2006 Darlington NASCAR Cup Series Full Race May 13, 2006

road speed 45 miles per hour the pit window for fuel 65 to 70 laps the driver will be screaming i want tires about lap 20 at this place the fedex racetrack keys race the racetrack what that means is you race the elements here for 450 miles then see who's left for those final 50 miles and go at it at the end don't over stand your equipment this place will get you in more trouble trying to get more than what your car has in it than any racetrack go to give and take don't take what isn't there and if you trust me if you want to take more than you'll give you'll have a big dnf by your finish at the end of the night might add a key word in there too anticipation absolutely always anticipate what's going to happen ahead of you for more information including dws hotspots log on to foxsports.com keyword fedex no by the way mike everybody look at these walls right now they're nice white they are just over with i thought those walls were white when the race started i mean before even the bush cars left here last night they had the spotlights and the painters out there painting these walls the very first race here labor day 1950 johnny mance driving a completely stock plymouth one at an average speed of 75 miles an hour he started 43rd in a 75 car field and 110 000 which was big money in 1950. mance's key he had six or eight-ply truck tires on his car that didn't blow out as often as the passenger car tires used by most of the rest of the field smart there you see our weather the air temperature right now 76 degrees the track 81 degrees and you saw the piece of asphalt that jeff hammond had in a pre-race this surface is like a piece of 20 grit sandpaper it just eats the tires away so what when the track cools down it's just going to give the tires more grip on into the evening casey kane trying to do what's only been done here eight times before and win from the poll david pearson did it three times freddie lorenzen twice richard petty bill elliott and dale jarrett plus dale earnhardt one year when time trials were rained out started first and won larry you just kind of a light went off when you said that they're going to go faster after the sun goes down i don't know if that's a good thing or not probably not because faster is not better here no i mean when they designed this racetrack 50 something years ago i think they were thinking more maybe 90 100 110 miles per hour last night in qualifying casey kane almost 170 miles per hour average almost defies the law of physics what about having three rookies starting in the top five clint boyer is third david stremi qualified fourth danny hamlin fifth oh they'll they'll respect this place a whole lot more when the night's over with they won't be so brave when they come back next time and if you believe in numbers 102 previous races here only 13 races have been won from a starting position outside the top ten we only have one previous winner in the top ten the man that won here a year ago greg biffle two cars to the rear sterling marlin and the 44 of terry labonte making his final darlington start in his long and storied career they both changed engines and what you have to remember and know both of those engines are hendrick engines and i talked to some of the guys from the hendrick camp both of them had very similar problems so there was a little bit of concern knowing that there's another four or five six hendrick engines in this field in fact sterling marlin did not even get any final practice it happened the minute the track opened for final practice well that means he's got a really good attitude then because he didn't get out there the 48th spring nextel cup race at darlington is set to get underway dw it's saturday night we're in darlington county let's get this saturday night party started reach up there and pull those belts tight one more time i ain't boogity boogity boogity let's go racing boys casey heard me sadler to the bottom grabs the spot moves up to fourth pretty clean through one and two that [Music] time you know used to here we had to we'd wait a while before we got up against the wall like these guys are now now you go straight to the top that's where all the grip is what little there is now what's going to be interesting and i want to watch jeff gordon in the 24 cars and watch casey kane in the nine jeff hammond was telling me before the race remember larry the top 10 qualifiers they had to start on their qualifying tires and trust me even one lap on your tires can make a difference here at this place jeff gordon qualified 12th he was able to start the race on brand new fresh tires i'd rather qualify 11th or 12th then 7th or 8th or 9th right in there and he's just smart enough guy to know that and do that well you want to know how bad this place is daryl you talked about the sand and the pre-race pit and the windshield we're at lap two the teams have already been given the extra man to clean the windshield well that's cause all those guys are already complaining i can't see anything the sun that's the big factor right now until it sets off a turn two it's gonna cause these guys a lot of headaches it'll be fine in an hour or so but down the back stretch you're driving smack into the sun watch out a denny's car can't see a thing look at that all the way up on the straightaway halfway down the straightaway all the way to turn three and you can see and daryl thought he came it's turned two it's the most treacherous place on this racetrack and the whole racetrack stretches it's really bumpy over here they've put some patches in there last year was pretty nice but this year they set a little bit it's real bumpy jeff gordon just moved into the top ten as we watch sadler and now here is kevin harvick who has just been passed by bobby labonte and there's the crossover move by harvick the guy on the outside you've got to give you can't let that guy force you all the way up because it's so dirty up there here comes tony stewart he'll do a slide job on bobby to see how this 20 car is because of all the drivers we interviewed in happy hour final practice last night tony stewart was probably the unhappiest with his race car city would not turn in a 10-acre field brian vickers moves underneath sadler boy sadler this looked like of course he had no choice he had to give but he looks really slow right now that car is backing up kurt bush flashes pass i think there might be something wrong with that 38 car or else he's just trying to find a hole to get into not a bad thing don't let anybody get up on your back bumper right now you don't need that now sadler's lost four positions in a lap and a half this one those places when the car starts to hound you really riding your back bumper you gotta let him go because he'll run over if you don't mike you talked about rookies that qualified up front and how about david streamy here he didn't qualify fifth he doesn't even have a top 20 finish this year here he is driven by a couple of cars sitting there running him fourth now in this 40 car what a confidence builder for this young man well tough race track he needs to turn things around the other three rookies are getting all the glory i look for this kid to step it up three wide going into turn one look at that well it settles out as jamie mcmurray makes a bold move in the 26. mcmurray was all down on the apron and he slid up in front of those guys tell you what look at mark martin there off turn two he had his hands filled we talk about give and take our fedex race track keys if there's a man that knows how to give and take mark martin in that six cards his type of a race that's one of the other drivers that come on the radio and say what is he thinking anyway we haven't run but 20 laps let me run 10 laps harvick moves into the top 10 and pulls stewart along for the ride we were talking about rookies and stremmy in particular dick bergeron has more carr that's not really not one of streaming's cars he borrowed it from one of his teammates reed sorenson that should be a number 41 car they've also gone to the same setup that the other people are using in his team they had straight off that setup and we're trying some things on their own and obviously what they're doing is working well steve well dick we've seen drivers already early in this race let other drivers go by as you're on board with jenny hamlin halen told me last night the biggest lesson he learned was to let another driver pass him he said they are much better on the long runs he said i hate it when other drivers go past me but i did learn that last night we're going to be good the longer this race goes matt yoakam 38 car belly sadly lossy 11th spot to tony stewart the 20. elliott says the car just way too free early on on his entry so he's doing what dw said earlier in the show just sit back and pace yourself show patience and that's what tony stewart the 20 said about three laps ago guys i'm just being patient so they said you know what we really appreciate it especially this early on well i know one thing you talk about tony stewart the 20 car for a car that was not turning last night that car is flying through the middle of the quarter where the car really has to turn 11 laps complete casey kane has led them all in darlington [Music] [Music] [Music] 3180 [Music] [Music] 3205 [Music] [Music] [Music] one car left back to the seventh house here big hole now big hole [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] about the speed drop off as the tires wear and you see kane's laps seven miles an hour slower than when he started the race yeah 17 laps it's basically two seconds on the stopwatch you know these guys go about seven or eight laps and the caution comes out they're pretty much going pit road for four times we've talked about rookies how about this fella clint boyer running a strong second place through this race 1.2 seconds off the lead every night it's one of them or every race it's one of them you know last week's hamlin last night the bush races hamlin tinnitus boyer every night one of these talented young men and good equipment is up there racing for the lead ryan newman it's been a while since he's been to victory lane more than one out of every three darlington races have been won from the front row those odds stand in newman's favor you know we always like to talk about comers and goers and a lot of times when he qualifies poorly he's always pretty much a comer matt kenseth in the 17 car didn't get that good of a qualifying run in qualified 31st he's already picked up 10 positions in 19 laps right now he's about a half a lap behind our leader casey kane but he was so good in that bush race a lot like his teammate mark martin it's his type of a race patience 500 miles here nice patient driver stay out of trouble running by yourself like he is right now that usually pays off dick well kenzie finished second last night and certainly learned and saw some patience there i should also remind you that when he won in california earlier this year kansas started in 31st position exactly the same spot he's in tonight and both kenses and his crew are very aware of that number thanks dick how about his roush racing teammate greg biffle biffle just climbed into fifth place passing david stremi and they've been busy on the two-way radio nice job bud take care of yourself how's your car it's not bad all right just take care of your stuff here and as he exits off turn two now biffle was saying the car tight on the exit of turn two and turn four but he's coming off a great run at richmond where he felt like it was a win the way his season has gone just trying to rebound and battle back he won here a year ago they really feel like the car was too loose and qualifying it's going to be great here as the sun continues to say now daryl as matt pointed out a while ago you won here five times yeah you don't want a car knocking the fence down with the front end but you cannot be loose at this racetrack it'll get you in trouble quicker than anything about this track yeah you could when you got a tight car you can use the gas pedal you can get in the gas get out of the gas and make it turn when it's loose you never know what's going to happen next saw bobby labonte try to cut to the bottom right there that just snaps loose on you there's not a lot of grip and when you turn the wheel hard like he did there sometime the back end will just step right out that fight with brian vickers is for 14th place see it step out again there bobby's a little bit snappy loose off the corner now what about carl edwards edwards was up there and contending and he's fallen back 24 seconds behind the leader in 36th place steve yeah mike carl edwards of the 99 is a goer right now as you said start at seventh he's dropped all the way to 36 dropping like a rock before the race even started he expressed some concern crew chief wally brown about the gear ratio they had chosen and since then he has said this car is so tight it is undrivable i was going to say steve just watching this car the gear is the least of their problems right now that car is all over the place he certainly needs a caution right now tony stewart is flying through the field you saw he just passed david stremi and kurt busch has been trying to follow stewart up through tony's up to sixth you know what i like about tony stewart and greg zippadeli he hated that car yesterday i don't like the car's jump but his crew chief overnight they got that old magic wand out waved it over that thing did a little bibbidy bobbidy boo she's on the move today and how many times have we seen that without that's the good thing about that team you know they're not happy in practice but they got ways of fixing it they got teammates for one thing they're running pretty darn good a denny is and that's a lot of good information time for our first singular virtual crew chief question can a driver more than 400 points away from the lead still make it into the chase for the nextdel cup right now at this moment 13 drivers are within 400 points to answer text the word crew to 191 on your singular phone or log on to foxsports.com singular the response to the fedex number 11 car has [Music] [Music] [Music] stay there stay there stay there good job buddy good job caution's out [Music] we're gonna take a and a broadband connection gets into together good and i lose the nose a little bit through the center and have to wait on a pretty good amount if i ride through the corner easy and stay off the spring it turns popping up good good long run car just uh need to work on that push a little bit just a tiny i want a little tightness in it i won't take it all out i don't want to be spinning off [Music] one extended performance the oil that's changing oil get the radiator paint on [Music] the road will be open this time road is open pit road is open crashed by brian vickers in the back straight away vickers surveying the damage he is okay see what happens coming off turn two now bobby labonte was the car right behind him we'll show you other views in a moment but pit road is open and it's a busy place steve mike denny hamlin saying his car is loose in and loose in the center but all things considered this race car is really good they're going to make a track bar adjustment down and make an air pressure adjustment the right front tire dick clint boyer started in third his best qualifying effort of the entire year has been running in second the majority of this event to matt paul center casey kane fifth and third in his last two darlington starts to the car way too loose significant chassis and air pressure adjustments for the nine meanwhile the 12 ryan newman he wants just a small tweak a small adjustment as kane will win the battle off here road newman's team also made an air pressure adjustment and a piece of tape on the grill thanks matt let's have another look here and see if there was contact between bobby labonte and the 43 and brian vickers they're certainly close enough let's see what happens here it just appears that that 25 car just gets snappy loose i mean he drives out behind his teammate and when he does the thing just jumps loose with him and remember he's driving straight into the sun as well yeah this is in the back straightaway look at the glare on junior's windshield here there you go so no contact but a spin by vickers and a hit into the wall puts us under the first caution of the night and there's a happy bunch the ray everham crew they won the battle off pit road came in leading they left leading we've got 42 cars that were still on the racetrack all 42 cars were on pit road i've seen that celebration a couple of times already this year and they've got that number one pit spot qualifying on the pole they got it they got it they got it going on our crack statisticians have amassed the list of darlington stripes so far tonight nine i don't know if that stripe's gonna be long enough there to contain all the numbers both the time the night's over it's probably gonna be triple digits this was more than a stripe here just remember these are retaining walls if it weren't for that they'd be out of here oh yeah here's our wendy's race menu we go to charlotte in two weeks oh boy the car quest auto parts 300 on fx sat on may 27th 7 30 eastern time and sunday may 28th don't miss nextel cup racing with the coca-cola 600 at 5 p.m eastern time that is in two weeks and those are the next point races on fox of course next weekend we'll be in charlotte for the all-star break everything under the lights again ride with tony raines in the dlp chevrolet as we get set to go back to green and harvick's coming back in must have felt something either a tire how about it matt dw he was complaining about the car possibly running too hot on that last run his spotter set another car behind as the green flag is coming out didn't feel like they were leaking anything but they saw water in their pit stall gonna come back in and check the ductwork of course he has to maintain 45 miles per hour down this pit road right here very long pit road just remember jeff and i were talking about and i know jeff down in his cutaway car he's got that shaker screen that we run behind the grill here to keep all the rubber and trash out of the radiator this place is notorious for stopping up your radiator we got a battle for the lead boys hello newman and a run thought better of it but right behind them for third great biffle makes the move on denny hamill carol this is what we saw last night the first couple laps after a restart everybody get what you can get fresh tires you got to take advantage of them because after about 10 laps very difficult to make a pass without taking a chance to move right now is that 31 car jeff burton he just bumped up into the top 10 after starting back there in the 20th position jeff burton really likes this racetrack has a couple of hints here kind of like kind of like keeping an eye on the old a couple of cars up ahead of jeff burton there the 2-0 and the 2-4 perhaps got it yeah big orange and the flame thrower 7th and 8th for stewart and gordon biffle for second place and there he is you know when kevin harvick came down pit road there was something square on the front of the nose on that car didn't know it was a piece of debris or the result of contact let's see what happens here it's a pretty good lick into the back of carl edwards in the 99 car but i don't know if it could have maybe the thing about it they talked about the duct work that's that plenum that forces air to the radiator you can't hit it so hard that it'll actually puncture the radiator well these cars the front of these cars fits right up under the back of the car in front of it mashed the hood down onto the radiators what it did greg biffle getting all he can get he's got the advantage on casey kane he's got the lead still there all clear now here's a safe bet greg biffle probably lead to most laps tonight as he has done many times and tony stewart flashes past kirk bush for sixth place now for more on the harvick situation uh here's jeff mike darrell was talking about a minute ago about the screen in front of the cars also he called it a shaker screen i want you to see here this is what we call a shaker screen it's equipped with a little springs that sit right in front of the radiator and what it's doing folks is you'll notice there's pieces of rubber it catches the pieces of rubber before it gets a chance to get the radiator and as it goes around the racetrack it actually kind of vibrates shakes us the rubber down in that plenum area that larry's talking about to keep the radiator clean so that later on in the race it doesn't run hot thanks jeff harvick is still on pit road we talk about how bad these tires were daryl talked about the sand and that's what goes up in that radiator opening that's the reason you have to have that shaker screen there yeah if the tires are wearing where's the rubber going got to go somewhere that's right one caution so far brian vickers hitting the inside wall in the back stretch steve is with him mike he's out of the care center he's all right but uh brian what happened on the racetrack awfully early to be out here i don't know i haven't seen the replay yet uh we were coming off turn uh turn two and i let jimmy go he was going down the back stretch and we were on the straightaway and then all of a sudden the car just came around uh we got pretty loose uh about five or so last before that i didn't know if we had maybe a tire going down but uh you know i don't think a tire would have caused that down the straightaway there may have been some contact but i'd have to look at the replay uh maybe again i uh i mean it's pretty funny for the car to just turn around like that down the straightaway brian how about the damage can you get back in the race i don't know it's pretty bad uh you know we we uh yeah i tried to drive it back to the pits and you know we couldn't get it back in but i'm sure the gmac crew do a good job fixing it we can get back out there we will we'll try to collect what points we can thank you brian thanks steve how about robbie gordon in the moen faucets number seven biggest mover this race before the caution flag he had come from 24th to 14. robbie is now in the top 10. yeah i mean just within the last couple laps he drove right under jeff burton in the 31 car about alapago he went right by david streaming that 40 car he's looking down the rear bumper of that 24 car now jeff gordon what's that saying there's old drivers and bold drivers but there's no old bull drivers well here there are some [Music] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] still clear by five [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] clear high [Music] [Music] [Applause] so so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 270. [Music] racetrack the top 35 and owner points are locked into the show robbie gordon has been there all year long but because of his finishes he's flirting with following out of the top 35 he's in 33rd remember he was there all year long last year he had to qualify on time every race so they need a good solid finish just like they did at talladega he lets jimmy johnson have the line going off into the corner and johnson will move up to eighth well you got comers you got goers one of the big goers elliot sadler will get to him in a moment here's another goer is jeff gordon who matt is backing his way up now to 16th place trying to end a long drought hasn't won in 15 races which is a long drought for gordon one here six times but the car was loose on that first run mic they made adjustments now he says the car is just way too loose all the way through the corner he's just trying to hang on to it says he just cannot get in the gas at all no forward bike thanks matt now we mentioned sadler who has backed up into 36 okay 34th position right now yeah he's in big trouble i've been watching him he can't he can't uh he can't keep the car under control at all and he's going to go a lap down here for long biffo is closing behind these guys right here pretty darn quick matt well mike the concern early on when daryl first noticed he was starting to fade on the first run he thought he might have a tire going down then he thought he might have an equalized tire and then the car just basically lost all grip loose much like the 24 gordon and a little tight in the center but the adjustments they made of not helping the car continues to fall 34th in the running order at this juncture daryl there's what we were talking about you can drive around this place if your car has a little push in the front end but when you're loose that's what's happened to elliot sadler and jeff gordon you can't go anywhere they're going to lap these cars if they don't get the caution to adjust them those things last thing you want to worry about here is a car spinning out with you and you got to have some front you got to have some control here and if you don't you can't go anywhere and just to follow up on what an equalized tire is this tire has a tire then a tire an inner liner and they run a differential in pressures and sometimes they'll leak across and the pressures between the two will equalize it causes a bad vibration [Music] on denny hamilton who's fourth you saw jimmy johnson make the pass on kurt busch johnson is now up to seven steve after starting 25th mike joy and jimmy on the last pit stop the only thing they did besides changing four tires was make an air pressure adjustment jimmy johnson saying his car is very free through the corners and off thanks steve now robbie gordon was in that position but he has now dropped to ninth place and let's have a look at the right side of his car looks pretty clean from here but uh oh let's see uh he has a little darlington stripe down a little bit dick bergeron can tell us more yeah they're concerned about that darlington stripe bike for fear that it may possibly have closed off a brake duct at least to a degree things had been going great for robbie on the first pit stop his instruction to the crew leave it alone that's how good the car was and he has consistently been told race the racetrack driving a nice smooth race a little bit of contact right outside and a boy robbie he knows he's on tv he's doing a great come on dick nice smooth race and robbie gordon in the same sentence daryl i heard you're doing a piece today earlier i think for the speed group and this racetrack you can never relax you can never let your guard down even if you're out there totally by yourself yeah you have got to stay on the wheel here all the time because just like you saw robbie gordon nice and smooth whoops and that's what happens to you nice and smooth you're comfortable confident whoops well that's one thing about robbie he is exciting to watch how about the answer to our singular virtual crew chief question drivers outside of 400 points like mayfield newman biffle kirk bush and carl edwards 80 percent of you say yes they can make it you can win jeff burton's payday at daytona in our singular virtual crew chief poll what this is where it is sun not a bad way to start the day you'll know what's happening and what's ahead hello that's your right rear still out there clear so [Music] door [Music] so [Music] [Music] claire [Music] yes [Music] that's 30 laps 30 laps on the tires still clear by 10. [Music] so 33 flat 3270 on the leader 33 flat behind you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] see that lap car up there up top dude [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] clear [Music] they're starting to jam them up on the last crawl right there in front of it it's got four cars dude [Music] to the bottom right behind matt kenseth back there in that black car kyle bush in the five car sitting there right now in the 11th position 12th position right behind his brother curtin the two car and the caution is out for debris on the back stretch what a huge break for drivers like jamie mcmurray dale jarrett michael waltrip sterling marlin just about to fall into the clutches of our leader greg biffle and they would have been a lap down in just a few laps well that would cut a tire yeah it's pretty it's a light piece of aluminum that come out of somebody's wheel well they use pieces like that up inside the wheels to make wheel wells and around the back of the trunk sometime to seal off panels dave blaney and the cat dodge will get the free pass well it'll be feeding time on pit road again four tires adjustments full of fuel it's been about 40 laps since we uh we're on pit road let's get a sense of what dale jr is looking for on this pit stop as we listened in get looser looser i'll back up on that last [Applause] see the dark tint on the top of his shield you know you also see mike he's going to take that off here when it gets a little bit darker that's a taped on there he'll pull that off when the sun goes down a lot of different things drivers use here some drivers actually started to race in dark sunglasses and he'll take those off steve burns mike denny hamlin just telling mike ford the crew chief my car is looser off it seems like i've got more steering wheel for a longer period of time i'm better on entrance but i'm struggling with forward fight off they're going to take half a pound out of both rear tires and drop the track bar again dick well in the first pit stop clint lawyer said his car was loose but leave it alone it's still loose and now he's asked the crew to tighten it up a little bit wants to be able to hang onto it here in darlington doesn't want the wall matt now the nine of casey kane making big headway on that dodge remember the previous stop the car was way loose air pressure justin help but he wants a little more the car was good off turn two the 16 service already complete 14.4 seconds he was tight needed to have the stagger the air pressure opened up from the left side to the right side they went down on the air pressure on the left side tires look like to me the real winner on pit road robbie riser the killer bees matt kinsey if you see right there picked up two spots as well as kirk bush in that two group now this would be the time on pit road including the pit stop you see right there casey cain and matt kensington 17 car and trust me all of these will be four tires there'll be no two tire changes now look at that cloud cover the sun has been behind it but there's a big gap that the sun will get right in these fellas eyes for another half hour or so [Music] [Music] so yeah it's in four not as much it may have been a tenth to happen the better at the end of the run step four therefore i got [Music] one to go secretary about six of them jump into the green you are watching the dodge charger your leader casey cain ryan newman denny hamlin jimmy johnson your top five boyer kenseth robbie gordon the bush brothers your top ten green flag see the 29 car kevin hart is there second crawl on the inside he's 12 laps down having to make repairs to that radiator came in here fifth in the points now back in the day 12 laps down you'd still be in the top ten miffle steps out with the lead let's have a look at what happened to harvick matt when the team pulled the radiator mic out of the car you can see the damage to the radiator now what might have caused that do you ask well how about this chunk of payment from the old lady in black and see it fits perfectly right in the grill that's what the team found when they pulled the radiator out hey matt today do you know if they have that catch screen in there like jeff hammond they shot a shaker screen in there like most teams up and down pit road larry mack take that over give it to jeff he's collecting that stuff his memorabilia collection well that brings up another interesting question where did that come from because that's pretty cool it was big oh 77 laps complete biffle in front of kane now by one second car kind of goes through three stages here i love my car i like my car i hate my car what'd you do to my car yeah it sounds like most leases i've had i've been watching this car right here dale earnhardt jr trying to go by mark martin in the six on the high side dale earnhardt jr trying to get the top 10. looks like he's going to complete the pass headed off into turn one 78 laps complete 289 to go in the dodge charger you're a clear high right there you're neal casey kane led the first 34 laps gave way to greg biffle dave blainey led one lap but it's been all biffle since he went to the front only two caution flags and the only cars out of the race derrick cope after 11 laps and brian vickers after a hard hit with the wall is also in the garage ryan newman in third denny hamlin the fourth place car and here comes jimmy johnson challenging for fourth on the inside and takes the spot steve mikey really likes his race car right now when the caution came out he told crew chief chad canals i am killing them getting into turns one and three but it's through the middle that they're getting me let's not make any adjustments chad came back and said we're gonna make a small air pressure adjustment we need to keep up with this racetrack kyle busch going past tony stewart and that is for 14th yeah tony uh he's had a couple of guys go the one there of truex and now the five that caught him off at two over there kind of in a precarious place the 49 cars are lapped down broke tony's momentum there a couple of times and uh lost some spots because of it you know we've been talking about rookies you just mentioned mark 2x junior in that one card dale earnhardt jr's teammate started back in the 39th position he has moved up to the 13th position after 81 laps so he's getting a hold of this place right now i think who else's car is much better right in front of him as jeff gordon's after the stop they pass by the 49 that the lap down kevin lepage is the new driver for bam racing brent sherman left the team gave them his notice after they decided he would not be in the car at richmond and darlington so sherman is going to take his sponsorship and race in arca and perhaps get back to nextel cup later in the season you knew who else has made a nice recovery carl edwards in this 99 car remember when the race started he started in seventh position fell back to the point that he almost was about to get lapped back in 40th spot he got that lucky caution on lap 29 they made adjustments now he's headed back toward the top 15 in 16th spot he was as far back as 40th and just about to go a lap down when that caused first caution came out kyle busch makes the pass on martin truax i don't know if you notice it or not it's pretty subtle but did you notice how when he jumped out from behind truex the car kind of wiggled that's what happened to vickers over on the back over there he jumped out from behind jimmy johnson and the car just got out from under him tony stewart riding you might say matt they're in 15 spots this is darlington but if you're tony stewart it feels more like he's on the dirt at eldora he said he's chasing the car all the way through the corner needs side bite needs forward fight he says his arms are already half worn out elbows up he's really working the wheel just needs a lot of grip and that's something that he hasn't had most of tonight yesterday in practice the car was tight has been loose most of tonight's race that's classic you fight tight all during practice so the crew chief says i'll fix that and now he's loose here's the freightliner dodge for lepage has the same look possibly kevin harvick woes looks like he's running warm there in the 49 cars well he had a little different problem larry he's been getting passed by a lot of cars that's off a turn too this is this is the time when tony stewart lost his momentum you see the water coming out of the overflow right there larry so looks like there might be the debris on the on the grill it definitely looked like that grill was almost blocked up solid but add another one to our darlington strike count craig biffle now in front of casey kane by two seconds two quick caution flags early still 281 laps to go at the lady in black [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] clear [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] two car lengths back to the zero seven [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] passion is out caution is out got a wreck off too jeff green has gone around looked like there were two cars involved yeah he got a little bump from somebody i'm not sure i think i think you're just exactly right i think he's gonna be okay third caution of the night jeff you caught up here what can i do lap 95 looks like he was maybe peddling at a tad here and uh ooh elliot saddler in a 38 car i say ellie is just maybe a little bit frustrated with the whole evening and jeff green has not had a great evening we got a report that he had lost third gear which certainly would hurt him leaving the pits and on restarts in the transmission that's about that place where that magic mark is over there where i always say you know if they put an x on the wall so i know where to turn left is that turn 2a or is that 2b it's 2b or not all his flaps are up larry look at that you hear him out of the throttle so elliot sadler gets into jeff green and the caution is out for the third time tonight casey mears will get the free pass well that didn't sound good larry remember i just had mentioned gearbox gearbox problems in third gear baby's rattling well she's been 25 laps pit row to be busy again give me fuel give me fire give me that which i desire for tires and maybe an adjustment that will help this race car [Music] it's one of those tracks that doesn't necessarily change that much over the course of the race but you're just always hunting something to give the car more grip whether it's air pressure wedge track bar adjustment anything that'll just help the grip of the race car i was telling some of the young drivers yesterday i said look your car will never be perfect you're just trying to make your car better than everybody else's because no you're just going to be the best of what's out there steve hey d.w jimmy johnson says my car is tightening up just a little bit off of turn two they're going to go up on the panhard bar and make an air pressure adjustment dick on the first stop matt kenzis was a little bit hot they pulled tape he's up to 220 degrees they're going to leave the nose alone another real good clean to the winch of the radiator grill matt defending winner the 16 fifth on the top side no changes meanwhile the car in the middle you can already see they've completed the chassis adjustments for kane he felt like bibble was beating him on entry into three and off down the hill off turn two the nine is down and away great stop again by the dodge boys all right just remember the last stop matt kenseth robbie riser the 17 car they gained two spots they do it again right there kyle busch the five great stops last week at richmond that group gains three spots on pit road here's the time including the stop casey kane matt kenseth matt kinsen that's four spots he's picked up on the last two pit stops problem for clint boyer who ran a good part of this race so far up in the top five away gets one of those rear tires he's gonna have his work cut up firm now tell him the longest line [Music] [Music] i'm sure he's pretty good he hasn't been really moving like the top four were about two minutes better you know 10-4 but i'm sure one to go no other tape comes close the fat max extreme from stanley the coca-cola racing family is a competitive bunch so when we started getting points every time we drank a coke on camera it became a competition and when we heard the money would be donated to charity well we took it to the next level spectacular display of lightning tonight no one is outside to see it back to you in the studio not only do they have to clear the cliffs the arctic seal to survive the most forbidding environment the coca-cola racing family doing our part to help those in need [Music] coming up first one lights are out going next time bye and you're on the stick and came out in 11. lost four spots you see on our fox tracks that's pretty much pace car speed caution lap speed right about 50 miles per hour green flag [Music] kevin harvick uh may just give mr kane a little bit of a problem here he's trying to get one of his 12 laps back after having that radiator problem man that's hard to do right there you only do that on new tires run off at turn two side by side like this well he was 13 laps down now 12 and now if he gets past kane it'll be 11. whoa if he does wreck game man what a wide this is about 11 to about 20th right here riding with jeff burton in the 31 car he's in the 16th position now he's going to drive to the inside of tony stewart the 20 car tony will prevail you could hear him really have the feather at the throttle just a little bit of give and take right there on jeff burt's mark getting off into turn one now despite that spin jeff green pitted with the leaders and he has stayed on the lead lap well i tell you guys right now though i am really impressed with the job every driver is doing you hear that giving and taking working the throttle giving each other some room being really nice to each other larry i don't know if i can last for 367 laps or not but it's working right now how about that rookie denny hamlin in fifth place steve doing a good job mike joy he just told the team prior to the caution i can't turn the car in the middle of one and two so they added air to the left side tires took a little bit out of the right front and made a track bar adjustment that'll be the game on pit road pretty much as adjustments major adjustments every pit stop even for the cars up at the front of the pack that adds to the stripe count ah let's be don't be too hasty here that's one of those that's one of lightly slightly and politely little rubbed right there i just can't do that all nightly that's the problem battlefield lead here greg biffle 16 gets passed by casey cain on the nine on the high side kane takes the point back looks like biffle wanted to try that crossover move dw got to time it right kind in front of you got to be really out of the gas for a period of time for you to make that work now biffle drives back by casey kaine on the high side getting a stern three but they better look at their rear view mirror matt kittson than that 17 car he is a coming remember matt starting back in the 31st position 104 laps into this thing here he is looking down the pipe at those top two another cat having a pretty solid night right there we just saw him ryan newman in that 12 car started on the outside of the front row finally put some of his bad luck behind him last week at richmond finished eighth and i talked to roger penske his car owner right now the daryl and you'll relate to this you've been talking about this they're not worried about the top 10 in points right now he's 20 13 points 205 points behind tenth they're looking at the 400 point window number and right now he's 548 points behind our leader as we are right now he just needs another good solid finish top five top tens yeah once you get that four by that far behind it's about all you can do is hope to get within the 400 point window and that hadn't happened yet in the two years that we've had the chase when the circuit leaves richmond in september the top 10 in points plus anyone within 400 points of the leader in the standings will compete in the chase for the nextel cup 400 points was chosen because no one's won the championship in recent memory from further back than that with 10 races to go erin hart jr the eight car in the eighth position right now 13th place bobby labonte and the cheerios 43 jeff burton linda petty this morning richard petty's wife talked about her life as a racing wife as did stevie waltrip to a group organized by motor racing outrage and a t sponsored by lisa france kennedy and uh it was pretty neat as matt kansas makes the pass on casey kane for second linda talked about how the biggest thing in their first years of racing was when she finally got a station wagon and could haul the whole brood of petty kids from track to track but sometimes they'd go race on the northern swing and without phones in the motel rooms and news being scarce on the tv or radio sometimes it'll be a day or two before she found out what happened from race to race no carl edwards in the 99 car he just goes by bobby labonte in the 43 car that's for the 14th position and there's david strimie remember qualified up the top five in the 40 car he continues to hang in there fifth place point leader jimmy johnson but you know mike you're talking about that and things were so different 25 30 years ago everywhere in the whole world i guess but in racing particularly some of these younger kids that they look at you shake your head like you got to be making that up it's like you're when your dad just tell you walk to school you know hey i walked to school barefooted no there's a battle between a couple of teammates and a couple of rookies david streaming the 40 car reed sorenson in the 41 car this is a battle for 17. leave the nine cars starting to fade just a little bit casey kane and remember matt kenseth in the 17 just went by him a few laps ago now ryan newman the 12 has pulled up i tell you these cars beat all i've ever seen this track does you just it's like somebody flips a switch you got a perfectly good race car you're happy with it and all of a sudden in one lap you say what in the world's going on my car has gone to junk 110 down 257 to go and greg biffle is the man in darlington south carolina his national guard ford has now been out in front for 68 laps you got to be willing to fight for it definitely worse this throughout the worst run we've had [Music] full 29 inside not for position you're all [Music] clear [Music] [Music] claire bye too inside 48 inside all lost [Music] try not to get frustrated man just make the best of it if you can don't worry i'm frustrated i know you are [Music] [Music] 32 20 15 behind you leaders running a 20 right there [Music] [Music] put your corner [Music] clear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] clear [Music] clear 13 laps down with a broken radiator they replaced it and now he's coming back to pit road take the right front rotor and everything make sure nothing's getting ready to fly apart because it's big tough night for harvick so i tell you he got a really bad vibration over there he thinks he's got a broken rotor or something and the last thing you want to do 13 laps down and stay out there and have something go amiss and hit that wall seventh place casey kane kurt busch biffle out front by three tenths of a second kenzeth in second at this very unique egg-shaped oval nascar's first paved super speedway requires a delicate and different approach here is jeff hammond with tonight's state farm safety report when you come to darlington you know you're going to get a darling stripe it's not a matter of if it's just a matter of when so all these teams have learned the best way to protect your race car is really simply go by your favorite local lumber supply place and purchase a four before attach it to the outside of your roll cage between the roll cage and the sheet metal of the race car that what this will do it will allow you to go up there make contact with the outside wall earn your darlington strike but yet protect the wheels that's what it's designed to do if you notice this before before when you hit the wall it doesn't let the wall really make hard contact with your tires especially the rear tires you don't want to knock the alignment of the rear end out or as well as the front end and this simple 4x4 will allow you to do that mike thanks jeff wooden car i told the story yesterday though uh a couple of years ago there you see we're up to 12 on our darlington stripes but sometimes you can't find boards and you'll just put tubing there a couple years ago in the bush garage one of the children's cars they were trying to find some bars to weld i think it was either johnny salter or kevin harwick's car they couldn't find any one of their neighbors jack cattle just happened to be at the jack behind them they took the jack candle out welded it in there and the next morning the guys remind us the jack handle i knew where it was though here's dale jr about to be a top five car as he draws a bead on denny hamlin [Music] another mover is carl edwards who just passed tony stewart to move up to 14th place steve mike he's had some anxious moments now you see the 99 in front of the 20 a few laps ago it was the other way around now he had something carl edwards had something on the grill his spotter bobby hudson went to mark roberts in the spotter on the 20 car tony stewart and said hey have tony slow down so carl can pull up and create they got close enough to where they created a vacuum and pulled whatever debris was on the drill of the 99 now 21 year old kyle busch you see him there in the five car he's having problems getting on the throttle he said especially off turn two he started 29th you see he's up into the 10th or currently 13th his problem having trouble getting back on the cast but the good news is his pick crew has picked up a bunch of spots on lap 28 they gained three positions flat 69 two spots and most recently on lap 95 they've gained three positions thanks steve now here is carl edwards and you see the grill opening above the word fusion it's clean now and here's what it looked like before that stewart right behind him they were coming down the front here and all of a sudden carl just stopped almost not though what in the world something happened to his car but uh he let tony go by and then he got up behind tony and uh got that little piece of debris blown off of there and daryl the thing i noticed there's not a lot of opening there to begin with cutting it pretty close looks to me like new leader matt kenseth has re-passed greg biffle kenzith led one lap earlier when biffle allowed him to go by and pick up five bonus points and then biffle retook the lead but here's the pass that's the cleanest way to make a pass here on this straight away pull down let the guy go and uh follow him they start racing each other ryan newman the 12. he'd be right there with him and robbie gordon in the seven he goes by casey kaine in the name that's another position hang on to her robbie robbie's trying to add to our darlington stripe number you keep an eye on that number seven car you will not be bored larry he's trying to add you our debris problems i know casey kane in the nine would love to add to our number of cautions as far as another one coming out where he can get the pit road get some adjustments on that thing matt kenzeth your new leader with 238 laps to go in the dodge charger 500 on fox [Music] clear by five [Music] already left 30 laps on the tires [Music] so [Music] [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] my the world might not be made for you but men's warehouse is we have an extensive big and tall selection all at pride [Music] got a good job man you clear by five [Music] [Music] so [Music] you're running up down [Music] 32-92 [Music] still outside so they are clear clear all around [Music] [Music] along all the way down to homestead miami speedway but i think we're going to be watching this rookie of the year battle the robustus rook of the year battle between these five or six guys they keep flipping back and forth after finishing second last week denny hamlin took the lead back from clint foyer in the lead in the rookie points hello larry here comes that 48 car he's just been clicking him off here and he's up here in third place and he's caught ryan newman and uh matt kintz is not too far ahead of him right now well and i know they didn't get the qualifying run in that they felt like they should get they qualified back in the 25th position but i know watching them in final practice last night talking to chad canales pretty happy he swept the races here in 2004 seven starts here six top ten finishes that's tough to do at this place and they're trying to rebound from a pretty rough richmond last week yeah but golly did they rebound at richard yeah come back 12th 12th after being and i mean they ran 30th all night long a lap down come back there at the end of the night got him a 12th place finish maintained a point lead here he comes on jeff green the best by chevy green spun earlier stayed on the lead lap but has now gone one lap down rookies martin truex reed sorensen whoa hang on to her martin martin's give me a little wave really check up off of two over there where you've been having trouble that's the 21st place here's tony raines and the texas instruments dlp hdtv chevy working his way up through the field whoa man listen him spin the rear tire keep doing that you saw he was one of our biggest movers because he started back in the 42nd position still hanging out on league lap in 23rd right now tell you tony raines tony rains was someone that we looked at to drive our toyota trucks in the truck series but he wanted to be in cup he said i'm gonna hold out for a good cup ride and by golly he's got it and he's doing a great job this hat working that throttle though and when he finally does get it wide open there's no rear tires trying to spin dale you drive it i think as much with the throttle as you do the steering wheel here hey was that robbie gordon going by look at that going by mark martin is it coming so robbie's up to eighth mark slips to ninth steve mark started 17th and just a lap or two ago bike he told crew chief pat treison that his car is for the most part very good but he feels like that right rear is a little worn out well we're getting within about 20 laps of what would be green flag stops they were on pit road back lap 96 right between 160 and 165 i guarantee you everybody's screaming about their tires and grip looks like somebody's on pit road now is that the 26 car a little early we'll check on that when we come back matt kenseth leads by one and a half seconds in the dodge charger 500 on five [Music] [Music] [Music] so they're clear all around [Music] mirror [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in front of you on the bottom so the bottom backing down say hi say hi come on come on come on caution's out come okay on me what you got there jeremy we should raise up the track bar does this thing even have a track bar yeah i think we need a bigger one this needs to go overnight to richmond thanks ups is the only one that delivers to and from the track and they're a good sponsor dale ups the official delivery company of nascar the dodge charger 500 on fox is sponsored by dodge you can take life as it comes or you can grab life by the horns dodge [Music] the caution is out at darlington for the fourth time tonight this time it's our defending nextel cup champion tony stewart spins at turn number four it's all by himself let's see what he does here or just comes around with him right there in the middle of turn four he started to race off in pretty good shape but we've been getting reports he's been not very happy with that car no you know he complained about a car yesterday and uh i i think larry is just getting close to pit stop time what happens to deal with jared here he goes up he smacks the fence and it wasn't but just a few laps here later that tony spence i think these guys are out of cars now the car that was on pit road when we went to break was the 49 of kevin lepage was not the 26. stewart stays on the lead lap after that spin and everyone will pit steve mike just before the caution flag flew jimmy johnson told chad canals i was getting a little tight getting into three whereas i was killing them there before they'll make the panhard bar adjustment and air pressure dick matt kenzie says his car is a little bit free a very minor air pressure adjustment that's it this crew has been lightning fast all night long maddie ryan newman working on his second top five and last 18 races solid stop going on so far man of few words said i really don't have many complaints about the car it's a small air pressure adjustment 14.6 seconds for newman you see the race off pit road it's going to be hard for the 17 to gain any spots now because he's leading but jimmy johnson chad can house the 48 group they gain a spot as well as denny hamlin there you see ryan newman loses two spots carl edward loses one and casey kane gains four spots there's the times on pit road including the pit stop nice job by robbie gordon's crew to redeem themselves after that last stop this time they got in and got out in the same position seventh got to kill those pitch crews like you tell the driver don't give me 110 just give me a hundred under caution for the fourth time tonight you're watching nascar [Music] coming to victory lane five four 455 good stop guys yeah we came out first good job [Music] i think about hike but uh if you know anybody my size i might be playing from our pit here tonight but i think i'm gonna make it about halfway right now i think i'll be alright just in case though there's one to go right there june we can find a lot of people your size you but there's a certain part of your anatomy that's unmatched and i don't know if we can duplicate it cars on the bottom parents vanished now on the season finale the mystery all right bud knights are out we're going green that's nice 24 behind [Music] oh [Music] clear there though [Music] 24 outside at your door outside still out there still outside one side outside all clear behind him by four boy his teammate is playing slice and dice with the traffic that's yaylee in the 18 and stuart right behind him two more of the gibbs cars linked up at 21st place yeah i think probably tony told the zifideli after that to spin i told you this thing wasn't very good now fix it looks like they did at least for a little while going to make the pass here on his teammate oh if you can just keep it that good all night truex also gets past jaley saturday baseball on fox 1 p.m eastern time but daryl they're all on new tires it takes a few laps for these guys to be able to tell if the adjustments they made are an improvement let me get some laps on the top excuse me look at jeff gordon though he can tell he just shot past scott riggs and busted out of a big pack of traffic matt steve lettard as creative continues to try to stay ahead of the racetrack continues to try to tighten gordon up gordon like just about everybody else including tony stewart now that run was about 50 laps the longest we've had green flag run tonight the cars all got extremely loose at the end and that's what all the drivers in my area like biffle were complaining about the car was just extremely loose hence stewart spinning out yeah but matt you could hear him i mean like the 96 car we were riding with him spinning the rear tires you're just going to wear them out and then the car gets really bad loose a little battle for fourth here heating up greg biffle in the 16 car ryan noon and the 12 has pretty much been in the top five all night long closing in on greg piffle time for our next singular virtual crew chief question can biffle go back to back in nextel cup text the word crew to 191 on your singular wireless phone or log on to foxsports.com singular and he'll also be entered to win jeff burton's payday at the july race in daytona biffle has led 82 laps so far tonight currently he's in fourth let's have a look back at his win here one year ago this has been greg biffle's racetrack he's got thornton made it look easy craig female leads 176 laps and wins the [Music] dutch and that's his only win here but he's always been so competitive here i go back a couple of years ago he pretty much had him spanked in the southern 500 in the fall a couple years ago and the car bought them out till it just finally drug the ring gear off the flywheel and that was the race where he and doug rickard his current crew chief hooked up and uh it was obvious from that race first time they raced together they were going to be something special as a team craig piffle makes the pass on hamlin for third hamlet's teammate tony stewart broke through one pack of traffic but now goes to the bottom that scott riggs up top you know he's going to fill the hole on the outside of mayfield got to be careful right there coming off the corner closes up fast [Music] yaylee in his draft makes the pass [Music] how about kurt bush in that pack he's with boy that is that's a knot of traffic right there comes stremmy on the bottom who qualified fourth in the 40 trying to work his way back up through things get a little dicey this is not so polite a bunch as we saw earlier oh well we know from our past experience as the night wears on patience run thin let's move up to about sixth place where dale earnhardt jr is four seconds off the lead matt dale jr driver eight currently running in the sixth spot trying to do something for the first time in his next l cup career but he did back in bush and that's when back to back races junior having a very solid night but like he mentioned the pre-race show to chris myers and the jeff hammond he hasn't been feeling well most of this weekend hey uh i think about uh if you know anybody my size i might be playing from our pit here tonight but i think i'm gonna make i don't think i'll be all right just in case though and you can hear junior saying basically to tony junior his crew chief in case someone falls out my size you might want to keep them around just in case i need a relief driver junior told the team earlier just keep the car tight i want to retain a little bit of tightness in the car as much as possible and dw talked about that earlier you want the car to be as tight around here versus being on the loot side right now the only driver out of the race is derek cope cope is much stockier than junior and likely would not fit in junior's seat and you know we're only about 20 laps away from halfway that's a little unusual that we only have one driver that is not out on the racetrack right now well i know junebug pretty well it did have to get pretty bad for him to get out of that race car particularly the way it's running right now there you go with as good as it is even brian vickers who crashed to bring out the first caution of the night got his car repaired and he's back on track although 114 laps down matt kenseth out front by half a second jimmy johnson knocking that margin down by about a tenth of a second a lap with 200 laps to go rick griffel 1.8 seconds off the lead denny hamlin three and a half back there they all are with newman and junior five seconds and the other intensive mike you look at where dale jr is running kind of running all in it all by himself there's nobody in front of him really there's nobody behind him he can sort of for darlington be a little bit relaxed behind him robbie gordon in 7th jeff gordon 8th jeff burton in 9th and carl edwards in 10. [Music] i'm a very calm person [Music] [Music] all right nice coming with you coming still outside still outside all clear all clear and i'm coming with inside inside 99 inside [Music] clear [Music] [Applause] [Applause] try real hard to not buzz the rear cars real good ideas tiger everywhere [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] 193 laps to go kevin harvick came in red hot fifth in points but the track too tough to tame jeff hammond tamed his car in a hurry yeah the track itself basically came up put a hole in the radiator made those guys go behind pit wall make repairs and right now it's been a long night for me 16 laps down jimmy johnson points leader coming in start at 25th quit charging up toward the front and right now he's running second behind matt kansas good recovery by these guys tony stewart was second in points here having trouble this little spin out pushed him back to 24th back on lap 115. yeah but chris he's already recovered he's back up to 20th and tony's guys are back on track they'll keep working on his race car he'll be better by the end of the night this has been a visa race break no matter what it takes life takes visa and moments ago matt yocum following up on dale earnhardt jr who's trying to win back-to-back races currently running six now after winning richmond he said hey i feel great it's great to be back in victory late it must be tough for a guy who told us earlier today a little flu little stomach type of problem for him to hang in there especially on this track yeah that's the tough racetrack i talked again to his crew chief early on late friday afternoon and he said he just wasn't feeling very well they're trying to keep him uh in his bus let him get some rest and everything get a lot of fluids into him but he's already reported right now even though we're just now getting up to halfway guys you may want to start looking for a relief driver and dw you know sometimes these long runs are good for a driver because he stays focused as he's seen him go by uh denny hamill right now moving up to fifth place but other times you'd like to see a caution every night so you can catch your breath yeah well what really makes a difference jeff is what uh dale jr's got right now it's a pretty good driving race car he's not having to put out any extra effort here to kind of maintain pace it gives him a chance to really just sit there and put some laps down and uh get closer to the end closer to the end he gets the better off he'll be you know the the more likely he'll make it when the car is good you feel good no matter how bad you yeah there's no question about that you know you're not going to get out of a good race car you might decide hey this thing's pitiful and i need out of it but not a good race car matt kenseth trying to win his first here at darlington there are 20 victories represented in this field including six by jeff gordon and three by dale jarrett matt kenzit that's trying to go to victory lane at america's oldest nascar super speedway for the first time dick case you have just joined us matt kenz has started in the 31st position he practiced well but complained that he time trialed badly said after his qualifying run i hate it here i never qualify well here well he did manage to motor up front with a lot of help from his pit crew that has either held his position or gained spots on every pit stop and let us remind you that to this event tonight in matt kansas entire career his average starting position for all of his wins is 22nd he usually wins from the back of the pack that's a good point and larry his robbie riserled team is looking like the team of his championship year the car comes in it comes out having gained positions and running better than he was in the last green run well remember last year you know it took you know almost a third of the season before they even got a top five finish but this year we had no rule changes essentially from last year with the exception of the ford fusion nose and tail and they picked up right where they left off but i'm gonna tell you we need to update chris myers was talking about tony stewart's spin back on lap 149. i've been watching tony he's just lost two or three positions over the last few laps in fact jeremy mayfield in the 19 is locked in on him but the biggest problem our leader matt kenseth right now is only about seven seconds behind him which is less than the distance to the back straight away from laughing him car's bouncing in the back a lot larry and it just it hits the bumps and it really snaps loose on him it's got to be a handful to hang on to what are they saying matt dw he said the car is still free in fact he said the next pit stop i want you to bury the track bar because then when you take it all the way down to the bottom i want you to take it down six more rounds that's just how free how loose this car is he's just chasing it still all over the racetrack and daryl i've got to believe when tony stewart is complaining about a car being that loose you better get pretty aggressive with the changes on it because it must be all but wrecking it's kind of shocking really larry because you think about week in week out that is the one race car consistently that has no handling issues they're usually spot on so for him to miss the setup here tonight it's really surprising but you know what daryl where else do we run that the setup relates to this place here yeah probably nowhere nowhere exactly it's one of a kind michael waltrip off the pace and the napa dog i thought i heard that car really running flat a couple of times by here lately as if it had lost a cylinder or broken a hit or pipe or something of course michael's problems would continue remember he's out of the top 35 and owner points as he has been the last so things don't turn around that means he'll have to go to charlotte lowe's motor speedway in a couple of weeks and qualify on time again and how much did he make this race by about three one thousand just barely sneaked into this one so yeah we don't uh we need to do a little work here halfway in the dodge charger 500. let's have a look back to fourth place five seconds off the lead ryan newman in the all-tell dodge same front row here as last year kane and newman one-third of all darlington cup races have been won from the front row and newman of course sitting there running in the fourth position he has not had a top five finish since he finished third in the daytona 500 back in february jeff burton up in the top ten he is twice a winner here he won both 1997 races at this track he's the man 11th in points right now only 11 points out of 10th coming into this race and he would move into 10th the way they're running right now because casey mears is toward the tail end of the lead lap now here's mr consistency when it comes to darlington bobby labonte has a win here and uh i don't know there you've got the numbers how many top fives and tens well the biggest thing daryl and you know by racing here how tough this is 20 consecutive races here without a dnf he's been running at the end of 20 consecutive races put me on the spot didn't you labani in 11th place michael waltrip going a second lap down to matt kenseth who leads jimmy johnson by six tenths of a second in the dodge charger 500 on fox set about halfway on these tires tony junior sir halfway backwards [Music] [Applause] all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] clear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so they are player all around [Music] come back [Music] there by half by himself [Music] [Music] four laps all right dick bergeron why did matt kenseth pull over and let jimmy johnson go because he was being polite and the car has gone tight he knew he couldn't hold johnson off so just let him go i mean that is the smart way to do it at this point in the event he's talked about the need to pull a spring rubber on the next pit stop and dick he did it on the straightaway where you lose the least amount of time because his teammate greg biffle is back there in third place in the 16 car he needs to take his spring rubber out and give it carl edwards teammates make a little chop swap here yeah carl edwards you can hear the exasperation as he talks about his handling still too tight buddy uh too tight in the center of one and [Music] so there you have it you can get it from matt just get on up there steve hey mike did you say earlier in the race edwards had dropped all the way to 40th i think it was correct well let's remember early in the race he said this car was so tight it was undrivable the end of the most recent radio communication we heard was he said that the car is starting to come around the longer we run and he's inside the top ten and what he meant steve darrell mike about do you have a spring rubber hanging on the right red spring is they can put a little piece of rubber in that coil spring stiffen the rate make the car turn but rather than a crew member have to carry one over there to put it in they have one actually attached to the spring it'll be hanging just right here now this is one coming out but that's about the size rubber they will put in there but it'll just be hanging on the spring where they can just pop it up in there just like that it increases the rate of that spring will help the car turn from the center off yeah it's tie wrap there they drill a couple little holes in the spring rubber tie wrap it to the spring and then if they need it they just pop it in the in the between the coils and away you go dw loves the spring rubber and the animation just stay away from that battery problem straight bar i'm good with that of which uh michael waltr who has fallen two laps down has changed ignition boxes switched over to the spare he's now gone four laps down and hopefully that'll get his dodge running a little better and we did talk about only one car being out of the race i think we need to mention again brian vickers who was involved in that very first caution back in lap 27 they repaired that car he's back out there in 42nd position 115 laps down yeah and michael just went by i don't think they're going to change more than ignition box well let's see how our at-home experts have ruled on greg biffle and uh whether he can go back-to-back here at darlington remember when you participate in singular virtual crew chief you're automatically entered to win jeff burton's payday for the july race in daytona survey says well you know they've been following us so the saga of greg before i guess like we have for the most part this year we've seen him dominate race after race after race like he's doing tonight but still it's just hard and hard to knock off those wins now biffle got his first top five of the year last week last year after 10 races he already had three wins and there you see he will gain in the standings that's his point next cell cup point position yeah and needs to and it's no lack of performance i mean the car is performing and greg's doing a great job but they have had rotten luck all i know is we got 167 laps to go which is a long way and a lot of pit stops so a lot of things can happen in the midst of all that oh junebug's car got a little loose off four right there seen out of several times tonight but i think uh their lap times pretty close matt well mike jr running in the four spot working on a career best finish here if he can just start working his way to the front now if you're concerned about junior and his health he hasn't really said much but when steve meal told dale jr that we were at the halfway point junior said cool the car's still neutral but that cool was a much relieved cool of you can see the car is getting better like daryl said it's much easier to drive if you're sick a car that's running well than a car that's struggling [Laughter] dude do we have a driving shoe animation to go with that i don't know about that one but but how about for more on spring rubbers let's go down to jeff hammond at the hollywood hotel i'm sure he's got one tied up somewhere that's exactly right daryl i went down to my little cutaway car my fusion cutaway car center brought up a spring for everybody that's so that you can understand you saw the animation of taking the spring rubber out this is what dw's been talking about you hang a rubber spring rubber on the rear spring that way when you come in you can easily push it in now you've got a much stiffer rear spray and that's exactly what these drivers are talking about if we need to sniff that rear spring up do i have a piece of rubber hanging back there this is what they want you to do next time in tighten that car up make it spring stiffer yeah and that rubber can vary in hardness which will make the rate even higher or a real soft one 15 pounds and they get stiffer all the way up to probably 35 pounds well all i know in about 10 15 laps wally brown crew chief for carl edwards uh robbie riser crew chief for matt kinsen they're gonna have to make a decision whether they want to do something spring rovers because that's about how long before green flag pit stops this man may have a decision to make bobby labonte in the cheerios dodge may i think he may have a tire going soft it looks pretty good right there i don't see any real unusual movement out of the car well the good thing about if he feels that we're so close to green flag pit stops what i would do if it really feels like it or todd perry's crew chief sees it on the stopwatch get the pit road now we talked about dale earnhardt jr he's got his hands full right now ryan newman in that 12th car my guess would be on the 43 car the tires are worn out probably once they get worn out there's not much you're clear this is a battle for the fourth position right here you know something we've not talked about is if we're getting close to green flag pit stop this pit road can be one of the most treacherous to get on it never fails and it comes from veterans sometime you have to get on the apron to get on the pit road very slick we'll see cars spin out we'll see them misters here have to go back out on the racetrack but this is dead in the middle of turn four right there it kind of sneaks up on you one more for our darlington stripe count that would be dale jr and that's just the ones we've been able to catch and see 17. watch it that 49 car just came out of the pits yeah new tires there there's what new tires will do for you though it's kevin lepage it stops soon at 207 laps jimmy johnson leads matt kinseth by four tenths of a second frank biffle is two seconds off the lead then junior brian newman jeff gordon carl edwards denny hamlin and robbie gordon [Music] [Music] [Music] there 370 with a pass you're doing good we're p12 we're probably about eight laps away [Music] 33.35 [Music] three all over the back stretch caution caution's out [Music] fox monday yeah i mean i don't know what the adjustments are you've been doing but we just got to get the front to turn i mean it's terrible nobody else here lost the front as bad as we did i mean out of the guys that are up front we just gotta work on that uh [Music] [Music] this road is open hit road is open tony stewart both were just within seconds of going lap down those two along with casey mears jj yaley will get the free pass and get back on the lead lap as pit road is open steve and just listening to jimmy johnson mike he said that the car got tight off of turn two and he's a little bit loose on throttle when he gets back into it they're going to make some air pressure adjustments on that number 48 chevy of jimmy johnson do you see they do the windshield tear off dick on the last pit stop matt kansas said that the car was just a little bit loose they made the slightest adjustment and on that entire most recent run the car was tight all the way so another very tiny adjustment to try to fix that to matt junior had expected a pit on lap 218 now you saw from the in car the rub on the wall he says i just hit it slightly shouldn't be bad meanwhile the 16 of biffle 15.6 seconds no changes they wanted to take a look at that right front fender he also got into the fence just watching looked like for the most part everyone kind of somewhat went out where they came in you can see right there ryan newman gains the spot greg biffle loses one and kyle bush in the five been talking about his crew they gained one but for most part everybody went out where they came in there's the time on pit road including the pit stop for four tires the dodge charger 500 on fox is sponsored by ups proud sponsor of dale jarrett's 88 4. the dodge charger 500 is delivered by ups ups delivers the chance to manage your own free fantasy auto racing team and win two tickets to any fox broadcast race just go to foxsports.com keyword ups uh this looks like we had a it wore the inside on the shoulder of the tire not wearing the hose it just it's a weird little deal there on the inside of the tire that's probably why it just took off on you right there instead of changing a little bit all right just if you can be a little better at telling me how many laps has left till i pit so i was patient and patient myself and don't run into the wall when i only got five laps to get new tires i know that's all just i hate running into when i'm getting ready to get tires and i don't know it i mean i thought i had about 20 laps left all right just relaying a little better to you yeah i'm having a tough time when we're wide open kind of y'all come across the radio fine but it's not very clear it sounds so like a vietnam transfer back and forth something you hear in the 70s beginning you do like 60 64 laps something like that [Music] [Music] [Applause] right [Music] want to go dude [Music] not ford not dodge not toyota chevy with onstar that's an american revolution [Music] [Music] now you're prepared getting ready to restart after the fifth caution flag tonight jimmy johnson matt kenseth ryan newman greg biffle dale earnhardt jr jeff gordon karl edwards danny hamlin kyle busch and mark martin your top 10. here we go well past halfway we still have 25 cars on the lead left that includes jj yaley who just got a free pass they're our top two jimmy johnson in the 48 matt kenseth in the 17. they clear the left traffic but ryan newman in the 12. he gets hung behind jamie mcmurray in the 26 car who is actually one lap damn watching this 24 car here jeff gordon won here six times he's been just hanging out just in the top side of the top ten right now looking at dale earnhardt jr in the eight car who's actually running into the fifth position yeah i like what the 24's been doing larry they haven't been stellar yet but they've been hanging around making those subtle adjustments and he's one of those guys you won't hear a lot about here and she'll get down about 100 miles to go larry 140 laps 150 laps to go could we do this on one more stop if we had to could do it on one more stop you know as as we drew near that last possible great flag stop you heard all the complaints about guys on tires you saw kevin lepage on fresh tires what that would do for you so i would say that would be a little bit of a stretch on tires but yes you could make it on fuel yeah i don't think anybody will try that though because the tires are so worth so much and all it takes is one or two coming getting fresh tires they're beating you two two and a half seconds of lap [Music] matt kenseth trying for his first darlington win now in second place jeff hammond wants to analyze matt pitstop mike i've been watching the 17 crew and you have you guys have also noticed this all night long they've been very fast the two previous stops were 12-6 and a 13-4 on this last stop as they came in second place watch the right front tire changer the tire comes off the right front falls down in front of the car he has to jump over that tire that don't seem like a whole lot but it slowed that stop down to a 14.1 and that's still a great stop don't misunderstand me but when you're used to doing the sub 13s that cost you that little bit put you out right behind jimmy johnson i believe they could have got the lead if they hadn't had that little miscue and jeff it wasn't that many years ago if you had a 14 second pit stop on pit road with four tires you could probably go from 15th to third like uh back in the day that meant you had four air wrenches and four guys changing tires with two jacks you know we talked at the top of the show as the racetrack cools down gaining grip speeds will come up uh in fact jimmy johnson matt kenseth dale earnhardt jr kyle bush a lot of those drivers in the top 10 just a couple laps go ran the fastest lap that they have run in this race here comes carl edwards continuing to march back toward the front and this 99 car just went around jeff gordon to 24 for six steve burns they continue to make that car better yeah carl edwards likes that 99 larry mack he just said for the short run we're tight especially on the gas but at the end of the run we are bad translation good on those old tires it reminds me of an old track called lakeview the way it's slick i like it edwards is the subject of tonight's ford bold move of the race getting past bobby labonte here and flashing past tony stewart and kyle busch edwards went as far back as 40th before climbing back now into sixth place but that's good information that he gave his crew chief wally brown i'm too tight on short runs but i'm good on long runs what will be good about that information if we get down to the end of the race they know they'll have to make an adjustment if it's a short run to free the car up well i wonder if they get that spring rover socked in there because uh he's looking pretty fast and larry it's amazing standing up here you can see that the cars are running much faster than they were earlier today yes sir getting that grip coming off turn two particularly see a lot more speed there than we saw earlier let's check in on denny hamlin because hamlin's going to 12 oops slow down the front straightaway comes jamie mcmurray that car i guess it's under power but it is not under much mcmurray's going to limp his crown royal fusion around here you see he's about 70 miles per hour now jamie was one lap down at this point he's coasting might make it around yeah he's pulled off the racetrack in fact he's been about the only roush car that has not been consistently up in the top 10 or 12 tonight so let's get back to hamlin then who is now down to 12th place and steve i think that's about as far down the running order as he's been tonight yeah and he's he's surprised mike i tell you before the race he told me that what he learned in the push race and winning it last night that he was going to be really good late in a long green flag run but he just told mike ford that he's been loose everywhere late in the front and that last pit stop they gave him four tires and made a track bar adjustment that went down a round and a half you know stephen i'm sure uh if you if he'd been complaining about his hand you would have told us but i am concerned two hard races last week with those 19 stan stitches in his hand won here last night and here he is again tonight i tell you he's under he looks like a guy that's got it under a lot of strain to me but we've seen this look before dw denny hamlin he almost never even blinks when he's driving this race and he's using that uh laying that arm up on the wheel you see right there to hold it to help steer the car what's he saying steve daryl since the race has started he hasn't said a word about his hand but i did ask him at 5 30 this afternoon how it felt and he said great but that was four hours ago before he'd run 220 some laps and i guess we need to update our fans maybe fans that did not watch the richmond race last week about a week and a half ago testing it out at lowe's motor speedway in charlotte after the test denny and some of the crew members were kind of clowning around and having foot races around the tractor and trailer he grabbed a piece of chrome to make a turn around the tractor trailer and sliced his hand that hap that's how he injured it jeff mike what i'm noticing right now is denny hamlin's loose which if you look also tony stewart and jj yaylor they're back over 24th and 25th and we've already seen tony spent out with the loose condition makes me think that maybe all the gift cards have got similar sit-ups and they're really fighting with this racetrack while you look at jimmy johnson and maybe jeff gordon hendrick teammates they're up there in their top 10 running pretty well so it may have something to do with team cars but jeff and daryl let's think about something this is a big race track a high speed race track most high speed race tracks what do we fight with race cars turning not turning yeah well here maybe if they have moved the balance of their cars where they've got a lot of front down force they're fighting rear grip here at this racetrack right now trying to hold off carl edwards this is for fifth place stanton barrett has taken his car to the garage area rear end trouble he would only be the second car to fall out of this race joining derrick cope who left the race after 11 laps everybody else still in there and 25 cars on the lead left jimmy johnson matt kansas greg biffle and on top of the pit boxes chad canaus robbie reiser three call links back to the 99 now [Music] [Applause] [Music] 98 is a good time 88 for lambert [Applause] probably raise the rear of the car a little bit and the track bar a little bit [Music] 32-15 same as the leader [Music] disney presents a pixar film with cars [Music] 32-20 32-15 on the leader 3240 in front [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] high definition only on fox check local listings for the game and start in your area you know i talked with joe torre recently the yankees have a little pool gene monahan their trainer big nascar fan and johnny damon is a big fan of casey kane our poll sitter he said he loves the way he drives one of the young stars of the sport kane of course led 41 laps in this race battling to get back to the top 10. yeah right now casey's running 12th and i think he's still got himself in pretty good condition position right now i think i'll make a few more adjustments and keep up with the racetrack and right now the the main thing is we take a look at our leader jimmy johnson who is not only a leader of the race but also a point leader what about tony stewart he started to fall back through the field he spun out earlier but they made some adjustments the car still not like it needs to be he passed casey mears a few laps ago but now casey's right back on him again he gets a little bit loose off the turn four right there he's making a move underneath tony and there he goes in front tony stewart currently 24. mike here's the problem for stewart he is only eight seconds from going a lap down to jimmy johnson and he's driving like it too i've had it he's had that car every way but loose he's had her sideways and uh casey mears in here grabbing at it now i'm thinking that uh casey might want to let him buy and you saw the points right there remember stewart comes in here second to point so he would fall back to third tony's getting a little irritated with uh casey here a little bit of the chrome horn here but when the leader's coming but remember casey mears in the 42 he's still on the lead lap too so he's fighting right they're both trying to hang on to the lead left but the leader's coming and tony says dude i got to go tell you the biggest fans are in this whole crew our cameraman i'll tell you great tight shots and uh they love it when they get cars up close up close and personal like that well what i love is when they hit the button over here and you say did y'all get that they said yeah we got it we'll show it to you two or three angles yeah great job got a little battle brewing here for fourth ryan newman the 12 looks like he's just going to pull down possibly and let del earn our junior really not though but this is a battle right now for fourth you see carl edwards in the 99 he just keeps moving forward with his 99 car steve and mike his crew chief wally brown and spotter bobby hudson have been keeping carl trying to keep him patient remember he started seventh dropped all the way to 40th said his car was undrivable now he's in the sixth position here's what they've been telling carl still a long way to go they will come to you don't use it up bud they're coming right for you coming back to you it's all abusive we will get them on the long run call you'll get everyone up buddy patience keep it under you smooth and that's bobby hudson carl edwards's is spotter and the crew chief the spotter besides making decisions on adjustments as i talked earlier there's no strategy here as far as pit stops you change four tires every time the yellow flag comes out but besides making a decision on adjustments the biggest thing you've got to be as a salesman with that driver convince him i know you're sliding but you're sliding a little less than everyone else look the driver is going to say my car is not very good but guess what you're better than everybody else and that's all that matters when we last saw jamie mcmurray he was coasting to a stop in the backstretch pits he has finally made his way back to the garage with dick and they're in no hurry to try to work on this car the belt broke what's the belt for well the belt operates the oil pump and just one of those deals i you know i don't know uh i don't know what happened it just broke i saw the little pressure light come on and then the motor tried to lock up so i put it neutral we uh had a good car at the beginning of the race and i you know we over adjusted and got it really tight and then never really could get it back once you get back in traffic i just i struggled to uh to get by guys so frustrating day and uh frustrating season indeed the engines don't run without oil pressure now let me tell you what can happen to that belt you saw kevin harvick have the problem with his radiator we've talked about all these big chunks and clunks of rubber that can break an oil pump belt here at this place very easily yeah they're clogged belts they got teeth that's a rubber belt that runs the oil pump on the front of the engine you pick up a piece of debris it hangs up in that uh in those pulleys and it just blows that belt right off it stretches it and just snaps it sometimes dale earnhardt jr in the eight car in the fourth position matt about four and a half seconds behind our leader jimmy johnson and dale earnhardt jr was just advised by his spotter steve meal they're gonna run about another 40 laps on this run now that's what junior had asked earlier after he bounced off the wall because they were so close to his run he said i didn't know we were only seven or eight laps from pitting so keep me abreast of where we are in our run i hate to hit stuff and i definitely don't like hitting stuff here and daryl i got to believe that's that's important information to give that driver you're 20 laps into this run you're 40 laps into this run you're 15 laps away from a pit stop oh man that's stuff you love to hear you know you just it just it gives you a goal gives you something to work toward your next pit stop is coming and you kind of almost count the laps mentally in your head caution turn one big slide for sadler get it going get it going and that was just what casey mears bobby labonte joe nemechek and tony stewart needed because they were all within about four seconds of being lapped by jimmy johnson that's the second caution in a row it's what tony stewart needed because yeah that's twice he's about to yeah i don't larry i don't know i think they're probably about out of adjustments on that 20 car they've done everything they know to do to it i think they can help it for the few laps but they can't keep it under him all night for the long run and this will put kyle petty back on the lead lap he will get the free pass it is the sixth caution flag of the night we know that sadler elliot saller in the 38 he's had his hands full he was a lap down out of the top 25. and that just shows you how little the grip there is in the racetrack that car looked like it almost picked up speed even with the tires locked up now we're talking about oil drive belts jeff hammond mike we're talking about jamie mcmurray's car this is the oil pump this is the drive belt that works off the front crankshaft that's what pumps the oil through the engine when this belt breaks you lose oil pressure when you do that the engine can't be ran any longer and what might have happened here at darlington all these pieces of rubber could get built up get caught up in these cog belts or even some of these stones this is one thing a lot of times you have to worry about as all the debris that comes off of this racetrack can get captured in between this cog belt and the belt and could easily knock it off and there goes your engine mike thanks jeff good explanation i mean that tells the tale right there man it's got some stuff in it he's got a bunch of stuff rubber and rocks and clog belts pit road's gonna be busy pit road is gonna be clogged steve and mike jimmy johnson told chad canals he's a little loose through one and two he needs more forward bite off of turn four so the adjustment on that 48 car they're gonna take a half pound of air out of the right rear tire they've already done that you see them making their stop now to the left side of the number 48 car nick all during that last run matt jensen and his crew chief robbie reiser discussed what they should do on this pit stop the car has consistently been tight on the last two runs matt the 48 beat him and there's the 16 greg biffle led the most laps so far tonight work already completed on the left side he's down and away air pressure taken out of both rear tires to help with forward grip i believe the killer bees got beat that time on pit road see right there dale earnhardt jr in the eight car as well as greg biffle doug richard group looks like they beat matt kenseth off pit road casey kane right there he gains four spots well he needed that so with 118 laps to go it's a whole new race in darlington [Music] [Music] [Music] did you hear the 30 to go on your tires while ago yep [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and my principal financial group will give you an x [Music] and mama said there'd be nights like this as jimmy johnson leads greg biffle dale earnhardt jr matt kenseth and jeff gordon for this restart happy mother's day mom and to uh the mothers of all our kids yeah you know what my mom gets a double bonus this weekend tomorrow is her birthday as well as mother's day may the 14th you know what today is my wife linda's birthday may the 13th and of course mother's day tomorrow for her well happy birthday and happy mother's day happy mother's day gay and to all the moms out there yes sir stevie we're thinking of you 36 years baby it's been good green flag and johnson and biffle take off junior really didn't get that great of a restart i tell you what he's got a pretty good race car sitting up there in the third position in that eight car oh here comes kendrick did he get a run down the back straight away pokes the nose inside gonna clear dave blaney by turn three and those sparks pretty much tell the tail they're getting faster and quicker as the night goes on yeah no air pressure is low right now that thing has got if it's going to have any grip it better have it right now hamlin and mayfield right here this is for 15th yeah jeremy is uh having a silence quietly working his way toward the front having a darn good run and uh right behind him is kenny schroeder who's having a great run trader in the air force 21 all right in front of him in front of that group right yaylee behind schroeder has not had a top 10 since finishing ninth in the daytona 500 february jeremy mayfield he has no top 10 finish in 2006. jeff burton on the move the singular chevy past ryan newman and you just had to know that that the ability that jeff burton has always had to get around this place with the way richard childress racing has stepped its whole program up that he would be a factor tonight burton a two-time winner here as on the left of your screen biffle draws a bead on jimmy johnson now biffle has led 84 laps tonight that's the most of any driver he also led the most laps in california atlanta and phoenix but in those three races had no finish better than 15. now you just saw burton go by his teammate clint boyer clint boyer had a good car in the early part of the race right now he's a lap down they had a mistake on the pit stop where the tire rolled across pit road and he ended up going to the rear of the field that 99 car there he just gets closer and closer to the front all the time [Music] ninth place so that pushes uh pulsator casey kane back to 10th matt the big question kane has mike though he says why were we so good earlier in the race and now we're struggling a little bit even though he's having a solid run in the top ten they regrouped went back on some adjustments but he just came back on the radio says we are tight again guys to steve hey matt interesting radio communication between carl edwards and wally brown while he said carl give me a lap around this place so carl keyed the mic and said all right here we go initial initial turn we're good we're good on the throttle it won't turn off kurt two up on the top it won't turn in three or four were good good on the straight away so he did an entire lap while keying the mic commentary that's pretty impressive at darlington where it takes three hands to get around here let me tell you what else is pretty impressive we've got just a little over a hundred laps to go we've been talking about our rookies all night long right now we've got five rookies in the top 20. we've got denny hamlin right here who ran into the top five a lot he's sitting there in 15th and just right behind him you see martin truex junior in the one car he just went by mayfield for 16th and then behind jeremy mayfield you've got two of the ganassi teammates two of the ganassi rookies rookie strimi and sorenson and then right behind sorenson in the 18 car you've got jj yaley so and and i feel like clint boyer would still be able to lead left hadn't he had not had that pit stop problem so five rookies in the top 20 here at darlington with less than 100 laps to go well we started with three rookies in the top five and it has proven not to be a problem now robbie gordon had a good run going but uh carl edwards just took advantage of him now casey kane may get him as well what's up dick well he's good the car seems to be tight right at the beginning of a run mike but by and large robbie gordon has had a very good night his best finish all year long his 10th right now is running in the ninth position but the thing that's most impressive about him is gordon has a reputation as being impulsive and impulsive here will get you into the wall what he's instead of doing instead of being impulsive is trying to save his tires be cool being smart so far so good robbie gordon one of the best runs he's had all year long inside the top ten doing great see that that's that's where a driver has to have a crew chief that he will listen to and a spotter that he will trust he's got a list of what they're telling him he's got to believe what they're telling me and then he's got to do what they're telling go back to the audio a while ago with bobby hudson who has been in this sport for 30 years talking to his driver carl edwards kurt busch has been up and down that car had fallen well back in the last green flag run but now in the roger penske miller light 2 he's holding his own at 13th place yeah that car i don't know kind of it's it's interesting to me it runs up front early in the race then they fall back through the field and every now and then they get her fixed up for the end but uh he's 13th here got a little work to do and daryl when you talk about how unique this place is kind of one of a kind nascar would not allow the teams to test here roy mccauley kurt busch they decided to go to a similar race track we don't race it anymore to test they went to rockingham a couple of weeks ago yeah surface wise they're almost identical uh rockingham will chewa said the tires up in 15 20 laps just like this joint will what's impressive about bush he restarted 21st in this green flag run and he has climbed up to 13. your leader by three tenths of a second jimmy johnson clear by seven [Music] so [Music] we're doing whatever we're doing wrong depending on the bush car because in order to make thirty one ninety five ten four weeks is going a couple different ways getting things working we'll uh keep after we're gonna try the track bar again the track car helped us last night we're gonna try it again [Music] thereby i mean i feel like i didn't have front [Music] tires [Music] [Music] yes sir i got you [Music] [Applause] [Music] so nicknamed the lady in black some close calls today and win the sunset tonight yeah definitely so right there we see the 99 car the 49 right here kevin lepage he gets him a strike denny hamlin the rookie and the number 11. he gets him one early on that's dale earnhardt jr that's reid thorson right there in the 41 car followed by dale jarrett he goes up here and kisses the wall very lightly politely here's the hellhart g right behind clint morgan 07. he gets a one also later on dale jr also gets up in the outside retaining wall and gets him a darling strike even our camera has had a scrape with the wall whoa and the count so far and that includes the camera lens 20 so far jimmy johnson had the lead moments ago greg biffle back in front greg biffle right now charging hard right there gets on the inside of jimmy jimmy knows he's there just to get in the corner he rolls out of it miffle takes the lead 72 left lead for jimmy johnson it's 87 for greg biffle your current leader and this has been a visa race break no matter what it takes life takes visa so it's biffle jimmy johnson matt kansas and how about jeff gordon who is a six-time winner of this event it was last year at this time when he took a tumble in the point standings after this race last year this time this team right here really did a nosedive but so far tonight they've been building i mean just working on this car and getting everything put back like it needs to he's been climbing up the ladder now he finds himself in fourth position with his teammate jimmy johnson just two positions ahead of him so these team cars maybe are sharing information because gordon has definitely gotten better as the night gotten longer and of course dale earnhardt jr trying to win back-to-back races for the first time in his cup career let's rejoin daryl larry and mike don't forget jeff gordon was second here last may 20 darlington stripes by our unofficial punch stat count sorry i can't say that it's copyrighted 26 cars in the lead lap six cautions for 24 laps tony stewart uh not in such great shape here and kevin harvick so two of the contenders for the cup having troubles harvard major stuart miner and we don't want the the boys up at rcr or their engine department getting too nervous there it actually was not an engine problem it was a radiator problem right harvick's car right had that piece of debris a big piece of asphalt go into the radiator let's take a look at that let's see how his car looks like it's running really good right now he's in sixth place handling well assists to the throttle here as he picks it up down here in the middle of turn three and four appearing playing with it playing with it mats it right there by the start finish line back out of there a little early not a lot of break in turn one little bit let it go to the top easier right through the center back off get her turn get her headed in the right direction gasser up whoa baby now that's what you got to watch out for off turn two down into three a lot of break getting into three all the way to the top scrub scrub scrubs great scrape straight off of four there is no other race track in the world like this one i don't think she is one of a kind you don't want to duplicate it but we don't want to lose it either you got it you got it you couldn't duplicate it i don't think i don't think you could either uh i think that chris and these guys here running they got the right idea let's fix her up let's dress her up things may have settled in here for just a bit or maybe till the next and final pit stop as jimmy johnson sits one second behind greg biffle let's go to the lowest pit here's steve mike very short comment by jimmy johnson just a laugh ago he said i need more grip off of turns two and four more forward fight nick matt kenton's has keyed his radio and told me that his car is better it's still tight but it's 50 better than it was before the last pit stop to that dale jr running in the fifth position solid run but the car just like many runs tonight just way too tight on the first 20 laps it does start to go a little more to the neutral side looking ahead to the final stop of what air pressure adjustments to make also you were talking about the 31 of jeff burton the two-time winner the cars started off tighter on this run than it has all night long and he is having a great performance tonight 159th race is his last win he's won here twice maybe tonight is the night he breaks back into victory lane as he takes that spot fifth place now well there's a lot of decisions to be made on pit road because as matt mentioned possibly the final pit stop coming up in about 30 to 40 laps should we stay green so this is when you've got to get it right no mistakes and give that guy driver the right adjustments earlier carl edwards wanted a big change on his car what's the radio traffic now on the 99 that was a bad lap with traffic guys just counting it's about positive reinforcement wally oh sorry i harry i'm just kidding i want to hear the bad ones too he was talking to his crew chief wally brown who is now i think with about his fourth race with carl edwards of course bob osborne now over with jamie mcmurray uh i think crawl just just joking with him a little bit you know i don't want to hear the bad laps but yeah you got to tell him also i tell you guys it just keeps marching he's nibbling away not too far behind our leaders right here coming off turn four right there if i look back and i saw that big dupont sign coming after me i'd be worried there's a man that knows how to win this race it's a thinking man's race and he's been doing a really well of a job all night long jeff gordon that's 24 car short spot right now fourth spot and two and a half tenths of a second faster than matt kinser also removed by casey kane battle for 13th here between casey kane into nine denny hamlin in the 11. both those cards are really really falling off the latter part of the race here in the second half of the race neither one of them good as they were in the beginning i'm not sure some of it's not from damage from scrubbing the wall because 11's been in the wall pretty hard come with the house greg biffle has led 100 laps there are 86 to go you can't fear anyone or any track [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a lot of on them [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] clear buy one okay they're bound to 21. [Music] so side 41 inside [Music] that's the one one car back [Music] all right at your left [Music] side all by himself oh clear clear by 10 [Music] and he just keeps closing up not too far behind uh kurt bush there in a two car so that's another spot he can gain here talk to leonard wood today it's so good to see guy leonard wood david pearson come to darlington now it doesn't get any better now david pearson 10 wins here like mike mentioned at the top of the show get a hamburger steak out here at the speedway grill huh what's that d life is good jeff gordon was the fastest car on the racetrack couple laps ago matt he's in third and closing on his teammate coming off his worst finish gordon of 2006 a 40th last week in richmond now he says the car is really starting to get loose on exit but that's what steve latar says just keep what you're doing keep your pace because we are continuing to mow him down currently in the third spot he says they look to make if it all goes green from here on out their final stop at lap 323. thanks matt a second roush ford has fallen victim to oil pump drive belt failure dick and carl edwards is standing with me on pit road why two oil pump failure or dry belt failures in the roush cars what's going on i don't know they do a great job building the engines and my crew did a great job gotta thank all of us heck man just i love this racetrack and i hate to be behind pit wall but we're gonna head up to omaha nebraska watching my brother race tomorrow night i gotta say get well to gene beach and hopefully bethel wins this thing he deserves it got to tell you one more thing about carl edwards before he disappears he got out of that car and with all the disappointment he patted every crew member on the back and said thank you that's what a real racer does i like carl edward jesus yes he's a cool kid i like him a lot three of the five ships in the roush armada still running in the top 10. and just to update jamie mcmurray who is out of the race had the same thing happen these cars have an external oil pump that's on the front of the engine it's driven by a belt off the crankshaft and we've talked about all the rubber and debris that that flies around here a lot of times that stuff will get in the that belt make the belt so tight it just snaps i know here rockingham marked for a lot of places daryl we used to run actually a little spring guard around that that old pump yeah this shaker screen in front of the radiator and then we'd run another piece of screen underneath the radiator back to the cross member to keep any debris from coming up around the engine pitbull lapping sterling marlon in the 14 for the second time tonight marlon got a top 10 finish last week in richmond and here is tony stewart who is once again about seven seconds from going a lap down he just passed kyle petty to hold on to 17th [Music] we're gonna make stewart our all-state good hands driver on behalf of tony allstate will donate a thousand dollar scholarship to the urban youth racing school all-state official insurance sponsor of nascar would appreciate that stewart did a perfect 360. got his hands at nine and three grabbed the gear and went on just like in the movies if if you look at stewart's racing resume resume mike his first career top ten came right here at darlington the spring of 99 but he will tell you this is one of those race tracks where he's never been able to have one of those top five cars every single race more of a six to a twelfth place car he says the forward bite now is 100 better but they are still struggling here tonight in darlington you know it almost sounds like larry to be on that car they got a nose weight issue like they burn that fuel off of the back of the car and it transfers weight to the front of the car and the car starts to respond yeah because when you have that weight in the rear that makes the car won't loose and what lack of forward fight means when tony pushes the throttle down the rear wheels will spin craig biffle leading jimmy johnson by almost one second now and jeff gordon closing in still there clear clear all around [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] clear [Music] [Music] [Applause] about 15 laps joey fit now junior 15. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] clear [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Applause] clear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] right there that was dodged the oge ball now with jimmy johnson in the 48th lead you see his teammate jeff gordon into 24 and second now matt kenseth has moved around his teammate to greg biffle to take over third we are about 10 to 15 laps away from the final pit stop but this is what will happen if any of these leaders hit pit road any time over the next few laps because you can make it to the end from here you can't be far behind them because as we mentioned earlier fresh tires over 60 lap tires two two and a half seconds quicker per lap looks like he needs those tires now larry that car is backing up like it's got an anchor attached to it and it's almost it's almost like playing poker you want to get those fresh tires as soon as you can but at the same time jeff hammond you don't want to hit pit road and a caution come out and you'll be a lap down because of pitting on the green that's what i'm worried about we've seen that several times this year especially with robbie gordon he hits pit road caution comes out here at darlington you don't want to be caught on pit road but like you're saying larry if you could get the pit road and be the first guy there probably you'd wind up having the lead by the time everything's cycled through and i would say cars that we'll see come to pit road pretty quick is we've got jeff gordon in the 24 car trying to take that lead away from his teammate jimmy johnson if i was rick henry i'd be i'd be holding my breath i'm surprised it's this much of a struggle for gordon to get the lead from johnson earlier the roush teammates swapped the lead back and forth with little drama so that each could get five bonus points for leaving a lap but darrell didn't look like jimmy wanted to give that lead up no i think jimmy knows that if jeff is that good and he caught him he's in trouble jeff gordon he's gonna race him back maybe that was a five-point deal right there because jeff hadn't led but while they've been doing it there's matt kinses in the 17 car he's moved back into the pitcher but just remember within the next few laps all these cars will be on pit road for a pit stop yeah matt kinses kind of says hey you boys going up there and play if you want to i'm serious i'm coming to win this race well jeff gordon has only led 70 laps this year in five races and 62 of those laps were at talladega jeff has led a total of over 1500 laps here in his career seventh all time how about our pulse sitter casey kane 17th place and he's about seven seconds from losing a lap to jimmy johnson i guess the string will be broken for him tonight three wins from a pole and uh doesn't look like that's going to happen tonight yeah we've got a lot of cars that would love to see a caution they're about to go a lap down like you mentioned casey kane kyle petty jj yaley casey mears joe nemechek just in front of our leader jimmy johnson right now jimmy johnson won four races last year he's already won three in 2006 daytona las vegas talladega well i tell you interesting race to me tonight though how all these guys have worked so well together all night long and there you go jeff gordon back around his teammate but just like just like that i know their teammates but all night long we've seen so much give and take look at this wad of cars right in front of them that's three of the cars i just mentioned nemechek mirrors and yale fighting to try to stay on the lead left right here last time they got in this position a caution saved them when elliott sadler fun man i tell you right now there's a this is ingredients for some disaster right here on old tires now kenseth went around jimmy johnson in the 48 he takes over the second spot 55 laps to go and david stremi yeah he's going to come to pit road he had an engine problem off a turn four and he's coming around this time to come to pit road to complicate matters among the leaders here comes kevin lepage flying into the picture now lepage is 13 laps down but he's got new tires yeah well he's been off sequence right these other guys and he'll get those tires and blow by a bunch of them every now and then he's at the top of your screen on that freightliner 40. but it shows you what tires will do for anybody and daryl i'd say with a lot of those leaders seeing that they're questioning the crew chief when are you going to give me tired there comes some guys i think on pit road here now larry it looks like the yeah two car lap dave blaney and blainey is uh three laps down stremmy who is two laps down and kevin harvick 17 laps down that's who's on pit roy cliff warrior in the oh seven car here comes kurt busch in the two car once some of these cars start hitting pit road that's when you'll see all the rest stop following look at all the right side tires over there bro you can tell all of them have been rubbed up against the wall now kirk bush is the first of our lead lap cars to pin we talked about he was really waiting on this pit stop now kurt busch's last lap on track was a 34 flat biffle's last lap was a 34-2 we'll take a look and see what they can do with new tires jj yaley who just want to lap down also pitting and so is bobby labonte 45 miles an hour is pretty slow on pip road reed sorensen also in the pits matt mike doug richard biffle's crew chief aston what can i get you to help that race car i'm possibly this final running said i just need fresh tires the car was good but it really lost the grip near the end as you see the 24 jeff gordon is in now gordon six time winner here going for number seven dick what about the 17 at kensington 17 of the kensington is in and this is the first time that he has pitted with the nose fighted toward the wall steve more tired for jimmy johnson he had gotten very loose he wanted more forward fight dick defense's pit stop still underway he has a net gain of five spots so far that the 24 you can see they're going to try to pull a tear off off the windshield give him some better visibility gordon's car was really loose on that run dick 48 car almost had an accident here on pit road just managed to duck to the right of the 21 and schrader i mean it was within inches and that's going to be very costly dick berger he almost had to come to complete stoppage kenny schroeder into 21 was turning into his pits almost near disaster as you pointed out dick cost him a lot of time on getting out of the pits there he's way back behind the leaders now here comes jeff gordon and matt kenseth up to speed lima check pits so does riggs and here's ryan newman on pit road matt rakfar just been completed for newman now he was near the end of this leader's cycle but most of the guys like biffle pitted a little earlier than what they're originally thinking just because the tires were wearing out so much quicker near the end of this run tony raines was in denny hamlin scott riggs and yaley comes back in for a check of the left front robbie gordon comes in gives up second place kyle bush is your new leader and now he's on pit road as well this should about cycle us through lead lap cars now remember biffle he was running 34-20 before he pitted his last lap 31 flat three seconds faster on new tires and because he was the very first lead lap car besides kurt bush to hit pit road it's cycled out and he will be the leader after robbie gordon and kyle busch make their pit stops 49 laps to go in darlington south carolina in the dodge charger 500 on box sorry better [Music] [Applause] [Music] outside you [Music] [Music] just a little too much [Music] beautiful [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am just trying to help you [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] in the long run the nice move [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] got to get into his pit he's just in front of johnson trying to get into his pits right there so johnson had to hit the break and the crew not happy and remember this was green flag stop so he went from being right up there in the lead pack with those guys until he's almost five seconds behind now here's jeff gordon's stop they like what they see there but the big winner is the man who's led the most laps tonight 129 of them so far greg biffle jimmy johnson after something that was not kenny schroeder's fault schroeder came in he was ahead of jimmy before jimmy pulled out of his pit so kenny's got to slow down and pull in jimmy's got to wait and go around and johnson is now five seconds behind greg biffle nobody's but still steve's got to be a little frustrating mike it was very frustrating when he was on pit road now just a second ago crew chief chad canal said to jimmy hey you okay what's going on bud jimmy just said very simply i need forward fight chad said save your tires to the end well all i know is our top three or four cars biffle kids of gordon johnson right now with 39 laps to go pretty equal on the stopwatch let's not be saving anything right now because by the time you uh have your saved up tires they'll be so far away from you you can't catch them you got to go like crazy right you got to go as hard as you can you almost believe now jimmy johnson what he needs is an equalizer and that would be a caution terry lavonny in his final darlington appearance pulls down to the inside and a tough day for the two-time champs here are your fanatics grill platters oh [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] clear 70. good luck [Music] so 95 in the past [Music] [Music] i think we can build on this [Music] [Applause] so [Music] uh he kind of makes a run at you then falls off if he bugs you you could let him go but he's just kind of a pain in the butt catching that 48 though let it go i really try to catch nobody in i understand [Applause] about three car lengths back now june [Music] [Music] next weekend nascar moves to charlotte our coverage begins on friday on speed the craftsman truck series race on speed saturday begins with the next hull open on fx followed by the next dell all-star challenge mark martin your big winner last year the fox family of network sits where you gather for racing every weekend jeff gordon who's currently running third in this race will be our guest in the hollywood hotel greg biffle leading looks like you got the roush teammates one two and then the hendrick teammates three four you see like like you're pointing out a lot of team cars up there in the top three or four also in the top ten roush and henry cars uh running extremely good here tonight as you watch uh right now greg biffle go around terry labonte one more time leader and greg i mean again he knows how to win at this racetrack so right closing laps we've got 31 laps to go he is really up on that wheel driving as hard as he can because he knows his teammate matt kinses is going to put pressure on him if he gets a chance of course won this race last year he's led the most left but in the last four races that he's led the most laps he has not won he's finished second 40 seconds 16 and 15. well tonight we've been talking about it and i think carl edwards kind of summed it up he's run good enough this year to win several races and his teammates said i hope he can close the deal tonight meanwhile if you're jimmy johnson in the 48 car you're hoping for the number 48 he won the 48th running of the daytona 500 this is the 48th spring race being run here at darlington johnson six seconds back jeff gordon two and a half off the lead matt kinsen 1.2 behind greg biffle who has now led 140 laps tonight now right behind biffle terry labonte in his final darlington start this track has meant so much to the two-time next-door cup champion he started his first cup race here driving for texas oil man billy hagan in the stratograph car he won his first cup race here the southern 500 one of the toughest of all races to win and then he won the last labor day southern 500 at darlington american idol bucky covington his brother rocky and his buddies now you got to look at their pit passes they're pit pass holders that's a piece of history right there because it's from where he's from the rock rock rockingham north carolina yeah they come over to coach you were there mike and hung out for a little while they cool guys yeah having a good time at the races boys he's got a full schedule they're going on tour but he said have been too long since he'd been to a race he wanted to come to darlington our leader just about to put kirk bush in a two car up there a lap down kurt's the last car on the lead lap right now in 16. but larry i once again as they run a few laps here that 24 car all of a sudden he starts inching back toward uh the matt kenseth and greg biffle he's closing up on him here at about a tenth or two a lap just like he did earlier this is a battle for sixth right here between ryan neumann and the 12 kyle bush in the five kyle bush just continues to click off those top 10 finishes jeff gordon right now is the fastest car on the racetrack he is 1.8 seconds behind leader greg biffle when he comes out of the pit and on restarts particularly uh he's a little bit slower than the other guys but as they get into the run the more they run the faster he gets and those guys back up to him if we stay green bet on gordon to be right there at the finish right now he's definitely faster than greg biffle and matt kenseth up there running one and two with 25 laps to go let's update you on tony stewart his night remember he started in the 13th position where they dropped the green flag in the 20 car looked like he was going to march to the front car got loose the car is not handled like he has wanted it to right now he's hanging on the lead lap in 13th about five seconds from ben lapp i will guarantee you if they come out of here with the top 15 finish tonight with the weekend they've had they'll probably feel pretty good about it i guarantee you it's spun out and everything else and here he is you know he's not done yet nope he's going to lose a spot in the next hell cup standings to matt kinsen martin truax is just ahead of him and martin's uh running 12th not too far ahead of him is reid sorenson so he's got some cars he could pass coming up next on fox mad tv or your late local news which in some markets may be the same thing jeff gordon has got one of those kind of race cars you like to have at darlington the longer you run the better it gets the longer the other guys run the worse they get he's just going to drive by matt kenseth in the 17th car he takes a second position away now there's 23 laps to go and right now he's about one and a half seconds behind leader greg biffle and greg biffle is catching a lot of lap cars 23 laps to go with the dodge charger 500 on fox [Music] [Applause] clear [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] 20 left to go 20. therefore radio shack your neighborhood wireless [Music] [Applause] clear [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you are watching the dodge charger 500 from the darlington are in car only available on digital cable [Music] seconds and his laps are about three or four tenths of a second quicker than biffles he's got time to make up the distance oh jeff got him an interesting looking setup for here doesn't he larry he just flies that nose down the straightaway look how high that thing is going down the straightaway normally uh the car would have a much different attitude we see a lot of cars up in the nose but yeah the 24 cars definitely up higher on the straightaways 2.3 seconds back there's kenzan and jimmy johnson fourth and fading a bit he's gone to five seconds behind well daryl was pointing out to me at break and i daryl i think this is what you said i agree with that problem they had on pit road it's almost like he he can't catch kensington dale earnhardt jr is not going to catch him unless they have a caution let me just take as the points leader what this race to give me another top five i think that's smart racing on their part they had a problem there and they can't do anything about it get out of here clean dale jr 9.8 seconds off the lead he's got a three second cushion on ryan newman in the sixth place car who started on the front row jr did a nice job tonight you guys for gutting it out grunting it out to not feeling good and coming home here in the fifth place now newman's got work to do to keep kyle bush behind him at sixth place kyle's a lot like his teammate jeff ford his car seems to really get stronger later on in a run kyle's just been in a good clean smart race all night long in the five cars oh by the way uh the guy in the sixth car mark martin he's back there in eighth place and we haven't talked much about him all night long just a second just about a second behind kyle bush and then jeff burton burton is 17 seconds off the lead running by himself in ninth place good thing about if he can finish here in the top 10 with the problems that casey mears dale jarrod has had tonight it would put him up in the top 10 points listen to that working that throttle that and here's 10th place and the highest rookie in the race denny hamlin who's capping off a really fine two weeks oh he is and of course with that hand uh you know the injury to his hand i think he's just done a yeoman's job of staying on the wheel reed sorenson 11th another good rookie run tony stewart has to be disappointed running in 12th and he is about four and a half seconds from going a lap down once again he's been on the lead lap all night yeah but about a lot like jimmy johnson last week mike i mean he was in trouble there for a little while and to recover here and to be running in 12th place uh that's that's a pretty nice recovery for that team he just drove by mark trex jr into one car so that would right now be three rookies in the top 15 and we've been talking about ken schrader earlier tonight another good top 15 run for him sitting in the 14th position and then the last car on the lead lap is robbie gordon gordon would be in the top dozen but i feel like they waited too long to make that final pit stop under green greg biffle had brand new tires and was three seconds a lot faster than gordon as he waited out the end of the cycle to make his stop but mike like you and i were talking i think they feel like they're darned if they do and darn if they don't three times i think this year we've seen him come to pit road early and get bitten by a caution flag tonight he wanted to stay out there and not be the first one on pit road i won't tell you what though guys this lead is shrinking as we've got 11 laps to go only a second back to jeff gordon in the 24 car i find it interesting that all of a sudden terry labonte is hanging right on the back bumper of uh greg biffle labonte in the 44 the kellogg's park with 22 cup wins making his 54th darlington start he's been racing here since 1978 when he came in here and finished fourth in his first start and you know both of those guys up there running 1-2 they've not been to victory lane this year they certainly want to get there craig biffle and jeff gordon well i think greg biffle after finishing fourth last week larry feels like he got the monkey off his back he can pull this off tonight 10 to go let's do what we hope is the final update on the darlington stripe count tonight before getting ready to come into some heavy traffic played 25 boys and we're not done yet we still got about nine and a half laps to go got plenty of time to add a couple yeah that's way short of all the way around but uh slow traffic here man i'll tell you it's hard to get through it without any problems jeff gordon's closing and we got traffic ahead you know it took gordon a while to figure out this place he has only one top 20 finish in his first five darlington starts but then eight straight top threes including five wins second here last may third the year before let's see three two that leaves one this is one of those racetracks when you go there a lot like daytona tower they go road course you know jeff gordon is going to be one of the cars you're going to have to be well i know y'all heard me say it before but rick henry called me at the end of the 92 season said what do you think about my rookie d.w i said jeffy all right rick he'll never make it well he torn 10 clips off bill davis's car in the bushes and 76 million dollars gordon's only gaining a tenth a lap and there's only seven laps to go and he's got to gain 11 tenths well as long as he doesn't get up here and get hung up behind the 22 or some of these lap cars that he's coming up on he'll be just fine but buddy let me tell you one lap car can slow you down and then that guy behind you can close up in a hurry and now there are no cars between biffle and gordon as when they come around this time six to go oh tony stewart had it all hung out oh man this is a battle for 12th right now two cars hanging on the league left tony stewart mark trucks jr yeah well the problem is the leaders are coming the leaders are coming and that probably i mean with only a few laps to go and i'm sure tony is probably not worried about that he's fighting for that position but biffle's going to catch up to the back all these slopes are not slow cars but the last cars here he's coming up on behind first blaney then straighter than wimmer biffle is a racing machine how fast will it go that's how fast i want to run [Music] this is his kind of racetrack you know just hang it out greg biffle is today's buddy baker i got my foot on the floor how long can i hold it there how fast will it go he doesn't have a lot of strategy right yeah it says it's wide open exactly y'all fix me a better car if it breaks he's just about to catch dave's lady in that 22. gorgeous low carbs and he has the last two laps i believe what i'm trying to tell you buddy these slow cars are going to mix it up jeff gordon is within one second of greg biffle you watch down here when they go in this corner now biff was going to be hung up behind the 22 car and his lead is cut two he can't get back in the throttle because the two 22's up there here comes guarantee you greg biffle spotter is a very busy man on top of this roof right now yeah he's making deals with those lap cars not telling him about jeff gordon and now the traffic is stacking up together that could be tough it's great to go it's going to be tough trust me he's going to have to deal with jeff gordon one way or another he's chomped a half a second the last two laps and you don't just drive by these guys these guys are all at the tail end of the lead left and they're not going to just get out of your way and he cannot get by dave blaine in the 22 car jeff gordon three car leaks back now he'll go by and look how exciting they're clear held up beautiful but blaine he moves out of the way for ripple and here comes jeff and kenny schroeder 21 he's trying to stay on the lead left two to go this time gordon drops to the bottom in four to take a shorter line and he's just two links away he's coming he's it coming both these drivers need a win to get their season rebound and gordon's sixth and points down the back stretch schrader's going to yield to our leader greg biffle they'll be coming to the right flag this time and gordon is there one car length separate them with one lap to go down sliding around got a clean race it hurt jeff the most i think he's going to be all right this time he's got a good run off at two gordon gets off two a little better but biffle gets off four michael doesn't hold him up it's beautiful to the finish line and waltrip drops way low on the racetrack they're two by two double wide up front it's a good thing that this is the last lap that's all i could say boy jeff gordon drove it into turn three and four that time here it comes robin spitfill wins the dodge charger 500 by two carly jeff gordon celebrate boys celebrate i like a good close race that's going to catapult him approximately six positions this will bring biffle to within 500 points of the lead and up to four i'll tell you what i don't think jeff gordon traitor didn't do anything wrong but jeff couldn't get by schroeder on that last lap and i don't think he was real happy with schrader unofficially kent's iii johnson fourth earnhardt junior fifth newman six kyle push seventh martin eighth jeff burke ninth rookie denny hamlin look at the sidewalls on the tires larry no lettering on whatsoever he's had that thing he's been rubbing on everything out there the bethel knows how to do a burnout [Music] did he back it up in the fence down greg biffle gets the win he'll make the run around to victory lane and so will we [Music] come on back straight back come on back and we welcome you to the sprint post race show nascar on fox from darlington south carolina under the lights where greg biffle 36 year old from vancouver washington finally into victory lane this year after a lot of heartbreak a repeat winner in this spring race here in darlington let's head down to victory lane and matt yoko after five finishes of 30th or worse this year he picked up a lot of momentum at richmond and scores his first win of 2006 and did it dramatic fashion first off what does this mean to you and this team to finally break through like this it feels really good i'll tell you what uh you know wish uh my mom could be here this weekend and uh you know a lot of mothers were here and some stuff's going on so she wouldn't be able to be here this weekend but this wins for her and uh this team uh we never give up you know we won the poll last week and finished fourth and uh just everybody stood behind us 100 national guard and everybody and uh i'll say hi to my dad i know he's not feeling well and uh just excited to be back in victory lane the closing laps you've got really what many consider the darlington master with jeff gordon six wins here chasing you down and then you hit all that traffic what were you thinking that i was praying for help i was begging joel please let him give me a lane you know that's the give me the top give me the bottom or something and uh you know what uh kurt bush could have raced the heck out of me and he and he let me go on the top he was the last car in the lead lap and and uh really appreciate it a lot of guys just showed respect out there tonight and uh you know a few more laps gordon would have got there but two in a row i'm pretty excited back-to-back wins here at darlington for greg biffle his first though of 2006 and the guy who was chasing him down is standing by with dick berger and that would be jeff gordon who absolutely drove his heart out for those last few laps was the car cooperating well we started off a little bit too loose on that last uh run and i thought we were in big trouble but let those guys go and get out there and hope that we'd catch them like we had in the other long runs and we started catching them and uh i made a little bit mistake i got by kenseth and i got in the wall a little bit down three and four and i don't know if it knocked the toe out or what but i picked up a big push and i was shocked that i even caught the 16. we came up on some lap traffic we had to run on now i had one good opportunity and a little bit more room from a lap car and i might have been able to get it turned underneath him but still a great race fantastic job for the dupont chevrolet guys pepsi gmac chevrolet everybody that makes that for us this is a big moment for us we needed a run like this and uh couldn't happen in a better place than here at darlington uh old school man congratulations terrific job let's go to steve thank you dick with poinsettia jimmy johnson who finished fourth now jimmy i heard you late in the race talk about needing more forward bite but i have to ask you got block trying to exit pit road on lap 316 was that a difference in the outcome for you i think it affected us from finishing third or second somewhere in there but just kind of a racing incident on pit road trying to drive was trying to get out the 21st trying to get in and i got held up a little bit but a great great performance for us qualifying didn't go like we wanted worked very hard trying to get this race car situated in last practice had a good car came from 25th to the front a little too loose all night long but uh very happy with uh with our performance i want to wish my mother and grandmother and mother-in-law uh happy mother's day and i'll say hello to my wife it's a smart racer congratulations on the top five points racing points racing everywhere that's a good point no pun intended mike joy now what a good night for johnson let's have a look at the standings which he leads the nextel cup tony stewart by one point hung onto second over matt kenzit new face in 10th place jeff burton in three of the last four races he's finished top ten so he climbs kevin harvick down elevator drops four spots as we look at the second ten that 400 point gap is right now at tenth place casey mears dale jarrett falling back just a bit there and biffle he's gained 126 points on 10th place in just two races he's coming and i know we're not quite halfway through this 26 race schedule looking to richmond but the big question over the off-season jeff gordon-dale earnhardt jr could they make the chase top five finishes for both of them both of them pretty solidly in the top 10 in points right now it's done my heart pretty good to hear jeff gordon say this is old school racing because i like old school racing and we saw a lot of it tonight this is a fun place to race i've got a lot of improvements here and uh i think and hope we're going to be here for a long time just keep shining speaking of old school racing next saturday night under the lights a little all-star old school new pavement at charlotte oh yeah yeah we got a whole bunch of problems we got issues when we get to charlotte all right thanks guys sometimes a guy has to turn the season around in a moment on a play at a particular track and a move and for greg biffle he said he thought he felt he won last night in the last weekend in richmond when he came in fourth he did win today in your opinion has he turned things around i think definitely so chris i think that's what you've got to do if you want to be a championship chase contender you've got to never give up and i think that's what this entire number 16 crew did tonight they kept beating them banging beating and banging working on our race car doug richard did a great job as far as calling the race but in the end greg biffle got up on that wheel when he knew jeff gordon was coming and he made the difference dale earnhardt jr a little under the weather as he told us hung in there to finish fifth of course good runs from jimmy johnson and jeff gordon as well to finish in the top five next weekend from charlotte lowe's motor speedway again the weekend friday on speed and of course saturday night under the lights mark martin won the all-star challenge last year see how he handles this year's race coming up matt tv for many or your late local news promotional consideration provided by these fine people you know early in the day we talked about points leader jimmy johnson extending his points lead to the largest it's been this season also uh dw nicknamed dale jarrett's curry four furious he'll be going to toyota next year for daryl larry and mike steve matten dick and jeff hamlin and his asphalt that he's carrying around from the track here at darlington and for our entire production crew i'm chris myers thanks for watching nascar on fox to all you moms happy mother's day you

Channel: Racins Fun

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Length: 235min 22sec (14122 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021