2021 Daytona 500 | Massive Wrecks and an Upset Winner | Full Race Replay

hendrick teammates on the front row in chevrolets william byron will go to the rear in a backup car austin dillon 1-18 he starts right next to the driver he spun out on the last lap to win it alma roland a couple of youngsters trying to make some noise christopher bell and bubba wallace in toyota's and two former daytona 500 winners ryan newman in 2008 and kevin harvick the year before and row five joey logano beside him kyle busch 57 cup wins but never a 500 win how about row six ryan priest chase elliott defending 2020 champion never won the day photo 500 yet in row seven kyle larson ryan blainey alongside him two-time runner up in the 500 row eight daniel suarez you just heard his co-owner pit bull give the command alongside corey lejoy let me take this thing over row nine pair of teammates david reagan michael mcdowell row 10 a very own j mcmurray hasn't been in the cars for two years look out curt bush and then tricky ricky ricky stenhouse two-time super speedway winner look out keep an eye on him and chris bush or his teammate row 12 matt denibeto and brad keselowski that's gonna be a good one to keep an eye on bad brad row 13. denny hamlin going for three straight ladies and gentlemen that's right three straight and his teammate martin schreck jr going to be a fantastic row there here's rookie the year cole custer alongside joey gase in the 14th row double xfinity champ tyler reddick with chase briscoe eric jones now driving for king richard petty and 62 year old 1990 winner derek cope quinn house in his second 500 and ross chastain moves to the chip ganassi team cody ware makes his second daytona 500 and the youngest driver in the field 21 year old anthony alfredo wisconsin josh belicky is in his first 500 and b.j mcleod in a brand new team that he co-owns with matt tiff then the drivers who were added to the field based on qualifying time the xfinity champ austin cendrick who won yesterday and casgrawler from massachusetts let's say we dial up danny hamlin hey danny this is jeff and clint mike up in the fox sports booth how about you i got you well man all the talk about three in a row uh all the talk about being a new owner how about how excited are you to just get in the car and get back to business definitely ready to go to work um you know it is my first passion as being a driver and you know the opportunity today to do something no one else has done for about that extend is you know at the top of my priority list so hopefully things work out you know i just i just want a shot inside five laps to go and give myself an opportunity all right denny it's boyer's turn man you got to wake up bud you're coming to green here this is the daytona 500 the big one your chance to go three in a row at such a prestigious race how are you gonna do that how do you find yourself in that top five in the running at the end of these things and what's your plan to do that you know i think i just gotta trust my instincts you know not second guess whatever move it is that i'm gonna make i don't know whether it's gonna be to be aggressive at the beginning or if it's gonna be laid back but ultimately i'm gonna feel the temperature of the field see what moves they're making and if it's the comfortable time for me to go to the front then i will if not i've got a long time to get there all right buddy good luck question for history bud we'll be watching step four well let's take a look at the newest toyota team on track today with the toyota rev up to green daytona 500 winner danny hamlin with bubba wallace as the sole driver focused on inclusion and diversity within the nascar community wallace is regarded for his work on and off the track through their partnership with toyota and joe gibbs racing 2311 racing re-establishes wallace to familiar territory and a place where he knows how to win from an empty shop to building the first number 23 camry this team is ready to make their official debut for this year's daytona 500. all right let's check with our crew chief larry mcreynolds he's got his toolbox open and he's ready to tell us what's going to happen on a day that started out with rain showers then had a good bit of sunshine and now the clouds are coming yeah i mean mike teams prepare for this race for months before they ever get here and normally when you get here you get a ton of practice these drivers have less than one hour of practice all week long i get a feeling there's a lot of anxiety about what they have and mike i get a feeling also who goes to victory lane they won't talk about how fast their race car was they'll talk about how good it drove uh-huh all right let's get down to pit road for late-breaking stories well mike at 45 years old kevin harvick is as competitive as ever and he's ready to win this race for the second time they've brought a brand new race car and they say it's the best and the fastest car they've ever had vince welch well brad keselowski will start this race in a backup car at the rear of the field but he said it doesn't matter the backup is as good as the primary keslowski has won 34 times and a championship he's won all the big ones but never the daytona 500 he says he wants it and he wants it bad and he wants it today regan smith kyle bush is over 15 in the daytona 500 but the two-time champion and 57-time race winner feels very good about how his car is handling for today he's going to check that last box later this afternoon is what he feels like thanks folks we're ready to race wwe smackdown airs friday nights 8 pm eastern time on fox and smackdown women's champion sasha banks is going to wave the green flag to start this daytona 500. corvette pace car makes the turn to pit road and here they come green flag the 63rd daytona 500 is underway [Music] you are clear he is not too wide right behind you one back here lane one back here lane second lanes got a little run bottom lane coming back to you get back to the bottom get back to the bottom and he's with the other inside boards with you sure you got a huge show from the 10 you're fine here you got the four and the 18 tight with you still inside you're clear low they're tight with you out back help us clear though both clearly by one still by half of the knot the one back top nine there you go bottom's got a little run here even even hearing the driver spotters up on the roof as alex bowman the daytona 500 pole sitter for the second time leads lap one well we've been talking all week long mike as we led to the daytona 500 about working with one another there goes kevin harvick trying to go by our leader alex bowman but kyle bush up in that outside lane but we've been talking about manufacturers working together i thought for sure when i saw that 48 ally chevrolet jumped down in front of austin dill at the start of this race that was orchestrated but no it didn't take long he moved to the outside lane clinton yeah and this type of racing you got friends out there those friends are your teammates and your allies your allies or the manufacturers you're going to see mustangs finding each other cameras finding each other chevrolet's finding each other that's the name of the game you see the 11 going to the back maybe he's maybe he's looking for bubba right there clint you were asking about how he's going to do it well he's in the back now harvick completes lap number two and as we run lap number three a tradition that began in 2002 the richard childress racing crew members raised three fingers and so do many many fans as we remember the great dale earnhardt who lost his life here on the final lap of the 2001 500 and whose greatest legacy is not his seven championships not all those wins but that nascar took a leadership role in driver safety and since that fatality nascar has not had another one in any of its three national racing series [Music] [Applause] caution at the end of lap number three span away washington's derrick cope the winner here in 1990 and who did he beat dale earnhardt on the last lap 62 year old cope is into the wall here on the third lap in number 15. maybe a tire rope tower went down it just happened very slowly as he came into turn three yeah you can see him moving to three wide and trying to navigate around him i agree i don't obviously the right side's got so much damage you can't hardly tell if the right rear went but is that because of the damage jeb or is that good flat tire that then put him in the wall and eventually that carcass came off this was scheduled to be coke's final race he had not raced a cup car in the last 16 years doing this one-off ride here today mike i really don't see anybody coming to pitt road here you know the the first stage is 65 laps the fuel window is somewhere around 35 laps so really pitting here does nothing for you under caution let's take a look at today's race analysis sponsored by fox nation it takes 200 laps around this two and a half mile trioval to go 500 miles and the race will be run in three stages the first two stages 65 laps each the final stage is 70 laps pit road speed will be 55 miles an hour and larry tells us the pit wind the fuel window you can go 34 to 38 laps on one tank of race games lots of plays into that jeff when you get strung out this is a track that you can actually go part throttle you can get in that draft start easing out of the gas saving fuel so the strategy kind of plays a role in all of this no doubt about that there's many ways a matter of fact you got danny hamlin at the back he might be trying to save some fuel being that far back now you know about the big game but fox bet super six is not done giving away free cash today it's not too late to win clint's money not just free cash it's clint's money yeah i like about it make sure you jump on the free bet fox bet super six app go to this one stage two race ten thousand dollars now this is new it's a stage two contest and here are some of the questions how many cars will be out of the race at the end of stage two i don't know if you saw the pre-race jeff said about half of them 21 cards the biggest mover number of cautions manufacturer pick get in your picks send in them questions to me i'll help you try to get clint's money boys i got to sell something here download the fox bed super six app for free and answer the six questions about stage two for your chance to win and while all that's going on we got kevin harvick eric almarola our top two cars teammates at stuart house racing now the green light at the head into pit road above the wall is on so when it's green light pit road is open under this caution flag doesn't look like any takers so far you might get some of those guys towards the back to come in and top off and in case you're wondering or if you've looked at the forecast if we get to halfway 100 laps any time after that if the race has to be called it's official five laps complete in the daytona 500. oh so foreign [Music] oh under caution at daytona look at the left rear of bubba wallace's car he had to start the race in the back due to inspection failure he and derrick cope got together on the race track cope ended up in the wall out of the race bubba in the pits making repairs but he is back on track well we wondered how derek cope cut down a tire it's very possible that contact between those two is what caused it pretty lucky though for bubba wallace that he was able to get on pit road and fix some of that damage in partnership with netflix's new nascar show the crew bush is interviewing for a spot on kevin harvick's race crew for this season tweet your answer to each question during the race for your chance to win here's kevin with the first question i've been racing most of my life but winning never gets old if you joined my crew how would you help me celebrate in victory lane all right six laps completed they're coming to complete seven and they will do so under green ford's up front kevin harvick outside eric almarola christopher bell ryan newman alex bowman joey logano and we're back to green still clear see ryan newman challenging the lead again at daytona thinking the same thing and look joey logano is going to push him to be the sole leader right now that is so cool with four forwards up front then christopher bell's toyota and ryan preece's chevrolet third on the outside you know one of the things we've been talking about all week was ford and and where they were at on qualifying day cars just didn't show the speed that the chevrolets did and then all of a sudden we get to the draft and look what we have up front they just seem to not only have the speed plant but have the stability the stability to really get on one another's bumpers and push you definitely have to have speed down here that's part of the equation but that old girl's got a handle three wide off turn two matt de benedetto the 21 that white red roof wood brothers ford making it three wide with eric jones and richard petty's chevrolet in the middle [Music] always a debate here early in this race do you want to take those risks and take it three wide here in the opening laps of the daytona 500 500 500 miles you've got a long way to go and that spotters already see it three wide inside outside spot of communication is so important on this racetrack they've been working on it that's the hardest thing about coming down here in limited practice and things that we've had down here they only have what the duels is pretty much it very little uh practice time as you're working on qualifying some speed things like that chase elliott pinned on the inside that number seven that's the new team corey lejoy drives for there's priest to the outside as elliot a series champion and most popular driver works his way forward i know chase hasn't uh you know he didn't sit in the front row like some of his teammates he uh didn't show a lot of spectacular speed in his duel but i heard that he really likes the way his race car is driving looking back from joey logano and matty benedetto in the 21. now teammates right below them corey lejoy in the seven jamie mcmurray in the 77. how about that 43 in the middle eric jones you saw that that highly sort of got stacked up closed up right there yeah it closed up because joey logano knew that run was coming and that's that communication we were talking about that spotter hit spotter told him block get down move down down make that block stop that pass stop the momentum uh oh look at the middle that's where everything is stacked up three wide bumper to bumper you know eric jones has made quite a move remember he had to start this race at the rear of the field due to an engine chain so it didn't take them long to get to the top ten [Music] see those chevrolets lined up in that outside lane you got four four toyota toyota on the inside lane you see some pretty big pushes by that three car austin dillon he won his dual race really really fast he's pushing hard very aggressive obviously you're seeing more of that today not a lot of cars in that middle lane but they don't appear to be getting shot backwards like we often see when they're three wide well there's a little bit of help and you know there is the way the air gets funneled into the middle it'll open up the door just like this for joey logano you can make some moves but you do have to have somebody behind you breaking a little bit of that air as it trips over that rear spoiler and you also have to have confidence in those cars around you as you come into the corners that thing wants to get loose as you exit the corners a lot of times you'll get tight in that pocket of air that he's talking about but there's definitely a pocket if you use it right and you have the right help behind you you can go to your advantage and no surprise as joey leading the charge on that middle lane he's an aggressive super speedway racer now logano drops to the inside kurt bush and the number one now has the middle a video dropped earlier today in which bush hints at retirement possibly at the end of this season long year yes and it's just started well he does have the most starts of anybody in the field today and he's the only driver in this race that was in the 2001 daytona 500. that's like back in your era jeff oh no oh no bowman oh the 24s on his side remember what i said clint about 21 cars i don't know if we got there but man that took out a lot of race cars and a lot of great race cars in there i know eric amarillo was one of the front ones up front so anytime that happens up front you're going to take out a lot of them there's jamie mcmurray all these cars stuck in that mode heavy rain down here overnight right here that is a dozen of destruction when we talk about being aggressive bump drafting switching lanes here early on only 14 laps into this 200 lap race oh eric almarola who won his dual race thought he had a great shot for the 500 all torn up here is almarola's audio i have no vital yeah i'm okay wow unbelievable unbelievable well fast race car [Music] you saw ryan newman climbing out okay christopher bell new to the joe gibbs toyota team in the 20 and eric almarola racing hard here watch the 10 and the 20 down on the bottom you can see the outside 48 alex bowman doing a little side drafting to the right side of eric almarola and i see a gap in between eric and the 20 car and look at the push coming from kyle bush to his teammate christopher bell now that's going to get him to the rear bumper big shot he just got over on that right side i could tell you another part of that equation jeff these cars they have skew in the rear ends that's obviously for speed and make the cars go fast make them pull up to other cars it's also in my experience makes them squirrely when that car hits him it pushes that car into the steer of the rear end and it can turn you in a heartbeat or so reminiscent when eric almarola lost the lead in the closing yards of this race in 2018 dave was along for the ride as soon as he that contact hit it just turned his car right he took the words right out of my mouth unbelievable crushing blow to so many teams so many efforts that it goes into having fast cars and being at this daytona 500 that was a lot of heavy hitters in this one we're gonna ride with ryan newman through this well look at that 24 car go up on the side on two wheels smashed just as badly as he got with his primary car thursday at least a dozen cars involved oh david reagan torn up as well [Music] a little bit more of a run 43 closing on you spinning top just nothing you can do when it happens up front like that carnage in the first 15 laps of the daytona 500. foreign first a millisecond foreign please foreign the daytona 500 on fox is sponsored by ford built ford proud and by credit one bank the official credit card of nascar 1981 that is stock car racing's king richard petty scoring his seventh daytona 500 win a mark that will likely never be equal well mother nature didn't like that wreck either because a couple of lightning bolts within three miles of the racetrack have brought us to a red flag until that moves away here is another look eric almarola turned into alex bowman and it's on it just doesn't take a whole lot you know and and especially if that front bumper hits the rear bumper in the wrong spot and first he got him pretty good you know christopher bell got his front bumper to the rear bumper of amarola on the left side that turned him sideways but then unfortunately as he moved back and forth he hit him in the right side and spun him around riding with kirk bush that's tyler reddick right behind [Applause] didn't take long to get to the crash does it jeff no it doesn't especially when it happens to one of those guys running second or third absolutely nothing you can do especially when you're on the back straightaway because you're pretty much blind all you can see is the car ahead of you maybe one car ahead of that so you're listening to your spotter you see that 20 car of christopher bell getting a big push from the 18 his teammate kyle bush now he's got some a good head of steam here he tries to line up with him at last second though he actually touched him maybe a little bit off to the right and that's what got eric almarola ryan priest he missed that by about half an inch that's that luck part of the equation we talk about i mean how difficult is this to win that right there shows you why it's so hard to win the daytona 500. jamie mcmurray trying to win it for the second time and our friends at advent health put a heart rate monitor on jamie with his permission there it is on the left of your screen coming off turn two 138 beats per minute here we go now he's he's got a run he's he had to check up he's trying to get through the middle so his heart rate's starting to go up already worst case scenario too has that big run coming up on what we all know is happening jumps on the brakes here a little wheel hop he's in it at that point look at that heart rate skyrocketing jamie murray started this race at a heart rate of 100 so that tells you the intensity early on the daytona 500 for a guy like jamie mcmurray you'll see the list of 16 cars involved in the wreck but let me put this in perspective 150 was jamie's max heart rate in that crash when neil armstrong landed on the moon that was supposed to be computer controlled there was a glitch they gave him the controls for the final touchdown his heart rate spiked at 156. why do you know that how do you know that it will just keep on coming it's unbelievable i tell you what was equally unbelievable is how quickly it moved back down but i'm going to tell you that wasn't bad that was not bad for a heart rate with what 15 16 cars piled up in front of you 200 miles an hour i mean let me tell you he's pretty good shape jeff i'm pretty sure my heart rate would have been spiked to the roof if i was landing on the moon a lot of good cars a torn up in that one and nowhere to go no way to avoid it i mentioned priests he got very lucky skilled and lucky a lot of people's luck ran out right there a lot of guys did and you know mike you're just along for the ride there's nothing that you can do in those situations when they're all stacked on top of one another and you know this is why these guys got to be a little more careful with this bump drafting they do it so casually and get so comfortable with the client that it just becomes a natural thing now those that didn't get caught up in that it's a total reset unfortunately it came at a huge cost to 16 cars so clint what do you think of denny hamlin's decision to drop way to the back there with bubba wallace how does that look nice the words right out of my mouth exactly what i was going at that's the reason it's so hard to win three champions or three daytona 500s in a row it's decisions like that hey it's gonna happen early let's get out of here he talked about it in the pre-race show and he just lived it again and by the way he's living to see another lap well and i think it was by choice that denny hamlin decided to go to the back early in this race to play it safe we'll have to find out when we if we get a chance to talk to him but bubba wallace that was not the case he actually took a bad situation and that sent him to the back because of fixing the damage on pit road but ended up being pretty lucky for him in this situation the other thing we talk about is teammates teamwork and how they use that for your strategy to set yourself up to the end of this race to be in position you've got two hendrick cars out you've got are out they're in that wreck both roush cars two front row cars that is a huge part of the equation and getting yourself in a position to win this race now we have talked about the skew that is built into these cars and how that may well have been a contributing factor in this crash here's larry mack yeah i mean mike you would think that these cars go straight down the straightaway just like your passenger car will on the highway but they do things with the rear end housing to try to get the rear spore out of the air that rear spoiler is nine inches tall so if you can skew that rear end to get that right rear corner out of the air then obviously it's going to help the drag of the race car so what clint talked about this is what you would do at a daytona talladega you're going to skew the oxyway so when christopher bell got into him right there on that right rear corner it was already turned just a little bit and it just turns it straight right when you get up there and bump it when you've got that toe of that skew for a daytona or talladega so there is some of the cause here is the effect big crunch to the front nose and and you know eric almarola he's prepared for this he's looking in his mirror spotter's telling big run coming you're just holding the wheel straight knowing that that that that bump is going to come and then if you're christopher bell you're trying to square up on the rear bumper it just looked to me like one car moved left and the other car moved right at the worst possible time as they made contact yeah absolutely you're right as you're looking in the mirror that spotter's telling you all right three two one that's telling you how close he's getting as soon as he feels as soon as you feel that big bump coming that car is going to do something it's going to go one way or another you got to be able to react unfortunately this is there was nothing he could do it literally spun out in 2018 almarola was leading the 500 on the back stretch in the final lap and he got marshall dillon austin won the race and al marola was climbing out of his car in a location very similar to where that car comes to rest right now and when you're inside the car at those speeds and the wreck starts happening it just feels like it takes forever you could see there kurt busch just spinning around on like a top getting hit spinning him left spinning him right look at the damage to the rear uh bumper area of ryan newman there he must have made heavy contact to that wall you're right jeff i mean when you're upwards of 200 miles an hour it it takes a long time to come to a stop from a crash takes a long time to wreck like that now the other factor here is it rained this morning we've had a lot of rain this weekend your car goes off in that grass it's in the mud the splitter digs in you got a wrecked race car even if you don't hit anything well these teams are phenomenal fixing these race cars up good enough to get back into contention but unfortunately for several of them that maybe didn't have tremendous damage they are stuck and going to lose multiple laps because of it on board with ryan newman here that's the one you can't see you think you're doing right you think you have a hole and then that car comes hit him in the right rear and turned him around ryan climbs out goes over to check on kurt bush this guy not afraid to get a little muddy i tell you what he sees is he's stuck kurt's he's going to survive to see another lap here he's just stuck in the mud oh ryan hill farmer boy is going to help him out i wonder if he was looking at the right side of kurt busch's car looking for some of his paint i think he was definitely just giving him a damage report that's exactly what he was doing okay so we're under the red flag drivers have climbed from their cars and under red flag rules the teams cannot work on the cars they can walk around them and survey the damage and figure out what to do once the red flag is lifted 16 cars pile up on the back straightaway at daytona the daytona 500 on fox is sponsored by kfc hillary this afternoon wwe smackdown women's champion sasha banks to wave the green flag to start the race here's michael cole with a preview of what's ahead this week on smackdown elimination chamber combatants collide when kevin owens daniel bryan and cesaro battle jay uso king corbin and sami zayn in his six-man tag team match it's an all-new friday night smackdown live at eight eastern on fox cascarala comes to pitt road for tires and fuel so does pj mccloud they give up the front spots number of drivers came in to top off here to try to go the distance of 65 laps in stage number one bunch of chevrolets up front and get us back going and then some fords one toyota denny hamlin there in the top ten now those words you've been waiting six and a half hours to hear green flag next time bye i love those words mike i'm ready man with with all the damage under that caution it's going to be interesting to see who works with who who's looking for who obviously see two teammates starting on the inside right here interesting to see how they do from 16th on back just pitted kyle busch on back chase elliott austin dillon kyle larson ryan preece and ricky stenhouse five chevrolets at the front of the field on this restart then the forwards of custer encindric hamlin's toyota harvick and kozlowski in ford's those are your top ten well fans thanks for sticking with us as we get ready to start restart the 63rd daytona 500 they approach the geico restart zone anywhere in that area the control car the leader chase elliott can hit the gas and we'll ride along and listen here we go you got a better person he does here comes a pretty good push [Applause] [Music] austin dillon getting that push from the 37 of ryan preece takes the lead well like i really thought after what we just saw with that big crash to it you know go to the red flag that we would see these guys maybe being a little more careful when it comes to the bump drafting saw a couple good shots in the exact same place that it happened yeah earlier getting into turn three big shot to the ninth priest went way high he's gonna get shuffled out and all 29 cars on track made more than minimum speed that lap and are eligible to continue pull custer on the outside right behind him you ride with denny hamlin yeah he's not going to go to the back anymore folks he's there he's in the front you're going to see the aggressive and calculated danny hamlin for the rest of this race and comfortable up there i either want to be up front or in the back i do not want to be in the middle of this thing especially right now oh he's going to go through nicole custer speaking to the middle boy how about that move he pushes cole custer out there he's right on his rear bumper and able to just drive right by him on the inside and that's what i love about daytona it this man dropped to the back one wreck change of events he's competing to lead this race and cole custer's going all the way towards the back [Music] two daytona 500 winners on point dylan on the inside hamlin three-time winner on the outside [Music] clear both lanes whatever you need here too far out two back to both one and a half to both top's going to be tight as when it gets there keeping kyle busch lined up 16th for that restart he's up in the top eight it's a candy man on the outside four cars back in the outside lane i love something that i heard right there chris lambert the spotter for danny hamlin too far out if you get too far out in front it's so easy for those cars that are lined up behind you to get a big run and build so much momentum that you can't hold them back you can't block them and even if it's a teammate behind you you'll get such a run that he's got to go if he hit him in the rear end it would spin him around and cause another crash denny did a great job him and his teammate of controlling that block moving down moving up slowing those runs down keeping them in front [Applause] hard to believe we started with what five toyotas were down to four bells all the way back in 18 but three of them are up towards the front [Music] saw that rear bumper on william byer and they tried to repair it but boy a lot of sheet metal there who was it they got a piece of it there yeah that was actually the fender too that's yeah i know it wasn't just that rear fascia was it that's uh made out of a different material that was actually the left rear quarter panel if the rear fascia is gone he it looks like it's still hanging on there because you cannot run here per the nascar rule if that rear fascia that rear bumper's gone it's still hanging on there though and larry he'll need to pit because if he loses that out on the track they can't go get another one can they yeah they because that's a mandatory piece they can they can replace that yes flagger's got a black flag in his hand boys i'd say the 24 is gonna have to pit and get that fixed i mistakenly said kyle was back at row eight on the restart he was until those cars peeled off at the last minute to get fuel before we restart it now these guys are starting to think about 500 miles mike they finally jockeyed for position as the black flag waves for william byrne that rear bumper cover and fascia is just about to get ripped off that race car but these guys are now single file they're in that mode of okay what do we got to do here to get to the end of this stage and then battle it out among ourselves for those stage points we need to ride right right there i like where you're at we're not in the lead i don't care just ride make some laps long laps and there's something about that high line clint as soon as that leader starts running that high line and nobody starts fighting them for that position they all seem to get single file real real quick i call it the dale jr line he was the one that started that thing and as soon as it happened everybody tries to if you get the lead you try to get up there and make it happen byron just to clarify on william byron he's on pit road he met minimum speed he doesn't have to worry about that clock anymore they can take as much time as they want to repair that car thanks larry 24 cars are on the lead lap back to the 78 of b.j mcleod mcmurray and reddick are two laps down byron three laps truex and kirk bush four laps back in 29th position 11 cards are out of the race 36 laps complete race fans instead of going to a commercial break we're gonna stay right here and go toyota all out hey you see this i'm excited to return to the toyota racing family they put their faith in me at a young age hamlin on point oh rick quinn half and chase briscoe and caution is out for the third time at lap 38. i had just looked up naturally and was looking where the 14 was he was back in it like a three-car pack off of the field a little bit now those cars were on the lead lap in 22nd and 23rd positions doesn't look like chase is getting too much damage but he's rolling slow clint and the winner that's down on quinn health which means he's okay but the car is not see he's just trying to nurture that left front tire from coming apart tearing up the front fender limping back to pit road yeah we're gonna have to back it up a little bit more they're already spun right there clearly uh contact or you know something happened between these two guys that got him collected and went for a heck of a spin down the front straightaway looked like the whole right rear was down on quinn house car yeah he definitely was in here as well said what left rear i don't know if it stopped here entire blue because i ran over something when i threw it off hit my windshield ran over the quarter panel that came off the 24 car i was going to say the same thing we saw when that quarter panel came off the 24 car william byron it flew back and hit a car and i it was the double zero of quinn house that definitely hit it first in addition to that panel which is a fiberglass-like material something was off there throwing sparks there was metal support structure and that's likely uh what cut that tire down yeah i think that was the the back half of the water panel and the left quarter panel definitely metal and bj mcleod run over it as well another piece so good chance right as you heard him see on the radio left rear tire goes down you're along for the ride at that point and and and somewhere within that chase briscoe was just an inspiration he saw quinn house climbing into the ambulance to take the mandatory ride to the advent health care center and the right front is torn up on frisco he you know he was trying so hard got to be very careful but he was going to go lap down and you know what happens when you think you're going to go a lap down you start going a little faster and that tire comes apart [Music] such a tough thing to weigh out there you're right jeff can't go a lap down and you know the spot of the crew chiefs in is here telling him man make sure you stay in the lead lap it's so important but this early in the game it's probably a lot better than having that huge damage on the front of that car third caution flag in the daytona 500 this one for quinn house [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] welcome back to the daytona 500 on fox brought to you by nascar's premier partners 40 laps complete working the third caution of the race denny hamlin has been out in front for the last nine laps brad keselowski second toyota and a ford bubba wallace kyle bush joey legano the top five there's the running order on the left of your screen with now 22 cars on the lead lap quinn house joins the 11 cars out of the race from the first and second caution flags they're going to make sure they got this thing completely buttoned up taped up whatever they got to do to fasten that thing to it to keep it on the track this next time it goes out there martin truex four laps down using this caution flag to pit now jamie mcmurray one lap down he's whistling around here i believe he's the free pass car so on the caution flag the first car that is not on the lead lap is awarded the chance to free pass around and gain a lap back during that caution period still in it jamie mack keep it going we'll check in on our fox colleague throughout the race tonight [Music] there's our fox visor cam and thank you bubba wallace for wearing that for us the digital dash all part of the electronic engine management system big wide mirror there oh yeah you want to see anything and everything that might be coming to your outside inside you see that side mirror interesting you see the orange line in it what is that jeff well i know that's something that denny puts into uh his left side mirror so i i feel confident that bubba's adopted that too and it just gives you an idea of depth perception of that car that's behind you maybe they're creeping up to your left rear and you know when they cross above that line that they're at the plane of your rear bumper i've noticed he's only got two jeffery you know when i was side by side with you you had what ten five one on you at all times so that little round mirror i was like where's boyd kept there to the inside of the car unlike the mirror on your passenger car that's all for arrow so it doesn't create any drag on the outside but it's effective because you don't use that for the positioning of the car that might be in your blind spot you just don't you just want to know is he there is he not there well you're very limited to what nascar will allow you to do there as far as as the size of the mirror and what you can see it's it's not like you can just put a big mirror and hang it out the left side window like on your street car and as things progress years went by that gap in between that window net keeps getting tighter and tighter and tighter which creates a different side mirror for everybody well and a lot of it clint is safety look right here at chase elliot's car you can see that that opening as you mentioned is is very small and that's to prevent any debris tire anything from coming into that left side window so that's a good safety feature but it's also created a little bit of an aerodynamic opportunity there for these race teams they'll take advantage of anything they can all right larry they keep shutting these cars off as they roll around under caution i mean come on the gas is free right yeah i mean what thing if you're saving fuel even if you know you're going gonna pit it into stage one the more fuel you can save the least amount they have to dump in it mike plus it also cools the car back down when they shut the engine off i was gonna say and at the end of this thing if you need it it's priceless right [Music] i noticed here looking at joe lagano that that shield i can't it's not clear right so did they uh it may be just a smoke shield so he can see through it even at nighttime but normally i would have gone to a clear shield at night i don't know if they even thought about that but also there's some some on the top of his helmet i'm trying to figure out who that is he ran that shield in the duels notice the same thing and i it caught me off guard everybody's eyes are different everybody's sensitive to different things you always never know what somebody's going to obviously danny's got a clear one but i do agree i have no idea what that white thing is on the top of his helmet definitely different and there's a lot of different helmet manufacturers uh hamlin likes a schuberth a lot of drivers like steelo or bell yeah right yes and a lot of it is is the inlet you see in the back of kurt bush's helmet where that hose comes in that puts a little fresh cool air it's not air conditioning necessarily but it just gives you something to keep you a little cooler and fresher inside that helmet go to the fox bed super six apps still time to play clint's stage two contest and take his money went ten thousand for sure all right we're gonna come green this time hamlin keslowski hamlin elects the outside that is the leader's choice which lane to restart in and we're back to green bubba wallace gives brad keselowski a big push and he's way out front not afraid to push baba wallace gave that to oh he's gonna go three wide through the middle going to the front baby here we come is he gonna reconnect with this boss man up there in front denny hamlin and look at that three toyotas right at the front of the field and that's what at this stage in the race you're brad keselowski you take note of what just went on there with bubba wallace you thought you might have a drafting partner and a friend not at all not that time anyway watch how boba got that momentum to drive right up through the middle 22 joey logano you see the 23 above wallace jr pushes the two brad kisloski out there then he gets a huge push from joey logano the momentum on the two of keselowski slowed down that allowed bubba wallace in that 23. just go right on by here's the visor cam we'll see it from the best angle you could possibly ask for [Music] see you could hear the rpms pick it up as he's getting the draft getting that push i'll tell you another thing just in case you're sitting at home thinking i wonder what this denny hamilton's going to do when his own car gets up there he blocked him and put him to the back just like he did everybody else hamlin and kyle bush up front ryan preece in a chevy in third austin cendrick in his daytona 500 debut in fourth yesterday cendrick did what hadn't been done since randy lejoy in 1997 the defending xfinity series champion coming to daytona and winning the season opener and it was a great race yesterday i was fortunate enough to call it with tony stewart you must feel like you've been in the booth for 20. i said fortunately i don't know it was it was a lot of fun we really had fun jamie and his win yesterday was the first for the penske organization and tonight this is his first cup series start he'll do four to five races this year the man on top of the box that's miles stanley he's actually the race engineer for ryan blaney so he was doing double duty this weekend in the pit crew by the way they're the ones that went to victory lane last night so they're double dipping having a great time in their first outing looking very good right now fourth and the first ford in the race priests in third the first chevrolet two toyotas out front you know jeff when you come down here and speed weak now not speed weeks and limited practice and things like that is that it's almost an advantage to have that xfinity race under your belt i agree i mean the duels were good but all everybody was really protecting the race cars to try to make sure that that's the car they started this race with but that expanding race might be the best practice session you could possibly have here's the 22 joey legano getting into the rear bumper of cole custer well custer moved up the racetrack uh anticipating legano's run didn't want him to go by and look they lost a lost a bit of distance to the front runners that way well as this thing starts to get single file you if you're you get stuck on that inside lane you're just looking as fast as you can to move up even if you know you're going to block somebody that has a big run like joey logano did by the way william byron got back out on track he is seven laps down all right the caution flag got in the way let's try this again race fans instead of going to a commercial break we're gonna stay right here and take you toyota all out and up front two of those joe gibbs toyota's denny hamlin kyle busch yeah we saw in that last restart kyle busch locks onto the rear bumper denny hamlin pushes him to the lead and even though bubba wallace and brad keselowski took a run at him these guys prevail running first and second now leading this train certainly have coach looking good don't they i tell you in the in the pre-race show jeff i said i said i don't think denny's got a chance there's no chance lady luck is part of the equation of winning this daytona 500. surely they can't strike again i was looking bad and how about christopher bell working his way up now into the top ten jeff how he got way back they had to come in a second time when they tried to do fuel only the car would not take fuel they had to come back raise the deck lid to figure out what was going on that's how he got in the back of the pack and in between them bubba wallace in the 23 brand new race team this year somewhat formed from the former levine family racing some personnel and equipment but they are in seventh place right now up front denny hamlin trying to do something only dale jr has done before top four in six straight super speedway races we continue with toyota all out the world broadcast premiere of toyota racing's the dream with bubba wallace here's a look hey you see this i'm excited to return to the toyota racing family they put their faith in me at a young age which i am incredibly grateful for this next step for me though is for every kid out there with a dream along the way you will face challenges but trust me no matter what stand tall and keep pushing i'm ready check out toyota racing on their social channels for the complete short film the dream there's their running order at 51 laps remember 65 is the end of stage one that's the 14 you go you see in the upper left of your screen look at third place there ryan priest now a lot's been made of michael jordan's entry into racing he is the second nba superstar in nascar team ownership cleveland cavaliers all-star center brad doherty is the co-owner of ryan priest's third place running car and the ricky stenhouse car has been for quite a while what else do doherty and jordan have in common they're both lifelong race fans since childhood vince well brad daugherty is super proud of the way his jtg daughter cars have run this week especially priests considering he came in did not have a guaranteed spot into the 500 in fact darty has talked about the fact they don't have the funding to run the entire series uh series season in that 37. they're going to make some smart business decisions but he said we've got to take advantage of the opportunities we get they've got a big one today and so far they've taken advantage love it showed up down here daytona got to make this race definitely made the race qualify their way in running third and fellas i left the blind obvious on the floor doherty and jordan man why is he pulling out right there gonna go back a couple spots drops from 12th to 14th could be just you know trying some things out see what his race car is going to do how maybe get a run on some guys maybe sometimes in this position somebody checks up in front of you and you might get a run and make that pass but obviously chase elliot he's wanting to pull some other cars to the bottom lane and maybe work his way forward before they get to the end of this stage well he pulled up alongside joey logano and he's still coming by himself on the inside picked up two got alongside cole custer in the 41 gives a little of that back yeah but what he's really trying to do is get some others to come with him you know he's in a position where he's not going to be able to make any spots by himself but if he keeps pulling down there he might get somebody ahead of him somebody behind him to join them and as they if they can build that lane up they will work their way forward let's jump up to fifth place where austin dillon and his team talk about strategy they might employ at the end of this stage [Music] we're gonna do it late three four to go and the problem is if they start shifting the top should roll yeah ten four that's what i'm hoping because it's a ways back we're gonna have to have a good round if we do pull out because we can all right so what's their tom has exactly what chase elliot's interested in and maybe they're communicating with him also but they're going to wait for a few more laps here and try to get go together get a big run go to the bottom lane and maybe move themselves forward and get a few other takers to go with them we saw this play out during the duel jeff the three car has been sitting back there running about 50 throttle because if he can't go 100 stuck back there in the middle of all those cars and you could hear him say the five car i haven't heard a lot about kyle larson today quietly just hovering around fifth sixth spot and uh austin dillon feels like he's got somebody that's gonna work with him when he makes that move and watching that throttle just think about how much fuel he's saving riding in that pack right there where he's at right behind him kyle larson new to the rick hendricks stable and if you look closely at the paint scheme on larson's number five not the colors but the graphic layout boy does that look like the car that ricky hendrick drove in what's now the xfinity series well i think a lot of history here for rick kendrick and making this move to bring kyle larson back to the cup series and that number five was their original number that rick kendrick started his organization with yeah back when he was all-star racing and jeff beaudine won their first race on a day when rick said if we can't score today we're going to have to shut it down they scored and well the rest is history [Applause] kyle larson sixth as we close down on the end of stage number one joey logano is a lonely guy he tried to move up on ricky stenhouse on the inside that didn't go these guys just keep here nobody wants to ride line further back well you get that big run you feel like superman here we go here we go you get down there ah what the heck let's take let's see what we have well now it's stenhouse and it looks like he may get michael mcdowell come up to help at the end of the stage the top 10 drivers receive championship points and the stage winner receives a playoff point and he carries with him all season long and mike we heard on the radio with austin dillon they're going to go with five to go some of these guys a little bit further back trying some things before them but inside five to go watch for more cars to start making some moves because of those stage points they do want to get further forward plus helps their pit crew out on pit road when the uh into the stage is over and they go down pit road to get that service well we'll see if anything can break up this toyota duo at the front hamlin and bush priest and a chevy syndra can afford dylan and larson in chevrolets i want to go back to priest he qualified into this race but when he went into the duel he raced his way in he he was up front pushing hard and and we saw on the last corner he makes some pretty aggressive moves to get himself a couple extra positions kids are racers i mean he went over to new smyrna mike you were telling us and that modified started at the back right that's right his way up won the race that was wednesday night after qualifying here won the john blewett memorial in his own modified [Music] watch chase elliott in the nine christopher bell just ahead in that yellow and black car whoa whoa oh man that was close chase elliott went to side draft to six on the all-time daytona 500 lap leader list displacing one jeff gordon back to seventh and chasing bobby allison for fifth most all time just a matter of time like the way denny hamlin runs on these super speedways especially here at daytona five to go in stage one no move yet by those chevrolets you're not going to see anything but green on this leader you're going to run wide open there's no no lifting no no saving any throttle and you saw that yellow marker that's actually where the steering wheel is at so you'll see in the corner move to the left to turn left here they go there they go kevin harvick it's the boards yeah the ford's trying to pull keselowski i wouldn't be surprised if a couple other guys there they come see who pulls down tries to block that run ah one run i think you're going to see ryan priest pull down that's who i think you're going to see take a shot at it will syndra go with him that's the question i don't think cendrick will but i think the three of austin dillon the five of kyle larson might [Music] all right three to go in stage one time growing short at least one lap car ahead of them they provide a little bit of a towel i'm just going to try it again taking three more forwards behind him oh joe he's already bailed he he saw what ricky stenhouse jr did a little bump drafting down the back straightaway using redick right here at kevin harvick following suit in that draft see if he can get a run and stenhouse is being aggressive pushing legato trying to close that gap up so these guys get locked down on the inside with two laps to go in the stage pit road will close i think that plan for austin dillon went from five to go to one to go i don't think you're gonna see him make a move here as early as we thought they were brian priest the 37 said on the radio i'm not pulling out with three to go if i'm pulling out it's gonna be on the last lap he said with eight to go how about kyle larson [Music] back straight away back straight away i'll be back to the stage checker well that's pretty obvious that's the plan except for not not for ricky sinhaus jr but but the thing is okay so that's what they're gonna plan they've talked about on the radio now who's going to counter that move stenhouse wants to get up there with him there goes dylan to the bottom here goes larson here is priests and down come the toilet kyle bush was looking for that move gonna work out for larson and austin dillon oh he got to the outside priest got to the outside of the 18 got a big run hamlin will hold him back there and a lot of jostling as syndra got into the back of kyle larson there hamlin won a league leading 11 stages in 2020 and here they come to the line to complete stage one enough for wallace hamlin over priests and dylan sorry mike got excited today and i thought those two guys have legano and bubba wallace jr were gonna join one another joey cut him a break right there did the right thing backed out of it he also said he's gonna go below that yellow line and how about this guys he had a decision it makes what he had yeah it all happened on the last lap of stage one danny hamlin the winner 11. oh the daytona 500 on fox is sponsored by coca-cola zero sugar tastes unbelievably delicious pit crews at the ready wearing cameras wearing lights and with the tools of their trade at hand denny hamlin leads them onto pit road here's vince ryan priest in that 37 car gonna peel off pitting from second place they really like their car and he has shown it it's just gonna be a four tire change the three of austin dillon upper left he grazed the wall on the back stretch so they'll give it a look but otherwise fine regan bottom up to your screen christopher bell that race car is just too loose on entry the back of it wants to slide out jamie denny hamlin in the 11 has led 35 laps a little bit tighter than in the duels he also said he feels like he's slow out front they told him this really dense air makes the car a little more draggy than it was the other night here's your ram race off pit road won by hamlin over bell and dillon and kyle busch picks up five of those 11 positions he lost in the final half lap of stage one style of denny right here hey danny hamlin's boy up in the booth you got us man we talked to you at the beginning of the race seems like yesterday but uh i don't know what i'm more impressed of to be honest with you the fact that you pulled out a line didn't like what you saw went to the back avoided that big wreck or the fact that you knew now leading the stage and leading this race pretty impressive well honestly the reception's really bad when i'm on the back stretch i didn't really hear you but i'm sure it was super entertaining you know our authentic camera has been pretty good i mean i've liked it all week um you know we're definitely fortunate you know to kind of you know play the strategy right there with the fuel to get us in track position that we were able to get to the front but overall i mean i like this view a lot better than his back and wait but uh we'll just see how the rest of the race plays out well man i it was entertaining i was actually praising you the fact that you knew to pull out a line we always talk about how's danny hamlin get to the end of this thing pulled out of line avoided that big wreck and now you're in the lead so keep up the good work appreciate it thank y'all denny hamlin daytona 500 defending champion and now stage one winner [Music] players is now now [Music] oh welcome back to daytona as we try to answer the question how was kyle busch in second place with a lap to go in the stage and end up out of the top ten here's off turn two he's trying to be a good teammate and follow denny hamlin but ryan priest had something else in mind he gets to the outside because he had that push from austin dillon so now the 18's dropping that big spoiler just a parachute in the air but look what happens here ricky stenhouse jr takes him three wide yeah obviously he didn't have any help down there whatsoever and the minutes the help did come spitting three wide and ricky stenhouse going under him there's that that moment where the three cars dill brushed the outside wall look how hard they're doing the five car getting the push now you saw ricky stenhouse jr he goes low and he gets on the yellow line with those left sides but he did not go below the yellow line hey you think kyle bush will make radioactive this weekend larry does let's listen only we get shuffled out what why do we suck so bad at flight races that was they used to run restrictor plates on these engines at daytona and talladega some drivers especially when they're upset still call these plate races every now and then just daytona happens the plate is no more jeff you've been doing this a long time i don't see anything he did wrong right now no no but yeah materialized differently than when he was at well you're going to learn something while you're up here boyer and that's kyle bush he gets very frustrated and that's how he blows off his steam oh i know a little something about that all right we also listened in on denny hamlin definitely feels super draggy up front feels slow the hair is really really down foot really dense so pretty rare conditions too different so guys i conferred with my colleague dr pella tt rahra and of course dense air is heavier air and as it moves through the air it slows it down because it has to push aside more molecules air resistance is called drag clary that sounds like a lot of hot air to me [Laughter] well there's that thick heavy dense air well i got news for the competition if they figure out how to make that thing fast they're in big trouble it's already at the lead but definitely dense air heavier air will will make it feel draggier it all kid in the side it will make it feel like it's slower and you know what else will when you're out front because yeah you're the one pushing all that dense air he gets one of them cars pushing on him pretty hard he'll feel like he's going pretty fast especially when they get to pushing that baby gets a deal in that old hospital hop down the back straightaway saw shane side to side that gets your attention at the track like this so denny hamlin will be the control car on this restart as the leader he elects the outside lane hamlin's crew chief chris gabhard is two for two he's never lost a daytona 500. i think the odds are starting to go back in somebody's favor it's unreal why did i bet against him not over yet man we got a long way to go by the way we're going to stage two boyer all right so which manufacturer is gonna win stage two here they come to the geico restart zone [Music] [Music] rookie austin cindrick in the 33 with penske teammates behind him in the 22-2 a rookie trying to lead the daytona 500 here you're going to get some lessons and drafted it's going to come from joey logano basically a teammate they still locked up and they are that's something we haven't seen all week if they are okay finally cendrick leads this lap talk about thick air that is trouble for the spotters as well something to think about justin probably doesn't look too bad from you from your angle but this fog if it keeps moving in much more than it is right now they're not gonna be able to finish this thing that is brandon banash he is uh austin dillon spotter a little difficult from the route what a little difficult out of here the vortex thing here we go dw when we need him get the vortex man i love what i see at austin centric yep great job he did yesterday being a champion of the xfinity series showing up here huge ride for him huge opportunity in his first daytona 500 and i'll be darn if he isn't leading this thing what clint's talking about is the theory that these cars create a rising round column of warm air that keeps rain and storms and fog away it's been debunked by scientists but we believe the vortex theory works when it does it's hot air all right but dw he was a hell of a salesman i can tell you that well there's some rising from the booth as well i'm sure kenny hamlin back to the front with christopher bell and austin dillon well austin dillon's going to go to the outside of the big room it's got a big push from kyle larson but kyle bush working his way back to the front now we got three toyotas bumper to bumper and then kevin harvick in the mix and ross chastain moves up behind harvick on the inside in the 42. oh then he could get in trouble here oh he just squeezed up in front of the three of austin dillon right there could have been an opportunity he was trying to work both lanes if he had not gotten up in for that three car they may have taken him three wide shuffled him back jamie kevin harvick has a really good car in that four but he was shuffled outside the top ten as crew chief rodney childers said you need to run with the 20 the 23 and the 11. i know it's not what we want but those are the best cars right now and he has gotten himself up there running next to the 11 right now time for the next bush interview question in partnership with netflix's the crew if you join kevin harvick's crew what would your nickname be amongst your new teammates tweet your answer now using the hashtag thecrew and hashtag bush contest for your chance to win a paid spot on harvick's racing crew hey i tried out for it uh yeah you look great yeah we saw that 50 000 on the lines extra job i could do this you're going down i can help him out with a pic pit stop couldn't i you blow it down yeah if if it's handing beverages to those guys i'm really good at that we could do that you know this is the point in the race jeff as a race car driver you're always trying to find where to get established who's going to be you know who's the cars to run with and now you're starting to see them the front runners are established i like what i see out of these gibbs cars they found one another they're working well with one another and they're doing that at the front of the pack remember that fellow who a little while ago said why do we suck he has sucked his way up into second place kyle bush behind christopher bell listen he gets frustrated and he says a lot of things on the on the radio but it never stops him right from moving forward and doing his job and doing it well short wink flames up flames out right back that now here's one of the questions in clint's stage two contest on the fox bet super six app hope you made your pick i did and i don't think i picked that side i mean it's no chance i'm getting my money back all right vince well you might have three toyotas there at the front but that chevrolet of austin dillon is fast and they have been happy with this course it won a duel earlier in the week and uh their crew chief justin alexander told me earlier in the day we have got a great race car we've hardly touched it since the duel we thought we felt like it was good enough to race and win with then and there was no sense changing it and there have been nothing but good comments coming from austin dillon with this three car tonight keep an eye on him and they won their dual race here thursday night as did eric almarola who's already been knocked out of this race christopher bell in front his new teammate kyle bush in second [Music] to help him speaking about air on the nose debris on the nose for the 20 of christopher bell see that on a lot a lot on a lead car like this they're the first ones at it vacuum sweeper reagan well we heard that audio from kyle busch just now he also said that he was way happier with that 20 car up front felt like they were faster and his car was able to work just a little bit better with that 20 car than the teammate of denny hamlin and the 11 behind him so keep an eye on that as this race progresses along didn't the same thing happen to christopher bell in his dual race thursday night yeah you're absolutely right with the debris on the nose and and you know right now he's got clean air to the nose as long as he keeps an eye on the temperatures it's fine it actually might help reduce some of the drag even though that that debris kind of has some shape to it but as long as the temperatures are fine he's good but boy if that temperature starts to go up he's going to have to get out of line and get behind the car try to knock that debris off 15 laps complete in stage two of the 63rd daytona 500 let's go fox side by side [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 82 laps complete in the daytona 500 the toyotas of christopher bell kyle busch and denny hamlin on point the chevy of austin dillon fourth the forward mustang of austin centric with joey logano his teammate in fifth still 23 cars on the lead lap 28 cars in the race clint was in this race last year and i know you miss it take us for a ride here i don't miss this part jeff it's never any fun to ride single five but the biggest thing that you look for right here is just taking a breather obviously slowing this race down because you know what's coming but the biggest thing i look at look over here on the left you can see their throttle i'm trying to save my crew chief and my team as much fuel as i can doing it effectively so i don't lose a gap to where they're gonna stack up and try to pass me or put me you know on a hole and i can lose positions but if i can save fuel this is a this is definitely a great opportunity to do that that's about it though that's about all you can do right here long laps long laps and make sure you get to the end our box colleague jamie mcmurray back on the lead lap now he's in 15th position in this one-off ride in the spire 77. we kidded him during the week told him we were going to dial him up under green and at first he was all for it and then then he thought about it that was not he realized we were serious yeah right we won't do that folks what's what's his heart rate there 124 beats per minute that's pretty calm it was 155 earlier in the uh big pile up on 14. decent dream of sleeping man hey if he could see the splitter on and the nose of that car his heart rate might go up a little bit but i don't think there's a whole lot of downforce coming to the front of that car yeah i was happy for him obviously you know been a while since he's been in the car got caught up in that wreck and you and i both right dang it and when we saw him down there in the mud but it's really not all that damaged one of our favorite little fox future wrecks is jamie on jamie yeah it's fun to get to do that again i missed jamie out on the racetrack but just before we went green again the team was jumping on that splitter trying to get it down and jamie as you guys were just saying that he radioed to the team and said we need to do something look at how high that splitter is he said i can feel it we need to work on it and they said as soon as we come in next time we'll we'll hook you up they said yeah not only does that hurt the speed of the car but what it's doing is packing air underneath it and creating lift is trying to lift the nose and not plant those front tires so i bet he's really pushing through the corner probably getting a little tight right now and i think that's why he's backed away from brad keselowski here um because he actually wants to try to get some air and and because that car is getting so tight what i love about what he said here's the 2010 winner of this race he's not just here to ride in the daytona 500 he wants that car fixed so he can get up there and try to win it mike you ever heard a race car driver use this term when they're whining complaining about their cars floating the nose trust me that one's floating we can see it floating the nose [Applause] 23 of 65 complete in stage two we are 13 laps from halfway at which point this race becomes official tonight as they come off turn number four we'll let you know when to turn it back down but for right now crank it up for the next he may just be laying back practice girl gets pulled [Music] how many cars are behind him [Music] got a couple guys 147 it's still gonna be a at least a five to eight position loss maybe [Music] nose to tail 18. [Music] this now [Music] [Music] oh all right crank it back down we don't want to wake the kids 91 laps complete here in daytona nine to halfway and let's have a look at one of clint's stage two contest questions which team will win stage two well the top one on the list has led all the laps a lot of people didn't pick gibbs right right up pick gibbs cause take clint's money please i'm gonna need a little bit of money to get home i don't live in florida jack [Laughter] well certainly those those gibbs toyotas have done a pretty phenomenal job getting in position but as we saw before look who's in fourth right you've got austin dillon who made some moves at the end of that last stage so once we wind down we get to the end of this stage this this might shake things up plus we might have some green flag stops there's the austin and austin show running fourth and fifth right there dylan and cendrick use whatever tools you have at hand as they do the not so happy dance on the splitter of jamie [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that someone says nascar the one name of you three that people won't associate with nascar would be you i don't know but people don't realize you've been a big nascar fan from i grew up i grew up in nascar my father used to pack the whole family in we go to darlington we go to rockingham we go to charlotte we came down to daytona talladega and we would just go and we spend the whole day and from that point on i've been hooked on nascar i remember hoss ellington who owned the number one car remember donnie allison cale yarborough in the 79 500 that hawaiian tropic car boss ellington he owned an insulation shop in wilmington north carolina that also housed the race cars he would tell us that michael jordan was one of a group of junior high school kids would ride their bikes over to the shop a couple times a week to see what was going on and we all went yeah yeah yeah that's right you heard it right there lifelong race fan love it well i can tell you yeah he's here buddy and it's so cool to have him here and a part of this sport telling that story being a part of 23-11 i mean it's it's it's almost surreal for me everybody grew up idolizing this guy and to see him being a part of our sport it couldn't be better second year driver in his first point race in the nascar cup series with the joe gibbs racing team christopher bell out in front of this race for 24 laps so far reagan well mike these guys always have to be thinking ahead take a listen to what christopher bell's crew chief adam stevens just said to the spotter to remind his driver as we get ready for potential green flag stops here we need to be looking stevie and uh where the grip is on the entry i'm sure the closer we get to the inside the wetter it's gonna be so will be not like anything like practice oh very good point right there as soon as he said jeff what you and i do we looked exactly what he was talking about and he's right it's wet green flag pit stops coming up [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the daytona 500 on fox is sponsored by progressive insurance save when you bundle auto home or motorcycle insurance well that huge collective sigh you heard as we went to break were the crossed flags 100 laps halfway in the daytona 500 and per the nascar rules this race will be official tonight whether or not of course we hope to run the entire 200 laps that is our goal but we will crown a winner of the 500 this evening joe gibbs toyota's one two three a richard childress chevy in fourth and penske ford's in fifth and sixth you know we talk about these three toyotas up front and our leader christopher bell and how the 18 car made up those spots that he had lost on pit road he gained five spots on pit road and so you got to give that team a lot of credit not only kyle did a nice job getting to the front but that pit crew helped him out probably calmed him down a little bit too here comes some forwards to pit road cendrick logano kozlowski along with harvick briscoe and custer [Music] vince joey legato in that 22 car they've been fairly pleased with it but you see they're going to put tape on the front and also the wrench in the rear fuel only for the 22 of logano everybody out but briscoe whose car is damaged mike mcdowell comes in by himself as joey gasted alapago [Applause] so the forward contenders near the front of the field have made their green flag pit stop there are four toyotas out there not counting martin truex who is eight laps down and the rest are camaros will have to come in at least within the next three to four laps and we've been seeing even the dual race and the chevrolets i've been watching them they've been saving a lot of fuel they could run a little bit longer if they wanted to i'm a little worried about these fords guys because look at the line of cars you've got what 10 cars lined up right now compared to four or five fords that just came down pit road the longer they stay out on this track the faster they're going to make up time and just build that gap to those sports that just came under green yeah the only thing the forts can do right there is get together as soon as possible you can see they're finally found each other get to pushing on one another and get that momentum going because this big pack is gonna run them down so larry with only four toyotas can they afford to stop by themselves or do they need to stop with some of those chevys mike when you're out front you have no choice you're the one making the call up there all right we should see a group this time see him start moving to the bottom right here bringing the pack down hamlin had a hand out the window and chase elliot faints to come with them they ain't coming with them guys we've been watching their throttle they've been saving fuel they're going to let those toyotas come by themselves depending on their green right here their strength in numbers certainly these guys fitting with just three or four cars they're going to have to make oh i don't know about christopher bell he was going pretty quick getting on pit road reagan well christopher bell was reminded to get heat in the brakes to make sure that what you saw happen there did not a little bit free as he got onto pit road that race car has been good kyle busch on the right of your screen that car's a little bit loose off of four jamie three-time daytona 500 champion denny hamill a little bit tight right sides and fuel that's at a good stop as you see the reaction by the 11 team yeah when you're that leader like christopher bell was you're you got you don't have your a little heat coming down back straight away as you're getting to three and four just get a little bit of temperature in those brakes to help the those four tires grip under braking come to pittsburgh and doing that you do have to put your foot on you drag the brakes a little bit get that did ryan priest make a mistake by pitting without friends well it doesn't even look like they're going to put any tires on but when he comes out he may have nobody to draft with see the chevrolet is pulling down now look for them to pit this lap and you see the hands out the window cooperation right here we saw it yesterday in the xfinity race stacked him up coming on a pit road big big brick now the varian strategy the fords remember did fuel only all the toyota drivers and teams did right side tires here comes the chevrolets execution execution defense well austin dillon's team warning him about some wet spots on pit road you see him pulling in along with kyle larson no changes for that three but a little tape on the front larson needed a little bit of help still a little too tight for that five jamie defending series champion chase elliott on the right and the nine fuel only a little bit different strategy than the toyotas ross chastain coming in stayed way out toward the grass way late held up the cars behind him then he cut sharply into his pit everybody got away from that okay here come those fords with all their momentum built up chevrolet's going through turns one and two entering the back straight away so everyone [Music] that will take us to the end of stage two chevy's back to speed and april works by on the outside sorry mike these fords got a big head of steam they also got some toyotas in there those chevys are gonna try to stall them out oh no this is not going to work out for denny hamlin on the top jamie mcmurray is there and not quite to full speed definitely stalled out that momentum that denny had if he was going to overtake those fords i think this is going to work out for larson and elliot those guys are coming but they've been broken up they're also breaking up that forward bunch if you can see him side drafting that two slowing him down pulling him off of the rest of those forge right there and now it's mostly all one pack again after three groups of pit stops along party lines 90 laps to go in the daytona 500. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the daytona 500 on fox is sponsored by credit one bank the official credit card of nascar and by toyota let's go places here is the lead change just prior to the caution coming out for the fifth time tonight any hamlin up the middle kevin harvick to the inside that's kyle larson on the outside so hard when you're up front you get that many cars coming with that much more speed big wiggle out of bubba wallace right there and christopher bell in the 20 has a left rear tire going down yeah let's keep an eye on the 20 as he goes into turns one and two you can see boy bubba and kyle get together a little bit stay out of trouble look at the leftover tire you can already see right there it's starting to get a little soft slow leak in that left rear and now you can really see it get on the sidewall and get flat it just comes around incidental contact with stenhouse and then him into kyle larson yeah and i think stenhouse may have had a little bit of contact with the five of kyle larson [Music] right there he's doing everything he can for the ride there goes chase elliot let's ride with him through this it's just staying inside it's a freezing mirror great job by chase elliot as well as his spotter eddie to hunt helping him get through it now remember the 20 machine of christopher bell that car only changed right side tires on that last pit stop and jamie mcmurray is involved there's nothing worse here and that screeching tire coming to a halt christopher bell had only led 18 laps in nascar cup racing entering today he led 32 in this daytona 500 thus far there's the damage to the left rear kyle larson he saw ricky shoot up when he got collected by the 20 got into his left rear a little bit i think kyle may got into the outside wall as well the right rear you know clint when you do green flag stops like that and the fields get split up man it is just hairy when you know you're going through all these cars flying through a lot of momentum changes everybody's catching one another and it all seems to come to a head quite a number of takers on pit road even though they'd just been in about seven laps ago yeah but not many of them changed tires while they were in there's that damage to the right side of the five car [Music] see that damage we were talking about on the five right there very very important to utilize this opportunity to make darn sure you get those fenders pulled out no harm no foul right now but if you go out cut a tire down you could end your 500. christopher bell cuts down a left rear tire and goes around [Music] so so [Music] you're watching nascar on fox cavs grolla could use something ice cold because that's a flaming rotor and then some as he makes his way into his pit i'd say that's a wheel bearing or something huh larry it's still they i mean when that wheel bearing that grease gets hot like that man it just melts and turns a molten steel hard to put that fire out yeah teams tend to get aggressive with wheel bearings and stuff here trying to reduce the drag and uh that you know i'm not saying that's what's going on here but that's quite the fire you know all those teams that just pitted for four tires i like that move because we're going to go back racing with just over 10 laps to go to the end of this stage i think that will allow them to do fuel only at this stage in it shows you how hot a wheel bearing can get they've put that fire out three or four times an example of that you'll see and we've covered it in this sport some haulers been burnt down over time on the road it's usually a wheel bearing that uh colic racing team a mainstay of the xfinity series and making the move up to cup here for the 500 with kaz gralla and it looks like their day is done the amr safety team quickly over the wall and getting that fire extinguished more all you got is what it's gonna bring another bottle jamie these guys are racers they are not done yet mike they just said hey well if you have enough break you know we can pull a tear off get you cleaned up and get you back out meanwhile it's still on fire larry you tell me that i'm i'm out i don't trust you anymore larry i told my drivers to do a lot of dumb things but that might be one of album yeah it well it's gonna come back by the way that thing's not going away you didn't fix the problem hey sunday on fox we are right back here at daytona but not on the two and a half mile oval will be on the 14 turn daytona road course coverage begins with race day 11 a.m eastern on fs1 then switch over to fox at 2 30 eastern for pre-race coverage and the green flag or you can catch it all on the fox sports app chase elliot the winner here last summer on the road course looking forward to being back down here for that had a lot of fun with the bus clash it was a heck of a race larry i don't know cavs the torch just don't have a good feeling about this um this is not the under glow lights from the all-star race folks he's going to be lucky if that thing can even get back oh yeah something major just broke well the radio works we listened in brake pedal went to the floor fire fire the fire the big fire and he's now he's got no brakes that was spotter brett griffin jamie yeah mike he just said i don't have any brakes and casgrolla he's a rookie second ever cup start he's calm as can't be they're telling him to bring it in still on fire as we go back to green and they're going to restart without him 83 to go denny hamlin joey logano kevin harvick out front all these veterans up front with cendrick wallace and priests in the top eight with them we'll be back with our fox news fire coverage after this got some big pushes right here in both lanes well kyle busch wasn't kidding when he said his toyota could get up there with the fords he was right on the back bumper of joey logano going into the corner well and and he knows joey's a veteran joey likes it when you're aggressively pushing him so watch for kyle bush oh well we're gonna go three wide though kevin harvick has other ideas he's trying to shuffle denny hamlin out he knows denny's one of his biggest threats to win this daytona 500 but going back to kyle busch when you are racing with a guy like joey logano and you've seen some of the moves he's made you know that you can get away with things and be a little more aggressive because joey likes that that's the way joey likes to race and you can see just how fast thing things materialize austin center was pushing kevin harvick doing everything right when they got three wide he's the one kevin went down to block he got stuck out there three wide and went straight to the back in a hurry also vet your move right there by kevin harvick he knew that the 11 of denny hamlin was coming with a big run moved up the block i don't know if he's going to be able to block this run though and there they go he denny hamling backed up and got a big push from the 23rd bubba wallace jr drove right by kevin hart i've been watching bubba wallace that car is it's pretty uneasy pretty light on its feet it looks like you know you've got fast cars got and then you got cars that handle and that one that one's a fast car and she is a handful that's what it is [Applause] so one caution already in stage two plus there will be a caution at the end of the stage and what i'm seeing here mike there might be another one might be more money how many did you guess how many cautions in stage two counting the stage ending caution at lap 130. that's gonna be so much fun to do each and every week follow along with our fans interact with them take your money only i appreciate that that's the best part it'll only get better all right jamie has caught up with uh cass grala and the local fire department well casgrawl gets an a for effort you just kept on trucking even though you were still on fire what led to that in your mind you know honestly i'm not sure what the issue is um we made some contact there in that that last crash we blended up out of pit lane and just had to stay with the draft to hold on to the lucky dog position which we did and and we were in the lucky dog position so we were in good shape for the rest of the race just taking it easy but whatever it was just really unfortunate end to our day our hyperice chevy was really fast colic racing did a great job we were calling a good conservative race we were in position there probably to just ride it out and put ourselves in a spot to get a top 10 at the end i absolutely think we would have so really disappointing end i'm not really sure why but we'll we'll get to the bottom of it here thanks cass mike waitley sees the video kaz growling will wind up 28th in this year's daytona 500 his first watch kyle busch in the 18. i mean there's barely enough room for a car length there i don't know if kyle larson checked up to allow kyle busch that was really really tight eight laps to go in stage two we'll take your fox side by side [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so 75 laps to go in the 63rd daytona 500. jenny hamlin trying to do what no driver has ever done and win his third daytona 500 in a row he is your toyota top performer with 75 to go bubba wallace in second kyle bush in 10th christopher bell just off the lead draft in 19th and martin truex 8 laps back in 25th in stage one we heard ryan priest say he didn't want to make that move from that third place position until the last lap it'd be interesting to see with the experience in kevin harvick if he'll back these guys up and try to make a move a little bit sooner and when that move will come or if that's where it will come from 100 oh how about brian kozlowski there right behind ryan preece telling the hang of a real it's nice to have your teammate back and have that communication but then you've got to rely on the guy behind him kyle bush to come along for the ride and i don't know if kyle bush is going to do that so it's going to be fun to watch these two guys try to orchestrate this but i i think there's several drivers in this line that are thinking about doing the same thing as you mentioned kevin hartman he led me into it situational awareness that's brad keselowski knowing who he's got behind him and knowing more than likely if he can create momentum in a run a guy like kyle busch has no choice but to go with him and kyle larson right behind you when they come to the line it'll be two laps to go in stage two and pit road will be closed and now you got bubba wallace in a similar position that kyle bush was in at the end of that last stage remember he worked with that with his teammate well i think bubba wallace is going to stay on the rear bumper of the 11 at denny hamlin that's going to open up the door for kevin harvick chase elliott austin dillon remember what happened to the fellow who was second at the end of stage one he ended up 13th in the stage watch for somebody bb dragon back whether it's brad keselowski i can see him pulling back a little bit slowing that group down getting a run see if he can make his move getting into three right there michael mcdowell came down and keslowski went with him that was much earlier than i thought they were going to do it i think they're going to wait for them what do you mean no i thought they're going to wait one more lap bubba wallace going down to block that move he's going to get to the inside of denny hamlin i thought too i thought it would be the next line one to go in stage two big push right here gonna stack them up well that was a great move by bubba watts i didn't think he would do it i really thought he would stick with denny hamlin that outside line's not done kevin harvick this line group of cars they're going to get a run right here big push is coming on that out yeah but look how organized oh bubble balls get sideways that was close gonna stack that ball that's gonna get the top lane going but not enough it actually put them three wide you're gonna see some momentum now kyle bush right behind legano as the middle moves forward and hamlin comes down to cover gosh these guys are driving like it's the last lap of the 500 not the stage wallace on the bottom hamline on the top here they come for the green and white checkers to end stage two three wide behind them hamlin again [Music] good racing man if harvick could have maybe got into the quarter panel a little bit sooner off at turn four i think he would have had it you can really see when they get three wide what that did those cars sitting out there all by themselves they were too far out but there was just two cars those guys got three wide stalled everything out denny hamlin has now passed bobby allison on the all-time list of daytona 500 lap leaders for fifth [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh um stage two complete denny hamlin the stage two winner leads them on to pit road vince chase elliot heading to pitt road a little disappointed he was hoping to team up with with austin dillon and have a little better run to the end of that stage dylan said it was more his fault just right side tires for the three regan bubba wow very common collected that race car and very happy with how it was handled at the end of that stage even with all the battling that he was doing jamie 11 on the bottom left they put a little tape on the nose tires and fuel for denny hamlin on the bottom right the four of kevin harvick four tires fueled they wiped the girls clean austin dillon leads them off pit road hamlin mcdowell picks up four spots as did dylan with two tire change how close was it at the end of stage two let's have a look here let's dial up that number four car kevin harvick hey kevin this is jeff up in the fox sports booth you got us well man i thought that was the end of the daytona 500 at the end of stage two the way you guys are racing pretty wild walk us through that move and then maybe set that up for the end of the race how do you time that maybe a little bit sooner to be able to win the daytona 500. i think the pushes will be a little bit harder a little bit sooner chase was you know giving a good push but really attached me as i went through the second half of that corner to really gain some momentum so you know i think we just uh try to try to keep ourselves up front this is a lot different than we've raced in the past trying to grab some stage points you know with the wreck early and less cars it seems like it gets pretty pretty tame pretty quick with the high line so just trying to uh take care of our push light board but also uh keep ourselves positioned towards the brush well man i'll tell you what it's been pretty exciting it looks like as the uh we wind this thing down to the finish you're starting to uh show what you've got to win another daytona 500 go have a great night looking forward to this final stage here 104 man thank you he won the 500 in 2007 for car owner richard childress lapdown cars making pit stops at the end of stage two denny hamlin over kevin harvick [Music] [Music] [Music] right [Music] [Music] 66 laps to go joey gase one lap down top 20 right now sure like his quarter panel yeah christopher bell got the free pass on that caution so he'll be back on the lead lap denny hamlin has now won four straight stages in the daytona 500 mid-race stages and you and you were betting against him hey we might see history tonight guys just might happen among the memorable three-peats this would certainly rank right up there should it happen for denny hamlin now in partnership with netflix's new show the crew bush is interviewing for a paid spot on kevin harvick's racing crew tweet your answer to each question during the race for your chance to win so with the next question here's the bush guy here's a fun one how much bush could you pour inside of a standard nascar gas tank man you're not eligible [Laughter] what do you mean i signed up i went through it [Laughter] we're still not eligible now kyle larson had a penalty uh a safety violation they had a torch on the hot side of the pit box larry why would that be yeah we're looking at it right now mike at first i thought it might have been to try to put some like an adhesive or bear bond trying to heat the surface but they were doing something up inside the right rear wheel well they took the right rear tire off had a torch doing something again the is the tail in the longest line that's about where they were going to be anyhow i mean the only thing i can think of larry is you know it's all about the details right and the best you can get the shape of that fender back to what it was when before that accident the better that car is going to handle and the better speed it's going to have so i don't know if they're just trying to get it as close to that as possible move back in position the way you want and then cooled off i agree definitely a penalty you don't hear every day i can tell you that so among the stage two questions to win clint's money there were two cautions in stage number two and at the end of stage two there were 13 cars out of the race i don't think i picked either one of those either well i hope a lot of people did at home appreciate that so we're going to find out because uh just like powerball we can tell you how many damage how much damage there is we're going to work on that man it looks like jamie mcmurray is still on the lead lap 16th there are 18 lead lap cars as we go set to go back to green and work to lap 200 and the conclusion of this daytona 500. whoa 249 winners split the pot 10 000 bucks well you got me really pending verification of eligibility split ten thousand dollars 249 winners uh what's that forty or four hundred dollars can't do the math that you're the man here mike right ready for the restart stage three austin dillon denny hamlin here we go big jump for the three so impressive how he can just pull out at will and go on right to the front every time boy bubba wallace was giving a shove to michael mcdowell who was giving a shove to austin dillon trying to keep that bottom lane formed up there's a reason why he's going for three in a row clint i'm telling you i mean that car is fast but some of the moves that he makes you know he we've seen other guys run up to the rear bumper of the car in front of them but rarely do they just step out as soon as they get there and stall that car out and make the pass let's see if austin dillon repays that favor he's making great decisions his spotter's working well you can see when he moved up and slowed that run down of kevin hart wow kevin harvick aggressively pushing because that 22 is aggressively pushing him and 18's aggressively pushing him but man that was almost disaster for denny hamlin yeah i thought he was going to actually make contact with the outside wall watch this and see where push very nearly comes to shove i mean kevin harvick's doing everything right you want to push on the right side of that rear bumper but right now maybe not that hard though and it's such a handful when they do that you're just along for the ride you can't lift you got to hold it wide open and steer for the best so clint you see that unfold how's the view from up here oh man i wish i was i felt like there ain't no feeling like that leading a track like daytona somebody like kevin harvick pushing on your heart i'll sign up for that well up front are the two winningest drivers from last season or two that one boy they won a bunch kevin harvick nine victories denny hamlin seven wins in 2020. let's go back and take another look at that watch his hands as he has to keep a hold of this thing [Music] he even checked up a little bit 198 miles an hour wow you could just barely see denny's eyes there in that clear visor but you could see he was watching his mirror the whole time down the back straightaway they got a little whiter when his hands got busy too [Music] jamie people always ask why denny hamlin is so good year after year at the daytona 500 and denny said it this week he said when we get here we unload this car my focus is on sunday i don't think about the raw speed and trying to qualify they've never had a pole here he gets honed in on that feel that they need and chris gabhart knows exactly what he wants he said they have the same setup from a year ago mike and the car has just been solid again and here he is leading once again well why go away from something that's working chris gabehart as we said as hamlin's crew chief he's never lost a 500. you talk about field jeff what's what are you looking for there i mean obviously you're looking for something you want a car that pulls up good but talk about the handling the wandering that we have you know when you come here the car has a tendency to wander at times i mean i'm a big believer if that car is stable and you can make those moves and and do the things that you see denny do you know that's going to make the car go faster because you're going to be able to use the draft you're going to be able to side if you're going to be able to to take that big push from behind and make something out of it i don't know that denny's car is the fastest one in the field but it definitely is a car that he has a lot of confidence when that car is stable it instantly puts you in the offense no defense doesn't even cross your mind it's all offense all the time 27 of 40 starters still running 18 of them are on the lead lap trying to win the daytona 500 with 58 laps to go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 55 laps to go on the daytona 500 18 drivers on the lead lap trying to win it let's take a look at today's credit one bank ones to watch jeff well i've got my eye on the 2007 daytona 500 winner he's in second right now kevin harvick he's studying he's analyzing trying to find any weakness that denny hamlin might have haven't seen it yet but if anybody can beat denny i believe it's kevin hart jeff i've got my eye on a young man making his first career cup series start austin centric came here had to qualify his way in started on the rear row of the field he won the xfinity series race yesterday you know 10 years ago a guy by the name of trevor bain won in his second career start here right boys none other than kyle bush he's the one i'm looking at right now and this is why you got four fords running up there and two toyotas if kyle busch doesn't find the 11 car denny hamlin the they don't take coach gibbs to victory lane they're going to have to figure out how to do that well clint i'm liking that guy just ahead of kyle busch and that's joey logano logano's done it before remember he won the daytona 500 in 2015. all four super speedway races last year they were in position to win didn't win any of them he's in position again tonight i think he's going to get it done there have been a lot of fast chevrolets in daytona this week chevrolet swept the front row but the winningest one of those bow ties is the 2018 daytona 500 winner that's austin dillon keep an eye on number three and that's your credit one bank ones to watch uh guys what's that did is it just me or did nobody pick danny hamlin to win this race i kind of did i told you if if cowboy doesn't find any hamlin neither one of those guys win this it's not necessarily to pick the win but that's kind of satisfying to watch but come on so you leave the blind objects on the table we don't call it credit one bank ones to win true but i'm usually searching for a winner just so you know we like winners we've said it all week long the deck is stacked against you if you're danny hamlin and that deck is those four fours right behind him i'm telling you those two have to find one another kyle bush has got to get with his teammate they're gonna make a run at him and pounce on these guys since stage three started and the biggest mover since the restart is our fox colleague jamie mcmurray he's our usaa biggest mover from 15th to 10th since the restart kyle larson had a start in the back because of that penalty he's gained four spots so have cole custer and austin cendrick and ross chastain has picked up three positions you know jamie's doing a heck of a job the nose is messed up on the front of that thing you know that's hurting his speed on that car he's in the top 10 jeff you know you got to grind it out and he's a veteran driver and he's doing a great job doing exactly that he's pretty tough too you know you look at his fitness level the things he goes through a lot a lot tougher than you might think old jamie mack is and that's probably why he's won some of the biggest races in this series his chevrolet has the second fastest lap of this race of anybody next to chase elliot 199.2 miles per hour and he's a former daytona 500 winner there's nobody you can count out that's still on the lead lap right now 50 laps to go and denny hamlin has led half of this race 74 of 150. now we saw this hat we've seen this happen all night long right these guys are in line if they're not in line because they can't pass they are in line to get ready for the end of this race how do i position myself what do i have to do to find a way to be at the front when this thing is over and by the way we've seen it happen we've seen it happen in the stages we've seen it happen past daytona 500s that could possibly happen we know it's going to probably materialize on the last lap but it might happen off of turn four coming to take the checkered flag of course we got a green flag stop they could potentially be coming up here also and last time we had green flag stops each manufacturer stopped on a different lap and they all ended up in the same scrum together yeah one of the most intense moments in a race like this is when you have a green flag stop and you have all these different strategies or times when they come to pit road and then that all converges on the racetrack at these different speeds and clinton i mean you you and i talked about this and you saw what happened the last time they had that great flag stop how wild and crazy it got oh and as that all came together boom you got the 20 car with a left rear flat and it wrecked a lot of cars that's what happens it can happen just a blink of an eye so larry if we have green flag pit stops when might we expect them yeah mike it's almost like splitting this final stage in half they'll probably go a little further than that it's gonna probably come somewhere around 28 to 30 laps to go 170 lap 172 but here's what's interesting out there right now we've been talking about handling denny hamlin in 11 car chris gabe hart went with left side tires only austin dillon in the three justin alexander went with right sides only everybody else did four tires i like setting that final trip to pit road up knowing i have four fresh tires from the previous stop good point cole custer up in the top half dozen last year's rookie of the year stuart haas 41. danny hamlin continues to lead and a little bit of hood flutter there for bubba wallace [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 44 laps to go in daytona here's an update on the coca-cola racing family kenny hamlin your leader joey logano third austin dillon seventh all in the lead draft while daniel suarez and ryan newman were taken out in the 16 car incident at lap number 14. i can't help but keep thinking about that incident lap 14 you just talked about and the difference it's made in this race there's a lot of cars taken out a lot of big big heavy hitters fifth place austin sindrick is trying to do something that has not happened in 1980 since 1980 finish his very first nascar cup race in the top five the driver who did it in 1980 also drove for roger penske rusty wallace at atlanta remember that big old impala that they built for him yeah top five pretty good company in that conversation i'd say i think winning that championship for him last year just helped him confidence wise you know he came down here was awesome in that xfinity race yesterday and he's running with the big boys today awesome performance you know if he stays in this position clinton it comes down to the end i'm going to be very curious to see how he handles it because intensity is going to ramp up times 10 in those final laps here's your progressive race summary with 43 laps to go denny hamlin's led 82 laps the most among 12 leaders have been 20 lead changes 18 of 40 cars still on the lead lap six caution flags so far and a five hour and 40 minute red flag denny hamlin our race leader won both of the stages jamie denny hamlin about 10 laps ago said he felt like it it was a little bit slower but right now saying that the car is actually handling a little bit better than it was earlier and he asked his team recently a question i've never heard a driver ask in the middle of a race he said how many laps have i led the answer right now is 83. a bunch they need to tell them that he's just working his way up the record book in lapse landed in daytona 500. hamlin harvick logano kyle busch all veterans then cendrick in his first cup start and the rookie of the year from 2020 cole custer vince in sixth place well and he's done a fine job tonight and you know they were talking to me mike shipley the crew chief about how that team last year in their rookie season together really spent the year accumulating data and building their notebook a notebook that should begin to pay dividends this season and i think we're starting to see that tonight in the season opener they began the night patient wanting to just learn and be there at the end and have an opportunity to make something happen and they're in position to do just that lap pass cody ware who's gone three laps down and yes let's uh have a look at the xfinity fastest laps tonight chase elliott quickest amy mack corey lejoy the third fastest lap of the night bubba wallace and michael mcdowell the top five nice mix of chevy's toyota and fork there 199.4 getting it [Music] there is corey lejoy has a new ride for 2021 for the season yeah nice opportunity for corey lejoy moving over to spire motorsports he and his crew chief ryan sparks moving over and they asked tommy baldwin for position for permission to run that number seven got it and uh evoked the memory of alan kawiki jeff bodine and others that have had success with that number ross chastain another face in a new place and the chip ganassi number 42. gonna be fun to watch this young man this year i i like his style i like his attitude i like his work ethic and uh i think you're going to see him have some great moments this season tell you which one i got circled homestead yeah we're not thinking about somebody that can run the wall you don't have to look any further than kyle larson the front five are a mix of toyotas and fords but seventh through 13th are all chevy camaros all in a row 37 laps to go in the daytona 500 on fox let's go side by side [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 34 laps to go in daytona denny hamlin trying to three-peat kevin harvick joey logano kyle busch austin syndrick and others trying to deny him 34 to go time for the final bush interview question in partnership with netflix's the crew tell bush what would you write on a bumper sticker on harvick's car tweet your answer now using the crew and hashtag bushcontest for your last chance to win a paid spot on kevin's racing crew i would love to see what some people send in for that mine wouldn't be acceptable hey mike i got a larry mcnugget for you on that 33 car austin cendrick you talked about the last time a driver in his first career start got a top five driving for roger penske how about the last time a driver won a race a cup race in his first career start johnny rutherford in 1963 a dual race at daytona remember dual races were points races and no i was not working on his car 63 was it a convertible for crown out loud austin's grandfather maternal grandfather jim truman who won the 1986 indy 500 as car owner for bobby ray hall i was at the little charlotte quarter mile with the bandolero cars the night austin won his very first race a rookie race his mom never missed one of his races his dad was there when he could when he wasn't on the road with uh with team penske and the night that roger penske and walt zarnicki showed up to watch this kid run boy everybody was talking about that that would be cool he's a smart race car driver too you know one of the things i've been most impressed with austin center is his evolution his his knowledge and how he's you know we saw him early on in his career in xfinity you'll really hang that car out there maybe make a few little mistakes but man he just buttoned him right up and and and never saw him make the same mistake again oh look at this is this is this is this them coming to pit road well let's start with the move i think it's time to come to pitt road under green you can enter pit road more than single file and with legano's pit the first box that's what he does vince well it's just going to be a two tire change losing a little grip said legano but otherwise the car is fine two tires right sides and fuel jamie austin cendrick you were just talking about him first cup start in the 33 card they're going to take right sides and put some fuel on it he just told his team this is the best the car has been all night so that's good news for young austin cendrick the four of kevin harvick all good with the car so far i'm impressed with that 34 of michael mcdowell not one of the powerhouse teams but he is right there with them mike one of the things i saw when they left austin center was a little slow off a pit road that is going to affect them in the performance he's going to lose that draft here come the chevrolets to pit road coming in hot too vince austin dillon has been so pleased with his car all night long it's going to be just fuel only giving him a tear off and putting a little tape on it we'll see if he can finish the job jamie chase elliot in the nine it was few only last time it'll be right and fuel he'll watch the fueler not his head when they're good he's [Music] this is nodding for chase elliot i'm good when they do when you start looking and everybody pitting on these green flag stops like this it's almost like a drag guy it's like a relay race and these fords that pitted early they got to find each other pretty quick to take advantage of pitting early got three of them lined up you look at these toyotas and their performance on pit road they came off everybody's together right here it is so important to make sure you're established leave pit road good get up through the gears and push as hard as you possibly can in that straight line larry do the toyotas come this time i think they may run another few laps mike see what their lap times do lined up like that versus all these others that's trying to get back organized i think that's going to be a key are they running faster and there they picked up one of their teammates there and mark trucks jr even though he's got damage here come these fords around the chevrolet gonna get to chase elliot a little further up there is austin dillon here come the toyotas freaking well we see the toyota spitting together here the 23 car above a wall it's that race car it's been good all night till he got shuffled back right there all of a sudden a little bit free as he was further back in the pack and the 18 of kyle busch that race car is really good right now he's very happy with it jamie danny hamlin has a new fuel man this year justin white it was right side tires and just enough fuel now that was orchestrated in that all of the toyotas that stopped together took two tires so they should all come out together yeah that's the plan i mean you just you got this line of cars that established are established with a lot of momentum using the draft of multiple cars so those toyotas have to do everything perfectly and you can already see some separation between all three of them they're gonna lose a lot right here this is gonna be big this is gonna be a big moment i believe for denny hamlin can denny hamlin put a block on joey logano when he gets to him that would potentially still give denny the lead it's it's going to be risky but it's going to be in he better not this is going to be a huge run coming those guys are going to have to follow in get caught back up re-establish themselves in the group and then try to figure out how to get back up through them and hamlet's alone he has no friends so he can't block more than one lane at a time kyle busch not close enough to help here come the forwards led by legano yeah i thought maybe kyle bush might slow him down a little bit but not at all that just i mean they got to be carrying you three four five miles per hour than these other guys he's going to move up right here force him to go to the bottom and now all you could do if you're denny hamlin just try to stall them out not get too far shuffled back might be able to get for austin dylan actually the two of them that was a good move by denny hamlin when he moved up right there that was a heads-up move would be interesting if he made that call or for his spot or did in roof because him separating with kyle busch on the bottom separated that pack away and really stalled them out and hamlin stopped the march of all the chevrolets except ross chastain who's 42 is up there with that group of forwards [Music] this is going to be trouble for denny hamlin he got a big run he tried to pull out but he's all by himself austin centric third car in this line behind christopher bell and corey lejoy that pit stop uh has now put him six seconds behind the leader yeah i mentioned that when they took out of the pit road he was just behind and the difference that that makes when you can't take off with your group you're left behind it looked like maybe they didn't get the the fuel can or the second fuel can in there you know in a good enough way because they were a little bit long on that fuel and you have to have it you got to make sure you get that in there because you're going to need it at the end you can't be light 13 cars in the lead draft 17 cars on the lead lap 24 laps to go will go side by side [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] eight former champions of the daytona 500 started this race 20 of the 40 car field [Music] and here's where they're running joey logano your race leader kevin harvick in second austin dillon seven denny hamlin and jamie mcmurray in the lead draft kurt busch has four laps back ryan newman and derek cope out of the race now you saw bubba wallace come in for an unscheduled pit stop regan mike and he said i've got a vibration instantly said i got to come this time it got bad quick looks like possibly a loose wheel down here well i mean this is when the green flag stops start to separate some of the experienced teams and we saw it happen with it austin cendrick a little miscommunication on the fueling now the 23 car with their pit crew loose wheel and the 20 of christopher bell one of the joe gibbs toyotas has a fuel problem he's on pit road he had that problem earlier in the race too they were working underneath the deck lid on that earlier so i'd say that's a recurrent issue i take this back to strategy strength in numbers the fords had a better strategy they were early on the pit road got out there got themself established in the line quickly and was able to be at the front of this pack when the time's right now you go back to the flip side of that the toyotas it was only three of them they weren't established when they left the pit stops were off obviously had a loose wheel under 23. the difference look at the difference it makes in this race denny hamlin leading going in danny hamlin at the end of that line coming out and to that point clinton i'm a little surprised that they didn't look at the numbers and say hey which one of these groups should we try to pick with the fords a pit with the chevrolets to try not to lose that momentum or lose that that numbers game so here's hamlin behind bubba wallace who's now a lap down has little to lose can bubba drop down and help his co-owner of his team denny hamlin get back to the front or is there any way just two cars can do that oh you can help them but i don't know that the time to do that is quite right yet i mean i think there was a race a year ago where denny hamlin was in it he was in the running for the race of the much i remember i think jeff had even confused you and i was on my couch in the motor home i'm not poking fun it's just that was he was in the running for it and we all thought hey man he's going to win the race and he was a lap down the whole time so to your point mike that can be a factor and probably will yeah i mean right now honestly denny hamlin's gonna need a caution i we've already seen when they're lined up single file like this and we're seeing denny make all kinds of aggressive moves he'll make one spot up every once in a while and then he loses and goes back to the back he's trying really hard but he's not going to be able to do it by himself so yes bubba can help him his other teammate kyle bush is up there that can help him but it's not going to be enough to get up to the front of this pack without a caution because up front there are five forwards in a row logano harvick custer kozlowski mcdowell then three chevrolets chastain dillon and elliott kyle bush's toyota two more chevys then hamlin and then a sprinkling of makes throughout the rest of the lead lap back to cendrick in 15th he's the last car on the lead lap with 17 to go well and i say it's all the time especially when it comes to green flag stops the end of a big race in the 500 execution execution and you you said it clint the ford executed that better than anybody else well not only the drivers and the spotters obviously getting in you know on and off pit road but the strategy i'm going to say props to them guys both stages they did that by the way happy monday on the east coast everybody thanks for staying with us we're just about 15 minutes away from crowning a champion of the daytona 500. you know mike jeff and clint the toyotas could have pitted with those fords the last time i went back and looked the ford's committed to the bottom late over in turn three and almost put the toyotas on the top side where they couldn't get down there back with them before they got the pit road that's a good point larry maybe they were thinking they might hit with those fords but the fords really i don't know if they really gave them off the opportunity because they made that late pass and went to the inside lane not to mention they pit a little bit early i mean even our own america's crew chief in our ear was saying i'd be a a couple three more laps before they come boom they're on pit road so maybe a little bit of shenanigans huh yeah like larry we saw them make that move wasn't sure if they were going for the lead or were going to form up to pitt at that time maybe they caught the toyotas off guard whatever they did it worked so now this lead pack is formed up and it's 12 cars deep no i i certainly don't want anybody listening at home watching this at home to think that there's not gonna be a lot of shuffling up in this group there absolutely is but i think you're gonna need to be in the top five six maybe seven and i would even go to a stretch of eighth of chase elliott if you're gonna have a shot of this daytona 500 win if it stays like this well there's gonna be more because that jamie mcmurray led group has picked up three and a half seconds here over the last uh 10 or 11 laps and they are gaining on the lead back they're going to catch him too and and this is going to be an opportunity for denny hammond because that that car that's the last one in line or if you're denny hamlin you're you're needing some more help you've got your your teammate christopher bell has had some issues he's back there can help you got bubba wallace ahead of you but you need a larger pack to come and build up some energy and and break up this draft if they can get to that end of this line they might be able to get enough momentum shifted in allowing denny hamlin a couple of those other guys to make some moves but i just think it's too early to step out there are six fords on the lead lap two toyotas seven [Music] chevrolets [Music] you know there's definitely several different ways that denny hamlin can still win this race jeff i mean obviously when he was in the lead he was in the cat versus seat but now now you're in a situation where do you formulate the line in which you were just talking about or do you think there's a still a caution coming and going to create a green white checkered opportunity well then it must be time for larry's trends of the race as we get down to the finish the trends have made the return for 2021. you know how to get a caution i just start reading the twins so anyhow i looked at the last 10 daytona 500s and looked at the trends of the patterns on average the last caution is roughly six laps to go but in those ten races it happened eight times in the final ten laps and we've had five overtime finishes including the last three here come the chevy's on the inside larry boy there are a bunch of them and they came right up to those fords and now it's on yeah but i i still think it was too early cole custer's a nice move but look at they're all trying to get back home that hole just closed up so fast kyle larson cole custer's wishing he probably didn't pull down i try to block that run but this helps denny hamlin out here denny hamlin was very happy to see that happen he probably gained four or five positions there now i am not looking for a caution but in the last 16 daytona 500s we've had one between now and the checkered flag 14 of those 16 races that's more than a trend [Music] chase elliott the series champion sixth second of the chevy's austin dillon the 2018 winner just ahead joey logano has now led 18 laps as they come around [Music] [Music] kevin harvick has led 17 according to our unofficial count starting to feel that clint oh yeah it's the storm's brewing i was just looking i keep looking at this manufacturer lineup when i look up through the lineup it was five fords and then a handful what was the seven chevrolets in a row with those toyotas now everybody's mixed in between that's what creates the chaos and the race that we're all looking for out of this daytona 500. we can talk all we want about lab leaders they're only going to remember who leads the last one [Music] and it's going to change in my opinion you know i i love the position if i if i had to pick a position i want to be in joe in the gonos you know where he's at i want to be the leader but i gotta say it's it's going to be so hard if somebody makes a move now his best friend is brad keselowski we know kevin harvick's going to want to make a move but kevin harvick's going to need somebody to go with them and i don't know if brad keselowski is going to go with kevin harvick so kevin harvick's got some tough decisions to make as we wind this race down there's a harvick's view of kozlowski and behind kez i continue to be impressed with michael mcdowell he's driven an extremely smart race he sits right there with that group of forwards in fourth place in a car that is not one of the ford powerhouse teams front row motorsports where mcdonald's found a home these last few years but he's in position to try to win this always over achieving on these restricted plate tracks like this always you always looked over your shoulder and at the end of the race michael mendel's right there in the run and always in the right place at the right time makes the right decisions and before behind the four forwards remember how austin dillon won the 500 in 2018. there was a ford in front of him in the back straightaway he moved it aside and took the whale we could see this three card we've watched him make moves in that duel jeff i look for this car to make a move and have a really good partner in the nine car pushing clinton i want you to go back to a conversation that brad keselowski was having uh a little bit earlier hey i'm gonna back this thing up and and i want i need a a push he's backing up to that 34 car mcdowell right now got to believe there's got to be some radio communication going on with them hey i want you to go with me when it's time i i think he's just trying to plan that move where do i want the momentum can i get that run off of turn two down the back straight away here's kozlowski's radio coleman presley the spotter [Music] brad is very good at that but i think the run's gonna establish behind him with this three car the nine car or even further back you know danny hamlin's want to get to the front and he's got help back there as well and if i'm brad keselowski or michael mcdowell as soon as that three car i don't know if michael mcdowell can do it as soon as that three card jumps out of line i'm jumping right down in front of them and going back to what you said earlier what you like about joey logano and being in the lead i like joey logano's position in lead because of the company he has behind him when that line gets established whoever it may be one of those guys behind him one of his allies is going to have to pull down and block that run and try to attempt their win at the daytona 500 and when they do he's still got allies behind him if he pulls down and blocks that he has options where he's at with the company he has behind him at the end of the last stage with the chevys made their move michael mcdowell moved right down in front of them and gained positions the chevys will not be content to ride behind those sports to the finish and that's coming in four laps and look how hard the three car can push michael mcdowell in front of him he's got plenty of skills and he's just pushing he's pushing him hoping that michael mcdowell wants to step out and make that move here early he's forcing him to say come on man go ahead or i'm gonna just keep pushing your rear bumper as hard as i can and austin dillon's already proved that he can do it he's won this race before now the toyotas kyle busch and denny hamlin have just one car between them that is kyle larson can the two toyotas get together and make something happen in these final three laps yes but back to what you were saying clint that the best opportunity for joey logano is that all those guys have all these different agendas oh yeah and what do they do they get a run they move forward but they actually don't get uh organized well enough to get all the way up to joey the biggest thing joy has to do is make sure that he doesn't get too far out when those runs start happening if they get three wide they stall out and you'll get way out and they will get a hold of you with a huge run everybody's staying they're playing with their guests a nine and a three mainly the gap for the two car right there that's joey logan's spot on the four big guys tj have ended with a last lap change of the lead that's not going to change tonight there he goes big run right here joey's going to move down block that right to his teammates bumper watch what happens now behind all these guys now that's going to shake everything up here comes austin dillon to the outside oh man kevin harvick in trouble gets shuffled out white flag one lap to go sponsored by credit one bank okay now these guys their job if you're austin dillon one kevin harvick has on the bottom they're all trying to build that run that keslowski did here goes the three card will dillon have help no they come down to block logano goes back up keselowski with him mcdowell in tow dillon on the bottom the runs on top teammates around they go in a hard crash kyle bush larson caution is out bubba wallace is in this austin centric hard hit by kyle bush caution's out mcdowell is first to the line but we'll have to go back to the moment of caution which ends the race brad keselowski is climbing out he's okay joey logano we see taking off the gloves and the steering wheel i think mcdowell's the winner of this race guys he was first across the line nascar will review and have to determine the finish at the moment of caution and we'll wait for official work huge win if that's the case but bob jenkins front row motorsports crew is celebrating on pit road or wouldn't that be incredible you're going to see some emotion on this guy if this comes back official a lot of tour upgrades are the chevy's torn up you saw a priest with damage chase elliot with damage this was a really hard hit kyle busch when he came in yes and the amr safety crew very quickly on the scene being directed the damage to the wall it's a bumper cover up there and there's kyle busch climbing out that is a great sign and that means everybody has climbed from their cars after a huge pile up on the final lap of the daytona 500. nascar is still reviewing video footage because when they hit the caution light that time stamps all video to determine the order of finish at the moment of caution huge run went for it joey was obviously had to block the question is where did that caution come out chase elliott pulls ahead of michael mcdowell oh look at the run he got right there though dowell the run on the outside with a little help from hamlin all right we know the caution was out there we saw some caution lights where michael mcdowan the three of austin dillon pulled ahead of chase elliot and michael mcdowell from glendale arizona for bob jenkins front row motorsports has won the daytona 500. how about that oh man that's a huge win for michael mcdowell and that team doesn't get any bigger than this and a huge crash for everybody else [Applause] mcdowell is the 40th driver to win the great american race and the eighth driver in history to score his first career cup win in the daytona 500. and yes clint he led only the last lap the only one you need to win awesome job man so happy for him his family that team that's pretty cool has a road racing background worked his way up to the cup series has had a variety of different teammates you know i said it we were talking about it when they were yeah you're giving them props every time you look over and you always saw michael bernadette yeah but isn't it something there's just something about these super speedways where certain guys just have a certain knack for it an ability to pull that off and you're right michael uh michael mcdowell is one of those guys that does it often a man of deep faith he'll be joined in victory lane by drew blickensterfer his crew chief who reminds me larry reminds me it's true second 500 win and his new spotter clayton hughes for 2021. yeah that was mark truricks jr spotter for a long time let's repeat all drivers involved in that horrendous crash in turn three have climbed from their cars and appear to be okay yeah that's great news because when i saw kyle busch going there was such a uh he had a seat yeah got some fans cheering for that flying the american flag on the helmet chase elliott second austin dillon third kevin harvick denny hamlin trying to repeat completes the top five unofficially ross chastain is sixth ryan priest jamie mcmurray eight corey lejoy kyle larson your top 10. what a long time coming for michael mcdowell here's jamie little i know 14th year racing in the cup series michael your first career win you're a daytona 500 champion i just can't believe it just got to thank god so many years just grinding it out hoping for an opportunity like this got to thank love's travel stop speedco bob jenkins for giving me this opportunity i'm so thankful such a great way to get a first victory day tonight at 500 are you kidding me oh man just want to say hi to my wife back home happy valentine's day i know it's been a tough week i just my kids i love you guys i wish they could be here with you to celebrate maybe nascar will send the plane to bring them down here but uh we're the daytona 500 champions i cannot believe this thank you doug yates ford uh we had our four partners at the end and they all crashed and uh as luckily i was able to make it through this so thankful god is good michael mcdowell has been there at the end of so many of these mike and finally tonight it was his he led the final lap well chase elliot watching the celebration on our screen right next to him there you were side by side with michael mcdowell through three and four when the caution came out how close do you think it was right there i don't think it was very close i mean i uh kind of got next to him and i saw the lights come on so i knew it was over right then but um yeah just a huge thanks to napa and chevrolet everybody at hendrick motorsports felt like we had a fast car weren't as good as i thought we were on on thursday so i felt like we did a really good job executing today staying out of trouble that's not something i've done a very good job of here in this race so glad we could at least finish this one and have something to build on for for when we come back and and try to do better yeah but the top was just so fast uh it didn't seem to matter who got down low you couldn't really make anything go so we all kind of tried at certain points in time just didn't work out but yeah close we finished one so i'm i'm pretty pleased with that thank you chase let's go back to that last lap back straight away so you get this big run all the cars stacked up on the outside the two car brad keselowski went to go to the inside of his teammate joey logano joey blocked a little bit here comes chase elliott to the inside of michael mcdowell they're three wide coming off a two turn four guys and it's unbelievable how michael mcdowell's car just surged forward off that top lane so let's go back to the moment of caution and show you the position of those cars using our fox ghost car and clearly at the moment of caution mcdowell is out in front of chase elliott and austin dillon to secure the victory the big one on the final lap in the final corner of the daytona 500 michael mcdowell emerges with the victory [Music] [Music] foreign here um um oh brad keselowski gets hard into the wall trying to win the daytona 500 and kyle busch piles in at over 190 miles an hour [Music] let's join vince welch well such a vicious hit and so glad to see brad come out of the care center okay uh what happened how do you explain what went on i had a big run down the back stretch you want to make the the pass to win the daytona 500 and it ended up really bad i don't feel like i made a mistake but i can't drive everybody else's car so frustrating the discount tire ford was not the fastest but jeremy bowen's whole team did a great job of keeping us in position right then we were in position it's exactly where i want to be running second on the last lap at daytona with this package and uh had to run made the move and it didn't work out thanks brad it's the only one he hasn't won mike he has been so close so many times it's the one big one that he hasn't gotten and you could see the frustration not getting it tonight kozlowski will be scored 13th and i agree with brad i think he did everything right he got the big push he went to make the move he's got so much momentum there's nothing more that he could do and i think joey logano didn't make it a abrupt move he just tried to slowly slow down that momentum and they made contact and in hindsight when you look at it now that you've seen the wreck and know what happened well he tried to erect his teammate that's not the case he was going for the biggest race of his career he hasn't won this daytona 500 let's ride with the toyota on board camera and bubba wallace oh big hit i love what i saw out of bubble walls is decision making there though he let those guys race right he he wasn't in it at that moment right he already had his issue and he knew he couldn't help his teammates out anymore at that point he pulls down low let these guys go by unfortunately he still gets caught up in that big wreck showing a little damage from the lap 14 incident there's mcdowell's car in victory lane here's rigan smith before the place finished tonight for kevin hart or kevin you're in position at the end there and things just didn't quite pan out yeah you know everybody brad laid way back there and and got a run on the inside and then at that point when it scatters you hope that you get a push or you can wind up in the right spot and i just uh wound up in in a spot that finished fourth so um great bush light ford mustang all night we were able to position ourselves up front kind of a weird race the way it all would single file out and then you kind of scatter their lap or two at the end and see where it all played out thanks kev michael mcdowell has experienced so many highs and lows of the sport maybe now we can retire that texas qualifying crash video that he's a daytona 500 champion he had a top ride with a factory team lost it ended up with a starton park team to keep his name alive and be visible in this sport and then found a home with front row motorsports and here he is the daytona 500 champion mike you you don't stay around in this sport for as long as michael mcdowell has without hard work without dedication and without talent and boy today all that came together at the right moment to win the biggest race of his career and biggest race in our series made the right decisions right place at the right time all those things go into winning this race i loved what i saw in this race i saw a lot of teamwork i saw a strategy i saw good blocking i saw good pushing and i saw a good guy win the daytona 500. i dig it all right let's join vince yeah back here at the advent healthcare center with kyle busch who took a massive hit as well in that accident how do you describe the chaos of what was going on there in that last lap uh just that i mean it's to be expected you know just a matter of time before it all kind of breaks loose and whatever happens happens here i saw a window to the outside and then all of a sudden i had the two car on my hood so um i don't know you know i felt like those guys were gonna get bogged down on the bottom so i was i was trying to shoot for the top and and get it running around the outside of them that's typically where everybody was going all night long and hopefully get a run off of four and just at least try to shoot for a top five we were too far back i think to make anything happen for a win but uh got clobbered a few good times there obviously and just fortunate that uh i'm all good and um you know our eminem's camry will uh well that one won't live on to see another day but uh hopefully we'll be back here next week and and uh have a better go around and on the road course and get back after it yeah glad to see you're okay thanks kyle kyle will be scored 14th here's regan with the third place finisher austin dillon comes home in third place you're battling out with those guys at the end austin just not quite enough to get your second 500 yeah you know you just got to be thankful to be around at those moments at the end and i pulled out to see if the bottom would work and uh just didn't get enough a run and it was close i know that i got to thank all my sponsors bass pro shops tracker off road bet mgm work rise but get biofuel everybody that helps this program down justin alexander built a rocket ship we were here all weekend scoring points and that's all i can ask for a team worked hard in offseason ecr power and what can i say chevy was really close i really had fun working on my guys tonight in the chevy camp good run austin denny hamlin led 98 laps tonight denny but it came down to that final pit stop what exactly happened there that got you shuffled uh we were too far out front we just got on an off-pit road too good and just you know i was just too far ahead of the pack and you know i figured that i figured the chevys would make a move with like two or three to go because they're not gonna win from on the last lap from fifth or sixth so you know i was able to gain some positions there i think i was 12th and everybody was running a single file so it kind of handcuffed me i couldn't really do anything and then i hope once i got to eight i was like okay as long as they make a move with two to go i mean i'm in in the energy area where i can make something happen and all we could get to is you know top five there but dominant car i mean just a dominant car just it's one of those things where you execute too good and just got freight train there danny hanlon brings it home for it glendale arizona's michael mcdowell celebrates with owner bob jenkins crew chief drew glickensdurfer and the rest of his front row motorsports team [Music] you

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 1,151,579

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

Id: C-mgKvChveo

Length: 222min 45sec (13365 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021