Bank of America ROVAL 400 from Charlotte's Roval | NASCAR Cup Series Full Race Replay

believing whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets [Music] through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled [Music] [Music] for the land of the free and the home of the bread [Applause] boy that should get you fired up a lot of nervous drivers about to climb into their car who makes the round of eight we'll find out the command next oh make some noise [Music] taking pictures look up the speedway tv [Music] so if you haven't [Music] [Music] [Music] there wasn't no sleep until the work was done [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] rock and roll [Music] [Music] it's nascar cup series playoffs from charlotte motor speedway the bank of america rovel 400 and for 12 drivers this is the final opportunity to lock yourself in to the round of h and as you look from second down to ninth those eight drivers separated by just 22 points every position on the racetrack is worth the point alongside our crew chief steve let rick allen with you and steve that's the crazy thing about coming to this racetrack as an elimination race there are so many that are still in danger but so many that still have an opportunity yeah some drivers are safe no drivers are comfortable on that list you just pointed out that's what i see you know kyle larson you're thinking 22 points should be enough but over who if any of these drivers have an issue they're going to lose enough points to eliminate themselves from the playoffs and then you look at everyone who's chased them kevin harvick a champion in the sport he understands what it takes he's found this new blue collar effort and that's what he's used in the playoffs i expect more out of the four team today yeah only nine points separating three drivers right there at the cut line and you come to a difficult race track like the role so many drivers have said this might be one of the hardest tracks they ever go to yeah not a difficult the most difficult it's a road course jammed in a mile and a half oval the infield races like a street court if you get off track you will make contact then you climb the high banks for high speed and high braking that usually leads to contact so nobody is comfortable here at the roveo well let's get him into a comfortable place let's fire the engines we go for the command ladies and gentlemen on august 26 during the evacuations in afghanistan a suicide bombing attack of the kabul international airport took the lives of 169 civilians and 13 u.s servicemen and women among the victims was marine sergeant nicole g a member of the 24th expeditionary unit from camp lejeune north carolina just days before the attack sergeant g had posted this picture to social media with the words i love my job today our grand marshals will honor sergeant g and our fallen by giving the command to start our race [Music] from camp lejeune please welcome nicole's husband sergeant jared g and her best friend sergeant mallory harrison drivers [Applause] oh yes wow nascar on nbc is brought to you by bank of america what would you like the power to do sonic this is how we saw it and by toyota today with so much of the line there could be a lot of intensity the drivers always push as hard as they can each and every week oh yeah boy how about that you just understand the stakes are a little higher if there's more on the line [Music] [Applause] 2020 champion chase elliott being able to be knocked out and removed from the fight everything's a bit more magnified right now every point every position everything can matter you have to control the pressures that come with the playoffs every point will mean something we have to bring that intensity level a lot of the playoffs is getting hot right when it matters the electricity created by the anticipation more than noticeable into the wall now he goes to the inside two years in a row the race leader has dove into turn number one and slammed into the wall he will get redemption on the roble chase elway approves once again that he's nascar's king of the road chase elliot's going to do it again at the robo there's another one we're about to rock and roll at the charlotte motor speedway today it determines on who will advance to the round of eight as far as the playoff drivers are concerned i want to take a look at the starting grid for today's race brought to you by bank of america let's listen to where the playoff drivers will start denny hamlin chesterfield virginia brad keselowski rochester hills michigan joey logano middletown connecticut christopher bell norman oklahoma martin truax jr mayetta new jersey ryan blaney high point north carolina kevin harvick bakersfield california chase elliott dawsonville georgia kyle busch las vegas nevada kyle larson elk grove california william byron charlotte north carolina alex bowman tucson arizona and if you're new to nascar just a reminder those 12 drivers are fighting for the playoffs but they're doing it with the other 27 drivers that are on the racetrack there's 39 out there fighting to see who could win and everyone trying to get to the front but of course the playoffs the top 12 fighting for spots in the round of eight which will come up next right so let's hear from one of those playoff drivers uh behind the wheel of the number four kevin harvick he's below the cut line right now junior dialing up on the radio hey kevin it's the boys in the booth you got us anyways yeah all right thank you man uh you know it's been a long week how much time have you spent with rodney and the team kind of preparing for the multiple strategies that you guys might employ today there's definitely a lot of options um it's actually been a short week with talladega on monday in the simulator on tuesday and um you know you just you try to go through as much as you can to uh make sure that you're ready so reports perhaps always a lot higher you know from from my standpoint to be ready and today is no different so go out there and see what happens all right buddy you're about to come to pit road for your road speed so we're going to let you go thanks for giving us a little insight today good luck thanks dale we're happy to have xfinity on board helping us ride with kevin today so we can see everything going on as he tries to get as many points as he can to continue to advance through round into uh deeper into the playoffs few more updates before the green flag flies let's go back to marty the only driver not named chase elliott to win at the roll is ryan blaney we were right on board with him with the ford performance on board camera and blaney is in an interesting position comes in plus 15 above the cut line they kind of need points and they need the win so you can go get both as their theory they're gonna play for the points the stage points in stage one maybe get a playoff point there as well and play for the win later in the race tape we'll see how it plays out non-playoff driver aj almendinger only making his fifth start of the season what has he done here at the rover lately well yesterday in the xfinity series he won for the third time in a row and if he can come from 33rd today to get to the front and win the race oh that'll be a jackpot party you can better believe it parker right dave for martin trex jr he comes in this race 20 points above the cut line and thanks to toyota we're getting the ride on board with him these great shots but when talking to his crew chief james small he used one word about 20 times in a five-minute conversation and that was safe he wants this team to play it safe that 20-point buffer that means following the majority in terms of pit road strategy the majority of options in the restarts he doesn't want truex to take any risk we'll see if that gets them safely in the round of eight party parker nobody has less pressure on themselves than denny hamlin he's the only driver in the field advanced to the round of eight so far the coke zero sugar on board will carry with denny hamlin this afternoon and give us the views from the 11 car talking to chris gabhard as crew chief he said we are going to do everything every piece of strategy to give us the win that's all we care about five playoff points and moving on to the round of eight rutledge marty everybody's gonna notice those pink window nets today and the pink walls it all started because a 16 year old fan named mason wrote to kurt bush asked him to run this idea in honor of his mom who's a breast cancer survivor his mom stephanie was here this week painting these walls pink with dozens of other survivors for breast cancer awareness and fans rick will be able to bid on those through the nascar foundation and have a piece of that nascar history yeah going to charity uh those window nets again the drivers will autograph them and they will be available to the fans so a great show of support there for those fighting breast cancer on this breast cancer awareness month all right steve we want to take a look at the bank of america rover 400 race breakdown it's been described as the most difficult track in nascar 2.32 miles of road course in the infield using most of the oval here at charlotte motor speedway as well 17 turns in total 12 lefts and five rights and when you look at the race itself it's broken down 25 laps stage 1 25 lap stage 2 that final stage very long 59 laps it's over a few window as we expect they can run about 33 to 35 laps and steve there's going to be a competition caution around lap 10. yeah around laptop we expect to see a competition yellow and also we've been able to ride on board with some of these drivers not only with cameras but with the whoop band whoop live lets us look at the biometric information heart rate caloric burn that activity strain we see ross chastain christopher bell two of our drivers we're very thankful have agreed to show us their information look at ross chest staying 141 beats per minute already that's not physical exertion that's anxiety and excitement as we come to the green and getting ready to throw the green flag is ball james ball that's right daniel craig is here with us we're looking forward to that no time to die coming out the most recent in the james bond series daniel craig gives the green flag we're underway at the roble [Music] still two by two as they dive into turn three denny hamlin surges ahead keslowski has second legano his penske teammate tucked back there in third christopher bell in fourth there's prevail in that 20 car i think you need to watch him all day today he has to win to move the next round the playoffs most likely has good track position right now i don't think he's gonna want to give it up he's gonna be aggressive the nine of chase elliott on the outside of that 19 of our treks junior he's only nine points above the cut line how aggressive will chase elliott b at the start of this race we're getting ready to find out because side by side there you go chase elliot he gave the spot up to martin truex junior did not want to go side by side in that rear chicane steve two chicanes if you missed this one there's a spot on the front stretch just in the actually the restart area that you can come to stop and if you miss the front stretch there's also a penalty box there too yeah so we see as martin trex junior chase elliott go down in if you miss either of these corners defined by that blue curving you can start as you mentioned in the restart area you could stop two drivers left right here by the start finish line and as yesterday we saw a lot of guys really having trouble in the back stretch chicane you could also stop there most important thing if you miss it stop that laugh if you don't serve that penalty nascar will bring you down pit road there's kevin harvick in the four as you see about a four car link lead already for denny hamlin once again the only driver that is safely into the round of eight with his win two weeks ago at las vegas chase elliott all over the back of mark tricks jr all these guys trying to figure out exactly how much braking performance they have how their car is handling all these corners really learning so much taking in so much information his first handful of laps and gaining speed gaining confidence to drive these cars deeper into the braking zones we'll see these guys get a little spread out here but as the race goes on they'll get more and more competitive restarts will get more intense yeah truex losing two spots right here chase haley got by him and now kyle larson going by [Music] teammates right here battling for second place the 22 goes wide to get a opportunity on the inside of this breaking zone which gives him the chance to take that position through the chicane interesting to see drivers try two different lines into that battle chicane on the front straightaway let's ride on board the 11 car denny hamlin let's see where he's out on the racetrack going into turn three downhill over on the left front really loose jeff then this is a fun corner but old exits you cross over this curb you lose traction momentarily right there trying to put power down you have to be very careful with the throttle and now turn five look how the elevation goes way uphill completely blind into six cannot see around that corner now it starts to go back downhill a sharp corner to turn seven use all the track you can now another sharp corner very awkward corner because you have the flat and then you jump up into the banking of oval turn one which is the rokkor's turn nine it's really important to get out of turn eight because of this acceleration all that speed carries you down this long straight away into a very hard braking zone we've seen a lot of wheel hopping here in the xfinity race probably going to see more of it today two big curbs on the inside and the right side no curves on excess you get pretty creative here watch them run all over this little paint right here on the left do really what you want on that exit this part of the racetrack is pretty simple when you're by yourself but you're setting up for turns 15 16 and 17. way to the left heavy breaking you see his head move right there that's coming off the bank of the racetrack huge curbs right here now back to the start finish line a lot going on for these drivers on this robo dave chase elliott moving forward from eight starting position to fifth place now that's good news because listen to his radio transmission on the pace laps it's a pretty good lag on the throttle response for whatever reason let you know if that goes away or not crew chief alan gustafson thought it may have been low rpms and that it would probably get better so far no mention of it since the green flag so elliot should be in good shape marty dave the one thing that surprised me walking through the garage area this morning is how so many crew chiefs had no idea how they were going to play this race strategy wise steve there's a comp caution coming up around lap 10 you in theory could pit there make it almost to the end of stage two but all these playoff teams they need points but you have to give them up if you want to go get the win so how do you play this race if you're a playoff crew chief steve this seems like one of the biggest puzzles of the year for these crew chiefs well it's a big puzzle as you mentioned that competition yellow here in about five more laps makes it more difficult as we see a battle here between penske cars man blaney and a little wheel hop right there the one advantage though is that final stage is 59 laps rick that's over a fuel run so i really think you gotta race stage one for what it is it's 25 laps with points on the line stage two the same way take a deep breath evaluate where you stand and then change your aggression for the final stage of the race martin tricks jr dropping back through the field we see him struggling losing positions at the hope that he's getting to this upper don't look here gonna lose him gonna miss the corner entirely got a corner car on his outside here this tightening car not handling well can't wait for the opportunity to get to pit road and work on it already a difficult start for martin trex jr in the nascar cup series playoffs for charlotte's the bank of america roble 400. kenny halen's out front [Music] one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] nascar drive is your live race day companion you can follow your favorite drivers all race long with high definition in-car cameras visit nascar.com drive or you can download the nascar mobile app today [Music] the 2022 ford mustang machi gt performance edition could be yours enter for your chance to win this high performance board plus get an entry for an instant prize a 100 gift card during today's race go to nascar.com ford playoffs promo right now to enter [Music] amarola and that rear chicane see right here on the bottom of the racetrack 17 alongside of him and eric just didn't recognize that he was there contact he's running 20th see right here gets in there and just 17's there and off they go a little bit of damage on buscher's car but that put amarola all the way back to 39th one mistake you know at an oval that's a caution but here they're going to do their best not to throw that caution in here see parker amarillo i'm sorry truex still struggles he has been struggling i thought for a second he'd come on the radio talking about breaks but it was actually just a lack of rear grip in that 19 car and as we rumble towards that competition caution steve i got a question for you if you're watching this as a crew chief james ball in the pit box knowing all these options how to play it knowing that they want to get stage points do you risk maybe coming in and working on that car and hoping enough people pit with you to get some rear grip i think there's a lot of crew chiefs that want to look at this first 10 laps assess the car but i i have to think it's a tough call to make to come down and give up that track position well i think it's going to be an easier call for martin tracks junior because he's not going to receive stage points running 13th only the top 10 received points and he does not have the pace or the speed to run inside the top 10. we look at the driver doing the work with the wheel and on the right side you see his feet doing the work that left foot right there kind of resting on the clutch pedal actually using the clutch pedal right there a little surprise and then you'll watch down this straightaway drivers he'll give a little safety tap to that brake pedal right here make sure he has a pedal before he gets to that braking zone as you build heat in these brakes the pedal gets longer the throw to the pedal gets longer and if that's moving around or changing while you're racing you really never can get the rhythm of applying the brakes and uh so you got to pump that up to keep that brake pedal high let's listen to some 19 audio just not doing anything good yeah go to playing just hang in hang with us got a plan hang with us i mean that's all you could tell the driver he's frustrated losing positions he's in defense mode worried about losing more and more spots worried about his playoff situation great words from the crew chief to try to keep his head in the game they think they know what they can do to fix this race car and help martin we've seen this before from teams championship teams will get their car righted and improved and working in the right direction what i do like though is is it wasn't a bunch of feedback back and forth right i see it i got a plan you can stop talking to me politely right focus i know you have an uphill battle just keep doing what you're doing trust me i agree with you it's not very good there's another familiar voice on the 19 radio this week you've used multiple spotters normally at a road course and they have employed former crew chief cole perth who's actually spotting for martin shrek's junior as well and so after stepping away from crew chiefing duties he's back here to spot and a car right behind him this eight car kylo ren guitar you mentioned it this guy's driving through the field maybe one of the best cars on the racetrack top five lap times but deep in the field that shows pretty good speed it does as you mentioned it's just very hard to make lap time navigating traffic but the eight of rentals oh there you go pit this time so we're gonna see some cars come to pit road they cannot take fuel because it's before the competition yellow but all of these drivers are going to take tires and there is a wave of them pit road packed parker i didn't kevin hart coming down here from the top five position there to put those four tires on just lacking a bit of rear grip in the four car dave definitely rear grip limited that was the word from christopher bell in this blue and yellow number 20. they'll get four goodyear tires and sunoco fuel his teammate above kyle bush guess what no grip [Music] all of these teams rick noah yellow is coming out in one lap as we see the 21 on pit road marty yeah you see matt de benedetto coming down and yes steve you'll see him put on those four fresh goodyear tires they will not take fuel here because you can't do that before the cop caution but see this gives them a much bigger advantage when they eventually do pit for fuel right because that would be a much shorter stop than everybody else's top yeah or they just won't come in they'll stay on the racetrack and know they're racing to the lap 25 end of stage one remember a lot of these guys that came to pit road including truex they need those stage points for the playoffs so these guys are coming to get tires now they won't pit underneath the competition yellow stay on the racetrack and if people pit he'll move to the front oh big penalty dove first playoff guy to make a mistake the 20 of christopher bell we talked about it beforehand as now we see the 11 of denny hamlet also come to pit road a huge penalty for the 20. all this great strategy thrown out the window with a mistake and we talked about it christopher bell had track position was to do everything he could to keep it now it's going to all be gone [Music] meanwhile yeah meanwhile his teammate denny hamlin coming down pit road also william byron on pit road in front of you parker all right william byron here is once again four tires for him as all these playoff drivers come down to get these tires before the competition caution marty and you see the four fresh goodyear tires here for denny hamlin caution has not come out yet this was chris gabard's plan all along come before the comp caution you see them putting on the goodyear tires kurt busch also on pit road he had hung around the top 10. steve we weren't kidding were we when we said the playbook was wide open for the crew chiefs today and right here you see the 20th christopher bell serving his penalty actually an advantage to serve the penalty right here under green as the field gets stretched out he would lose more positions than a yellow he would go all the way to the tail end so if he loses 10 spots here rick that's better than going to the tail end this makes joey logano currently the leader on the racetrack we expect to see a yellow flag here shortly but it's going to be like this all day long the field is going to continue to get jumbled up as you see chase elliott continuing to move through he makes a nice pass on the two of brad keselowski strategy is going to continue to flip the most important thing is just watch that running order understand that the goal is to try to be the leader at the end of the stage here it is the comp yellow there's the cop caution joey logano out front [Music] oh is [Music] [Music] so yeah okay in the 90s famous for winning a million dollars back in the 80s what a perfect day at the racetrack as we look at the bank of america fan cam the fans here enjoying a wonderful sunday afternoon at the rovel out front joey logano blaney elliott kozlowski larson and bowman those six playoff drivers they did not come onto pit road before the competition caution you expect to see them here steve i do these tires have definitely lost grip some of these cars have slowed down a second or a second and a half i think the big difference is who decided they needed fuel if you pitted before the competition yellow you got tires but you couldn't put fuel in your car i would expect we're going to see another wave of pit stops here we'll see who decides to come and who doesn't but the people that pit now will have the opportunity to put fuel in it so there you see bubba wallace big win last week in talladega he's gonna lead a group of cars onto pit road for fuel as we see logano blaney and the nine of chase elliott stay on the racetrack [Music] and so pit stops taking place but again playoff drivers stayed up front [Music] is [Music] foreign part of our victory of health to join us nascar on nbc is brought to you by new coke zero sugar now even more delicious jackpot party enjoy the authentic las vegas experience anytime anywhere by downloading jackpot party casino and by ford built proud the number 10 car eric almarola has a special paint scheme for breast cancer awareness month spotlighting ford's warriors and pink program mixed strategy we have used tires at the front of the field basically the top seven have yet to pit rick works at geico restart zone warren goodyear tires going into turn one a little bit quicker than normal and we'll see how long denny hamlin stays back in the pack or if he's able to use those fresh goodyear tires to get to the front [Music] i had mentioned the speed had fallen off in those tires but you don't know if they're trying to take care of them it'll be very clear as you pointed out danny hamlin on new tires seems to be being patient right here in the infield section we'll see if he has the momentum when he enters the high banks right here this way it will really show up acceleration out of turn eight marty he's gonna pass the first of those cars steve that did not pit hamlin with new tires so in the 10 laps denny hamlin ran he fell off two seconds so in theory these four fresh goodyear tires should show up quickly in this run and chris gabe hart told him hey our philosophy is simple we want one playoff point oh it's been by brad kozlowski is going to be able to continue on it looks like gets it fired up went in there too wide and we've seen this before drivers it's just not a lot of room that's why a lot of people can see the position let's say i can't tell it looks like it was the two i'm not not too wide i'm wrong contact from the rear bumper the 48. luckily bowman's able to get by doesn't look like there was contact between him and brad as brad spins back across the racetrack that's huge for brad he's racing for points he needs these points that's going to put him in position he's not going to get any stage points yeah some of these teams definitely you know i talked to harvick he didn't think he could get stage points in each stage he had to kind of pick all right is it stage one or is it stage two this definitely changes the strategy for the two team going forward dave it does for sure you know the first two stages are all about knowing what you have for the third stage and i asked jeremy bones the crew chief on the two do you feel safe with 20 points to the cut line coming in he goes i don't feel safe but it's better than nothing he would like to have added those stage points though at the end of this first one top ten at the end of stage one and the end of stage two will receive points the winner of each stage receives the playoff point which these playoff drivers can use as they advance into the next round if you're not a part of the top 10 no points get distributed to your team at the end of the stages look at this right here battle between the 48 the three and the 17 right behind him the 20. of christopher bell we saw that penalty earlier he was able to service penalty come down pit road and he's all the way back up into the 16th position let's take a little look at his loop data 156 feet per minute on the heart rate a lot of work at these road courses shifting turning both directions a little bit of a break down the straightaways but this whole infield section right here drivers we talk about how slick it is so it's physical and some mental exertion yeah the road courses absolutely use up a driver physically more than the ovals do on the ovals you come off the corner you get a little straight away to relax uh take good take a couple of breaths and then get ready for the next corner you're working all the time this is just like being in the gym rep after rep after rep corner after corner after corner and emotionally that matters also and christopher bell remember he had good track position got caught speeding on pit road had to serve the third he lost that track position so now that puts him in a position where he's got to push even harder crosstalk right there the 158 beats per minute as he's getting passed by eric jones in the 43 ross has had some great pace here at the road course this year losing a spot right there that team's running really well expecting to see them to try to improve as he tries to out break the 99 daniel suarez right there the back straight away suarez cut him a break next year yeah this talking to ross chastain before the race he said my whoop data's not going to be pretty he said i have a high heart rate man he doesn't believe denny hamlin he's like that's not natural as low as his is look there it is 165. 791 calories steve i mean he has gotten a workout in already 17 laps into this rate so yeah there's a lot of calories burned and he still probably has two and a half more hours of this race in front of it i saw him on the front straightaway before the razies said it was going to be high i told him he'd be 250 sitting on pit road that's high strung the 11th danny hamlin finally gets by the five of kyle larson you can see some patience used i'm a little surprised hamlin wasn't able to get by him quicker with the fresher goodyear tires but now that he's by the five look at the gap already the five kind of slipping those rear tires you'll really see it right here out of turn eight i would expect the fresher rear tires of hamlin look at the acceleration definitely drives away from the five and now the 11 kind of sets the site forward to try to catch up the nine and elliott well today at the roble aj allmandinger's car sponsored by jackpot party and for a chance to win aj's helmet and fire suit you can go to aj jackpot.com that's pretty cool aj for the third time in a row won the xfinity series race here at the roble and another driver that has had success on robles or on the road courses on the cup series actually won at the indianapolis road course earlier this year in the cup series dave yeah rick that was the last time he was in a cup series car and again i mentioned just the fifth start of the season for him so he was told before the green flag go out there and have fun you today are all about making this race team better remember colleague racing is going cup series racing next year full time not with aj but they need to get a handle on everything they can and they expect aj to give him a lot of data points today he's definitely making the team better right now in the seventh position here everyone's still chasing after ryan blaney out front [Music] oh um [Music] [Music] [Music] is huh [Music] if you're new to nascar as you watch today's race follow along on twitter at nascar nation it's a 101 type breakdown of what's happening on the track we're going to explain key terms you hear on the broadcast and answer your questions cautions come out ryan newman the right rear tire completely gone on that car and he went for a big spin he was in the middle of basically the oval turn four high-speed area when i looked up here beating down the friendships i can tell you buddy you the flat tire it snapped around on poor newman let's take a look and see how this happened steve through nascar turned four up at the top of the screen blows the right retire car goes around smacks the outside wall just a great break i think that was brad keselowski coming through it's hard to say but i could see the yellow banner on the windshield yeah kozlowski almost got wrecked by a wrecking ryan newman that just proves no one is safe around the rovel earlier he goes around in the infield part of the course there was contact on the right rear maybe that's how it got cut this is an interesting time for a yellow because in just a few laps i was expecting to see another wave of drivers come to pit road rick for tires and fuel it's kind of part of that strategy to pit before the end of the stage this is just we talked about being i call this one more intersection there's going to be a lot of intersections today where these crew chiefs can get on a strategy off of strategy other on another strategy so pit roads currently closed when we come back they'll be open we'll see if anybody decides to pitch [Music] amazing the number six room back there go full throttle with wi-fi speeds worth celebrating fast internet for a faster everything did your internet do that [Music] nascar cup series playoffs from charlotte bank of america roble 400. see the crowd there's some well champion [Applause] fans celebrating there that's right chase elliot's still reigning cup series champion from his win a year ago at phoenix you see the cruz kind of poised and ready i think it's big decision time fellaini elliott logano yet to pit in this race on the left-hand side you see hamlin and byron those fresher tires they were able to drive back up inside the top five almandinger yet to pit and i think larson back there in 12th drivers you were talking about how he's giving up spots i think those old tires were okay out front but once you got back in traffic man you really were overtaken by a lot of guys let's see who comes with no surprise danny hamlin he doesn't need points a little surprised though that the 18 of kyle bush comes with him he feels that tires are going to be very important parker and william byron one of those who was struggling in the left-handers but really happy this 24 car the right-handers as you see they're going to do four goodyear tires dave tight in some turns loose into others bit of a quandary for a crew chief to make adjustments on but they're going to adjust the chassis and the air pressure on the 18 car marty dave i cannot believe the debate on the radio about whether to come whether or not to come denny hamlin actually once he came to pit road said i shouldn't have come we should have stayed we were sitting in third should have tried to go get that playoff point you see alex bowman trying to make adjustments on that car extremely free street steve the strategy is just all over the place here in stage one right get your notepad out it'll be a test when we come back i'm taking notes don't worry butcher grabbed a couple spots on fit [Music] hartman roads chris busher and christopher bell again however a number of cars stick out jeff hannah a lot of different strategies in play here and we are only 21 laps in 209 well that's what happens to it whenever they throw a competition caution before you know about the very very beginning of the race it gives everybody opportunities and undoubtedly this racetrack does not have a lot of grip this week this hong kong sunshine has created an issue they haven't had to do all right for the young is this so again these drivers up front did not hit they haven't hit it at all uh here in the opening stage they're going after the stage points remember chase elliott upfront was only plus nine points coming into this race he needs to stage points and he of course would love to have a playoff point as well by winning this stage the thing is he will have his hands full with the guys and then come down pit road and get four fresh tires and we only got a few left to go they're going to be coming at me how about setting up the front six rows here as we get ready to restart with only four more laps here at stage one aerial coverage brought to you by geico crew chiefs have made the decision now it's in the hands of the drivers we have kyle busch kevin harvick deep in the field kyle busch will restart 14th drivers new tires you got to make them work go get some stage points yeah kyle busch and kevin harvick both gave up about seven or eight spots by coming on pit road but now they have tires they both need points to see how far up they can get they just got to get aggressive and it starts right here on this restart the very first lap everybody bunched up this whole lap right here attack attack attack this shot shows how many cars are in front of you rick we'll see how aggressive these two get from back here in their positions of 14th and 15th green flag back in the air look at aj omega to the inside of the 12 down into term one and then further back you see kyle busch kevin harvick both making the three wide bottled up there three wide through turn one almandinger out front blaney finding him to the inside as they go to turn three mark shrek's junior in the 19 look to the inside of chase elliott here's the thing even with new tires you got to have a clear racetrack and where are you going to go when they're too wide in front of the infield races like a street course that's a problem little smoke right there that's a problem steve even with great tires it's so hard to get by anybody in the 11 if danny hamill was caught speeding on pit road had to go all the way to the back so he's going to be fun to watch to try to recover chase ellie gets around brian blaney blaney trying to work off some rubber some build up or something on that race car because of the breaking zone tricks trying to attack blainey to the inside will hops almost spins the car out oh the 21 misses it he's over to the left there stops gonna give up his penalty you're gonna see him rejoin maddie d they're coming up on just two laps to go in stage one chase elliot's closing in on the leader aj omendinger down to within two car lengths [Applause] so ryan pries up against the wall gonna try to get that thing restarted turned around rejoined the field will stay under green great battle for the lead shaping up here chase elliott wants this stage win go get him these two have not been to pit road almandinger elliott and blaney the top three they have not come to pit road yet that's exactly what chase haley wants to do early in this race is trying to get these stage points he gets wide for a low exit off of six that puts him in great position to be over in this corner to be able to exit well now look where he is all of that all setting the car to the outside on corner entry allowed him to close in on the 16 through that series of corners aj almondinger known for his great road course abilities chase elliot has won the last two races here further behind them harvick has gotten to 11th kyle busch got to 10. kyle bush is trying to follow the 24th through ricky stenhouse hits the curb runs kyle bush wide and harvest will try to take advantage of it 47 lost the momentum now he's going to drive it deep in the corner right here a lot of contact right there in the 47 you see that left front tire rub if he's got a tire rub he's got sheet metal on the car rubbing the tire the 18 car probably has some damage as well now the final lap of stage one allmendinger has about a four 10th of a second lead over chase elliott how about martin trix jr in fourth at the start of this race was complaining about his car james small so we have a plan well a pretty good plane he has him in the fourth position he did come to pit road on lap nine and now the top two separating themselves fighting for this stage win aj trying to get wide right there got a little aggressive too much on the paint side by side down into turn seven chase over yeah chase ellie loves that move he goes way right in that one corner to get left on this one he's gonna have the advantage off the corner they accelerate out of turn eight turn nine who's gonna give right here will anybody lift earlier they're both gonna try to outbreak each other side by side in this rear circade is almost impossible and they stay side by side chase takes the position away [Applause] accelerates and drives away from aj what a move by chase elliot again coming into this race only nine points above the cut line looking for ten points right here at the end of stage one through the front stretch chicane chase elliott wins stage one and behind them here comes you see right there kyle busch got up to seventh harvard to tent [Music] harvick gets a point kyle bush a couple points those guys as well as chase elliot they were right around the cut line bumping and banging going on legato sends priests and ultimately chase elliott aggressively getting by alma dinger he wins stage one [Music] so we're very thankful to be here wonderful thank you guys are y'all having a good time yes okay over here we have dress for success let's see if we catch up with them real quick too i know they're loving the race let's see all right what's your name tell us a little bit more about dress for success sure curry bar o'connor success and we have women's secure employment as a means hey don't forget the countdown was on just a few more minutes sunday night football on nbc josh allen and the bills visit patrick mahomes and the kansas city chiefs coverage tonight starting at 7 p.m eastern with football night in america and there's duff one of our guys oh yeah he's a phil's fan i told him i said hey i got josh allen in my fantasy league he starts tonight so he's hoping for the best there uh hey rutz brought to you by toyota giving us a look at the toyota camry for next year i am so excited this is my first time getting to see the new camry trd next-gen race car in person first off it's all about symmetry when you look down the side of this car it's completely straight straight as an arrow up front you see this beautiful camry trd nose with the grille the headlight area so much of this is mimicking the exact design of the camry trd street car because they were designed together something that's new are these hood vents that's going to help get a lot of that heat out of the engine compartment how about gone are the 15-inch steel wheels and say hello to 18-inch aluminum alloys there's only one problem though they're missing four lugs wait a second that's right the single lug is here and then when you see that dual exhaust the sound of these cars on the racetrack is incredible and this is the first time we'll actually see the camry trd name on the racetrack just like what you can get at your local dealership really exciting crazy to think that that's the last time we're going to see those cars on the track this year so i think my the microphone went away which to rut that's that's like kryptonite or something for him he when the mic didn't work rut was that was definitely a sore spot for rod good looking race car though it really is and the next gen cars will be on this track uh come tomorrow actually they're going to be out here testing uh i think they're talking 21-22 cars is that right yeah it's a huge field out here testing it's really the first chance that all of the teams are able to bring a next-gen car on the racetrack and now pit road is open and we're going to see chase elliott aj almandinger ryan blaney this will be the first trip to pit road in the entire race for those teams parker all right and joe logano pits out of the fifth position at the top of your screen complaining about that car just getting looser and looser and being pretty mediocre under the braking ford goodyear tires some air pressure adjustments for giligano dave chase elliott said i feel like it's pretty good can't argue with that i need a whole another segment to tell you what i need for the end of the race so we'll see what these adjustments do for the nine car who won the stage marty dave when i talked to todd gordon crew chief for ryan blaney bottom of your screen this morning he said we want stage points in stage one well guess what they got it they got eight stage points and it's interesting parker mentioned breaking for joey logano his teammate same thing for ryan blaine he said i'm getting demolished under breaking breaks on this 12 card just all over the place and aj alvin digger actually stayed out so he'll be up front stations [Music] [Music] we're back here at the charlotte motor speedway so glad you could join us for this prn broadcast as we go down to o'reilly auto parks reporter wendy mentoring out on this racetrack has a lot of speed to back up exactly what he did in the infinity race yesterday by the way all the drivers that we're here today leading the field as the official pace car is the toyota camry trd [Music] all right let's take a look at the cup series playoff standings brought to you by xfinity danny hamlin again with the win two weeks ago that locks him into the round of eight after that stage and where the points are right now and as they run kevin harvick is above the cut line remember he came in below the cut line nine points behind both kyle bush and chase elliot now chase elliot is below the cut line and look at joey legato only one of them and it's going to continue to move around as we run because there's just so much movement between all the different strategies in another stage that will pay points here in about 22 laps that number is going to continue to move around all these drivers fighting for a championship this year marty i guess you've got a champion standing by with you alex hello i've found a guy who's already won a championship this year alex pallow the indycar champion wanted a couple of weeks ago at long beach so how is it being at a nascar race and watching everybody here at the roble it's different it's different but it's really loud i love it i'm just my first time here watching an oscar race and being a fan it's it's amazing so here i am at the one pitch stand and it's just amazing i love it what have you been doing to celebrate the title since you wanted i know you've done a lot of media even back in spain yeah lots of media which is super good um i think uh that the support we had from the media this year it's been amazing and especially now but been eating lots of fried chicken celebrating with the family and here we are i needed some race cars and here we have some race cars you ready to go for st pete it's going to come up quick early next year in february really early february is just now so just gonna have some good time now in the off season preparing ourselves for for 2022 hopefully we can defend this title there you go alex flow hanging out with kurt busch and his team today of course part of the chip ganassi group so the fried chicken story rick you know colton herta he has hot dogs after he has tacos after he wins i should say alex said you know i'm gonna start having fried chicken after i win so when he wins he has fried chicken but when you win a title rick you can have as much fried chicken as you want yeah and the spaniard actually had his dad come over for that championship race so that was really cool his father was there for him to see that championship alex fellow joined us on nascar america motormouth steve he was in the restaurant eating the chicken while he joined us on the show he was having a good time partnering his championship mondays and wednesdays joining us great fun it comes on the dale jr download this uh this week look at that motor mouse tomorrow i think they have a little footage from the next gen test so we got a lot a lot going mondays and wednesdays and again that's on peacock tv so make sure to look that up field approaching the geico restart zone it's almondinger in front kyle busch and the 24 of william fireman now fighting for that second spot william byers put himself in great position he's a win here today we know that but he's also had the pace he's drove up into the top 10. he's a lot of pit strategy to get here but he's got a quick race car these land laps here he knows how to get around this track steve what's the strategy for almandinger here he's not here for points he's here to win the race is the strategy they're using is it potentially a race-winning strategy well that's his goal i would imagine he's only going to pit twice so he's gonna run a handful of laps here pit and then only pit one more time in the final stage the problem he has is look at the fresh tires all around him these old tires for aj almond definitely costing as we see a battle for the lead between the 24 and we see the four of kevin harvick not a lot of patience with alma dinger yeah kevin hartman got to the back on the digger just a little bit maybe misjudged that speed or just saying hey i need to find out how important these points are now i'm being turning underneath him back to the inside that puts kevin in a difficult situation has to give that position right back up to the 16. steve we're seeing these cars go up on the curving here could that have been one of the issues for the sixth car of ryan newman they broke a shock of brace it sounded like yeah you know that you're going to use the curving but you're going to ask your driver to try to use it sparingly you cannot do it every lap for 109 laps it will break something and after the six had that flat tire we heard a report that had broken the right rear shock mount i would imagine that it would come from movements like this you see car in the air the form up in the air so you you know cars are built to do that but let's not do it 109 times amending we saw him get by harvick larson also got by harvick harvick got beaten both times under breaking so you wonder if his car is breaking the way it won't he wants it to talk about william byron he is a good road racer in a must-win situation this is what they need right they need to be able to see the front better make a move late in the race you get a guy like kyle bush that can point himself in put him in a vulnerable position put him in a position where he has to make a decision to lift or not and guess what he's probably going to lift because he just cannot afford to be in a wreck jeff you're very observant about the four there and his breaking performance under that caution he was talking about how that car is wheel hopping late in the brake zone and it's not slowing up enough early on the brake zone so he's actually downshifting early which means you're using some of that engine braking trying to slow down the car without just using the brakes a lot not quite having the brake performance that they want in that four car very observant by you jeff dave kyle busch's day has turned in the right direction four stage points in stage number one that's good because he needs points today and then this race car may be harder for others to get around than it might have been earlier in the day when kyle was asked if adding fuel and making an adjustment when he hit pit road has helped the 18 he said yeah best it's been marty dave alex bolman and greg ives have flipped the stage has given him track position for now they sit in seventh but there's a bigger problem developing on the 48 who's in a must-win listen on the radio conversation all right so a little update from what i'm saying i do not think we have an alternator it was recovering is no longer recovering i'm 13-0 so steve earlier they told him quote recover the battery so obviously some sort of electrical issue going on in the 48 13-0 on the volts that worry you a little bit very much so it should be higher than that with so much race left for the 48 i would think the team better plan on changing the battery maybe the end of stage two uh that's gonna hurt their track position parker but at this point it might be their only option as we go on board here with martin trex jr he's been having issues with the rear grip that race car we saw falling back early on at the start of this race but they've also had another set of issues take a listen to his team radio and so the team was discussing whether to come down you look at him three wide right now in between two pencey cars and a sandwich down in the final chicane trying to navigate all that they asked him if he wanted to fix that he said no we got bigger issues just focus on making the race car better but obviously martin's not gonna be able to tell him everything about it with those radio issues not able to talk to the team see bubba wallace in the 23 amongst that group of fords there steve so that probably the 19 car is pretty interesting because he's not happy with the car but if that's all the team can hear what do they know how to make the car better i don't know how they can understand what martin's saying yeah i believe at this point you have to look at that smt data the driver data to see where you're getting beat on the racetrack and perhaps try to guess by looking at his driving inputs what he's fighting right you should be able to tell if it's loose tight with throttle and steering um because to your point by the radio communication they're not getting a lot of clear and concise information with the different strategies kyle bush being up front you look at the points the playoff points now again a lot of racing still to go there's 77 laps to go in this race but right now fourth through ninth separated by four points that's four positions on the racetrack marty and rick a big development issue for kyle larson they are losing volts on the five car as well in fact a moment ago he was telling cliff daniels on the radio vulture at 12 then he said now at seven now at five they have told him to shut everything off in the car that he can all of his fans they told him to shut the alternator off if he can now they're walking him through the procedure of what switches just shut off they told him to shut off white two shut off another color switch so steve rapidly developing for the five losing volts on that car as well that's two hendrick motorsports cars it is shocking that kyle larson could be in this position after oh and we've got a spinner right on the front stretch the 14 of chase briscoe is around and so that brings the caution out you were mentioning the five of kyle larson the 48 of alex bowman both with electronical issues question is now only a third is this the moment you come down pit road to work on your car we see what happens right here ricky stenhouse junior contact chase briscoe around at the roble [Music] wow uh battery issues for the five team at least a charging issue for the five team they're on pit road now steve yeah listening to their radio i believe it's an alternator they asked him to rev it up to see if the volts would increase like the rpm should with an alternator it did not so that tells me they have a charging issue for the five that is next to impossible to fix during the race it's gonna take a long time to change an alternator so now it's going to be about changing the battery for the five of kyle larson unlike the 48 of alex moment they're under the hood so i'm not sure if they feel they had a belt missing or if it's a charging issue but it's electronic issues on both so go to the bottom of your screen you see the car chief reaching in front of the left rear tire they're going to pull the battery out that's where it's kept under vehicles turn it off you don't want to do this with the car running you'll arc and it can actually hurt the system there's a lot going on for henry motorsports in this shot rick hendrick hoping i hope he's not watching this the alternator belt got kicked off that's what happened to kyle larson that's what they were looking for into the hood of the 48 as well there's the battery that comes out doesn't look like your battery at home it's not going to these batteries are built by the race team to be more powerful and lighter so now there's two issues fresh battery and an alternator belt great calmness by cliff daniels on the radio so you can't get the alternator belt on it don't worry about it we'll just get the battery are you doing the battery jetty yep okay there you go battery first priority fire let's not lose a lot because of it i love the kindness on the radio shows leadership by the crew longer caution laps for helping this team as well my um let's listen to the 48 radio all right so uh the belt's good so that's not good news uh what's your volts at now 12.9 with brake fans off all right so five of kyle arson no alternator about 48 of alex bowman charging issue but the belt is on that's what they're going to try to repair on the five car unfortunately for the 48 not that easy they're going to have to try to continue to diagnose his issue william byron another hendrick car up front here kyle bush on the inside back through the gears they go [Music] great restart for kevin harvick trying to battle the 24 but byron through turn one he goes into second place [Music] during all that chaos of electronic issues for the hedge of motorsports cars you no longer see aj almandinger at the front he finally came to pit road for his first pit stop of the day kyle bush out front harvick running second see the 99 of suarez up here as well as the three of austin dillon all these different strategies have this field mixed up right here the 41 car cole custer the 34. but mcdowell is there 99 of suarez seven lejoy it's surprising kyle larson the most wins by any driver this season is below the cut line right now he is 10 points down that is the heartburn for both cliff daniels for the crew chief for the team also when you look at the 48 greg ives they were in a must-win situation they had to be aggressive with their strategy now they're dealing with an alternator issue as well as you see the five of kyle larson on the racetrack marty rick who would have thought this round to 12 we're talking cut line and kyle larson and the fact that he is below it here 73 to go a long way to go here at the roble though you gotta love what cliff daniels has done stevie pointed out calmly leading this team right now leading a meeting behind their pit box scott maxson one of the head engine builders for hendrick motorsports sitting there as well and they're coming up with a plan steve you've mentioned it that alternator belt is extremely hard to put on that's why they didn't try to put it on here run this stage out as cliff daniels plan only 14 to go here in stage two and then try and make that repair even if it's lengthy you mentioned it too rick long caution flag laps here so they have time to make this repair two concerns rick first why did the belt come off we're assuming it was contact from a degree but what if the alternator has froze up what if it's an internal issue that kicked the belt off a new belt is not gonna be a fix for this five card the other thing is you saw cliff daniels off the pit box coming up with a plan that's great leadership but you know what he's not doing worrying about anything else with the rates he's not looking at strategies he's not looking at adjustments he's losing valuables [Music] hear that 13.1 burton continues to give updates kyle larson does to his team about the voltage so steve one concern i have for this five car later in the race like he can stop under these stage ends but the last the last stage of this race is 59 laps the xfinity race was 67. they put a battery in that thing's gotta last for 59 laps that's a long time to end this race parker and it's obviously caught the attention of his hendrick motorsports teammate william byron who came into this race in a must-win position to advance the round of eight with a lot of confidence with his speed at this racetrack but he was just told under that latest caution to use precaution with the all-theater did not run any of the fans or any of the electronics underneath the caution just as a precaution they didn't allude to him why but right now they're obviously watching very intensely the voltage on that 24. it's steve as a weakened mechanic you know we know that you loosen a bolt on the alternator it slides over a little bit you put the belt on that's not the same with these race cars why is it so difficult to put a belt on well one of the big issues is because with so much under hood temperature you don't want the belt to be set to a big crazy range so there's like a turnbuckle if you can imagine that loosens and tightens the belt itself but that has a jam nut under it if you try to spin that down and there's other belts in its way you know there's a water pump belt some of them run a little bit of a serpentine setup that takes multiple pulleys in and the pulley itself on the alternator is very very small so just not a lot of flex in that belt it's a challenging situation we continue to hear voltages read out i would love to hear 14 and a half that would be normal if i had 14 and a half it'd be two thumbs up to my driver when it starts getting around the 13 or below you would assume you have an issue so voltage issues now for a couple of the hendrick motorsports teams not to 24 right now as we see william byron running up in the third spot kyle busch is out front harvick running second byron is third pretty amazing to see what harvard was able to do he watched william byron drive away from him just before that caution caution comes out he gets up on his horse and he battles william byron into turn one and takes the spot away and now he's driving away holding second place down he's got the leader right in front of him this is a critical part of the race for this team 12 laps to go in this stage in great position to gain a lot of stage points one point in stage one potentially nine points maybe even a stage win right here in front of him take a look the toyota driver update up front right now kyle busch one of the more polarizing racers in nascar has finished 30th or worse than all three of the charlotte rover races and right now he's running up front he's run well but just has never had the finishes to show for it i wasn't even gonna read the graphic i didn't want to be the jinx because to your point we have seen speed out of the 18 that hasn't been the issue it's getting that speed to the finish and take a look at this christopher bell really wide through five and six i just couldn't couldn't get it slowed down all the way in the grass christopher bell this race started out well speeding penalty now off track god did a little bit of damage to the splitter right there trying to get back on the racetrack hey junior he just reported that it was okay according to how it felt they asked him about it immediately and he said it's fine for now tay who's flying is that nine car chase elliott he is on a roll back up to the sixth spot for elliott kyle bush still up front is knockdown [Music] so [Music] [Music] yes foreign [Applause] it's nascar cup series playoffs from charlotte the bank of america robo 400. look at the fan cam bubba wallace impressive win one week ago right now continuing to fight through the field here and he's running in the 28th position you know michael jordan denny hamlin they had a great interview earlier today with today's craig melvin that's available on nbcsports.com as well as motorsports on nbc youtube for that full interview and right behind him ross chastain we mentioned he is wearing one of the woot bands to check out his biometrics and what's the heart rate at now 147 steve not too bad junior you talked to him that he was going to be super super high his heart rate's pretty good but look at that strain 14.2 that goes all the way up to 21. that 14.2 is basically like he's been riding a bike for a couple hours so he was right when he said it was gonna be higher you were gonna be impressed they talked about a full triathlon if you were to do a full triathlon your activity strain would probably close in on that 21 number so they're uh putting in a lot of effort out here on the racetrack today so rick we always like to hear about guys making their way through the ranks well crew chief ben bayshore is in his first season crew chiefing for kyle busch atop the 18 pit box and when i asked him today about this week and getting ready for a cut-off race like this when his driver is on the bubble and whether he may or may not have lost a little sleep he admitted there were several 3 a.m wake ups stare at the clock think about the week and what's to come so even though ben turns 4-0 in a couple of weeks it's weeks like this that are giving him more gray hairs and steve i know you can relate to that absolutely i mean it's it's the moments where you just aren't at work i think when you're at work or at the racetrack or during the race while the stress should be high you're you're in your comfort zone because you're working you're you're you're kind of working on the project at hand it's those sleepless nights where you wake up in the middle of night literally get your computer your notebook out jot down everything you're thinking about right now playoff drivers holding the top four positions kyle busch kevin harvick william byron and chase elliott chase ellie won that first stage he's able to get a playoff point hoping that he'll be able to utilize that as the round of eights will be the next round four drivers will be eliminated and currently those four drivers are larson william byron christopher bell and alex bowman they're below the cut line as they're running on the racetrack watch joey legano try to work his way through the field he's got some newer tires and a lot of these guys around him him martin tricks junior krakowski all trying to work themselves forward there you see brad keselowski and the two car going on the inside of kurt busch down here in the breaking zone kirk's going to go wide give him the spot trick's going to try to take advantage of that as well he will behind them christopher bell kyle larson battling down into turn one all these guys will do attract newer tires trying to work their way past a lot of cars on a totally different strategy marty seven to go here in stage two in this battery situation for alex bowman not getting any better take a listen on the radio 12.5 you're gonna have at less than ten minutes from uh twelve five to twelve zero we got one point the stuff stopped working hopefully uh we have enough time so steve it could be a matter of time really for the 48 they're hoping it can make it to the end of stage two and already down to 12-0 on that battery voltage and the other issue is you know you know this is with everything shut off so he's also probably nursing the brakes you get concerned about some of your gear cooling uh your driver cooling let's be clear we talked about the mechanics level wow it's moment i'm sure his cool suit there's air conditioner everything's shut off i can't afford can't afford to have the bolts being used so alex bowman is also having to put a lot more effort in without having the cooling available steve would you ever bring multiple batteries i know you you would have like fail safe back there but are you going to bring four maybe five to the racetrack because they're gonna have to switch this multiple times i wouldn't bring five but henry motorsports about three miles down the street i'd have already been out of tunnel going for another set kyle larson in the same situation they have charging issues we go nascar non-stop you won't miss a thing [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] 17 [Music] you can download the official app of nascar and follow the action with free live scoring in-car cameras and radio broadcasts search nascar and your app store to download and start a free trial today well rick four laps to go in the second stage i would expect to see a wave of cars come to pit road this next time by and it really just determines on what your priority is the 18 of kyle busch i would expect him to stay on the racetrack win this stage or try to win this stage and get those 10 very important points kevin harvick chase elliott william byron all much the same william beyer might come to pit road because he's thinking he has to win today he can't get there on points but then dylan suarez and lynn reddick i think we're gonna have a busy busy pit road here under green with three laps to go on the stage see that could greatly benefit delaney legato keslowski larson all those guys could stay out and they would get those stage points you're absolutely right jeff right so the cars that aren't in the stage there you go william byron's going to lead him in and they're all going to come there we aren't going to have a car stay on the racetrack for quite some time actually everyone comes to pitt road it looks like it's a yellow flag pit stop now here comes a few more playoff guys as the 24 does a nice job stopping in his box parker all right he's been very quiet on the radio in the team reminding him as chase elliott went by that that he was on a different strategy they're on a larger plan here to go for the win it's four gear tires you saw the adjustment there in the right rear to tighten that car up aj almond dinger will bring the 16 to pit road now i don't know what strategy they're on but they'll pit here he'll get four fresh good year tires he'll get lots of sunoco fuel marty denny hamlin chris gabert made the call to bring him down pit road hamlin's head car just way too loose he said i'm losing time especially off of turn eight that's why i'm really getting beaten by everybody dave four tires and fuel for christopher bella says something is hitting the track on the track it doesn't know if it's a track bar but something on the right side is hitting the track we'll see how that progresses very busy pit road right now as we're seeing cars come up again they shut pit road down with two laps to go in the stage and so right now kyle bush race leader when he comes back by and we see when christopher bale comes off hit road he recorded the joy right there the the right front damage to that car right there when he went off the racetrack it's a lot of damage to that but i think that's what he's feeling hitting the racetrack see that splitter pushed back some of that bracing may be on the racetrack the certain points the braking zones and so forth so now look at your leaderboard look how big the change is planey all the way to fourth legato to the fifth keselowski six lars the seventh truex ninth moment 10th they all need stage points they all stayed out got huge benefit by those other guys just here to win the race right and harvick's in there saying i did everything right i got myself in position i ran these guys and now they're gonna it's not it's gonna be for nothing because they're all getting stage points when originally they weren't going to get it so kevin harvard looked to be in great shape but now that's completely turned around harvick right now second chase elliott is third you remember back to bristol just a couple races ago when those two traded paints and elliott came back out on the racetrack got in front of harvick and a lot say that he slowed harvard down enough that larson was able to get by and get the win and at the end of that they had words so now these two nose to tail as we're closing in on the end of stage two and i'll remind those of you that are playing fantasy with your nascar lineups you've got one lap before you won't be able to make any more changes to that lineup hey no real help would have been to remind me before the race started to put my lineup in rick so i really appreciate that look at the movement in the hands of the four car kevin harvick struggling to try to keep this car underneath him he's gonna have to give up this spot to chase oh boy yes i thought he might [Music] get a little more aggressive than that but cut it pretty close chase gets gets fine gets clear he'll drive away [Music] so chase elliot moves up to seconds harvick running in that third spot again those two were separated by nine points before the race started the point standings changing with every lap now harvick back below the cut line 11 points out brad keselowski is the next one closest to him in points there's nobody coming from behind you see a big gap between harvick and the next car so he can just bring this thing home in third place in this stage it isn't a stage win but it is points even though those other cars like you mentioned burton for getting these stage points you got to continue to fight forward you never know what's gonna happen in stage three who might get wiped out it's gonna get pretty aggressive with so many cars on the lead lap if you have trouble late in this race you could lose 30 spots 25 30 spots kyle bush coming through the front stretch chicane for the final time here in stage two he's going to end up winning stage two that is another playoff point that'll put 23 playoff points into his bucket if he's able to advance into the next round i'm going to tell you this is a big break for the five of kyle larson battling those battery issues but because everyone is working that alternate strategy except for the playoff cars that's allowed kyle larson as you watch these two finish he's going to end up i believe fifth or sixth in this stage as it comes back around you know there goes blaney logano larson in six so score some points remember that if that battery issue ends his day early or slows him down later those could be the points that keep him going through the playoffs he came in second in the standings because of all of the playoff points he brought into it well it's been a crazy second stage one stage to go this one goes to kyle bush [Music] [Music] [Music] cheers oh man this one nascar on nbc's brought to you by ram trucks the only truck brand to win motor trend truck of the year three years in a row and by bank of america what would you like the power to do [Music] well golfers would like power to go out when the president's cup after we come off the ryder cup the president's cup is going to be here in charlotte at quail hollow and the captains came and hung out with our seven-time champion jimmy johnson at the nascar hall of fame steve uh i know that golf near and dear to your heart as well as dj dj you've probably played a lot of golf with davis love the third haven't you uh actually i've had that opportunity to play with davis a little bit and uh it makes you appreciate just how good those guys are and what a great course quail hollis so hard and when you see the scores and the way they play it just makes you appreciate how good uh they take how good they are at that game and what the things that they can do that most of us can't i've been fortunate enough to play quail hollow and dj i know your game that creek on 18 is on the wrong side of the fairway for you you've got that right well again the 2022 president's cup that's going to be held next september charlotte quill hollow club let's check in with ruff rick here in the infield it's cool you can actually see behind me here on the left there's about five spotters that are up here on the very edge and i'm wondering for dale jr the birthday boy two things number one uh what's your favorite kind of birthday cake number two how helpful is it to have a spotter over here because they really can't see that much that it seems like it could help the drivers well my favorite birthday cake or anytime uh red velvet [Music] you know i think having a spotter is just a comfort issue for the driver right it's it's it allows him to know that at all times somebody's going to be able to help him get through an accident or something laying on the racetrack not just clearing him around race cars he just kind of keeps him abreast of where there's trouble on the racetrack where there might be oil on the racetrack maybe um you know a splitter laying in the middle of the racetrack we've seen that happen at these race tracks road courses and so forth so um there's a there's a lot going on uh and you add as many as you want you know even at a real oval like the indianapolis oval we would have two maybe three spotters at that racetrack that's a fresh battery can you cycle your alternator all right so we're the 48's leaving pit road they were here for a length of time about two and a half minutes or so looked like they changed the battery on the 48 we're also here in the 48's teammate the five of kyle larson is going to attempt to put that alternator belt on the team estimates about two and a half minutes pace laps around three minutes marty so it's possible but everything's gonna have to go pretty perfect for the five team yeah and that was a fresh battery you heard greg ives say that a moment ago 13.1 and yes alex bowman did cycle the alternator so the numbers not very good on the 48 with a fresh battery only registering 13.1 and yes cliff daniels that plan we showed you the meeting earlier they've come up with a plan for kyle larson it's going to be two stops they're gonna try and get that alternator belt on and here come the field pit road looks like the four of harvick first into his stall parker right first appeal off there kevin hardwick in the four who's very loose on the entry and exit of the corners you see that track bar adjustment up in the right rear and also ford goodyear tires and full snow go field game stage winner kyle busch now 14 stage points on the day that's great for his cause needs a little more of a same adjustment they had the time before as for chase elliott he just liked more overall grip if he could get it marty see ryan laney on pit road he said quote this car doesn't do anything really good left rear drive is his biggest issue going to be a big adjustment there you see that adjustment for ryan blenny trying to tighten up that race car kyle larson on pit road here so they decided to change tires on this run right here and steve i'll let you walk through trying to get this alternator belt on very difficult process listen i've done some battery changes but in all the interchange i'm going to walk you through that i'm glad i'm not the guy doing it we'll see how they do when we come back for break we'll check in with the five of kyle larson martin scratch jr and roy degano the kyle larson machine remains on the midnight meanwhile the rest of the field is already up at turn number eight they're about to stack it up two by two [Music] the field in the meantime is on the back straight away there they again are stacking up two bikes and larson has a ladder left their road but good news is he will stay on the lead left and has enough time to hedge up in the field as well before they take the great flag and again a number of cars stayed out led by ryan rainey looks like it was now general company how about setting the top 10 just four races remain in the cup series playoff schedule see texas kansas and martinsville those will be the next round that's the round of eight and then phoenix the championship you also see there peacock will be simulcast on the texas martinsville and phoenix race you'll have two opportunities as to where you want to watch those races that's great for the race fans a couple opportunities an update on kyle larson the five car he's off pit road trying to catch the field by the radio communication we believe they got the alternator belt on we'll keep you up to date as this race continues 57 laps to go william byron and austin dillon making up row one as they go to turn one and the eleven of denny hamlin right there as well as daniel suarez almond dinger everyone on different agendas here new tires the newer tires are back in 20th place so william bayern his team you got to give him credit this is what they needed to do come in here put themselves in front of this field late in this race they have to win and they're in the best position they could have asked for right now if he were to win the point battle for that last spot in the cut off to make the next round playoffs is going to be crazy that is the last thing that these playoff drivers want to see is william beyer or some of these guys outside of the top four top eight to win with william byron up front you see kyle larson seven points below the cutoff line there's the five after changing the or putting an alternator belt on they hope that they have that fixed and he can go back to racing as normal but right now he's scored 30 seconds and rick we've seen some very impressive work out of mechanics up and down pit road in the playoffs i go back to ericom roller the oil line at bristol now an alternated belt for kyle larson here at the rover these are mechanics that they haven't got a lot of practice or hasn't been practiced in the garage they haven't been practicing on the racetrack they haven't been working under heated up engine compartments marty like they have in the past but all the preparations showing for their work during the races just impressive work under fire for the hendrick motorsports engine department they were able to get that alternator belt on kyle larson in fact asked are we fixed for good clip daniel said yes we're fix for good he said leave all your fans off for me for about three laps let's build up some charge but i think we're good to go for the rest of the race that's good news because with 55 to go you mentioned that kyle larson currently minus two the advantage for larsen disease in 30th a lot of points in front of him he can gain seen christopher bell in the middle of a lot of action today this just the last lap through this front chicane he and maddie d having some contact he's already got a little bit of damage to the right front that happened early in the race pretty good oh look out the nine is around big damage as well there's a big damage to the bag that's not already one of cole custer but a lot of damage to chase eliot yeah the problem yeah the nine is destroyed junior you said big damage gotta get this decklid on it the four was there too it was very close between harvick and chase elliott's broke it is that's big damage chase hillary came into the race only nine points to the good he has earned 19 points today in stage racing but now a ton of damage wow he's already got the damage at this point so he's already had contact with the wall somewhere in the in the infield and then the 41 got him there as he slid into the grass let's take a look you guys mentioned it already oh right there it's a great shot oh did was there contact between him look at the front bumper the four car big damage to the nose of kevin harvick was that the payback from bristol did kevin harvick wait until it mattered most for chase elliot let's take a look you're clear wow there was the contact sent him into the wall could that be the payback for bristol a couple weeks ago we're riding on board you hear him stand in the gas just before contact and does that end the possibility of the nine right now eight points below the cut line does that end his chance listen to the throttle [Music] you saw the on board you heard the on board right here the four gets into the left rear sending him into that right side wall then as the nine accelerates with damage he catches the 41 i'm thinking the knight of chase elliot was thinking he'd like to catch the four right here as he turns to the left i don't know if the car just comes around with the broken track bar or if he is aiming for the rear bumper the four but in the end he catches the 41 down the race track he goes big damage on the nine deck lid has to be on the car for the carter compete and you heard a broken track bar that's a piece of the suspension that holds the rear in place left to right we'll see if the nine can get a repair you mentioned it rick the history between these two back at bristol yeah these two uh kevin harvick out front fighting for the lead the nine they were racing hard the nine cuts of tire gets into the wall frustrated at the way he was raced he comes back out on the track goes by the four but then stays in front of him and that allowed the five to get by harvick felt that he stole the win away from him and we got to add in remember kevin harvick is over a one-year winless streak that is nothing that you would expect out of a guy like harvick i think that fired him up even more at bristol but right here it looks to me that the four of kevin harvick was patient wait until it mattered most and it seems like pretty clear contact between the four and the nine well you know what chase elliott's going to believe right there's no question that chase elliot is going to feel like kevin harvick wrecked him right there on purpose i'm like you steve i want right there major contact and then i'm like you wonder right here chase like okay i'm gonna get you back and then the 41 gets into him [Applause] 41 also from stuart haws racing as the nine under this caution working his way back to pit road so that put look at the points down there that puts the nine minus eight they have to address and evaluate the damage to this car and be able to see how they can improve find speed maybe rebound and get those points back more okay oh uh is controlling the difference between uh either wheels in that circle and something that that will try to uh administer some support for their drivers you're watching the nascar cup series playoffs bank of america robo 400 reigning series champion chase elliott as we take a listen to the throttle from kevin harvick kevin harvick aggressively into throttle right there and i can assure you that chase elliot is convinced so that was all purpose we know kevin harvick isn't going to cut him any slack we know kevin harvick was upset after bristol [Music] so was chase elliot and that thing never got settled and maybe harvey feel like feels like it got settled today chase is not going to feel that way well you wonder what chase will do if he gets around him on the racetrack now as we're back under green 52 laps to go in this race as they're running with william byron up front the four of kevin harvick is still below the cut line chase elliott down below that cut line as well byron austin dillon hamlin appears the top three daniel suarez in the 99 aj almadinger in the 16. and steve everybody still has to come to pit road 52 laps to go no one can make it on fuel so at this point it's about when you need to make your final pit stop you see the nine of chase elliot taped up and battered goal now to reach minimum speed to be taken off the damaged vehicle clock let's listen into the nine radio if we get a chance we can wreck down that'll lock us in don't be worrying oh it's gonna happen there you have it alan gustafsson explaining to his crew chief because if you look at the points this is with byron leading chase elliot and kevin harvick are both below but if byron's not the leader it moves down one spot as we see big smoke down the back stretch with someone so alan dustin explained to his driver if you wreck the four it locks us in and then the spotter looks like aj omning with an issue then the spotter confirms oh it's going to happen so definitely some frustration in the ninth camp something wrong with the 16 of allmendinger slow on the apron of the track you know we thought it was maybe some break lock up maybe it was a driveline issue on the 16 car creating all that smoke as you watch the nine car here continuing to circle the race track trying to evaluate the damage this race car and how to improve it make the repairs continue to make laps here drivers i'm going to pose the question to you what's acceptable we just heard on the radio he said i'm gonna wreck him so that i get in is that acceptable racing well they gotta go back to the history that nascar has said is a precedent for that and i don't think that they're gonna be very happy to see that nine car go out there and wreck the fork so they've already made the comments on the radio we played it on national television nascar is going to be observant to it and if it happens on the racetrack you'd have to imagine that president has been set before the president being matt kenseth at martinsville the difference in that was i just feel like that you know that was he was off the racetrack came back on to the racetrack if it's a racing incident that's one thing if it's just a complete wipeout that nascar will be put in a position to make a call so that's where i'm with you jeff in my mind as a crew chief in the garage area if we were on the same lap racing for position they considered it just racing no matter how obvious it was the matt kenzeth logano issue was a car multiple laps down we'll see if nascar sees it the same way good news for the nine of chase elliot they meet minimum speed therefore no more damage vehicle policy if they get some cautions they can continue to work on their race car and he's on the lead lap still after all they've done he's still on the lead lap yeah so can chase elliot get his car fast enough to get himself in a racing position to be able to race with kevin harvick that is something they've got to work on dave engine failure guys for the 16 aj allendinger after winning for the third time in a row in xfinity yesterday you can see he's limped it to the garage area so unfortunate for aj almandinger after winning yesterday in the xfinity series he comes in here was having a great run with that 16 team and not able to continue on so his day in short it's unfortunate for him but that's one thing i can appreciate about these road courses is they put the cars through such a difficult test of endurance we rarely see big failures of any kind on the ovals but on this road course especially here with the turtles and so forth this place beats up a race car pretty bad william byron's out front he has a two-second lead right now over austin dillon denny hamilton's back there about two and a half seconds then it's reddick suarez kurt busch chris busher matt demenedetto corey lejoy and ross chastain they're all part of the top ten but again they are on a strategy where they were on pit road at lap 47. the joy 46 ross chest 846 as well harvick blainey bell they came a little bit later to pit road let me add one more wrinkle to this chase elliot kevin harvick thing chase elliot just ran about the seventh pass to slap of everyone on the racetrack so that nine car taped up in parts and pieces still has the pace currently we'll see if it holds together and is there a is there a strategy out there that chase ellie could win this race if he came but maybe the first opportunity to pit road you're going to ask me a chase elliott strategy last year he was nosed into the heartburn corner crash it came back to win so yeah there's all kinds of strategies last year i said no and he won listen i learned my lessons i'm not going to write him off yet well also steve with the pace you just said this car has he can just race himself up with points get a caution get the end of the pack and just go past 10 11 12 cards and you're back up in the point position you need to be in so again chase elliott and kevin harvick that bad blood has risen once again here as we go nascar nonstop [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] tv's most anticipated new show is here don't miss an all-new la brea it's tuesday night on nbc it's almost as if harvick and elliot fell into that sinkhole there at la brea as we have seen some incredible things already with the charging systems of two of the hendrick cars and now a little payback from the nine and the four and rick i think that's the most important thing for everybody watching at home to remember with 47 laps to go we have the points on the bottom left elliot minus 11 harvard minus six both have positions on the racetrack they can gain the 18 of kyle busch koslowski larson truax legano even all the way to blaney running 10th plus 23 looks great he's running 10th or over 35 cars in the lead left an issue and blaney could instantly be in the red dave big announcement this weekend as whelan goes racing with rcr big time next year they're on the back bumper of austin dillon's car today and he's been very happy with that three car at the robo they had a gun issue one of the pit guns failed earlier on lost a few spots on pit road but austin dillon is saying if i could have a little more grip that'd be great but overall pretty happy with what's going on here parker all right another good run in the top ten who just slipped down the top five daniel scorers in that 99 remember this track house racing team started off the year so well then had a bit of a rough patch and been looking to get back on some pos momentum and right now having a great run at the rover very happy with that car just slacking a little rear grip but coming to it marty curt bush with alex below the indycar champion sitting on his pick box rooting him right now in fifth spot remember last year here kurt finished fourth that was after being spun from third spot on the final lap so a little redemption looking to get a podium here this afternoon so strong at the roll and among those cars that pitted at lap 47 we're gonna see pit stops coming up here in about 15 20 laps which could be the final ones of the day watching the leader william byron working to turn one he's led 50 laps here before and we've seen him have great pace at other road courses sears point a couple years ago sitting here with two top tens the last time he's raced at this track so i mean this is a legitimate opportunity he has to go out there and win this race if they have everything go right on the pit stops they don't fall victim of any kind of craziness late in the race on the if we do get some yellows and things get wild he has the pace and he's in perfect position to go up here and win his way into the next round and he's had speed in these playoffs they've brought speed they just haven't been able to get the finishes some poor strategy some bad luck but william byron has done his job in these playoffs and keeps finding himself in this position this would be a huge step up moment he's had him before but if he could find his way in into this just ran over over something down the back straight away something just came out from underneath the far park i think that was sitting there there was a piece of tape or something there on the racetrack but i wanted to add on to what you guys were saying i spoke to william today and he had so much confidence coming into this race because of that speed that he's shown here in the playoffs and the speed that he's had at this pacific racetrack but even with all that the team has been continually coaching him looking at his data looking at the competitor's data and telling him what gears they're using different corners where he's gaining losing speed throughout this race so even with 44 to go and in the lead the team is continually telling him things that he can do better just preparing in that eventuality they have to go out there and maybe hold some others off on a late race restart they came in here in a must-have position and right now put themselves in a great position to pull it off it's hard to believe that this tenacious competitor is the same humble young man who friday night returned to his alma mater a high school in charlotte to be an honorary captain at a high school football game says a lot about who he is he knows where he came from he was at charlotte country day friday night on the field with the football team i think it says a lot about a nascar superstar who's gone to victory lane uh that's why i think you see great brands on his car he's well spoken and proves once again that he's a fast race car driver well that's an eye opener again at his age he's only 23 years old just a couple years removed from high school so uh interesting and that's great he went back and was a part of homecoming there for country day as we see him out in front he has a 3.3 second lead over austin dillon here's the fight back here between pal bush and kyle larson yeah they're battling for 18th place as they're working their way back through the field using some strategy that tried to get as many stage points as they could they give up a lot of track position now they're trying to work their way back forward a little bit of lock up there in the five larsen it's amazing though the breaking that he has i mean he just simply drove in the corner deeper got on the brakes later than kyle bush and just drove by so that's extreme advantage junior on a on a road course to be able to outbreak someone like that accomplish the slap kyle has that fast to slap flat 31. it's a great pace in this car he just has to work on it they're getting one more opportunity baby to get on the pit road to improve on this race car for kyle and sitting in pretty good position that fastest lap that we just saw that can help for starting position for next week's race when uh the series heads off to texas uh the metrics that they use include points finish position here as well as the fastest lap for these drivers riding on board with martin trex jr not had everything go his way today he struggled with the grip and the race car lost a lot of spots early on then they improved the car but now lacks a lot of track position [Music] [Applause] [Music] back up through the gears he goes he goes through eight and nine here at the robo william byron out front [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] coming up on 40 laps to go the nascar cup series playoffs from charlotte the bank of america roble 400. as we look down you see denny hamlin getting fired up back he had to stop on the back from this back stretch yeah i must have missed the back stretch top on the front stretches i believe what happened let's take a look right here oh yeah it's in really deep and misses the back stretch of kane jeff you pointed out he did what we saw yesterday jump in the gas go as fast as you can and serve your penalty on the front it's pretty interesting to watch him come around turns three and four on the outside of a car and he already commits hard into this breaking zone of the front straightaway chicane stops the car and goes again really minimizing the penalty as much as possible very smart driving by denny yeah he's running third that dropped him back to six and you're going to see that become more of a problem as this run goes on a long green flag run brakes get hotter and hotter and hotter and as you try to enter these both the front and rear chicane you're pushing the braking limit as far as you can as these brakes gets hot they just will not work as well as you did earlier looking down on this 2.32 mile rover here at charlotte aerial coverage brought to you by geico just before denny hamlin had his issue there the last lap take a look at what's happening here between the two and the 18. oh god gets a little help from behind the 14. they go down the front straightaway kyle probably very upset about that when you catch somebody when you catch them side by side in these chicanes that's a signal for kyle bush go make a go run go make something happen because you know keslowski's going to be slow on corner exit he tried to do it but got moved around from the back i'm telling you if you got a seat in the grandstands it's amazing to sit here and watch these cars come through this front straightaway chicane it's like a 15 round prize fight watching corley join some of these guys drive around this racetrack and try to get through this chicane lots and lots of beating and banging on these cars just like what we see on a martinsville short track throwing jabs every time through all jabs no power punches well and it's been a few power punches there's been a couple of one of those being between the nine and the four and we think about that there's one more race that's still out there that you would think there's payback that can possibly come that's martinsville and you guys mentioned earlier the legato situation with matt kenseth that's where a payback happened there it eliminated legano from the championship and also chase elliot's not out of this by any means you get one caution and bunch everybody back up he's fast enough to go pick up spots if he can pick up 12 13 14 spots he's back in so they need to be cool and calm here there's no way this thing's going to go 40 laps now that's that question there's no way so they can still get themselves in the playoffs dave and jeff they've talked about that on the radio lots of different ways to do this and i don't think they meant getting back to kevin harvick i think they meant winning the race so as they talked about that they also gave chase a little bit of an update on the radio as to where the points are here all right we just need to stay on the late lap as long as we can you have to stop that's under green it's not gonna be our friend while we're running as long as possible we're losing about a second left to the leading energy to try to fix the car where we sit you know we're gonna need about 12 13 spots william was leading obviously if he wins that's worst case for us so there you go as they see it now before the strategies completely play here at the end of the race about 12 to 13 spots from where he is right now and as you mentioned getting a lot of speed out of the nine still and gustington was just talking about where they stand in the points as we take a look at the cup series point standings presented by xfinity and right now elliott's 11 points below that cut line kevin harvick eight points below the cut line and coming in it was elliot and kyle busch that were above that cut line because of the issues between the nine and the four now we see elliott back there he is running in the 33rd position 56 seconds behind race leader william byron and that is another one alan gustin mentioned hey williams up front if he wins this it hurts us and that's that's a tough situation to be in for hendrick motorsport well williams in a great situation leading this race but this guy right here tyler redick's running the fastest laps on the racetrack lap after lap much quicker than william byron just about even there but the lap before over half a second faster kid knew he had a fast car we heard him on the radio earlier in the race when they started this thing he's driving through the field we mentioned him moving through the field running top five lap times now he's in the top two he's going to chase down this 24. that could be the best thing that could happen to anybody else see like the four car the nine car chase elliot for this playoff battle but william byron may be busy here in a few laps with this eight car trying to keep his playoff hopes alive yeah two and a half seconds back now is tyler reddick remember though on the william byron front he's doing what he has to do he came into this race 44 points below that cut line really a must-win situation so now he and his team have him out front and potentially could win this race watching some more action on the racetrack 48-20 a little contact in the high-speed section going through the banking a turn four down this breaking zone you have to imagine that might have continued through that chicane marty let's check in on the 48 greg ives a moment ago said i think i'm gonna have to change the battery in this car about every 30 minutes so they're working off the clock much less laps but a moment ago they had a conversation hoping it could limp its way all the way to their next pit stop listening on the radio are you running any of your driver cooling tools yes with that amperage with the car and your driver cooling stuff we should make it to the end of the race so there you go now they think they can not only make it to this next stop they've had this alternator issue pretty much from the start of the race the battery right now steve 12.9 they don't think they can make it to the next stop which is about seven eight laps away i think they can make it to the end of the race so good news for the 4018 so the 48 team and greg eyes will have to make a decision if we get a yellow currently running 19th over 30 cars in the lead lap it would be the last car the lead left with a short amount of the race left if they did change that battery but you'd hate to guess and be wrong rick you know because if you look at the points uh you know he's in a must-win situation so i would think you would probably go ahead and risk it try to get as much track position as you can but if there is any opportunity to put fresh tires on this thing late in the race and do something you never know you're going to want to have at least a car and a battery that'll work maybe you could come to pit road early right now and hope for a yellow that would drag the rest of the field down then cycle him to the front i think that's their only chance of the must-win scenario playing out yeah big gamble green flag pit stop and william byron's up front has a two second lead [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] green flag pit stops underway here at the road we see kevin harris four tires also joe logato both struggling with rear grip and both of those fours now as we see these green flag stops underway dave peeling out is the 18 of kyle busch he's also on pit road what would seemingly be for the final time no adjustments to that car there's martin trois jr he's pinning as well christopher bell and kyle larson made their pit stops during the commercial break they were the first two to come to pit road i think that kind of prompted this counter punch by some of the other playoff drivers now the question is how long will william byron stay on the racetrack remember a must-win situation for the driver of the 24. so it's not about points it's all about trying to win this race and here you go there's your answer the 24 will come to pit road the eight of reddick will chase him down this will be great to see the two pitting together who will make time on pit road parker you saw tyler reddick trying to make up so much time getting closer to william byron williams been very happy at that race car just an air pressure adjustment for the 24th they do four tires the same with the eight they're very happy dave [Music] there you have it the lead coming on pit road about 10 car lengths you see william byron leaving the eight we're leaving as well marty you see them cross over ryan blaney who comes to pit road this is still fairly early in the window to that point todd gordon told his team we have to get it completely full here to make sure we make it to the end and of course overtime which may be a factor later today dave oh that could happen marty that would really make the end of today interesting here at the rover brad keselowski for goodyear tires and sunoco fuel no complaints really about the handling just tires were worn out time to get some new ones on and through the cycling of pit stops the nine has stayed on the racetrack it hasn't put the nine any closer to the four they're still a long ways away you know the nine is still hoping for that caution they really need to caution kind of square things up this is basically your first second and third place cars right here i expect danny hamlin uh you know you know he has nothing to lose so he could either pit now and want to get on the strategy with everybody else or he could run long and try to get opposite the strategy on their tires you see the one peel to the left to come to pit road as denny hamlin continues on the racetrack kurt busch no longer a part of the playoffs he was eliminated after the first round marty but having a nice run today rick carter's been just a little bit too free for kurt bush as he comes down pit road these four fresh goodyear tires very valuable should be the final stop of the day and steve you posed the question a moment ago what will denny hamlin do well chris gaber told him a moment ago on the radio we're playing the long game i think hamlin's going to stay out as long as they can on this run still 32 to go the long game would be the plan that you think tires are more valuable you're not worried about getting caught by a yellow so run as long as you can and see if it works out for you as we see kyle larson on the racetrack let's listen into the five card we were aggressive on the pit lap there so that may put us a quarter of a lap short to the end off fuel somewhere between a quarter short and zero just letting you know your pace is good though well that didn't sound good to me that makes me nervous look junior you're laughing i mean i i know nowadays they're so good at saving fuel but man why are we gonna make it so stressful let's run one more left cliff daniels didn't seem very stressed though you're you're a little short but your pace is good about your pace is good hey wait how's that possible if i'm short my pace ain't good i need to dial it back well you just wonder why cut it that close with this five car i mean why put yourself in that position steve i i get it we're trying to maximize everything but got a little bit of cushion here they can play with as far as points why put yourself in that position where he should run out of fuel 17 pitch from the lead makes 11 if danny hanlon the leader can you i mean look at that william byron is leading this race he has already pitted excuse me he was leading the race he's already pitted and he's still running inside the top five i mean that's just how big of a gap he got after running around here on the green denny hamlin and mata benedetto who are running one and two right now they have not been to pit road since lap 47. currently a 21-lap green flag run so we've talked about driver fitness we always look at that loop data looking at their heart rate this is where driver for fatigue comes in car fatigue comes in the brakes are now warm the transmission's not working as good as it did at the start of the race have to keep that mental focus make sure every shift is on point every mark that you hit every braking mark matters as we're on board with denny hammond in the 11 we see the nine of chase eliot's now coming to pit road as well dave steve one of the things they looked at when they were putting all the bear bond on the left rear of this race car was to obviously not cover the fuel fill they at one point had a piece going over the whoop took it just to the left there so the fueler could get this fuel in it appears to be taking fuel you know how this works sometimes when you damage that part it doesn't go all the way in but he'll need every drop to get to the end here and maybe maybe pull something great out of what's been a frustrating day now the only nerve-wracking thing for the nine of chase elliot is because the 11 of denny hamlin has yet to have pitted he's going to go by to chase elliott's right right there screen left denny hamlin still leads still has to pit chase elliott leaving pit lane i love that look you know that both the exit so there you go the nine is now a lap down by that much and behind hamlin is william byrd about 11 seconds back so the nine still has concern about losing the lap to his teammate but you know who's pretty close still to william byron is tyler reddick tyler reddick looking for his first ever win in the cup series right before the pit stops they were separated by 2.3 seconds ready to close that in a little bit byron a little faster than this pass lap but reddick has been the quicker car most laps and is keeping this pretty tight speaking of tights look at the points right at the cut line harvick now two points above elliott after they have both been to pit road things are really tidying up tightening up with that cut line but you have to remember when william byron assumes the lead with hamlin pitts that moves him to the leader and that moves hard down as well so remember that cut line moves with who's leading the race look at that eight cars he's seized the 24 right in front of him knows he's a little bit quicker if he puts the laps together puts the corners together just have to wonder how hard is the 24 pushing parker well that's been the uh conversation on the 24s radar they've been telling him how aggressive that eight has been driving using all the curbs i've been seeing it down here in the slasher cans he doesn't use it right there but occasionally as he's launching launch on the exit there he's using a lot of those curves and i just love the position that ty redick has put himself in with this team he told me earlier today we want to be in position to win this race i don't want to go for points i've told the team we're not going for points i want to be in position to win that's where you have him right now in second place important battle right here not for position before lap the nine of chase elliott passes the leader of denny hamlin danny almost like yeah yeah go ahead yeah i'm going to know i'm looking at your car i'm not sure what you've been into today but i want no part of it go ahead i'm sure right now denny's saying what happened to chase elliott the only thing now is look at that back in chase elliot's cars he goes through how rough that interior uh intersection of the racetrack is it's shaking loose that back bumper and now it's on to the racetrack now you know i don't know what the rule is steve as far as what nascar is going to ask this team to do but as that gets further and further separated from the car what's the situation that puts him in well if it comes off he's going to want it to come off in a place on the racetrack where it brings out a yellow and then it's up to nascar whether they feel that that tail is a required part it's required at the higher speed tracks it's not required at the short tracks well here you go danny hamlin is going to lift turn left come on to pit road so that's going to hand the lead back over to william byron iron just coming out of turn four here of the oval and into the front stretch chicane and the gap pretty tight now between the 24 and the eight as the eleven making his way to pitt stall marty denny hamlin said his car migrated tight on entry snappy loose on exit he's been complaining about turn eight being the biggest problem all day long you saw the leaders flash by so really hamlin once he missed that chicane earlier and served that penalty kind of went back to six so we'll see where he cycles out after these this stop and these four fresh goodyear tires sia putting them on about four laps later than everybody else is an advantage [Music] steve just as you mentioned as we look at the points with byron up front that now moves harvick and chase elliot below the cut line byron back out front it's not going to have to come back to pit road you're not going to miss a thing as we go nascar nonstop [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so you see the bumper flailing on the back of the nine of chase elliot that's because the bad blood from three weeks ago at bristol has played out here at the robot kind of a chicken move he did there at the end chase elliott is not happy with kevin harvick he does that every fleet tries to run into and get a flat tire we're racing for the freaking win at bristol when he throws a temper tantrum the four got into the side of the nine just sets the tone for the rest of the playoffs and there's the nine of chase selling it and after there was communication between chase elliot and kevin harvick kevin hartman came out and said this it was like talking to my son kelan young man isn't it's identical it's 100 the exact same scenario they get hung up on one thing and you can't speak to them about the broader picture about how the whole thing works it was like speaking to a nine-year-old so kevin harvick didn't think it was over after he left bristol and now it has risen to this point where kevin hart got into the back of the nine the nine got into the wall now there's damage and both the four and the nine are below the cut line and remember at las vegas nascar brought both chase elliot and kevin harvick into the hauler pre-race to have this discussion and that quote was one of many that proved to me that chase elliott was looking forward and kevin harvick was not any happier with the situation steve what happens if this bumper cover comes off well if it's fortunate enough to blow off the racing surface nascar could continue and say it's not an issue if it ends up somewhere where nascar thinks that it's in the way or could be a problem for everyone else it'll create a caution nascar also has the opportunity to look at this and black flag the nine they have taken guys and made them come to pit road to clean it up uh we'll just have to see what nascar thinks about the tail i did ask the tail is not required here there is a question you know at some high speed tracks that body part is important for the rules and the aerodynamic package here at the rovel it is not a required component unlike the decline in the spoiler that the team has done a nice job of repairing to their defense though jeff they tried to they did their best to keep the deck lid or excuse me the rear up cover on it's just finally come loose yeah the biggest issue they have right now is you see kevin harvick and alex bowman battling on the front straightaway but the biggest problem the nine has right now is that they're about a second a lap slower than the leaders and the leader is only about six seconds behind them so in about six laps if they don't get some caution or chase elliott find some speed they could get a lap down and we're right above the flag stand the flagman does not reach for the black flag no intentions right now for nascar to black flag the nine car marty i think greg ives is down to his last page in the playbook junior he has kept alex bowman out there they haven't pitted since lap 52 the only one who's not pitted in this sequence just hoping for a caution hoping the nines bumper might come off their teammate might help him out but alex bowman still with the alternator issue the battery hanging in though sitting in 11th hanging on for all he's worth they're hoping for a caution though that has not come out yet 28 laps on this run that's a long green flag run around the robot there are a lot of drivers that are praying the chase helix rubber comes off they're willing to caution such a difficult racetrack there's daniel suarez making the move by alex bowman daniel's done a good job today ran inside the top 10 earlier showing great pace right there working his way around bowman for 11. dave what you got on the two car well junior as you look at that graphic on the left you keep your eye on keselowski's green number and harvick's red number that's all that matters right now to the two so we need to crowds one to one here keslowski's running 19th harvard is running night neither one in contention for the win but as long as keselowski passes a car after harvick passes a car he can keep that gap we've seen at the roll before it comes down to a point here point there we had that one huge tie that came down to the tie breaker so you know there's a yellow right here no bumper cover and the caution has come out you give me odds on what the yellow is for no i'm not getting ah there it is okay so the caution has come out debris on the racetrack there you go it finally loosened up enough where it blew off down the back stretch no surprise some of the high speed crush panel comes out a lot of issues for the nine it looks like the fuel fill is still intact so that'll be a good situation for the nine and the nine was able to stay on the lead lap in front of his teammates so okay take that play off picture take a mental image because it's going to look nothing like that in 23 i was going to say with 22 to go when they come back around what's your strategy now especially if you're william byron you're up front you're willing buyer what do you do well william byron is staying on the racetrack he's in a must-win situation the last thing he's going to do is pit from the lead in my opinion with about 10 laps on the tires we saw cars early in this race stay out on old tires and keep track position but that point of where you pit becomes more complicated william byron it's clear but what about the playoff cards we have larson and six all the way down to brad keselowski in 19th we just heard the conversation harvick versus kasilowski now you put chase elliott into the mix we saw yesterday where the 20 and the 10 both stayed on the racetrack in the end it eliminated the 10 i didn't like the call i liked the call of doing something different at the top of the show we said hey what could rodney childers do well here you go what roddy childers can do now is the opposite of the other playoff cars if they stay out bring kevin harvick in put tires on it and tell him buddy you got to go get the points you're the champ we've seen you do it it hasn't been a great year we don't have a winning car all of that is just a story it's time to perform so who if you're keslowski is that who harvick's looking at right now because he's the one in front of him well it's so close you really gotta look all the way up probably to truex i don't know if i would be that concerned about logano and blaney even larsen but truex bush keselowski harvick i'm racing all of them yeah elliot's gonna pick up he can easily pick up a lot of spots he's the last car in the lead lap they dropped a green flag he's going toward at least the middle of the pack so you got to assume you're going to he's going to pass you as well you got to you got to pick up a lot of spots if you harvey harvick's problem is he's in front of those cars that are ahead of him in points so he has to make the decision to come to pit road before they do i would put tires on and here's why kevin harvick's in ninth if he stays on the racetrack it then becomes easy for those guys to say thank you i'm gonna come get some tires and now kevin harvick's playing defense i believe the best defense is a great offense junior you and i had this conversation yesterday what's the one thing you didn't want to be the last car on old tires yeah and i think that's probably what harvick would be if he stays on the racetrack everybody behind him is coming to pit road if he comes down he drags everybody with him you got to think the last half of the from 15th on down they're coming to pitt road they're going to all get tires so be one of those guys come back out have new tires be on the offense give your driver the best opportunity to use the race car and drive forward you can't do that on old tires we know this is going to end amazingly as we have so many different story lines that are playing out in front of us speaking of an amazing story line a week ago when bubba wallace went to victory lane and talladega what a great story that was and earlier on the pre-race show you heard michael jordan denny hamlin they were with today's craig melvin talking about that win that full interview is available on nbcsports.com as well as motorsports on nbc youtube well there's your analogy right there there's nothing better than who who's the guy that's going to take the final shot michael george you put the ball in your superstar's hand to find rodney childers as great as a team this is there's your superstar your superstar is kevin harvick so i'm gonna put some tires on i'm gonna put the ball in my superstar's hands and be like man go out there and do the best you can shocked that william byron's gonna give up the lead i think this is a very scary call for the 24. we'll see if other cars stay on the racetrack but like you said dale jr he pulled a tremendous amount of leaders with him denny halen though stayed on the racetrack parker right and rudy fugle wanted to put it in his driver's hands he said i think most will pit here so we've got to put tires on this 24 car in this busted position you see very little adjustments also kevin harvick on pit road he's been lacking her grip and continued throughout the race in that poor car marty kyle larson on pit road as well they needed this caution also they were so close on fuel like we talked about larson drove from 26 to six on the racetrack the car clearly very good dave the nine is in front of you last car on the lead lap of the the nine of chase elliott hits his pit box biggest concern for him here a little bit of repair and fresh tires they want to make sure those fresh tires don't get cut up by that damage here get that can get the can they work on the nine and we'll be back for the restart [Music] reddick william byron kyle larson the first four cars off the mid lane another break and then we'll come back for more of the bank of america 400. [Music] resuming coming up on 20 laps to go and the bank of america louisville 400 from charlotte fans what a show they have in front of them getting ready for the restart and couple cars stay out on the racetrack yeah denny hamlin decides to stay out and that'll put him on the front row next to matt de benedetto remember matty d we talked a lot about playoffs he doesn't have a job for next year so a big win would go a long way for the driver of the 21 the 38 of anthony alfredo also stayed on the racetrack i believe that kurt busch reddick byron larson all came to pit road we will see who can use those tires as they make a little sprint for the finish here 21 to go fresh tires for the restart zone and hamlet and de benedetto back into the gas three wide coming up here tyler reddick charging up to the front he knew he had to dispose of that 38 car as fast as he possibly could not get hung up behind the slower car of anthony alfredo he does that races down into this turn three area beats the 21 car now he sets sale after the leader but look who's behind him the 24 william byron was the leader now the eight's gotten in front of him but i'll give rudy fugal credit i made it sound like i would never come to pit road because i wouldn't he made a big gutsy decision to bring the 24 in a muskling situation two pit road and i believe it was the right call even if he doesn't win this race he's third with fresh tires great call by the crew chiefs now he knows who he's racing those two in front of him he's got to get by him if he wants to advance into the round of eight tyler reddick with pressure tires trying to run down this 11 car denny hamlin little twitch right there in the breaking zone of the eight car really pressuring a little smoke back there in the back of the pack oh the two cars spun out brad keselowski goes around oh he gets the car right in very lucky situation no contact this is a huge point looking on the left-hand side keselowski drops he's now in the red three points behind harvick elliott in with positions to gain let's take a look at what happened oh that's 42 locks up but then they're just three wide just too many cars trying to funnel down into that area and everybody doing what they can to not hit brad he's gonna have to mail out a few thank you letters for that he continues on and he's just gonna have to try to hope for a caution so he can be able to drive back through his field and gain some more points back the leader the race for the lead is tightened up quite a bit not just reddick but the 24 of william byron is right there william really put the pressure on brady's going to have to get by this 11 quickly or he's going to have his hands full with this 24. oh william byron say way right off of turn six trying to take advantage of it great battle between these two guys we have a good run yeah i'm gonna get some drafting help with that five car let's go help him down this back straight away and i think larson cuts him a break here anyone else can go three wide right here and try to outbreak this 24 into the breaking zone but i think larson's gonna cut him a break oh william's gonna miss the he's gonna miss the chicane stop stop oh wait i'm not sure he ever stopped all the way yeah he explode i'm not sure he came to a complete stop he's all the way back behind the four of kevin harvick in the 13th position let's see right here was it contact yep the eight car hits him in the back he's already too far into the brake zone to get the car slowed down and now the 24 his opportunity at a must win pretty much gone [Music] nascar said he is good as far as stopping in that zone well now the question is now that william byron has lost the opportunity to lead this race with 18 to go he still has a chance to get up there and win it currently in the 11th position but what that does is put brad keselowski two points behind kevin harvick brad currently 30th in the running order kevin harvick higher in 13th can they find the points as you see behind the 24 kevin harvick is under attack right here well also on the attack because harvick just passed another driver there so that puts three points now so the two of brad keselowski is going to have to go by someone else so he's got to go by at least three cars now to get to a tie with the four and brad's got a lot of cars in front of him you see him right there he's going to run those guys down should be able to catch several of those cars before the end of this race past multiple cars harvick's gonna have to find more track position he's in a difficult situation to do that in the tiebreaker setting they go back to the finishes in this round and so far it would go to brad keselowski he has a seventh place finish and a second place finish at talladega harvick nine and eight so far we go nascar nonstop [Music] caution is out and it comes out the 52 of joey hand got around and wasn't able to keep going yeah it's like three wide the nine of chase elliot right there on the inside now it's four wide they turn down and the 41 gets loose contacts the seven sends the seven up into the wall and behind him the 52 of joey hand making his first nascar start doing a nice job in that rick ware car he just gets spun around big contact with the outside wall joey knows a lot about road course racing he's won the 24 hours of daytona 24 hours of le mans dave the two-car brad keselowski was turned around on the restart remember so they will get fresh goodyear tires here and check for any damage brad thought he had some smoke in the car but it was just sort of residual and so there was no damage they could tell on that card uh marty battery hanging in for alex bowman so far but now they have some handling issues said it was almost like riding the jack post on the left side all the way through all the nascar corners so the 48 not going to be the win for them that will put them through to the next round but a valiant effort today to keep the car in the game all afternoon long difficult end of this round of 12. and a must-win situation for the 48 and 24 coming in 24 just having an issue through the back stretch chicane having come to a stop serve that penalty saw the damage with the nine of chase elliot so for hendrick motorsports it's been a tough go of it today kyle larson also have had he had charging issues they had to come back to pit road put a alternator belt on it'll be an interesting post-race show nascar america post race show on nbc sn following this race we'll be able to hear from the drivers uh might be some more extracurricular activity like we saw after bristol a couple drivers definitely not happy with each other in this race already 16 laps to go at the rovel i think it's worth reminding everybody every point matters and no point matter more than for kyle larson you're going to see right here the 96 gets turned around kyle larson who's already been in an accident video game style which actually now that i think about we're starting to see a trend in video games and kyle larson he just stays in the gas can't turn the wheel hits the wall that one point coming to the start finish line was enough team owner felix sabatos was there to congratulate him very young appearing kyle larson continued on in the playoffs with 16 laps to go sure we probably could top that i mean we've seen everything so far why not marty boy you just think about the day for kyle larson and this race team what they've had to recover from you mentioned the alternator issue they were able to get the alternator belt back on during this race change the battery at one point and how about the leadership from cliff daniels calm the entire time and on that last run before this caution i mentioned it on the pit stop drove from 26 to 6. they honestly feel like they have the speed to win this race steve it's kind of fun when it's a team win like this isn't it this team certainly has put forth the effort today now larson here with a shot to win the race well i mean there's a reason they've won six races this year right they never never give up continue to fight and here he is in contention closing last a fighter they added a lap we'll be back with a restart after this [Music] [Music] is [Music] is again what is going to happen out there on the track it's been crazy that the winning driver is going to be getting here shortly in victory lane 15 or less it's time to go racing again coming up on the restart it'll be 14 laps to go and there have been so many things that have happened throughout this race yes kyle larson in the five he's up in the front row they've changed an alternator belt on that car he's in contention denny hamlin who already knows he's on his way into the round of eight he's up here fighting for a win as well and more playoff points green flags back in the air tyler reddick in the eighth fighting for his first ever cup series win [Music] look at the five to the inside of the 11. a little shallow on quarter entry doesn't have the ability to stay the there of larson putting the pressure on denny a little bit of bumper right there in the turn six smartly they get single foul right here though the five has the acceleration sets up the pass for the corner exit side by side a little bit fresher tires on larson's car couldn't be helping him out here on this restart preferred line as they go into the back stretch chicane he's got the inside they stay side by side now hamlin has the advantage again it stacks everybody up behind him as they try to go through their side by side little block here by larson they ate on the apron reddick's on the apron he can't stay down there contacts larson's is why it would be wise to give this spot up does not need this spot focus on what your goal is wow kyle busch kirkland kurt he's going to have to stop he misses the chicane i can't believe that made it i thought for sure he had cooked that entry and was going to miss the chicane but tyler reddick muscles his way by he's raced larsen all his life and many sprints and all sorts of race cars they know each other pretty well yeah reddick setting his sights now on hamlet wants to get up there wants to challenge for this win what about chris busher back there in fourth they all go wide on the entry here to get a good run on this 11 car denny kind of offline here the eight has a chance to jump to the inside does it do it he backs up the entry gets on the gas accelerates trying to tries to get a run on the 11 then he's going to come down the racetrack take the preferred line away but all day long tyler reddick has had incredible breaking let's see if he tries to outbreak hamlin he just looks to the inside just to give hamlin the idea that he might try to dive down in there see if he can get handling to go into the corner overdrive it a lot of smoke back there top of the screen couple cars got together as we watch this battle for the lead the battle for the playoffs continue the two of brad keselowski right here well coming into the front stretch chicane gets on the breaks the 42 makes contact with him and then the five just gets stuck on the out excuse me the two gets stuck in the outside comes under attack from the 37. you see the one accelerating after his stop for the penalty and i'm telling you the battle continues for brad he goes behind that banner but he gets stuck behind the one now the 42 is attacking him currently six points out of the playoffs brad chazovsky moving from penske racing this year to roush fenway in an ownership and driving and you see right yeah right three goes off driver left that cost him three more points as this battle continues for the race lead there's another battle between harvick and kozlowski and here comes the five once again larson to the inside of reddick he's going to take the spot away mexico trying to cross him back over can't do it chris bush are there trying to get underneath reddick oh this is great for denny hamlin you see him driving away as these guys continue to race they're fighting for second right now larson has it reddick fighting with busher for that third spot oh a little contact right there butcher in the left rear quarter penalty eight credits going to take the spot back butcher though pushing the eight car harvick also into the mix yeah stuck behind the three of austin dillon losing a lot of spots and not too far behind the four is the nine of chase elliott keep your eye on the bottom of the screen what will chase elliot do if he gets to the four are you getting ready to find out because the nine has a run on the 19 of truex and the knight is going to force his way in oh the four is going to miss the corner he misses that into the dewalt wall kevin harvick hard the right front of the caution comes out heartburn turn strikes again yeah just walk the tire up went straight and you see the flames from under the hood harvick will be jumping out of there quick [Music] and more safety crew there to him get out of there [Applause] he was above the cut line prior to entering turn one into the wall and now he's below the cut line out of the car and out of the possibility of advancing in the playoffs yes sir it is that's the nine radio chase elliott has found his way close to the four didn't get a shot to make contact if he wanted to basically the four locked it up on his own drivers well this was in the middle of chaos kevin harvick was fighting really hard drives into turn one just overcooks it drives in there too deep locks the left front tire up now it just can't turn missed that tire pack directly into the wall remember we saw chase elliott in that tire pack a few years ago went on to win the race harvick got left of it and went into the concrete once you lock up the tire there you're in the fence no question there's no way you can get the car slowed down only way to get the tire to unlock is to get off the brakes either way you're going in the wall at that point watch your bottom now watch your bottom 19 back here there you go you're on the 22 wide here nine so obviously just overcooked that corner but some look alright watch this watch this watch this wall look at that wall move how it absorbs the energy something to happen on that restart william byron restarted 11th he passed six cars he five cars got himself up to sixth place william byers not out of this thing he had a great restart got real aggressive he needed a caution to get himself caught back up william will restart this thing six with horrocks right well the other side of that brad keselowski had a disastrous restart he had fallen well below the cut line but kevin harvick's issue here now puts keselowski well above at 19 points the big question for brad now is will we see a winner out of bell byron or bowman bowman doesn't seem to have it to your point jeff byron is the most likely candidate but not willing to rule anybody out with 10 laps to go bell is running 12th bowman 18th we've seen more crazy here than anywhere else buyer is just going to have to get lucky because he's going to be on the outside of turn one on the restart in sixth place he's just gonna have hope nobody dives down in there tries to go three wide underneath him and chris busher try to accelerate out of turn one in good position to continue to try to race on a move forward that'll be a tough situation to restart that outside line it's a little bit dirty off offline all the cars been running right on that curb into turn one just offline a lot of dirt a lot of debris no grip lots of motivation though a way of hiring with nothing to lose and everything to gain you can say the same for the eight car and the 17 car both they're both out of the playoffs but both needing a win for their careers they have very little very little care right now and larson better know it right larson needs to understand the situation he's good on points you cannot let tyler reddick you cannot let chris busher put you in a position that you don't need to be in what's the big picture they didn't do it at talladega they got themselves in a wreck they could have been riding behind the wreck and not had the stress here you can't do it today you cannot put yourself in that situation since there have been elimination races kevin harvick has never not advanced out of the round of 12 until today this will be the first time that has happened can you see the car on the wrecker [Music] day done for kevin harvick but it was an eventful one i have to imagine that the feud may be over that's unfortunate sort of end to harvick's championship i run like he thinks he if he did anything intentionally today he took his shot wouldn't do anything going forward well you mentioned today what happened night in front of him yeah that was an intentional move you had to think that you know you get one shot at it harvick and he took it i think going forward these won't see these two guys shouldn't see these two guys giving each other a hard time you never know martinsville because i've never left martinsville without having seen something crazy so you never know what you're gonna see there dave common theme i heard from crew chiefs was never leave my guy in a vulnerable position on old tires if i don't have to so needing points both the nine of chase elliott and the two of brad keselowski are giving their drivers are getting the goodyear tires that can give them the best opportunity don't leave them out on old tires i like it new tires i can be aggressive i can be on the offense talking about the feud with kevin harvick and chase elliot i think that the chase elliot transfers to the next round it's probably in his best just to let it go exactly right like if you don't get into the next round well then you gotta address it but if he does just let it go move on put it behind you that's why i think it's done marty well dale what a crazy day it has been for cliff daniels and the five team here they are with a shot to win this race if i'd have told you in the middle of stage two as you're trying to get that alternator belt on you would have a shot to win this race what would you have told me i probably would have said you were crazy and uh you know at first i'm thankful to have a fastcentercars.com chevrolet steven legendra and jesse saunders are the two guys to change the battery change the the alternator belt i would not trade them for anything in the world so thankful to have those guys on our team um hopefully it's a clean race through the end i think it's gonna be fun racing the 11 and racing the eight uh we've got to be tough to make the right moves but we'll see how it goes even if it's not a win today cliff when it's a team effort like this is it more significant for you as the leader of this group yeah i mean i think it's a big deal for our team we've uh proven this year that you know we can be fast and and run up front and i think at some point of the year you got to show that you can be battle tested and uh i think uh this this round of the playoffs has certainly battled tested us a super tough day today so proud of this team proud of our guys for hanging tough now we just got to be there at the end a lot of mentions of the team there but steve let's give credit to this guy too the coach has to lead the team right cliff daniels did a fantastic job with that today win or no win got to lead them you got to keep everyone calm give good direction cliff daniels did that on the left-hand side you see the points and while that cut line looks safe at 19 just remember that's with william byron below the cut line if william byron moves up the cut line basically moves right there it's very close between truex and brad keselowski so really watch this 24 on the restart if he gets the lead the cut line will move and when utah restarts rick we've had some crazy ones here so nothing is out of the question of the robot that dewalt wall is not safe junior called it heartburn turn it has been that for many drivers so now it's denny hamlin and kyle larson once again making up that front row handling the race leader coming into the restart zone everyone through turn one larson on the back bumper of the 11. william by clear leglado from fifth look here larson crossover move really aggressive into the entry of that turn he's to take this lead away runs the 11 wide into the grass and so larson takes over the lead here comes tyler reddick now denny hamlin falls back to third he's got chris busher behind him in the 17 william byron in the 24 now to the back bumper see if we environ that 24 gets a good run gonna be side by side with chris busher look actually clear him look at the distance though that larson's already put on second place tyler reddick not a good sign for william byron tyler reddick can he drive down this five car does he have enough pace in that he's been quick all day long i cannot believe william barton just made that pass he came from way behind the 11 for the 11 car i just cannot believe he was able to outbreak him that that far i think danny hamlin realized that this was a battle he did not want to be in the middle of butcher's gonna run him very tight as they enter the front stretch chicane handling almost erected right there busher aggressively getting by the 11 and the 11 dropping back now the 18 if kyle bush goes by big damage to the front end of that 22 car man you're right junior big damage for the 22. the hood is destroyed you saw the 11 of the 22 get on the wrong side of that curve but by rules they got two tires over it so therefore not shortcutting right here you see the contact 22 gets into the back of the 11 but the fact that the 11 and the 22 got their right side tires on that blue curving as awkward as it looks by definition they did not miss the corner i think is it the biggest problem right now for legato in that 22 is just visibility see the back of the hood how far it's raised up he's pretty good on points i don't think it's an issue there the gap between first and second 1.2 seconds then william byron 1.7 seconds back byron charging hard that's the question that's the battle junior i'm looking for is william byron his playoff hopes are between him tyler reddick and kyle arson he has to win this race and if you're if you're brad keselowski you have to assume william bond is going to win that would put you below the cut line right now you're four points behind martin 2x2 you got to go find four positions because william byron is fast he's coming yeah he's closing in on his eight car especially in the infield section of the racetrack i think he's a little bit faster than reddick right now redick also closing in on the five i mean all these guys are kind of tightening up right here we head into the infield course william byer relatively soft spoken quiet young man i don't think he's going to be anything like that if he gets to the rear bumper the eight i think tyler reddick's gonna be the same way looking for his first career win both of those two hungry and surprisingly even with six wins i don't think kyle larson cares about either of them he's looking for a seventh win of the season william power driving hard as he can right now trying to get to the back bumper i think he has to dispose of saint car quickly even if he has to get aggressive he's got to get there first i like the angle though the 24 takes through that corner right there jeff he gets a great acceleration off turn eight yes he does he's pushing that car you can see it sliding all over the place he's found the limit he's i know you've got to find a little bit of speed but he's at the limit already if he tries to step it up anymore he's going to get himself in trouble right here at turn 11 we have seen the 24 make up a lot of ground that time tyler redick was able to keep the gap between the two about the same i think william byron's probably gonna need a caution here but he's highly motivated but there's also so many places to slip a car slippery tire for the two in front of them well we know we know the tyler redick's at his limit also he's pushing as hard as he can will he overstep his bounds now less than five laps to go [Music] larson looking for another five playoff points that would almost guarantee him a spot in the championship four up the hill at the six see a lot of guys slip right here everybody threw clean williams cutting those corners chopping the entry as much as he can trying to eat into the distance between him and eight card hurts him a little bit on corner exit right here in acceleration the eight kind of stretches away william trying to chop the entries dive in on corner entry a little shallow he gets the tyler reddick remember tyler reddick is the one that shoved him into the rear chicane and put him in his position to have to go make this up so there'll be little patience if he gets there all right here's a replay of that incident on the back straight away the eight car getting in the back of the 24 in the breaking zone of the chicane cause william to miss the chicane have to come to a a stop bit of lock up with the five of larson you could tell how hard he's pushing the car all these guys let art we see that all over pushing to the limit who truex won't make the mistake that's important because now that's going to move 2x to the bottom of the green cars that means if byron takes the lead and can win the race that would eliminate truex instead of kaslowski points moving all the time it was the 52 joey hand got into the back of the 19. and the 19 spins around he loses enough spots now he's on the bubble as far as potentially missing out on the next round of the playoffs if william byron can get up here and win this race now less than four laps to go william byron still almost two seconds back from larson the last couple of corners or last couple of laps reddick's been quicker than bobert and larson's been quicker than both of them can't quite get there so close that was from the spotter to the crew chief that nobody's made a mistake you know these are young guys tyler reddick william byron larson this is a unique situation for him to be deep into the playoffs with the championship opportunity that's a lot of pressure but none of these guys are cracking nobody's sliding tire nobody's missing a chicane yet you had to add that tyler redick just 25 years old william byron 23 three laps to go kyle larson out front the 29 year old from california looking for win seven on the season you know if william byron does not advance out of this round he can still take a tremendous amount from this playoffs he brought his best he brought a lot of speed he brought good decisions really the trouble he's got into are things out of his control it's not going to make you feel better because with that much speed you want to be able to advance but he can use this moving into the future look at that line right there love that line he takes got that from chase elliott chase does such a good job of that it helps me with this part of the race track see that gain he made on him overkicked it right there yeah big slide right there in the turn eight jeff he gained a lot on reddick in six reddit wide but he tried to get a little bit too much going into eight there and that bit him it's not been a great corner for him the last couple of times through trying to get too much on corner entry remember william byron in third must win to advance in the playoffs if he does win it moves the cut line that would currently eliminate trex who is only one point behind kozlowski now too as kozlowski makes another pass on the racetrack kyle ursula what can you say about this five car went to talladega we thought he was fine had a huge points lead had an accident at talladega came in here vulnerable but we talked about it at the time i was thinking we want to see the cal arson we've seen all year well that's what we've got this team had anything but a smooth race they had electrical issues they changed an alternator bait an alternator belt on pit road and now has driven all the way back up for a chance to win his seventh race of the season he won earlier this year in the playoffs that was at bristol after the dust up between the nine and the four and now out front here under two laps to go from the rovel we talked to kyle larson a couple races ago he said i don't know byron into the grass yeah we talked about it no contact just you know the only way he was going to advance was to get to tyler and try to get by him and just pushed a little bit too hard tires are clear it'll take laps you hear the information tires are clear it'll make laps yeah you listen if you're ever going to be okay with a mistake like that it's when everything's on the line he had to find the edge and hope it would stick and apparently he went over the edge that allows chris busher in the third place and an incredible run for chris busher here late in the season his best of the year yeah william byron was shooting the half court shot with one second left on the clock just can't blame him for trying speaking of one second one lap to go now the final lap from the rovel for kyle larson i mentioned we talked to him earlier and he said i'm not expecting to win this championship i know i have to go out there and fight and get it there's where the 24 of byron got off track and into the wall in the infield well kyle larson is going after it here in the round of 12. coming in kyle larson had 60 playoff points those are the only things that will advance into the next round with you 60 points is the maximum number of points you can earn in one race so he has almost a one race advantage going into the next round he's gonna have more now very impressive kyle arson i think what's most impressive for me rick is the style of tracks i would never have pegged tyler's on a road course racer but this will be the second one of the year that he's proven that he can best some of the best road course racers we have seen and getting some of their momentum back bad strategy in vegas kind of wreck that talladega before that they weren't running great getting some of that back for this next round of playoffs and what a season it has been for kyle larson he is going to become the first driver ever in the cup series to win three road course races in the same season kyle larson through the chicane for the final time he will win at the charlotte robles today guys i did not uh not see us winning we just keep keep our heads in it all day long tyler redick second busher third i'm so proud of this team stephen and jesse pick crew you guys are amazing guys back at the shop henderson.com and their automotive group chevrolet remember they were under the hood a couple times steve yeah it was anything but a smooth week for this team but cliff daniels right there the crew chief we talked about it they had some adversity he led the organization the mechanics did an amazing job with the plan that he laid out he was great on the radio calm on the radio you see the eight cliff thank you crew off the job dude and now he'll celebrate in front of the crowd here not only in the infield but also in the front stretch grand stands the uniqueness of this racetrack utilizing the one and a half mile oval with the infield part of this track seven wins already in 2021 his first year driving for hendrick motorsports and he comes to the front stretch and now he'll do the burnout for the fans right here at the start finish line [Music] it was a year ago and kyle larson ran 96 races between dirt races short tracks wing sprints so many different types of race cars and races that he was running in he won 85 of those 96 races the winning ways started a year ago and they have continued on into 2021 [Applause] crowd letting him know seven wins an impressive season already what an improbable win for kyle larson and the five team and i think you have to include the team when you talk about this win today for kyle larson seventh of the season and what a way also to go into the round of eight gonna go collect the checkered flag in front of the fans here at charlotte motor speedway [Applause] love the word for the phrase cliff daniels used battle tested win for this race team today man if i told you in the middle of stage two as they were changing the alternator belt you would win this thing what would you have said i wouldn't believe though that's for sure um i mean i i don't know i didn't even really feel that good early started changing some things up there you know doing a good job let me know what to do inside the cockpit to get better and then about that time i noticed my battery was going low so i was getting stressed out like man i'm not gonna get knocked out of the playoffs like this but uh it wasn't looking too good and thankfully everybody on our five car did a great job of staying calm cliff as always did a great job communicating with me what up what was going on uh getting us changed the battery change the alternator whatever whatever it takes to get a change to get our battery stand uh running but um but man my hendrycars.com chevy was good william was obviously really good so it's a bummer to see you know that not work out for him but uh i think the nine ended up yep nine ended up making it so heck that was some great perseverance by that team too so um just awesome dave hendrick motorsports and glad to get another win and looking for the next round a lot much less with the win were you aware at times today you were below the cut line and gonna miss the next round yeah i mean i i obviously had a pretty good idea i've gone through it here a couple years ago a few years ago in the 42 and when you think you're good and all of a sudden you're running like 40th you're like well i'm down below the cut line so i knew i was gonna have some sketchy moments just had to pick my way through traffic and stay calm and we had some good restarts out at the end was able to kind of use my tire advantage to get under guinea and kind of squeeze squeeze them out of real estate off of uh four there so a fun race with tyler he's he's one of the best there is under braking so i don't like racing because he's so good and so hard to race and pass so just a fun race there and a lot of craziness all day long after a tough start to this round rick look out the five team has some momentum headed into the round of eight definitely the thrill of victory there the agony of defeat goes to the guys who don't advance into the round of eight that's kevin harvick christopher bell william byron and alex bowman those all eliminated but these are now the eighth that will be fighting for the next three races to see who will make it into that championship race we mentioned playoff points advancing into this round 4065 points already for kyle larson as he starts almost a whole race over the 19 of martin trex jr who's at the bottom of that list we are here until six o'clock we're gonna hear from plenty more drivers those that have advanced into the next round as well those that did not make it the next round of the playoffs a great battle for kyle larson he fought with not only the mechanical issues of his car but also the most talented drivers in the world on the racetrack right here at the charlotte roble kyle larson wins it at the roble [Music] victory lane contest winners who are down there as they're excited and are going to get to see all of the things happening down there that were going on for what is the celebration of that beautiful trophy that will be given away now larson is making his way on in and the trophy presentation will be part of what monica will be doing down there in victory lane you'll get to see that as larson's car comes in and now all the shooters all the professional photographers and videographers of news organizations around the country of the globe are down there to greet the winning driver for the bank of america romelu 400 you see them trying to get it just where he needs to be so then all the photos mr hendrick coming in and shake hands with him that's a happy next sunday on nbc it starts the round of eight that is the first opportunity for one of the eight drivers to win their way into the championship four race coverage beginning at 2 p.m eastern and the first one out of the playoffs we saw him hit the turn one wall and that was kevin harvick he came out of the infield care center and parker was there [Applause] kevin harvick released from the infield care center kevin what happened down into turn one there i just pushed it in there too hard and i got the tire locked up and i couldn't i couldn't stop it once i um i felt like i needed to go to get a couple spots back that i'd lost and i got the left front locked up and i couldn't i couldn't get it to turn and the incident with the nine earlier in the race was that retaliation for bristol um spinning out the nine chase elliott you know sometimes sometimes real life teaches you good lessons are you guys even [Applause] kevin that's all for kevin of the final tally will show chase elliott finishing in the 12th position that kind of wasn't the story of the day what was going on out there between you and harvick oh i'm not sure but uh really proud of our team and uh just proud to be moving our napa team did a really really good job of fixing this thing i mean it's destroyed i think we finished where we finished 12th 12th so um yeah i mean our team has a lot of fight and i'm just super proud of that i mean as far as kevin goes just want to wish them a merry off season and a happy christmas your opinion of him wasn't too high after bristol i take it this does nothing for that oh man opinions is certainly not changing but it's all good and um just glad we're moving on proud of our team is it over and can you race around him and win the championship without worrying about what's going on with him well for us i mean we're we're just eyes forward and uh just excited to be moving on i mean that that's the big picture and uh that's uh you know really all that matters to me and our group so we'll keep fighting and see where we end up you mentioned your team a day like today seems to go a long way toward uh building some muscle for you as a group was today important to come back uh absolutely yeah i mean you know to overcome adversity you know fortunately it was early enough in the race where we were able to fix it and you know got to caution was able to able to keep fighting so just really proud of that and and you know we could have easily given up or not fixed it to the um proper standard and had something break or had a tire rub so everybody just did a really good job today and i'm super proud of that um you know coming off of a you know a really fast car i thought we had a shot to win and um obviously that didn't happen but you know in the in the grand scheme moving on is the most important thing and our season's still alive so i'm i'm pumped that's right they gather the points they're on to the round of eight thanks dave and steve as we hear chase elliot we hear kevin harvick i don't think we should lose what the five teams mechanics did how difficult that was they end up in victory lane but they had to change an alternator belt in the middle of the race yeah i mean it's almost like special teams are like a kicker you don't know when you're going to be called upon the pit crew knows they're going to go over the wall to perform the mechanics they're hoping the work is done for the day they don't expect to go over pit wall but when they were asked to do it they had a great plan they executed the plan so many things could go wrong they prevented it and therefore the five was able to stay on the lead lap in the end bounce back and get that win yeah kyle larson gets his seventh win of the season so the celebration will continue for him so drivers i want to bring you in we heard from kevin harvick we heard from chase elliot both of them haven't really given us a definitive answer if it's over do you think it's over yeah i think it's over i mean you know kevin you know got his shot in today feels like he you know chase deserved one and uh they left chips fall where they made the rest of the race and chase is definitely wanting to move on and put it behind him he doesn't want to continue this view because it does him no good in trying to win another championship so i think it's over but these eliminators these elimination races are insane i can't i mean the emotions that all these drivers had to go through today william byron's sitting there thinking he might win this race in advance and then making the mistake he made and how he's got to go home and and and figure out how to turn that around if you aren't on your phone or on on your on on you know online with somebody at martinsville trying to get a ticket to that race i don't know what you're thinking i can't wait till we go in this next round we go to texas and then kansas martinsville is going to be a barn burner yeah this was a great race today but now all the drivers and teams they got to change skiers and they got to get ready for texas they got to find a way to put this madness of the rover behind them and start the next round of the playoffs you know kyle larson what he and his team did today amazing we were thinking they weren't going to finish a race they go on to win the race that's huge momentum going into the next round momentum the key word there and post race coverage going to be coming up just after the breeders cup on nbcsn make sure to join us there what a race what a day and charlotte roble never disappoints kyle larson through adversity able to get his seventh win of the season but a big win here at the charlotte rovel the fight between the nine and the four who knows if that's over make sure to tune in next week for that one kyle larson wins in charlotte [Music] i can see the future [Music] this is [Music] is

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 144,332

Keywords: Bank of America ROVAL 400 from Charlotte's Roval | NASCAR Cup Series Full Race Replay, full race roval, nascar, nascar cup series, chase elliott, kevn harvick, elliott harvick, kyle larson

Id: Ywqus0ZWH40

Length: 227min 20sec (13640 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021