2005 Dickies 500 from Texas Motor Speedway | NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay

[Music] here's the harley-davidson starting grid for today's running of the dickies 500. brian newman won the poll crashed on his second lap as we talked about in the countdown he will start at the back of the field in a back-up car jeff gordon will start outside of row one in row two on the inside matt kenseth he will inherit the pole when newman goes to the back joe nemechek in row outside row two row three mayfield on the inside good qualifying run for mike bliss zero car on the outside row four great biffle one of the chasers along with his teammate mark martin another guy in the chase for the next talk on the inside of row five is bill elliot trying some stuff for every now for 2006 and taylor jr on the outside and there's jimmy johnson on the inside looking for a good day as well as elliott saber had a victory at this racetrack row seven dave blinny who's looking for a ride in 2006 and denny hamlin who got one handed to him this morning with joe gibbs racing he's in row seven inside row eight is casey kane and tony stewart our nascar next tail couple leader with just three to go on the outside row nine bobby labonte on the inside 18 car on the outside kurt bush sending champion row 10 scott wimmer next to veteran ricky rudd row 11 someone picked brian vickers to win today we'll see if that's true scott riggs on the outside row 12. good run for kevin lepage in the 66 car on the outside kyle busch row 13 bobby hamilton jr and rusty wallace his last race at texas and it is rusty wallace day in the state of texas today row 14 we fight on the inside mark 2x junior leader in the nascar bushes points and mike skinner on the outside row 15 on the inside dale jarrett ups 88 car and carl edwards watch out for him today row 16 michael waltrip he's next to another former texas winner jeff burton is on row 17 is kevin harvick the winner here yesterday 300 mile event terry labonte on the outside born from born in texas throw 18 casey mirrors on the inside on the outside mr excitement jimmy spencer takes it back to row 19 we'll find travis koppel right next to kyle petty roach when do we find a couple of chip ganassi cars sterling marlon on the inside jamie mcmurray on the outside row 21 ken trader on the inside on the outside driving for petty jeff green starting 43rd today mike wallace the 43 starters for today's race robbie gordon pj jones stewart kirby carl long johnny saw the reach sorenson failed to qualify and again as we talked about ryan newman crashed on his second lap of qualifying after winning the poll we'll have to go to the back of the field in a back-up car wally let's even get a hold of elliot sadler elliot there's wally in the booth can you hear me yes sir i got you left clear all right well you know how to win at this place do you have something today uh i think our combo sport is pretty good wally but uh i think this is a different texas racetrack than it's ever been in the past uh we learned yesterday that the groove gets really wide we can run up against the wall and it's kind of getting like atlanta i think the team that gets their car running up high today the best is going to be the team to beat that and this place is going to change a little bit by temperature where this race goes into uh evening you guys on top of your game there yeah we built a lot of adjustment into it uh my crew chief just told me it's already four or five degrees cooler now track temperature than what we practiced yesterday turn one is a lot more in the shade than what it was in practice so it's kind of gonna be like the coca-cola 600 kind of where you got to keep your car freed up as the night goes on and hopefully we've got enough adjustment in that to in the car to be able to do that so we'll see what happens good luck elliott all right you guys have fun today our thanks to elliot let's get you set for the race final stories from pit road starting with matt yoakam and bill elliot sadler's chasing that million dollars but the guys are chasing the big money you know you got greg biffle jimmy johnson trying to close that gap of tony stewart now if you look at the 16 team now they won here in the spring and you heard biffle say the confidence they feel like their car is just as good as it was here in the spring and he felt like the biggest key will be tonight staying on top of this racetrack as it changes from daylight into the night time meanwhile jimmy johnson their team they have a good car but not great in fact chad canales told me he woke up at 3 a.m this morning so glad that it was not an impound weekend they could come up with different ideas of how to make that car even better jimmy has never finished worse than ninth here at texas dave mark martin should be good today the last three mile and a half tracks that we've raced on average finished 3.0 and a third place last week in atlanta following which he said in his press release boy if i could have a car that good i'd race until i was 60. that takes us to the 2019 season it would probably be with jack roush and we'll wait and see marty dave talked to matt kenseth moments ago he told me goal number one for the day can be accomplished can be accomplished on lap one getting those five bonus points very early in the race will help their championship calls and emphatically he told me this morning we're still in this championship in the three races before the chase they made up 163 points and six positions they can do it again here in the championship chase allen earlier this week tony stewart talking about his past record here in texas said we haven't set the world on fire here just me back in april you heard him say earlier the goal for today not to have a 31st place finish like he did earlier but to make sure he finishes in front of all the other championship contenders and keeps his point lead intact bill thanks alan you guys have a great day down there on pit road crowd of about 190 000 here at the texas motor speedway they sold tickets to people from all 50 states and 12 foreign countries they've come to see the nascar next tall cup series go 500 miles on this mile and a half track front row now of matt kenseth and jeff gordon as pole sitter ryan newman drops to the back of the field [Applause] three races to go in the chase for the championship and 500 miles to chase the checkered flag at texas live on nbc [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] well you want to get to the bottom fast right now but by the looks of it five bonus points for matt kinsen for leading the first lap dale earnhardt jr on the inside of delaney boy blaney was all over the racetrack you know the pressures are down on these cars they're real hard to drive right now until the tire pressures build up so everybody's got to be real careful this part of the race also the track will start the group will start getting a little bit wider once they get the pressures [Music] looks like there's someone coming off turn four looks like bill elliot gets a little bit loose and just barely touches the wall off turn four and we have sadler the 38 car trying to get by bill drivers in yellow on the ticker at the top of the screen the 10 drivers in the chase for the next hellcup championship dave vp you said that uh bill elliott might be trying some stuff for uh everham right yes yeah i don't think that was one of them no that's not no that's not the playbook elliott's got his hands full right there car got loose again you can see the tail wanting to just kick out and get sideways right in the center corner and that's another ever ham car the nine of casey kane casey hit the wall here yesterday leading the race yesterday and blew a right front tire we've seen nemechek about to lose a spot too greg biffle 16 and here comes mike bliss in zero and keep nema check up there on the high side joe may lose a few spots right there i tell you walking through the garage here this morning i saw some nervous crew chiefs because they're just such an unknown on this racetrack in the fall dave wow did you see the zero get loose right here i did uh wally not that good for mike right now trying to hold his position but on the outside joe nemechek his crew chief ryan pemberton was a little bit nervous because of the way that they practiced yesterday unusually poor according to ryan they tried a bunch of stuff as far as fixing it overnight we'll see how it holds for the zero one army car a lot of guys this morning we're talking about in order to not have these cars be so tight or push off the corners they have to loosen them up but the problem is they're all loose getting into the corner 190 plus mile per hour going into these corners and the car wants to get sideways as you turn the steering wheel not a lot of fun and a lot of talk in the garage this morning benny about the car behind these two the six-car mark martin and the roush team as a whole just how fast that six car falls in practice how good they feel like he's going to be in the race and pat tries to crew chief on the sixth car one of the crew chiefs that really wasn't very nervous but a lot of confidence in your driver when you got a guy like mark with the wheel allen talked about mark's confidence on the bank of america countdown to green when mark has that feel on a sunday morning you know he's sure his car is going to be good part of that is having a crew chief like pat treyson because he brings the whole calm to the race team ryan newman the 12th car trying to work his way forward alan we talked about the story where he won the poll on his first qualifying lap friday crashed on his second this backup car that's on the track now has not been raced since november 2001. crew chief matt borland said it's not the car we really wanted to be using today but they had a little malfunction at their shop a little snafu he called it in their production so they put this car on the truck he said it's not bad but it's not like the piece we had friday newman's gonna have to fight his way through the field [Music] we see him back in 40th position got 500 miles to get there now the first part here yesterday in the bush race but as well i talked about her pit strategy hurt them and junior the eighth car goes by mark martin on the outside already they've moved they groove up on the top side allen hey vp remember the race in atlanta last sunday when junior led so much yes same car they cleaned it up brought it back they're very confident they're going to have a good run today dave allen mike bliss trying to hold a station there in the zero car right now he just radioed in that his car was very loose coming off the corner wanted to whip around that rear end and he doesn't like racing with joe nemechek right now in fact he wishes he could get by him but so far hasn't been able to do it now he's going to be real loose now getting into one if he's side by side with earnhardt when you're down there on the bottom like that makes your car even worse but there's enough room in between those two cars so it's not as bad if they were real tight together zero would be silent we saw two examples of that yesterday in the bush race we saw jj alien adrian fernandez both going the corner on the inside of someone back in the fence [Music] greg bible the 16 car man he's going somewhere yes he is bp he's trying to reel in the 19 at mayfield now he just told his team on the radio the car is bottoming out especially down and turns one and two and running me up the racetrack can't run down to the bottom line but he takes that position away from the dodge of mayfield spiffer was not very happy here on friday afternoon after the practice sessions but was happy after his qualifying run he didn't know where that came from no i don't think he did either but he's glad it showed up we did that interview with him that you saw on the countdown to green between qualifying and the practice session and it was after the practice session when greg wasn't exactly thrilled with the way things were going but they're working out all right so far same for matt kansas he's out front trying to hang on in the chase for the next cal cup championship 12 laps in the books at the great american speedway in fort worth [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] nascar nextel cup series racing from texas motor speedway is brought to you by sprint proud partner of the nascar nextel cup series by bank of america higher standards by ford f-150 built ford tough and by allstate official partner of nascar mckenzie qualified third started on the pole because ryan newman had to start at the back of the field in a backup car matt has led all 17 laps and he's out front on lap 18. inappropriate we put that up on lap 17. here's our autozone in the zone drivers at texas dale earnhardt jr five top 10 finishes and six starts here the former winner at this track jamie mcmurray with three straight top 10 finishes and kurt bush ditto and mike bliss just takes the spot from junior melissa's had some good runs here that is spot yep in the truck series [Music] guy second in the championship standings jimmy johnson update for matt and right now he's telling chad canals the car is a little bit free especially in the center up off the corner now his spotter chris oswer making observations of their teammate jeff gordon who runs up in third this is what he just told jimmy moments ago jimmy the 24th car is running the same line that you just ran one group off the bottom and one and two and he's bringing it in three on the bottom and letting it strip right up three quarters of the way up the track by the time and you could see moments ago when jimmy went down into turn one you could start to see the shade get more and more down in turns one and two and jack now said look keep an eye on that because we will have to make changes as the race goes on that's a good thing about having a spotter too you know i mean they're looking at where the other cars are running they're seeing if they're faster and that's when they bring it up see tony stewart the 20 car as he gets on the inside of mark martin we felt like that six cars will be one of the better cars tony stewart goes by and the last lap 20. fastest lap with all the cars out there obviously had a disappointing run that we talked about in the countdown but things improving here for him alan yeah bill and his crew chief exhibit ellie talked about the difference between the race here in the spring and now in terms of their program and their car is in night and day totally different they had a big test around memorial day weekend up at michigan speedway that set the stage for this summer run they've had on these fast mile and a half and two mile tracks they expect a good run today tony calling it a minute ago saying his car is just a tip tight meaning the front end grip lacking a little but not bad at all [Music] ninth a week ago second two weeks ago martinsville for tony stewart it's dale earnhardt jr in the eight and johnson 48. matt kenseth is a former winner here at texas and has led every lap so far today in the dickies 500 when we come back we'll take you through the field [Music] all the way around stayed on the leader [Music] about two chances slower than the later that left two tenths good lines [Music] pretty much just arrow ties matt step [Music] [Music] four [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] outside [Music] [Applause] here [Music] [Applause] thirty two fifty two what'd you ask before that's what i add keep an eye out for debris in three caution's out to bring in three 28 laps are complete here at texas the caution flag has just come out update you on that in a second for much more on nascar log on nbcsports.com and he has an in-depth preview of each race in the chase for the next taco championship and alan bestwick looks at how the pressure has intensified on those drivers contending for the title that's all at nbcsports.com debris in turn three and a lot of teens are saying thank goodness says caution flag came out so we can make some adjustments he's not he's not one of them there are a lot of teams but he's not one of them he was flying about a second and a half lead over second place greg biffle and he was he was starting to put cars a lap down that's what you like as a leader start passing guys huh passing guys again jimmy spencer was knocked off the lead lap as well he talked about but guess what he's the lucky dog yes he is couple of guys on the march forward let's see carl edwards started 30th he's worked his way up to 17th ryan newman started 43rd is up to 33rd so the field under caution here on lap 30. here are the unofficial results from yesterday's nascar bush series race at the texas motor speedway big win for kevin harvick very emotional victory lane biffle edward sorensen and kyle busch the top five two races remain in the season for the bush series stars junior with an 84 point lead over clint boyer as they head to phoenix next saturday warrior started at the rear of the field in a back-up car and gained points on truex that's a day for them yet but that's a bad habit he's i know he did that at memphis and won the race he said well i'll just do that again it didn't work out quite as well okay time for the guys on pit road to go to work and i'm not talking about the over the wall guys i'm talking about our four guys mckenzie leads the parade we send it down to dave and mark martin trying to keep championship hopes alive bill his card just a little bit tight in the corners they'll make a wedge adjustment maybe perhaps an air pressure adjustment two four tire change for mark matt frank bethel slides to a stop trying to angle his car out a little bit to have an easier exit they're making a chassis adjustment the car not bottoming out anymore but it is tight snyder leader matt kins at top of your screen match that the car was just a little bit loose a very minor change quarter pound in the left retire that's it ab tony stewart moved up from 16th to 8th in that opening run of the race slight air pressure adjustment on his car to help it turn a little better in the corners a pretty smooth stop so far for smoke a lot of traffic down there on pit road as you might imagine early in the race everybody on the lead lap [Music] see matt kenzeth on the race off of pitt road how about that johnson crew picking up four spots on pit road juniors guys too how about we're losing five spots there's a race off a pit road there's matt greg biffle waiting for the rest of the guys here they come there's junior so under caution here at the texas motor speedway matt kenseth the race leader live on nbc [Music] you want to talk right now that budweiser chevy looks pretty racy out there okay uh track's real slick i don't really know you know why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip on why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip why the cars have a little trouble getting the grip you know nine different drivers have won the nine races here at the texas motor speedway and six of those nine races have been won by ford's in 2002 matt kenseth took forward to victory lane here and went on to win a series high five races that season that also was the first year matt finished top 10 in the championship standings and he's been the top ten every year since for more log on to fordracing.com bill webber your turn thank you marty take a look at our craftsman pit summary nice coming off of pit road jimmy johnson picking up some spots and jeff gordon losing some word from pit road is the 24 got blocked in by the two they finished his work but he couldn't get out of his pit all right pace car off matt kenzit has led every lap coming around to complete lap 33 green flag back out and get back at it [Music] [Applause] robbie hamilton jr was guilty of a commitment line violation coming to pitt road and the 18 of popularity too many men over the wall under the field on the restart picked up a couple spots right there [Music] [Applause] that's a great lap look at five car kyle bush to the top of the racetrack gets that bump down to one and two and i don't think they like that bump too he was loose before he hit that pump so i'm not sure that car isn't really loose in he had moved from 25th to 12th before the caution flag was ninth last time over the line jenny hamlin as bill told you earlier it was announced today that he will drive this 11th fedex car in 2006. look at how loose that thing is man i'm telling you what he's got his hands full that eleventh car pulled up behind him and packed that up and just got him so loose how about those guys on the 11 team in the garage this morning talking about danny hammond oh they were just so pumped up that he's their driver next year phil and i walked by this morning i always see bevel going to the outside teammates a couple of raskatiers there biffle and matt kinseth share the same same car owner jack roush now did kenzon let him go by to get five points and will biffo let him go back or is he just faster we'll see we're about to find out biffle won the race here in the spring has five wins this season now has five bonus points here in texas in the drivers meeting this morning i think it's pretty obvious the answer to that one [Music] growers meeting matt kemp walked up to bible said well you got your butt beat yesterday didn't you finished second in the bush race yesterday matt and biffle has taken over the lead now he's earned bonus points in six of the seven chase races now he can pick up some more bonus points knowing that time begins to run out he should have a great weekend here he's expecting even bigger things next week at phoenix that car though really strong do you think the seventh one yeah i'm gonna give it a couple more laps marty you got something on this well i don't think he let him go bill but but matt does want the lead back he made that clear he said guys i want to get this back i liked it out front much better than being behind the 16 car dale earnhardt jr in the eighth tony stewart the 20 on the move well there goes tony on the inside junior on the outside stewart takes that spot away allen saying anything he's not saying anything but uh he's doing it on the track vp as pit crew got in one of those spots too he came down pit road in eighth position they got him out in sixth position uh should be in seventh position and now he's moved up to what fifth fourth now yep uh he's on the move you're right matt bill biffle has the lead just wondering how much longer he's gonna be able to hold he just came on the window said i have a bad and i mean bad vibration feels like it could possibly be in the drivetrain maybe not a loose wheel wow third in the championship standings and as they run right now just 45 points behind championship leader tony stewart normally you would tell anything normally you would think to lose wheel because it normally starts to show itself about seven or eight laps after you make a pit stop so we'll see what happens and it's usually the left rear tire that loosens up dave what are you working on well kyle busch after all those cars got done passing him and making him really really loose always on the radio was woo all righty [Applause] you know we have a home depot garage i think can explain what we're talking about by pulling up behind someone and getting them loose yeah if you watch the car you get up behind somebody you get really really close to the rear bumper what you do is you take the air off their rear spoiler you also pack air underneath the car so it actually lifts the rear of the car when you get into the corner that makes the back slide around he's got to lift just a little bit you turn under him and take the spot and that's what we saw just a moment ago with the five car of kyle busch i saw that in wally's world too only there wasn't a car behind you i did that all on my own uh interliner or something i don't know that's greg before still talking about the vibration he's feeling he's hoping it's a tire and not something worse still leads i don't know if he's hoping it's anything he's hoping so we'll stay on top of the biffo situation we promised you were through the field the caution came out when we come back to texas we will take you through the field biffo leads kenseth and johnson [Music] look good buddy just kicking them off now crap this is everything [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] side [Music] hopefully [Music] there [Applause] [Music] five [Music] [Applause] [Music] that one outside of your [Music] [Music] [Applause] inside [Music] here [Music] [Music] clear he just gets a run on the bottom but he could not get by without that top last lap was a little bit better back in texas the leader of the race greg biffle is finally hip hill road for the vibration checking to see if it was a loose wheel he said when look when i come down the road look at the luck the left side if they look tight let's just change two but doug richards said we are going to go for four we are going to take the conservative approach right now they're looking over the wheels bill to see if indeed they were loose looks like possibly the left rear may have been loose on the 16 car yeah it like i said normally it takes about seven or eight laps to show up and like vp says it's normally left rear because you tighten the lug nuts to the right the torque of the wheels is trying to loosen the lug nuts when you come off the corner hit the throttle that torque is trying to loosen them up on the rear it tries to tighten them on the right rear a couple of things that to point out here biffle led 12 laps he is the only driver not on the lead lap right now so if the lucky dog was to be issued for after it would go to biffle and the leaders are about i'd say a half a mile away from lapping anybody at this point so biffle might be able to dodge the uh the trouble here we'll see what happens and that'll follow up on pit road [Music] back up front mackenzie recaptures the lead so matt leads time for a through the field presented by speed pass from exxon and mobile we'll start with matt kenzit and marty snyder over the last week the dewalt guys got it done on pit road several stops under 13 seconds they just did another one on this pass stop 12.9 he came in first went out for a spitfill pass him he didn't ask what happened to bitful they told him on the radio so he's not concerned with this car very good very good right now alan tony stewart has picked up a few spots since the restart up now to second he's maintained all along through this championship chase that i'm not racing for points i don't look at the points how about with three races to go tony you changed your approach now with only three weeks to go it makes it probably easier on us to just worry about doing what we're doing with that's all we've been doing uh you know the whole chase anyway is not worrying about where everybody else is just doing what we need to do and uh you know it's working so it gives us the flexibility with three races to go to do what we do best that's just worry about going out getting the most points possible the most points possible is when you lead the most laps and win the race he hasn't let yet but he is up to second matt after disappointing finish last week at atlanta with 16th they felt like they needed to come in here the 48 team and step it up and they sure did on that last pit stop picking up four spots on pit wrote the car a little free allen dale earnhardt jr started 10th he is up to fourth place now calling him a minute ago saying his car needing a little bit more help turning earlier he was commenting about having some trouble on the boats like right there when you go into the corners dave mark martin said the car is starting to come in they loosened that car up a little bit on the stop but it was really loose at the start of the run car operating very well for mark right now the five of kyle busch once he got his car back under control from all that looseness is running pretty well just trying to maintain his position right now and uh have his car come to him as well marty well dave the 2014 has lost the handle on this race car jeff just came on the radio a couple laps ago said we are terrible on speed i cannot pick up the throttle at all he let the five car go earlier made a little contact when he went by him jeff having a tough time with a very tight race car denny hamlin signed a long-term contract this week with joe gibbs racing announced this morning as bill told you earlier the car very good for hamlin a little bit tight they put a pound in the right rear on the last stop dave a little confusion and mike bliss pits at 37 and mike skinner was in the way they didn't make any changes on this chassis woody barker the crew chief radioing back to mike you know even though your car was loose if i make you tight in the middle you'll yell at me so they didn't do anything allen i won't yell carl edwards isn't yelling either because he started 30th and he's already cracked the top 10 into the 10th spot on the pace laps just before the green he gave his team a little pep talk all right guys let's have a good fun day just be patient our car is good enough i'm going to be patient and we should have an awesome day so thank you guys for the opportunity thanks mom for being here i love it never hurts to thank mom does it uh carl is being very patient he said a lack of patience getting in too much of a hurry is what hurt him in the april race here matt casey bears just running outside the top 10 and 11. loves these high-speed racetracks had a top five here in the spring hoping for more good things here today the car a little tight on exit but it's getting better dave michael waltrips team trying to give him a win yet this season before he leaves taylor how incorporated thought they might have it in charlotte until he tangled with jimmy mcmurray late in that race trying again today to have a top 10 top five or even a winning car marty well dave in the last two texas races for rusty wallace he's finished 10th and 5th right now and i'm struggling with a tight race car did not have a very good pit stop either they did go up a quarter round on the track bar trying to loosen up rusty's car still tight on this run as well dave and the same for jeremy mayfield's car that was a condition before the pit stop he restarted sixth and he's gone backwards still having trouble turning that race car the 29 of kevin harvick today every most cars on the racetrack today are carrying a number 62 decal that in honor of kevin's father-in-law who passed away this week john paul linville all teams honoring him he was a bush series competitor that they all thought very highly of matt dave pressure continues to build for the 25 team knowing they only have three races left to try to score that first win this year for brian vickers now the car is tight especially in traffic that's loose across the bumps dave uh kurt bush's team trying to correct the conditions on his car real tight during the first stop and hopefully they've got some that correct as he uh tries to move his way through this field marty this series championship leader martin truex jr making his final next cell cup start of the season he will be a rookie next year so they're trying to save those races they told him to be a little more aggressive when he came to his pit stall next time fire's a little bit tight for 2x in that one car matt now unique paint scheme for the 88 and dale and jared his kids young son zach age 10 and daughters natalie and carson hell designed this paint scheme for toys are passed now dj hoping to add another victory to his texas racing resume won here back in 2001 the ganassi cars especially the silver 40 and slowly mother had great runs here in the spring but like many cars fighting a little tight condition especially in the center of the corner schneider well matty as you know elias sadler won here last april but right now he does not have a winning race car a little bit too tight for elliott and he kind of scolded the team he said next stop guys let's take some time let's fix this thing because right now we're going nowhere except backwards matt and sticking with a known factor they brought a very productive race car the car that has a lot of top 10 finishes here this is the 14th race for the 42 car this particular chassis the cargo tight like his teammate sterling marlin meanwhile the 07 dave laney now the cars out of the rcr stable look very strong in final practice including blaney's 07 car he's a little tight on exit but they made some change in the last stop especially air pressure has seemed to help alan casey normally someone you expect to see running up toward the front on these fast race tracks running back in 24th spot now they started the race in 15th he called in and talked about his car in different situations in traffic i'll save you the long explanation and say it just wasn't good brian newman trying to pick his way up from the tail end of the field in this backup car ryan calling in a moment ago saying his car needs a little more help turning in the corner i would call this slow but steady progress for one of the championship contenders bill thanks alan outstanding job you guys getting us through the top 25 cars there are 40 cars on the lead lap jimmy spencer has been knocked off the lead lap he is the highest running car not on the lead lap and that means he would be the lucky dog if the caution comes out he's racing great bible for that position 65 laps are complete let's get an update for matt and one of the championship contenders greg biffle now he's trying to race his way back in to contention now while he had a pep talk from his crew chief doug richard after that was over doug had the entire team switch over to channel two he gave the pit crew a pep talk reminded them why they are one of the best teams in the business wasn't the shake off their pit road miscue that cost them that lap put it all back together and it was indeed a loose left rear like i mentioned before thank you very much matt so biffle has a lot of work to do matt kenzik up front at texas you're watching the dickies 500 live on [Music] nbc [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] [Music] nascar next l cup series racing from texas motor speedway is brought to you by principal financial crew we'll give you an edge by dodge you can take life as it comes or you can grab life by the horns dodge buy lowes where you'll find all your home improvement needs those where improving home improvement never ends and by the 3 600 car quest auto parts stores across north america 72 laps complete here in texas matt kenseth continues to lead over tony stewart and jimmy johnson here's our wendy's race menu and that's all that's left on the menu for 2005. phoenix next sunday and then two weeks the season finale at homestead miami three o'clock eastern time on nbc next sunday and in two weeks and then we'll crown the champion walking through the garage here this morning someone said next time bye two to go that's right two races left after today now kenseth is knocking him down that's not good news for bissell right now because he's putting a car a lap down just about every other lap now then what biffle needs to happen is go through it full cycle of green flags all these cars have to stop on the green flag and then after everybody stops caught your fight come out puts him back in the game again a little bit of that luck what are you talking about that's right this is a good day for matt kenseth his crew chief robbie riser was not here on friday robbie's dad john reiser has been ill robbie spent the day with his father on thursday and matt kenseth called robbie thursday night and said do not come down here we will get through this day without you and qualifying robbie told me this morning it's the first time he's ever missed a day at the racetrack but matt wanted to make sure he spent the day with john riser his father john and alice wanted to let you know they're thinking about you down here in texas today robbie flew in on saturday morning he said they were watching some of the coverage on tv on friday in the hospital and john roger looked down at his watch and then looked at his son and goes i told you you're supposed to be there and robbie said nope i'm going to spend the day with you today matt kenseth out front jimmy johnson in the 48 matt kinseth in the six johnson runs third i'm sorry mark martin in the six what'd i say matt yeah mark in the sixth underneath the 48 and we go to matt yoakam on the 48th and the six of mark martin just goes by now jimmy was saying his biggest issue is the car is starting to get free especially down in three and four it's a little bit on the edgy side too dave and as for mark martin right now they've been talking a lot about the changes they want to make on the next stop and they're very similar to the changes they made last week in atlanta where mark finished third quarter round of wedge very minor chassis adjustment little air out of the left side tires that helps uh helps the car turn a little bit so very similar even though these tracks aren't exactly the same wally the same stuff works keep an eye on that as the temperatures change here it'll be a little bit different than uh last week but martin truex jr in the one car inside the 24 of jeff gordon how about it marty well the barge has been terrible in this run for jeff gordon at lap 49 he radio the crew is starting to get tight that time he was running six now jeff gordon is running 16th and here's what he had to say on the radio way worse than it was guys it's just way worse everything middle off i'm good getting into the center just metal off horrendous push keep doing the best you can we're going to get it better for you just get used to that stuff we're going to work on it if you look right in front of his left rear there's a a valance that keeps the car keeps the air under you know keeps the car stuck to the right track it's sticking out so you have contact with somebody that's right so we see a wheel mark right in front of that left rear tire and you're right wally that's hurting the down force right there in his car so that's probably why see it right there that's the piece and that actually creates a vacuum almost like to the racetrack helps the car stick now watch this see if this is what caused it well it's not there now we see the fancy gmac it's clean [Music] dave and his teammate kyle busch said he hit me but he knew that jeff didn't see him there and it hasn't damaged kyle's car very much marty and dave jeff was not too happy about that he said you know we're horrible handling wise i'm just letting cars go by there was no need for him to make contact with me i left him plenty of room but we've seen that five car isn't exactly the most stable car [Music] so gordon continues to struggle and back in the field up front matt kansas tony stewart mark martin jimmy johnson oh and dale earnhardt [Music] hasn't hit oh there goes bliss life through and i can't believe those guys didn't hit anything pimple started this wreck way back in three it's not where he needed that yellow bp no there's bliss he definitely did not need this caution flag that's right he needed this thing to run green for a while see some damage on the back of the zero car fifa just started losing this thing off of four and it was did one of those tank slappers where it goes left right left right you're doing everything you can and finally it just goes too far just gets loose tries to save it this is actually further down it started way back but i'm not sure why bliss went through the grass we can take you on board with uh dale earnhardt jr [Music] caught it saved it caught it all right nice job by junior too cause i'm sure where to go on that one he just slid up you're already loose here slide up in front of a car that takes the air off your spoiler like we were talking about earlier on the home depot virtual garage he just lost traction and now he's doing everything he can just to hang on to it that was a nice job by earnhardt it was he did a good job because you're not like said biffle came back and forth a bunch of times an inexperienced driver in earnhardt's position would have spun out because he'd have jumped on the brakes and spun out he just waited to see which way he's going he rolled down the throttle exactly just let it happen in front of him alan were you listening in yeah and you know what he said after all that got done after he caught his breath wow he said that was close okay they're coming down pit road again dave burns and bill mark martin was ahead of all that in position three he comes in now to make those small adjustments that he talked to his team about again air pressure out of the left side tires a quarter round of wedge into the right rear four tire change matt and the 48 jimmy johnson their team excellent on the previous stop picked up four spots on pit road the car was tight right there at the end air pressure adjustment snyder leader matt kind of said his car stayed better longer but a little too tight at the end of that run half pound on the right front another great stop by that 17 bunch a b tony stewart up to second place wanted him to stop short in his box so he could swing around ken schrader very smooth four tire stop just some minor adjustments for the 20 car and another solid stop by robbie rogers over the wall bunch on the car of matt kenseth under caution here at the texas motor speedway wild ride for championship contender craig biffle got a lot of work to go now oh yeah we got the old butthole starting to form kicking it nice job guys picked up another couple spots mike yeah good job everyone [Music] so [Music] your tires look really really good um you know just let us know uh you know we're up pretty good on that right we have some area there to work with just let me know [Music] okay [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] oh five six laps i guess all right does it mess you up or did you deal with it uh i mean i don't get passed just got the one to go here this was a few moments ago on pit road bp lance hannah the tire carrier for the rear tire dave smith the tire changer and watch this smith takes the tire off panda slides it on times it up yo [Music] so good pavelli at sadler coming to nbc next saturday the ford ironman triathlon world championship the world's best athletes accept the challenge of a two-mile swim a 112 mile bike ride and a 26 mile marathon all in the same day a typical day for wally that's the ford iron man triathlon world championship next saturday 4 30 eastern 1 30 pacific on nbc when greg biffle spun in the 16 card just a moment ago watch when the car gets sideways backwards watch the roof laps deploy and keep the back of the car on the ground that's one of the best safety features nascar has come up with in a long long time and that's on a roush car and who helped develop that jack roush that's absolutely right here's our team tylenol safety fact flaps are designed to disrupt airflow around the car which helps eliminate lift uh-oh and the rest of that but like benny said he keeps the car on the ground that's right matt kenseth takes him to the green i knew in the countdown to green this was going to be a weird day anytime snyder is walking across the stage waving during driver introductions it's going to be wild to the crowd he was waving about that's right and greg pepp was trying his best to get in line between mark martin and the five guard could not make it before one lap down and he's trying to get up to be the first car one lap down in case the caution flag should come out and currently that position is being held by kevin lepage looking to the inside of the five and he's got a couple guys he's got to get by lebroni lepage there's lebanese up there too [Applause] trying to find the fastest line he's going to push kyle bush around mark martin a strong run here yesterday in the bush race finished second kevin harvick [Music] abraham carter hits pit road mayfield it has been a tough run for jeremy mayfield since the chase for the championship started unscheduled stop under green for jeremy see him changing four times just to make sure they get the right one 38th last week 28th the week before has had some real tough luck there's a flag last week wasn't it benny i don't really know i didn't hear matt how about piffle oh more issues for the 16. he just came on the radio because i believe we have another vibration possible loose again wow well i think you better check some impact wrenches because something isn't working correctly once it's ashamed twice a shame on you [Applause] that's kevin lepage in the 66 biffle needs to get by him then we'll try and chase down terry labonte and now up front matt kenzit and tony stewart on his bumper and tony stewart here comes that making them loose in the front there bp because stuart's car is good enough he can get right up on kent's bumper and get that car loose he'll take the spot and you know that matt kenseth in 17 wants to keep that 20 behind him if he can because he does not want tony to get those five bonus points see how he can keep him back tony's just too fast looks like he got on the apron a little bit there got his car out of shape a little bit too marty hey bill remember we were talking about matt's number one goal today get those five bonus points guess what number two goal was make sure tony doesn't you know to lead the most laps he's done a good job of that so far trying to keep the 20 behind him but man is loose at the beginning of this run and doesn't have very good car control cars very good at the middle and the end of the run but wally when your car's a little loose is it harder to keep someone that fast behind you yeah when your car's that loose especially when you got somebody right on your bumper it just makes it worse so we'll see if uh if he can hold off tony because i think if tony gets close enough to him he's going to lose that spot and there he goes loose right there so he's hanging on alan tony's charging yeah bill and you and i know but we'll just make sure everybody else does the system for determining the champion includes five additional championship points if you lead a lap during the race pressure pressure uh tony has scored more of those bonus points in the chase so far than any of his competitors in fact he has scored some 25 more of those bonus should be 15 more bonus points than greg biffle 25 more than jimmy johnson he wants to get up he wants to get those five bonus points that just puts pressure on the other guys to have to get up front and lead a lap and you know what i like about this kansas is not giving it to you know what i mean tell me guys though pointing out the window here take it you know and not teammates here that kansas is doing everything he can right now he's driving his butt off to try to keep stewart behind him matt has led 82 of 94 laps stewart has not led yet today greg biffle led the other 12. and you can see that wheel you can see his hands on the wheel going to the right he goes to the right that means the car's loose and zip started from the first spot on the grid after pulsator ryan newman had to go to the back of the field in a backup car stewart started 16. he's all over him there's loose again right there stuart's car is really good right now in order for him to drive up right behind that close to matt means that tony's car is not pushing at all he's not getting that arrow tight and tony looks like he's better down in one and two or the shade on the racetrack it looks like that he's gains on the 17 more there than he does up in three and four you watch these cars go down in turn one you see that racetrack is in the shade and therefore the cars does get a better grip [Music] just saying that tony's car is a little bit lower his cars can get down right on the white line where matt's car is a little bit off that white line allen now while he and ben were just talking about temperature changes in those shadows brexitely tony screw chief told me this morning they tracked the temperature changes here on friday from the afternoon through about the part of the day where this race would be going on rex and benelli does not expect there to be significant changes in the way the car grips the track as those shadows grow he said it's really going to be not as significant as i think we're all like we're all thinking when we got here this weekend really that makes sense that's surprising yeah this surprised me too marty hey hey ellen it's the same for everybody just to point out matt kinder just came on the radio and said when he comes off turn four there's pretty bad sun glare so it's hard for him to see until he gets into the shaded area on the front stretch so you'll notice when they come off turn forward the sun is right in their eyes and that's a problem you can't see what's around him or in front of them that's never good yeah that's a problem and anytime that you have a race that goes into darkness as the sun sets you have that problem and we've never had that here because we've never done this here before this is the battle for being the first car one lap down under nascar rules if you are that car kosher flag comes out you are awarded a free pass to make up a mile we call it the lucky dog terry labonte in the 44 car his brother bobby labonte was the lucky dog under the last caution matt bill what a day greg biffle's had lost a lap due to a loose wheel then he spun now a possible vibration with another loose wheel the team waiting for him to hit pit road but he hasn't said anything about the last four or five laps they have checked the impact guns just to make sure everything is okay with the psi but what a day they are having they cannot afford that with three races to go they came in here 75 points out of the lead and time is quickly running out as this chase is winding down and matt right now he's seventh 182 points out of the championship league desperately needs to get around terry labonte dave yeah bill sorry took so long to update you on the 19 but the guys were looking over the wheels on that car once twice three times and i finally asked car chief mike shipwright said so do you have a loose wheel or what why why'd you have a vibration why did jerry want to put he said we really don't know he said we can't find anything really wrong with the holes in the wheels like there was a tire left loose we might have had a wheel weight fall off jeremy stays on the track now they think they've corrected the problem but tough for them they were early on running very well 41st right now dave one lap down matt kenzit up front has inched away from tony stewart 102 laps on the board here at texas [Music] [Applause] [Applause] inside [Music] [Applause] clear clear by three on the 49 and an eight back to l1 [Music] clear by one [Music] [Music] thereby we're back [Music] they're about one on the 49 and about 12 back to 15. tied up with two loosened to both ends [Music] [Applause] uh inside [Applause] clear [Music] they're by 8 [Music] the texas motor speedway the great american speedway here in fort worth there's matt kenzeth in the 17 car the race leader until today the most laps he'd led here at texas 85 back in 2002 when he won the race but already today matt has led 96 of 108 laps he runs first back and forth jimmy johnson race fans visit lowesracing.com today for your chance to win up to 48 thousand dollars and the win jimmy wins you win sweepstakes just visit lowesracing.com for all the details we can take you through the field we'll start with uh matt kenseth then here's morty schneider that's a nice easy sunday drive for matt kidman so far leading all these laps it's up for 12. they've used their final test of 2005 to get ready for this race obviously it worked carr out front looking nice and easy alan tony stewart a little bit frustrated i think and not being able to get around matt kenzit then lead a lap for those bonus points as crew chief greg zippadeli telling tony a bit ago to just save his stuff this race kind of has a green flag look to it and they gotta make sure they've got some tires left at the end of the run dave kyle busch's car was tight and loose he said they wouldn't turn in the corner and then when i got to the end of the corner would go whoop toward the wall that was his description they made an adjustment for that matt now earlier to race jimmy johnson the car was a little bit on the edgy side the takeoff though was good and then went a little bit tight but as you can see by looking at the top six with five chasers there jimmy said this year the chase you have to be almost perfect the hardest part is it's just been really to to perform every week i mean everybody keeps stepping it up and it's so tough to gain a lot of points on anyone so i'm really amazed how how every team you've got the roush cars to 20 everybody has just been so strong and that's been the challenge you can't you can't be off one weekend you'll lose too many points on their last stop jack and house and the lowest boys they pulled the spring rubber out of the left rear and a small air pressure adjustment dave that car running very solid not solid right now for mark martin matt he said i don't like it on this run change the air pressure back the way it was change the wedge back the way it was they're basically wanting to start back at ground zero back at square one where they were before to see if they can get a reading on this car alan well with the exception of matt kenseth who's done all the leading the drive of the day goes to carl edwards 30th now up to sixth already planning what they're going to do on their next pit stop carl constantly in conversation with his crew chief bob osborne matt running back in seventh the 41 casey mears this must be something on the grill because the water temperature is climbing quickly the car though he says is very close where it needs to be as far as set up just need to free it up just to tick allen edward hart jr has slipped back a few spots in this last run of the race bat he is complaining about his car not turning as well as he'd like it to in the center of the corner that's keeping him from getting into the gas as quickly as you'd like and that costs a lot of ground here marty allen rusty wallace trying to snap a three race freak without a top ten now his car has been loose but he went to pull some tape off on the last stop larry carter crew chief talked him out of that because it's gonna get cooler tonight they'll need that tape on the front green ted they went with a wedge adjustment trying to tighten them up the car's been better though matt brian vickers has really picked it up in the second half of the season improving his average finish by nine spots right now the car starts out really loose on new tires and then slowly gets better and better just a little tight in the center especially in traffic snyder vinnie hamlin has a well-handling race car mat but the problem was their pit stop came in six and out twelfth a lug nut hung on the right front a little bit tight they made an air pressure and track bar adjustment on the last stop trying to slowly work his way through the field dave roddy i think when you talk with kevin harvick earlier today starting 33rd you thought he might have a chance to move his way toward the front he's certainly done that he's had a car that's had trouble turning but they've made some adjustments he's all the way up to the 12th position barney back to you now good job for martin 2x junior today dave started 27th currently he's up in the 13th position the car right on the bottom line that's exactly where martin won it wants it on the last stop they made no changes because martin said i don't think you can make it any better guys dave kurt bush's car has not been that great today i asked jimmy fenning this morning how are you leading now that the championship is pretty much out of the question he said you know what we're still just trying to win and move as far as up in the points as we can and kurt has that attitude too he's a racer marty well dave remember earlier we told you how elias sadler was not happy with his race team said we need to make some drastic changes on this next stop so they have lodged four different rounds of wedge in and out of that race car on the last stop it has come to life also an air pressure adjustment he's up in 15. maddie marty just the opposite for sterling marlon one of the ganassi drivers he runs in the 16th position no change to the car is really good let's just ride it for a while meanwhile his teammate the 42 jimmy murray trying to lock down that million dollar bonus for finishing 11. they made some small changes on the last stop just a track bar and air pressure the car was a little loose on entry and dale jared trying to score one more win here in texas in the 88 car the car's a little bit tight from the center to exit marty well matt jeff gordon still struggling with his tight race car here's what they did on the last stop it took him 20 seconds and here's why they put a spring rubber in the right rear spring pulled a spring rubber out of the left rear spring and fixed that valence where kyle bush hit him earlier jeff put radio to the crew a little while ago said you know what guys we're halfway there almost dave michael walter bass crew team tony gibson hey can you help my car turn a little bit better boy diddy it was way too loose at the start of that run it's coming to him a little bit now but he said don't go that far next time alan uh ken schrader has come about halfway up through the field from his 41st starting spot traitor earlier in the race called in said they had an exhaust leak and the engine was down on horsepower then just after last pit stop he said can you believe it somehow fixed itself ryan newman complaining about the handling of his car saying just a few minutes ago that his car is really tight in the center of the corners and then calling in a little bit later and saying now it's loose entering the corner as well that means he's afraid to turn the steering wheel when he gets into the corner that the back end is going to spin out dave when greg vipper brought out the caution on lap 81 mike bliss slid into the grass didn't get hit by anybody but just trying to miss the whole thing lost control of his car they were on pit road made any little repairs they needed to got him back out he stays in the lead lap matt and ricky rudd rounding out the top 25 of the 21 car now fat back miss wayne told me last night he said we have a very good car it's just not quick on the get-go but it's very consistent that's exactly what it's shown today just still a little bit on the tight side snyder man a good little race here between ricky rudd and kyle petty and kyle's been running much better and that's good to see the 45 car running up front he's been a little bit tight but he said you know what happens we give up so much ground in the beginning of the run with our car being loose that's how these guys get so far away from us lap times not too bad and he free passes ricky what for 24. bill thanks guys those are the top 25 cars there are 33 cars on the lead lap the first car scored one lap down is greg biffle so if the caution was to come out before right now would get their lucky dog everyone chasing matt kinsen at texas right there [Music] 31 flat [Music] [Applause] [Music] 31 p.m [Music] 31 flat 20 30 [Applause] [Music] 31 flat leader 31 20. [Applause] [Music] 31-14 leader 15. transform the way you watch nascar nbc and sony hdtv proudly present today's race in high definition matt kansas leads by 1.2 seconds over tony stewart 127 now 128 laps complete [Applause] [Music] you see kenzie's going around in turn one before race he's picked up some points positions but i've been watching the score monitor i'm gonna tell you the fellow back in fourth place casey mears showing a lot of speed last time by he was a quarter of a second faster than matt kinsey nemechek the zero one car is already down one lap he will be two down when we get wow what's that all about i think he might think he has a problem 41 car man 41 car going to town bp he's really moving to the front in fact you look at the lap times one of the fastest race cars even into the 30s now you look at the roller coaster week he had last week in atlanta but he has really looked strong on these type of racetracks he loves these high speed race tracks the last six races this team has really come on scoring three top tens attempt at dover eighth and cancer the sixth as charlotte's the six and the 99 teammates battling for position what much of a battle matt 99 just goes by mark martin carl evers takes his spot away i think i think like the guys are talking about mark's not really happy with what he's got right no and you know he was so everyone was so optimistic this morning about the six car felt like he was going to beat the car to beat it's not working out exactly the way they had drew it up on the drawing board i'm out of dave and bill he even thought he might have had some contact on the right side of that car that would have caused the handling to go away a dent but you know just a small dent of some sort he has to spot her eddie pardo take a good close look at it and see if you see anything and then he said no i think you're okay so it must just be the adjustments that they've done to this car and again as i mentioned they're gonna try to take them back out on the next stop mark is about eight and a half seconds behind matt kenzit there's jack rao she owns the six car and the 99 along with the 17 and the others you see there what are you working on allen just listening to carl edwards their second bill and this unlikely pursuit of a championship continues with a very strong run today his spotter bobby hudson just told him over the last 10 laps you've gained about 10 car lengths on the leader matt kenseth his crew chief bob osborne followed up and told him he's running about a half to a full 10th of a second quicker than the lead of each of these last laps he keeps chipping away still not running as fast as that 41 car because casey mears is going we could be approaching some green flag pit stops here at texas so we'll work in a break right here if trouble breaks out we'll break in you're watching nascar live on nbc [Music] 177 [Applause] [Applause] nice [Applause] there there [Applause] [Music] one inside [Music] [Music] 21 23 and a liter it's already happened you know we're getting to the point in the season now where uh you know a win is not as important as just beating the guys that we're racing for the championship with i hope i have it all figured out we'll find out before long just if the caution flags fall when they need to and uh we have a good run not making any mistakes i think we'll be in good shape [Music] here we are being introduced to the rest of the world okay now i do want you to notice folks that that is a wave from our marty to the crowd when the crowd went wild so now it's driver and pit reporter introductions during the pre-race ceremonies huh buddy brought matt kansas some good luck marty wants to add but that's too bad we're not gonna let him no no no no no no no my microphone's open weber i was waving all of your fans whoever and those two people asked me to wave to them here you go folks that was cheap that was you you had 140 laps to work on it and that's the best thing you could come up with this is the first i've heard about this weber yes here comes dale earnhardt jr this is early we'd heard that he might have some kind of problem alan what is it uh talked about a small vibration for about the last seven or eight laps i think they just decided they didn't want to take a chance on it they're within five laps of when they would pit anyway so here he comes and they'll make a four tire change and try and help him a little bit with the handling of the car 45 miles an hour down pit road to his stall going up i don't see anything on the right front tire right side is down brian smith jagman goes around the left side throws that jack under it gets the car up boy these guys are so good so junior heads back out and as alan said that's a little earlier than most of the guys were planning on stopping but elliott sadler now on pit road and he's headed toward our favorite guy from driver introductions marty snyder thank you mr webber and nellie's car still very tight in the middle of the corner they're gonna make an air pressure adjustment they're also gonna make a wedge adjustment on the left side trying to loosen that car up and uh they're trying to get all those tires back over the wall for the 30-18 and a good stop going for these guys so far middle of the corner off 12.5 awesome said that middle of the corner off he's just getting killed by these other guys that's what they're trying to make the car better but a nice stop by the 38 bunch a terrific stop by the 38 crew working lap 145 now these guys all start coming in now i think pretty soon kenza that has led 131 of the 144 laps kevin harvick comes off pit road off the racetrack on the pit road coming down to dave burns and betty he's fallen out of the top 20. not a good run for that in fact the car started out so it was loose and then it got so tight kevin said the car is plowing i can't even drive the thing they're going to make a big adjustment of the car this time for tire change matt casey mirrors coming to you dave having a great run very impressive trying to score his first rear win and nextel cup the target guys up on the wall waiting for the 41 to pull to a stop and he does he said the car was near perfect on that last run no changes for this stop marty forcier the tire carrier comes around today's mark martin still diagnosing his car he thinks maybe now the right front of spring might have given up his own words the car is leaning on it smoking through the corners they make the adjustments they talked about matt and the wood brothers hitting the 21 car air pressure jesuit for ricky rudd is the 40th sterling marlin is already in in a way his car was good just like his teammate no changes there they're waving the 21 he's away schneider rusty wallace comes to pit road running in the top 10 in that run maddie said his car was a little tighter than he would like especially at the end of that run they had talked about making a track bar adjustment they're going to go with a wedge adjustment and an air pressure adjustment instead for the two car and it will be a four tire stop for rusty wallace jeff gordon also coming down pit road he said guys i'm getting back to the gas at least two seconds later than everybody else we cannot have that for the rest of this day so it will be a wedge an air pressure adjustment for jeff gordon the car extremely tight from the middle of the corner off he said it's worse in three and four than it is at one and two and a kind of a long stop for the 24 bunch allen carl edwards is going to get a track bar adjustment you'll see the wrench there going into that bottom hole in the right rear side of the windshield and they've done that four tire chains trying to help the handling on that 99 car marty well the 17 bunch is making it look easy today matt kinses very smooth sailing out there the only thing he said is you know guys i could probably be a little bit faster at the beginning of the run card's really loose at that point robbie reiser will make an air pressure adjustment he's going to add half a pound to the right rear tire trying to get that looseness out the beginning of the run and a little bit longer on the left front than they would have liked for the 17 bunch and with the 17 coming to pit row tony stewart stays out and leads a lap gets five bonus points and as soon as that happens he comes down pit road to get his four tires in fuel allen yeah greg zippadeli just warned tony that being the first green flag pit stop of the day be careful of your pit road speed last thing you want to do is get busted for speeding on pit road and have to come back in under the green flag a four tire stop for stewart and they will send him on his way they're watching for ken schroeder to try and pit in front of him to make sure they can give tony a clear route out of his pit and back onto the racetrack there he goes schroeder pulls in behind him so that's okay now jimmy johnson to pit road johnson also able to stay out lead a lap get five bonus points and he heads toward matt and the lowe's guys bill up on the wall waiting for jimmy to pull the 48 in he's had great runs here at texas never finishing worse than ninth he was third here in the spring now jimmy says the car is tight all the way through the corner you can see the wedge wrench in the back window they're gonna make a track bar adjustment significant track bar adjustment timmy lattice going to work on that left rear hits those locks pulls that off [Music] and he is away they put a spring rubber in the right rear on this stop usually when you see a 17 18 second pit stop in nascar next tail corporation that means that they made some changes during that pit stop that takes longer than usual that was a long stop matt talked about the change they made so johnson heads back out [Music] stale earnhardt jr in the eight kyle bush in the five that's back for fifth now waiting for the scoring to cycle around all this happening 151 laps into the race kyle busch i think entered when the pit stop started the five-car kyle busch was running fourth and he's back and forth now so earnhardt and bush battle matt kenseth continues to lead tony stewart second casey mears with a strong run to third [Music] updating some of the other drivers ryan newman runs in the 24th spot greg biffle back in 31st allen tommy baldwin casey cain's crew chief told me this morning we have got to get a top 10 finish today they've had to come back down pit road under the green flag for a second stop they're changing the battery some electrical problems on the nine car a good day for the nine the 19 or uh phil elliott in the 91 the everham motorsports rides cycled back to matt kenzit the race leader he has led 137 of the 153 laps here at the texas motor speedway in the dickies 500. claire [Music] 30 flat around this one you got a big opening 30 20. clear how do i buddy 30 30 30 58 milliliters [Music] [Music] flat 32 millimeter [Music] thirty 50 on the leader nascar next l cup series racing from texas motor speedway is brought to you by budweiser the official beer of nascar this is budweiser this is beer by sony transform the way you watch racing with sony the world's greatest high definition television buy propane propane exceptional energy and by state farm great service great rates that's why 40 million drivers trust state farm undergreen here at the great american speedway a lot of things going on matt kenzeth continues to lead there's a new driver in second place casey mears has gotten around tony stewart who slipped to third there's casey in the 41 ride and i tell you what it's not going to be long before the 41 car takes the lead and he's fast yes he is the nine of casey kane has gone to the garage so mike skinner the 37 card is coaching towards the garage area time to work in our singular race talk 1 million 31 dollar challenge question which track will jeff gordon win on first but before he has not won at today here in texas phoenix homestead welcome back to chicago to next summer the vote text the word race to 191 on your similar wireless phone or go to nascar.com you'll also remember for a chance to win 1 million 31 gordon right now in 23rd position there's greg biffle he is the first car a lot down matt kenzeth is the race leader there's carl edwards passing mark martin mark still just can't get that six car exactly where he wants it just went through a round of green flag pit stops greg biffle has worked his way back on to the lead lap had the pit early in the race for a vibration for a loose left rear wheel and he talked about in the pre-race show he needed for the caution flags to come out at the right time right now for him would be the right time tony stewart third place two seconds behind race leader matt kenseth allen uh just made his first call in on the radio since the pit stop bp asked during a commercial break if there was something up with the 20 because he fell back to third he said a little too free this time meaning he's got a little bit of a lack of rear end grip on the car but that may change as they run more laps on this set of tires and the air pressures get built up by the heat and the friction with the racetrack they'll wait and see carl edwards chasing kyle bush that's for fourth and edwards has it carl edwards a winner a week ago in atlanta is currently third in the championship standings three races to go in the chase for the next hell cup after today on board with kyle here we go as predicted bp man casey mears to the front reenacts matt kenzit back to second kansan has led 149 laps of the 164 today mark martin around kyle busch we see the cars going down in turn one you see the shadows just as soon as they come off turn four if the sunlight is a problem for these guys on board with kyle bush as he follows mark martin now here if there's going to be a problem it will be here [Music] a little bit not too big [Music] it's easy [Music] it used to be a problem bill but not anymore dave hit with casey kane now in the garage area casey you guys are going to work uh are you done or not i'm not real sure i think a alternator belt came off or something there i don't know we were we were kind of struggling anyways with our dodge dude there's uaw dodge charger but who knows uh maybe they'll get it fixed we'll be able to get some um some more laps out there and uh maybe get stanley mcdonald some of them guys uh a little more you have any ideas that similar to what jerry mayfield had last week i could see how the flywheel go yeah totally different than that i started losing power and smoke and uh i guess the alternator belt came off so totally different than that but i was i just kind of back to racing with bill and uh i don't know where jeremy was but i don't know if he was very much better than what we were tough day for casey also mike skinner in the garage area right now they said they have a mechanical problem underneath the car which occurred during the pit stop they have parked it for the day carl edwards around tony stewart for third and carl is going somewhere bp he is definitely going somewhere i've been watching the speeds on the monitor and he's the fastest car now the 99 well carl edwards being in just his first full year of nextel cup racing and contending for the championship you might think he'd be very nervous about this time of year but carl said this weekend here at the texas track i don't feel any pressure from the outside in fact i'm a little bit maybe too happy-go-lucky maybe i'm having a little bit too much fun paul i asked him earlier on saturday do you really think you have a shot at winning this championship now that you're seven races into it to me i give myself a lot better chance to win this championship now than i did seven races ago and that's just because the unknown i mean you never know what's going to happen and all the circumstances i still don't think we're as good a team as we're going to be and if we were to win this thing we'd be backing into it but that's not going to stop us from trying our very hardest but uh definitely is a different mindset right now than was the beginning of the chase as well as should be carl right now came into this race fourth in the championship he is uh hanging in there guys he keeps having runs like this you never know what might happen three races from now how how great is that i mean how honest is that if we want it we'll be backing into it tony stewart continues to go backwards i don't go that far they don't back into a championship these days rusty wallace in 10th jimmy johnson trying to take that spot remember jimmy johnson made a lot of changes on that last pit stop he's now trying to work his way back to the front and we saw casey mears put biffle one lap down mears is the race leader matt jess jumped up into the tenth position bill now he came on the radio about seven laps ago and all he said was loose and chad said that's great we love lose because they've been battling tight most of the day snyder well matt on the last stop for rusty wallace the air pressure and wedge adjustment he liked the whole lot he called to the team and said hey guys we made big improvements that time is still a little bit tight but the car is certainly better rusty trying to get back in the top 10 and he's had three straight weeks of bad luck at me bill he sure has now mirrors leads kenzit has led the most laps twice this season at chicagoland and of bristol he won at bristol and finished second in chicago he's the third driver this season to lead 1 000 or more laps but right now he's chasing the 41 car of casey mears so casey been carving his way through the field great pitbull trying to get back on the lead left a lot of traffic and a long way to go with texas [Music] 2 14 248 10. [Music] [Music] [Music] tonight on nbc don't miss a law order event a two-hour criminal intent movie that's law order criminal intent tonight after the live west wing 9 8 central right here on nbc live racing on nbc right now casey mears the race leader as went to break just a moment ago he was trying to put the 22 car scott wimmer a lap down well he succeeded in doing that but biffle and kenseth got back racing with a 4.2 car and it was a side to behold by the way we got to bound for second spot here comes carl edwards and at 99. mckenzie who has led 149 laps today is going to fall to third [Music] got it last week right now is third in the championship standings 102 points out of the lead and carl has not led a laugh today [Music] there's greg biffle who currently runs 30th and his tough day got a little tougher over like you were talking about benny there we see him making contact with the 22 car and he almost spun out down the back stretch to duplicate the spin down the front stretch he's got the same damage that jeff gordon had but on the right side of this car now matt what do you know about all this what a day he has had bill he has spun now he's got issues on the right side but the biggest problem he has right now he's no longer in position for the lucky dog the 45 of kyle petty is that's right he's also got wimmer back there battling for that spot [Music] but you know we talked about mark martin today and how he's falling back well guess what they've worked on that six car and they've gotten it better he's coming to the front he's now fourth position and has been some laps about as fast as the leader mark if his stuff is good he really goes after in the second half of these races caution is out debris in turn two that's probably off the pitfalls car has been [Music] kyle petty gets the lucky dog award winner biffle blaney bill elliott bobby labani terry labonte the other car is one lap down but kyle gets the lucky dog award there's kp still trying to put together the paperwork for the sponsorship for both those petty cars for 2006. casey mears leads edwards kenzit mark martin and tony stewart take a look at the results from our singular race talk poll of course you can still text the word race to 191 on the scene of a wireless phone or go to nascar.com and enter for the money looks like all states are watching yes it looks like the fans are about the way i was thinking i looked at that and i really didn't have a firm feeling on either one of them [Music] neither did the fans hey wally [Laughter] sure not if she saw the ride yesterday then we got to make sure that casey mears and his crew can hold serve when they make this pit stop change four tires put some fuel in these cars 184 laps are complete mirrors leads the field to pit road allen talked about it earlier you don't want to get the pit road speeding penalty we start with dave and mark martin he comes to pit road once again bill this time they would like to make the car a little bit free at the start of the run pat tyson saying i think we run better that way that'll be an edge wedge and air pressure adjustment matt casey took the lead back on lap 165 trying to keep up with his changing race track making an air pressure adjustment in the rear tires the car was tight snyder matt and matt kinsey think alike because the racetrack is changing kenza said it's getting tighter that's what's making our car bad half pound on the right front tire allen carl edwards is going to get a track bar adjustment and an air pressure adjustment it is right for your tire gonna be a good pit stop not gonna win the race off pit road and boy was that close to contact we will have to go to the video replay video says mark martin now the computer says mark the computer says mark martin let's check the video are you going to believe your eyes are the video yeah mark as you're seeing the video that's mark they got it right way to go bp you're all over it mark martin struggled with his car throughout the day but 186 laps in got the lead off a hit road [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] ryan pressure build that last run were 0.9 to the tight on the right 2.8 to the front on the left 10-4 one to go with this drive uh they're saying you're in front of the 31 but 97 12 31. i can't get any pressure out of the front at all are you too close we've only got a pound to work with on the right front but something in the right rear [Music] i think we're just fighting dirty air we got you no problem just trying to think up here i'll call it in april of 2004 elliott sadler became the eighth winner in eight cup races at texas holding off casey kane at the line for the win the margin of victory 28 one thousandths of a second and for kane it was his second loss by less than a car length in five races for more wrangler five-star finishes log on to nascar.com 187 laps in and mark martin has worked his way to the front got some help getting there from his guys on pit road and here they are where are they bill they were here a second ago i just saw i can look down there i can see them from here pat tristan in company [Music] maybe they're shy they don't want to be on tv that's what i was thinking they want to see the restart then see if we can't find them we'll fix that right now mark martin needs matt kansas and casey mears to the restart five bonus points for mark got him under the caution oh mark slides up the track a little bit now mir slides up the racetrack he's gonna lose his spot carl edwards oh thanks only stewart trying to go on the inside of 41 car there he goes [Music] and here comes tony on the 99 car of edwards [Applause] [Music] that bill just a follow-up on tony stewart we talked about his car lacking rear end grip on that last run they're now thinking maybe it was just a set of tires that didn't agree with the car you know these tires all kind of have personalities and sometimes one set feels different than another so they're hoping this set will be more agreeable to the way their chassis is set up certainly look like it on the first lap and we went back to green battery all the way down all the way did battery 17 car matt kenza that's carl edwards right in front of matt running second probably not gonna make it to the end i got the second one right now he has gone to the center going to the second battery turned all the switches off all the fans that are inside the car rayquip when that 16 car is not on the lead left hand bobby labonte and the 18 both one lap down right now labonte would be your lucky dog one of the contenders in the chase for the next hell cup started first today after qualifying third with some issues marty yeah bill you guys were here to go down as the team was hearing about it i was actually talking to robbie reiser when matt radioed in and uh surprised to robbie and they do run two batteries you heard maddie has switched over that backup batteries but we have seen a rash of these electrical problems here late in the season these cars are just drawing so much more power benny than they used to but they're draining these batteries and these alternators so much more quickly well what's happening we've had a rash of tire problems so a lot of teams are putting blowers on the front tires with fans to blow air on them to try to keep them cool and keep the tires living a little bit longer when they do that that draws a lot of juice that second battery is your insurance policy to be able to switch back to it so we'll keep an eye on matt he's got greg biffle his teammate right behind him before desperately trying to get on the lead lap mark martin continues to lead his teammate carl edwards is second walk out front his pick guys got him there wally here they are [Music] pat tyson now from pennsylvania scott bolton wants to settle north carolina todd ziegler fort wayne indiana andy reaker seymour indiana will smith seymour indiana drew blickenster from mount zion illinois rick machinski toledo ohio danny eckland green bay wisconsin wayne deloria biddeford maine now hickory north carolina and driver mark martin right now fourth in the championship standings 123 points out four times he's finished second in the championship standings has never won the series title and bill you know they were working on the car mark feeling like maybe the right front spring had given up the adjustment they've been using most today is a wedge adjustment that changes the attitude of the chassis a little bit and they feel like that might be bringing it up off of the right front fender just a little bit so mark no longer complaining as much about that and really feels like the car has come back to it a lot of guys in the garage thought mark martin would be the guy to beat today today and uh right now he's out front jimmy johnson play it sadler moves johnson to seventh sadler thinking about trying to get it back but won't jimmy sets off is that a tire run yeah left front charge rubbing the fender i think goldman worked for that time benny i can't smoke coming out of the right front as well allen what are you working on down there uh looking at carl edwards you know he lost the spot or two on that last pit stop bill he's since made up made it back up the second spot where mike kenzie slipped back but carl was talking to his team about having trouble getting around baylor hart jr who was parked in the pit box in front of him i can't stop on that side we're that far forward bob in that situation we got to move it back too far forward from the start finish line yeah just you know i'm too close to that eight car i can't get out the problem is you slid through the board bud oh tip four all right oh well never mind there was him trying to leave the pits and the eight car there and that's why he lost all those spots and he couldn't stay out of the gas when he left the pits he had to turn it real hard get on the gas and kind of let off or he would have hit the egg but they had the pit board out for him and when he came into his pit stall instead of stopping on the board he slid through it and in the meantime he just passed mark martin and got in the lead [Applause] tell you what he's loving these mile and half race tracks and i'm sure the mark mark did not contest that battle for the lead very hard it got uh carl five bonus points for leading a lap here's how it went on the back stretch we see him pressure in the sixth car and mark just says okay you're faster than i am at this point in time go with 130 plus laps to go mark's not going to contest that has been he talked about dave and mark just radioed on the um just radioed his crew pat tristan it just gets tighter and tighter means the car doesn't want to turn as well and guys are starting to watch the weather here as the shadows come over the track this car this track will tighten up in fact kyle busch cars earlier talking about putting a spring rubber in the right rear just to keep up with that condition as the conditions change out here matt marty they just an update on the 17 car matt kennedy's robbie reiser has conferred with the roush racing engineers they should be able to run he said two and a half hours on that one backup battery matt radio backs and i'm on battery number one i'm going to run that out until it's completely gone then i'll switch over to the second battery so they're fairly convinced they'll be okay no concern right now with putting a new battery in bill thanks marty we'll keep an eye on that more than half the track now in shadows as we race from daylight to darkness at the texas motor speedway carl edwards the leader [Music] [Music] 30-75 [Music] [Music] 30-79 [Music] 30-79 [Music] still there you're clear call your one bag of pulling away 30 98. [Music] mondays on the usa network don't miss raw pin shawn michaels to win the triple threat match now find out what champ john cena does next on raw live monday at nine only on usa there's john i don't know what barney called him i forgot at martinsville but i think he was angry john had to miss a week after that didn't he i think he got a hernia carl edwards wrestled the lead from mark martin a couple of laps ago and now tony stewart trying to hold off brian vickers who he started marching toward the front allen hey bill it's got a familiar-looking pattern if you watch the race in atlanta last week for tony stewart started off well led a lap in the early going of the race and then kind of fell back a little bit wound up finishing night remember at the beginning of our broadcast i asked tony what his goal for the day would be he said to finish ahead of all the other championship guys three of them are ahead of him right now matt allen right now about 60 of the racetrack is in shade that's exactly what brian vickers wants he says the longer we run and the more shade he gets the racetrack the better my race car is it starts out free and slowly dials itself right in 13 top 15 finishes in the last 16 races for brian vickers including six top tens best finish this season second at pocono make it four here right now there's jimmy johnson [Applause] past tony stewart and behind him is that other joe gibbs card denny hamlin in the 11 the fedex car 20 car does not look comfy uh looks like it got loose right there i don't know what cartoon but he was loose right there marty you're pretty spot on there wally i'm impressed the car's loose to start off with that's kind of the way you have to be with all these guys that he goes under his teammate tony stewart for the seventh position the car gets tighter though the longer he runs all they did on the last stop half pound in the right route for denny who's been very impressive here he has two top tens in his very young next cell cup series career and as we talked about sign to drive this 11 car for next year and he's going to drive the bush series to that 70 plus races this young man will drive next year for joe gets racing [Applause] as we talked about earlier in the race the crew guys really thrilled with the performance of their driver it's amazing what a year can do this little boy last year at this time he was not even the bush regular was it his first bush series start was november 13th talk about danny hamlin and here he is announced today to be the federal express driver for 2006. he's run four races this season has two top ten finishes a couple of eighth place finishers [Applause] i guess you could say he's really [Music] delivering let's see if we can duck in the aflac trivia question here good in the truck please cue the duck i know we have something interesting to tell only driver to win his first career push in cup series race at texas [Music] i don't think that's exactly the toughest one we've come up with the duck being very nice to us today i think i know the answer to that give it a shot bp what do you think it is we got the 38 car on screen and i knew it was still in our chat [Music] are you trying to treat me by putting a 38 car on the stream but yes junior won both his bush first cup and first bush race ratio [Music] earnhardt jr runs 11th we'll take you through the field when we come back and right now we'll be starting with carl edwards he runs up front at texas [Music] so [Music] [Music] 30-98 [Music] still there to your door now you're clear all clear [Music] back inside by himself [Applause] [Music] don't forget you gotta pull off visor if it's getting dark down the front here [Music] [Music] 30 89 liter runner 82 left 247 joey a little over halfway on tires and fuel right there michael [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 30-98 [Music] [Music] still outside there clear behind them nascar next-door cup series racing from texas motor speedway is brought to you by chevy the winningest name in racing an american revolution by principal financial group we'll give you an edge by speed pass from exxon and mobile and by lipitor ask your doctor if lipitor is right for you 220 laps are complete here at the texas motor speedway and the dickey's 500 carl edwards continues to lead finished 19th here in the spring one last week allen going for two in a row let's go through the field yeah the remarkable uh emergence of carl edwards as a winning force in the nascar next l cup series bill took the lead at the 300 mile mark of this race about 21 laps to go right now on cruise control continuing to be pounded by his spotter bobby hudson to be smooth and take care of his stuff dave mark martin had a very good test here at texas motor speedway crew chief patricia told me this morning that they've used basically everything they had on that setup for their setup today and those adjustments that they're making towards the end here you bet they'll go back to their notes dave casey mears having an impressive run currently runs in the third position now he lost two spots on his previous pit stop then two spots right after the restart slowly reeling back in the leaders he has changed up his line just a little bit the car is on the free side snyder well matt one of the effects of losing a battery is that you have to shut off all of your fans and when you do that the handling of the car changes that's been the case for matt kinsey he is in fourth the car has gotten tighter because he has had to shut off all of those fans matt brian vickers telling lance for drew the car is really really close said it was a little tight earlier lance said look you can't just tell me it's tight you got to give it to me on a scale of one to ten meanwhile the 48 his teammate jimmy johnson the track bar adjustment they met in the last time he says really helped him that in turns one and two where the shade is really drastic but he said still tight on laid exit chad told him search around for a better line snyder matt this morning denny hamlin told me you know what these mile and a half tracks they just aren't my bag i'm not very good at these racetracks i would beg to differ the worse this young man has been all afternoon 14th and that's when he started the race currently he is seven just a little bit tight in the center of the corner allen tony stewart continuing to slip back he's now down to the eighth position talking about needing help now when he gets into the corner as well as when he starts to go back to the gas marty elliot sandler's been struggling with a tight race car for most of the afternoon where they're getting it done though is on pit road chocolate thunder that's the name of the pit crew last two stops they've gained them five and three positions that never hurt your effort on the racetrack dave listen to kyle busch describe the condition of his race car [Music] it's that right front club that i told you about yesterday you get in the corner and you fall on it and it kind of feels [Music] now remember these drivers break the corners down into at least three parts he talked about through the center the problem is when they go to fix that his car right now wants to get loose off the corner and they don't want to exacerbate that problem alan but they'll earnhardt jr's periodic updates to his crew chief tony yuri jr on his car have gone from descriptions of what the car is doing in the corners to the latest transmission which is the car is getting worse marty allen if the folks at home keep their channel locked on nbc after the race today they'll see rusty wallace featured on dateline this evening rusty wallace in the car right now a little bit too loose and he went looser than he would like but the car was tight in the last run so rusty he likes it alan matt marty running in the 13th position sterling marlon scored a season's best finish right here at texas in the spring fifth now he says the car way on the tight side much like it was the very first run this afternoon now another guy having a very good day is dale jr in the 88 he says not much has changed about the way his car is handling is still a little tight in the center of the corner and the 42 jamie mcmurray trying to get the technical star up into the top ten like his teammate casey mears hasn't sent a whole lot of radio just the fact that the car much like it has been all day dave is still tight like teammate mark martin kurt bush tested here as well talked to his crew chief jimmy penny this morning he said we've used nothing from that test it was a wasted test in his mind so they've had to struggle to find the handle here they still have not been able to do that right behind the 29 car of kevin harvick on the last stop his car went from being a little loose from the beginning to a little tied off at the end they made a wedge and air pressure adjustment on that as for mike bliss another no changes stop his crew booty barker thinking the car is good enough as it is they don't want to mess with it too much because it's running fairly well for mike at this point as for the other bike that's mikey he's running the high line coming out of turn four michael waltrip on that last stop uh made some changes as well his car has improved a little bit since early on in the race alan while ken schrader has moved from 41st starting spot up to 20th position in his car just kind of hanging there at the moment they asked him if he wanted any changes on the car he said no i don't exacerbate anything actually that's my word marty allen barnum 2x jr said the sun's going down that's making this racetrack race car have less grip out there because they're going faster he's hit snappy loose hard to drive and left 221 10 laps ago he said terrible terrible terrible that's how his race car is handling same can be said for jeff gordon unfortunately after finishing second last week atlanta texas has not been so kind they made three pit stops on their last stop found out the spring river they put in the right rear spring had fallen out matt and the 43 of jeff green running 23rd one of those guys just trying to work this car into a decent position just outside the top 20. the car tight much of the afternoon but to work our way into the evening snyder well matt the other petty enterprises car kyle petty back there in the 24th position having a hard time hanging on this race chart the race track is changing kyle said the car extremely loose for him on this run allen well the day-long struggle for ryan newman in this backup car continues he's running 25th right now a series of transmissions talking about i'm smoking the right rear tire off the corners i don't know what to tell you maybe it's just dirty air it's just not been a good day for the fifth place driver in point state and ellen there are no more cars in my area to add on and their condition might have not improved and i couldn't find any to use the word worser on which is what exacerbate might have been when i said it that's the disclaimer so that's the top 25 travis pompom runs 26 then ricky row 27 the last car on the lead left greg biffle is 29th one lap down here at texas [Music] what this one up here is still tight clear high you're clear of the 18. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] 239 laps complete here at the texas motor speedway casey mears has back-to-back top 10 finishes at this track and right now he's battling carl edwards for the race lead and mirrors is going to take it again he made up three or four seconds on the 99 car crawler to take this lead he had abrupt restart after that last caution came out he got boxed up in traffic he slid up the racetrack lost some spots i think his car takes a while to get going too so really the 41 car needs they need this race to stay green as long as possible the 21 laps earlier in the race casey did there's ryan newman just in front of casey mears about to go on lap down currently in the 27th position casey has worked his way forward fourth year in the spring and seventh in the spring race of last year [Music] [Applause] inside of ryan newman this is a good run for mirrors edward second mark martin third matt kenzit fourth vickers fizz man i'll tell you what meers just about got wrecked on that deal [Music] and carl edwards is back in front and casey mears is trying to get his breath back he goes back to the third position come back and take another look at him i i think newman just got a blue getting off the turn four see you got it we talked about this earlier on the home depot virtual price yeah that's exactly what happened took the arrow and this time the 12 car comes spinning down the front stretch caution is out newman has it pointed in the right direction [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sure did through the grass i think he maybe said you're just a lucky dog [Music] hey one thing when that thing came to a stop he did a great job and not going all the way around sure did good job ryan saw a couple of guys yesterday put it in the wall after that happened i saved by newman no lucky dog brian brought out the caution so carl edwards has recaptured [Music] seven different leaders six of them are chasers this is our fourth caution only had 13 laps of caution so far but in stock car racing a lot of times cautions breed cautions especially towards the end of the race yeah when all these cars get jammed up nose to tail with just a few laps to go strange things happen mike skinner the lone car officially out of the race there's greg biffle runs 29th one lap down he has had a difficult day first of all he had a tire loosen up left rear tire leading the race had to make an unscheduled pit stop led 16 laps and as well talking about that saved it lost it saved it and then lost it but didn't hit anything and then that's trying to get by the 22 car and scott weber got together and see the damage on the right side of the 16 car [Music] field to pit road we start with dave oh boy mark martin wasn't sure he wanted to make this adjustment the car went from neutral to just a little bit loose at the end they will take a quarter round up on the left rear wedge that'll make it a little bit looser mark thinks he can handle it matt now casey beers felt like he couldn't get in the gas when he needed to you can already see the the wedge wrench in the back window they're going to adjust the chassis and they're going to back up the air pressure adjustment they made on the previous stop snyder battery one still hanging in there for matt kendrick on the bottom of your screen car too tight half pound on the left rear half pound to the right front and up on the track bar allen track bar adjustment air pressure adjustment four tire change for carl edwards let's see how well he gets out around the eight car this time and he's gonna lose a spot or two on pit road there looks like three or four does he lost four spots another good job by that six pick crew for mark martin see elliot sadler gave the spot as glance having a real-time carrier and dave smith combined for a good stop we see lance making that adjustment 38 punch getting the job done for [Music] [Music] elliott 240 230. and the whole track is shaded right now tony about five or eight minutes ago the whole track is shaded forgot your shade on your helmet mike now okay so the tires still look really really good not nowhere no bad wear anywhere [Music] [Music] [Music] put you back in the top 15 right there mike [Music] really on the outside of a top 14. yeah i'm staring right down to the first 14 guys right now [Music] [Music] tonight don't miss the big tv event everyone's talking about the west wing goes live that's an all new live episode of the west wing tonight eight eastern seven central only on nbc the entire track now in the shade and through the texas motor speedway casey mears comes off pit road second to mark martin we've introduced you to mark's crew here are the guys getting it done for casey mears on pit road jimmy l it's redding california marty forcier superior wisconsin bobby burrell hot springs virginia sean pete nanaimo british columbia alex yanchuk syracuse new york jason sheets carmel indiana les huntley renwick iowa eric hoyle asheville north carolina bill horton lenoir north carolina [Music] casey mears behind mark martin let's check on pit road marty well matt kims is currently in seventh and uh robbie risery how's that one battery holding out well we got another battery in the car so we should be all right i would think uh you know we haven't even used the second battery yet so we should be able to get there i know turning off the fan to certainly change the handling of the car too it's made matt's car tighter allen championship leader greg tony stewart's crew chief is greg zip but ellie greg you've slipped back here in this middle part of the race what's tony saying about your car it started out um real tight so we we kind of aggressively adjust on it and then we must went overboard or i'm not really sure that first set of tires we put on was a little tight because it's free so we've kind of gone back to basically where we started um we got a little better there it was just too free to take off so um we're kind of trying to to marry the two setups where we started and some of the adjustments and uh hopefully we'll get this uh diplo chevrolet back up there it's not far off it just there's a lot of good race cars out there now all right thanks rick thanks alan there you see how the uh chasers are doing today [Music] mark martin the race leader and now that the racetrack is completely in the shade things are going to change at casey kane to mike skinner two drivers out of the race finished for the day mark martin won here in 98 takes them to the green flag on the restart see if casey mayer's car is any better now on a restart if they've adjusted for it or like we said earlier look this car takes a few laps he's going to get some pressure right away looks like vickers in that 25 car vickers came off turn two looked to be much faster than mirror he's on the inside trying to take that second spot away vickers on the inside and we've seen that be trouble a couple of times today man how about that 25 what are they saying well vp remember we told you earlier he could not wait for the sun to go down completely because he felt like down in turns one or two where there was shade earlier in the race that's where his car worked the best and think back to the lowest motor speedway in may he won the all-star challenge open event in darkness a similar layout this team really wants to go out of 2005 with a victory to complete the cycle dripping all the cars in victory lane for owner rick hendricks tell you what that time by he was faster than the leader mark martin tony edwards was going by danny hamlin taking over a spot [Music] i knew what you meant a lot of them out there on board with joe nemechek [Music] there's edwards and yep here's his slipping back a little bit once again just can't get started on the restarts and he started second and he's already a second and a half behind mark martin and that's the thing you're losing so much ground to the leader it's hard it takes a long time to make it up when he gets going when he gets done he's wise but [Applause] he needs it to stay green a long time here is already 1.8 seconds now behind and when this sun goes and cools this racetrack off the last since the green flag mark martin brian vickers have all run karl edwards they've all run their fastest lap of the day i heard carl thank his mom if you were with us earlier before they went green to start the race that's his mother nancy sterling [Music] carl talks about how she's been the biggest influence the bigger biggest supporter of his career three wins this year for carl comes in off the win at atlanta these guys yeah this is one of those places we talked about earlier you got to give a guy a lot of would space in between corners or the car on the bottom gets very loose like see how the 17 is down on the 11 that'll make the 11 loose and now the 17 jumped up the racetrack but danny howland trying to take that spot away from kenza that's about it for sixth kenseth has clinched the five points for leading the most laps here today that has led 149 laps [Music] marty the 17 doesn't look to be as fast as he was a moment ago yeah i think bp they're losing a little bit of speed he turned off those beat blowers which were cooling the tires and that made the car tighter for matt they made several changes on the last stop half a pound on that left rear tire half a pound of the right front tire and three quarters around up on the track bar and that said the track is changing and he told robby reiser that's not necessarily good for us try getting tighter that's not what matt wants nobody knows exactly what this track is going to do because we've never raced here at this time of day talking to the crew chiefs this morning i said okay when he gets when the sun goes down is the car going to get tighter well i think so you go to the next one he said no i think he'll get looser because the front tire will then start to grip better and the back end will come around you're right bill no one really knows exactly what's going to happen and like allen said earlier that as if delhi was saying anything was going to change at all different kinds of theories out there alan you want to jump in here and i heard another whole theory all together bill which is that when the sun went down whatever your car was doing would be exaggerated if the front tires were gripping better than the back the back end would just get worse if the back was better than the front the push would just get worse nobody knows what to expect here thanks did you say exaggerated or exacerbated that was exaggerated okay i'll say exacerbated and that's what can happen obviously mark martin's crew has decided that the track will tighten up remember mark was a little bit leery of going loose around the car but since the restart with clean air on the front of that car it's not been too loose to handle so they're in the right position right now according to the way they're playing the texas motor speedway as it goes to twilight here comes brian vickers and right behind him here comes that 99 carve carl edwards [Music] mark martin has led 26 laps pickers does look pretty strong right now working a little bit different line than mark martin is and it's working for him because he's making up a lot of ground especially getting off of turn two and four it seems like the 25's got a pretty good run see how hard mark makes him work for the pass i bet it won't be too hard [Music] 74 to go still got a lot of race yet if this thing goes green just one more pit stop [Music] here's where pickers is strong right here looks like that's where he's going to take the lead mark martin falls in behind him so brian vickers in search of his first next telco series win around championship contender mark martin to the lead first lap lead for vickers today chasers have led today we'll talk about how matt has punched the five bonus points for leading the most laps carl edwards from the 99 office depot forward around mark martin to second he's about two tenths of a second per lap faster than vickers talking about carl edwards in the 99. 45 laps today and now he starts to close in on the 25 of brian vickers vickers edwards mark martin casey mears tony stewart the top five at texas with 71 to go [Music] [Applause] [Music] imagine this whole group in front of you pretty quickly some lap cars are in the middle it messes things up [Music] lap car up high here holds things up the 01. lap car on the bottom as well there you are there's the bottom one still outside the 01 you're clear 30 80. go get them all man [Music] still outside out there by himself clear behind him clear 10 back couple lap cars are in front here the 31-22 it is starting to cool down rather quickly as well michael [Music] still there you're clear clear go get the 22 goodbye him here [Music] 64 laps right now 64 to go here at the texas motor speedway in fort worth carl edwards has recaptured the lead moving brian vickers back to second did it on left 2 67. get the position off turn four buck couldn't make the pass he goes to the inside gets a great run down the front stretch and going in turn one just drives alongside the 25 and into the lead so that was three laps to go and here's mom watching from the pit box on pit road a lot of emotion call after the win at atlanta last sunday [Music] 87 points behind third in the championship standings allen he looks pretty strong right now yeah a very good race car bill you know he lost a few spots on that last pit stop actually the last couple of pit stops the first time we heard and we showed you how carl kind of took that one on his shoulders this time they had a little bit of trouble on the pit stop crushing bob osborne giving the crew a little pep talk on the radio just after the stop saying guys we can get this done let's go do it they're getting it done on the track the last pit stop though will loop big for this race team based on the last couple and now mark martin trying to close in on vickers for second and and i was just thinking maybe he's talking about the pit stop i think these guys they want to make restock pit stops because the faster this car is they come in they have that buffer on everybody else so they want this thing to stay green real bad points as they run right now 61 laps to go [Music] tony stewart is doing exactly what he said in a pre-race show today he just wants to beat all the rest of the guy trying to chase the nascar next el cup only carl edwards and mark martin are beating you so far alan uh one word to describe what's going on with tony stewart vp better we heard from a little while ago they've gone back closer to the chassis settings they started the race with tony has moved up to fourth position in this run does he have enough laps left and does he have enough cars to get the rest of those guys in the championship ahead of him and the question is can casey mears make his car better here as we go along looking for the 48 of jimmy johnson matt bill just like last week as the race gets closing in on the final laps jimmy johnson started the struggle last week faded back to 16th he is fading tonight because the car is losing and tied up now they pulled a spring rubber out in the last stop he said it did absolutely nothing for me battle for second place but he said it has made me worse off turn two he lost 28 points last week losing more points again as mark martin dives on the inside of vickers who says his car is just way too tight on exit and that was pretty close coming off before 25 was uh pretty sideways getting off a four there he did a good job hanging on to that race car [Music] but mark has made a lot of crowd all of a sudden it was like the 25 just lost a lot of ground i'm sure that brian vickers in that 25 car is said what in the world are those guys doing to make those cars handled so well brian vickers isn't the only guy in the garage that's true so mark martin 1.6 seconds now behind his teammate carl edwards matt well bill you were talking about the 25 now he just told lance mcgrew we've got a good car but it's just way too free on entry and then when i want to get in the gas and start to push the wheel and turn the car just starts to push up off the corner he's having a good day he asked about casey mears in the 41 car his car is loose and just getting looser so the different cars are going to react differently differently as we go from daylight into darkness here at the texas motor speedway up front it's carl edwards has left 55 laps so far today one last week in atlanta trying to win today at texas [Music] 30 74 82 [Music] so [Music] hey after the race except on the west coast it's a special dateline nbc featuring rusty wallace the 89 series champ talks about why he's retiring and a whole lot more that's dateline nbc coming up after the race on the east coast and seven o'clock out west rusty running in the 10th spot right now everybody chasing carl edwards let's uh go through the field starting with that 99 well obviously when you're leading things are looking pretty good carl edwards right now trying to fend off those behind him and maybe even pull away from those who are trailing him one more pit stop to go they're already chatting about what adjustments they might want to make there dave mark martin said in final practice that he was feeling even better than atlanta and also that he was looking for something they had found in the test and they hadn't quite found it yet this weekend asked back trice this morning he wouldn't tell me he said they went back and forth a little bit not sure if they did find that certain something or not matt now dave brian vickers would love to join ken schroeder and jerry nadeau's drivers who scored their first career wins in the 25 car for owner rick hender the car still tight especially from the center to exit of the corner maybe tony stewart has settled in in fourth position ahead of all but two of those chasing him for the championship right now stewart's car lacking a little bit of rear end grip here as we work with 48 laps to go matt and alan it's like flipping a light switch to 41 just seems to come to life he doesn't fall off as much as some of the other cars he was over a second back delivers now just 5.16 seconds the car not as free snyder well matt kendall's accomplished goal number one that was leading lap and goal number two he's led the most laps now goal number three it's gonna be a little more difficult goal number three was to win the race tonight matthew the car is neutral but since it's gotten dark and the track has gotten cooler the other guys have a bunch of speed that we don't have all of a sudden that was his report to the team denny hamlin 24 4 year old virginia native doing a very nice job his car was tied on the last one they have now made it loose off the corners earlier he told the guys just stop talking i'm trying to concentrate and jimmy johnson in the 48 running in the eighth position trying to make up some ground on point leader tony stewart who's up in the fourth position now they're going to try a little break by his change in the 48 car until they make their final stop which should be marty somewhere around lap 300. well that rusty wallace is a ninth after he's gained a few positions coming off pit road being in 12th rusty administer crews saying you know what guys we keep losing spots on pit road we've got to stop that there's a battle for the lady bill mark martin has caught carl edwards oh a little bit loose there for mark off of four [Applause] so mike michael walker but we got a spin off turn four caution is out what is that pitfall looks like bethel again yeah what a day he's had and jimmy johnson is caught on pit road well he was down here to avoid the action right he will get his position back because the field is frozen when the caution comes out i saw michael waltrip slow off turn forward left before that but he looks like he's up to speed nowaday michael reported back to his crew as they were trying to assess what was going wrong uh bolts are good a lot of things are good motor's bad and then he got the report back out michael sounds like we're blowing up we're done here so that was the last i heard before we started spinning on the front stretch no lucky dog because greg biffle who brought out the caution was the first car scored off the lead lap so biffle who's worked all day to get the lucky dog is unlucky again see what happened here [Music] just lost it just around he goes and that'll happen as we've seen denny hamlin just his fifth race in the next telecom series on the job training right here got on the apron that's why i got loose he got his left front tire down there nice job by denny hamlin there pit road is closed well they knocked all the cones down the commitment cones okay that will not turn now sometimes what a driver will do that was bit more right right to help the car turn when it's not pushing this get down to the bottom of the racetrack and hook the apron and that actually loosens the car up do anything raise the track bar around put another rubber in it bring the left right rear up a half a pound [Music] so he's trying to use the track to help him he's trying to use the apron apron will loosen your car up but sometimes when you're running 165 70 through the corner it gets you a little bit to those we leave here we head for phoenix nascar bush series racing from phoenix presented by walk the line that's saturday 3 30 eastern on tnt and we're back on nbc next sunday afternoon like johnny cash of course our coverage on sunday three eastern begins with the bank of america countdown to green right here on nbc 43 laps to go if it stays green this is your last chance to make your car better lights are on here at the texas motor speedway they like to call the great american speedway about 190 000 fans here and there has just been a great atmosphere here throughout the week here in the dallas fort worth area getting ready for this race first time the fans in this area have had two nextel cup races in the same season we're burning up some film aren't they boy taking pictures of all these cars as they're coming down pet road make that final pit stop race has been on a record pace carl edwards trying to become the fifth roush driver to win here let's go to pit road start with dave and mark martin's pit crew has been on a record pace too as well bill twice today they've given him the lead off of pit road they're gonna make that wedge adjustment one more time to loosen up the car just a little bit more matt the biggest issue for vickers he says you've got to fix my tie-down exit also the light came out underneath the oil pressure gauge they are concerned about that we'll fill up more on that later snyder matt kendra's bottom of your screen the 17 car said i'm a little loose off the corners and uh he said that quarter round up on the wind allen wedge adjustment for carl edwards crews chance to be a star they've lost spots on the last couple of pit stops how's this one's going to go oh it's close tony stewart looks like the man [Music] gets stuart off of pit road take a look at the video fantastic job just barely me sparked but he beats him [Music] well should be interesting as it gets darker it gets more exciting here at [Music] texas [Music] stay out there [Music] [Music] yeah they're going to black flag you know gibson but i tried to tell the official up here what we were doing so hopefully the 45 will fit this time just so you know [Music] yeah the 45 should be coming this time here guys it's coming to one to go so when that 45 comes michael just try to blow by him you know how it works yeah you're way ahead of it michael there you go thanks field has just gotten the one to go here at the texas motor speedway you can see how the conditions here have changed it's amazing air temperature has not changed a great deal but track temperature has changed dramatically check on pit road with matt bill they're not sure if it's a faulty oil pressure gauge in the 25 or if they have a major problem developing unfortunately time will tell but one problem that they know about they found a piece of metal in the left front tire and it was down to 11 pounds that's where he said he had the vibration dave pat we're racing into the night for the first time do you think you found the right adjustments for mark i hope so you know we've been getting the viagra forward towards a little better all night and uh you know we're we're pretty fast there on that last run you know we're running them back down so hopefully this is about the same length run stays green so hopefully we got a little left for him and uh hope we get by tony and get away from everybody we hope it stays great too bill back up to you thanks dave getting ready to go back to green here don't forget tonight right here on nbc a special live edition the west wing the big debate that's eight eastern seven central right here on nbc so tony stewart wins the race off of pit road he's got mark martin brian vickers matt kenseth carl edwards casey mears trying to make a run 39 to go here at the great american speedway [Music] [Applause] he tried his best he tried his best to get the 12 car off the gas did not quite work the longer he stayed side by side like that tony stewart is going to keep on stretching out that lead so he needs to get past newman this will do it and now brian vickers trying to clear the lap traffic now matt kenseth clear of the 12. down the back stretch this all looks much cooler yes it does now carl edwards a 99 car who was the leader or i guess running second when they made these pit stops trying to get by the 12. those sparks that's not something wrong with the cars they're just going down and dragging the racetrack i thought you were talking about the flash balls going off it's spectacular here right now [Music] ryan newman newman is the first car to lock down but watch as he comes off the floor the sparks off the car and the flash bulbs in the stands here at texas [Music] mark martin runs second behind tony allen what are you working on i just follow before while we have ryan newman on the camera there bill this place guy and points coming into the day backup car they've struggled with it all day some of ryan's calls into his crew have gotten more urgent as the day goes on about needing help with the handling of that race car uncharacteristic struggle on a high-speed racetrack that's been the trouble spot for this team these last few weeks and just to follow up on that mark martin who runs second now behind tony stewart who is the championship leader mark obviously trying to win the race but his championship chances might be determined by how he fares on this track today if he can get around tony and pick up the win and some more points i mean with tony stewart running out front he's going to bury a lot of guys tonight as far as their championship hopes brian vickers this is for third edwards watches carl edwards has a second and a quarter behind tony stewart what are you listening to abe just after the pit stops before the restart bill matt kenseth dialing over to carl edwards teams radio with this man go ahead hey uh i know you're quick wait when i can if i just run a lap or two pretty loose get around these lap cars don't get out of the way i know you're quicker i heard you spotted last week playing all i was was roblox i'll try to try not to do that all right simple i don't know if he said that but um he probably said something like you were just a big jerk and he didn't like you i don't know how you heard it but i appreciate it yeah i don't want to hold you up too long i've been pretty decent i'm just uh pretty loose to start so i'm trying to get by somebody's life [Music] all right i appreciate it thanks matt so a little uh teammate by play there under caution i guess the first thing though before carl can or before matt can give way to carl guys is carl's got to catch him i would say that room number one if you were going to have a contest for nicest guy in the garage edwards and kenseth would be right up there they sure would i'm intending for the title paul ever just always has that great smile on his face it does and the right attitude he just and it's just gone so far in so little time doing a tremendous job driving for jack roush he's got inside of vickers yeah he's got the spot he's got a lot of momentum right there going into turn one and completes the pass now he's going to go after his teammate matt cancer so two roush cars now chasing tony stewart leader on the track leader in the championship standings tony won the race off of pit road that's how he got the lead here are the guys that got the job done hi greg zippidelli berlin connecticut tom dean long valley new jersey ira joe hussey manchester new hampshire chuck white china grove north carolina jody fortson china groves north carolina todd foster birmingham alabama jeff patterson escondido california brian larson escanaba michigan paul aleppo vienna virginia hardworking guys over the wall and their coach jb bill when it counted most what could be the last pit stop in this race a 12.90 second stop from tony stewart's guys that's being a performer in the clutch wouldn't you say i totally agree edwards gets kenzeth for third and mark martin is right on tony stewart for the lead 29 to go and he knows i think mark realizes he's got to go and make up all the distance he can between himself and the 99-car car you're exactly right bp he's got to get by stewart and go and mark searching there he's been running the low line at three and four and now he went up high to take a look to see if maybe he could use that to pass a 20 car of tony stewart we are on a race record pace here at texas casey mears whose car gets better the longer they run now for the lead mark martin oh he just blows by tony stewart here comes across he gets him loose gets him loose here comes tony stewart back this is why 190 000 people are here today from 50 states and 12 foreign countries almost making contact with those two cars so mark will have to go to work again like that earlier you better hurry because carl edwards is in their mirror mark moves over edwards goes by three roush cars behind tony stewart who drives for joe gibbs mom more animated now tony knows what's coming doesn't he yeah edward's using that high line [Music] dave and the five-pound kyle busch remains on pit road he said to his crew it just shut off coming off turn two they tried switching condition boxes that did not help it just quit [Music] top four drivers all contenders for the next tell cup championship wouldn't be surprising the five car didn't break a camshaft timing belt something like that again flying right now oh try to do it on the bottom man well let's see if he can hang on to it i don't think he's gonna be against the move on this one 24 to go bobby hudson the aforementioned spotter for the 99 car carl edwards ran a handful of races in the latter portion of the 2004 season basically gave up his rookie status this is his first full season in the next telecup series he cannot win the rookie of the year award in nextel cup he can in the bush series but not in nextel cup but those races he ran at the end of last year paying off big time for carl edwards and roush racing mark martin's going to take another run at stuart got a pretty good run off of turn two [Applause] [Music] that's where edward's got it done mark past tony and this time mark did not drift up the racetrack to allow the 20 car to get back on the inside of it all right mark 22 left to catch carl edwards championship standings as they run two races to go after tonight carl edwards is just 92 back but tony stewart has been awesome he has been fantastic running in third place here tonight [Applause] [Music] about to make that fourth spot is here comes the 17 car alan hey bill remember when tony stewart did the crossover on mark martin and it looked like they might have made contact apparently they did because tony just called in on the radio and said we were fine until we mashed the fender in oh bill you can feel the intensity not only pick up down here on pit road but in the driver's voices including matt kinseth who gets better the longer he runs remember he told his teammate earlier i'm loose to start with as he passes the 20 car but the bet longer i go the better i get that may play into the 17's hand and the car that's starting to get into the picture there you see him the target car the 41 of casey mears he has slowly reeled them in one of the fastest cars on the racetrack in fact his team told him you can see he's moved up to the carl edwards line as he slowly reels in the 20. in fact the last time a car number 41 with the victory lane bp one of your old favorite race tracks rockingham october 1965 the late curtis turner yes i remember that i thought the 41 car was going to get loose there off turn two did not happen outstanding run for casey mears [Music] at times are they the 41 car has been the fastest car on the racetrack has led 23 laps today in that 41 target machine stuart net runs for it you know tony made that had that 25th place finish at charlotte there's four top tens in the last five races he if he keeps doing that this is going to be almost impossible to beat him and we all know he runs well at the two tracks left for phoenix and homestead so i take you on a mini through the field here start with the 99 at carl edwards allen uh what a rocket ship for a race car is all i can say bill overcoming some issues they have had in the pitch during the day today each time flying his way back to the front carl less than 20 laps away from a win dave start of the day telling you how mark martin said he would drive until he was 60 if he could have a car like last week in atlanta i wonder how far he'll go after this week marty well matt kendath has done everything he could today to try and gain some points in the championship standings he has led the most laps problem is tony stewart has only two spots behind him hard to win the championship when the man you're trying to beat him is also finishing in the top five now back in the spring right here in texas mirrors goes down to the bottom scored his best career finish in nextel cup a fourth that's where he runs right now trying to reel in that 17. tony stewart has fallen back to fifth place still though ahead of jimmy johnson by a couple of spots protecting most of his championship lead on the yellows out debris and turn three brings out the caution and we talked about his strategy well i'll tell you what if i was casey mears the way his car's running i'd stay out no matter what anybody else does because he's got his car fast right now on the tires are on [Music] 15 laps to go this is this is the tricky part what do you do because when you're the leader everybody's going to pretty much do the opposite here 23 cars on the lead lap that was 99 ready we're bob osborne saying listen or better we'll win it we come out sixth or better we'll win it another question is will they get it restarted before 10 to go will be single file or a double file restart and what will the guys in the back who have nothing to lose do i think they'll get started double file i think they will too that means if you come out six yeah you don't have to be not much time stayed out carl edwards just made it inside the commitment cones mark martin the 17 cars out casey mears that's what i would have done if i was mayor matt bill the bottom of your screen the 48 jimmy johns slides to a stop in his pit box now they made a track bar adjustment and air pressure in their last stop they were running in the seventh or eighth position right near the end they should pick get fresh tires take another shot at it maybe two tires stop for carl edwards tony stewart is down and away we'll check and see what he did i went to the 99 pit and they're gonna they did just rights only my guess is that's the same thing that tony did because they left about the same time allen they were afraid to change four tires and lose too many too much track position now what would help mark too is kansas state almir stayed out that that helped mark right side tires only for tony stewart dave well and mark and pat treison talked it over mark said i'm sure whatever we'll do is wrong that sounds like mark well and because it's burned them before uh forget where it was atlanta that's right atlanta last year um hurt them when they did not pit this time they feel like it was the right call mark reiterated that when he called back to pat and said right call guys let's win i think i think i will agree with that one yeah good move boy well it's gonna be thrilling to watch the final laps here at texas you'll see it live on nbc [Music] please sure well five three two one [Music] [Music] one to go with the stripe [Music] there's 13 laps to go right now you're coming it'll be 12. 11 laps when you take degrees [Music] coming up after the race right here on nbc it's dateline nbc included in that profile of rusty wallace his final year in the next hell cup series and after that a live west wing and a law order special movie it's all coming up big night right here on nbc we're live at the texas motor speedway in fort worth texas getting ready to go back to green let's check with alan hey bill a tough call for crew chief bob osborne right you got to make sure you get off pit road first you saw some guys not pit you already know you got your work cut out for you so they chose to go with the right side tires carl's going to line up sixth on this restart and a couple guys right behind him or at least the one behind him tony stewart also right sides only how quickly can karl work the traffic does his car handle as well on just the new rights as it did just before the pit stop and another thing is going to be the driver's approach to these final laps yeah he's got his work cut out for him because uh you know mark claire's uh straight or quick that that's gonna buy him about two or three laps as far as having edwards catch him so we'll see mark martin mckenzie casey mears rusty wallace sterling marlin all stayed out 11 to go with texas [Applause] and mark knew he had to do that he did got it done so now he needs to go now sterling marlon has cars going by on the inside outside so does rusty wallace tony stewart's on the inside and carlin's on the outside those tires make a huge difference that's schroeder in the middle bobby labonte in the 18 casey mirrors up high there's edwards in the 99 tony stewart had to back up and follow the 99 car around the blaney 07 the schrader car 49 10 to this go really tripping up the racetrack [Music] trying to get some heat in those right side tires laney in the 0-7 behind stewart meantime marcus stretching that lead out and kentucky's side by side with newman briefly [Music] mark's got goal for him clean air you want to mention that greg biffle was the lucky dog i'm back on the lead lap the 99 car carl edwards has moved into the third position he's got high casey mirror but a lot of left traffic between himself and mark martin and about two seconds [Music] [Music] a little bit if newman passes mark martin can get his lap back and you know the mark martin is here please don't be messed with me ryan vickers has fallen back to 22nd had to make a second pit stop for loose lug nuts this is newman to get back on the lead lap around mark mark lets him go [Music] carl the class in the edwards half of this race the 99 car this time we got the three roush cars going in one two three martin kendrick and edwards five roush cars in the ten man chase for the next hell cup right now that's rising mark martin's crew chief talking to his driver tell you again that matt kenzeth's crew chief robbie reiser was not here on friday spent thursday and friday with his father in the hospital back in north carolina his father's battling some medical problems matt call his crew chief robbie riser on thursday said you stay there we'll get it done on friday saturday faster than the other two cars but got a pass oh he dropped to the inside it's been tricky when you get down there inside of matt for second that's not what mark wanted to see in his mirror right now he was really hoping the 17 would hold up to 99. hey just remember that carl edwards said just before he went down tim road if we restart sixth or better i can get him he restarted sixth man he has to get now is mark martin three and a half laps to get the job done about 10 car lengths the guy he's gonna have to pass is one of them it's patch rice and again martin's crew chief one of the most determined racers in the sport edwards didn't really make up that much ground on mark at last lap just about a tenth of a second oh he made up some ground there though on the high side here he comes all four and a good run right there so this is gonna close the gap two to go three miles left in the race box going to the bottom here goes edward to the top [Music] for the lead less than two laps to go paul edwards around mark martin baby don't overdo it now clear one back [Applause] in a row one last sunday in atlanta [Applause] tony stewart is sixth and that really will affect the championship standings as we head for phoenix next week carl edwards you can take a break we're twins in texas that was something to watch [Music] great job guys is it over for sure everybody drive it around [Music] and see jimmy johnson beat tony stewart by one position unofficially it's 38 points from stewart and first to johnson in second carl's mom nancy [Music] mark martin those are teammates they both drive for jack roush it's a one two three roush finish edwards martin kansas this is edward's trademark [Music] and 000 people at what you say the great american speedway that's right want to see this backflip [Applause] they all brought their cameras columbia missouri his fourth win of the season edwards is third in the championship standing 77 points back with two races to go there have been some amazing starts to their next careers for drivers but this guy is re-riding the ball and he stopped the landing that was better than dave's pole vault last words from carl before the race starts thanks bob i love you i'll tell you it is a red white and blue spectacular here now at the great american speedway jack roush the car owner fifth roush driver to win here 10th different winner in 10 races at texas i'm sorry marty well bill i've wrangled bob osborne and uh did you doubt yourself at all when you made that stop and everybody else stayed out bob oh i was a little worried uh i knew mark and matt would be really strong there but that office depot forward with carl edwards driving it a kid's unbelievable i wouldn't want anybody else ever what an amazing finish to this race guys matt and mark martin's climbed out you said on the radio great call by pat trison to stay out and not pitch yeah we it was a great call and the best car won uh carl was spectacular but uh man we just about did it it's a it's a great run by the by the whole team a great call and uh i you know it was close just uh you know just i just couldn't beat them tires man i tell you we were trying hard though great great run our car was good on short runs and you know it took their off there on the restart and we did everything we could do it just came up a little short that's the kind of points that he needed finishing second dave and the third place finisher also from roush racing uh matt kenseth trying to win today for some important reasons almost did it yeah well we try one every week but yeah uh school rob we made it back to the dragons feeling a little bit better so that's good um probably these dewalt guys they've done a great job every race in a chase except for martinsville we've had top five cars and uh it's cool to come out here and run through let a lot of the beginning of the race and uh i probably wasn't quick enough to adapt to the high side that might have cost me a little bit in the middle of the race and um you know carl and the six and forty one guys just got a little better than us at the end but overall a great day it was in a day it was definitely a day of adjustments when we come back we'll hear from championship leader tony stewart take you to victory lane with carl edwards a big night ahead on [Applause] nbc nbc sports is live at the great american speedway and now it's time for the sprint post race report from texas to victory lane and here's alan bestwick well carl edwards has just pulled his car into victory lane and he's getting ready to climb out now and they do things big in texas watch this scene it got warm here all of a sudden your second win in a row what fourth of the season pardon me congratulations yeah i just um i gotta thank office depot bob osborne and the crew for having an awesome last pit stop and that's what we need it was the right call bob did he made an adjustment for the two tires it was perfect i think charter communications but most of all um this wins for john riser he's a hero to so many people including myself and he's a little under the weather so john we're thinking about you we're bringing the trophy home for you um i gotta say happy birthday late to my girlfriend too but four wins man i can't believe it look at this smile carl you said on the radio just before that last pit stop if you get me out sixth or better i can do it then you went racing were there questions about that once you get going in those last 11 laps yeah mark martin um i just have to my hat's off to mark martin he almost won this race it was only the tires that beat him he had the best car i was doing everything i could to stay in front of them so their whole viagra team did a great job but that the tires were the deal i mean if if we could get the tires and if i didn't hit the bumps wrong and shoot the car up the racetrack i knew we could get them the car was just so fast i mean these new office depot fords are rocket ships 77 points behind tony stewart now two races to go 77 points um well we're not changing the thing we're going to win this championship we're going to do it by having fun so uh that way if we lose it we still had fun you know so it's a win-win situation just gotta thank everybody my dad my brother back at home i wish they were here um that was uh it's just real emotional it's amazing to uh to run around this racetrack with a checkered flag in my hand it's just unreal and you said something just before the start about your mom being here i guess she got to see when too yeah my mom was here and uh her husband jim and they're awesome people my um i just really am blessed i have unbelievable opportunities carl edwards won today here in texas matt another top 10 finish for the championship point leader tony stewart now you had a great battle with probably one of the drivers you respect the most in this business mark martin he came out of his car walked to yours what did he say i just apologized i mean we you know i gave him as much room as i could i was clear up against the wall and i knew i couldn't beat him but i wasn't going to give up any more or any more time than i had to and you know he was just trying to suck up on the door like we do on these big tracks he didn't mean to do it and you know that's what i told him i said at least you're man enough about 50 of these guys would go back and run and hide back in their haulers and wait for the phone call the next day but mark's that's why i respect mark martin more than anybody says at least he'll get out and he'll come over and talk to you about it whether you're going to scream at him or not he's going to come over and talk to you about it and get it resolved right then so no issues with him and i and probably gained more respect for him after tonight than i had before i came in tonight tony stewart finishes sixth here in texas dave just ahead of him jimmy johnson a slight pick up on the championship chase uh i'm sure you wanted more tonight yeah i think you know it would have been nice too but i know how it's going to be racing the 20. he's going to run strong and it's going to be five points here or there and that's just kind of the way it is we got two good tracks for him coming up same for us you know we did it we closed up a couple points um pulled away from some other guys that had some trouble the 99's on fire so we got to deal with him but all in all i'm happy i mean great performance all night long the biggest problem we had was track position we were making some big changes on pit road trying to be prepared for the track tightening up and had great stops on pit road with putting rubbers and stuff in but uh just kind of once we came out in tenth or so and restarted outside of you know all the lap down cars we'd get going 20th or 23rd and have to work our way through those guys and just struggle with that a little bit with the lap traffic but all in all good night top five can't complain about good night for jimmy johnson marty well dave don't not not quite sure where to start with greg biffle's knight the spins multiple in the loose wheel so to finish 20th on the lead lap was it actually turned out to be a good evening i don't think it was a good evening you know we really got behind with a loose wheel you know that that's what set us off and and got us lost all of our track position got back there and then you know your race changes you're racing for the lucky dog versus racing uh for positions and you know we made a mistake before the race started we put a left front spring in the car that that we had no laps on that we thought was going to be more travel or better spring and and i think the spring collapsed on in the left front and uh you know about 10 laps in the race i could feel it down on the left front real bad and we'd take wedge out and it'd get tighter so i knew it was i could feel it down on that left front and you know just uh you can't make mistakes like that in the chase you know you can't make guesses and we made a guess and two mistakes tonight that left front spring and then you know left the wheel loose and greg leaves 122 points out of the lead matt case your mirror stayed out didn't pit your car seemed like it took a little while to get going it took a long while to get going after about 20 laps uh we were the fastest car on the track but they got the guys would stretch out so far that took a while for us to run them back down and uh i guess that caution came out there at the end i didn't really see it i guess it was some debris or something like that but uh if it wouldn't have came out i think we would have had a shot at the wind uh you know that they call it jimmy made to stay out i think it was the right decision just because we were so bad on new tires we would have bumped the pressures up and tried to go but uh we were just worried that it would have just took a while to get going and and i think it was a right call i mean we stayed out there we got a good finish real proud of everybody on the target team i mean they had excellent pit stops all day long a good clean day for us if we could just have more days like this just get clean days with no problems i think you'd see more finishes like this ty's best career finish bill with a fourth thanks matt you're looking at the unofficial results or race record speed 151 0.078 miles per hour rusty took a hit newman took a hit jeremy mayfield well jeremy's been struggling michael waltrip casey kane mike skinner unofficially here are the championship standings two races remain in the 2005 season don't you know that carl edwards would like to start at 10 races to go once again man and basically back through sixth place matt kenseth the guys still have a shot with two to go don't forget next weekend nascar heads to phoenix saturday on tnt it's bush series racing from phoenix presented by walk the line that's at 3 30 eastern then sunday on nbc it's next telcos series racing from phoenix at 3 eastern beginning with the bank of america countdown to green coming up next except on the west coast it's an all new dateline nbc featuring nascar star rusty wallace followed by the first ever live the west wing then law and order criminal intent carl edwards wins at texas now let's take you to stone phillips in new york this copyrighted telecast may not be reproduced retransmitted or used in any form without the authorized written consent of nascar broadcasting nascar would like to thank all of our loyal fans for your continued support and we hope you enjoyed today's broadcast

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 68,732

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, carl edwards, backflip

Id: 2MHNS1ajQ8Y

Length: 212min 25sec (12745 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 22 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/lilpumps_cousin]

Those crowds were insane

[u/2020ReallySux]

Carl's hauler driver made a bet with him after this race that he wouldn't shave until the 99 team's next victory. He would have to wait until June 2007 when Carl won at Michigan to shave his beard.

[u/rob724kd]

Remember when tires mattered and you could pass people?

[u/LBHMS]

PLEASE. POST. 2004-2006. RACES. IN. 16:9. NASCAR! I. BEG. YOU!

[u/Steffan514]

NASCAR I am once again coming to you asking that you stop putting the winner in the thumbnail.

I get it they’re old races but typically I don’t remember who the winner was until I see the thumbnail and it’s like “Oh yeah that one, nevermind I guess.” It would be better if the winner was a surprise thing like when the races were live.

[u/tryan9919]

Fantastic race. I’ve watched it probably 150 times. I can recite the entire thing. So glad to have it in great quality now

Reminds me of this post from like a year ago

[u/Flyin14MRK]

Everything about this is great

[u/BuschWhackerReviews]

Back before TEXAS was changed into a trash dump by its fearless leader

[u/squad_dad]

I need more of these 60 FPS races. This really takes me back to my childhood, but in HD! Anyone have a playlist?