2001 Pepsi 400 from Daytona International Speedway | NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay

and now for the most famous words in motorsports the grand marshal of the 43rd pepsi 400 at daytona miss britney spears [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] the roar you hear 43 winston cup engines coming to life the rumble you feel the pounding heartbeat of 180 000 fans the next step in the race to the championship is about to begin and it's my pleasure to introduce the three men that will take you from the green flag in daytona to the checkered flag in atlanta alan bestwick betty parsons and wally dahlenbach thank you bill with benny the 1975 daytona 500 winner and wally dahlenbach who's run some 226 winston cup races including just three weeks ago at pocono and wally when i think of tonight's race the words intense and heart-pounding come to mind how about it there's a couple more stressful this is one of the most stressful races that we run all year you've got the fear factor fear the big wreck you have frustration frustration of being stuck in that line that's not moving and hopefully some somewhere along the line that 400 miles you get to have a little bit of fun benny the drivers all day long have been talking about the big wreck capital b capital w what is the big wreck anytime you come to daytona talladega and these cars running six youth packs we'll see 43 cars run together and when that happens if something happens in front of you you cannot avoid here tony stewart gets tagged by ward burton up on top of robbie gordon these guys behind down through the grass are trying to avoid it but you simply can't you're running too fast these cars are too close together that's the big wreck you see them all there together it's that'll happen at any time alan 19 cars taken out in that one that happened with just 27 laps to go in the daytona 500 in february and the closer we get to the end of the race the more likely a possibility that big wreck is the sights the sounds the rush of adrenaline that is nascar at daytona is coming up next the starting lineup in green flag for the 43rd pepsi 400 coming up on nbc nbc's coverage of the pepsi 400 is brought to you by pepsi the choice of victory lane by dodge and nearly 3 000 dealers who invite you to come see what's new buy kellogg's the official breakfast food of nascar and by budweiser with the crisp clean refreshing taste you'll find in no other beer this bud's for you some 180 000 fans are packed into the daytona international speedway waiting for the start of the 43rd pepsi 400 field rolling off onto the track for a couple of pace laps before the green flag budweiser the official beer of nascar is the proud sponsor of the bud paul award given to the fastest qualifier at each nascar winston cup race this week it was sterling marlon who grabbed his 11th pole position nine drivers at one budpoll awards in 15 tries this season they'll be in the bud shootout in 2002 since 1979 anheuser-busch is awarded more than seven million dollars his title sponsor of nascar's poll award program 43 drivers are getting ready to go at it in the pepsi 400 why don't we take a look at the walmart starting grid sterling marlin his 11th pole position leading a dodge sweep of the top four spots warren burton was running strong in the daytona 500 until he got taken out in a wreck late in the race inside row three jeff gordon the leader of the nascar whisker point standings he's won the pepsi 400 twice on the inside of row 7 john andretti the pepsi 400 winner in 1998. mark martin is one of the five drivers who can earn a million dollar bonus with the win tonight kevin harvick first start for rcr daytona jeff purvis great qualifying run and only his second winston cup start of the season he's in row six dale earnhardt jr goes from 13th he finished second here in february in the 500 he'll be the sentimental favorite to win and 60 year old dave marcus makes his 63rd daytona start tonight the outside of row nine bill elliot says his team gave up speed and qualifying for comfort in the race and trying to win the race dale jarrett won this race two years ago he's second in the championship to jeff gordon ricky rudd one of the hottest drivers on the circuit right now he makes his 50th daytona start tonight but he's never won here daytona 500 winner michael starts 22nd rusty wallace back in row number 12 along with mike skinner the 13th row it's rockingham winner steve park he has to come from deep in the field along with the 94 pepsi 400 winner jimmy spencer of pennsylvania spencer starting back in row 14. and on the inside of row 15 is terry labonte he's two-time series championship he was fast in last night's practice he'll need to be from that spot jeff burton the defending winner of this race both the gibbs racing cars will start way back bobby labonte 33rd and tony stewart in 36th now the drivers who got provisional spots to get into the field weren't quick enough to qualify on time johnny benson led this race late last year he and his teammate ken schroeder try to draft through the traffic together from row 19 and row 20. and we look at the rest of those who got in on their points mike wallace back behind the wheel of jim smith's ford taurus and brett beaudian got the final starting spot he was a nervous nervous man pacing around at the end of qualifying here yesterday look at those who failed to qualify ron hornaday and aj points car not here buckshaw jones ran really strong in practice just didn't go when he needed it to and qualifying he's among the five who will watch this race instead of being in it [Music] track description of the daytona speedway see that lake you're looking at behind the graphic all the dirt that used to be where the water is now was used to make the 31 degree banking of this racetrack that is some four stories tall from bottom to top that these race cars rock it around at some 190 miles an hour and there you can see those that 31 degrees and these cars come through there now the race analysis and the key number in this one will be pit window 50 to 55 laps for fuel some guys tell me they can only run 50 laps if they can't do that they have to stop three times the guys that can run 53 laps can make this race on two stops if it should go green flag all the way down to pit road here's bill weber [Music] thank you alan this track is two and a half miles long and there will be plenty of wild action out there on the big track but look at the pit stalls on pit road they're a little over 15 feet wide and just over 29 feet long and there will be plenty of wild action there as well who has the best pit stall well pit stalls are selected in the qualifying order so the argument would be that sterling marlin has the best pit stall you want easy in easy out he's got both and you have to watch the timing line so you don't get a speeding penalty the checkered flag falls on the track but here at daytona the race could be won on pit road here's dave burns bill we haven't talked yet about the defending race champion jeff burton remember he and his roush stable mates have all gotten increased horsepower from their r d department since the texas race this year they will be looking strong and and uh mark martin and jeff burton are also in the noble five program so talk about incentive an extra million dollars for those two let's go to marty dave last friday dale earnhardt jr in effect became the man of the earnhardt family when he walked his sister kelly down the aisle for her wedding a job that was originally scheduled for his father now at the track that claimed his father's life dale jr looks to assume another role becoming the man of the winston cup series at daytona he has a fast car just enough experience and tonight most likely a little help from above can del junior dominate daytona like dear old dad used to only time will tell but tonight you might get a good start to matt yoakum marty ward burton will start the 22 car from the second position he's racing for restrictor plate redemption he led the most laps in the season opening daytona 500 only to be crashed out while leading at talladega he lost the lead and the race when he overshot his pit he says he feels like he's due what better way to get your first winston cup restrictor play win than here at daytona his best finished seventh three times that's in the last three pepsi four hundreds he feels like tonight he's due and this could be his best shot ever alan about a half a lap from the start of the pepsi 400 those nine dodges in the field are heavily concentrated toward the front of the pack dodge has not won here at daytona since 19 1977. tonight tonight benny i think it could be i really believe it will be because sterling marlon ward burton two really fast cars in the daytona 500 and i don't see why i haven't seen anything that tells me they've slowed down anything one of my favorite points of these night races here at daytona the flash bulbs just exploding from the grandstand on this last pace lap fans all taking their momento pictures and for these drivers wally their last moment of peace and quiet it's about to get very tense yeah the uh hornet's nest is supposed to open up here just a second it's going to be great your thoughts you're in turn three you're inside the race car they're what well you know it depends on where you're at but really i'd i'd rather be on the outside here in the outside lane only because when you come out of turn two everybody's gonna start diving down to the bottom so you have to protect your line so hopefully i'm in the top line and i'm just gonna ride hopefully get through the next couple left get things sorted out you see so many cars passed on the inside here at daytona and at talladega a lot of these teams have installed little mirrors with spot mirrors on the roll bar where the driver can look out a rear view mirror beside the car and see if someone is beside him 20 straight weeks of racing to decide the nascar winston cup series champion begin now the crowd is on its feet the 43rd pepsi 400 goes green on nbc [Music] [Music] [Music] three deep halfway through the field off the second quarter mike skinner saw an opening in the middle and doe three wide trying to pick up some spots the yellow line on the bottom of the race the outer bounds line think of it like the sideline on the football field the drivers were told in their free race meeting go below that you're going to be penalized by nascar and that's really what got us in trouble a lot in the past before they made that rule because what would happen is guys would go below that line they would turn three you have to get back up on the racetrack and if there was three or four breaths there there was no room ward burton leads lap one [Music] jeff gordon squeezing underneath kevin harvick harvick in the white car on board with harvick jr nemocheck is in the 33 car his first race back since richmond in may he crashed practices bush car at dover and has been trying to heal all this time casey atwood in the night team the young 20 year old from nashville being passed by sterling marlin for second not so fast our colleagues at fox began a tradition of saluting the memory of dale earnhardt with a silent lap three we feel it appropriate and we're proud to carry that tradition on [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] do sterling marlin to the lead three deep for sixth spot on down as warren burton gets shuffled back to fifth andy houston the rookie going for the lead on the outside hassan drafting help with joe nemechek and good houston in front [Music] dave burns down last night in final practice they made some changes to the 96 car and he said they the changes they made a spring in the right rear and also a sway bar change helped that car tremendously and even though he's lost the lead now expect andy houston to handle a very comfortable race car up front all night long marlon back to the point that's ward burton right behind him as you look out the back bumper the marlin car front six now single file then they're two and three deep from there on back [Music] that is the most important thing a comfortable race car for this race you know this track probably has quite a bit less grip than it had in february i think once the tires get a lot of heat fuel burns off this car is going to get to be a little bit more of a handful than right now stacy compton in the 92 racing joe nemechek for third spot i can't believe these guys can do this lap after lap after laps side by side three wide my fists are all clinched together up here i can't imagine what it's like in the race car dodge dodge dodge front three then the chevrolets of kevin harvick and joe nemechek also mike skinner in there in a chevy and mike skinner started 23rd in that number 31. here comes ricky rudd and michael waltrip the daytona 500 winner in the 15 car michael started back in 22nd spot it's up to eighth racing for seventh and sixth jeff gordon let's see if he has to back off in the corner looks for his engine hasn't yet and that's what he was working on last night he told us some coverage of the final practice he was working on being able to run around the racetrack wide open never having to crack the truck while tripping the 15 run in the 28 gordon in the 24 trying to advance the inside line by skinner that'd be for fifth position and todd beaudine getting into the mix the light blue car the outside lane the 66 machine started in 31st position we'll see that all night long cars coming from the back to the front shuffling back to the back coming back to the front it's one of the exciting things about this kind of racing yeah exciting and sometimes very frustrating because just when you get up there and you go all right i'm going to get the lead guys we're going to get in line and we're going to take off and all of a sudden they split you you go right to the back and it's like that all night long leader sterling marlin the silver car bobby labonte and tony stewart the joe gibbs cars both started deep in the field they're both still running deep in the field let's go to marty snyder and alan that should be no surprise i stood with tony stewart and bobby lovani right before the race they had a little mini meeting they said listen we're going to drop straight to the back we're just going to ride there in fact they don't want to ride at the back of the pack they want to ride beyond the back of the pack they want to be away from the main pack to avoid what they think is going to be a big wreck this evening now they've tried this strategy before and every time they've tried it it has backfired they're hoping it won't backfire tonight to matt yoakam marty sterling marlon spotter lauren renee son of the late daytona 500 winning car owner harry reinier told sterling marlon drop back you're getting too far out try to stay more with the group you're getting too far out you're going to give them too much good air to make a run on you he acknowledged that said 10-4 and he hit the brakes slowly backing up to let the 22 suck up on his bumper well dale jarrett started this race in 19th position he loves coming to daytona he actually likes racing here because he's had so much success but despite starting 19th not much success so far tonight he's reported that his car is a little loose it's also running hot in traffic water temperature 235 last time by 32nd from his 19th starting spot kevin harvick just went all the way to scrape the paint off the outside wall to take the lead from sterling marlin isn't it wonderful to watch these young brave drivers driving around daytona and talladega [Music] and listen to the roar of the fans this was dale earnhardt's car and here comes bill earnhardt's car dale earnhardt incorporated michael waltrip on the inside trying to take that lead away from kevin harvick here's waltrip harvick to block you know what kevin just did took him out of the line and he's going to lose a lot of positions unless he can squeeze back in line right there marlin to the lead andy houston the second the mcdonald's car there now waltrip in third todd lodine goes to fourth and they're three d from fifth on back oh man oh man we had 49 lead changes in the daytona 500 we've already had four and we're just in the opening laps of the pepsi 400 at daytona you're watching nascar on nbc 14 of 160 laps are now complete in the 43rd running of the pepsi 400 at daytona sterling marlin is the leader michael waltrip is second andy houston is third todd bowden fourth now they're mixing it up from back sixth position on back you've got ricky craven in fifth mike skinner and sixth and now this race for seventh between ward burton and the 22 and kevin harvick in the 29. and look at that moving up mike wallace started 42nd in that seven card he is up to the 10th position his game 32 spots and mike's kind of fighting for his job here this weekend this might be his last ride in that seven car but again he ran just like this in the daytona 500 ran terrific here in talladega yeah talladega he started dead last in the field 43rd finished ninth let's get more on mike wallace's race so far from dave burns well alan benny's right he started 27th here in february and finished sixth now i just talked with jim long as crew chief who said we knew the car was going to be good we didn't expect it to be quite this good i talked with car owner jimmy smith and he said hey i spent a million dollars trying to get this thing to go fast by itself it wouldn't we had to take it provisional but boy it sure goes in a pack of cars back through mike wallace in 10th now sorting out single file i mean you know especially mike's had to sit and watch somebody else drive his race car for the last couple that's like seeing your wife out with somebody else i mean that is a terrible feeling watching your race car go around the racetrack without you in it three deep that's dale earnhardt jr left of your screen kevin harvick in the middle ricky rudd down on the inside of the racetrack and they're racing for 9th 10th and 11th spots [Music] now he lifted there yes he did pit road bill weber just talked to kevin hamlin the crew chief for kevin harvick i asked him if they had any damage to the race car he says he doesn't believe so he's not certain because kevin is not talking to them remember he is a rookie this is his first start in a winston cup race at daytona what kevin thinks is that kevin harvick is focusing on trying to learn where to put the race car on the race track marty well bill when dell jr was just in that three wide pack his spotter ty norris said either get in front of them or let off and let harvick go he wants to get to the front we don't need to be on the outside being three wide let's take it easy we've got a good car that can win the race be patient it's early telling a race driver to be patient behind the wheel of his car is an easy thing to do it's a hard thing to make happen all right that yellow line as we go down the back stretch that is out of bounds just like alan told you at the very beginning and this is going to be the toughest spot on the racetrack to avoid getting below that yellow line before the race is over someone will be penalized for dipping down below that yellow line on the back stretch let's go back and look at that instance that marty was reporting on a minute ago when dale earnhardt jr ran up on kevin harvick he's pushing him that's called a bump draft you bump him a little bit and get him moving and believe it or not the cars run a little faster bumping at 190 miles per hour now you could hear the the engine note pick up a little bit as he gained a little speed when earnhardt jr hit him and then drop off a little bit when junior pulled out from behind him mike skinner in the 31. looking inside of todd mobi [Music] had a report a little earlier that jeff fergus's car was maybe overheating some 51 machine is back to 44th spot now he started in 11. this is the race for fifth between skinner and todd lavine see the front four out ahead of them [Music] third place side by side ward burton up top andy houston down low now that that to me if you had about five or six veterans up front they would stay in line and try to break away from the rest of the pack we've got some guys up there that are rookies and not familiar with it they want a lead and that's keeping that pack behind them up close to the leaders i love it i love to watch these guys past each other 20 laps complete of 160 in the pepsi 400 at daytona sterling marlin and michael waltrip hold the top two spots you're watching nascar on nbc we come back to daytona and the pepsi 400 as michael waltrip makes a bid for the lead on sterling marlin with help from mike skinner skinner pulled up behind that chevrolet and to the front they went out look at sterling marlin they're all on the inside he's lost two three four five spots sterling marlin has led the last 13 laps of the race i think everybody's got the idea he's got a very strong car he's waving his arm he's waving his arms inside the car he's got something wrong man [Music] his teammate jason left from the 0-1 card whatever it is he couldn't get the pit road could it be that his car is just not right could it be that it's pushing or loose or just not right and he's decided to go to the back and ride till they can make a pit stop and adjust them i mean in one lap i mean you know he's leading the thing and then all of a sudden in one lap matt joachim what's wrong with sterling's car allen talking to lee mccall sterling marlins crew chief he told me that sterling's complaint is the car is very loose he's going to try to drop back like a number of the other competitors and just ride in the back until the first round of pit stops somewhere along lap 52-55 to work on this race car no need to chance anything right now because they have a very stout piece there you have it right again and that's smart racing that is that's just smart [Music] we're barely 50 miles into uh not even 50 miles into a 400 mile race now off of turn number two we're going to show you our nbc speed trap actual live real-time speeds as the cars rocket off this corner at daytona [Music] steve park fastest new leader kevin harvick takes that richard childress chevrolet to the to the top spot and check out the battle for second spot as harvick looks back at dale earnhardt jr and michael waltrip [Music] the eight and the 15 the two cars at battle for the victory in the daytona 500 ricky rudd first ford in the order and the 28th [Music] [Music] dale earnhardt jr goes for the lead the fans all jump to their feet [Music] check out those fans they are absolutely loving this as bernard goes to the front [Music] we've talked all throughout the week what the young man's state of mind must be coming back here and we've talked about people going about business as usual benny dale jr has put on the facade of business as usual but i've detected through our interviews with him that that's not a facade it has been business as usual but i could also also tell by the interviews and i talked to tony yuri senior his team manager this young man alan wants this race as badly as you've ever won anything in his life he wants this one today can you imagine what victory no i can't even think about it but we've got a long ways to go only 28 laps into this thing there's tony ury and tony's reply to me was i just hope he doesn't want it too much jeff burton with a run up the outside he started back in 30th spot he's one of the sixth [Music] and there's mike wallace hanging on that trio chevrolet's a seven car and four spot that'd be hard to fire your driver if he finished fourth wouldn't it yeah andy houston right behind him then you've got matt kenzit starting to move up and michael waltrip who was leading the race just a few laps ago has now moved back to the seventh eighth position there's jeff burton set a minute ago started back in 30th position he's up in fifth now [Music] and that's another driver that told me today before the race that's what he worked on last night in final practice get in the car where he could we would handle where he could drive through the corners without backing off the accelerator jeff it looks like it's working pretty good so far the orange dot on the windshield designed to signify the five drivers who are running for the extra million dollar bonus the winston noble five bonus they were the top five finishers in the coca-cola 600 at charlotte memorial weekend if one of those drivers wins the race tonight they get a one million dollar bonus from the series sponsor plus a fan in the consumer contest also gets a million dollars marty snyder has more on dale earnhardt jr's race and alan so far he's been very calm on the radio the only thing that he has said ty norris has requested his spotter is that the oil is at 2 30 the water's at 190. very patient right now he is leading the race now the one thing that has started down here his pit strategy danny lawrence the engine builder for what used to be dale earnhardt's team now kevin harvick's team came down here they're trying to plan when they're going to pit the problem for del juniors team is that they can only go about 50 laps on this first run most of the other teams can go about 55 laps on this first run so dale jr will probably come down pit road with bobby hamilton's team even though bobby's running way in the back of the pack because they are pitted right beside each other back up to allen bobby hamilton running in 35th position after 31 of 160 laps dale earnhardt jr leads the pepsi 400 at daytona you're watching nascar on nbc nascar on nbc comes your way from daytona international speedway with live coverage of the pepsi 400. dale earnhardt jr is out in front seven lead changes already in the opening 35 laps of this race i think we're going to see a lot of spinning wrenches on these dodges when they come in benny i think i think a lot of the cars are loose watching the last practice last night i saw a lot of loose race cars but it seems like the dodgers are suffering the most right now right now the best dodge is in 12th position oh no let's go back to about the 13th position john andretti in the hamburger helper dodge the best dodge and remember the first four qualifiers were dodges and in fact five of the top ten were dodges and now as you said benny andretti and 13th is the best couple of dodges riding around at the back of the field bill elliot is in 43rd he's last in the order let's go to matt yokum down here in ward burton's pit i spoke with crouching tommy baldwin jr he says the car is just very loose in the center of the corner they're going to adjust this race car somewhere around lap 51 with air pressure he said they've been fighting loose all during happy hour they went in the race trying to adjust on that also lee mccall says his car is still very loose both cars have dropped outside of the top 19. sterling just now moved up to 18 but both cars fighting loose conditions early on [Music] and you saw the picture of bill elliot there's casey atwood with the green buffer and look how far back to his team car elliott elliott is in a lot of trouble yeah if i'm loose here i want you to put some bite in the car i don't know if tire pressure is going to be enough but uh especially you know in traffic like like you are with these cars i think i'd be looking for some bite casey would start at fourth he's in right in front of bill elliott and 42nd thompson started third he's in 37 and ward back in 33rd we can account for the front two rows but jeff burton had moved up well up into the field for the 30th spot now he's getting shuffled he's just dropped six positions in that last lap back to 12th spot [Music] frankie he's loose when you add air pressure these tires will reduce air pressure you make that tire by putting more air pressure in you make the tire stronger and that changes the chassis if you take air pressure out of the tire you make the tire weaker and therefore making the car a little bit tighter change the chassis as well dale earnhardt jr continues to parade around in front of the field kevin harvick mike skinner run right behind him we're at 39 laps in pit stops coming up shortly we were talking about loose just a moment ago let me show you what we're talking about the car enters the corner you turn the steering wheel back on the throttle there's where you want to be in the green spot but the back end it gets loose goes up the racetrack and i say that baby that's it like that wally that was a great save little little exaggerated on the loose a little exaggerated but your car was that loose you're going to be on good road now i think bill and his car may be that loose yeah mike skinner going for third inside of mike wallace skinner in the 31 wallace in the seven that's matt kenzen riding the top side right behind him i talked to mike after practice and and uh i said man was the beginning of practice last practice last night was your car that loose you said yeah it was they made some adjustments right there before the end of practice and he was really happy with the car he's in the wrong line right now though there is no line there and not a choice of his own gotta have somebody behind you helping you push through the air are you gonna lose a lot of position skinner was racing to third a minute ago he finally has some help someone pulls up behind him that's kenny schrader in the 36 car he's racing for eighth now skinner is schrader he started back in 39th position [Music] that's threaten it right there buddy mike wallace squeezing in front of harvick now jumping in line behind kenseth and in front of kurt bush harvick now is in the wrong spot on the racetrack mark martin going by on board camera with mark this is one of his better runs at daytona in a good while three wide in front of him yeah mark one of those guys when i run here it seems like i always try to run with the guys i'm comfortable with running that you know you can just get on their bumper and they're gonna take it to the front and i always look for guys like mark ricky rudd sterling these guys are the guys you can count on when you come to strict to play races terry little bonnie another one you know you can really trust these guys on getting you through the field it's jeff gordon on the outside of that three wide this is not where you want to be where the seven car is if you're loose right now you're in the middle and you had skinner right on your tail and boy it is tough getting through the corners if you're loose like that because you've got nowhere to go now we're at lap 45 they'll complete 46 when they come around next time about lap 50 with no caution flag between here and there we'll start to see drivers dropping onto pit road for important green flag stops an update on dale earnhardt jr the leaders strategy at this point for marty well again allen they do not have as good of fuel mileage as most other teams do so they will pit on lap 50 along with bobby hamilton and joe nemechek that has been worked out although hamilton's at the back of the pack they do need a drafting partner so they are going to come a little bit early junior's biggest problem right now is that when he goes full throttle he starts to pull away from everybody and we heard matt joking earlier say that when you pull away from everybody that allows them to get around you so junior's not even full throttle right now when he's leading the pack back upstairs to allen dale earnhardt jr leads the pepsi 400. matt kenseth todd podin mark martin and john andretti also up in that fight for the top spot pit stops when we come back we're already past the one quarter point of the pepsi 400 with 49 laps out of 160 getting ready for a round of pit stops yeah right now i'm i'm listening to my crew saying okay we're going to pitt and forward pitting five my chief mechanic is talking to the spotter hey ask so and so when he's coming because we all want to come in together at least with the group you're running with those are the spotters up on the roof watching their car and trying to help their driver with trouble ahead of him on the racetrack and assorted other functions and assorted other functions as a matter of fact trying to keep them out of trouble letting them know when they can come off their corner drift back up into the groove junior dale earnhardt jr ducks for pit road the stop will come at lap 50. wow somebody's way hard on the brakes coming in there uh jeff purvis was the one who lit up the brakes he will need new tires after that marty snyder will cover dale earnhardt jr's pit stop for us and dale jr comes down pit road he is one of only three drivers to finish top ten and both of the restrictor plate races so far this year he says the car is just a hair tight he originally wanted no adjustments but he called for a last second adjustment quarter pound out of the right rear that's a very small adjustment he wants to be a little looser off the turns dale jr back out on the track let's go to matt yoko big ed watkins the jack man for casey iowa drops the jack he's down and away air pressure he was very loose his teammate bill elliot's also in he's also complaining about a loose condition as is the dodge in the 92 is stacey compton hoffman's very slow coming to pit road he was well off the gas in turn three so perhaps a further problem there here's johnny benson on the pit lane jeremy mayfield's in rick mast is in ken schroeder's been in i'll tell you what and these guys that strategy wise we're in the back benny i think that's going to hurt him because they're going to come out and they're going to lose that lead draft however his car's been all over the track loose and tight they had to get an adjustment to try and fix the handle but the big thing here is that he ran out of fuel on the track now he's sitting here they're gonna have to push him to get him started compton out of fuel on pit road another whole charge coming off of turn four down toward the pit lane often gets it running [Applause] the once they were squared in the air cleaner and the air intake was ether something that's kind of like gas they're spraying in there in aerosol form they can spray in there dave burns mike wallace is in now they don't make any chassis adjustments just four tires and fuel for wallace he said the car is pretty good the only thing they've told him is to keep the radiator fan on when you're behind other cars they're going to pull a tear away off the windshield and wallace is out of here let's go to ricky rudd getting four tires and fuel originally wanted to hit with the 29 but couldn't do that because the 29 was ahead of them on the track behind them on pit road they would have had to work their way around them ricky craven had trouble getting to his pit stall he overshot it yep big time and here comes on the other call todd almost ran in the back of the 17 of matt kinsen kurt busch mike skinner mark martin kevin harvick sterling marlon jeff burton the old jarrett is in ward burton's in the gibbs cars bobby labonte and tony stewart we go to matt yokum mark martin already comes to a stop in his pit box he was complaining of a tight condition they made an air pressure adjustment in the right front an air pressure adjustment in the right rear front tire changer robert fanfield has kidney stones he's okay but they've got todd ziegler standing by the left sides come on let's go to bill webber fires and fuel kevin harvick's first pit stop in a winston cup car in a race at daytona [Music] watch for the traffic to close quickly on the outside those are the cars that fit in alapago or two laps ago [Music] looks like ricky rudd is going to come out with the lead harvick still trying to get his car up to speed check that it looks like steve park will get away from pit road first well now let's just find out they're all still trying to get up to speed i think they make matt kendall's might be the leader of this little event there we go ken's with leads kirkwood second todd rodin third mike skinner fourth dale earnhardt jr fifth then rudd park rusty wallace ken schrader and jeff gordon your top ten and look at junior go by kendo what in the world was that all about and kenzik was leading the last time by so something is wrong with the 17 car rusty wallace behind kenzit puts kurt bush in the lead but maybe not for long todd bodine up and around before the owl ganged up on the rookie didn't he so green flag pit stops have been completed todd bohen is now the leader of the pepsi 400 at daytona nbc's coverage of the pepsi 400 is brought to you by 1-800 call att for collect calls by the wine track grand tree from pontiac wider is better by original coors nothing beats an original and by ups the official delivery company of nascar new leader in the pepsi 400 dale earnhardt jr has reestablished himself out in front it's mike skinner second ricky rudd third steve park fourth and now todd marine tries to take fifth away from curt bush here's our coors pit summary well earnhardt jr didn't come out of the piss first but he now is first he came out and had passed quickly past some cars kenzith was the leader off the pit stop but he's been very rapidly shuffled back tonight we'll try and get a report from pit road on what happened to him there you see kevin harvick dropped to 16th we watched him have a lot of trouble getting up to full speed yeah that that's tough here it's tough that you know when you come in for a pit stop it's tough not to spin your tires and and get a good run off a pit lane [Applause] bush looking from las vegas in the 97 car one of jack roush's entries in the race [Music] skinner's looking for the lead if he can get some help and it looks like that ricky rudd is going to give him some help but he can't go by how strong that a car is tonight [Music] he pulled out with help and didn't go by but you know we saw sterling like that earlier but uh see if those adjustments help right now our bowls over sterling mullen is back at 24th position but he's only 1.8 seconds behind the lead [Applause] we talked about ricky craven overshooting his pit when he came onto pit road a moment ago let's go back and take a look that's craven in the orange 32 car well he had a little help by the looks of it he's already passed it though the 33 car the 33 car got in the back of it and now and basically unless they get a yellow that whole deal right there you completely lost the draft and now all you're hoping is that you'll get a caution so you can catch back up we have been caution free so far we're at 60 laps complete that's 150 miles rusty wallace racing kurt busch that'll be for fifth spot wallace in the two [Music] check some speeds at the line see who's fastest at the moment they're all about the same speed but earnhardt jr was in fact the quickest [Applause] it's kind of unusual here at daytona in the draft for the guy out in front of the draft to be the fastest i know that sounds awkward but it is unusual usually the guys getting the toe from that car breaking the air will be a little bit faster [Music] just update you guys on the 17 car no problems for them vp in fact their pit stop was so good they pulled off a pit road so fast by the time they got their speed built up matt looked in his rearview mirror and the whole field was building up speed behind him he didn't have a drafting partner when he got out there and he got freight trains the car is very good it wasn't at least he made an air pressure adjustment robbie reiser says his car and his driver are both strong well i appreciate that bill i was really concerned that something was wrong but that's what we talked about the spotters tell these drivers when they get a big lead to paddle to back off a little bit and let that second place guard gets him don't let them get a run on you of the 43 who started the race 42 are on the lead laps stacy compton running out of fuel cost him a laugh to the race leader it's dale earnhardt jr out in front of the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earnhardt jr leads the 43rd running of the pepsi 400 at daytona where 65 laps complete of 160 that make up the distance so far 11 league changes in this race i think we've clearly established that dale earnhardt jr has the strongest car in the beginning it looked like sterling marlin but it's definitely dale jr at this stage of the race there's no doubt unless something happens on the next pitch stop to make one of these other cars a lot faster they're gonna have a lot of trouble beating junior tonight but remember he has got to stop twice i think i don't know how much fuel he had left over when he made that pit stop but 50 and [Music] what about it marty well benny you're exactly right they can go a little bit further but it's going to be close jeff clark is the engine tuner for dale earnhardt jr he went back and calculated he said on the next stop they can probably go about 54 laps that's gonna put him close to the finish though and all of that discussion if we go to the finish without a caution flag well that's right and these guys are driving pretty decently tonight so maybe there will not be a cause of flight but 50 and 54 is 104. that leaves 56. we talked earlier the closer you get to the finish the higher the probability of somebody making a mistake pressing hard well that's right we'll see let's drop back in traffic a little bit to dave marcus running in 40th position the 71 cars 60 years old originally from wisconsin david making tonight his 880th nascar winston cup start second all-time only to richard penny dave is one of the icons of the sport he is the blue-collar racer he owns his own team he works on his own cars you call his race shop he'll answer the phone and if he doesn't answer the phone they'll have to go get him out from one of the race cars to come talk to you he pays all the bills he wears wingtip shoes when he drives the reason we bring this up is first of all because he's a terrific story that he made the race second of all he's getting ready to close his nascar winston cup career he'll run five more events after tonight this year then attempt to qualify for the daytona 500 in february and then call it a career a good and long career and then look for a young man to jump in that car and become his driver he wants to continue his racing team that's bob marcus small operation fraction of the funding fraction of the people that these other teams operate with but you know one thing about dave marcus he will always grace you as hard as he can on board dale jarrett running in 12. for what kurt bush is doing some ram riding around that corner in three and four right up against that outside retaining wall bird bush the 22 year old from las vegas nevada in his 24th winston cup series race in his second ever here at daytona and normally you're up there because you're loose you're using all the racetrack to keep that car from rear end from jumping out on you so the only guys running up there like that just trying to save it every lap there's jeff gordon running behind michael waltrip i think he chose the wrong line he chose to drive the hook up with michael waltrip in the 15 car and worked her way to the front looks but he might be losing some spots let's go to matt yoakam benny the four-time daytona winner jeff ford is currently riding in the eighth position when he made his pit stop on lap 52 he was complaining his car was loose in and tied off three quarter of a round down on the right rear jack screw they out which also takes wedge out and raises the spoiler which should help this race car but they are also iffy on fuel making it up one more stop meanwhile the 22 car award burton has climbed up to the 18th position but he's still complaining about his car being horribly loose they made a track bar a wedge and air pressure adjustment they're hoping to get a caution to pull a spring rubber right now they're also going to look to the next pit stop to make more adjustments four cars have broken away from the rest of the pack by lining up and just stay in single file while the guys behind ever running side by side taylor and hart jr mike skinner ricky run and steve park are those four drivers we're at laps 71 of 160 that make up the distance tonight closing in on halfway in the pepsi 400 at daytona our wendy's race menu it's the race for the championship on nbc and tnt next sunday one week from tomorrow it's the chicagoland speedway brand new track nascar winston cup series at 2 p.m eastern on nbc a couple of weeks down the line we go to the new hampshire international speedway mile on tnt 1 30 eastern july 22nd three weeks pocono raceway in pennsylvania and the pennsylvania 500 and then a month from now the brickyard 400 at indianapolis can't wait looking at the leaders working some lap traffic now as dale earnhardt jr and his three followers have caught and overtaken kyle petty and bill elliott put them a lap down and right now ricky craven the lap car the tide rod has put himself between the leader junior and mike skinner the 31 in second spot but craven wants to hang there hopefully he wants to try to stay there in case the caution play comes out get by the leader get his mouth back doesn't look like that's going to work steve park get kind of shaken out there when they got into the lap traffic lost a little bit of contact with these front three skinner second right third crayman is back in 38th position one lap down i mentioned elliott and kyle petty kyle is in 40th eliot is in 41st rick mastis earlier stacy compton running out of fuel on the pit stop he's 43rd look at this that's back to 10th spot on down todd beaudine 24 card jeff gordon ever seen mark martin matt kinsey and dale jarrett i haven't talked much about dale so far tonight second in the nascar winston cup championship coming in we look from jeff gordon back to matt kenza hale's one of those guys that sneaks up under though you'll never see him you'll never see him and then all of a sudden 10 laps to go he's there he's in front of you say how do you do that more on dale jarrett from bill weber well they had a strong pit stop and if you remember dj had complained about the water temperature going up the original plan was to pull tape off the grill to try and get more air in there they decided not to do that dale moved around a little bit on the racetrack got some air in there so that's not a problem as of right now lead change mike skinner out front and he did that very conventionally here's ricky rudd trying to take over that second spot but it doesn't look like that's going to work teammates working up high so and look at junior go by on the outside of skinner is he going to take the lead back yes he is wow all right we saw spike's going to take the lead but the record book will never show that got a lead at the start finish line there for it to count sorry mike skinner faced with a a quandary from the driver's perspective ricky rudd helped push him past dale jr into the lead but dale jr drives a chevrolet rickey run drives it forward skinner has to protect his make doesn't he well it depends on who's your friend's going to be that last lap if ricky helped me get up there i need to help ricky all night long so he'll be there for me at the end you see the air temperature of the start of the race is 85 has cooled off 40 degrees and track temperature has only cooled off three degrees steve park racing skinner for second let me tell you something guys you guys don't forget and i as a driver you don't forget if if somebody hangs you out to dry you're gonna in the top ranks in the pepsi 400. dale earnhardt jr still leads but second spot is mixing that one up good the last few laps yeah there's a lot of shuffling going on all except for the lead the other night junior still maintains that position mike skinner's taking over the second spot mike the walker of the third kevin harvick and fourth spot [Music] never see steve park and michael walter michael wallace is back in the mix and that's seven cars we knew who you meant yeah we do mike's running a great race tonight he's been staying up at least 10 12 just about all night long they've had great pit stops good run for mike those seven cars you're looking at all on the lead lap they've shuffled the cars they overtook back into the traffic they're fighting for second michael waltrip under mike skinner and now waltrips got help his dale heart incorporated teammate is behind him steve park mike skinner's richard childress racing teammates the white car kevin harvick bailing out [Music] look how far the junior has pulled away of these guys battle for second position and that other group that was a second behind them last time by is now on their rear bumper now as dale jr got too big a lead when they get lined up here andy houston in the wall caution's out that's off turn four grinding to a stop houston led the race earlier see him moving around in the car dropping the window net that's his signal to the safety officials that he's okay i think you'll see a lot more aggressive changes bending out now that we're under caution every everybody comes in the same time we may even see some spring rubbers being put in these cars what this also does with the caution at lap 87 it takes the pit deficiency the fuel mileage deficiency that dale earnhardt jr had out of the equation for now if the race runs green from this set of stops we'll see under the yellow to the finish everybody's gonna have to stop twice more so if you're a dale junior fan this is a this is a plus for you this is big this really is big andy houston this is the low end of what has been a good week so far for him that's why flori gave birth to a new son on monday of this week he led the race earlier now he ended up in the outside wall he broke something cut a right front tire benny yeah the right front tire went flat on the car for some reason and when that happens the car just veers right there's nothing the driver can do but you know one thing he was very fortunate he was running close to the wall i was just gonna say that that's the best place to be if you're going to cut a right front tire look at that passenger side window the cars carry here at daytona you see that go flying out of the car when he hit the wall it just popped that right out he hit so hard and there's andy out of the car i've got a question man if you think if these guys were loose you think they perhaps maybe they've increased the right front air pressure maybe got too much heat in it good for it possible done that yes if you add air pressure to the right front tire that will help the loose situation we'll see everybody come on to pit road at lap number 89 [Music] and this caution flag probably a big break for some of those drivers that had gotten shaken out of the draft like well bobby labonte and tony stewart casey atwood were pretty well back but it's a horrible break ricky craven and bill elliot and those drivers who got overtaken by the leaders and didn't get a chance to maybe get it back on a cycle of green flag stops they're trapped a lap down and it's probably going to be that way the rest of the night so here we go earnhardt jr michael waltrip steve park mike skinner mike wallace the top five coming onto pitt road let's go to dave burns and ken trader will come in he was running great out there no changes they anticipated other than air pressure for ken at this point and newt moore has this thing cranked up they spent time in the wind tunnel earlier this year to try to get this right let's go to the weber michael waltrip split through his pit stall he has to back up and now the whole star will have to start over it's still supposed to be four tires and boosted him up a little bit with a track bar adjustment let's go to marty dale earnhardt jr is in he clearly had the best car on that run and he was not happy with it a little loose off he was and made a half pound out or into the left rear and they will win the race off pit road rusty wallace looked like a dirt oh man ole miss 31 car had to back up out of his pit and 15 cars just about hit him spike skinner and michael waltrip [Music] bill weber well michael waltrip obviously came down pit road hot he just said something about his brake pedal on the radio but what happened is he split through his stall in the skinner's stall so when skinner got hit here there was no place for him to go then when michael was ready to leave he had to pull out a round skinner's car get his car ready to leave he had to pull out a round skidders car skinner's car wasn't in his stall that made all kinds of traffic i saw jeremy mayfield shoot through the grass remember two and a half miles on the track but just 15 feet wide 29 feet long on these pit stalls when they pit under caution it's a very hectic place when we were looking at the michael waltrip car back on the banking i thought i saw a huge dent in the left side door i think that's the american flag is just the paint yeah i think optical delusion yes [Music] i'm not sure it looked like he and skinner made contact right there behind the numbers benny and that may be a dead there we'll try and get a better look at it when he comes back around so dale earnhardt jr first off of the pit lane and it is these pits they look they look like they're big and when the car is in them but when you're down there and you've got to get one of these pits they are very small cars are lap down heading for pit road for their service now let's go back and take another look see if skinner doesn't actually get into the door of michael waltrip's car and watch mayfield have to take to the grass we're gonna see it on this two cars are starting to leave see one and the seventeen almost ran into each other okay mike skinner's going to back up michael walker's going to try to lead you might have something there alan he may have backed in there a little bit wait a minute wait a minute say that again uh you might have something you may have something there i'm not i'm not going to 100 first time i've heard you say that i just wanted to make sure i got it right 90 laps complete in the pepsi 400 at daytona the restart when we come back welcome back to daytona under caution in the 43rd running of the pepsi 400 moments ago virtually the entire field on pit road and watch what happened to the 15 car of michael waltrip coming down pit road he slid through his stall had to put it reverse and back up now because he had slid through his stall skinner the car in front of him was actually over the line but that's legal because it was a forced move so now when they finally get the 15 car ready to go michael has nowhere to go because while you can't see right here he's got to swing all the way around their skinner and then you see the traffic coming by skidder trying to get out jeremy mayfield goes through the grass wow wally i'm glad i didn't completely commit myself on that one let me have it go ahead that was close allen we're trained professionals just remember that how am i going to live with youtube for the next 19 weeks all right well getting ready to go back racing dale earnhardt jr holding the lead through the pit stops steve park is second matt ken's at third ken schroeder fourth everybody's on fresh tires it's gonna get real busy on the back stretch i believe on this restart four wide three or four wide this might be where we see someone go beneath that yellow line oh that's a no-no out of bounds nascar said in the pre-race drivers meeting go under the yellow line to improve your position because here's what's going to happen these guys in the back say 12 15 back i think they're going to duck down try to get a run on the lap down cars and split them that's what i did all right green flag is out we'll find out but you can't pass on the inside until you get to the start finish line so all these stars have to go by on the outside now as they go down in one you can pass it [Music] [Applause] from the leader elliott and the red dodge on the inside it doesn't look like that's going to work tonight [Music] [Applause] and because somebody missed a shift or something in the middle of that pack that took away your big charge i think so sterling dropped back about six or seven car lengths there somebody bottomed out really bad up there in four big shot response new pit summary look at matt kevin once again a great pit stop by robbie roger and that dewalt team eighth comes out third shredder picks up a couple and harvick picks up a couple only caution of the race brought out when andy houston hit the wall in turn four a short while ago let's hear from him allen new father andy houston has just called new mama lori to tell her that uh he's okay andy uh what did happen out there uh cut a right front tire down on the mcdonald's ford we uh we had a really good race car we ran up front early it seemed like uh the longer way around the tighter the car got the first pit stop made adjustments trying to free the car up and uh didn't nearly go far enough the car really pushed that second that second run after the first stop and finally ended up blowing the right front tire out and hitting the wall pretty hard but uh i'm okay just another bad weekend for the golf sport and you know we just can't seem to get this thing turned around hopefully uh we'll go chicago next week gets home at mcdonald's headquarters and try to have a good run up there it's uh pretty frustrating right now but uh this is the best shot they've had it was andy's best career qualifying performance so far in winston cup and allen apparently andy also reports he may stick around joe nemechek is not feeling well and and he may substitute for him if the need arises joe nemechek is making his first start in some six races he had a hard testing crash in dover which he broke his elbow and had assorted other injuries this is his first race back so maybe uh those injuries still feeling the after effects up look at the race for second here matt kenzen steve park kenseth from the 17. parking the one got ken schroeder behind kenzo 31 car went from third for the lead kenzeth outside of dale earnhardt jr side by side now we'll see how strong junior's car is yes and look at all these cars behind him just clawing for position we see schroeder literally pushing kenza down the straightaway trying to bump him in front of the eight car opening laps of the race sterling marlin had the strongest car dropped back into the field till he could get a couple of hit stops for the crew to adjust the car he's sneaking back up he's in ninth spot while kenzeth and junior come to the stripe still going at it for the lead kensington 17. dylan our junior and eight they raced together in the nashville series for a couple years became pretty good friends [Music] but not friends enough to give the other one a victory 000 seats at daytona they're all empty everybody's on their feet mike wallace wallace be careful that yellow line down there oh and here goes my big brother rusty boy you know that did his heart good kenzit could not make the pass happen speeds at the line now that's more like it the car's back in the draft getting towed along a little bit faster that's what we expect to see laps to go in the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earnhardt jr for now has fended off another challenge to take away the number one spot nbc's coverage of the pepsi 400 is brought to you by dodge and the nearly 3 000 dealers who invite you to come see what's new buy miller lite grab a miller light it's miller time by pep boys all you need to know is where to go pep boys and by pfizer where life is our life's work 250 miles will be complete as they cross the start finish line this time in the 43rd pepsi 400. dale earnhardt jr is the leader he has fended off about all challenges to his top spot and there have been a few for a little while now bernard jr went to the front for the first time in lap number 27 there wasn't room there kansas there was no room to go on the outside but somehow he did it he did it because dale jr gave him the room man oh man there couldn't have been just inches on either side i guess they are good friends hump any after a move like that oh man oh man now remember early in the race matt was loose so on the first pit stop they tightened him up made him way too tight so on the most recent pit stop they made other changes a half pound in the right rear half pound out of the right front a half turn out of the left rear they made those changes this car is good now but it's better on long runs remember robbie reiser said my car and my driver are strong and bill actually what happened there is dell jr was trying to protect the high line a couple of minutes ago he talked to his spotter ty norris junior's car can run anywhere he said where does steve want to run meeting his teammate steve park ty norris said he needs to run high he said okay i'll run high he was trying to protect that high line and keep his teammate behind him wow what a strong car he's got he muscled his way back up to the front now he has the lead once again so problem is steve parks in the low line and earnhardt jr now has moved down to try to bring the 31 to chevrolet skinner and steve park almost some contact there between rusty and the 29 huh yeah that was awfully close look at junior pull down and pull that bottom line with him junior's car is really fast in the corner i mean it basically stays the same in a straight away but if you watch his car in the corner he actually leaves the car behind him when they go through the corners here's our dodge race fact four times in this july classic at daytona the pepsi 400 has been won by a dodge 1977 the last one the king richard petty who's behind the wheel of that car we have a second retiree from the race jeff purvis has taken his car to the garage smoke trailing from behind it on that last set of pit stops it has now been officially put out of this pepsi 400. three chevrolets two fords in the top five dale earnhardt jr continues to show the way in the pepsi 400 at daytona on nbc the 43rd running of the pepsi 400 at daytona comes your way live with 106 of 160 laps complete and dale earnhardt jr the dominant driver thus far here's our napa field summary sterling marlin dominant early then dale earnhardt jr dominant since only one caution flag that when andy houston hit the wall back at lap number 88. houston and jeff purvis the two drivers out of the race steve parker's third last lap and he was desperately trying to get in the same line as the eight card and got shuffled out and dropped back to 16. in one lap in one lap man i blinked and i missed that and you're the driver behind the wheel and you're trying not to rip the steering wheel right out of the car right this that's the frustration part i talked about 35 cars on the lead lap now the only cars that are not on the lead lap are ricky craven dave marcus stacy compton bill elliott kyle petty and rick mast they all fell way behind on a set of green flag pit stops where they lost the draft and then the leaders overtook them and then the caution came out everybody else besides those drivers and purvis in houston who are out of the race still in the hunt basically mike skinner has really given a 31 car a great one tonight as well we just saw in the graphic that after that botched pit stop that he had fallen back to 22nd position and right now is battling for the second spot with rusty wallace rusty showed a little muscle for the first time tonight bill weber has more on rusty wallace alan two things everybody needs to know about rusty wallace how hard that team work to get this car ready for daytona and how much rusty wants this win he's never won a restrictor plate race was third in the daytona 500 crew chief robin pemberton spent the time and money to win tunnel this car that we showed you in the pre-race show right now rusty is desperate to get to the front he wanted to be able to run up high on the racetrack so they made that change last time but the track keeps changing first it's up high then it's down low robin said really it's just like i told you after practice there's no one guy out there yet except uh dale jr said about the third or fourth guy mike skinner that's gone up to try and take the lead away from dale jr and each time he seems to find a way to keep it out front he's making all the right moves he is inspired yes he is it looks like rusty wass is going to get by skinner to take over that second position [Music] mike skinner's team asking nascar if he actually led that last lap to get five bonus points in the championship answer came back negative i checked him on for him they went by it was a very very close finish to the line and the monitor said that dale jr had led that lap three deep yep ken schrader up the outside there's jeff born down on the inside i don't know if mike can't run up high or what the deal was to leave that open he's going to lose a lot of spots down hey man the 29 car but maybe he can't run up that high watch that yellow line jeremy mayfield he thought about it the 12th car started to look cool it's gonna be real tempting the last five laps skinner finally got back in line here comes rusty wallace oh he opens up the outside a little bit and schroeder just drives up on the outside along with matt kenseth junior goes up for blockback he's having to work real hard to figure out which line to stay at now he's looking in the sphere as much as he's looking at the windshield here's a craftsman truck series update this was earlier today at the new kansas speedway how about ricky hendricks son of the winston cup champion many times now team owner rick hendrick got his first win in the truck series congratulations ricky i know you're dead and your grandpa is just as thrilled as they can be and how about john wood in fourth spot that's eddie wood's son 20 years old yeah next generation of the wood brothers coming along this one behind the wheel rusty wallace running second richard childress racing teammates there skinner in the 31 harvick in the 29. [Applause] and mark martin starting to move back into the picture dale earnhardt jr continues to run out in front of the pepsi 400 you're watching nascar on nbc the pepsi 400 from daytona international speedway under green at lap 116 of 160 it has been dale earnhardt jr's night so far here's our home depot track fact the lighting system installed here at daytona 1998 enough to illuminate a two-lane street from daytona beach to muscatine iowa here's your here's your knowledge tester benny muscatine iowa significant in that tribute fact for what it's the name it's the hometown of the company that installed the lighting system moscow there you go very good that was too easy i knew i wouldn't catch you out on that one look at this look on the inside oh you almost get right down to the yellow line sterling marlin the pole center that dodge trying to work his way back to the front last time bye was in about the seventh position sterling led two times for 20 laps early in the event and dropped way back in the field with an ill handling car but somebody was smoking off that second corner that's joe nemechek's car nascar spotters are reporting benny there it is oh i see he's hit the wall well that'll do it yes that was tire smoke we were seeing yeah right back here you see the bumper the rear part of the bumpers hanging out right there i tried you were one of those kids that couldn't come out that was terrible i was terrible yeah i'd come in and give it to andy now i think i would too go ahead andy take her out andy houston is standing by because joe nemechek was not feeling well he's feeling worse now back to the lead and you hope that that his aches and pains didn't contribute to getting into the wall or getting into the wall didn't make it worse and as we watch this nemechek will bring his car to pit road white skinner hung out again a lot of rumors around skinner concerning his future in this 31 car that maybe richard childress might be considering a change nothing confirmed there but certainly external pressure on skinner with all the speculation around to have some good performances let's get an update on joe nevacek from dave burns well alan they didn't do much they put on two right side tires and told him not to speed and didn't lift the hood didn't do anything else in fact i'm gonna go take a look uh there is fluid down there can't quite tell what yeah they um that's what it is guys we'll check out and see if there's anything really wrong with the car they know they can make it to the this pack is going to overtake him off of turn two and onto the back stretch he might be able to blend in i don't think so [Music] first instinct was right dale earnhardt jr has spent most of the time in this race since lap 27 in the lead we're now at lap 120 300 miles into the pepsi 400 it's earnhardt jr rusty wallace michael waltrip kevin harvick and ken schrader the top five [Music] our pepsi race recap we went green in the pepsi 400 in daytona just after 8pm eastern time with sterling marlin leading the field of 43 to the green the fans salute the memory of dale earnhardt lap three his son dale earnhardt jr pushing kevin harvick toward the front of the pack and then taking the lead away from harvick at lap number 27 junior's team as well as harvecks planning their green black pit stop strategy they came in together this was lap 88 the only caution of the race cut right front tires sent andy houston into the turn four wall he was okay he's one of only two drivers out of the race jeff purvis also is retired with engine failure we're just past 300 miles now and closing in on another set of pit stops coming up in another 12 15 laps or so this is back for 9th 10th 8th 9th and 10th oh man they're ganged up three abreast come on now guys easy easy play nice if it looks tight from here it's really tight looking from down there burton's car the gold dodge there see that thing just start pushing up off turn two he had to get out of the gas and slide in behind schroeder yes i did and the other cars going by him on the outside because he had to crack the throttle and ward burton's heart the 22 driver he started beating again i'm told that joe nemechek made contact with dave marcus on the racetrack the 71 did not hit the wall but the damage we saw on the right side was from contact with dave marcus nemechek in 35th position the first car one lap down and in fact just overtaken by ricky craven to put him back to 36th oh look at todd beaudine going up there angels fear to tread earnhardt jr sterling marlin matt kenseth kevin harvick todd bodine ward burton michael waltrip and robert presley all that lapse in this race presley by staying on the racetrack when everybody else pitted under the caution back at lap number 89 he came in a lap later but did collect five bonus points if you lead a lap in a winston cup race you collect five extra championship points lead the most laps you get another five bonus points it's amazing what's going on behind the elena jr i look just a moment ago and jeff gordon was running the 12th spot and there he is trying to take the third spot away from michael walsh with help from kurt busch i'll probably look in a few minutes to be back at 15th it's just back and forth but one thing is constant that white number eight car the baseball car in front yep nobody's been able to do anything with them even if they gang up on them michael waltrip after the problems on the pit stop earlier at lap 89 when he slid through his pits regaining those lost positions taken third well the leaders should be coming on the pit road sometime soon marty snyder let's let's hear from you about it yeah allen about lap 142 or 143 which is not too long from now we will see the leader dale earnhardt jr on pit road he's fighting two problems right now one he wants to make sure he stays out front and two don't get too big of a lead he is still about three-quarter throttle he can pull away from these guys if he wants to they plan no adjustment till the next stop he wants to stay out front to bill ever could michael waltrip be writing another daytona miracle story the daytona 500 winner coming in here looking for the daytona sweep winning the 500 and the 400 had a good car came down a pit road as allen talked about slid through his pit lost all those positions almost hit skinner on the way out fell way back in the field then charged back to the front the big critical questions when they pit who will they have as a partner and how many guys are going to take how many tires if they take any down today bill i've been keeping my eye on mike wallace all night in my note sheet says the same thing all the way down it's okay it's fine it's great mike wallace hasn't had any changes and jim long the crew chief tells me that he can drive the car anywhere on the track that he wants to it's now up to him to find a way near the end of the race to be out front at just the right time mike wallace is having a great run matt joachim dave jeff gordon has climbed to the fourth position on his last pit stop the only adjustments they made were the driver they handed a water bottle and two ice packs he was a little bit warm but no adjustments on the 24 cars the car is still a little loose on entry but he is adjusting with his driving and keep in mind this car is very stout his 24 machines the last non-rad associated team to go to victory lane in the restricted play race devel brad being a aerodynamic group an association between richard childress racing andy petry racing and dale earnhardt incorporated racing where they all pool resources with an aerodynamicist to study and improve their cars particularly for these races here at daytona and it's sister track talladega look out michael waltrip and mike wallace and here's warren burton back in the mix we saw sterling marlin on the dodge up there just a moment ago here comes the other one ward burton has moved in looks like the fist bump started in second fell way back in the field he's picking his way back into the top five as we close in on pit stops in the finish of the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earnhardt jr has dominated so far can he hang on to what would be an extremely emotional win nascar on nbc looking down on the daytona international speedway for the pepsi 400 getting down to its final laps tomorrow night at 7 6 central don't miss it all new dateline nbc street racing it's fast and furious but it's also an illegal sport that can kill that's tomorrow night at 7 6 central dateline nbc 26 laps to go in the pepsi 400 and about six to nine laps from the final round of pit stops for the leaders which will happen under green if we don't see the yellow between now and then four four or two tires you know that's a question right now i would think if the front group comes in and takes four tires i'd have to take two tires if i came in the next lap but you've run a full fuel load you can change the tires as fast as you can fill the tank with fuel i guess it just depends how much fuel you need to put in exactly you don't need a full fuel load to go the distance so it could be some strategies playing out there yeah and we've seen these cars tonight run faster as they burn off fuel they get faster and faster look at jeff gordon trying to get up to the outside of michael waltrip his trapped and partners left him moving into the fourth spot everybody bailed out to the inside line gordon's gonna go all the way back behind skinner he's gonna drop the [Music] seventh ricky craven on and off pit road craving a lap down already now a constant theme throughout the night has been joe gibbs racing's two entries being at the back of the field bobby labonte and tony stewart dropped to the tail end of the line pretty quickly at the green flag and they've run there all night this is lavoni in 30th spot but you know he's only four and a half seconds behind the leader and if they really have a good race car after that final pit stop then's when he's going to try to start gaining those positions tony stewart his teammate is in 26th position marty snyder can tell us more about the joe gibbs teammates and guys tony stewart and bobby labonte have a radio channel where they can talk to each other and about 15 laps ago tony clicked over to that channel and said bobby let's go to the front bobby told jimmy naycar as crew chief it's time to see what we can do they've been laying back about half throttle at the back of the pack all night long since that time tony stewart has picked up nine spots bobby labonte has picked up six and as far as the last pit stop goes guys some teams are considering fuel only down here and no tires [Music] riding along to tony stewart's car let's listen to how he's using his throttle in the corner and then compare that to the leader dale earnhardt jr [Music] he squeezed off the throttle just a little bit as he entered turn three he's now back wide open again [Music] you're all clear sound like he's looking to me sure doesn't we can't tell he may be running seven eight strong or three quarters of throttle we can't tell that but now some of these guys marty schneider talked about is that jeff gordon and the fence are just way way high he's falling back he's back to 14th position and he's gotten himself down to the inside line is he coming to pit road he may just be getting himself clear of traffic to make his pit stop bill elliot casey atwood and stacy compton are all on pit road for stops but now marty schneider talked about some of these guys fuel only and wally we've seen cars make these pit stops slam on the brakes and slide these tires here comes tony stewart here comes bobby labonte on the pit road you cannot slide these tires if it's going to be fuel only you cannot classify these flat spots these tires that's right and what benny would what you're talking about is when you when you lock up the brakes it just takes that rubber off that tire where the tires are locked up and then they're at around and it just vibrates and you have to come in and change them marty schneider tony stewart and bobby lavonny are in they obviously can make it the rest of the way from here they're going to take at least two tires both of the cars will take two tires and no adjustments for either race car pluses and minuses of two tires well it takes less time that's the plus and minus well i talked a moment ago they're five seconds behind two tires if erner junior changes four that puts him right with him because they don't need a full load of fuel just one can but the minus is handling adhesion yes yeah the guys before tires when they catch them they're going to go right by kevin lepage ken schrader jeremy mayfielder on pit road as the leaders come down the back stretch we'll see who pits this time around among this group i think schreiner was gas only they've taken tires back over the wall we'll check on that two tires leaders off turn four who's bailing out johnny benson is a couple of cars in the middle of the pack all the front runners stay out dave blainey's the other one headed to pit road there's benson delaney right behind him laney just got on the brakes hard bunch of smoke comes out i'll be interested to see what they change 19 laps to go these pit stops could be everything in determining who wins this race two tires now that the first couple have done two isn't the pressure on the rest of these teams to just get to yes it really is [Music] unless you're deep in the field here come a large pack runners trouble off the corner 31 several cars involved three four five six seven sterling marlin mike skinner jeff gordon is in it bobby hamilton kurt bush is in the crash dale jarrett takes to the pit road terry lavonny's involved caution's out i didn't see it but it looked like some guys were trying to get in the pits and it just stacked up see some damage to the right front of kevin harvick's car not a lot of damage but damage oh a lot of damage to that automobile ran so well earlier in the night there's skinner against the fence mike's moving around looks like he's okay [Music] jeff gordon and kevin harvick took their cars straight to pit road [Music] but it all happened behind dale earnhardt jr there's bobby hamilton trying to push his car back backwards down pit road that car will go behind the wall we talked about the big wreck this one happened in a way we didn't expect all the damage to terry lebanon all right let's see if we can sort this one out all right here they're coming off the corner i think this will be contact right there skinner and kurt busch get together turn skinner into the wall head on labonte has no place to go neither does bobby hamilton when straight when skinner comes back across the racetrack now there's no place for anybody to go oh oh is that the justice league yeah dave marcus gets down on the grass and somehow saves it he's almost as good as you i know and you know what the seventh car was slowing down coming in the pits 31 checked up 97 ran into him shot right across in front of terry labonte watch the back of this dale jarrett top right of your screen going to come through the smoke head for pit road a lot of wrecking going on there dale i'd be careful on pit road if i were you the racetrack looked to be the safest place you ever see kurt bush right on the back bumper and mike wallace goes toward pit road there's the contact skinner gets turned and man terry labonte says oh no mark martin piling in there mark has continued driving around but his chance at that million dollar bonus appears to have taken a little bit of a hit there if the damage is significant on his car was that mark spartan [Applause] another shot get a better look at it here and it just doesn't take much i mean you know mike saw the seven car coming in the pits he rolled out through a little bit bush couldn't see what was going on it just doesn't take much never saw the contact with jeff gordon listen to this folks [Music] oh man there's nothing you can do on that they're all those guys behind and nowhere to go they're up there minding their own business and sterling that's going to leave a mark oh man i felt that did you feel that i did feel that that's because you hit me when it happened ricky rudd's lucky man jeff gordon let's see him down there he makes contact with sterling marlin and the 97 car makes contact with jeff he goes down through the grass checking pit road is closed because a number of the cars involved in the accident crashing down onto the pit entry they want to make sure they've got all the metal picked up and other debris so we'll take a break come back for the caution flag pit stops in just a moment only 16 laps to go in the pepsi 400 at daytona well welcome back to daytona pit stops that could decide the race dale earnhardt jr the leader is in much debate about two or four tires they decided to go the same route with four tires and they will still win the race off pit road barely beating my followers nice job nice job guys see what nascar has to say about that you see that white line right in front of dale earnhardt junior's pit all he has to do is bump the clutch and get the car across that line that was close and that locks in his position in the pit exit order so we'll see what they where they position people from that i don't know if the seven took four or two tires on that stop had to be two yeah yeah the four tires that's the right move jeff gordon still getting attention one of the seven cars involved in the wreck just a moment ago off turn four kevin harvick we saw the damage on the right front they're trying to put a piece of aluminum over that now let's see look at the white line coming out of pit road off the pit stops that line who got there first i don't know that i couldn't tell you betty no not for nascar to decide that's why they get the big bucks [Music] so mike wallace for now defending his position in front of dale earnhardt jr on the track but junior trying to drop the hint that he thinks maybe he got out first seen this on many well now he was just told he was told by his team i i didn't hear nascar here comes mike the big winners in all this are the orange car and the green car right there bobby labonte in the green car and tony stewart in the orange machine they have made their pit stop they just changed two tires but they have that track position they've been looking for all night long here are the cars involved in the crash adding jason lefler to the list that we gave you earlier mark martin one of the noble five drivers with the shot at the million dollar bonus tonight all triggered with kurt bush into the back of mike skinner as mike wallace slowed to get to pit road dave burns well and alan sterling marlin is helping orchestrate whatever fixes they might make here sterling do you think you can make do you think you can make fixes at all here and get back in i don't know broke something on the steering i didn't have any steering and uh couldn't turn left something's broke somewhere but i hate you follow coors a lot guys we had pretty good cars just a tight loose at times oh whatever somebody got in somebody what was the first reaction you had did you did your spider didn't even have time to tell anything didn't you no look looked to me like skinner cut somebody off to get in the pits and turn them sideways and we don't know where for us to go but that's what you get with these rules everybody's on top of each other and i pray the good lord they change these rules just can't race all right strong opinion from sterling marlin on the aerodynamic rules that they have on the cars here as well as the restrictor plate racing allen sterling marlin fifth in the championship coming into this race he'll take a big hit in points tonight 14 laps to go at daytona nbc's coverage of the pepsi 400 is brought to you by budweiser with the crisp clean refreshing taste you'll find in no other beer this but good serious technology freedom from worry by the home depot the official home improvement warehouse of nascar and by pepsi the choice of victory lane [Music] all right an early fan and he's here at the racetrack he's not even watching at home championship standings jeff gordon leading dale jarrett by 126 coming into the race but there you see if the race were to finish as it is now that ricky road would move in the second spot only 106 points behind jeff gordon gordon running in 24th jarring 21st and run in 11th on the racetrack at the moment take a break while the track cleanup continues and get back for the final frantic scramble to the finish in the pepsi 400 at daytona nascar on nbc at daytona international speedway the pepsi 400 is down to its final 12 laps they're making preparations for the big celebration in victory lane the question is who'll be making the turn through the gates i don't know the whole running order has been jumbled by the caution coming out for the crash in the middle of the green flag pit stops johnny benson is the leader of the race benson made his pit stop under green at left 141 stayed on the lead lap and was in front of bobby labonte and the other guys who'd already stopped when the caution came out so benson's the leader dave blaney is second third is ken schrader jeremy mayfield is fourth tony stewart fifth then bobby labonte sixth dale earnhardt jr back in seventh place and by the way he did beat mike wallace off the pit lane so it's junior then mike wallace then rusty wallace and ward burton gonna be 11 laps to go what do you think i think they better look out for junior because he'll be coming and he'll have fire in his eye this young man wants this one tonight badly he wants to end up where we saw that picture just a moment ago in victory lane and we talked about the big wreck and how the closer we got to the finish the higher the probability these guys are really going to be on edge right now yes yeah we might have another big one here before this is over 11 laps to settle the pepsi 400 here we go now's when you're making deals onboard with dale earnhardt jr down to the inside not room there besides wisely decides to back up a little bit got it clear of the lap cars first don't even check the 33 was up alongside benson the leader he was the first one to lap down boy jr wants to go the inside so badly he doesn't have any choice down to the inside better watch the out of bounds line off the triangle the temptation will be great to try and go under elliott and nemechek cautions out trouble off turn four jeff gordon's car smoking heavily looks like he's made contact with the outside retaining wall that's on board with jeff gordon and you can see that we can't see much nothing much to see while they're racing back around toward the caution they're being told the drivers are by nascar that they've already taken the caution it was out when they got here the first time so slow down a huge huge break for dale earnhardt jr yes because on the restart all the cars will line up single file those lap cars will go back to the 25th position where they're running on the racetrack he can race these guys for the lead when he's showing all night it has a very fast race car the problem is is he gonna run out of time if you're new to nascar there is a rule called the 10 lap rule once you get inside the final 10 laps of the race if there's a restart only the cars on the lead lap go to the front of the pack and line up in single file so joe nemechek's role on that last restart won't be there the next restart and that's a very important rule and i'm glad to see especially on the restrictor plate races because we've seen so many times the big crash the other big crash happened on a restart getting towards the end of the race all right dylan our junior was seventh spot i mean he actually started 14. here's jeff gordon and we see i don't think he hit the wall benny doesn't look like it doesn't i think some damage from that earlier crash maybe cut an oil line or something i think he looks like he cut a tire matt yokum what happened to gordon the guys jumped off the pit boxer getting ready to head back to the garage and gordon said the car is still running but it does not have a lot of oil pressure maybe it cut an oil line robbie loomis told him to bring the car to pit road we'll see what we can do possibly we can fix it there are a few laps left possibly we can save some points out of this alan so jeff gordon the championships leaders troubles continue nine laps to go at daytona we'll take a break and come back and see how it turns out in a minute the pepsi 400 at daytona draws down to a precious few final laps eight to go we're under caution it came out when something looks like an oil line came out from underneath jeff gordon's car johnny benson is the leader benson got the lead by being on the racetrack when the caution came out having already made a pit stop question is did he get two tires four tires dave burns what was it well we'll ask james into they are on strategy right now james when you came on under green on pit road did you take on two or four tires we took on right side tires and that's not really a concern to us it's uh this car's always done pretty good on two tires about one two races last year here on two tires so you know we'd rather be leading right now with two than be back in the back with four and you've been dumped to the rear before at the end of a race like this how do you keep that from happening this time well it's either gonna if it gets dumped to the rear it's gonna be backwards into the fence because they come by they're gonna have to hit it hard all right johnny benson wants to win let's go to marty well dave tony yuri senior is the crew chief for dale earnhardt jr you've led 111 laps tonight but it seems like time might be running out he's sitting back there with caution laps counting away yeah situations that nobody likes to see on a plate race call they'll be five wide when they come back and ain't no telling what's going to happen uh definitely best man's probably not going to win this race ain't no telling what's going to happen do you think he will not win the race because he said on the radio i think we can get past him well we definitely got the car to pass him and we're definitely going to give it a try and budweiser chevy will get there we're going to get there but this plate racing stuff it's all with who's in front of you and who's behind you or whatever so you don't have no control of your own destiny we can get there we'll get there we can't hey we know who had the fastest car tonight from cars behind him he has been promised help but he does not know if he's going to be able to get to the front in time oh man six laps to go when they throw the green flag and the passing on the restricted plate racetracks is a tough thing to do we've seen cars unable to pass him all night long but we haven't seen how easily he can pass tell you what to you got three guys up there in the top three right now two of them have not won a race one hasn't won on a race in a long time i'd be making deals with each other saying guys let's not let some of these guys that win every weekend win one of these races let's run together run some laps and last lap every man for himself all right bottom line can dale jr win this race yes you're thinking about it too long yeah you know like tony said if they get three four wide on the back stretch anything can happen and it will now has a shot let's talk about the desperation factor okay the first two johnny benson and dave blaney have never won a winston cup race ken schroeder hasn't won the third place car since 1991 tony stewart running fifth is one of the drivers eligible for the million dollar bonus i've got five very hungry men sitting up there right now yes plus jeremy mayfield who's in there and those guys all in front of dale jr behind dale jr to help him draft mike wallace bobby lavonte rusty wallace ward burton i'm sure he'd love to see michael waltrip or steve park somewhere close to him but michael's back in 14th and park is in 22nd i don't think dale needs anybody get all the gears seven laps left now it'll be six as they come to the start finish line time to settle the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earnhardt junior sixth in line and vincent lee's on the restart once again you can't pass on the inside you get to that line all right it's free game let's go ward burton quickly down to the inside to try and grab a spot see jeff gordon back on the racetrack bernard jr lag back trying to get him to run he has that run but tony stewart pulls up in front of him he's got he's got time i guess schroeder pushed to the outside lane 20 cars the only one upstairs look at junior going over there up to four here comes bobby labonte pushing through junior to the outside of mayfield for third kevin's coming with you mike wallace has been worth it we can hear is telling him he got help on the outside junior this lady blocked in the 93 what about benson they're going to stay on the bottom of the racetrack i think they're going to give the outside to junior [Applause] jeff gordon getting black flag by nascar here's dale jr to the outside of dave blaney for second spot mayfield pushes him along in the draft so they're still there to the outside for the lead in turn four [Applause] rockets to the front of daytona listen to the crowd and look at this crowd behind you [Applause] tony stewart will be black flagged by nascar black flag for tony stewart for going below the out of bounds line clear all clear and tony stewart is in second spot with a million dollars on the line okay 27 but you're all clear all clear here comes bobby lavonte he's got a million dollars on the line as well it's michael waltrip who's pushing him toward the front and the body's underneath the yellow line on the back stretch this thing's not over yet michael waltrip trying to become the first man to sweep a season at daytona since 1982 he's up to third 18 15 [Applause] [Music] i'll tell you one thing if junior was running three quarters all that ending because he's running wide open right now ward burton rocketing toward the front look at him on the outside outside of mike and also for third here's elliot sadler up to fifth where'd he come from in the wood brothers car he's me [Music] frantic intense racing in the final laps at daytona but it's still dale earnhardt jr out in front they've got to take trying to keep those cars behind him desperately trying to keep him behind him he runs so good through the corner he lets him get a run on him down the straight away michael waltrip dives underneath bobby labonte they bump on the back stretch wall trip to second eliot sadler and rusty wallace with him now two team cars race in the one and two positions that's who dale needs to see in his rearview mirror right now that's the best thing he can see for dale jr will he try to win the race himself white flag is out final lap at daytona 180 000 on their feet screaming wildly two and a half miles to go just exactly the opposite of the daytona 500 it was 15 and eight elvis settlers trying to keep bobby labonte behind he can't do it but he does move down in front of rusty wallace on that fast line clear all clear bobby levati looking for some help trying to get up there his teammate tony stewart has never answered the black flag and they're four wide back between the wallace boys here they come turn four final lap of the pepsi 400 michael waltrip in second but it's going to be dale earnhardt jr using lessons learned from his father to go from sixth to first and score the victory in the pepsi 400. that's unbelievable yes [Applause] you guys celebrate i love you that was beautiful very very nice junior you're happy all right look at that smile wow i don't think there's anybody here that didn't want to see that [Music] sentimental favorite emotional favorite [Applause] earlier in the broadcast we talk among ourselves some of the moves he made on the track today look like his father behind the wheel i am speechless tears and cheers [Music] pretty cool marty snyder's on pit road with tony urie dale earnhardt jr's crew chief and you wouldn't believe the emotion the tears out here for dale earnhardt jr if that wasn't like the old man i don't know what was tony senior hey he had a good teacher he uh he told him a lot about this place he loves this place hell listen to them fans up here they love that kid today i saw you look to the heavens with a few laps to go what did you say well he said he knew he could beat him we just didn't know what was gonna happen remember when we've seen this before [Applause] and steve mills joining the fray now man diaz tough diastolic [Music] what a finish at daytona dell junior on top of the car in the infield the 1998 daytona 500 when his father finally won the great american race he threw the car into the grass doing victory donuts everybody joining in the celebration that's chocolate myers long time crewman for dale at richard childress racing [Music] [Applause] sixth to first in the final six laps all right mikey you celebrate two you never got to celebrate your win in february you celebrate now man that's just so cool storybook ending [Applause] let's go come on tony urey and dale jr getting together now he's got to get it back over to victory lane let me tell you something guys he went to exactly the right place exactly the right place i don't know how he knew to do that but that's where he needed to go and that poor nascar official is responsible for that car to make sure it gets through tech inspection cleanly there had to be about 300 people around it down there on the grass [Music] dale earnhardt jr is our winner and chevy congratulates him in the number eight monte carlo on a big win tonight and he'll tell you the only thing that comes close to monte carlo's reputation on the track is its reputation on the street monte carlo more champions depend on chevy we'll be there to victory lane and bill weber [Music] [Applause] it's tony urey senior dale earnhardt jr these friends are yours man i just don't know what to say i'm more out i can't think uh i guess i gotta thank my buddy tony from crew chief for hanging in there with me all my friends all the guys on the crew budweiser remington i got to talk all night how did you get to the front after the rest i had a great car it was all a car 100 i just holding on you've learned a few things through the years though haven't you from certain people yeah yeah he was with me tonight i i don't know how i did it but he was there and mike will help me i guess we're even now you told marty schneiderdale you felt lonely on father's day and there were times that you wanted to cry but you couldn't did you cry tonight i'll be crying sooner later i don't know i feel so good right now i'm wearing out there you know when your dad got his first win at daytona his first winston cup points win came 11 years ago today july 7th 1990. i dedicate this win to him i mean ain't nobody else that i could dedicate it to that it would mean more to me i want to say hey to teresa back home i hope she's loving this because we sure are thank you congratulations dale earnhardt jr now here comes steve park his teammate who won at rockingham after we lost dale earnhardt here so the celebration here continues let's go to matt and back in february it was michael walter push to victory lane by dale earnhardt jr did you pay back that favor tonight was that the game plan michael i just wanted dale jr to win so bad and i wanted to be a part of it i didn't want to finish 10th or 12th and the napa auto parts spirit of america hot rod was running it was really fast but uh i was committed to dale jr just like he was to me in february and i'll tell you when i really learned the lesson when i was running third protecting dale jr and rusty that's what dale was doing in february that's that's a handful they were all over me but i just i stayed committed i wasn't about to bail out on them and dale jr called me on monday morning after daytime 500 and he said i'm there for you brother and he was and i just wanted to be part of it with him on top of the car you two embraced and then you were talking to each other's ears what were you saying to each other this is what it's all about we all we both we're so excited about coming to daytona this place is a part of our lives more so than any other place in the world we weren't more emotional than normal we were just normal as normal as we can be since we lost our friend but um we were excited about racing and then to have it in like that it was cool being on top of the car with dale jr but he's young and they butt heads i think i'm going to have a headache then he dove off the car and i think i weigh more than everybody on my team so i didn't want to hurt them or me so i crept off and cruised over here thanks to klausner furniture ritz crackers coca-cola chevrolet goodyear tires and especially napa auto parts the greatest sponsor nascar thank y'all a special night a special victory for dale earnhardt incorporated allen dale earnhardt jr becomes just the 38th driver in this track's long history to earn the right to go to victory lane and hold a daytona winners trophy what a drive what a performance final results in the pepsi 400 elliot sadler outstanding third place run i don't know where he came from in those last 20 laps mike wallace will finish in the 11th spot dale jarrett 13th ricky rudd 15th getting a lot of points on the points leader jeff gordon tonight let me just mention that tony stewart i told you he never answered the black flag while he's listed in sixth at the moment he is under penalty and nascar hasn't determined where his final finishing position is yet i can assure you it won't be in six though [Music] the celebration will continue long on into the night with that young man i assure you what a way to return to daytona so much has been made throughout the week of what he would go through having to come here he's gone through the best he could possibly dale earnhardt jr has won the pepsi 400 will come back in just a minute back at daytona as the celebration continues in victory lane time for us to pick the autotrader.com moves of the race can there be any question well don't move the camera just leave it right there at that young man that's my vote dale earnhardt jr i second that one that was incredible restarted sixth with six laps to go and won the race and took the lead with four laps to go dale earnhardt jr let's go to dave burns bobby labonte has been standing down here television producing chatting with crew chief jimmy maycard you're really loose are you relieved this is over well yeah of course we are you know and uh you know tonight i raced about eight laps all night long and uh that doesn't it doesn't seem right does it but uh you know really i you know it's a great deal for dale jr and michael waltrip and dei and all them guys and uh that's what it was about here you know the racing on my part wasn't much other than you know right there at the end jimmy and then made a great call for tony not a pit they had that caution which you know anything could happen and we got track position there and that's what you needed uh because you can't hardly pass sometimes and uh you can get boxed in and with that restart i was uh running third there or uh running up front and uh running second to d uh junior and uh michael walter got by me he had a really fast race car so i slid back to fifth which is a better night probably should have been tonight so can't complain too much other than what did i do you know now the pontiacs tonight sure weren't bad race cars they were just playing good strategy till the end marty well day before tonight elliot sadler's best finish at daytona was 18th and i think alan beswick said it best where'd you come from anyway i don't know man i think we had a pretty good call tonight just stuck back in traffic and right at that last caution we took on four tires i left pit road and i beat michael off pit road and i pulled over and let him go i said boys he's going to the front i'm going to follow him and i just stuck with mike and he pulled me right to the front man we finished third just a great job for motorcraft everybody would brothers i can't think of a better night i'm more excited here and more nervous than i was at bristol congratulate dale jr i can't think of anybody else i'd rather see win the race he did a great job man we feel like we won the race finished a third only his second career top five the other one was the win at bristol back upstairs great run for elliott sadler want to go back and take another look at the situation with tony stewart we talked about the out of bounds line and then if you went below the out of bounds line trying to improve your position you were going to get black flag so the question is was stewart hit from behind did he choose to go down to the inside how did it work well this is the restart this is the restart and it happened i guess the next lap yep so when he comes back around to turn four we're gonna see him go below the line you know that yeah that's just that's just in turn one he goes below the line when they come off a turn four back toward the tri-oval and the question is was he intentionally trying to improve his position by going down there or not [Music] i think that someone kind of forced him down there yeah i have to agree with you on that but it looked like he moved down there to make some you know evasive action there there we see dale jr going by tony stewart and here's mike wallace on the inside he's going to cut low here we're coming up on the incident so this slapper's at the next lap well i guess it's the next lap well while we look for that we'll tell you that what the drivers were told in the pre-race driver speeding was that if you went down under the line intentionally trying to improve your position you would be black flag now the question is in nascar's call in nascar's judgment was he intentionally trying to improve his position when he went downstairs or was he forced down there to keep from running over somebody nascar's call was he went down there trying to improve his position so he was put under the black flag we'll straighten it out after the break dale earnhardt juniors won the pepsi 400 we'll come back to daytona in a minute back at daytona where the pepsi 400 spectators are enjoying a firework show on independence weekend had a little fireworks at the finish of this one too involving tony stewart we have found the incident in question now and we show it to you this is coming off of turn four into the tri-oval and he's racing johnny benson in the ten car looks like he just gets a really good run on the tent car starts to cut underneath him 10 car comes down a little bit that's a tough call benny it is a tough call but tony stewart clearly was underneath the yellow line now the decision that you've got to make is did johnny benson force him down there or did did he go down there of his own free will he forced that that angle he sure drove him down there benson kind of ran him down there and tony stewart did not back off the gas he gets down below the yellow line nascar black flags him that's greg zipodelli tony stewart's crew chief the man in the middle is gary nelson the winston cup series director and the man with his back to you is the team owner joe gibbs to me it looked like if tony would have got out of the gas there it would have been a wreck to avoid getting down there joe's um argued with his share of referees in the course of his time he's got his hands full there matt yoakam has more matt well the fireworks do continue down here alan i spoke to greg zippadeli tony's crew chief right before gary nelson from nascar walked up he said we know he was forced down there by the 10. we saw it on the video the first time that's what tony also told us but we have to get our point across to nascar we are hoping that we can get some video to show gary nelson and just then gary nelson walked up the coast joe gibbs is also pleading the case for the 20 team very very forceful as you can see he is talking to gary nelson gary is listening but they're hoping to get this resolution here resolved in their favor all right well while we wait to find out exactly where it is that tony stewart is going to finish in this uh pepsi 400 we'll come back around and talk about dale earnhardt jr what a night i mean all of the build up coming into this what would it be like coming back to daytona for the first time since his father lost his life here in that terrible crash on february 18th dale jr subject to so much speculation questioning we ourselves during qualifying the other day wondering what he was thinking and what he was feeling at that point we know what he's thinking and feeling right now yeah you know and he said bill whoever asked him did you cry and he said and he said no really i think that's what he said was no but i'll be i'm not ashamed to tell you i shed a tear i mean that was one of the most unbelievable things i've ever seen in this sport you know bill weber asked me after preview show what's been the most exciting thing the first half the season will this overshadows anything that might have happened in the first half while there are some races along the line that as a driver if you can't win you're happy to see somebody else win no question uh you know i think there's about 42 other guys that was doing this exactly the same thing that michael did it was it was so cool to see michael go up there return the favor from the daytona 500 and i'll guarantee you dale jr wanted this race he may not have been shown it emotionally but he wanted to win this race badly daytona's always been a place for me of of magic of excitement a wonderful place to come for an automobile race when we left here february 18th it was the darkest i've ever remembered leaving a racetrack and this does so much for those thousands of spectators millions of dale earnhardt fans who need a piece of closure for daytona maybe the same for dale earnhardt jr obviously not as simple a situation for him but perhaps this can offer the dale earnhardt fans some closure where this racetrack daytona is concerned

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 190,562

Rating: 4.9280982 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: wooxoA5PkGE

Length: 138min 5sec (8285 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020