale Jarrett fell back in the early goings back up the second got Justin Jerry Nadeau's been the dominant driver of the night so far he's led 67 for the 145 lambs as we watch me take Jarrett for a second there's Nadeau Tony Stewart Mark Martin Jeff Burton Burton was way back in 30th in the early going he's moved back up into the top ten she's not just right-side tires on the last stop Matt Kenseth has had a solid run started 21st up to 12 Rusty Wallace penalized not once but twice first time 15 seconds to speed second time a stop-and-go for speeding leaving pit road Ward Burton had some problems earlier in the event that dropped him while back in the field his hand is just off he's moved back on nicely to 16th spot there's Rick mast who has had food poisoning all week waiting to hear if he's going to give way to a relief driver in that car Mike Dillon is standing by in case bass needs relief and straighter moving up the 21st position chef Gordon having it off night he's back in 20th and the last car on the lead lap is Michael Waltrip in 23rd position the upper left of your screen and those four drivers they have to look up their friend not leave this race and see these black clouds all the way around just fine they come off turn four but it is really dark down at 3m for you don't forget it's not an official race until we get to 201 laughs so even if it were to rain now really not a lot in state to the urgency there you're exactly right on that Earnhardt jr. wants to be in the lead when they come back that half way is he Wiggles off the corner there but he is already up the second spot now great race here for second week 5 cars are hard Jr Bayfield Nadeau Stewart and Jarrett [Music] all this though going on 3.2 seconds behind Dale Earnhardt the race leader so you got the earth heart family occupying the top two spots of the coca-cola 600 very popular with the local fans in Charlotte will come right back in just a minute [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] under caution in the coca-cola 600 for the fourth time Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt junior seau resisted calling him senior got off pit road first a second now let's take a look at the reason for the yellow flag it happened up in turns one and two the 77 car there Robert Pressley gets into backup return team sideways and missed record the accident on the back straightaway Pruett hit the inside wall there spins around looking out the front of Jeff Gordon's car that's how much you'll see when you go through a record so after a round of pit stops everybody took four tires the running order basically stayed the way it was the Earnhardt's at the top two spots in the coca-cola 600 superstation TBS at the coca-cola 600 Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte thank you we appreciate it appreciate your being here and showing us off to everyone in the infield I'll bet they're having a great time tonight they may not be having a great time in a little while here and I don't think I'd like to be up in that hot air balloon either because while we were in the commercial break we saw this off in the distance yeah watch not too good we'll hope that that stays away from us as you can see the weather's has been changeable all night long we're still not get it halfway it still would not be an official race if the weather comes in but we're creeping closer and closer to that point where it's going to start to give the crew chiefs fits if the weather does close in in fact they've got enough fuel on board now to run to the halfway point of this race so they may have just made the last pit stop they'll make the one who lost us the most track position on these pit stops is Jeremy Mayfield came in third without a teeth they made an adjustment to one of the shocks on the car that took a lot of time to do he's lost a lot of track position what do you think twenty-five-year-old kit 49 year old veteran that kid at second spot is just absolutely Elliott Sadler 24th place first car lap down overtaken by one Earnhardt oh he had to back up the problem almost collided coming off turn two you were inside Sadler's car he lets the second-place car go that's kind of proper etiquette right once you've had your chance to get your lap back and you didn't succeed but gotta get off the way they know they have to go to that 25 car they news on the run they're in third spot I wonder how many times the word etiquette Smith who's not a NASCAR telecast question with the Hummer you know though they raced together side by side went right at it last year at Michigan and I rock cars they do right in the middle mixing it up they've been trying to get a second away from jr. who's trying to get the lead away from his dad off the before that's the euros material dates are just won't give up please lunch at the outside down into turn one and here comes junior to the outside of dad flashbulbs exploding in the grandstand with a picture of the torn hearts racing for the lead in the coca-cola 600 you don't think that right and then the background didn't catch those drivers eyes either you can see this back of the car they up there in the daytime but there was the prevalent that night most of the first 47 laps of this event they do on the outside for second Wow we've seen Dale Earnhardt's Barbie inconsistent in its handling tonight he's been really good at a couple seconds of the race and not so good in a couple of other let's remember - we've got new tires on the card he's a veteran and he knows take good care of those tires on the very first lap and it serve you well in a long run and Toni firs probably told the 25 don't worry about the tires go after it it's getting close to the halfway mark now if you have some pulling down 21 laps - halfway Nadeau looking why turn to [Applause] and that by junior back the second dinner lost two spots without even download jerry nadeau crew chiefs and spotters talking to their driver [Applause] [Music] Dale Jarrett will be running at fourth spot [Music] jarett's forth bobby labonte he's just taking fifth need to start coming up through there he does this getting close to funny time he opens up every second he'll move up Bobby Labonte makes his first appearance tonight in the top five of the 4th spot now let's go back to Jeremy Mayfield who went on to restarted in 18th position let's get more on what they did on that pit stop had cost him so much track position first while on these teams are very aware of the impending weather and that's why it's so surprising that Jeremy Mayfield took the time to make a shot that just as we make a shot [Music] one suite out of the right front shock what that does it opens up the rifle and that should loosen up the car especially off of the corner jamming was tight he started 19th apparently Jeremy is backed up to the 17th position and while we watch the two hearts go at it dick what it what physically has to be done to take a sweep out of a shot that would take him so much time it's just a bunch of adjustments that are available on and shock-absorbent start messing around with those things you don't just take the wheel locks you got to make the adjustment then you get the wheel back on again [Music] oh I don't know a little piece of metal inside a little nozzle at the bottom of the shot can you turn it around I got a H on there and twist it around pass for the fifth position as Tony Stewart's going to get by Dale Jarrett put Stuart up into the number five spot as you can see we're getting closer and closer to halfway weather may be getting closer and closer [Music] it's not true it involved in bringing out the fourth caution voracious cars behind the wall bike hardwood is with him well his crew is working feverishly on the car Scott what happened I think it's got a little bump from behind its car there's so much on the edge anyway that just you know any a little bit of bump can really set you off and unfortunately we started out this [Music] cars running a lot better we were working our way back towards the front and unfortunately got taken out scott pruett disappointed but his crews working hard they hope they can get back in this coca-cola 600 was opened up that interval - six seconds over the earth Hartsdale on Dale jr. there it is bottom of the body fourth Tony Stewart's hip closing in on halfway in the coca-cola 600 with weather threatening [Music] back at Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte North Carolina just outside of Charlotte the coca-cola 600 nearing its halfway point best work with Buddy Baker and dick Berggren sherry Maine who spent the story so far the young driver from Connecticut is out in front by one point seven seconds he's led most of the first 107 laps of this event seeking his first Winston Cup Series win the Earnhardt's are running second and third but in a different order that when we went to the commercial Dale jr. just made the move around dad to pick up the number 2 spot looking back from Dale jr. at Dale Earnhardt now Bobby the body is closing quickly on Earnhardt there position and as soon as jr. passed his dad his dad got on the radio and told the crew that it's tight coming off car not handling as well as she wants it to spotted the body you see just behind our car for the people that don't know what paid off means that means you turn in the wheel it won't take the little farther back matt kenseth is having a terrific run in this coca-cola 600 he started in 21st position there you see the scoring cereal on Matt just slowly but surely we can all spots one at a time he's up to seventh now Robbie Reiser have made a great team at Busch grand national and they've really adapted well into the Gulf pipe there let's just when they back off and shoot that fire out think though Jack Roush said cars do they most folks have a hard time understanding how if they Lamar Jr has won two races Matt Kenseth can be leading Rookie of the Year but it's based on your best finishes in the year and Earnhardt jr. had a terrible problem with consistency in the spring he's got the two wins he's also done a few finishes in the 30s Kenseth spend from the top ten to about 20th almost every week behind Kenseth Rusty Wallace runs in eighth they had been racing with Mike Skinner just a little while ago but Skinner's now disappeared back to the 11th spot let's hear from his crew chief now Larry McReynolds down pit road in patek Lee said this with routine therapy Gretel's Larry what are you do what you're saying but I'm pretty sure he's asking you know we're pretty loose and that's the frustrating thing about this business we didn't make any justice on that last pit stop and I would believe if anything the racetracks tightening up I just gotta [Music] Steve Park bypassed Mike Skinner to pick up the 11th spot Park recovering from a spin early back at lap number 81 that dropped him back to the end of the relapse but he has recovered quite nicely Paul we launch Terry Nadeau continue to lead we also watch the very ominous skies building over Lowe's Motor Speedway Mike Hogwood is down by the nascar weather radar station in a wish to jump collage-like and it's very colorful and that's not what race has fearwood and see here's the Charlotte Motor Speedway and it's clear right now but you see that line of and some of those storms blinking red not too far away just a matter of which way they move from there and blinking red is mighty ugly they are threatening weather people have said that we've got some really tough stuff at the area jerry nadeau leading the coca-cola 600 right now 23 laps from halfway [Music] hope you log on to TBS superstation calm tonight follow live in car camera action 41st running in the coca-cola 600 you ride with Robert Pressley as he has somewhat of an adventurous drive his cars scaped way up by the wall and the heads off of turn two circuitcity telemetry onboard the freshly car Robert is not running among the lead group but he is on the lead lap in 22nd position 23 cars on the lead lap as we close in on halfway keeping an eye on the radar the weather as well that's the NASCAR official up on the roof who is there to supervise the team spotters he's got the binoculars out and the weather that's to the north of us as we take some of our camera shots and you look around that big glob that we saw on the weather radar is basically just to the north of the Speedway and that's out behind turn four when you see the camera shots out behind terms wanted zoom will see sunny skies like that and when we swing around like that that's the stuff to the north and again it just depends which way it moves if it moves to the south were in trouble if it moves to the west like it should around here and I say that making no guarantees but living locally that should be ok I say most of that weather is back around not for drat now and over thoughts like often there's a few isolated patches there but back towards Allah looks pretty good and it may be raining in your house in mind but it's so far very nice here in the speedway this is the race for second spot as we check the full field summary upper left of your screen 16 laps away from halfway Dale Earnhardt leading Bobby Labonte for that third position here's Matt Kenseth been on the moon wobbly relay on the break he's moved up now to the fifth position he was just a couple of laps ago in seventh Marty Snider on Matt Kenseth and well as you said Alan 21st to 5th so far he's a little loose right now they're gonna add a rubber [Music] grunting they took at the Texas it ran okay top-15 when they got into Iraq climbed up finishing 31st they've got attack to the winston open and it ran terrible the whole race and in the last segment of the Winston open the last little bit they finally found something that works for their that fit is an oval sprint with 16 lap race it worked perfectly that is the same exact setup Matt Kenseth has on the car right now and they have hit on it he is in fifth and they think they can make the car even better there's Dave Blaney's car you saw where the Rookie of the Year candidate sir running Dave Blaney a little bit farther back in the field he's in 24 spot he's the first car one lap down Mike Skinner being caught by Jeff Burton Burton reeling a bit this is for 12th and 13th as they work around the lap car of Jimmy Spencer twenty-seven position laughs doubt Woodson last week was really the very best possible test session the drivers have had for this event it's the only real opportunity that they had to run at night to the competitive environment all the practices have either been run during the day or at best at Twilight but one other car the choosing the same setup that he had in the Winston is this one exactly the same setup that they used last week under the 25 Jerry Nadeau has led 94 Indian seventh acts of airplane communication from the spotter down to the driver a second spot about to change hands there's NATO the way some of the multi bar teams are running coca-cola 600 there's the Ross Brigade I'd say it's pretty good night for them so far for their five cars at the top 13 spots Hendrick Motorsports doing very well what they do but certainly disappointed with Gordon and bomani the worst he's ever finished in this race gorgeous report that he's all the way back to 17th right now not a bad night for Dale Earnhardt incorporated not to mention that the boss the owner is running fourth in the Childress car [Music] they don't want to see a trade yeah richard childress there with Earnhardt at 4th and Skinner in 12 and the Joe Gibbs car is doing very well tonight here in Charlotte [Music] Racing curtains had a yo-yo tonight back to the front to the middle of the pack the difference in the sounds of the cars and the difference in the gearing here a lot of people are arriving a very high gear to keep the engine from turning too much rpm trying to make the distance 6-under how other people just steam sabko Jim could ask you to be coming or as a controlling partner in that team from Felix ibadis petting enterprises 10 feet away taking over the car from John Andretti got outed because of the injuries and suffering year during practice which was actually kind of finishing off a crack that started last weekend in the crash I've had to be tough to get out of there riki ruts been running very very consistent the night off huh but look at the leaders here Dale Earnhardt jr. is caught Jerry Nadeau just about pushing Roberto Barry he caught it fast too they do is going up the racetrack right now mr. Luthor hardly turned it up another not cret now well they folks see the weather and they both going for that 200-lap where i left one [Music] put the it ain't laps from halfway this is the race for the lead if the weather moves here mystic said this could be the race for the win they do almost on the apron here goes for the race lead [Music] notice [Music] that's a move a 25 year old can make Dale Earnhardt jr. led most of the first 49 laps of this event 47 of the first 49 he's not been out in front since except for a couple of laps of 158 at 159 now seven laps to halfway Dale jr. goes to the point as weather threatens Tony Stewart has fallen back to 9 spot Barney give us an update on his car [Music] about 28 laps Tony replied I'll be in the wall before that his cars screaming loose and he runs to lose her again so you had the handful out there for 22 wind has really picked up at Maurice wind picks up around here that's not a good sign no especially if you're loose so back in trying to pass the front Indiana you get the wind blowing on the car at a certain place it makes the back really try to come around and the wind would be a sign that the weather's getting closer and Tony Eury has just been on the radio to junior and said be patient be patient body give us a get one but Tony Stewart's doing here how much is he fighting this car well hate them to get in quarter and brought back to the right you'll watch you pull his right arm down car coming up out of the corner just a second ago he came off turn four and as folks here watched Winston Cup races and so on and they hear all this talk about tight and loose race cars basically there's only one way to fix that when you're on the racetrack and can't come to pit road just stay out of the gas longer but the car's not working leader Dale jr. bought in double wide lap traffic it's Bobby Hamilton machine ahead of him PJ Jones subbing for Robby Gordon in the orange car as they slice ooh now we saw the lab with Tony Stewart and the car not handling so let's ride the blood was running pretty good watch the movement of his hands on the steering wheel and listen to where he is on and off the throttle under another racecar but as he starts out the corner straight away in the corners good Bobby Hamilton he is trying to keep him going three laps down Junior is pulled away from jerry nadeau by about 9 or 10 car lengths let's get more on pit road on the Dale Earnhardt jr. car from Mike Hawkwood if you were watching our happy hour show yesterday you may remember Dale Earnhardt jr. saying hey the middle part of the race I'm just going to kind of cruise I want to be ready for that final 100 miles but cutting Gary senior says hey take it off of crews it's time to go to the front we want to lead at halfway and they did it the remind him that this same sponsor had a victory today in well they're going for a clean sweep war laps from halfway for Dale Earnhardt jr. next time he comes by there's Tony Eury the crew chief veteran team it comes back around this time you'll see the cross flags at the starters stand and we will have it appraised one laughter that point Tony Eury senior for many years was preachy for Daler hard the elder on this NASCAR's Busch grand national series was lots and lots of races crew chief for Steve Park Jeff green wonderful comedy there's a pessimistic stat for the Dale Earnhardt jr. team isn't it I wouldn't count on that tonight the question is we're going to get the full distance in yeah and that's the other thing we have to remember every time you took down in the corner and you know there's bad weather around here you hope you don't drop off in that corner and hit a rain pad we run fake tires down there and pick out water arm buddy you're in trouble while we were watching Dale jr. take the halfway point second spot change stance Bobby the body around Jerry Nadeau just passed midway in the coca-cola 600 [Music] [Applause] [Music] platform [Music] whether they could call the race at this point do that except one person sixteen late just today four cautions for 16 laps and up to 43 starters for the on the track after 300 miles have been completed let's get back with al investment all right Ken upper left of your screen Napa field summary let you know where everybody is running just past the midway point of the race Jerry Naidu's been the dominant driver in the coca-cola 600 so far but he's fallen three seconds behind the leader at this point Matt Kenseth the terrific run moving up from his starting spot of 21st into the top five rusty to get into the top ten shut up champion back at 8 Steve Park we spin the run tonight there's Tony Stewart we talked about his handling moments ago he's fallen times in the seconds behind the leader Mike Skinner got subtracted entire pit stop Jeremy Mayfield picking his way back through after making his shot adjustment and giving up third spot to go all the way back on a pit stop a little while ago pretty solid run to michael waltrip 18 spot on the lead lap last car on the lead lap it back is Michael Waltrip now you see all these cars one lap and run up through the field a little bit earlier than the handling on his car is slip dog just a little bit and he's falling back into the field at Schrader 23rd position Joe Nemechek javelin dave blaney also a lap down Elliott Sadler his starting position of 41st not been a good night for terry labonte he's a lap down last car weren't lap down and some of the cars more than a lap down Tim Fedewa in for John Andretti the Petty Enterprises car PJ Jones in for Robby Gordon after the Indy 500 was rain delayed earlier today Gordon finished sixth in that race but it ended just as we were firing the cars up to start the 600 obviously Courtney not able to make it here in time for the event Elliott is out of the race Ricky Craven is on the race Scott Pruett is on the race and that is the full field summary just past halfway top speeds at this point Dale Earnhardt jr. is Bobby Labonte running very comparable lap times Bobby had been closing in on Dale jr. a little bit ago and now that interval between the two is kind of stabilized stabilized eventing opened up just a tad Junior running a very very nice pace out there all by himself at the lead he's got a 1.7 second lead over second spot that sounds like a lot of time on the racetrack but that's one slip and corner all you have to do is get a little bit sideways and that would be down to a car meant for less we are coming up on 60 laps from the last set of pit stops so we should begin to see the leaders coming down pit road shortly in fact here's Jeremy Mayfield in for service Ward Burton has also been on the pit lane as well this stop a little bit early at lap 211 Marty we start at 19th after the shop change and he only got up to 15 his car [Music] here's michael waltrip fighting to stay on the lead lap the 17th place driver down Kevin LePage is on pit road he was on the lead lap until coming into service laughs as jr. Michael a five-time winner here Winston Winston yes yep Winston open twice you can see why he's wanted to lap down the ramp ride around the top of the racetrack the third not happening just the way he would like to have it there's Ricky Rudd up to sixth position there you see the scoring cereal on Rudd he slowly picked his way up to being just outside the top five Mike hog would Wellings it told his crew chief Michael McSwain that this car is really coming in for him they've made great pit stops all night long so far this has been a great night for ricky rudd he stole his crew tonight might be the night they win at Charlotte took me fer Jerry made his crew chief in the upper right of your screen looking on waiting to see what he'll call his driver on to pit road third position 37th position nearly 4 laps down to the race leader so far the weather is held that blob we saw on the radar north of the Speedway has stayed worth we stay under the green flag just past halfway in the coca-cola 600 in Charlotte back at Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte in the coca-cola 600 Dale Earnhardt jr. is the race leader green flag pit stops have begun there is the third place car Jerry Nadeau in Pike Hogwood and Jerry Nadeau is not near as happy at this car as he wasn't beginning the race so they are going to make to a major chassis adjustment on the car to try to tighten it up just a little bit Dale Earnhardt senior had raided it he was just a little bit loose they didn't make a wedge adjustment they took a half a round out on the right side also a slight air pressure adjustment four tires and fuel and Dale Earnhardt senior was away and the race leader blows off of turn number 4 getting down to 45 mile an hour of pit road speed limit Dale Earnhardt jr. 20 laps past halfway giving up the top spot Bobby Labonte was in Weiler away in the commercial as was Mike Skinner let's cover the Dale Earnhardt jr. pit stop now - Mike hog would melt on the Union eerie senior has called him in he had been telling him to take care of his tires to his crew chief crew coming down now to the left side good pit stop underway for Dale Earnhardt jr. let's go down the Marty Snyder as follows [Music] Oh doctor [Music] Dale Jarrett has not yet stopped expecting him to come on to pit road momentarily there's DJ he'll take over the race lead on the track well no he won't either he's gonna duck onto the pit road and come in for his service green flag stops here lap 221 for Dale Jarrett one of the cars carrying the colors of the branches of our armed services this Memorial weekend let's cover the Dale Jarrett stop nail tera now coming down pit road 25 pit road speed the quality care for team waiting a spring an action on top of the wall they're off the wall they swing but the Reg has gotten caught up in the fixture and they finally get it [Music] sixteen point six seconds for Dale's Erin now on the exchange of pit stops it looks like Bobby the body's gotten the upper hand on Dale Earnhardt jr. the body out in front there's jr. who will come off pit road in second spot but a little bit ahead of him on the racetrack is Bobby Labonte there's Bobby and he's going to assume the top spot at five time to see the Winston Cup point leader in a top spot all night five bonus points therefore being the latter Bobby takes the advantage of good work by his team spotted this race boy oh boy I tell you something else about him he's very consistent ain't hard to catch he's very quick or out these types of racetrack and earn are gendered that his work cut out from cat's neck car Bobby one of five drivers involved in the noble five chase for the million dollar bonus erase Lee sparks off the bottom of the 93 car that happens when they fill him up with fuel loads the back end of the race car down closer to the Speedway it's bull they'll bounce it right off the racetrack and that's where you get this part also right in front of the left front wheel there you'll notice the exhaust system brought down off the racetrack but when you put that extra weight in there doctor were talking about that makes the back sag down and Gordon in the corner the spark racetracks and hid your attention from behind the wheel oh yeah and making it jump that way sometimes if you bottomed out hard enough an update on pit road from mike hogewood just as you said Alan day has made some changes in their motor development over the last couple of weeks not getting the fuel mileage that everyone else is but they gladly have created it for the horsepower they do have one concern on the 18 car they have noticed a crack in the tailpipe and that is a bit of a concern for the Bobby Labonte team right now yeah we were talking about that about ourselves during a commercial Bobby Labonte had been last year getting some of the absolute best fuel mileage of any car on the NASCAR Winston Cup tour but Jimmy make are his crew chief told me in the garage this morning when I enquired about airplanes for tonight's race that gave up a little bit of fuel mileage this year to make a little extra horsepower there's a fine trade-off there now the effect of a crack in the exhaust pipe would be what well the big thing is you hope it don't blow a piece off of it it does they're cute they're lipless it has a lot to do the horsepower laughter for motorcycle you to kill the performances together again we've got to have a little motorcycle no I've heard your motorcycle [Music] bobby labonte now the race leader after an exchange of green flag pit stops 227 laps into 400 in Charlotte back at Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte some 175,000 on hand to see the 41st running of the coca-cola 600 we are divided to bring it to you live on superstation TBS riding with the race leader Bobby Labonte had not led all night but went down pit road second to Dale Earnhardt jr. at lap number 221 jr. stopped Bobby and stopped about three laps earlier and when the exchange of pit stops was over the money was leading this was about March 12th back in Atlanta Bobby had won a couple of weeks earlier at Rockingham and almost beat the seven-time Winston Cup champion on a track that a lot of folks consider to be very similar to this one mile and a half the quad oval the double dogleg the whole thing the shapes of the corners a little bit different but Labonte certainly has been I think fair to say his best tracks been at the Charlotte's in Atlanta's and Moore's mile and a half two mile tracks Dale Earnhardt running in fourth position looking at some who've been moving up and some who've been sliding back in the middle stages of the event Chad little moves up 11 positions Bobby Labonte ninth the 1st Matt Kenseth we documented his terrific run and Rusty Wallace fine overcome to himself back to sixth position now sliding back Tony Stewart his car handling deteriorating rapidly he's back to 12th position on the dollar back Robert Pressley Sterling Marlin they had that struggling in the center section of this race there's Presley we showed him earlier he's had a wild night Robert Pressley a she's with all over the racetrack just trying to hang I don't even like Brad with him with a camper in the car you know it's gotta be bothering them Circuit City telemetry and Presley's car you could just hear by the onboard microphone there he's out of the throttle now we go down the corner one town day two describes away from him as he goes up the racetrack and route again that is no fun at any speed they knew that we just saw know why let so much of this event earlier in the evening he's led a hundred of the 236 laps but when he came down pit road for his service just a few laps ago but he's evil I caught something they're a little funny in the right side of the car well [Music] my would have the report over 25 let's go down and hear what's wrong go buddy just before he came in for that pit stop he's rushed up against the wall it was a scary moment for the entire team and especially for the driver Jerry Nadeau and his crew chief Tony Perez take a deep breath were going to be ok they had a great pit stop he didn't lose any positions he is running third we saw the car came by the frame there buddy that right side paint not as pristine as it was before what happened but the good part was the tire [Music] there's the fear bobby labonte 237 laps into 400 that make up the coca-cola 600 in charlotte we're coming right back [Music] looking down on low Smulders Speedway Charlotte getting reports that the rain is right about on top of the racetrack you ride with the race leader Bobby Labonte as he cycles down the back straightaway there's our Napa field summary run down after 243 of the 400 laps the last 15 of these 43 starters only three cars not on the racetrack at the moment Scott Pruett Ricky Craven and bill Elliott's machine all retired from the event onboard with Dale Earnhardt jr. he's fallen now one and a half seconds behind leader Bobby the body mike hogewood has an update on his car I think probably for the first time since he's been here at Charlotte Moo's car he's actually complained a little bit about it says the car has gotten a whole lot worse it's really loose on the racetrack and his Tony Eury senior does so often and so calmly he just says hang in there what else do you tell them to do it there's not much you can tell them to do right now Jr's a second and a half behind Labonte and the thing that surely is worrying is that view through the windshield that you just saw those heavy black clouds just to the north of the racetrack boy it won't take much before those things open up and that could be the end of it here tonight he's closing on [Music] I think he did calm down when they called him and said this and just drive your race we'll fix it when to get in here and sometime when he slowed down he actually go faster for coach you don't abuse entire Tony Stewart in the 20 is a lap down NASCAR has spotters placed all around the racetrack watching for debris and things like that and right now there's a lot of radio communication from the race director David hoots to a lot of the spotters around the racetrack asking if there's any rain falling we haven't seen any of the windshields so far but it's looking really ugly so far the reports have come back but now they've come back positive cautions there is caution for rain the skies have just opened up caution for rain at lap 246 wolf and they did open it's amazing you know NASCAR has got so much experience doing this they've been through this situation so many times how they just had people around who knew when the weather was getting close enough that it began to be a concern yeah did you see Tony Stewart got his lap back let him go now they just radioed and said it said he didn't beat Bobby didn't beat him through the start/finish line so he's gonna have to go back I think by the time Bobby found out it was Tony that was right behind him it was too late he was already in the start/finish line and with the rain he wasn't and us being past halfway he wasn't going to back off and let Stewart go by and take a chance on letting Dale jr. beat him to the stripe certain exactly right well this stuff's been hanging around for most of the night this weather has it it's finally just creased the edge of the Speedway not much on the windshield of the car as you see there but we did see that shot up into the lights by where all the spotters are standing on the roof next to us and there were some very thick drops pelting down there jerry nadeau running third behind Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt jr. at this point let's get an update on his car from pit road they are hoping it rains in the worst way they have developed a Miss in the motor they think it might be a valve spring the leaders have pitted under the cook the caution for rain when the races past halfway this is interesting it's a surprise Dale Earnhardt jr. in Matt Kenseth in trying to see if anyone has stayed on the racetrack to try and maybe slip one away Kevin LePage stayed out he is the last car on the lead lap Nadeau stayed OH my would they're taking four tires and fuel mist on the motor and what a top great for Bobby Labonte making that maybe questionable decision to come a pit road we will check with Jimmy Makar in just a moment as to what's behind the decision jr. beating the body off pit road but they're going to be behind the Jerry Nadeau who has stayed on the racetrack under the caution flag for rain the crew chiefs know what's going on weather-wise too they watched the radar that's a calculated risk of hip and this time I can remember a couple of races in recent history being stolen in the rain most prominently in my mind Darrell Waltrip and Darlington was not the fastest car he wound up getting the win in the southern 500 Dave Marcus at Richmond 1982 let's see what happens with the weather when we come back to Charlotte in just a minute stay with us well I've got quite an interesting scenario playing out here in the coca-cola 600 as you looked down on Lowe's Motor Speedway from the Circuit City aerial platform we're under the caution for rain two cars stayed on the racetrack Jerry Nadeau and Jeff Burton the leaders Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt jr. and the other lead lap cars all came in four tires and fuel under this yellow for rain let's get out of hit Road to my wood well let's get the answer for the reason to come down on pit road during this rain caution from crew chief Jimmy Makar well actually we've got people watching the weather all around the racetracks on radar screens and up on top of the roof of the stands and what I'm being told is that this shower is just going to be a light one it's probably gonna stay north of us and it's clear in behind it so we're figuring and hoping that you know the rains going to be a light shower it's going to get away we're gonna go back green flag racing and if we do that then everybody that didn't take tires and pit right now is gonna have to come back in and get their tires and and put them in behind traffic so uh we're uh we're gambling that the we're gonna go back green again and we're gonna be able to be out front when it gets started that's the strategy here in the 18th pit to Mike Massaro well one of the drivers who did also come down pit road for tires and some adjustments also with fuel is a or Richard Childress the team owner for the three car can comment on the strategy and the rain in the area the threatening weather how has that changed your strategy well you know right now we were debating don't staying at our pit but we figured as good as the car was running we still needed make some adjustments on it we made several adjustments that stopped we're here to try to win the race and he goes back green we're gonna be in good shape too Marty Snider and Frank Stoddard is the crew chief for for Jeff Burton and Frankie why did you decide not to stop well I was hoping nobody would I mean I was hoping that everybody would pit except for us but the 25 stayed out I just take it a change still we were over at 11th I thought there was 15 in the lead lap turns out I think there's 16 actually maybe 14 but every guy let's uh you know just take it a shot I mean you know you launders rains gonna stay it's at nine o'clock now at night it's gonna take a couple hours to try the track if it gets real saturated and you know I think these fans want to go home if it gets real wet here so I'm trying to look out for the fans not bashful about bobbing a little bit on the air is he well you know in one class last year in Darlington with the car it started raining crashed into the wall the car come to a stop but he went by the flag stand stopped behind the pace car if it started back green he would have never been able to move well you could see the rain is not heavy but it is heavy enough we can't run it how about the leaders decision not to pit let's find out well they're doing rain dances all around down here in the Jerry Nadeau pits Toni fir what's the story with the car rain right now these other guys win in the rain and so we're gonna try to do the same thing now what about these reports if there's problems with the engine under 25 well we're not sure he said it was missing we're gonna change boxes here once we get back up to our pens we'll save it we're not sure it might be an official guys but you want it to rain right now big time all right till the rain gets underway here Tony for the crew chief for leader Jerry Nadeau watching the rainfall at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the coca-cola 600 we're coming back in a minute to see if we can restart this race [Music] back at Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte the coca-cola 600 is under a rain delay and it's about to be under the red flag jerry nadeau the race leader staying on the racetrack under this caution flag hoping the heavens were going to open up and that we would not be able to get this race restarted it's raining a little heavier heavy enough that we're going to see the race not be restarted well we don't know that yet we'll wait a while before we find that out but for now it is having enough but they're going to bring the cars down pit road cover them up and park them and the coca-cola 600 is going to go on to the red flag at lap 254 of 400 so crew chief doesn't just have to set the car up and hire all the right people and have great pit stops and have a terrific motor needs to be a great weather man as well meteorologist Todd Parrott that we saw there a minute ago meteorologist Tony fer speaking of Todd Parrott the camera was on him because our Mike Massaro is with him let's talk about Dale Jarrett now who's not run as well tonight as we might have expected but now in the rain seem to come in a real inopportune time for the 88 team it seemed Todd that the car was really surging towards the front appeared to be real good on those long runs how much did this rain put a damper on your plans well you know the car head it was good the first pit stop and hadn't really been very good ever since and synched we're fighting the tire war tonight and you just so happens we hit on something and early in the race we were saving it for late saw the rains came coming and figured we better start getting to work and start getting our best stuff up on the wall really had done a whole lot to the car but change tires like say we've hit on something on the tyres and the guys have had awesome pit stops 14 second fourteen and a half second pit stops all night long and keeps getting that good track position so we need the rain to go away right now we've got a really good race car same car we had here in the Winston and if we get the right set of tires on at the right time you know look what a little Lee did last Saturday night you know he got bored tires we should have come got four but hey you never know what's gonna happen so I'm just proud of this guys they've done a great job got a great race car and see what happens Todd Parrott crystallizing the thoughts of many teams down on this end of pit road they want the rain to go away so the cars being covered up the drivers will be climbing out and we're going to go under the red flag for rain the coca-cola 600 381 miles in with Jerry Nadeau holding on to the top spot Mark Martin and mark the threatening skies everybody knew about it the last several laps how did it affect your strategy didn't I don't think it affected it at all and Mark Martin of course commenting on the car being just a little bit off to your liking we've been slow on two runs real fast on one run and mediocre on a couple so we're hoping to hit the right combination for the last room is this break and allow your team to regroup and maybe put together a better game plan for the remaining laps if we're lucky you know I don't think it's playing that way we're trying to do it every time and sometimes it just didn't work out that way so we'll see how it turns out we've got a lot more racing left well the Roush Racing team meeting has broken up let's go to Marty Snyder and Dale Earnhardt currently well they took the scoreboard down where are you Dale helps the car out there well it's a little tight on the last set of tires and the last two sets actually and got this stop here we made some adjustments and hopefully it'll be all we need to debate the car turn better Center so just got a little tighter as it cooled off and you know if it raining on this racetrack now it's gonna be a different racetrack again so we'll see jr. said he was having fun racing with you but you weren't giving him very much room he said he took care of I kidding the High Line and his cars a little more neutral in mine that's why he was able to go and my car was getting tighter and tighter so maybe we can get it adjusted and go race with I always say you know things are gonna happen before they actually happen and I believe in the happy hour show you told us we were gonna race for a while and then it was gonna rain and then we'd finish the race didn't yet that looks like it's what's gonna happen maybe he does know things before they're gonna happen that's Dale Earnhardt I think Marty's just tried to stir up some trouble between dad and son you think he's telling he said he said you see Mark Martin eat the sandwich he says nothing with the car but eat the sandwich something's gonna change their stomachs gonna be in different shape we go back to green all right here's the situation we are under the red flag for rain at 381 miles now this is an official race if the weather were to get real heavy and close in on us the race could be stopped at this point but what's going to happen is this we're going to wait this out for a while because the weather is not heavy all around this is just a shower that's passing over the area of the Speedway and it will pass through NASCAR we'll wait we ran here in 97 until 1:30 in the morning before the race was stopped so we'll wait this out it'll take him a little while to dry the track after the rain does stop completely but you can see they're not wasting any time they've already got the jet dryers out onto the Speedway and there's the weather map my cog would doesn't look too bad does it no not at all just what you were talking about Alan here's the Charlotte Motor Speedway under Speedway it's Charlotte and you can see that this front is sir this thunderstorm is just about through us and it is clean and green on the other side so I I do think just like Dale Earnhardt says we're gonna have more racing here tonight could take them as much as an hour to dry the track after the rain stops completely you see them working on it already and hopefully we'll get the resumption of the coca-cola 600 fairly shortly stay with us and we're back with you at Lowe's Motor Speedway as you look at the leader Jerry Nadeau out of Danbury Connecticut who grew up watching his dad Gerard at the old Danbury racer Emma hello everyone ken Squier in this rain period here in the 41st running of the coca-cola 600 it was like an invisible curtain up here on the third and fourth corner for a considerable amount of time and then it flanked us and came up over the start/finish line and here we are with the 381 miles now complete 254 laps and let's take a look at a full field summary here as to how things are transpiring in this great race Jerry Nadeau in front and the guy who can come up with a million dollar bonus Jeff Burton is right there in second Earnhardt jr. Bobby Labonte who won the fastest 600 back in 95 is fourth and young Matt Kenseth driving a brilliant fifth place to present I'm looking further back in the field and is the old man Earnhardt senior and he's getting ready to show his stuff Ricky Rudd having an excellent race tonight Rusty Wallace was penalized early right back in the thing Dale Jarrett a former winner Mike Skinner stays with the Larry McReynolds and company and then when you get to the 11th position you've got Mark Martin and he has to be a consideration every time he comes out and particularly on this track he hasn't won sundered he has the fire Jeff Gordon has been having some problems but he is in 12th and that means he could be around before it's over followed by park Mayfield and Ward Burton he has been struggling Tony Stewart 16 remembering his fourth a year ago Rick mast having a good night Kevin LePage started up in the front he has fallen back into the 18th position Johnny Benson thought he was going to have a much better run this evening than what he currently is experiencing and Kenny Wallace stays 20th on the field Michael Waltrip and you saw him getting lapped out here earlier and that's sad to see you know how much he wants that first Winston Cup race Spencer Sadler Kenny Irwin Joe Nemechek in that group Chad little is a little further back Dave Blaney he bounced off the wall again today he did it yesterday in the 300 and bit him again tonight Sterling Marlin Terry Labonte he's struggling and Robert Pressley take us back to the 30th position here as we await the conclusion of his shower and get this track right out Kenny Schrader Geoffrey Bodine still in there he has had no replacement yet his brother Todd is standing by just in case he needs some help after that terrible crash at Daytona back in February darling back Bobby Hamilton Brett Bodine take us back to 35th and then to round out the field Tim Fedewa who stepped in for John Andretti had a bad crash last week but then the rib didn't crack until practice yesterday morning and he has said he's used to paying but it's that sharp sudden pain that really get you and he could not give that car a good ride PJ Jones is here he's giving car arrived with Gorton who was out of an Indianapolis we give you an update on what happened there a little later Mike Bliss Stacey Compton Darrell Waltrip who bought that ride the number 85 is in 40th position and rounding out the field scott pruett he was in trouble early Ricky Craven Bill Elliott lost a motor bit further back in the event and the command has just been given to crank him up we heard the crowd respond and very shortly engines will fire and they'll begin to roll them out we still have a couple of jet dryers out here on the track in the main straightaway doing a little polishing job on the Speedway before we get back and go green to complete this 41st running three million dollars is at stake a million dollar bonus for Burton if he can stay up there and take it away from NATO or whoever else comes to challenge in the final laps of this event red flag is still on the track but not for much longer there go the Nets up in the cars what a difference they have made in drivers safety over the years here's Jeff Gordon getting ready we're still waiting for that command to fire the engines and send them on their way now you can see them begin to roll indeed they have fired them and they're about to move out onto the track with jerry nadeau leading the way the surprise the dark horse in this race and the question is can he stay there and win for Rick Hendrick [Music] [Applause] [Music] there they are rolling around this mile and a half track like diamonds out there let's take a look at what has happened so far see if we can get you up to date on how it all began and how we have come to where we are this is the start Earnhardt jr. on the point falling back was the 25 and then coming back they do here he is getting by Bill Elliott and taking second place and here he is up the outside and around Dale Earnhardt jr. for the lead lap 80 Steve Park looks at coming into the tri-oval area in the double dogleg brought out the first caution of the day lap 117 Earnhardt senior with those strange looking colors on number three brings the crowd to its feet Nadeau came right back stack them three high he came through on the bottom went back in the first place lap 130 and Mike Bliss is out of control but it brought another caution lap 136 here is Earnhardt senior taking the lead from Jerry lap 151 a little love tap here Robert Pressley send Scott through it right into the laundromat and look at this father against son on the bottom of the respect they learn hard and Dale Earnhardt jr. alonside and then Jerry Nadeau pulls up scoots by once again shows the supremacy of that Hendrick car lap 193 Jr's back at it Dale Earnhardt jr. new names new faces making the difference in Atlanta 248 there were pit stops Bobby Labonte in for well stall from Owen on pit road and there's Dale Earnhardt jr. getting out just in front of it but Nadeau had stayed on the track thinking the rain was going to come they had been talking to him and sure enough the rains came red flag came out it has been there for some time and now we're back ready to go racing another time with Nadeau in front Jeff Burton and second and to bring you more of the action once again here's Allen Bestwick thank you can 51 minutes under the red flag because of the rain but now the car is rolling again under the yellow with dick Berggren and Buddy Baker I guess the question is once they open pit road and it is still closed because they're running the jet dryers down the pit lane to get all the moisture off there once they open the pit lane we make the assumption they do and Jeff Burton who stayed out earlier are gonna have to come in for service almost guaranteed that they're going to do that the question after that point will be what's going to happen in a news car with a valve spring that's failed almost certainly he's lost enough horsepower he's going to have a real tough time of it from here on well that that is true and they they were hoping that the rains will keep on because of Al Spring he's not going to have the performance if that's the problem but they also said they may be able to change the ignition inside the car that might be the problem instead of a valve spring so you know Jerry Nadeau is going to lose tremendous amount of track position here though he'll have to go right to the back when he comes in and they're just guessing what the problem is right now when they do get back up to full rpm and they change the ignition box if that doesn't fix it then they'll know it's something internal inside the engine and they'll have a good idea their chances for victory tonight are going to be very much dimmer still what a big night for naidu who ten years ago was racing go-karts of all things went from that to dirt track modified to the barber saab series european formula Opel's he's worked as a roofer to pay the bills mowed lawns even towed show cars so that he could afford to race in here tonight he has dominated the front end of the coca-cola 600 Naidu has led five times for a hundred ten to the 257 laps that we've run tonight let's go to pit road and Mike Massaro Paul Allen as you know a big factor right now is track temperature we measured the temperature of the racetrack at the green flag it was a hundred and three degrees right now we've got the thermometer we're gonna take a reading as we do we can see it is now eighty nine point four degrees so it has dropped significantly and of course this is a factor because it will change the characteristics of these race cars talking to some fruit Eve's they expect this racetrack to get real tight real fast and with that in mind we expect to see a lot of changes on pit road on the next stop that'll be interesting to see how many the cars that stopped just under the caution for rain the first time come back in again to make changes to their cars now pit road is open this time here comes they do down said they don't know Nadeau stayed on the racetrack Nadeau and Burton both stayed out well that's a shock to me well what is it absolute shock to me what I think you're doing now Allen's riding around and they're trying to get as far as they possibly can if they run five or six more laps around here that's gas mileage so they're gonna stay out there to the last moment then come in because they're going through the rear end II am Bobby the body's in Matt Kenseth's in Jeff Gordon's in Dale Jarrett's in mark Martin's in Jeremy Mayfield is in these lead lap cars I'm calling off here well they've all had a chance to talk things over for quite a while this is an opportunity to adjust the cars for a racetrack that has changed significantly making either a wedge or a track bar adjustment on the body the body car we saw the pit stop there being changed into left rear of the car so that's what they do they sit down with the crew chief and they say here's what we're doing they maybe need to come on in and get things changed around Bobby Labonte certainly is way back now but hey listen a good race car will make up a lot of distance on a race track if you're new to NASCAR which being the pressure of the jacking bolts on the springs it affects the weight transfer of the car from corner to corner when it hits the banking the track bar being what holds the rear end housing in place you could raise or lower that to affect the handling on your car it's pretty simple to understand if you go down on the spring and put full attention on this you go up and take the tension off the spring so Jerry Nadeau is going to stay out and hold on to the race lead Jeff Burton will stay in second it'll move Dale Earnhardt jr. up to third here comes Burton giving up his spot on the racetrack to make his pit stop a lap later again surprises B Marty well Allen the first time to be honest it was a miscommunication Frank Stoddard to his hands up in the air and wondered where Jeff Burton was why he didn't come down pit road right now the cars a little bit tight but that was an hour ago this is a very tough decision for these guys as to what they're going to do and they are having all kinds of problems on the right rear I think they're putting a rubber in the right rear and also they are think they might be able to make it on one more stop so Jeff Burton may be playing a little fuel strategy was supposed to come down pit road last time but maybe this will help them in the [Music] it's not a huge huge problems only 13 cars on the lead lap and that's where Burton is going to come out he'd be running right around number 13 spot when they take the green flag here so not a big problem Robby Gordon coming in getting some attention paid to his car here under the caution flag Gordon now aboard that machine we told you that Rick mast has stayed in the AJ Foyt car after suffering from some food poisoning he's decided he's going to tough it out Geoffrey Bodine still in the Power Team machine the Joe Bessey operation Tim Fedewa is in the John Andretti car made that driver change earlier we talked about the Bobby Labonte car and the pit stop they made of the adjustments they made by cog Wood has more on that for us you remember they made an adjustment when we were under caution for the rain they made a track bar adjustment the wrong way they figured it out during this rain delay so they came down on pit road and made the adjustment the correct way well I just can't figure this out here comes they do now at the one to go signal and that's going to put him at the absolute tail end of all the cars that are on the lead lap and why they hadn't decided to do this earlier it's just an absolute mystery and this doesn't seem to be a reasonable thing to do rolling the tire that's a new rule this year back midway through the year they have to get the tires away from the right side of the car away from the right side of the pit box if they don't do that NASCAR through a penalty out and they also did a wedge test out that prayer when they was stopped there Nader is going to come back out in 14th position for the restart by the way the Robby Gordon car sitting on pit road is being held for five laps as a penalty for disobeying instructions given by a NASCAR official so there's going to be a five lap penalty assessed there - Robby Gordon you see the official standing in front of the car well stayed in Indianapolis in the Manasota and maybe Burger King don't know what the instruction was that they were given that they've disobeyed but it's going to be a five lap penalty for that we're coming to the green flag gonna go back racing at lap 261 Dale Earnhardt jr. now takes over the lead Dale Earnhardt his second Ricky Rudd his third Rusty Wallace is for that Mike Skinner his fifth and just on the Untied tony stewart a lap down right now he's gonna put the pressure on Earnhardt to try to get back in the lead lap Stewart the 15th place car as we come down for the restart about an hour after it started raining the coca-cola 600 is back under way but the pressure he didn't come close to getting the jump on her narc jr. he just father and son first and second that's happened tonight you're moving download a block tony stewart who tried to get his lap back here comes Stewart inside to turn three you've seen that trend this holy day he really runs that car far in be very aggressive and the car is up for the tour hit just after down take a look at the Napa field summary now that we're back under green let you know where everybody stands as we run down good Steve Park up the 6th remember the drivers that made the stop under this caution the body those are the drivers that made to stop under the caution [Music] 14 on the lead lap the body in Kenseth here double wide for 738 positions that's Johnny Benson just in front of them Benson laughs down let's go to pit road and Barney Schneider well the answer has to why Jerry they do Matt Kenseth who those guys came down pit road and why carry and Matt ley or Jerry and Jeff Burton waited so long they think they can turn this into a race but they only have to stop one more time Jeff Burton and came down at lap 260 now if you had 70 laps that that's 330 70 and that is the finish of the race so these teams think they can make it [Music] you definitely make it on one more stop and said absolutely boy I say if that's a big big deal this right now Tony Stewart's got a big deal boy and he's back on the lead lap just in front of our leader Dale Earnhardt jr. to stay in front of the way Wow he's not gonna make it jr. had the nose of his car right up under the back bumper of Tony Stewart and how that upsets a car think of the nose of that racing machine almost like a snowplow but instead of pushing snow and pushing care there's literally a bubble of air in front of the front air a front air dam of those cars up against the back water with the car in front of you that bubble of air your snowplow just literally pushes the back end of that car in front of you around and loosens it up jerry nadeau or try to make up lost ground 14 position is where he's falling back to it's not even up with the pact at this point these other dogs and that engine problem obviously is manifesting itself further but look who's in third spot we just saw him in the corner of the shot there he is now in the middle you screen Rusty Wallace now at second spot all of a sudden us the earlier in the race had not one but two penalties for speeding on pit road lost some track position at that point he lost 10 positions at one spot from six back to 16 from one of the penalties he's picking his way back through and it appears the change in track conditions is suited his car well yes and several years back Rusty Wallace even lost a cylinder and won the race here because he proce are very very hard corner and you can see it sticking right on the bottom of the racetrack cars hooked up but you have to remember well new traditions here a washdown racetrack and that probably made his car more competitive that roaring stop there rusty finished second in both 97 and 1998 runnings of the 600 both times to Jeff Gordon both times with different pit strategies and in 94 also seconds to Geoff Bertha so that's three second places the last six six hundreds all to the same guy by the second race court and Wallace one of them took two tires one took more than one the race denied the gate race was just the opposite they did the opposite they've done the year before and his owns came out the same I know rusty was particularly frustrated that night he said it doesn't matter last year I did the different thing this year because I lost last year and the result still came out the same lap car Tony Stewart between himself and the leader Dale Earnhardt jr. but a good night as far as time spent out front for Dale jr. it has indeed really taken on a more or less aggressive live around the race too earlier in the race he's running pretty much the de memoire it's just not making any progress remember that just when we went to the caution for rain we got the report that there was a miss in Jerry Naidu's engine they speculated it might be an ignition box they were going to try and change to the backup system when we went back to full speed racing then they also speculated it might have been a valve spring going bad and I would say by the fact that they do has fallen off the back of the pack that it is the valve spring he's in serious trouble here with his 129 laps left to go in this race I would defect you that Tony Eury don't you have a breast racecar don't get aggressive right now they're in the lead nobody's tension force Tony Stewart in 1999 won three races as it will be the first Winston Cup will be ever to do so Dale Earnhardt jr. could feed off tonight if he scores the victory here I'll actually won three one of them wasn't appointment yeah doesn't really count it's a national disgrace it is it is and the things that really matter are the point races now will sleep Rusty Wallace has the muscle to rock down Dale Earnhardt jr. he has a clear race track in between needed and thing I learned are tuner Piku close that now that'll tell you have a great face card I'll tell you what he's got a lot of fans they had a fan Appreciation Day at his shop yesterday 4,000 people showed up they had the good send the truck out for more hamburg's and he brought them all back didn't have enough get center back out for still more been talking about Jerry Nadeau and speculating that the engine problem is worsening mike hogewood about it indeed it is I just talked to Tony for anyway he had a dejected look on his face and I looked up at him and he just looked at me and said valve springs and you just told him to ride it out but they're really down on horsepower right now Jerry Nadeau has led a hundred and fifteen of the 273 laps tonight doesn't look like this is going to be the night for Winston Cup win number one one of the real problems with Val's race is not just that the engine could get soft that Valve starts bouncing too deep to the de cylinder could bounce off the Bissman that could be the end of the engine at the end of the night Bobby Ward's back on track after serving the five lap penalty put of all the way back to 40th position the last car running in the event Scott Rolen Ricky Craven and Bill Elliott the three drivers that have fallen out of the event leader Dale jr. by the Robby Horton issue well Tony Eury said this car is very fast race war on is good an absolutely rockin all night long can't imagine it getting any quicker there's Mike Skinner running in fourth spot three seconds behind the leader see his scoring serial on the right been very steady solidly up in the top ten except for that one stretch where he got shuffled back and Mike Skinner has here in the guard that they told me they put in there to run 600 miles they didn't want to see the rain they think they'll get stronger tonight goes catching Dale Earnhardt his teammate the race for third position Skinner took just two tires on the set of pit stops back at lap 131 that got him up in the lead at that point for a couple of flashes in the event an interesting stat on Mike Skinner is that every time he has drunk Lowe's Motor Speedway and finished the race does better than the last time he ran here he was third in October of last year ninth in this race of life looking from Dale Earnhardt jr. back to Rusty Wallace to check the interval between the top two there is on the stopwatch that is one point three three three seconds back underway in the coca-cola 600 at Charlotte or on TBS to the moment [Music] back at Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte live coverage of the coca-cola 640 first running for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series at this point 282 laps are complete that's just past 400 miles in this event and you're looking at the race leader Dale Earnhardt jr. who's got one point three seven seconds on Rusty Wallace little farther back side by side race for 11th and 12th positions Jeff Gordon and Jeremy Mayfield here they've really been going at it to slugging it out riding in Jeff Gordon's car here while we look at what the cars doing outside and buddy kind of school us a little bit on what's happening here watch his movements it's going down in the corner down into turn one there on the outside this is what we call hustling the car watch his arm speed here trying to keep that car right over the ragged edge that make time on the car he's trying to pass there he fights his racecar it is not drive it just the need making up for it in this hard driving back and forth on the steering wheel about right here he'll really get me far in on that baby sounded like you had to stay out of the gas a little bit there it's not had much fun with that race car tonight House has not been the competitive race car the see Jeff board drive here opposed motor speed and we were laughing or I shouldn't said laughing we are talking as may feel just blows by Jeremy gun by Jeff brother Jeff might have had a problem there and a little bit loose because he without running to 12 therefore she laughing you're talking during the commercial about ourselves how many times can you say Jeff Gordon's just not had a good car in Charlotte recent history I don't even think he's been in the top ten except for once earlier when he led for a lap on an exchange of green flag pit stops by staying on the racetrack longer than everybody else did usually by now he's got that card dialed in so [Music] he's running a 12 spot and losing ground there's the leader Dale Earnhardt jr. News added another six tenths of a second on to his advance Rusty Wallace 1.9 seconds now drop first back the second a trustee has pulled away from Dale Earnhardt the third place car by a huge margin almost three seconds [Music] moving up and moving back Mike Skinner up to fourth position see Kenny Irwin's came to view spots Rusty Wallace picking up four positions from lap 202 left to 86 when we are now sliding back Jerry Nadeau the engine problem dropped he came to the last car on the lead lap Tony Stewart has lost full of positions over the last a little while now running one lap down in 15th position when Presley with our Circuit City telemetry we've watched Robert basically struggle with this car for much of the night and that's not a late car out there this turn at 80 600 rpm gives you an idea what these guys are doing with a runner maybe to camp quick or a lot see the sparks fly as the brakes wear okay this is the shop grab here you see it going up and down this is the fall spring and this is the plate on the top when you hear it say they put weight into it they wrap this down and that puts more tension on this bring yourself [Music] while watching that Dale Earnhardt jr. continues whitening his advantage over Rusty Wallace look at the gap now but what a run he has had from Texas on winning Texas and then the auto win again at Richmond and then the pole here and hittin the Winston and she he's going to remember these few days you still got a yellow stripe mother back bumper he's still a rookie Jeff of rookie yeah he's the rookie okay yeah tell you what get brought up in the home with the person like they learned confrontation around the tables not baseball racing but he's got an enormous amount of talent true I mean he came into NASCAR's Busch grand national series of his first year he's Rookie of the Year won the championship two years two championships 13 wins this guy has just got it all meantime dad is running in third position there's Dale Earnhardt the seven-time champion 1/3 seconds behind his son Dale jr. Mike Massaro has an update on the Earnhardt car and Alan we mentioned the gap between Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt and one of the reasons maybe the changing track it isn't just focus receive Kevin Hamlin he said the car is getting tighter and tighter every lap further down pit road his teammate with Richard Childress Racing Mike Skinner spoke with team manager David Smith he said the same thing expect them to try to free those cars up next time is Skinner there to try and take fourth spot away from him one thing you can predict about this racetrack quite frankly that's not a lot you can't predict about it is that in this night race as we get further into the event the cars tend to tighten up you know we heard that Kipnis say he really hated to see the rains come because he gets better as a whole long run with us cruising now back up again Kenseth going after Skinner for fourth to get that spot into turn number three so two rookies in the top five in the coca-cola 600 past 400 miles Dale Earnhardt jr. the leader Matt Kenseth now up to fourth the drivers in between them Rusty Wallace in second Dale Earnhardt third Mike Skinner rounds out the top five and we're coming right back [Applause] and during our coverage of the coca-cola 600 log on to TBS superstation comm funnel live in car camera action a lot of the front-running drivers in this event carrying our onboard cameras log on TBS superstation comm just about to hit the 450 mile mark of the 41st running of the coca-cola 600 Dale Earnhardt jr. leads Rusty Wallace by 2.30 80 seconds mike hogewood with an update for us on Rusty Wallace well you'd think the Rusty Wallace might be happy in running second but they're not a lot of happy looks in the pits part of the crew members in sudol were awfully tight just like everybody else is getting and then they also sit in right now we have absolutely nothing for the HR rusty having fallen back so far because of two speeding on pit road penalties earlier but he is recovered for those nicely thank you very much upper left-hand corner of your screen our full field summary showing you intervals from the leader back to the position that your favorite driver may or may not be running in may be running in fifteen seconds down Steve Park 16 seconds down now the cars a lap or more down Jerry Nadeau has been overtaken by the leader Dale junior yeah that means that's a terrible thing he's out there running basically on seven so there's an at such a great run up a little while ago matter of fact leading at the rain break you know who's really dropped it back right now it's a bobby labonte for some reason to meet for spotty made the pit stop for the caution after we came back from the rain subtract position there nearly as quickly as we thought eighth position now and Bobby is some 11 seconds behind leader Dale there's Dale Jarrett he's running in 10th spot now 14 seconds behind the leader scoring cereal on DJ the NASCAR Winston Cup champion actually not scoring cereal but intervals from himself to the leader and you could see he's been losing ground the Dale jr. everybody who's in crowded valence you at this point don't think he keep up with in nobody now 2.8 seconds for mine his dad is almost five seconds behind Junior is setting it absolutely in case here but remember this is a 600-mile race and more than a few drivers can tell you stories about leading this thing at 500 miles and not winning wide open field behind deal there Alan there's one thing right there that's a famous thing have a look in the mirror and not see another car behind that's a wonderful thing oh okay okay well I imagine out there flying looking back if they say yeah I imagine so Dale jr. talked last year in his debut here in the concentration he'd been running the NASCAR Busch Series the 200 and 300 mile races he came here made his Winston Cup debut in the 600 and said the most difficult thing for him was keeping his concentration in the second half of the event now this year Winston Cup circuit obviously quite successfully 500-mile races but we still heard him Express earlier tonight a concern about making sure he kept his focus in his concentration the whole six on five runs a long time a long race that rain delay surely will it help you to sort of unload a little bit calm down relaxing a sandwich if he wants it back in and go do it again so they've really got two races let's battle for third spot Matt Kenseth by Dale Earnhardt in to the number three spot so Kenseth the other super rookie continuing to charge they were having a break you heard their heart didn't say I see Matt Kenseth on that scoreboard coming my way can't wait till it gets here so we can go back and race like we did in push we're starting Winston Cup tonight dave blaney came down pit road a moment ago smoke trailing for this car he's gone behind the wall and he's with Marty Snider well what a tough day for Dave Blaney finally out what happened something broke in the engine out of a broken piston or something with uh man Amoco to me team was being a good night we started off really bad really bad loose and got laughs real quick and you know after that they got it pretty good when it got dark and the track got cooled off we could hang pretty good but then gets finish it but I learned a lot got some good guys we could have made it all night they planean his bill davis pontiac done for the evening looking up here at the computer the fastest car that last lap is that it is actually running faster than our league car right now but as you can see the timin our juniors got a pretty comfortable pad right now Nick and we're the rookies are running in this event both Blaney and Scott threw it out two of them in the top three and Mike Bliss and Stacy Compton kind of struggling toward the tail end of the cars that are on the Speedway at this point while we're watching Matt Kenseth Marty Snider has an update for us on the Kenseth machine from his pit well buddy you hit it dead on the head he is great on a law the car is working really good right now and you got to remember one thing Robbie Reiser said they can make it on one more stop and for the last last soil they've been on the fastest car on the track now there's caution on the track we have caution Ken Schrader's into the wall in turn two caution is on the speedway back in the car door nothing really bad and a lot of folks over there [Music] caution is on the Speedway this yellow flag number five make it number six in the event and there goes Earnhardt's big league yasya erased now the caution flag here takes the making it on one more hit stop out of the equation because if they hit at 310 there's nobody gonna go 90 laps on a tank of fuel you don't can't do it gonna have to make one more after this so that eliminates that from the formula G is junior gonna ram the face car just like that close you think a rookie would be that bold that rookie might yeah maybe so no no well be very interesting to see what happens here on these pit stops first let's take a look at what happened to the Ken Schrader machine as you see the crew going to work trying to fix some of the damage as quickly as they can the 36 cars getting Schrader right there as he starts off the corner you can see him backing into the wall coming off the corner they're very lucky that everybody sees him it's only one car involved it gets it back straight and contented his arm I'll bet if we had a chance to talk to Kenny right now he'd say I was bad loose and it just got away fine-tuning the aerodynamics on that Sammy John's with the hammer there it's a bad part that car was probably in the wind tunnel two weeks ago leaders are in stops at lap 310 with 90 laps to go Dale Earnhardt jr. Rusty Wallace and Matt Kenseth the order as they come down pit road let's go to Mike hog would Dale Earnhardt is in for his stop it will be a four-tire change full tank of fuel jack van Jeff Clark has it up on the left side the front tire changer is Tony Eury jr. Brandi Cox who's on the rear tires and they are getting too bolted on on the it's a great stop for Dale Earnhardt jr. but a great stop for Matt Kenseth 59 and Kenseth is going to get the lead on the pit stops oh boy look at rusty Wallace's time trouble there for his crew 20.3 he's going to come out at least fifth maybe six well we're talking about how important the pit crews are there it is right there Kenseth with a 15-point nine stop amazing for a crew that was put together just this year while you hear crew chiefs talk about track position being hard to get it's very easy to lose Kenseth just got good track position Rusty Wallace just lost a bunch of it under caution pit stops [Music] the leader is Matt Kenseth Dale Earnhardt jr. is second there is Dale Earnhardt who runs in third you see the pit stop summary look at Rusty Wallace in second and out night just a couple of extra seconds on pit road dropping him those seven positions Mike Massaro has more on Dale Earnhardt and Allen a huge break for Dale Earnhardt about a half a lap before that caution came out he had radioed in to crew chief Kevin Hamlin he had a right rear tire going down you can take a look here we do have the tire there's a cut inside the trim here about an inch long this tire was going down rapidly and Dale Earnhardt was going to have to come in if that caution didn't come out Wow some days just get lucky so again set the three start here it'll come at lap number 313 400 laps make up the 600 mile distance tonight rain shower earlier stopping us under the red flag for some 51 minutes but the weather has moved away as you looked out from the Circuit City aerial platform and we're getting set to go back at it one more time Kenseth Earnhardt jr. Earnhardt Bobby Labonte Jeremy Mayfield the top five the rest of the top ten Ricky Rudd Jeff Burton Mike Skinner Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett and the final cars on the lead lap that will be Jeff Gordon in 11th Mark Martin in 12th and Steve Park in 30 [Music] what is stored on the bottom will she be [Music] a good run earn our - that went very hard there [Music] do it now back on the tail end of the lead lap you can get a caution flag before Matt Kenseth gets back by him will come back around into the hunt for a good finish I'm third card off turn four on behalf that Kent has set the door on me just like old times last year in NASCAR's Busch grand national series when Byrd Hart jr. in Kenseth battles week after week for the championship and her race wins to or the race lead around the lap car of Tony Stewart it comes dad to make it three wide if he can yeah Tony got called up from the high side [Music] look at Earnhardt senior fight see that dark spot the cars ran the turns three and four there's a section of the lights that are out not the outside lights but the reflector lights down on the inside of the racetrack that box off the mirrors on the Musco lighting system you see them on the inside here around the inside of turn one and two there's a little section of them out right the middle three and four leaves just a little shadow on the lower side of the racetrack but they up there one salon I'm very safe for the drivers to be going but watch right here as they run through a dark spot and here comes junior the outside for the race lead we working hard and he got the position now he's coming back into now by the start/finish line Oh Anna [Music] back out front four laps to go Dale Earnhardt jr. has a very very fast car get-go but I think it's a setup [Music] Kenseth back the second Dale Earnhardt third here's Bobby Labonte beginning to roll once again the body had been the leader a little while back lap number 298 went down pit road just after the restart from the red flag for rain lost a little track position there and that will really made a move up through the traffic at that point but now after this kid stopped he's really charging up into the lead group again that's the great part about this stuff you can go in you make the adjustment on new tires take care pres it a little bit and get the car back you water for Kenny Schrader's fans he's back out on the racetrack having repaired that car at the best eight foot after straight of bouncing off the wall seven laps down in the 34th position for Schrader resides right now in the rundown Mike Skinner racing Dale Jarrett skin under the 31 chair eating his outside we brought also involved in this for run his seventh Chariton Skinner a fine the left bar down to the inside Jarret underpinning skittering behind the Stewart machine ball game Tony Stewart right now doing everything he can just to hang on that car is not working like he wants to know they thought they really had it too they worked on that car change that a whole bunch of yesterday afternoon push Grand National race here they really thought they had it was happy hour and little bit tight there felt just the way his car felt last year when he could--he forth in this same event it was stored the gave out last year but this year the car just isn't quite up to it that cars up to drivers up to it the crew is doing a great job here's Bobby Labonte up to the outside of Dale Earnhardt third position Barnard fight back though on the inside he made him earn this but I'll guarantee he kept it wide open for down the corner they fight back on the inside right to come out of the corner and get side by side with Bobby but no cigar Earnhardt's got a good car tonight nope Jimmy's there for sure again on the bottom [Music] racing for third bhavani the Winston Cup championship leader by Dale Earnhardt made up the spot looking ahead from Elliott Sadler's car at this race for a position Elliott Sadler a bad night after starting at 41st but he's not on the lead lap at this point for others right now but down to makeup on bail are not dutifully first hundred miles in this race a lot of drivers went a lap down Dale Earnhardt jr. lapped all the way up to 30 first before we even got to the first pit stops for Dale Earnhardt jr. who made his what's the cup debut of this race last year he talked with us earlier about keeping his concentration for 600 miles you know your net cost an awful long time and you really got to think about what you're doing and as the race winds down and the spots are more difficult to obtain and you realize all right I'm 15th to 16th odds are I'm not gonna gain one or two spots I got to protect my position so it's hard to concentrate hard to focus on their community Dale Earnhardt jr. and that's when your running 15th and 16th when you're out front like he is right now just kind of like leaping at a football game land water you don't want to make a mistake so it makes you more aware of what you're doing it seems like the race last [Music] well I'm still out here for something goes wrong to spoil my night Wow close Kenseth came to the wall and the other thing you do your hearing put them very of here you hear every noise and that race car when you have a big limo we're coming up on the 500 mile mark of this event very quickly another nine laps and we will hit 500 miles Ricky rod with some problems rod the 10th place car slowing down that is tough it is he had a couple of good runs two races now today's in trouble Mike Massaro well it appears that Ricky Rudd may have a tire beginning to equalize on the right side you can see the curve bricky rod as he makes his way down pit road now they're waiting to service that machine 45 miles an hour to pit road speed who slowly makes his way down the pit road and the team goes into action they'll swing around to the right side immediately go to work there whose East one lap to the leader Dale Earnhardt jr. the better part of the second one as well before it gets off pit road and gets back up to speed Dale Earnhardt jr. is the race leader just approaching the 500 mile mark with that crucial extra hundred still to come Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte [Music] which he lap 334 platform 5 the final 100 in the 41st annual coca-cola 600 167 pile infield pack watching [Music] 395 Earnhardt jr. at the present time there's your current leader Dale Earnhardt jr. who shattered all the records in qualifying on this mile of the half the new Dominator question is can the body or his own dad on that pensive take it away from him in this final 100 miles great summer Earnhardt jr. leading once again 22 lead changes the caution flag we had one who read content over an hour we're back at it with an average speed and get this the 600-mile race 39 are still functioning still going at it here on the high banks of Lowe's Motor Speedway let's get back with Allen Bestwick Kent Thank You Dale Earnhardt jr. has led 149 of the 336 laughs so far field summary upper left of your screen showing where drivers started where they're running now terrific night for Matt Kenseth terrific night for the two top rookies so far Junior and Kenseth in the top three Dale Earnhardt has had kind of a hot cold night running in fourth right now some sets of tires he's looked like a rocketship on wheels and some sets of tires he struggled mightily with Dale Jarrett just kind of a a so-so diamond so far for him Steve Park recovering from an early spin at lap 81 to run in the top 10 now Jeff Gordon just hasn't been there Jeff Gordon Rusty Wallace has fallen back he had some trouble on a pit stop a moment ago when in second came out night the final car on the lead lap at this point is Mark Martin in 12th place all these cars now one lap down Ward Burton and Tony Stewart Johnny Benson 37th to 15th but a good night for a out of the headlines night for Benson if you will has not been focused on Webster in this event because he's spent a lot well mcmaster suffering from food poisoning took a couple of bags of IV during the rain delay that we had earlier in the event Russ AJ Foyt's car at 18 jerry nadeau LED so much of this race what a night burn a to a hundred fifteen laps he was out in front but Justice League got to the rain delay the engine started skipping on his car a valve spring problem suspected maybe being overtaken by the leader Dale Earnhardt jr. for a second time he's back in 20th position looking at the rest of the field summary Geoffrey Bodine has run the whole distance so far in his Chevrolet 27th position for Geoffrey John Andretti back in 33rd spot the car and ready started anyway Tim Fedewa now behind the wheel of that machine after making the driver change King eluphant careless in traffic but buddy you clear to be 600 mile races before you've won three of them we hear drivers talk about rhythm a lot when you were in a rhythm in those races and you were running well and you are pulling away from the field did you want to listen to your crew chief Harry high or whoever say it slow down I'd usually say I can't hear you [Laughter] you know you have a brake car and you bring up the brake the fight the fight playing the violin once you get a good rhythm then you play it well if you start backing off it changes characteristic of the race car these are the shown right now in the upper right hand corner crew chief watching young phenomenal twenty-five-year-old third generation driver lead here at Lowe's Motor Speedway what a night they're having [Music] John is ready car Tony Eury sucked up fair looking as a wristwatch yes it is getting checking the pilot how long before I'd get a chance to have now inside the final hundred mile mental and physical toll begins to take effect mechanical toll can begin to take effect we'll talk more about that after we check in the garage latest retiree from this race party candy trader had such high hopes coming into the day and Kenny first tell us what happened in the rack first time we wound up with kind of got read you know everybody checked up this time I just plain old screwed up and we were loose drive the coupe I'm just wondering if we're in the last hundred miles is this with a fatigue factor for those guys out there really sets in now some guys are pumped up don't worry about them engines of the valve spring sometimes but them boys ain't gonna lay down there you go Kenny Schrader's in because they're trying to fix the rear end of the cars that the spoiler was just laying down too much he couldn't hold it out on the racetrack so he's getting ready in fact to go back out on the racetrack as we speak it's what he has just said is that the men are stronger than the machines with the way today's drivers are conditioning themselves and so on training and so on I think listening to the right music indications yeah but back to what you're talking about most of the race shop have a gym inside they build it and just like they build with a dose of the race shop to build motors for these cars they know that that page sniffs is important his job but didn't team effort we don't let this by just having a strong travel you see the huge interval from Dale Earnhardt back to Bobby Labonte the second-place car but Bobby may get a little chance to catch up some here because juniors hung in some pretty heavy lap traffic an update on Bobby the body from pit road Allen Z changes they made in the last pit stop have really helped Bobby Labonte they made a wedge adjustment and air pressure adjustments and right now they have been discussing what to do on this last stop they had originally thought they would go about 50 laps to go but Bobby just radioed in does Jimmy make our that the car is loosing up on it they decided to go for tires probably around 20 laps to go in the race Nations young man and patience intelligent not leaving my trumpet able deep it's clear hi a little while ago on the outside of that 77 but junior just decided no way I want to get on the outside of that 77 part of the way he's been loose all night just waited his time a little bit to bother looking dr. no yep up next on TBS James Bond movie I know them all if you learn all those dialog from them that's scary game five right there joining us now yeah there you go joining us now looking for the movie the reason we're not done with the race yet is because we had a 51 minute delay for rain in the middle of the event let's dip a little bit farther back away from the lead as Jeremy Mayfield races Dale Jarrett for the fifth position Napa field summary on the left of your screen while Mayfield and Jarrett go at it here for a top five spot this Gephart right behind them he's running in seventh while his way up toward the front we look ahead at the race for fifth position Oh storage space that Dale Earnhardt pretty well yeah but Ward came into the event only three points behind Bobby the body and race to the NASCAR Winston Cup championship tears DJ down-low he'll make the pass on me good spot thousand Dale Jarrett are definitely set up the long long runs I said that at the right so bad jerry nadeau bailing out of the highlight with the lead lap cars room to run by here they're also talking about tires and goodyear did bring a new tire here tonight one of the interesting observations out of that 88 team Brad parrot who's responsible for the tires said but the new Goodyear is so good it was sticking the front so well he's actually tossing the back end of the car out a little bit may have gone to a very different setup than they have ever run here before talk with Dale Jarrett a little bit earlier in the weekend about running the extra hundred miles here at Charlotte he says communication between a driver and his crew chief just what are the key factors in the race mentally and physically it comes into play you know you know that that extra 100 miles does a lot of things it does things to the car so you have to take care of the car so that works on your manly certainly physically sitting in there another 30 minutes is difficult you know that becomes the tire sometimes but you know I think that's why a lot of us work hard physically to get in conditions so that we can be in good shape when it comes down to the end they'll went on to say that trying to make the right adjustments and keeping that communication open back and forth to the crew to make sure the car is the most that it can be at the end the race is important well Rick mast tonight will come up shy of the finish the beginning of mechanical toll passed 500 miles absolutely he took her up straight behind the wall do he knows we pretty much drove away and she the smoke coming out of the pipes like that in this vision it's done he was running in 19th position at the time and Rick mast at the AJ Foyt car will come up shy of completing tonight's coca-cola 600 the interval between Dale Earnhardt jr. and Bobby Labonte is somewhat stabilized at about 4.2 seconds Matt Kenseth a little ways off of the bodies back three seconds hundred three in third and Dale Earnhardt closing on Kenseth the race for that position that would be third and fourth when he gets there and then it's another three seconds from Earnhardt back to Dale Jarrett in fifth Jeremy Mayfield at six Jeff Burton in seventh the arrest with top 10 fighters at this point are Steve Park Mike Skinner and Rusty Wallace and the final two on the lead lap are Jeff Gordon Marquardt looking at moving up Jeremy Mayfield's picked up eighth position since lap number 250 Sterling Marlin also eight positions up Geoffrey Bodine picking a little bit at a time people in the field slide the backdrop jerry nadeau retention problems we talked about ricky rudd after the July's tire pitstop under the green flag earlier has slipped back to 17th gonna drop a lot farther than that 26 now that the engine is to apparently let go on that machine and he's gone into the garage move it up moving back give a call to Geoffrey Bodine he has gone 500 miles in a Winston Cup stock car race quite an accomplishment that none of us thought was going to be possible for those of us who stood there and watched him at Daytona go end there's boat I just a truck Dale Earnhardt jr. Chephren running in 26 position now tough gritty guy he is in that car for the rest of the year there was her stories floating around about how he had probably lost his ride and maybe things weren't working out but he has been a short t-shirt B this morning he said I've got this ride for the remainder of the year 2000 but I just going to relapse down to the race leader Dale we don't often see in NASCAR Winston Cup races the top ten yet really spread out but everybody's kind of spaced apart a little bit here at this late juncture iteration they are very spread out you know the other thing that I've noticed wonder what story they'll put out this week the day lanark jr. happens everybody else didn't have when a guy comes along with this much talent first thing you hear we're letting do this he hat back he is I heard a story about the Carson we want to know like this did have the trick tire they were they feel well it's pretty hard to get any sort of an unfair advantage or even the tires they've got to ask our officials right in the Goodyear building you don't even get to walk in but say - I'd like this set as opposed to that NASCAR's goal level the playing field keep the cars as equal as possible but the proves the site of the most themselves so far tonight this driver at his crew caught a glimpse of robby gordon earlier there's Robbie out of the racetrack he spent the day in Indianapolis running the 500 finished sixth in that one got on the airplanes in the helicopters and all the rest came here to Charlotte was not here for the start of the race Jones this car but it rolled off the grid during the rain delay at 381 miles Bobby got in the machine was promptly penalized five laps for not obeying a NASCAR official that is running in 37th position caution caution Jerry Nadeau well the bank is ready let's go and this takes the splash and - pit stops out of the equation we're going to see everybody come onto pit road here four tires and their final fuel stop and a bad break for Ricky Rudd and they had to make that unscheduled stop everybody else gets to stop under caution now jerry nadeau led 150 laps he was the dominant driver for say miles 100 to 300 in this event you know what he got the thing you need suppose for confidence that I can race with a thousand make the left-hand turn hero named the garage and become the sixth driver to not be running at the finish of this race as the race wears on we're probably going to see more of this caution number seven in the coca-cola 600 this one for oil on the racetrack on the back straightaway from Jerry Naidu's car and now the pit crews are going to go head to head for that all-important track position on what will be should be barring another caution the final pit stops in this event we saw rusty Wallace's team come in second come out night on a pit stop earlier we saw Matt Kenseth's team beat Dale juniors out of the pit just a little while ago now the pressures on it is that and the adrenaline flowing you can see him making decision what do we do look at these guys they're ready to fly I don't expect we'll see anyone take two tires here I'd be surprised I can tell you junior said he wants his race car to be just the way it is no surprise here comes the field to the opening of pit road pit lane is open and they will come down and make their stops with 38 laps to go Dale jr. Bobby Labonte Matt Kenseth Dale senior and Dale Jarrett the top-5 order as they come in look at the top three in the triple box watch the work of their crews Kenseth Steve pulled off a 15 and change stop on the last pit stop to get it the race lead not one car bike an idiot the bodies away our juniors he got a hold on to the lead no no God and I believe that's gonna be Jeff Gordon who's gonna blow off pit road first Wow Gordon's out first did he get two tires he must have he must've had well that's the only copy out benefactor all night so that's his shot maybe taking work visit a spot a mountain first Robbie Loomis Bryan Whitesell crew chief and team manager top the pit box that's Loomis they're making the call there we'll follow up on the Gorton's story in a moment first let's hear from the man who was dominant earlier but now finds himself out of the race Jerry Nadeau is with Marty Snider where he clearly had the best car and you knew at the rain delay the valve spring was going how agonizing was it or try and ride it out not much you can do I mean we had we probably had the best car here for sure I mean just one of those deals got to thank Michael Hagen calm Hendrix everybody everybody on pit road did an awesome job all day get him at Dover there's Jerry and I do and we said they had to win it they had to not beat themselves and they had an engine problem and plaguing them all year long Jerry Nadeau with the best car done this evening Jeff 40 the very quick pit stop a moment ago that got an elite bike hog would did they get two tires indeed they did Alan just talking to Robbie Loomis he said hey I hadn't had anything work that I played all night long it's the only thing I had left and he told him us take two tires and see what we can do but they put his driver out front now the question is can he stay there I'm trying to get straight my mind which one it was it was either 97 or 98 that Gordon took to Rusty Wallace took forecourt and held off Wallace for the win then the next year Wallace took two and Gordon took for Nick Gordon went by him for the wins a big difference he had the dominant car that night so the two tires really the Tartar being right now I think he made a mistake there because they're going to drop back I feel sitting yeah think so 94 was the two-tire deal because I was at that time I was doing pit road and I remember standing in the gas bubbles Leslie Wallace and rusty just looked up there cord and said how did he win that thing they can just fill now let's not forget to point out that Bobby Labonte got off pit road ahead of Dale jr. and Matt Kenseth did as well Bobby is second Kenseth his third Earnhardt is for that senior Earnhardt Jarrett is fit and Earnhardt jr. probably his worst pit stop of the night comes out in sixth position wow that's big unbelievable so Earnhardt jr. losing a lot of track position here at this point Jeff Gordon being the beneficiary of a strategy call by his team taking over the top spot it was back a couple of years ago here at Charlotte 1998 we talked about Jeff Gordon getting the two tires Rusty Wallace took more there's the stop and here he went by the guys with four tires passing him for the win Rusty Wallace incredulous after the race his dick was talking about but it was Jeff Gordon going to the winner's circle for a second straight year and a third time overall in the coca-cola 600 in 1998 our guys our panel assembled here does not believe the two tires will work this time I will tell you he had a lot of problems flat on his back bumper there Bobby Labonte it's gonna pose a problem not only for Jeff Gordon but he's gonna be tough to get back even for Garlin Dale Earnhardt jr. Channel restart in sixth position right there the cars on the lead lap are on the outside then you can see if three wide everybody's trying to get the lines Jeff Gordon was 11th before the pit stops so he gains himself ten positions with the two tire call question is is it enough Bobby Labonte Matt Kenseth Dale Earnhardt Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt jr. lined up behind him now it's gonna be a while to keep an eye on junior 35 laps to go fight back laughs the heat down 13th position for warden first car one lap down and indeed he's now on the ceiling of the lead lap if he can stay in front of court and get a caution here's popular body outside of Gordon for the race lead I mean that had to happen and that's only going to get worse because the new tires really will work so much better you'll see it happens right here watch Bobby ordered a few threatened with Dale jr. in sixth position only was he sicced on the restart but he was actually 12 divine because of all the cars alive are more down to his inside so he's got the five in front of the [Music] better lap down yeah make that that right leg to the firewall right now trying to get back up there again Earnhardt's a second pressured heavily there by that cancer [Applause] Dale Jarrett that ban on fresh tires we watched him a while to do runoff there for quite a while but probably the bunny nose he'd ever get when he's don't get right now because that eight car if he gets back up there Dale Earnhardt closing on the back bumper of Bobby Labonte Jr's crew has just radioed to him and told them take care of that right front tire lot of interest here cut Jr's part and stepping on the gas as hard as he can go to get to the front Dale jr. trying to get spot away from Jeff Gordon up foot Bobby the bodies could have dispensed with the last part of Ward Burton while we ride with Dale jr. and Jeff Gordon going out of here for good fun gingers gotta watch it running I'm the old car Foreman very very loose here comes back Kenseth he's around Dale Earnhardt for second spot Wartburg then a pile of sparks as the car bounces off the racetrack the outside of the Ken Schrader's car that justice told me because I let you down because I was bragging on him how well he ran in California and he said I let you down he's never told me I was don't do well at sowing and I thought he has kids because they really have flying around the racetrack bomani wide in three kids it's got the wheels right down on the line his car really closing quickly on Bobby the bodies thirty to go wouldn't it be something after Dale jr. has led all the laps tonight for the other rookie to slide in there and still the way they're both very very talented racecar drivers they both have great equipment that's the Jack Welsh motor rat they're Bobby Labonte emphasis really really get on the corner quick Bobby Labonte's got a million reasons to win this race he is part of that no bull five program he gets a million dollar bonus and he wins tonight Bobby one of the five drivers eligible Kenseth peeking inside the race card appears Dale Earnhardt jr. Mean Time position looking ahead at Dale Jarrett in fourth he's got some ground to make up to catch Jarrett you know that car don't look like he's turning right as he comes out of the corner he'd rather [Music] really turn it like it was earlier here comes Kenseth once again looking for the lead on body the body not yet well they're stretching to lead right now there's no point in using the tires up he can drive along there and make a real serious charge later on right now DJ and forth tensions buddy and your cars better than Pilates now hates our date now looking to the outside on the front straightaway double-wide race leads number one Kenseth out in front Matt Kenseth takes the lead from bhagavati with 26 laps to go you know the things are happening this year I've never been topped like we have Dale Earnhardt jr. back basically here a theme for went up and theirs is doing everything right and Kenseth led earlier in the event from laps 311 to 316 when his crew got the lead off pit road led for six laps then he was overtaken by Dale Earnhardt at that point yeah and the radio transmissions have changed the Earnhardt they're no longer safe he's diggin and he is doing to that by the computer that last lap he was through lap faster than the leader to violence theft Bobby Labonte has finished second the last couple of times here at Charlotte he's second to Matt Kenseth now in the closing laps of the coca-cola 600 stay with us for an exciting finish on CBS back for the final laps of the 41st coca-cola 600 Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte North Carolina nineteen to go you're looking ahead from second place runner body the money to the race leader Matt Kenseth the 27 year old from Wisconsin in his rookie season on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit try to score his first win in what is one of the sports prestige races just couple years back Mark Martin said I want this guy on the Roush Racing team we have good thing about it to be a great winner Mark Martin is the very unselfish person to give these guys all kind of break occasional kenseth to pay me back right now what Marquardt does she happened this young man get an opportunity to show his stuff and Wow a great job tonight out in the lead with less than 30 laps if Matt Kenseth is able to hold off bonding the body and everything else for the final 17 laps he would not be the only driver to make his first win of his they're called a 600 but he would join some very prestigious company Pearson Jeff Gordon Bobby Labonte Cup win in the season's longest race keep watchin Bobby Labonte on Sunday Lacey's been all over this racetrack trying to find somewhere and he has that advantage to canvass poppy the bunny is not very good at finishing in second spot remember he finished second in this race last year second year in October last year in second he is closing on Kenseth the body's been hunting that groove but he was talking about a minute ago to find a better place for his car to run with his handling setup now he goes back in on tension tried the wide line there at three and it looked like the Ross the car oh so close to the wall our poll accusin of everything in this racetrack Matt Kenseth is so cool and so calm a person fairly quiet till the getting-to-know-you but he's really he's actually got a great personality he's a lot of fun to talk to once he gets to know you loosens up a little bit but his purpose that his calmness now he'll lead every bit of it with an established betterment like body the body put the pressure on it in the throes of trying to get his first win and the other thing that popular Bonnie's trying right now is to move around behind me back there and give me to looking in the mirror they worried that as dick said earlier Bobby the body has a million pastor Atkinson these the five drivers eligible from Innova a million dollar bonus if they can win the race tonight that kids have not about them you see where the drivers who are eligible for the bonus are running you'll ever get out at lap one failure Earnhardt jr. who had let so much for this race it is falling back in fifth spot not gaining ground going the ball Dale jr. the fourth-place Dale Jarrett [Music] you know that no rookie has ever won this race ever one of them was the dominant driver tonight Dale Earnhardt jr. might pull off the victory Robbie Rogers drop right up there I'm in their race shop that's up next adult law in her look at this trading pain almost coming off turn four racing for fourth position Dale jr. just about getting into the side of Dale Jarrett but he will take the spot from him down in turn one 12 laps to go and the interval between first and second getting just ever so slightly wider as you see Kenseth putting a little bit of a gap back on body the body body's falling off bobby labonte made a run I think he used everything he had they're trying to find a way to catch him very cool when traffic not really being that please stay down the back straightaway that's the place to pass the story of probably wiser men gets exclusive and how that came to drive this car is a great one the South if you will to the NASCAR Busch Series from Wisconsin as a driver himself exam he his dad John formed Robby was injured in a racing crash suffered a head injury and decided that maybe his days in the sport were best served not behind the wheel brought Matt Kenseth down actually brought another driver down to drive his car things didn't work out there brought Matt Kenseth down to hit behind the wheel in the machine because he raced against Matt and knew that Matt was a talent looking for a place to blossom and an accommodation was magical for that point on ten laps to go of the race let's check on pit road for some final stories first in the leaders pit from Matt Kenseth took a page from Jeff Burton's team's book to make that call on the last stop last year in this race Frank Stoddard aired Jeff Burton's tires all the way up normally these cars start on lower air pressure and takes a while for the tires to build up but what they did last year was they aired him all the way up so Jeff Burton's car would be very fast from the very beginning that's the same thing Robbie Reiser did with Matt Kenseth cars he put the air pressures almost at the maximum level so Matt Kenseth car would take off in the very beginning and it seems to be paying off for him remember their car was better the longer a trans let's go to mike hog would ruin bobby labonte's pit and Bobby Labonte has not said since that laughs it stopped all Jimmy MacArthur that's the way Bobby Levani is collected in the cockpit of that racecar he knows what he has to do [Music] looking at the black and gold 17 car trying to catch it every ounce of energy he has to Mike Massaro well guys this moments ago I walked over to crew chief Kevin Hamlin for the 3 car and asked him a simple question do you have anything for the leaders his bit his lip shouldn't shook his head and said I don't think so the cars just too tight so the three car right now just trying to maintain a position in the top three [Music] laughs winding down as Matt Kenseth tries to keep it between the walls keep Dale Earnhardt and Bobby the body and the other runners behind him his first NASCAR Winston Cup win there's Robbie Reiser the crew chief backgrounds kappa hat and there's the driver in his car try to make a dream come true coming to the five to go signal buddy what's he thinking what's he feeling what's he hearing as he tries to run out these final five lights - he has a great rhythm going but right now he knows he has to race one and he does not make the mistake that makes him drive that much better because he's really but he has fallen factor Bobby the body has really turned it up again I think you dropped back a couple laughs cool aside for the or catchy but not but he is game I would say catching it's one big passives another well you can see it in that shot to play a role and certainly again all you have to do is back off for lap tactic one time and then bobby labonte if they ran on top of a red field ID will be the first of the lap cars the leaders come up on he bails out Mike Bliss bails out of the running groove mark mark details out of the running through look at these guys are just moving right over to let him have that is perfect that is wonderful that's good for no one else that is that's respect that's respect for the skills of young Matt Kenseth yelling in terms of his time spent on the Winston Cup tour for the veterans like that to get out of your way that is respect your head for Mark Martin's farm mark just going a lap down in 12th position Matt Kenseth is gone by him now coming up with the back of the John Andretti car the 10 feet away is now driving that car back in 31st position and if you look at the 17 not a mark on it all day long he's been very conservative heading really exudes cigar when it comes down he turned it on well that's cause it's stylish driver clean driver aggressive what he needs to be it's just what he can out of the car and no more we said at the top of our broadcast some five hours ago one of the things that's made this 2000s car Winston Cup season so much fun is parity and unpredictability ten winners in eleven races you never know who's going to turn up in victory lane you might add another new winner tonight as Matt Kenseth takes the white flag the quad alive for the coca-cola 600 in search of his first Winston Cup win right down to the bottom of the racetrack exactly when he ran the lap before making father the body is making a run at him though all math has to do now though is not making mistake final set of quarters here he comes Winston Cup win number one in the coca-cola 600 for Wisconsin's Matt [Applause] women we talked about in the final pit stops track position being so important team dot him track position got him up there just behind bomber the bodies they both quickly passed Jeff Gordon who got to tires than Kenseth dispensed with Labonte led the rest of the way to score the victory his first in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series about this two straight wins by rookie drivers the Winston Cup season Dale Earnhardt jr. couple of weeks ago in Richmond Matt Kenseth tonight and that says something about the future of this series they've got some incredibly talented young men well that just proves one thing future in NASCAR is bright through the lettering now that's the best burnout I've ever watched he didn't use the pavement he's out Humpy's browser round and round that grass is wet from the rain we had earlier tonight if he gets stuck he's sure going to be embarrassed he smells putting them around you think it doesn't feel good to win a Winston Cup race hey that first in his 18 race Matt Kenseth goes to Victory Lane he led the last 26 laps Kenseth from Wisconsin also offering the salute to one of his home state heroes Alain Alan Kulwicki with the old Polish victory lap the reverse circle around the speedway and it's proud of 175,000 giving him a salute as well and well deserved what a great night terrific race first-time winner it's been a great night here in Charlotte we'll come back to talk to our winner next [Music] yeah I got you but I have no camera yet they're coming they had to wait till the cars came in and stopped here okay thanks mark as well as you [Applause] okay look at him 38 to go get him well they've got to make it last he may win a million races but they'll never be a first one again that's right yep now for now go do a while because he's got to go around the racetrack again and come back to Victory Lane yeah I hope yep how about that number there as remember who used to run 17 yep DW [Applause] that's great I am absolutely thrilled for have to yeah second again yeah third straight time here Wow and then the two iron arts that last other tires eating over couldn't hurt him nope he just kept going further and further back ago I set the track position has a lot if he'd have been up front and can been able to break out he may have been able to run a line differently do around the racetrack mm-hmm I'd say I love this where he hit the grass yeah we're doing the we're doing the whole run down until Ken gets the winner we're gonna do this we could do second and third while we're waiting ma'am we didn't talk to jr. obviously I think I'd probably like to hear from Matt Kenseth moments ago taking the checkered flag in the coca-cola 600 to score his first NASCAR Winston Cup win an image that will be etched in his mind for the rest of his life yeah you might win a hundred races but that first one you can never do you see all the flashbulbs going off I mean there's no that they saw history made tonight sliding through the grass doing the victory donuts went around the racetrack for a victory lap backwards now he's coming back around for a victory lap in the proper race direction and he'll be rolling into the winner's circle set up at the start/finish line momentarily well I'll tell you what the hundred seventy-five thousand here tonight saw an absolutely terrific race it really was very enjoyable here are the unofficial results Kenseth with his first Winston Cup win Bobby Labonte finishing second for a third straight race here the Earnhardt's well Dale jr. had one of the dominant cars of the night lost some track position on his final pit stop and only managed to get back from sixth to fourth in the final run of the race top ten for Steve Park after an early spin out at lap 81 Jeff Gordon wound up in 10th position after just fighting his car all night long and there is the celebration is about to begin and let's go to Kent's choir with our race winner rookie has done it but it was a dark horse from Cambridge Wisconsin this badger just kept digging Matt Kenseth 28 years of age has done it a rookie has won the coca-cola 600 and here he is Matt congratulations beautifully driven race from top to bottom man I can't believe how good our race car was robbing the guys did a great job the wall Ford was really good all night I can't think Mark Martin and Jack Roush enough for this opportunity I said one wish come true right now I wish my dad was here with me today to to share this moment but I really have to think thank the Lord for this great opportunities given me last 100 miles were you pretty confident that you had it no I sure wasn't I wasn't confident we handed until the end there I was using the tires pretty hard to try to keep happy behind me and I didn't know whether he was saving it or whether he was going wide open and I couldn't run any harder you certainly ran it hard here at the finish Labonte started to make a run we thought he was going to come back did you get any messages from a long pit road here here's Mark Martin pretty excited about this victory for Roush Marc yeah this is fantastic Robbie Reiser and Matt Kenseth a real special man this is great this is mater he's earned it and they're gonna win a bunch more of them I'm sure you are congratulations thanks a lot I can't appreciate it here's Jack Roush right here Jack you've got to be thrilled with the performance of this rookie tonight yeah matt has just done a great job of course you know Mark Martin as part of the ownership for this team - and Mark identified mat as the guy that could do it all and you know Matt is mature and then he he is uh with Robbie Reiser and they're just they've got everything they need right now they sure immature tonight that's for darn sure congratulations once again to Matt Kenseth and Roush Racing here in victory lane at the start/finish line terrific win for Matt Kenseth the other big rookie story of the night was Dale Earnhardt jr. who came out sixth after the final pit stops only could get back to fourth position mike hogewood is with him and he's about ten feet from Victory Lane cuz I know you're going to say hi to your friend Matt Kenseth what a I know you're disappointed but you feel good for Matt Kenseth yeah I'm happy for him I don't I don't know what we we did on that last set of tires but I had really struggled on him we weren't in the car we were prior to that but Magnum guys were consistent all night they deserve it especially after California pretty happy for him he's a class act is it really disappointing to you to just dominate tonight and then on that last pit stop you get back a little bit and just can't get it back to the front I didn't feel like we dominated up as much as everybody probably thinks we did I was really having to hustle to keep a car under me a lot of the time and uh it was it was a fun night I mean I had a good time racing with my dad I got to do that quite a bit and uh run run fourth in a race we had a good chance to win but we run we lost a man so ain't too bad all right we'll let him go say hi to his friend in the rookie class Matt Kenseth Dale Earnhardt jr. wants to go congratulate him he led 175 of the 400 laps that I did Dale Earnhardt jr. but as you heard there just didn't have the explanation for what went wrong in the final 30 laps of this one he wound up finishing fourth tonight after appearing to be well on his way to a victory it's one of the great things about this sport that people who were such competitive rivals on the racetrack can be such great friends as well and happy for the other guy when he wins back with more of the story of the coca-cola 600 in Charlotte in just a minute [Music] welcome back to the Lowe's Motor Speedway the coca-cola 600 has just completed we're standing with the man who finished third Dale Earnhardt pretty good run how pleased are you with that well pretty pretty happy with finishing but we had a car was a little too tight that last couple runs and I thought I could run with Matt and here might we just that the carving is still just a little tight off it had a pretty good night ended up better than we thought we had it you know as the night was going on was getting tighter and tighter we kept just in the car after it rained it seemed the car was a little better Dale Earnhardt senior he finished third let's go to Marty Snider well Barbara the money pedaled hard and got as close says that Matt Kenseth's bumper but couldn't quite get around it was a car not as good in that last segment or what I was fast Matt was just a little faster we were so you know good job for Matt and them their whole crew and our Interstate Batteries Pontiac our guys did a great job tonight you know we came from Sabbath start seventh and struggled last weekend during the Winston and came back and you know run really good tonight seemed like our car worked better after the Sun went down they did before him but you know thank goodness week we did come home second as a good run force and he had the million dollars on your mind as well and it's a third straight second-place finish I'm sure that's getting old for you I really you know it's funny you don't even think about it out there and it didn't matter he didn't matter you know just trying to get first and you know Matt we thought we had something for Matt there at the end but his car was just a little bit better than us through the middle of three and four and I could beat him a little bit one or two but didn't really matter he beat us so so he goes as the fireworks go off at the Lowe's Motor Speedway Bobby Labonte finishes second

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 160,569

Rating: 4.8153338 out of 5

Keywords: NASCAR, motorsports, racing, stock car, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, chase elliott, fantasy sports, fantasy fastlane, glass case of emotion, ryan blaney, crash, wreck, pileup, pit road, penalty, race track, super speedway, highlight

Id: 1ADmmABclOE

Length: 218min 41sec (13121 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/motorcool]

It's very important to me, it was the first full race I ever watched. 2000 was such a classic season.....but it was my first watching.

[u/DisparityXDesign]

Another Nadeau heart breaker. But solid solid race through and through

[u/PenskeFiles]

Went to this race with my dad. Met Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman on the day he signed with Penske. Matt Kenseth winning was great. Overall, a fun race to be at.

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Didn't get back to the hotel until 4 a.m. I was 11, so being up that late was awesome.

[u/bored_at_work29]

As a lifetime Earnhardt fan, this was one of my favorite races too. It had to be the most time within a race that the Earnhardts were racing for the lead, and it was in front of their home crowd.

[u/Zeerid_Korr]

1999 Coke 600 was better. 😉

[u/Pristine_Future1037]

I just watched this last night! It was areal throwback. I started watching NASCAR in 97 and awesome Bill was my man. Loved seeing that 94 on track again.