Bank of America ROVAL 400 from the Roval | NASCAR Cup Series Full Race Replay

[Music] his ticket is punched for round three of the nascar cup series play-off denny hamlin on the inside matt de benedetto on the outside at the line who's gonna win the scoring monitor shows danny kaplan it's elimination sunday in the round of 12 on the robo at charlotte motor speedway that makes sense it's 20 20. stress i mean lots of stress keslowski larson both into the wall gets hit by johnson the lack of forgiveness that that track off that's kind of going to be a crap shoot big time unknown and kind of a wild card he will get redemption [Applause] your whole season's on the line [Music] anything can happen well i can see it getting really nice and fast [Music] nascar cup series playoffs from charlotte motor speedway it's the bank of america robl 400 and here is today's starting grid brought to you by bank of america danny hamlin chesterfield virginia chase elliott dawsonville georgia brad keselowski rochester hills michigan kevin harvick bakersfield california alex bowman tucson arizona austin dillon welcome north carolina martin truex jr maya to new jersey joey logano middletown connecticut kyle busch las vegas nevada kirk bush las vegas nevada clint boyer emporia kansas eric almarola tampa florida and a little bit further back william byron back there on row seven with eric jones still looking for a ride for next year and i've seen the crew are they trying to push it started here steve i don't know i'm not sure if he doesn't have power um he'll have a you know tow truck will come up and kind of push him off it's just a battery or a starter issue it seems like there's a bigger concern than that jimmy johnson back there in row 15 making his we don't know perhaps final start in charlotte we know it's his final start in the 48 whether he'll be back in a part-time situation yet to be determined so out in front of the field minus the 20 right now leading the field as the official pace car is the 2020 toyota camry trd and while they're rolling around this rovel let's see if we can dial up the driver of the tent eric almarola junior hey eric i'm a rolex deal junior in the booth you guys see yeah buddy i got you well man you're out there looking at the racetrack for the first time uh from your perspective tell us what kind of condition track surface is in uh seems wet yeah with all the rain we've had over the last 36 hours or so it's definitely wet i don't i don't know if it'll get drier when we take off to run on it or if it'll uh start weeping but it's uh certainly wet right now well you got those wet tires on there just how hard can you guys abuse these tires as this track continues to drive i have no idea all right buddy well hey good luck figuring all this out we're going to be watching you have a great day thank you buddy yeah it should be exciting uh certainly a lot of unknowns so see if we can't uh go be spectacular today and get our smithfield ford mustang in victory lane and it's going to take that for eric almarola to advance into the round of eight right now he's 48 points below the cut line to advance into that round we'll ride along with a few different drivers we just heard we're gonna have some great views here ford performance providing this in-car camera for ericom roll and we're gonna be able to see the footwork another one here coca-cola came on daniel suarez great paint scheme on that 96 car and look at this driver's perspective because this camera is on the helmet for daniel suarez and perhaps we're gonna be able to see anything because yesterday the xfinity series race we couldn't see anything from the driver's perspective jeff well here we are with kyle busch should be giving us a great shots today this toyota cam also we have one inside better see what he's dealing with all day long chase elliott perhaps the favorite coming into this race chevrolet providing these cameras and this camera right here on this bumper is going to give us some great shots i know that team hopes that bumper stays on there all day look at the wet conditions right there and turn three they're gonna have to be dealing with a lot of things these drivers will be dealing with throughout this race again as steve you junior have all mentioned the conditions can continue to change and right now before we see the green flag let's check in with rutledge wood rick we know that jimmy johnson has a presence that has been felt here at charlotte for years 12 wins total but this week we saw a different kind of an honor for him they made a mural here at charlotte motor speedway to honor him along with a scholarship that marcus smith organized it's going to be a 48 000 scholarship which is 10 years 4800 a year for a cabarrus county student so special to see a track honor this driver who we know had such an important role in its success and really in his two and those seven championships but amazing to see he's honored today and wouldn't it be amazing to see him back in victory lane today parker right rutledge well you know we've talked about the weather what's gonna happen well we've been talking a lot about tires specifically the difference between dry tires and wet tires now i don't just have this water here for fun i want to show you what i mean by this so dry tires are slicks as we call them they have no tread look at the waters that runs over there it just gets shiny this is why you can't run this on a wet course we run this in the dry and on ovals predominantly right now what's a wet tire well it has all these grooves as you can see and if i run the water through it it goes in there that's exactly what happens on the racetrack it tries to expel this water in these grooves allowing you to get grip on a wet race track this is what all the drivers and cars are on right now and therefore if it gets dry you want to get off these because once you lose all these grooves you start to lose grip dylan parker great stuff it's hail mary time for one of our playoff drivers that's clint boyer after a rough race last weekend at talladega whether their efforts to make the next round are successful or not today this group wants nothing more than one more win with their driver before he calls it a career at the end of the season that win could come and would come at a perfect time if it came together today dave defending rover winner chase elliott starts up front today last week at talladega he gained 34 points to the cut line which is huge today he's plus 44 going into a race with so many unknowns he's not safe completely not completely comfortable but he's a lot further ahead than he was meanwhile back to the 20 car of eric jones had a mysterious electronic issue as he started the car he said the wipers weren't even on and they started working as a crew member went in to check things out nascar penalized the 20 by sending him to the rear of the field at the start of the race you're not allowed to jump inside that car uh once it's been fired guys he is rolling now so the 20s rolling once again but we'll have to start at the back because the crew member was inside the car checking to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with it and of course it didn't fire when they were supposed to fire the engines all right steve let's break down this race brought to you by bank of america well a lot's been discussed about the rover this would be the third race here the most difficult track i think on the circuit 2.32 miles 17 corners a combination of the infield and the high banks the high banks 24 degrees those are the bankings that we race at when we run on the oval here predominantly left-hand turns though 12 lefts only five rights you got to think about that when you set up your race car you can maybe uh you know kind of cheat the system for those left-hand corners and then 25 laps stage one 25 laps stage two that final stage 59 laps the fuel window somewhere 35 to 37 laps maybe go a little bit further if it's in wet condition and that is the condition we're going to start nascar's determined that we are in wet condition so every car out there has rain tires on you see the list of where rain tires have been used in the cup series rick yeah only four sets of those rain tires but steve you know it hasn't happened since you know so long ago when they were racing on them when will they know to switch over to drives well you heard eric amarillo he has no idea i mean look at the dates there 2000 was the most recent date most of these drivers weren't in the series in 2000 and the transition is the challenge i think that the conditions currently are lined up perfectly as you see wet conditions you have to have that rear light it's a flashing red light or a solid red light that's not connected to the brake pedal like your street car that's just for vision the windshield wiper optional uh you hopefully have some sort of the fogging system if the rain does come and then rain tires is how these cars will start but rick the big question is how quickly will it drive where will it drive jeff you and i have had this conversation will it be the bankings that drive first and how much will that damage the tire i think that's the big challenge for the crew chiefs and the drivers that the banking of the oval track starts to drive the quickest well that's where the most load and the most speed is on those dry tires and you can wear them out in the banking but when you get to the infield section you're going to want those wet tires so that's just going to be a really tough situation for the drivers and crew chiefs to figure out so you see look at kyle bush on his roof right there you see that's the road course that's the map layout with numbers in all the corners and why is that important because communicating is huge right steve being able to tell the crew chief okay turn three i'm having this issue turn five i'm having that issue so you're all talking the same language and remember they won't go through the chicane on the front for the start or the restart so they can be carrying more speed into turn one than they would normally when they're going around the track it's a cut race the elimination race from the charlotte rovel and the green flags in the air [Music] the first time in the history of the cup series they're racing on rain tires and to charlotte rovel see right there turn three that right there is right right now probably the wettest part of the racetrack yeah the water runs from turn two down the racetrack into turn three across the racetrack also right here going into five water running across the racetrack there and the painted surfaces are areas you probably want to stay away from that's going to be really slick when they're wet [Music] exiting out of the road course onto the nascar oval there's some water right here and some painted black line right there that line is painted and we slick as well trying to power down we saw the xfinity race yesterday a lot of these guys running up the racetrack in the pj1 that they put down on the oval part of the racetrack and providing a little more grip for these cars even in the wet brad keselowski making a move for the lead side by side of this rear chicane is tight it's the first time through the trilogy chicane and will we exit with a new leader brad's going to get on that paint he's not able to get the drive and the levitt car accelerates a little bit more right there still nose to nose though is somebody going to give right here we saw the front chicane side by side did not work yesterday denny hamlin giving that spot up smartly too early in the race a lot of standing water we've seen here in this chicane and it's brad keselowski who's going to lead lap one at charlotte getting into one already the windshield wiper going on the two of keslowski through turn two and into three again more water on the track here yesterday in the xfinity series we saw race leader noah gregson spin on his own as he was coming through this straight away really nice job all these drivers on that one conditions they've never dealt with before everybody found their way around it nice work talk about the painted surfaces on this racetrack and that black line right here through this corner three-car boston mill and tries to power down as he crosses across that you see how it loses rear grip jerks your car sideways all these guys have to drive across this it will drive up eventually it's going to be challenging you mentioned challenging it's all comes down to comfort one driver that must be comfortable in the rain it's mike mcdowell in the 34 car he's currently up 10 spots since the start of the race known for his road course racing experience i think he was able to attack a little more than some of the drivers that perhaps were a little more timid for good reason and you said that name and immediately i thought why didn't i have him in my fantasy lineup because you knew he was going to be good here at the robo a lot of rain running across the racetrack right here in this breaking zone as they're trying to slow down for the front straightaway chicane standing water right here at the apex 13 car in front of kyle bush he's got a he's had a really good start of this race also gained a lot of spots you can hear will spin just going across the start finish line guys because it's painted yeah we've heard that a lot yesterday too but it's interesting when they're getting up to speed there the wheels break free on that paint at the start finish line the cars are starting to create some grooves in the racetrack really wet over here though they do not dare go across that painted line to the right there and get out get out on that extra asphalt it'd be nice if it was dry but right now it's holding water out there and they're staying away from it are you surprised that no one has been a little overly aggressive early in this race that's exactly what we saw at daytona when they ran the daytona road course we saw xfinity guys all go down into turn one and crash well a couple guys were watching that they all got on the phone together texting each other said hey let's try not to make you know let's try to make that same mistake i think they all watched that race yesterday infinity series learned a ton they all communicate with each other big giant group of them right here watching the nine car trying to break in the breaking zone on the back straightaway chicane staying off the painted stripes be able to get maximum braking pressure and performance out of his car and then he just gave that spot up just not one to go in there side by side right now even in the dry it's difficult side by side then he just wisely on lap three said you know what you're a little quicker than me not going to put myself in a bad situation look at ty dillon guys ty dillon has gotten by the 22 legato he's now in the back bumper of kevin hartman ty dillon is a driver who's looking for a ride next year jermaine racing here he's going to dive hard into this corner here on the inside on the restart on the initial start of the race he dove to the inside everyone else was taking it very careful and he dove to the inside passing two or three rows of cars before the first turn dylan jr this is one of those races where it's an opportunity we talk about it so much but look at last week too they finished third at talladega that's another one of those races where anything can happen so coming into this race it was the same kind of mentality for ty dillon hey look we just got to get up front here and then conserve and do what we have to do to finish so that's their biggest motivation right now and the biggest thing they're trying to do is put ourselves in position early to just survive and then we can hang on from there so two good weeks going so far after the third last week and then he's driving through the field right now already into the top five one of the big advantages for ty dillon is that he has two xfinity starts in the reign so he's relying on that experience right now it's serving him well he's one of the biggest movers michael mcdowell the other one oh he's in deep right here can he get his low down yes nice job saw eric jones also in this rick he had to come from the back of the field after having some issues on pit road to start the race martin trex jr making the high line work here as they get ready to come into the front stretch chicane it seems like when they run that high line in three and for a nascar oval coming on to the front straightaway for the final chain it does set them up better for a better straighter braking zone you want to brake with the wheel straight you don't want to turn the wheel and be braking that's when you're gonna slide lock up the front tires if you have one loaded more than the other ty dillon all the way up to third brad kozlowski out front of the field you're watching the nascar cup series playoffs on nbc to bank of america roble 400. [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] crank up the volume this nascar playoffs with a chance to win a 2021 toyota gr supra 3.0 premium plus get access to music playlists curated by your favorite toyota nascar cup series drivers get started at nascar.com toyota playoffs well nascar drive that's your live race day companion follow your favorite drivers with high definition in-car cameras visit nascar.com drive you can download that mobile app today still out front is brad kozlowski it's chase elliot running second third is martin shrek's junior ty dillon has fallen back to fourth legano running in the fifth spot then it's boyer kyle busch hamlin harvick and kurt bush all in the top 10. pace is picking up a little bit more though here steve is there a formula before the competition caution comes out is there a formula that the driver is going to tell the crew chief this is what i think we should do with tires well i think that's some of the challenge so just the fans understand the rule at this point these teams are allowed to put on whatever style tire they would prefer either the treaded rain tire or the slick dry tire nascar no longer determines what tire has to go on the car the concern is you look at the banking it's relatively dry i mean i think it's still wet but my point is there's no running water there's no puddles i expect a groove to dry relatively quickly there the question i have is the infield there's so much running water in standing water you actually see rooster tails so they're running 99 second lap times truex ran a 97 second lap time you know that's still over 10 seconds slower than the dry conditions at some point though someone's going to gamble and if you're the first guy on drives and you're right you will gain huge chunks of time clint boyer having a good drive up through the field see a battlefield lead right here chase elliott going on the outside keselowski clipboard in a must-win situation doing a nice job so far chase to the outside of the two car the break is on the turn one how hard will brad fight for this lead we saw this work yesterday the out the car on the outside line was able to beat the car on the inside line in this corner chase elliott did it again today see how they starting to drive that bottom groove trek starting to come into the picture as well so like we see this nine in this 19 car up front at all the road course races together [Music] truex going to the inside of brad keselowski back there he'll have the inside line on this corner brad's going to have the advantage though coming into the next section watch chase elliot as he transitions on to the banking watch how low he exits way on the bottom of the racetrack everybody else runs out by the wall chase elliott all the way through the corner on the bottom and exits on the bottom talking about the racetrack drying up in the banking wherever there's you know the water is going to run off the track is going to drive pretty quickly but these guys can move around these guys can move around way up that banking there's still some dampness to try to keep the cool temperature into the tire try to give the tire break so the tire doesn't come apart look at the move here mark shrek's junior was looking to the outside of brad keselowski for that second spot but keselowski pulls away on the inside line yeah they're just not to the limit of the grip you know the shorter distance is just an advantage around there the only advantage as dale pointed out earlier is that angle that 2x gets into that breaking zone being much straighter than brad just how good is chase elliot as we see mark tricks jr take that spot away chase elliot won this race a year ago and remember it was after he as the race leader slammed into heartburn turn turn number one and rick i i went on record when he did that well his day's over i mean he drove straight into the barrier this has killed this nine car all kinds of damage and then he literally passed every car on the racetrack there was no gimmicks he did it on his own and he's proven it i mean three straight road force wins martin trex jr and chase elliot those are the two names that continue to move to the front at every road course here we are at the rovel in wet conditions and yet those two are still taking the top two spots clint boyer trying to get around this two cars well brad keselowski's starting to struggle look at him turning the wheel really loose on brad's car fighting the handling on that two cars going away quickly as he's lost a couple spots here so dale i'll be honest i i don't know enough about rayne tires to know can you abuse them right we saw him jump out to a lead did that hurt those rear tires and that's what we're seeing now it seems like in some of the some of the road course areas fighting the back of that car fighting the grip just trying to swing the back around boyer has two top fives on the robot so he's been very successful successful here see if he can get a good enough run to try to get alongside brad getting his in his chicane pretty far back to make a run he's gonna do it can he get it slowed down how big would it be if clint boyer could win his way into the round of eight the party or the story because they'd both be pretty big it would be huge competition caution scheduled for [Music] on or around lap 10. oh they're on lap 10 right now once they complete it we will i'm sure see that caution come out that nascar has told them listen into kyle busch's radio you can see clint boyer just before that out in that water doing that intentionally to try to get a little temperature out of the tire so dale basically the treaded tire is much softer that's how it gets its grip in the rain when you start to dry it gets too warm and actually it starts chunking the rubber comes off so as a driver it's your job you just mentioned it what clint was doing you have to go find me some puddles if if you're convincing the crew chief me that i got to stay on wets for traction then my challenge back to you is our buddy well you better cool them when you can things are picking up take a look at today's xfinity fastest lap clint boyer on lap six a 97 second lap so the pace is definitely increasing drivers getting a little more comfortable out there on this racing surface it's only going to get faster as this track dries it'll be amazing how much faster they can run on a completely dry track with slick tires flynn boy are really impressive right here not surprising though clint is a good road racer he is running the leader down 2x in front of him [Music] there it is the competition caution chase elliott we knew he was going to be the favorite after winning here a year ago well he's got a hell of a view up front and his fans also got a hell of a view leading here at the charlotte roble [Music] so so under the first caution of the day aerial coverage brought to you by geico look down on this gorgeous facility here in concord north carolina just outside of charlotte and a few pit stops taking place dylan there's ty dillon we saw him drive through the field from 17th into the top five tires going on looks like maybe they're throwing slicks on we'll go down there and confirm that with the yellow side walls heart uh dave parker dylan actually here's kevin harvey's putting wet tires on they did a big adjustment for the fuel he was really tight on those last tires and they do look slightly destroyed [Music] interesting see to see if ty dillon will be able to stay on track and keep pace i'm as excited to see it as he is from behind the wheel i've never seen this [Music] before so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] cars lined up two by two as we get ready for the restart chase elliott and the nine on the inside martin trex jr and the 19 on the outside again they go through the restart zone and they will dive into tom's heartburn turn that's turn one here at the roble and two cars came to pit road and put slicks on let's see what happens to those two the six of ryan newman and the thirteen of ty dylan well a lot of cars came to pit road but some cars put on wets again thinking they still need wet tires as you mentioned two teams opted for slick so there are fresh rain tires in the field and there are fresh slick tires in the field how do they get through turn three here as we careful all of that water i'm watching ty dillon he's having a hard time through the center uh inner part of the racetrack where there is a lot of water on the surface or he's just being really careful he's gonna have to be careful there's no way he's gonna be able to get through here as well as the guys that are on the wets right now he's hoping that's going to change track will dry up and then he'll be out there and won't have to pit on the green that's what he's hoping for yeah they had a conversation on the radio about this decision let's listen in nice slicks no adjustment yeah about three hours of no rain let's do it so there you have it they know or they believe there's no more rain in the forecast so ty dylan right now just has to be ginger i can't make a big mistake he knows this is a gamble he was on board with the gamble and you can see how much he was trying to get you know the power down the rear moves around let's see right here leaving the corner he actually leaves with pretty decent pace in that 13 and i actually think this is the end of the racetrack while they have the most speed look right there lead right here on the left side of the screen clint bowyer has taken it away from martin trex jr oh and that sends pressure through the entire playoff field oh yes that puts the 88 18 3 and 10 below the cut line it's not what alex bowman was thinking was going to happen today when he came to the rovel but if somebody below that cut line when they came in wins you win and you advance to the round of eight and that's right now what clint boyer is thinking about as he's out front leading the field here the bush brothers pal pushing the 18 kurt bush and the one here nose to tail [Music] you mentioned when you saw those standings the 18 kyle bush below the cut line the defending series champion potentially eliminated from the playoffs after this race it would be the earliest that a defending series champion has ever been eliminated from the playoffs kyle bush right now fighting to keep his championship hopes alive this is where you see the championship four eliminated [Music] the round of eight jimmy johnson joe logano right now you see kyle busch 21 points behind the round of eight cutoff dave and even though kyle predicted that he wouldn't make it through this round he told us this week you know that's just me talking that's the kind of thing i say so he truly believes that he can get it done today and win here on the robo talk to his crew chief adam stevens this morning he said because of the inherent chaos of this race i do believe it's possible for us to point our way in but of course that win the ultimate way to move through and for kyle to prove himself wrong which i think he would say would be just fine see the 96 third daniel suarez trying to move up and around there's ryan newman again he's on slicks yeah water that's the wettest area of the racetrack definitely lost traction is i didn't see any damage i don't see any dents on the rear bumper i think it was just a simple fact of not having enough grip on those slick tires 13 still able to make it work but you can see him slide around there's really no dry lines around the racetrack right now there he is just you know loss of traction doesn't look like any contact it could have got some help there the uh 13 watching him uh ty dillon with his slicks he's slowly working his way and gaining more and more confidence in the grip those those tires are giving him climbing back through the field here one car at a time almost a dry groove that we saw the six going through there so stevie had mentioned that the the banking probably will dry a little bit sooner than the infield area yeah suzy right on board with suarez right here we're gonna show that point you know it looks a little dry here and i actually think this front stretch of cane is one of the driest areas on the race track no real puddles we had standing water here yesterday but they did a nice job of getting that kind of taking it away see down into turn one here daniel looks got a car going to the inside there all down in there very very careful through this part of the racetrack i think this is a down here area that's drying up getting wet right here where the water runs across the track and he's on offline in the water he has to be very careful when there's cars putting him offline he's not going to have the grip that he's used to look at the 53 going off the racetrack trying to get some wet trying to get some some temperature out of the tire gate go where you can find some standing water if you're going straight trying to cool the tire off and look at the visibility you know when he was behind that car how all the water coming up from behind that other car just completely blocked his vision now daniel accelerating to turn nine which is the oval turn one you can see you really can't a little bit of a drying groove starting to happen on the bottom right there very tight rear chicane and grabbing gears downshifting this doesn't seem to have the speed in that car that he needs the grip in that car a little damage on the left front there with some contact with somebody on the racetrack spit the front fender on the tire there dave and remember the big news this week for daniel suarez he'll be on a new team next year no it's not michael jordan and denny hamlin it is a new team started by justin marks called track house racing that was put together when these two friends decided 2021 would be the right time and remember what suarez said about a month ago he said i didn't pack my bags and come to the states to run in the back i want to win races and compete for championships and now he feels like he'll have that chance starting next year parker and dave who just turned one of the top five fastest lap times that was ty dillon who's on slicks kevin harvick we're watching there pitted under that last caution onto wet tires why because his right front was so worn out on those wetsetted tires you'll see here it was actually sort of blistering and coming apart where the blocks are and therefore that's the sort of thing that happens when the track starts to dry out and you're stuck on those wet tires so right now we're seeing the crossover moment for those drivers at the front that didn't pit they've got to make those wet tires last almost nine laps here without having that blistering happening or they're going to have to come down and get slicks because that 13 at ty dillon is turning some of the fastest lap times on the racetrack this is the crossover moment steve it is parker for sure drivers this 13 just looks like he has a ton more grip you see right there four seconds faster right there i think we had that wrong the slings are four seconds faster than the rain tires they run in 84 seconds look at the 13 right here easily clears the 11 pulls away he'll have a ton more speed than the 22 in front of him not only steve does this mean that the these slicks which are the wet the dry tires are faster it also means that it's going to start to damage the wet tires you saw that report from parker so you know this this is going to dry without a caution this may drive guys onto pit road i'm watching the leader of the 14 car clint moyer and running in second place mark trex jr in the nascar oval they are running right on the fence trying to find water to survive them tires parker and guys here's our first takers on pit road seeing the speed of that 13 is christopher bell in 95 he's putting slick tires on right behind him his seven-time champion jimmy johnson also putting on slick tires gonna run this to the end of the stage so really there's only a couple spots on the track right now where there's water still sitting or maybe running across it 14 here that's what everybody has to be worried about watch where he's running way up the racetrack because that's really the only damp area in the nascar over where you talked about it yet the most slow these tires are going to see the most abuse these rain tires will get trying to get up there and trying to get as much as you can out of these tires we have to come to pit road what makes this difficult this decision even more difficult is the stage end right nobody wants to pit that needs stage points before the end of this stage if they could make it last for seven more laps they could make maybe game positions the problem is will the tire fail because it gets so hot and starts wearing out before you get to the end of this stage clint boyer out front does he stay out there on the wet tires does he come to pit road that's why you got to stick around to watch [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you have a nice cold poke and buckle up you're watching nascar on nbc changing track conditions the big story line at charlotte roble it started off wet track conditions now it's dry enough that they are putting slicks on parker right rick if you were on wet tires you came down pit road in the last two laps that includes joe logano who gave up a top 10 position the team was begging him to find water on those wet tires but they weren't going to last the fourth car of kevin harvick who was on new weds from the competition caution came down the 88 of alex bowman came down and put slick tires on i just looked at the set that came off alex bowman and they are destroyed if you're on wet tires like clipboard i don't know if you you're going to make them last five more laps yeah clint boyer's going to lose the lead here in just a couple more corners 13 and ty dillon has drove up about five seconds a lap faster than the 14. clint's trying to find water there's not much left on this racetrack going out here wide on this part part of the track that used to have water nothing there clint here comes the knight here comes the 13th car ty dillon closing in through this section of the racetrack dave bradskaslowski on pit road in the two car wasn't a stage points paying position but 41 points for the good coming in they decided to go with the plan which was when it's time to put on the drives you do it then you have it on your left hand side as well now on the right he as well is getting the slick tires on his car of course he's already through because he won last weekend not going to be much of a fight ty dillon easily gets by the 14 and leaves at charlotte so ty dylan if we don't have a yellow or anything else crazy happen should go go ahead and drive away and win this stage clint is in real anxiety to try to get these tires to make it to the finish will his tires make it to the finish without chunking apart without coming apart and forcing him to pick phil evan carr off the racetrack and maybe stuck he's going to get out of the grass some damage to the right front fender you see how the hood's up the whole right side he's definitely made contact with something part of the track through turn four coming up on turn five i think he just left clint road we heard dave report and we put slick tires on i think that's the challenge as we talked about at the start of the show the changing conditions well now you ask a driver to change the tire grip and go back on the racetrack and obviously denny hamlin just found an area that didn't agree with the level of grip in the 11 dave it's chase elliott's turn brings the nine down pit road remember so good here last year that when he stuffed it in the fence he was able to recover and win the race so they'll go to the slick tires here for chase get all four goodyear racing eagles on fill it full of snow go fuel parker and erica marola doing the same thing here coming down pit road he was on wet tires that he'd put on under the competition caution but could not make them last they've got to get on slick for the ten of paragon roll running just [Music] these guys who are on pit road fill it up with fuel they won't stop at the end of stage one they might be able to make it all the way into stage two yeah i think they'll probably pit right before that as well let's take a look at there's denny hamlin on the right side of your screen spinning out i believe that's exiting turn four and some pretty good contact with the tire barrier was able to get going and back on the track yeah rick i mean that's the thing is not only is it a tire selection but there's this battle for track position with fuel and i expect these cars to pit now and then pit again at the end always we have they got john hunter nemechek off the track sure enough chandra nevacek is off track and not rolling well now he's going to try to go let's turn six up the hill he's got something tied up to the front of the car he's got some damage to the well he has right front and he's got the racing slicks on and he's in wet grass and he's just not going he can't go uphill well clint boyer's saying throw the caution through the caution he's out here kind of nurse these rain tires burn the 14 car would love to see a caution yeah they would matt de benedetto he is out there he is also on dry tires so he is running down clint boyer it looks like jonathan nemechek is going to be stuck here he just can't get out here's what happened to him there's the caution it has come out and this is the reason why he couldn't get going he did catch one of those signs the heavy damage you guys pointed out i think echo park really appreciates this race this is two years now that they have had a sign get stuck on one of the vehicles and so john hunter nemechek is going to ease this car working it slowly just a little too much horsepower with no grip see now if he was on reigns with all that treasure he'd drive right out right now he's like hey i got it now i don't need your truck we'll see how long the sign stays with him oh no not again there it went there you go but that will have to be picked up i mentioned clint boyer because he's running in the second position jeff and you know his lap times had dropped dramatically with those rain tires obviously they were you know falling apart for him is going to help him try to get those tires to survive if we don't restart the race now the struggle is if we do restart the race he is going to be in a world of hurt with all of the fresher tires starting right behind him so no matter what he doesn't come to pit road to put slicks on yeah the no the 14 pits i think they believe this race will get restarted they think they're going to come around to get one to go and see at least one lap of racing dylan and here they come and indeed the slicks while waiting both the 19 of truex and the 14 a boy are there in the middle of your screen and they were just pleading with clint those last few laps just save it just save all you can get us to the end of this stage but a no-brainer here under yellow as they roll these wet tires off on both of these cars they are badly blistered down today slick tires going on the 18 of kyle busch for the first time today adam steve is telling the driver man we're going to start last but we just can't stay out any longer on these rain tires so when i was thinking the 14 wanted this yellow i thought for sure it would end the stage but nascar very officially is going to clean this up and i believe we're going to see one to go here and which means we will restart with one lap remaining in this stage rick so one lap shootout yeah one lap shoot on an old worn out treaded tires was going to be problematic for the 14. yeah only one guy stayed out the one car kurt bush he stayed out he is still on wet tires so let's see where he ends up but the winner from las vegas says yeah even if i end up in the grass i'm still into the round of eight what a what a you know that's just racing right what a crazy break clint boy doing a great job driving up through the field taking the lead and then the untimely caution now the concern for the 14 if something delays this yellow and they don't restart you're going to be very frustrated yes you pit it yes i obviously haven't heard the communication from nascar but i see the lights still on in the pace car so uh they they give them one to go they're supposed to get them right there at eight yeah there you go there it went yeah lights just went out okay all right race fans test your motorsports knowledge in the bank of america rovell 400 trivia challenge play today only at robo400.com 400 trivia.com for chance to win a 50 credit to the robo 400 fan shop rut rick i got an amazing view up here on the pedestrian bridge of three and four and what we heard you guys talk about is you know at first it was so wet there off the side of four drivers couldn't use that we're watching the last caution before this one most of the field came over here and all this wet stuff to cool those tires off that was such a help to ty dillon because that dried this stuff off more than anything else the wild thing as you can see now we've got all these light towers that marcus smith brought in last night good thing is we're not going to need them now but wow hats off to good year to get those rain tires out here and to let these drivers do it because jeff you all know you got to back up these turns when you don't have any traction yeah it's you know those lights that they can't put in there if in case it does get dark and it rains come on back it'll be valuable how far will you search for water how about all the way down on the dirty apron of the back stretch these are the two cars pretty obvious to see who's still out there on rain tires and when we were looking at rutz piece there you could see the water running across the surface of the racetrack in turn three where these guys are getting ready to go with slicks all right field approaching the geico restart zone time dillon matt de benedetto the 13 21 one lap remaining in stage one the advantage for todd dylan is he knows what kind of grip these slicks have a lot of these guys behind him do not you don't want to go side by side through this corner here turn three especially on the left hand side there's a lot of water there that's just what the 95 christopher bell did he put the 21 out into the water so bell has taken over second de benedetto is going to lose third also it looks like he's coming up on the inside timmy hill in the 66. changing track conditions has put the 13 of ty dillon up front they gambled early put on the racing slicks he worked his way up to the front while everyone else was changing tires let's see what happens down here in the braking zone christopher bell 10 car links back from the 13 car todd dillon oh time slides the rear so does christopher in the braking zone there's a little water running across the racetrack right there that locks up the rear tires coming across that breaking zone into the skin we know ty dillon got on those dry tires before everybody else but give him credit he drove up through the field before he put those tires on right now there is only one driver in the top ten that's a part of the playoffs everyone else non-playoff drivers ty dillon win stage one [Music] i didn't have that in my fantasy ty dillon stage winner christopher bell was second developed william byron and timmy hill all part of the top five but ty dillon grabs his third stage win his career and right now ty dillon and the team looking pretty smart here at the charlotte robot [Music] [Music] um so [Music] [Music] it's the bank of america rover 400 with the nascar cup series playoffs on nbc and now pit road about to get busy as we see the 13 make his way onto pit road dylan and ty dillon into his pit stall going to get a fresh set of sticker slicks from goodyear along with sunoco fuel as they work around the right side and now over to the left side as well kurt busch in a little further down the road he'll get some slicks as well four goodyear tires sunoco fuel parker see the four there of kevin harvick coming down pit road the crews had to go underneath trying to work on some damage there to the hood and trying to get it down it seems like they got a little damage one of those restarts dave eddie hamlin into his spit stall remember shortly after he took the slicks had some contact after a spin already through the round of eight they're just taking their time here fixing that car a little bit getting four fresh goodyear tires and sunoco fuel rick thanks dave and the 13 was able to win the race off of pitt road you can go inside the headset with access to nascar scanner for only 4.99 they're in the playoffs listening on pitch strategy spotter communication just log into the app or use the mobile device nascar.com scanner [Music] [Music] so nascar on nbc is brought to you by bank of america sonic this is how we sought it liberty mutual insurance only pay for what you need and by toyota rutledgewood rick this time last year i was here in the infield with thousands of fans they aren't here this time but they are out in the grandstand amazing to see fans back here out here we know there were a handful of them out here last night that had all their rain gear a much better show they're getting but rick we're seeing on social media fans are loving the underdog of ty dillon putting on that show i wonder for you guys in the booth who else do we think we're going to see some of those big moves from today that we don't normally see [Music] i think todd hillard who's the guy so far right todd dillon a little confused about why they pitted there yeah they did a great job christopher bell i mean christopher bell look at these guys look there's only one playoff driver they got stage points think about that we're in the playoffs and only one driver in the playoffs got stage points i don't think we've ever seen that in the playoff race yeah and most of those cars still have their track position you mentioned it ty didn't hit it a little confused why i thought he had enough fuel to kind of get to the next stop which should be around lap 45 48 but in the end christopher bell's up there maddie d see if they can use this track position dylan hey and steve we've talked about some of the other challenges of changing the cars over from wet to dry in addition to just changing tires so get a load of this on clint boyer's car when they changed over to slicks they pulled this out of the right side window that's a cover for the air hoses that go out the right side of the car that flow cool air to the driver's helmet so obviously when it's wet you need to have that covered so you don't have water and stuff like that coming in through the driver's helmet cooling hose so now that it's dry there's no water coming into the cockpit they took that plate off now it's just dry clean uh cool air flowing into the helmet for clint boyer well i don't want to be debbie downer rick but looking at the radar and 82 laps to go it's gonna be dry for a long time but it is not out i mean it's not crazy to think that that rain way off in the distance may get here before the end of the race i don't know well parker while we were a commercial break he threw out he thought 4 45 yeah that was when rain was going to come i didn't think that deserved to be repeated i wasn't i'm just listening to what he said see if it works out he could be right let's see what uh meteorology skills he has as the page car is going to make its way onto pit road the field will stay out on the oval and field approaching the geico restart zone christopher bell has chose the outside line outside line and it works out for him as far as going into tom's heartburn turn he'll dive to the inside with matt diminidetto with the 21. william byron beating on the back bumper that 21 car down into term one now on the outside going into turn three turn four ginger are you through the water here yeah so much water on that outside lane but nice job he's going to take that spot away second place to william byron we know most of the hendrick cars all share that similar speed that the nine car chase elliot has williams had some good runs on some of the road courses over the last year and a half two years [Music] the sun is out not sure many people were expecting that but that helps dry some of this track as well a little bit breezier here today as well 20 car eric jones he's had to come to the back of the field because of an issue on pit road great job so far racing for a new opportunity somewhere hopefully learn how to learn what's going on with their jones over the next couple of weeks riding along with chase elliott lower front bumper camera battle for the lead right here will you buy them putting some pressure on bell jerking that car back and forth going into turn one william byron has the inside line and he'll take the lead away from christopher bell two of our young drivers we expect to see around for a long time in this sport william byron just 20. wide cooked it in there didn't turn four just a little hot it still kept the lead he did i thought he's going right nice and steady that was some good advice about two quarters too late yeah i thought he was wrecked he still came out with a lead well let's take another look at it it's drying over there and they've created a little bit of a lane but there is some water just off the line and if you get you have to use up any any more racetrack you're going to be in the wet he did a great job though stay off the brakes don't do anything it's going to keep the car sliding into the barrier and the paint is slicker too when it's wet and he slid through that yeah if you panic if you're painting can jump on the brakes right there you're done pretty good job how much drier it is that bottom groove you see him kind of stacked up behind ryan newman i think ryan's holding this group up a little bit laney gonna jump on the inside of him jimmy johnson trying to follow him through jimmy was able to make that work it's not done yet eric jones on the inside three wide yeah that's not going to work going into turn one i like this lane that jimmy's in though we've seen this outside lane work as the track drives up it seems like it's it's a little bit better for the for the car on the inside of turn two [Music] now jeff just sort of be more aggressive in the throttle there jimmy missed the corner brad kazlowski able to take advantage of it jimmy rayson eric jones just kind of lost vision just a minute this is corner so william byron has taken the top spot away from christopher bell to benedetto logano and blaney all a part of the top five [Music] [Music] so [Music] you could score the ultimate prize built for the ultimate fan enter now for a chance to win a customized ford mustang gt plus get five bonus entries when you use the code elimination get started at nascar.com ford playoffs promo and thankfully eric alvarola has given us an opportunity and ford to see the footwork that is going on drivers i tell you shocking how you can focus on the road or on the track the steering wheel and operating both feet at the same time sierra cavarola how much how busy he is under attack right now from kurt bush seeing him come to break a little bit as he's still wide open through the banking he's just trying to understand how much brake pressure he has how much performance he can expect out of the brakes once he does get to the breaking zone see if he does that again around the banking seal on his upshift absolutely no clutch whatsoever not going to use it on the downshift either break make sure he's got a pedal that's a confidence push right there yes i want to know it's there you see him watch him as he downshifts he pumps breaks even on the shorter a little straight away he's going to pump them breaks every time he comes into a break-in zone and see if he's got a pedal i think he'll stay in second gear all the way through this section of the racetrack he must have been oh oh kuzlowski eric jones caught up in this yeah that is a strangest looking thing yeah they're on the inside of turn four just sitting there that's where most everybody everybody's out wide on that particular part of the racetrack some brackets lose here the 20s slows down the 21 slows down they're all going down the racetrack down the racetrack brad's gonna park it here parallel parking wow they all just followed him right over there and said we're going to pull in watch the drive-in movie that's where the big screen is i have never the role the role creates more strange shots in video i just it's amazing how that worked out eric jones is thinking to himself why did i follow him down here to the bottom of the track [Music] looking back from alvaro he is currently in the 15th spot keslowski behind him eric jones the 48 must have a serious issue he's pulled over now for two cars behind him i don't know if he has a handling issue but he just seems off the pace once again the 41 is going to easily go by the 48. yes through the front chicane he entered the chicane on the right-hand side christopher bell he's running second he goes around again and that's coming out of turn four there's still a little bit of water on the track and turns three and four looped it around throwing the gas trying to make some speed just lost for a grip yeah we were focusing on the 48 because he seemed to be off the pace and now he's gonna get a shot from the 95. news came out this week we know the driver that'll replace jimmy johnson the 48 alex bowman will move over from the 88 to the 48 so staying in hedge motorsports very comfortable same cars same team he uses this year but will drive the allies sponsored 48. i asked mr h i said okay so when are we going to find out who your new driver is his response back was ah soon so uh keeping that close to the best i don't understand what happened to the 48 that time jeff i saw the same thing you did just awesome odd angles but seems to be doing okay right here you see uh 95 14 and the 19. see clint moyer behind christopher bell he [Music] he was one of those three that hit it the one that has done the best since they all pitted was is accomplished kyle push there he is right there ahead of him there's clint and martin truax say all three pitted together but kyle bush has been able to make up a little more ground than those other two have we heard from kyle bush in the pre-race show about you know that he would love to extend his chance through the playoffs but it's really the winless streak jeff is what i keep hearing from kyle bush 15 years he has won a race at the cup level every year of his career this is year 16 continue to be winless and i have to kind of agree as much as we make a big deal about the playoffs he's a two-time champ he's going to be back in the playoffs again i'm confident in that but that is a streak that you know he's not going to get 15 or 16 more years in his career this is something he wants to continue nascar's made it simple with this uh with this playoff structure and basically even through the regular season a win takes care of everything so that's all you have to focus as a driver on you have to worry about the playoffs and making it to the next round if you worry about winning and you do you'll take care of everything so the so the challenge and i wonder this so dale jr if kyle busch wins today does he become a favorite of phoenix instantly overnight from windlass to a favor i talked about at the top of the show he wasn't having the greatest of years last year and ended up winning the championship they had some struggles and i think that everyone in the playoffs right now is looking at him and still a contender still a guy they don't want to see him in the final four yeah he's not he's not a pushover this guy could get in that final four show up a win you also mentioned that kyle bush's desire to to go through a season you know every season he's won and not to not win but also from a driver's perspective when does the downturn start in your career right and so i know kyle bush i don't care how confident you are i don't know how good you are it happens to everybody and they've all watched it happen to everybody so you're terrified is that going to happen to you and when you go through two years of not really winning races like you expect to that starts to creep in your mind there's no way it can't yeah you drivers don't forget anything very good memories we now invite you to the fast lane brought to you by coca-cola daniel suarez we're riding along with on the left and the helmet cam [Music] squares currently in the 29th position it is hispanic heritage month and here's monterey mexico daniel suarez hispanic heritage month uh already means a lot you know i was born and raised in mexico this country celebrates between the 15th of september to the 15th of october the spanish heritage month it really makes me very proud to be the only mexican driver in the cup series we have a very special paint scheme that coca-cola put a lot of time into this we got a mexican artist from saltillo working on this paint skin and the paint skin is actually based on a sarapic which is a very very mexican thing and i'm very excited to have this very special paint skin in the hispanic heritage month the car is going to be having a special message on the on the side of the car which is going to connect this party the hispanic heritage and also a racing world [Music] six and the ten are both spun there we see eric almarola trying to get back to pace as byron now will have ryan blaney start to challenge him ryan blaney one of the two drivers that have won here at the rover blaney was the first to win and then last year was chase elliot who got to victory lane his 12 has some really impressive pace the last couple laps almost a second faster than the leader dave and steve that's exactly what veteran spotter tab boyd has been telling his young driver they're still working on the infield part of this course in terms of where they want to see william get a little bit more speed not as much as he had when he almost lost the 24 car the building right in this area but he's being told of the lap times in the car right behind him ryan blaney very very fast in that 12 car moving in on leader byron and yes two years ago the first time they raced the robo here the seas parted fellaini was in the right position to win the race and he's always been good here tracking down the leader now within a car length of the 24 is ryan blaney remember there'll be a shake up at the 24 as well we mentioned hendrick and the move of alex bowman uh there's another shake-up that's going to happen because it's been announced that chad canaus is moving to administrative role uh he won't be a crew chief before hitting motorsports any longer jeff andrews also uh making a change in the administration there yeah i'm happy through joe oh wow wheel hopper tire slide or whatever it was it was yeah there's water running across the racetrack and that breaking zone that's the one thing about this racetrack as it dries there is places where water runs from the from the safer barrier that's trapped you can see it right there and that's going to be there most of the day for these guys to navigate interesting also how much curve blaney uses as compared to william byron blaine on the inside of william gonna make this pass watch william byrne now that he's got i'm sorry watch laney now that he's gotten the lead let's see if he continues to use that much curb it's hard on the car bouncing off of them these curbs are much higher than what we see in a lot of race tracks yeah he's all over them very aggressive on them surprised he can make that work with them still being wet 11 laps to go in stage two new leader is ryan blaney so the track might look dry to most but there's a few that are still having their hands full william byron there and erik almarola right here [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so nascar on nbc is brought to you by guaranteed rate mortgage rates are historically low save money at rate.com today fourth built ford proud coca-cola together tastes better and by bank of america well tonight sunday night football on nbc kurt cousins of the vikings to visit russell wilson undefeated seahawks coverage begins with football night in america 7 p.m eastern [Music] beautiful shot there of centurylink field as you see charlotte motor speedway here again in concord north carolina just outside of charlotte and we'll get a few updates we'll start with parker oh rick alex bowman currently running in the fifth position you know he came into this race 22 points to good above the cut line and great guys as crew chief told me you know there's a bit of anxiety watching the radar seeing that this race might have a lot of rain in it and greg said you know the way i calmed him down was by saying look we made our speed here at the roll in the slowest corners rolling speed to those corners he said the rains can be very similar we just need you to keep take care of the car roll some speed and most of all survive that's what he did through the rain portion which put him in position now to be in the top five here in score stage points parker from 19th to 6th on this run is kyle busch so he knows he can get it done here we've talked to us this week he said we just have to keep ourselves out of trouble and watch out for guys making those desperation moves on such a tight circuit and then he added by the way one of the guys making desperation moves might need to be us dylan dave just a couple spots back up in clint boyer maybe the best car on the racetrack right now restarted 21st he's up to eighth had the deck stacked against them coming into today 38 points below the cut line but talking with johnny klosmeier this morning the crew chief he didn't seem too worried you know flynn is really really good here he's a sneaky good road course racer one of only two guys to have top fives in both the robo races here a third and a fourth he's marching his way forward and right there behind him is martin traurek jr he came in above the cut line but is rebounding as well from staying out near the end of stage one a great road course racer as well as you see there are seven top ten finishes in the last eight road course races james small his crew chief said the same thing we do have to worry about points but i'm not worried with martin in the driver's seat he really gets around these road course as well i got cole custer right here guys cole's doing a really nice job today sitting there running seventh behind kyle bush and clint boyer right behind him i think kyle and clint have two of the best cars on the racetrack for sure he's doing a nice job staying with him in nine straight top tens on row courses in the xfinity series so pretty solid road racer nice job here on the robot and jeff i was gonna say just a great rookie campaign won a race made the playoffs he's got to experience what the playoffs is right i know he's been eliminated rick but he just felt what this pressure was like i asked him on one of our zoom calls us you know did it feel different when the playoffs start yes he almost interrupted me he goes these guys when the playoffs start he's talking about the kyle bushes the clint boyers the joey legatos he goes you can just feel the energy feel the excitement they go to a new level yeah and he mentioned to try to ease that pressure he thought he'd take up fishing but he has yet to catch a fish so he's not doing very well at that yet that sounds stressful to me yeah right in front of these guys 18 car car bush trying to put pressure on the 88 of alex bowman two guys right at the cut line pretty unique battle happening right there on the racetrack between them clipboard goes to the inside of his teammate right here into turn five he's gonna take that spot away but clint's now gonna put pressure on these two guys couldn't break up this little battle between the 18 and the 88 yeah we talked about it before those two cars along with martin truex jr they've driven up through the field once they got up here though it became much more difficult got through the first cars relatively easy but now as they've gotten higher and higher racing against alex bowman alex bowman he's an underrated road racer as well he's done a really nice job the best average finish on the robo of all drivers is alex bowman he's got some pressure from that in car right now kyle slowly been closing in [Music] not close enough to do anything in the breaking zones just yet and while kyle is focused on the 88 in front of him we'll see how clint boyer does right behind him again clint transitioning to the broadcast booth next year and with that does that open a spot for potentially and you know you look at maybe even yeah chase briscoe next throw it out there it's probably where he's going it would be a great opportunity for him coming back clint boyer i spent some time with clint this week and he 100 believes he can come win this race he was i mean it wasn't a question it was yeah yeah yeah 100 witness race no doubt so he came in here with a ton of confidence when i talked to him this morning i congratulate him on that announcement and you know jeff what i think made him sound the most dangerous is i said what are you going to do today i'm going to have fun i'm going to have fun when clint boyer's having fun he is a better race car driver dave 65 laps to go in the race this will cut it down to one more stop for denny hamilton if you do it the normal way pit stops under green he gave up 23rd position he was back there remember from working on the 11 car they'll get four fresh tires here and send them back out so now the question is the 18 the 14 cars that are below the cut line you know the 18 is 24 points below does he pit before the end of the stage which is a better strategy to try to win the race he gets really close to the wall there and the 14 gets a little loose on the paint or does he stay out get the stage points well you know what does the 18 and adam stevens decide to do we're gonna have to see with five to go we're not gonna miss the thing as we will go nascar nonstop you can see all the battles that continue around the roble here at charlotte so [Music] [Music] fourth caution is out for the nascar cup series playoffs on nbc bank of america global 400 and as you saw in nascar nonstop the 77 of jj yaley damage to the back of that car earlier in the race jj gets turned around here in the chicane on the back straightaway and then in turn five up the hill to six he gets off racetrack and in the barrier here to bring out this yell he finally got his car rolling nascar throws the yellows the leaders in the middle of three and four leader was coming to pit road though that yellow didn't come out yeah and some some cars got on pit road before that yellow did come out steve well either on the lap when they're expecting yellow or a few laps before we had the 95 of christopher bell has already performed service to four kevin harvick the eighth tyler redick 11 of denny hamlin and the 21 of maddie d those five cars have already pitted in this pit sequence all in a few different laps but basically they'll only need one more stop from now to the end of the race where we're going to see i think the majority of cars come to pit road here who think they can win the race cars that are going to gamble for stage points will stay on the racetrack we're seeing it there the split how many coming to pitt road with just under now it'll be three laps to go dylan and clint boyer will bring his rush truck centers forward to the attention of the crew they'll go around the wall change right side tires clint's latest report just the car is not turning well in the slow corner so they're going to try to make a right side chassis adjusted four tires and fuel dave bush comes onto pit road no stage points the first stage so they're gonna go ahead and do the same plan here winning the races their option needs to get the power down better they made an adjustment for that as for brad keselowski he gets four fresh good years on the two car a little vibration after his spin in the infield but other than that the two's fine byron holds the position coming off of pit road a restart from the roble that's coming up next [Music] so [Music] [Music] yeah i was looking at that when you come up here on november 6th and 7th the world's best thoroughbreds compete in 14 exhilarating races at the breeders cup world championships learn more at breederscup.com 2020. catch all the action live on nbc sports today's aerial coverage brought to you by geico and once again we're going to have a shootout at the end of a stage yeah jeff you and i had this conversation we thought as dave reported the 18 pinning was an absolute commitment to a must win but i'm actually a little surprised he has some pretty decent track position only in row five or six i don't think it's out of the question that he could get up inside the top ten he has fresh tires we've had so much conversation about wet and dry now we're going to see what actual just fresh tires are worth alex bowman in fourth place he needs to get some stage points right here that just continues to put more pressure on kyle bush of him having to win and the field will have a two-lap shootout to end stage two not a good restart for alex bowman right there look at him going through trump's heartburn turn right here four wide and they all make it through yeah escape up two spots in that restart a lot of checking up everybody trying to get down in the bottom groove there a lot of guys rolling the outside that outside still has a little bit of moisture up there look at that way back there kyle is way off the racetrack way slow sounds like something's broken i have a left front tire flat if something's broken right still covered got a big damage there right here last one clear left front tire is definitely last year left side flat clay bar i'm sure it'll be gone when i get there and you hear the disgust in his voice this could do it this could eliminate the defending cup series champion he's going to try to ease it all the way around the racetrack alex bowman right there in front of his teammate let's go back and see what happened kyle bush so they all got checked up down here in turn three boyer went by maybe a little crazy wider boyer doesn't know so there's contact right there i think he might have already had a flat from contact before that possibly right here oh yeah i think it might have already been flat from back in turn three there might have been some contact all right we had nothing of luck absolutely dave so kyle will be coming to pit road now three times in his career he's been able to face elimination in the playoffs and make it through but he was never as far behind as he is today and this is going to put him even further behind they'll get left side tires changed on that race car and send him back out as blaney continues to lead so as you see the points on the left-hand side you guys mentioned the 88 now plus 44. his big concern with kyle's issue is just a a winner can the 14 oh with the 11 spins [Music] right in front of the fourteenth reference so he's really got to hold that breaker it'll slide right down in front of everybody driver's side there as they were exiting the infield part of the course there alex bowman he's looking in the mirror has his teammate william byron best thing you can see in the mirror of your car as you come to the finish of the stage some insulation from the field behind you so ryan blaney out fronts as he comes through the chicane for the final time in stage two he'll win stage two from the roble four stage win of the year for ryan delaney a difficult day for joe gibbs racing the 18 with issues and then the 11 of denny hamlin spinning so [Music] pit stops taking place now the end of stage two dylan martin tricks junior will hit his pit stall crew chief james small said we did exactly what we needed to do there from a points perspective martin just lacking drive off inside the cockpit says we're getting killed off the chicanes when we pull onto the oval they're going to try to make a chassis adjustment for tires and fuel to help that dave chase elliott middle of your screen very happy that run finishing second and not making changes to the nine here the 12 bottom of the screen stays win for ryan blaney remember last year had problems during the race and still finished ninth very very respectable day again for the 12. here at the rovel and their crew does a great job the 12 coming off pit road first the official half of nascar delivers an all-new ar racing experience for the playoffs you can customize your car and compete head-to-head against cup series playoff drivers search nascar in your app store and download for free today so so okay uh wednesday music's hottest stars unite for the billboard music awards and country legend garth brooks will receive the coveted icon award kelly clarkson hosts the billboard music awards that's live wednesday on nbc and a few cars stayed out on the racetrack that means christopher bell william byron tyler redick they will be restarting up front here at the rovel the charlotte motor speedway and getting ready for the final stage of the bank of america rover 400. rutledge rick when we throw cautions in nascar they are full course cautions but in a lot of other racing series particularly that race on road courses they have what are called local cautions meaning there might just be a caution right here and that person waving the flag over there is a corner worker these people are amazing they volunteer at tracks all across the u.s because they love to be up close and personal now this person's job is to warn drivers of danger that can be around this corner so when brad keselowski as dale jr put it parallel parked the car right here in front of the big screen that corner worker was waving the flag trying to let drivers know there is trouble around this turn and these track workers are amazing but at a lot of these blind turns that's who you see waving that blue flag if you're wondering at home thank you rod a lot of hard workers all the way around at this racetrack and yeah thumbs up great job let's listen in to clint boyer's rating it's wheelchair all right front kills i don't know just damn it we'll be fine here i'll be just back i'll run to the end yeah clint boyer we saw he and kyle busch make contact he was very concerned about the right front i didn't think it looked that bad but here he is on the outside bush right there they made contact but he'd already gotten into the right front that was what he was mostly concerned about yeah from behind the wheel it must have felt worse i don't see a lot of damage i don't know if the steering wheel is off uh you know as far as not straight anymore but you know sitting in the sixth position in a must-win situation 57 laps to go i mean he's still completely in this thing and that has to put a little bit of nerves between the 22 and the 88 because they're battling for the seventh and eighth spot i say that because if the 14 wins that kind of moves that cut line rick so you don't want to be the last guy in on points there's last card getting through the trilogy chicane on the back stretch here at charlotte rovell i think if they had any real problems they came pit road to work on it just got to fire that driver up telling man this car is good it's gonna have speed nine's on the apron i'm not sure if he's coming to pit road here or what he's doing interesting heavily committed to the apron i believe you're right steve he's going to come to pit road here yeah something must be a miss so last year's winner from here at the rovel is on pit road for the restart left front he thinks it's loose rick loose left front wheel on the nine car all right so they're going to attend to that as these two fight for the lead william byron takes it away from bell fired a little bit higher through that little bit of wetness on the top of the racetrack once again we're seeing non-playoff drivers excelling here at the charlotte rover william byron christopher we got a car round over here off turn six cole hamlin's in the grass cole custer in the fourth sliding down the hill there's the 11 once again off track 13 of ty dillon also with an issue and joey legato looks like he might have even caught a little bit of the wall there trying to avoid the 13. that was on the exit of eight they had problems a little tire rub on the 21 car matt benedetto left front tire he's got some damage i'm not sure right there if i couldn't tell if it was contact with cole custer or not on that replay so hamlin's back on the track green flag's still in the air there you see hamlin sliding into the picture he gets off track maybe a little help there from the 53 of james davison coming to pitt road trying to get repairs done to this car oh yes and you see the damage to the front end of that 53. so matt diminidetto in the lower right corner of your screen you see on pit road tires being changed for him denny hamlin already advancing into the next round after his win at talladega last week win and you advance and that's kind of the situation that four drivers came in to this final cut race austin dillon clint boyer kyle bush and eric alvarola and all four of them still below the cut line yeah steve you mentioned clint boyer and what if he were to win this race and how that would change the playoff pitcher going into the next round don't know how much damage clint had this car we heard him talk about how concerned he is but he's been able to keep pace be able to gain a spot or two on this restart and has really put a lot of pressure on brad kay had one back corner in the infield and lost some some ground on him but his car looks okay right here [Music] well you've said it earlier today jeff his robo numbers are impressive one of only two drivers that have run in the top five at both roval races it was clint boyer and alex bowman great average finish he's in position again with a pit stop still to go inside the top five and we've seen this robe the final stage of the races at the robo has been chaotic we've seen crazy restarts crazy accidents and a win by clint boyer then moves that cut line up that's why it's such a battle between the 22 and the 88 for points dylan steve i think you know clint boyer as well as a lot of us do that he can get a little wound up get up on the chip and obviously when he had contact there with kyle bush he was admittedly a bit animated and worried but one good thing about having a crew chief like johnny klosmeier his long time spotter brett griffin they both kind of told him hey listen we've got one of the best cars in the field don't worry about it we're okay just keep doing your thing and they've settled clint down a little bit he's back in his rhythm and running inside the top five so they are not out of this by any means still feeling really really good about their chances today dave dylan kyle busch was on and off of pit road the 18 car is straight it's not real pretty on the left front there but that restart and steve reminded us about the chaos here on the robo is exactly why adam stevens just said this to his driver wore a little bit of a splitter but uh got the hole in the nose patch i have no clue what's gonna happen the rest of this race so we need to be there at the end of it no clue so be there at the end of it he currently runs in the 18th 24th position stephen trying to move forward [Music] you don't want to ride him off right i mean he's obviously an extremely talented race car driver he's been dealt a really tough hand today in the fact that that uh left front issue going through turns three and four has caused him to restart back in a hole now [Music] cole custer's brought his car to pit road for tires [Applause] we've talked a lot about playoff cars one car that looks good in the playoff points the ninth chase elliot he came a second time well here's the original pit stop watch the left front right here a little bit of trouble with the tire going on and that slowed down the exchange and still trying to hit lug nuts as the nine left pit road we believe that's why he came down a second time as the field took a green was to tighten that left front wheel the last winner here at the rovel and the last winner of the last three road course races is all the way back in 28. i'm not saying he can't win but this will be an even more impressive run than maybe even last year if he can win from this position william byron in front of christopher bell by a little over a second here at the charlotte robo as we go nascar nonstop so [Music] so [Music] let's look at today's ram trucks built to serve well we mentioned at the final stage five plus cautions here in both of the last two races jeff and the final green flag stretch six laps or less in both of those races and the final lead change happened with six laps or less to go in those races too so i expect that to probably happen again today a lot of guys getting a lot of damage on those restarts and we've had more cars suffer some damage for the from the previous restart parker you got something on the e88 right junior he was tense moments for the 88 of alex bowman who got damaged you see that left rear there well when he went on to the banking after that restarting getting that damage for about two laps it was smokings it mean he was rubbing against that left rear spot of the team were up on the wall looking to see maybe they had to come down and change it they didn't but he also has lost a little bit of pace in that 88 car which isn't good dylan and parker just a couple spots ahead of him martin truex junior and wall they haven't quite recovered from pitting at the end of stage two they're mired back in the 17th spot keep this in mind too while they came in here with a bit of a buffer 32 points above the cut line in the playoffs james small the crew chief said hey art jack our objective still is to watch what the 88 and 22 are doing as long as we're ahead of them that's all we need to do and while they're 17th right now believe it or not the 22's 19th the 88's 21st so they're doing their job right now even if they are back in 17. talking about clint boyer and the damage that he has to his car his car does not have the pace it once had kurt busch been putting all kinds of pressure on in the last few last brad kuzlowski's been able to pull away from him clint's got to stay focused right here though oh is he going to save it yes he did he was sideways clint's got to stay focused here anything can happen we just showed that graphic that showed you how the race is going to end here it always does he's got to keep his track position the best he can here he is trying to go the throttle just lost the back of the car some of that's frustration he started to report earlier about his longtime spotter brett griffith this is where brett's got to get in clint's ear just pump him up say come on man we know it's not like it needs to be this is when we need you go get us all you can good job baby smoke defeated last three corners there you go that's what you're doing it's a positive you know when he does something positive give it to him i think the damage that he has to that car has hurt the speed also watching the 18 car who had contact with seems 18's out on the racetrack but still suffering from loss of little speed as well they're not driving through the field like uh like he'd hoped running 23rd right now is kyle bush [Music] one driver that perhaps i won't say all of us but i know i didn't give enough credit to heading into the playoffs it was a three of austin dillon he had a great first round heading into the second round he finds himself below the cut line at minus 20 but currently he's you know he's running 12th on the racetrack and there's points available in front of him with the 88 struggling you just mentioned the damage dale jeff you just mentioned the chaos of the rovel if the three of austin dillon can you know go find six or eight more points by advancing into the top five and the 88 could lose some points he does have a pathway into the playoff currently on points or advancing in the playoffs currently on points and also you know this team and driver have brought their best to the playoffs he's never finished better than 15th on road course never and today he's sitting there running where he's running so again bringing his best to a to this playoff man i prop him up and then you bring that stat up man like trying to work to austin to the fans up and do a frenzy well teammate to him right in front of him tyler redick in the eights and we've talked about the impressive rookie class this year one of them is running second right now with christopher bell another one in cole custer has won already this year well how about tyler reddick and the eight he is really performing well here at the rovel right from him ricky stenhouse running in 10th place doing a solid job with this car got the kroger machine number 47. running strong today keeping the size on it you see the pink paint scheme there jennifer chappelle's name is on that 47 car she is currently fighting breast cancer she's been a part of nascar for so long it's been very impressive the fight that she has been putting up i know that she was just finishing up her treatments and celebrating that but great for that team to do that for jennifer all right guys we keep talking about cliff foyer but he comes you know he he just had kurt bush all over the back of him and he has driven away from him in a matter of a lap and a half and now he's running kozlowski down lap times have gotten better we saw brad jump out and lead this race early i know the conditions were quite different but this car kind of fell off of a period of a long run and clint's gotten a little faster a little better maybe the pep's coming back in the step of this 14. rush forward as he comes down to the breaking zone you see him driving in the breaking zone sideways getting all there is you know if there's a car in your mirror that's in a bustling situation you have to hesitate a little bit of how much you want to fight him that's a great point steve yes he is but he's exactly right about that they have been talking the points lock in point for the two car quite a bit this race right now as they run he's 50 above the line they just want to know you know brad wants to know he's been asking hey when are we locked in certain things have to happen to make that happen but you're right he doesn't want to face the 14 trying to run through him he gave him a chance to get by there by the little slip up and it's been an impressive run already for boyer is now he is up to the third spot just in front of him the 95 of christopher bell parker guys let's take a look at our toyota driver update which is about chris rebel the highest running twitter right now what a great run from up 31 positions from where he started you know when christophel came into nascar he had zero road course experience he was very apprehensive going the road courses in xfinity but he methodically got better we got a car in the barry over here i think it's ty dillon off the racetrack spinning around over in turn six he slowly got off the radio he got off the racetrack real easily lightly hit the barrier we're in the grass yep definitely in the grass he's trying to back down the hill now and finds the caution has come out so there will be another restart he's going to get back here keep backing up keep backing up keep backing up keep backing up keep backing up if you can yeah this is the unused portion of the road course here that he's currently on be able to get some traction and get going there so ty dillon and that 13 team the team that came to pittsburgh first and put on right through here racing slicks early in this race showed great promise got out front was able to lead laps win stage one and now off track and back here in the 33rd position after working his way through the grass but now a restart so william byron christopher bell they are one and two clint boyer has worked his way up into position now and how aggressive how hungry will clint boyer be on this restart well the first decision is do they come to pit road um you know they're outside their fuel window that we expect currently 45 laps to go they pit with 44 laps to go we think the window is 35-37 some teams told me 39 maybe 40. so four laps five laps short and a race that statistically is filled with yellows i think you have to pit here i i think you cannot stay on the racetrack here and assume everybody has to pit again i think guys like clint boyer like kyle busch they can run out of gas i mean it's victory lane or bus for these cars so i would pit here fill it up with fuel if those yellows continue to come as we have reported they have in the past you then start to save gas so at this point i think this is a major moment in the time well guys tuesday night at 9 00 p.m eastern the playoffs begin for the e nascar coca-cola i racing series right here from the charlotte roble road course some of the best i racers in the country are competing they're going to start battling to be crown champion log on to enaskar.com for complete coverage i'll be on the coverage tuesday at nine unbelievable what these guys do in the sim world racing for a hundred thousand dollars steve you mentioned clint boyer and whether to pit or not one thing if they do pit they're gonna have to do better than they've been doing they've got to have a better pit stop they've lost spots almost every pit stop so if you do come on pit road they got to execute and so the one car that i think absolutely had to be on pit road was clint boyer and he stays on the racetrack dylan kurt busch working his way up through the top five he'll hit his marks just reporting that the car is a little bit loose in the left hand corners four tires and fuel going to pull a windshield tear off as well austin dillon working his way back forward as well keep in mind his first road course start of the year he missed the daytona road course due to covid's symptoms chassis adjustment for tires and fuel dave crew chief jeremy bellins told brad keselowski driver of the black number two i think it's the right move to pit right here brad said the rear end of the car feels a little bit squishy but they made a change for that meanwhile chase elliott on put road two got four tires send it back out [Music] so ty dillon winner of stage one this is how he was off track and into the barrier it's a wet range track here at charlotte rove at least the grass [Music] so [Music] so [Music] lost speedway is a peacock original documentary series hosted by myself matthew dilner who go all over the country looking for these lost race tracks in all the communities across the country and what they meant to those communities we uncover some amazing stories all episodes streaming for free sign up at peacock tv.com and peacock is now available on roku i am a customer great service here peacock uh here lost speedway's doing really good and i'm sure that uh the guys that are back at the nbc sports charlotte studio uh probably have enjoyed some of those race tracks maybe actually driven on some of those lost speedway well maybe not that old dj kp you guys probably are not that old right no we resemble that remark very much so most of them as a matter of fact probably kp uh but yeah and you know the racing today uh where are all the playoff drivers i think that uh that's been the surprise to me to this point uh to see so many others up front but i think kp that will change uh as we get down to time to win this race playoff drivers come back towards the front here yeah it was exciting that first stage to see timmy hill and some of those guys in the top five or six but when we got down to the second stage you saw the usual suspects we saw joey logano we saw alex bowman those guys that needed stage points stay out and get those stage points and give up that track position stage points were critical for those guys to move forward so uh it's been pretty exciting the aggression got a little more when the track dried out these guys know how to drive on a dry track and i can't wait obviously you guys will be busy for the nascar america post race show right after this race on nbcsn breaking it down as we'll look forward to the round of eights and those that get eliminated out of this round of 12. dylan rick we were talking about maybe expecting clint boyer to come down on that section of pit road but they were about 10 laps short on fuel so johnny klosmeier said let's keep our track position i don't think we're going to be able to save that much even if we do get some yellow so they opted to stay out here just keep their track position but obviously gonna have to come down again but will the cautions or will the race cycle into their favor that remains to be seen dave in the favor of the nine was the fact that they pitted they had the option not to but you certainly don't know what the tires looked like till you pull them off of the race car when they pulled all four off put them by hemp at wall they said uh chase kind of glad we pitted we had a right front delaminating not sure what you can do to control that was it your fault to begin with just be aware lucky break for the nine for sure and that 14 you know i thought they had to come to pitt road and risk it now 10 laps is definitely the worst fuel mileage that i've heard from anybody on pit road so they obviously know their number this is their best chance i just feel when you look at the guys at the left that pit at 65 even if they do come again they're going to have a much shorter stop if they do choose but i think some guys are going to gamble 42 laps remaining in this race do you think we will see rain again as the radar it started the clouds are kind of coming back in the radar shows the possibility getting ready for the restart christopher bell william byron is on the outside race leader [Music] boy you're underneath bell bell got into one the car didn't stick or you're trying to take advantage of it he'll take second away as they go to turn three clint boyer having to win to advance to the next round and he's up to second there's a lot of pressure coming your way william byrne there's a guy behind you that needs a win if you look at the points if clint gets into the lead puts himself in position to win and wins this race the battle between legano bowman gets really tight tricks junior as well man look ahead set him up on you from here be the man no pressure spot of brent trying to pump his driver up cheerleading really important for the spotters as well he said no pressure too by the way and you believe that when the guy tells you no pressure you know there's only 42 laps to go and your playoff hopes are on the line well no pressure is just no one's right on your rear bumper you know it's not that pressure yeah yeah that is a reference to that pressure because crystal rebels not right on him what that is telling you is you don't even have to look in the mirror just pay attention to what's in front of you william byron has decided that the smaller he can make clint look in the mirror better off he is he's driven off from him christopher bell staying right with that 14. also look at the 48 jimmy johnson up here as i look down by the pit road and the pit boxes there's a giant sign that says thank you jimmy 48 12 wins at this racetrack and right now jimmy johnson also looking for a win here in his final full-time season in nascar yeah ryan he's going to be able to get the run on him down here into turn five jimmy's gonna give that spot up as they head to turn six up the hill now jimmy's got some company with the one car kurt busch right on his bumper down into the left-hander seven turn eight here back up onto the old nascar oval kurtz had a great car today good speeding at one maybe a sleeper uh for the championship title this year already advance with a big win to start this round so he'll be in the round of eight with denny hamlin force harvick with points has advanced locked his spot in chase elliott at 62 points really is pretty much a guarantee to advance i mentioned here's chase back here yeah i was gonna say that too i was gonna bring up dale i mentioned that the nine and he had a tall order to try to win from the back after that loose wheel he had a bit of extra time for but he came to pit road this time and that nine car is up through the field is now watching yellow oh free of austin dillon man he got spun into or i guess passed yeah before they were getting into the chicane yeah it looks like they've tire marched and judged by the tire marks made a little bit of contact with the outside wall we had damage we confirmed damage all right steve you mentioned some cautions as you see the damage to the left front there of the three of austin dillon again another driver that's below that cut-off line yeah rick i'm sorry to interrupt you i was just thinking that the bigger damage i see is it doesn't seem to want to get put in here it won't roll let's watch right here kyle clips the right rear quarter panel turns him into the outside wall let's see right here no i mean not the heaviest damage but i wonder if it broke something out so we're waiting to see if we just blew all the tires out yeah he is moving now he's moving down he can't get to even get to pit road he's pulled his car over yeah no inner liners here at the road course so when a tire goes flat you are on the rim that's two drivers right there that were below the cut line that that incident happens between the 18 and the three and their names in red down on the tracker looked like four lug nuts tight looked like that's what it looks like if this was 1989 the three team would be out there changing the tires [Laughter] it's gonna run right across the turf yeah the flying aces will be out there with the jack in hand so austin does have an opportunity to maybe you know where he's hit it he's put it on the back side of the start finish line so he would have if he comes on pit road he'd have to go backwards down pit road to get to his pit stall it's a difficult situation surely can't push him all the way around the racetrack no remember though also that that's turf so it's not the grass and so i believe they are going to try to make the hard left turn right here and stay on the quarter mile rick's wedge could tear it up it would definitely be sporadic that's for sure we'll be back with more from charlotte foreign so so right now [Music] here welcome back to the robot take a listen alex bowman just said when this caution came out a lot of you guys don't feel very good you don't no i'm like about to start throwing up it's all good though all right yeah that's usually about the time we get good so we got the 40 to go right now you'll be fine anxiety me on the cut line i can tell though you would get some good news he's 30 points to the good as we see the leaders all coming down pit road including chris travell out of the top three there the team came on the radio just before this and told them you're as good as that 24 car if we can get ahead of them we can hold them off clint boyer in in the middle of your screen fuel going in the left side of the car right side goodyear's going on clint said the car is just really really free right now that's his only complaint inside the cockpit right sides only dave on your screen william byron will give up the lead for what should be his final pit stop of the race a lot of fuel only one of the guys that took tires will be brad keselowski thought he flat spotted him at that last caution see curt bush grabbing a couple spots there wouldn't race off a pit road win and you advance that's really what clint boyer is facing right now he's got to get to victory lane [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] might be a little bit of confusion as far as how the restart is going to take place for the bank of america rover 400 nascar cup series playoffs here on nbc it looks like they've got it figured out when they're going into that chicane on the back stretch they were three wide that normally means that they're not sure exactly if everyone is in the right position but it's two by two now and out front ryan blaney ricky stenhouse jr here in the front row look at clint boyer way back there in 18th came in second everybody that did pit only put fuel in lost all those spots into the restart zone and blaney fires out of there right behind him ryan priest in the 37 with a great restart and tagged the 47 goes around ricky stenhouse jr got hit by bubba wallace right there stay right there hold on hold on there's a lot of contact heading down into turn one for various cars go through the water they're a little bit slick i think the 14 to clint moore as well i don't know if he was just in the water or what he's losing a bunch of spots on the infield portion we'll have to get an update on him brother's here there's the 14 cars keep going by him i can't tell if he has a flat left front or just a lot of damage on the nose yeah bro oh dammit such a great race car dylan and you can see the nose where the hood is kind of caved in so he said they're broke whatever the issue is it's smoke trailing out the back of the race car so don't know if it's something internally or what but it's uh it's not good for the 14. so you could see the nose damage and i can imagine it was pushing even farther at one spot so maybe it hit the front of the engine the radiator the power steering pump uh some sort of definite damage it's hard to see with all the different darkness and all but it's definitely trailing some smoke let's take a look at the restart once again and the issue between the 47 and 43 on the restart oh wallace drives way up underneath everybody just no way ricky stenhouse could assume he was there probably in way too deep boyer stays on the racetrack all the 12 cars delaney around sideways leader right matt kansas barely missing remember blaine was leading this race and all the water you see james davidson with 53 gets sideways blaney was the race leader and got spun around [Music] just gets wide off the race track into the water here big trouble in well then he pushed a lot of water back out under the racetrack oh man he was trying to stay in the gas to keep from getting stuck [Music] while we were watching clint bourne let's take a look there's clint right there kind of the bottom of your screen oh they just get stacked up when the 47 spins out he hits the back of the two car so now out front is ryan price dylan rick was texting with him earlier today just about what is at stake for these guys today it's another opportunity event keep in mind too it's been a really good couple of weeks two top tens in the last three races ryan said sky's the limit today just minimal mistakes on my part let the race come to me and we'll see what happens well that's what he's doing right now he let the race come to him leader drives off the track now he's out front too so long way to go still 35 laps but good runs continue for 30 the 37 and ryan priests and they need they need a good run guys it's just not been the year the 37's wanted uh we saw the 47 up there earlier so apparently the jtg it's a pretty good road course cars as we see ryan blaney come to pit road after that trip through the mud ryan freeze has finished top 10 in two of the last three races of this season so they've been doing well lately a really tough start of the year but they've started to put it together cabo's trying to work his way through the pack here just got by bubba wallace this is pass new damage as well sport [Music] m m's number 18 car down in the corner pushing his teammate a little damage to the nose i think he's gonna be okay though and the 12 of ryan blaney he just got penalized for too fast exiting after that spin and coming to pit road and heard alex bowman say he wasn't feeling well you know what makes the driver feel the best he could possibly feel getting the lead leading the race right guys it's funny i actually ran into chris excuse me ryan priest this morning in the parking lot i didn't actually know it was him part of his bumper was hanging off the back and then about five minutes later we realized oh i know you his whole thing was this moment right here people weren't expecting this team to be able to put a race together and have a kind of shot here but i think that's what he loved that unknown of the robot and the race and how it can change everything so quickly love to see he's doing exactly what he told me this morning he wanted to do the 88 car talking about his him not feeling well it's he has really bad anxiety and uh that's that's tough to be in the race driver having worked with him for so many years it just kind of comes on and obviously he's in a high pressure situation right now and anytime he's under caution and allowed to think about that type of situation that he's in he kind of lets it get to him but once we get back to racing he just performs like there's no problem whatsoever it's kind of the most interesting thing about alex well it was a big week for him obviously this week when he was announced that he will take over for the 48 of jimmy johnson so big news there probably raising the anxiety level but you have to just think as he bears down on the 37 of priests 22 of agano right out off the rear bumper the 22 is that 20 of eric jones started last day he has got to be one of the last big pieces of the puzzle right we don't know where he's driving next year i've heard a lot of whispers and rumors nothing's been announced well a great run or a win has got to help his chances of landing a ride yeah chase briscoe in the xfinity series says every race is an audition for me that's really what eric jones is doing he's auditioning for these these team owners every race trying to put his best foot forward and there's some reports from the 20 that they're having some temperature issues you see the damage above the word camry the nose pushed down it usually cools below that but that area pushed down could have collapsed the duct work or the area in which the air travels into the radiator i think air is getting in the nose the question is is it getting all the way to the radiator we'll have to see if they can continue the duct work is unsealed underneath the grill looks fine from the outside yeah there you go [Music] with that update maybe one with clint boyer he still continues around the racetrack so he was talking about broken power steering correct and you would think okay are the belts thrown off the car or is it going to have a motor issue it looks like there's no temp issues with the car that the belts are intact and they may be able to if they get lucky here get a yellow come to pit road and try to get the power steering repaired [Music] he continues on the racetrack hoping for that caution to come out so under 32 laps to go out front right now is ryan preece the driver who his best career road course finish is 21st here last year but a lot of pressure from the 88 alex bowman taking a peek just to the inside there a priest can't make the move i feel like alex is a little bit quicker right now putting a lot of pressure on priests alex wanting a solid day in the point so he's got to be careful not to push the issue too much get himself in an accident yeah i think if he was in a muslim situation he would definitely try to make a pass there going into turn five but he's taking his time here trying to get the proper run on this 37 car of priests and it's a good opportunity for him right here he's got positive momentum going into the into this chicane can he outbreak priests doesn't even poke his nose out to show it to him he's very conservative don't get too conservative though back there sagano we know he won't be kind of the same situation points wise as well to to where he can't take too many risk either he had to keep that pencil machine on the racetrack in the top five for a it's going to be hard to believe but the 18 car just ran his fastest lap of the race junior back there in six so even with all the damage on this 18 we saw a flat tire in the left front this lead group has stacked them up the 37 to your point jeff is definitely not as fast as these guys and the inability of the 88 to go by has stacked up the leaders that's great for kyle bush because he's not letting the leaders get away from him as he's going to have to try to pick through these guys i imagine his teammate that he gets to first in the 20 car here eric jones probably won't racing too hard and it allows him to close in further on the next few guys try to get up there and take the lead of this race get into the next round of the playoffs 37 is good where it matters which is into the straightaways where the breaking zones the passing zones are but if he looks in the mirror and he sees more and more and more cars can't feel good about that he's going to start pushing himself further into the braking zone start making those mistakes leave the door open for alex bowman to get by there's the gap the top six ball right there on your screen see the eminem's toyota go to the inside of his teammate here eric's gonna get out of the way moves up to fifth [Music] so the top five has four playoff drivers and race leader ryan preece alex is in a good position here try something in the breaking zone if he wants to dallas just being really safe he is but yeah what point do you have to start to try to go ahead and take this position because he's obviously faster and he's got to be able to get information from behind the 18 cars coming ryan priest has the 80 of alex bowman all over him if the pass is made you're not going to miss a thing it's nascar nonstop so [Music] um ryan preece able to hold him off still three tenths of a second gap between the top two alex bowman continues to fight even with a little bit of a damaged car alex has got some company though that napa chevrolet chase elliot's closed in chase has gotten around joe logano how hard will that teammate of alex's push him alex can get right up close to priests had a little issue there and for the lead how hard does alex push it they're side by side bowman trying to take the top spot away he will chase could have went three wide there he cut his teammate a break down to turn six alex is offline chase to the inside alex has a preferred line here down in turn seven and turn eight he'll be on the inside chase is gonna stay on the outside here fight hard they're lucky to lie behind him side by side or that would have slowed them up enough where they could have made got a big run on him let's see if kyle bush could take advantage of that where's kyle going to go he's going to go with joy try to outbreak both of them go three wide here kyle push is not out of this guys when and you advance and there's still 28 laps to go [Music] let's listen into the radio she's good off fuel he's better than us but he's not good copy that was radio from the 88 you see on the left-hand side of your screen the 88 last on pit road to last 65 chase elliott at laps 71. so greg eyes tells alex bowman that he's better than us but not good well if the ace is not good from 71 and alex bowman from 65 can't think they're going to make it so we'll see if chase elliott feels he can stretch the tank joey loganos on the same pitch strategy kyle bush atlanta 65 truex so not only do we have some battling differences on speed but drivers also some fuel window differences with 27 laps to go yeah the anxiety in inside that 88 car just shot through the roof when he heard that well if you're chase you know it's your job now to push push as hard as you can right you have six laps to the good push the pace make everybody run harder than they want to run to burn more fuel chase is just so dominant on the short on the road courses over the last couple of years not the guy you want to see in your mirror even if he is your teammate chase kind of just kind of effortlessly closes in pounds the mirror 88 every time he goes through a corner goes through the chicane he looks up did i drive away did i pull away nope chase still there if you want that anxiety to grow even more in that 88 if he can look out of that mirror and see that yellow car in fourth he could see him back there that is where the anxiety is kyle's slinging it up there in the water well as good as chase elliott and the nine has been at the road courses his numbers are great the guy that's always in the picture right there behind this group the 19 of martin truex jr he's gonna make a pass or tries to make a pass on the 20. i bring him up because his lap time the last three or four laps have been some of the best in the field with 26 to go i'd be shocked if he doesn't join these leaders the nine of chase elliot you mentioned his numbers are great the last three road courses he's won and so looking to stay perfect oh and around the 88 he goes he'll take the lead here at charlotte i think alex just had enough of that pressure went wide there to allow the knight to go by alex is just trying to settle in to a comfortable pace doesn't have enough speed to hold off this nine car chase elliot there you see it i'm okay with that understand your agenda right the 88 says listen i'd love to win but i can't wreck i can't make a mistake here and give these points back up especially with the 18 just behind him so that's a great point rick so if he feels like he can hold off the nine allow the nine to get gone that stops the 18 from winning the race let that car take off maybe that's the better play for this 88 car yeah leaning on the strength of your teammate [Music] right along here with kyle busch show you how difficult this row course is using all the curves for that front stretch chicane driving into turn one [Music] this is where we see so much trouble on restarts not just part of the racetrack it's really interesting how it goes downhill then uphill then back downhill see all that water on the right side of the race left side of the racetrack there everybody trying to stay on the right side of that even on the exit of that short on corner we'll worry about that a little later i like that we're gonna worry about that when it happens well you know what steve what what that is though is don't even try to save right we're so far away i don't think we can save it from here he wasn't telling him to save he said we'll worry about that later dave and of course jeff that's because he hopes the caution comes out from somewhere else and they can save some fuel that way but think about what kyle bush has done today from the back to the front from the back to the front the factor of having a driver like kyle bush is so fascinating to a crew chief like adam stevens he said that's really the difference at a track like this this is a driver's track and when you have a guy like kyle you know you've got a chance one of the best in the business so many wins in his career the reigning champion trying to hang on today as he drives toward the front well you know we're going to worry about fuel later with 25 laps to go i think there's a lot to worry about later the rain is getting closer it's reached those rings right there so 25 laps the rain could get here and i've been in discussion with nascar because this race started under the wet condition if we get rain that will not create a yellow only an accident will create a yellow so if you drive down to turn three and it's in the wet and you don't slide off track it's the team's responsibility to decide when they want to switch back to the wet so you know fuel mileage playoff hopes fast cars slow cars debris on the racetrack apparently all kinds of things these teams are going to have to manage i got you something else to worry about steve look at the playoff points look at logano and bowman they're separated by one point if kyle bush wins this race legato and bowman are in a race for that last spot separated by only one point and they can see each other so who knows what's going to happen in this race we talked about it how the role changes so much well here we are with 24 to go a lot on the line and look how close everybody is and what about that debris when does nascar say that they need to call a caution how about right now rick so the 51 picked up a little bit of that that's josh malicki behind the wheel of the 51. [Music] oh man so they think see all this debris no choice but throw a caution there so steve if they come down pit road right here and they can make it from here they come down pit road i think advantage kyle bush his pit crew has been on fire all year long if his pit crew can get him out in front of a couple of these other guys he is in position to win this race i think the concern is um you hear you know what you don't hear right oh no oh goodness what has happened to the foreign tire barrier i thought i saw some smoke heading down into turn three not quite into that into that turn so this is right before turn three it's we're blocked from view because of those big bank of america banners but it was lots of smoke heading into that turn so jeff to circle back to your point now that i see this is a crew chief how long's this yellow going to be how much fuel can i save do i have to come i don't think all the drivers that pitted at 71 are going to come i think chase elliott is going to try to save gas so can kyle bush save enough from 65 i don't i don't know the answer do tires matter enough will the rain get here rick is really you know so there's a few questions what could possibly go wrong does kyle bush have a choice can he win if he pits i mean he's in a must-win situation can he win if he pits that i think is the answer i think the 18 has to stay on the racetrack because currently with 23 to go i think that is the pathway to a win yeah there's way too many people that came to pit road on lap 71 that potentially could stay out and if he does come to pit road there's just no way he could get by all of those cars i think adam stevens only plan is to stay out hope you get yellows hopefully you save gas hope your driver can find a little bit of speed to get by the nine in the 88. 34 cars on the lead lap so if you were to run out of fuel oh yeah oh my goodness you're going to have a terrible finish that may not matter to kyle we're going to say seconds is about as 34th to the right doesn't matter kyle bush but it does matter alex bowman joey logano and perhaps brad keselowski yeah i'm actually surprised that the 88 has put themselves in this situation trying to stretch it on fuel it wouldn't shock me to see them pit here um just to be safe right you they have oh what do they have 28 points to give not that you want to give up 28 points but you kind of go back there and hope other people have issues and hope you don't we saw adam stevens he was up on the pit box leaning back looking relaxed which you normally see adam stevens looking nothing really flaps him nothing gets him too worked up and he told us in a phone call earlier he said we set a number as far as how many points we think you need to be able to advance from each round his number was 120. well they've only scored 49 points this round so that's not even terrible you heard what he's just said uh steve what was he what was he saying right there here richard petty for sure oh me and code words we know the code richard petty wonder what that means i don't know hit seven times stay out oh now the trouble you have is everyone parker and alex bowman picks out a second place greg i said our plan was to go as far as we could then do a splash at the end but we're just going to put four tires and fill the full field and go as far as we can you know martin trex jr is in they were waiting to see what the 22 did felt like they were good on fuel but martin wanted tires they came down four tires in fuel dave dylan same story for chase elliott on the right he felt like 22 21 laps to go on tires was too far for the ones they had on but they were pretty used up so they came and got four and fuel keslowski as well four tires in fuel how does a good decision go bad what does everybody else do rick i love the call from kyle bush until the whole field pitted behind him 43 by the way code word for staying out that must be from darlington a few years ago when the king decided to stay out well last time kyle bush won was when he won the championship the cut-off race the nascar cup series playoffs on nbc bank of america roble 400 now just 21 laps remain aerial coverage brought to you by geico as the fields continuing to serpentine their way around this rovel and while they're doing that before we get the green flag let's go to run rick i love cliff notes i never read the whole book so i'm going to try to hit it real quick this is the trophy that someone's going to get for winning the robo kyle bush stayed out nobody else did also there's a championship on the line kyle bush has a shot at it if it doesn't rain and if it does rain steve told us that they're not gonna throw the caution it's on you you're bad did i get all that right rick i feel like that's pretty pretty much brings us up to speed right that's exactly what i heard cliff notes got me through my whole career in school so nothing wrong with that adam stevens again trying to look as calm as possible with kyle bush out and he has christopher bell denny hamlin behind him [Music] listening to the 88s of alex bowman here if they win or we just hosed or do we still have a chance even if he wins depending on what we do and other guys beat the 22 by four spots we're in no matter if the 18 wins or not stay focused on what we're doing we've got a good car we're in a good spot time for we're talking about those points on the left side the 88 and the 22 are right now on either side of the cut line parker well you heard it there sort of you know quelling the fears there of alex bowman a little bit as we go to this restart when you're put back in the field from being in second place and seeing that 18 go on to the lead and that's been a big theme throughout this entire race for the 88 team just constantly preaching patience patience patience to alex bowman that 88 car dave i don't know if kyle bush can have any kind of patience at this point they've got old tires on that car remember last pitted on lap 65 so that's asking 44 laps out of that driver out of that fuel tank out of those tires kyle busch has been known to drive an out of control race car very very well in the past remember he's a reigning champion we'll see what he can do here one thing i love about this choice though is i've always said you know put the chance in the star's hand the star is kyle busch dave just mentioned it trying to stretch his fuel tank from lap 65 bell and hamlet stayed on the racetrack as well eric jones was on right before the yellow came out blaney as well stayed out so chase elliot the first car with tires at lap 87 but like i said you know i've said this before as a crew chief it was always my role to give the platform to the driver to show their skills i think that's what adam stevens has done do they have the best car no do they have the best fuel no but you know hey this is their chance they know they have to win kyle busch is a two-time champ put it into his hands and see what he can do i love what they did with eric jones spitting on the green before that caution came around now he's sitting there essentially on brand new tires with a great chance to get the lead right here could take the lead and you look at right now the top four right here joe gibbs racing christopher bell is going to be there he'll be taking over the 20s ride you have denny hamlin and the 18 of kyle busch the restart from the rovel 20 laps to go chris revell did not get a wreath good restart oh he's gonna slide down in there made contact with the 20. yeah he's going to check up in front of chase elliot there that's going to allow the 18 car to get some distance and he's got two teammates kind of makes like three teammates in between him and the next cars you say that but how much will the 20 be fighting since he knows he's not coming back to joe gibbs racing he's looking out for himself for a ride next year fighting hard i would i wouldn't care about my teammate he's not a teammate next year i'm worried about myself [Music] kyle bush is out front eric jones running second and that car right there is alex bowman's best friend he's hoping that the speed this car has had the domination at all the road force races over the last several years he can drive up there and win this race and kyle busch could keep eric jones behind him for a few laps that's going to be really impressive eric with much better tires they need to tell alex bowman as well as joey logano what that situation is that kyle has older tires and may run out of fuel be careful not to push too hard right here get yourself in trouble eric jones really hammering the curb that she came [Music] he is pushing hard trying to get to the back of this 18 car see how much better he is on that part of the racetrack where there's less grip those new tires really helping him he's right to the bumper of this 18 car now looking to the inside here heading down the straightaway up to turn five i was going to put up a fight he can't give this up the season's on the line right here kyle's a little wide right there the reason eric jones is even in this car is because of the driver of the 18. and the 9 car is already to the back bumper the 18 to the side now to the inside for a pass for second place chase carving through this field eric jones out front now it was a snowball derby quite a few years ago where eric jones beat kyle bush in that race and kyle bush said you know what this kid's talented he needs to be behind the wheel of a stock car and the next thing you know he's running in the cup series and was a teammate to kyle bush but he's looking for another ride from 2021. alex bowman alex bowman and joey logano need to be told right now joey can see it right joey can see what's going on but that kyle bush no longer has the lead race [Music] smartly [Music] you see kyle bush 21 points below the cut line now that he's not leading the race chase is drawing in on the 20 car craftsman toyota he's going to go to the inside oh almost to the inside here [Music] big run right here the face is going to take a look nope it looks like jones is trying to block a little bit there oh look at this chase rolls up in there oh man surprised that jones gave him room there look at the oh the crossover move chase's car is really good and chase is really good all right take care of it here at the line 17 to go one goes by people at this racetrack where there is no places to pass makes places to pass and once again out front of the road course it's chase elliot dave and rick we've been talking about just how good chase elliot is on the road courses and just how good he is here at the robot how about alan gustafsson understanding what he needs behind the wheel and building him a race car that can do this time in and time out if he wins today it'll be four in a row on the road courses that will tie jeff gordon for the record of four in a row jg one of the best of all time on the road courses and chase elliott starting to look a lot that way i spoke to alan this morning about you know the rain and the weather and the conditions and what do you do and he said you know this style setup we run i don't know if if i could change anything for the rain it's going to be up to chase to kind of get us through the wet if we do get to the dry as we see john hunter nemechek and spun around here on the front stretch chicane and he had some contact yeah allen said that you know they're confident in their car if the track drives up he had no idea what to expect in the rain but he wasn't going to worry about it he put a little extra time and making sure the radios were protected that's what he learned from the xfinity series race that communication was perhaps the biggest issue shows that he knows what he's talking about and the confidence he has in his driver allen has continued to tell us risk versus reward he plays that at every single track that they go to 48 has some with stenhouse here and then gray golding and the 38 great gray's had a great run today in that 27 car stinthouse and jimmy johnson they keep finding themselves on the racetrack don't they yeah had some contact multiple times in bristol said i've had enough of the issue right behind him pretty impressed with denny hamlin to be able to hang on in position with this 11 car look at the on the damage corners of that machine he's got some decent pace right here late in the race fedex toyota because he's just ahead of 12 car ryan blaney did he close it in on the 22 car joe logano here joey's trying to get around this eminem's toyota that kyle bush kyle holding on with those older tires i feel like joey's being real patient right here want to make sure no contact don't want to make the driver of that car mad because you're in a vulnerable position if you do just give me a reason is what kyle says when i go by just give me a reason i'll be really clean with him [Music] very downshifting how violent it is outside of him right here yeah oh decided not to [Music] joey's gonna go to the inside here in the breaking zone and a very clean pass i think everyone kind of holds their collective breath there when the 22 and the 18 are near each other so legato has moved up he's in fourth everyone's still chasing after elliott out front [Music] let's take a look at that car here let's restart contact right there with christopher bell he tries to crossover move here easily gets by jones for the lead [Music] it is amazing you said it junior how he passes cars on this racetrack he just looks like he's just in another world as far as the speed that he has but you know he's the only hendrick driver that can do it right all their cars are pretty good but chase elliot's road course ability it is gone through the roof [Music] pretty impressive company that chase elliott's a part of right now it can be on his own if he's able to get this win here to put it to four in a row but he still has a little more to get up to jeff gordon who put six of them together yeah i was a part of those teams for jeff gordon i'm tell you never walked into a racetrack with more confidence and when you went to the road course with jeff and let's talk about air pressure springs shock set up all you want you knew you were going to be good you see the little bit of smoke out of the 48 of jimmy johnson he had just come to pit road i was on the other side of that steve racing against jeff gordon road forces and he never went into a racetrack with less confidence [Laughter] parker well jeff a driver that might be having a lot of confidence as of late is eric jones i know we've talked about his search for a job but since missing the playoffs they haven't finished outside the top eight aside from richmond they've been one of the best cars in the playoffs in average finish unfortunately not really racing for much in that sense but i spoke to chris gail said it's been a sense of pride for this team to be able to go out there and get those runs because each and every one of them is trying to prove what they can do it's not just that driver behind the wheel but that's that entire team trying to prove that they are a champion team as we head towards next year parker right behind him in the one car is kurt busch continuing another strong road course run keep in mind they won las vegas so came into today with no pressure but matt mccall said hey we still want to win you can never have too many points so that's been their motivation from the start of today keep in mind too next round of the playoffs really really good for them really strong on the mile and a half this year kurtz won at martinsville as well which ends the next round so things are looking up and as they continue to have another good run here they're putting themselves in position to maybe sneak by and grab another victory here [Music] [Music] mark 2x junior came through the front chicane let's see if he makes it or not a lot of wheel hop wow look at that blue turtle how violent that is did he come to a stop i don't think he missed it yeah i don't think he missed it the right side tires i think were on the red and white all the way through from that side of the car i'd have to see it from the other side to be sure it's close we haven't heard anything from nascar right i would say they must have looked at it i mean the rule is so let's um let's explain the rule the rule is it's considered missing the corner if all four tires get to the non-race racetrack side of the red and white curving it's not the blue curve against the red and white curving it looked like his right side tires as he was jumping over the turtle state touching or at least in proximity to they might have been above let's take another look at it huh yeah see i don't know if his right side tires are indeed on that it's so hard to tell it's close yeah i'd have to see it from the other side for sure as now we have the 15 rolling to a stop maybe brenner pool is slow on the racetrack and if he can't continue on caution may have to come out here if i'm in the back half the field i'm pitting right now oh it's too late oh todd dillon tried he tried to get on pit road and i think he was i think todd was there he he crossed he crossed the commitment cone chase elliot didn't want to see that so another restart will be in front of alan gustafson and chase elliott [Music] so we've seen the 19 from a couple different angles we'll see right here if the right sides i think it might be close to the inside curving i mean from that angle i'm not willing to penalize him he lost time um you know if i had a more defined look maybe not but i'm gonna give the tie to the runner like they do in baseball i'm gonna give the tie to the driver in that situation no call by nascar is saying the same thing so chase elliott out front and steve we won't see anyone come to pit road here up front uh well you know kyle busch can he win from fifth i don't think tires would help him at this point i think his only chance to stay out somebody may gamble though 12 to go here at the roble so [Music] parker you see kevin harvick pulling away they were watching that 15 as he was coming to a stop deciding what to do and eventually the caution came out they pit it dave two-car as well four tires that'll help brad keselowski a little more and the eleven of denny hamlin on pit road as well still not happy the way that left front fender is treating those left front tires on the road [Music] well denny hamilton even with that damage knows that next week he's still in the hunt for the championship and it will be the first opportunity kansas to lock up a spot in the championship four that's next sunday 2 30 eastern on nbc and again after today's race make sure to tune to nbcsn for nascar america post race show kp dj krista will take you through all of the exciting things that we have seen today history being made started on rain tires here at the rovel switched over the earliest one to do that was ty dillon it paid off for him until they decided to pit a little bit earlier than was expected pushed him back a little bit now it's chase elliot who is out front we talked about cars that tried to get on pit road knowing brendan poole wasn't gonna make it back and there he is you can see it's pit road is closed ty dillon tried to get on but he had already gotten on the other side of the commitment line so pulling out right there is a commitment line violation so he will have to start at the back and you know you mentioned ty dillon what a good start to this race today he was so fast early in the race on rain tires he was really quick and then he lost a track position and was never able to get it back well turned one in the past we have seen cause problems this is what it looked like first year brad keselowski drove it right in and everyone followed him this is one of the strangest things i've ever seen in a racetrack it's important to note that on these restarts last year he just drove her down in big contact remember his comment after this happened i can't believe i did that yeah he's so embarrassed then he drove through the field but remember these cars are going faster entering turn one after restart than any other time because they don't use the front straightaway chicane that's why they misjudge it so badly they're gonna try it again they'll head through tom's heartburn turn and once again it's chase elliot that's out front gets through clean but he has eric jones to his inside fighting for that top spot still a little wet down here especially on that outside groove for these guys eric jones kurt busch let's allow joey logano to get into second place his teammate ryan blaney trying to get on the inside of jones here amazing recovery by blainey we saw him spinning through the mud earlier oh he's a little loose right there menards forward gets a little sideways turns seven and eight kurt bush in the monster chevrolet he's done a really awesome job today great speed in this car for the fourth spot now as kurt busch looks to the inside we'll see if he can out break that 12. he does uh a little bit of tire lock up there he pays a little price there smoking the right front tire [Music] really good pass ladies have a lot of speed today coming up on nine laps to go laney running in the fifth position chasing after that one of kurt busch [Music] year one running at the roble blaney was in the right place at the right time when mark tricks jr and jimmy johnson were diving into that final chicane and contact was made ryan blaney took advantage of it as those two spun blaney went on to win the race such a great shot right there be able to show you how the track still is wet in some locations even after all this time it's amazing how far we've come if it was five or eight years ago we'd still be trying to find a way to get that seeping of water to dry up jeff we would never be under green yeah exactly nascar's use of these rain tires on road courses really changes the game no surprise up front with chase elliott nap chevrolet checking out park tricks junior's closing in on this 12 car though delaney had a little struggle here he was a car that was dominating earlier in the race and a little bit off base and kyle busch behind him just can't keep pace with those older tires no choice but to stay out hope for some chaos and some mayhem and hopefully take advantage of it dylan i just wanted to quickly update those two cards you see on your screen the 3 and the 14 as it gets a little tight through the front stretch chicane both of them of course came into today battling for a playoff spot for clint foyer had one of the fastest cars on the racetrack and then had that contact on the racetrack a slow pit stop relegated into the back but they have not quit fighting he's marched his way through the field without power steering or with power steering issues for a majority of the middle part of this race he now runs just inside the top 15 and then austin dillon in front of him keep in mind with him too this is his first road course start of the year so he spent the first part of the race really just kind of trying to get reactivated to how you have to race a road course so that put them behind just a little bit and it seems like really for these guys it's just kind of too little too late at this point parker right dylan it's the same case for eric almerol who put a ton of emphasis and work into coming into this role he was doing similar work in the rain trying to just do anything he could to get better here this group knew this would be the hardest round for them these three tracks were just not a good set of tracks the next round they thought they could just make it through this one would be their set of tracks but they have not been able to do that they got spun out at one time when a lap down got the free pass and now find themselves trying to get into the top ten but it's gonna be too little too late as you said oh we got a car spinning around the back straightaway chicane michael mcdowell's around facing oncoming traffic looks like everybody gets through as michael gets his car turned around he's rolling once again i think this dominance by chase elliot with seven laps to go rick has only got to really push these other teams to try to find something to develop and answer at the road courses remember next year's schedule's been released six road courses on the schedule again goes backwards again not sure what's going on with the 34 car but as i was thinking [Music] let's bring out a light yellow here yes can't get this car moving he's in a precarious we're going to get it here that's carson trying to give him all the time he can he finally gets to refire turned around here still struggling to get the car rided yeah no cars coming though so he's able to keep going and we stay green you talked about this one on the back stretch junior yeah here's the issue here getting down in the corner looks like looks like he got in there just hot didn't seem to be turned around there by anybody here he is coming back around the front straightaway just shortly after that i think he just got in the water there off to the driver's right tracks still sleeping water down the racetrack across the groove six laps to go and steve you were talking about six road course [Music] road courses on the schedule for 2021 yeah a few new looks we're gonna get to go to austin austin and see the code of track down there circuit of america's sonoma which we've seen before road america the xfinity cars have been there watkins glen we saw the indy road course this year that was a fun road course and then here at the rovel so i mean when you look at that right i mean that has got to play a hand for someone like chase elliot you know the cup cars have never been on the road course in indianapolis no stock car that i know of other than maybe a practice has been a coda we haven't seen cup and road america so a company and a team and an organization that has so much confidence without a lot of prep without a lot of testing they have to be the favorites already going into those races think about how many years it has been that there's been either two or just recently three with the addition of the charlotte roble only two or three road course races the entire year and now you've doubled that there's now six in 2021 and i'm good with it i think the xfinity's always had more road quartzes uh you know six out of 36 seems like a good percentage to me we've seen how entertaining these could be for the fans and to be honest we talk about jeff gordon's numbers he was one of the early drivers that really took to road coursing and jeff would you say just said i'm gonna be good at this and he put the effort in and it paid off for him all of these drivers now you can't say hey nascar is an oval track game and i'm only gonna worry about the oval track there's too many six road course races next year will force all of these drivers to change their preparation and how they get ready for these road forces there was a time in the sport where it was two of 36 or two of 32 races right and you know every race paid the same amount of points but now that you have now you have races within the playoffs and every race matters more than it's ever matter you see blaney over the racetrack you know every race matters more than it ever has you have to be good at them and now there's six of them so you have to put effort into it and i think we've talked about it several times i think that that favors some younger drivers also that will have a chance to fill some seats some younger drivers that are in the xfinity series you know we talked about we know austin cendrick we know he's going to move up in 2022 but gonna run a few races next year briscoe has been a good road racer does that schedule make it easier for them to get rides and you know jeff i thought one further i have not heard any of these rumors or conversations but if i'm a team owner do i look back at someone like aj almendinger who won the xfinity race yesterday he has so much success he's driving next year at the rolex he has won in the xfinity series this year not just on an oval in atlanta but a road course yesterday and that heavy rain shower does that make his stock go up enough where he gets another shot at one of these teams you know at six races with aj omendinger i think you can go into thinking we could win here sure six races i would even add the speedways so now that's 10 of the 36 races that aj omender has to be considered a threat to win well we're talking a lot about road courses and what's going to happen in the future but right now the best on-road courses is out front and really schooling the field 2.2 seconds back to joey logano who's second yeah chase snapping chevrolet he's on cruise control up turn six here right there tight on the curb downhill into turn seven and eight that's where he passed for the lead eric jones gets the drive off low under the oval here he said he's in cruise control keep this in mind nothing to gain by making better lap time right now because he got such a gap and still about three and a half four tenths of laps better than his closest competition so chase elliott is just playing it simple faster than the rest of the field doing a great job again here [Music] jeff you talked about how the lead has changed in the last six laps here at the robo both times and it's because of late race chaos and late race restarts and look right here this is brad kozlowski getting into the back stretch chicane he's going to hit the turtles my goodness goes straight and then correct and gets sideways everybody got through there without a problem but i think that's the bigger fear for chase elliot as you point out great driving race car with three laps to go i'm pretty confident he can keep it between the lines but can everyone else has the laps countdown yeah right behind alex bowman there's a bunch of cars alex kind of struggling to keep pace and he's holding up a lot of cars and they are really bearing down on him in the braking zone william byron reddick boyer boyer trying to climb through the field it's not over definitely not over we have seen chaos at this racetrack yeah boyer's trying to crack the top top 10 here sitting in 12th right now he sees those positions in front of him he gets a few more spots and he's frustrated right he was frustrated he had a real shot to win this race having been a bad strategy in my opinion got him back in the field and if he can gain some spots right get in the top six or so and get a late race confession anything can happen gonna yell before the white comes out and he lines up on the third or fourth row i mean you just don't know what's gonna happen first turn well we do know he's not going to be racing next year and if he were to win this race he'd advance to the playoffs so why does he care if he makes somebody mad he can he can do whatever he wants he's got a hall pass and they have to deal with him next year he won this race after the announcement of retiring i'm not sure he'd make kansas [Laughter] well he's got a lot of ground he's going to have to catch up tricks junior's closing in on the one car for third place curt has missed the breaking zones of the last couple of corners has allowed martin to get right in right in the back bumper the 18 finally has to give up the ghost on the fuel strategy oh the six is around on the front straightaway chicane everybody gets through okay him out of smoke with newman yes straighten his back out newman's had a wild day he has had a wild day he's had enough oh he got it again yeah the 22 big con 27 excuse me made contact with him of great galding as he was trying to get by yeah newman's backwards over in turn one he's gonna get it turned around again and newman just turned down yeah like there was nobody there he's had a lot of problems on the racetrack and on pit road today a lot of penalties and issues frustrating frustrating day when things like that just keep piling on guys we talked about chase elliot and what this win is gonna do for momentum one thing we haven't talked about is the five playoff points that's gonna fill his bucket oh we got it back straight away back straight away one of kurt bush martin jr they're running third and fourth truex and the one went down in there side by side i think they both missed the entrance to the back straightaway chicane everybody's doing their best to cause late race caution there we go trixx gets loose he understands that the one's gonna try to compete with him in the breaking zone and they both got in there too deep martin broke loose first gets sideways into curt her just not wanting to give up the spot there won't be a restart the white flag was taken by chase elliott as he's in the infield part of the course now yeah i was mentioning rick those five playoff points will give him the fourth post so this win can't help him in the next round can't help his path to the championship for phoenix and that now is the goal for everyone everyone that's in the top eight in points now they're looking forward to the championship four how do they get there what do they do in the next three races they've got kansas texas martinsville in front of them to try to get to phoenix momentum is also a very big thing in racing and when you come off of something like what we're seeing chase elegant do it has to give him a nod as far as momentum on his side he has the best average running position of everybody in the playoffs rick so he is the hottest driver in the playoffs right now one of the youngest four road course wins in a row chase elliot's going to do it again at the roble great job great job awesome job appreciate it great job guys think about this on road courses his win percentage is 42 that is an unheard of number and shakes up we never panicked we stood to our gatekeeper a lot of damage to the 51 of the licking a right rear tire at speed in the banking there back the car around into the left side driver's side into the wall i think the other big story that comes from what just happened here the finish the defending series champion kyle busch is eliminated he will not have a shot at defending his title there's bellicky coming through what is nascar for explodes the right rear tire sends him up to the wall so the celebration will begin for chase elliott i mentioned kyle bush and now his focus which he said his focus this whole year has been on just getting to victory lane but that is going to take over his entire focus getting a win in 2020 keeping a streak alive that has gone for 15 years every year he has been in the cup series he has won a race he has not been able to win in 2020. [Music] coming in the playoff standings no one improved their position so kyle busch austin dillon clint boyer eric alvarola the four that were below the cut line they will be eliminated from the playoff contention and they will not advance into the round of eight there are the four the reset points at 4 000 and then all those playoff points and you guys mentioned the fact that chase elliott grabs another five playoff points those add into his bucket as we call it and he will take that into the next three races [Music] and he's one step closer to a [Music] [Applause] [Music] championship it's been an interesting season for this team they came into the year with a lot of speed in that chevrolet performing really well almost won a lot of races early on and then it became harvick and denny hamlin for the rest of the year and that's all we talked about now this team here seem at the peak at the right time i know it's a road course that's not where it's going to be settled for the title but it's got to build a lot of confidence [Music] steering wheel off we'll see chase elliott climb out and the dawsonville pool room is celebrating right alongside of chase elliot this time the car is not going to roll back [Music] that has happened before a year ago after he won here at the roble grab the checkered flag [Applause] you gotta chase sweatshirt there with the napa hat the chase elliot fans coming down to congratulate him there you go the fans here at charlotte motor speedway dave and he's celebrating with the fans that is the biggest part of this i think probably noise here that we haven't heard a lot this season but chase i think there's 37 drivers and 37 crew chiefs over on the other side here shaking their head going man how did he do it to us again how did you win again today on a road course uh well just had another really fast napa camaro and and really appreciate the effort you know i feel like we've uh road courses have been fortunate to us uh the last few trips but i feel like we we've just tried to get a little better every time and tweak on the small things felt like i tweaked on some small things and got a little better than what i was here last year which was good and i just really proudly ever appreciate everybody at hendrick chevrolet mountain dew kelly blue book unifirst uh all of our partners that um hooters that that you know make this deal go and it's always special to win here at charlotte with the shop being right you know right across the street so appreciate all the effort there uh best way to get the next round is to win so hopefully we can do something with it chase you tied jeff gordon for four road course victories in a row now how important was it for you and this team though to advance with a win and not just on points well that's always the goal you know and i feel like you you start playing the points game and and you can get yourself in trouble worrying about uh things that are just out of your hands so as much as you want to think about those things and want to worry about them you really just have to focus on you and i feel like we did a really good job of that today pit stops were great and you know allen called a good race got tires at the right time and and luckily uh you know things worked out and we'll we'll take it like i've always said man they're way too hard to get to get picky about when and where and how so uh just uh glad to be here and like i said hopefully we can do something with this next round no worries today there you go race fans your winner chase elliot all post race interviews are going to be on nbc sn nascar america post race show so make sure to tune in there to hear from all the drivers especially you're going to hear from kyle busch the guys who didn't make it into the playoffs we saw history here history was made they started on rain tires they had not done that since the 50s as far as a race for the cup series and it happened here at the rovel the rain stayed away after the green flag had come out although the track was difficult at the beginning and some found difficult at the end as well it was the end of the line for the 18 of kyle busch and his playoff hopes to win another championship again more post-race coverage coming up on nbcsn next on nbc it's your local news except on the west coast and later football night in america followed by the vikings seahawks on sunday night football chase elliott wins

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 110,380

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Id: hnDSyW2ighM

Length: 215min 21sec (12921 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 13 2020