Season Finale 500 from Phoenix Raceway: NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

a two-time champion certainly sounds a lot better than a one-time champion it comes down to just performing or not and either getting the job done or you don't i'm confident that i'm a championship caliber driver we're a playoff team we're a pressure team we'd love it [Music] [Music] things are rolling here here's the starting grid brought to you by usaa and here are the championship four drivers chase elliott number nine hendrick motorsport chevrolet joey logano 2018 nascar cup series champion brad keselowski 2012 cuff series champion denny hamlin number 11 joe gibbs racing toyota and again a reminder chase uh that car went through pre-race inspection failed twice so he will actually have to start at the back of the field that's big news for that championship four contender yeah big news and an uphill battle as we look through the grid other great stories clint moyer there row five making his final start he'll be out of a car full-time next year christopher bell back there in row nine moving to joe gibbs racing ty dillon back row 11 no news for ty dylan yet we're not sure what he'll be driving next year we saw bubba wallace's name on there he'll actually be driving for the new team form by denny hamlin and michael jordan uh 23-11 racing that will be out there on the track next year in 2021 we want to take a closer look at the championship four and we'll start with denny hamma he's a driver that was found by the late jd gibbs as a superstar late model driver on the short tracks in virginia 18 months later he was winning at the cup level we all have a friend like denny he's the most competitive person you know it doesn't matter if it's a board game a card game basketball pickup game or on the racetrack he has accomplished everything in this sport except a championship and he feels this is his best shot today well to win the championship he's going to have to outrun the 36 year old brad keselowski with 412 starts brad kozlowski comes from a racing family his brother was a driver his dad was a driver and growing up his family like many in racing struggled to find the funding for the best equipment his big break came back at 2007. he was tabbed as a substitute driver and during that race dale jr noticed that talent he carried that big break to junior motorsports then on to team penske where he delivered roger penske's first ever cup championship in 2012 brad has set him multiple times that people believe his first championship was a fluke but a second championship would validate that first one today is his chance to prove all those naysayers wrong crack his last teammate joey logano going for his second championship as well we know about his mental toughness for these moments he's built for this he doesn't apologize for how he gets his results he's learned some our lessons in his career from owners who've you know cast him out to driver after driver who he's had conflicts with on the racetrack and challenge his will at 30 years old he's only 30 years old in his 12th season in his sport he's primed to have some of the best years of his career as he goes after this second title chase elliott he is the sport's most popular driver son of a living legend comes into this race looking to add to the legacy of the elliott name by winning his first cup championship he's only 24 years old he is the youngest of the four contenders but he has an incredible race and background and those experiences they allow him to perform like a veteran looks like an old timer out there he's a no-nonsense driver take responsibility attitude and he's fortunate he drives rick kendrick to sports most popular and successful car owner he has a great opportunity but a ton of pressure on a driver on the front end of his career jeff i'm glad that you started by saying that he was 24 years old because when you mentioned he looked like an old timer out there i think people might have been a little confused but that's uh that experience that he brings so it's not just the drivers this is a team sport that means that the guys that go over the wall they're gonna have to do their job as well for more on the pit crews let's go to marty on denny halen's crew today is personal for kellen mills the jack man for denny hamlin for two reasons one he's from just down the road in mesa arizona played his college football at arizona state where he was a defensive end but it's also personal because in 2018 he was the gas man for joey logano and he was let go late in that season and missed out on legano's championship year he has since moved to hamlin's team where he is the jack man one of the best on pit road so today could come with his first title and maybe a little revenge as well dave yesterday brad keselowski's proof pitted austin cendrick to an xfinity series championship they're going two for two today including gas man andrew lackey he's 29 years old from casar north carolina and he goes 6-5 270. yeah he played some football at center thought he wanted a coach for a living after that but on his way to an exercise science degree he demonstrated some equipment at team penske got the tour and got hooked nine years later rick he's hoisting that 90 pound gas can week to week thanks dave you know there's eras in this sport they're defined by the drivers no one knows whose it will be when they first come in but it's very clear when they exit the sport the petty name is still synonymous with the sport and then earnhardt took over then along came a california kid that equaled the championship number but hood put his five in a row that sets him in a class of one jimmy johnson has humbly put up the most amazing numbers in the history of nascar today will end his era and we want to thank jimmy for sharing his talents with all of us a career definitely defined by class and he is in front of the field right now and those here at phoenix raceway are able to pay their respects to one of the greatest to ever get behind the wheel of a stock car he was good on the track and just as quality of a person off the track great teammate always willing to be there with an answer to a question anything you needed to try to help yourself go fast one of the things i loved about jimmy is when you had success he celebrated you and and this is one of the men who's been more celebrated than anybody in this sport in many years always willing to get the middle of celebrating someone else's success i really appreciate that about him nine is dropping to the back now the field two by two 312 laps to determine a champion now up front it's two penske drivers the number two of brad keselowski has a championship the number 22. joey logano has a championship they're looking for the second coming to the green flag the championships underway in the desert [Music] legano up front keslowski second denny hamlin third [Music] first non-championship driver in the 12 ryan blaney and kurt busch back there in fifth and already yep here comes denny and then he got a really good turn right in the middle of one and two this is where the pass is a bit tough this weekend this upper lane has been very good yeah it's interesting seeing everybody using the bottom of the racetrack early i think that they uh they know the speeds up there in that high groove not up there yet maybe a little bit of afraid to go there this track gets really dirty as it sits sitting out here in the desert may not trust that upper groove just yet used to continue to fight for that second spot hamlin trying the low line shorter distance around the track but the two of brad keselowski taking advantage of the traction compound the pj one that's been put up there it's a little bit darker up higher in turns one and two and three and four yeah they haven't been added any more of that to the racetrack each night they pretty much left it alone all weekend as the other series have kind of worn that away it's a dynamic thing the track is always changing continue to chase up the racetrack trying to find more and more grip as they wear it won't wear it all for today parker well in the show how drivers really focus on that pj-1 and that traction strip up there joe logano last night actually went out on the track after the xfinity race in his golf cart and put his hand on the track and sort of felt the grip level to understand exactly where that pj one was going and if it was going to keep that same grip that we saw in the xfinity race to just get that little bit extra info for the start of this race brad ran that high side to fend off denny hamlin back to the bottom though when he has the choice of the two lines he's back on the bottom of the racetrack great shot right here from the toyota cam see denny hammond doing work brad now to the high side denny as well you see brad was willing to push it further up there than denny was then he was not quite as high on the racetrack still they're building trust trying to find out what this track allows them to do they don't want to make a mistake early barney and jeff dell brought up a terrific point a moment ago how dynamic the track is it will change throughout this race talking to denny hamlin before the race they did not reapply that traction compound as you mentioned dale and he thinks that's going to drastically change how the race will play out in the spring race here as hamlin tries to get around keselowski they did not get many laps in this 11 car they wrecked early in the race denny told me i'm worried we might have missed some information by not getting the full race here in the spring and how it's going to change for that traction compound kelly i talked to alan gustaf on the number nine car about daily [Music] he said it was kind of a silly thing that caused them to fail inspection but he wasn't too too worried about starting in the back of the pack in fact he tried to look at the positive of it he said we're going to know how our car works and feels in traffic with those guys starting up front won't necessarily know so he said it could take us some time to get to the front but he's confident that there is more than enough time over these 312 left to do just that right now he's running in the 22nd position working his way up we've seen a pretty good battle here for second brad kozlowski got a little bit loose danny hamlin tried to take advantage of but still couldn't get around it no passing is difficult you have to have a very good car you have to find yourself in the right position another good look here for denny hamlin he's going to look left on brad keselowski we'll see if he straightens out the dog leg he doesn't he stays on the bank and one thing to keep in mind 10 laps into this race we're going to see a competition yellow because of no practice of qualifying around lap 30. nascar's been very consistent with that all year long so all of these drivers and teams know they are only racing for 20 more laps as denny hamlin slides it off the corner then he has so much more speed right in the middle of the corner really the first battle of championship contenders this thing has continued over and using that top lane but this time denny with much better ford momentum off the corner let's see what did he can do goes all the way to the bottom of the racetrack he's going to try to slide up the racetrack in front of brad here wow he got loose brad to the bottom crossover move then he had to get so much out of the gas there to save his car from wrecking gives that spot up maybe another one to the 12 car here of ryan blaney blaine he's going to have a hard time using that bottom now that denny's in the grip man that was awesome yeah what a slide by denny hamlin trying to do the slide job to get in front of the two but couldn't keep it yeah so let's go back and watch denny hamlin what he's trying to do here is go to the bottom of the racetrack overdrive the corner then slide up in front of brad keselowski but when he tried to do it he lost the back of the car had to slow the car down so much that allow brad to get by him that's the pass you're gonna have to try to make that pass today that's how it's gonna work if this top lane stays this good you're gonna have to make that work if you're ever gonna advance your position you're watching the nascar cup series championship this telecast presented by usaa [Music] nice cold coke and buckle up you're watching nascar on nbc big smiles normally on the face of joey logano and right now probably a big one up there because he has a two-second lead over teammates out of the same organization brad keselowski and then about three tenths of a second back to denny hamlin those three are still running one two three blaney and kurt busch rounding out the top five really the movement has been chase elliot how amazing he has been from the start of this race he's already up to 13. yeah plus 22 spots since the beginning of the race working himself closer to the top ten that comp yellow only ten laps away to think chase elliot can go from last to perhaps inside the top ten tells you what kind of car he has and for the ryan priests fans out there i hate to tell you this but a little contact with the wall forced him to pit road he's now two laps down riding along with chase elliot and chevy on board he just ran the third fastest lap of anybody on that lap so you're right the speed's there and he's doing all that in traffic trying to pass cars [Music] another thing he's doing is where he is on the racetrack i mean look out look out of his windshield with the chevrolet cam and everybody in front of him is running way up the racetrack chase elliott down here on the bottom i think there's some more speed in that car but committing to the bottom because that's what he's got to do he's going to pass him he's got to go where they aren't making good lap time on the bottom they all know they're getting a break here pretty soon the competition cautions you to mention that lap 30. and what chase has done here with this great race car is he's really let allen now relax on his pick calls you know if he made no gain allen might say well you know we're halfway through the stage maybe i gamble get a little track position on pit road but i think that chase has made such progress that now allen could not panic continue to make adjustments put four tires on this race car now allen knows his way around fancy he's one of your three times mark martin jeff gordon kyle busch three different drivers he would love to go four times with a different driver again chase elliott today [Music] i don't think that chase elliott and alan poo chief could ask any more of this first run than to pick up this many five i don't think that they ever would have thought they could get this many this early and this quick [Music] it's not a mile and a half you don't have this racetrack it's very difficult to pass on chase elliott is just carving through the field well how about who he just packed he just went by kevin harvick nine time winner this season was eliminated last week and was not a part of the championship for everyone really had kevin harvick as their favorite this season he was unstoppable coming to this racetrack where phoenix raceway has been one of his best tracks ever they thought that kevin harvick was going to be the eventual champion well it doesn't happen that way the playoffs you've got to perform and harvick and that team didn't perform as well as the other four well eli manning talked about it at the top of the show came to the desert with a chance to beat the patriots in a perfect season i remember that as a patriots fan and that's my equation to kevin harvick right he had what looked like the perfect season but nothing in sports is guaranteed and in the end they just weren't good enough in the round of eight and you hate to put the pressure back on the team but in the end that's where the pressure goes and he just couldn't deliver marty steve i had a terrific chat with rodney childers this morning he said i got to tell you monday at the shop was not fun he said but honestly by tuesday we all come around and we focus on one thing winning another race and if they can do that it'll be double digit wins 10 for kevin harvick this year and he'll be just the 11th driver to accomplish that in the modern era so certainly something to fight for for rodney children's and kevin harvick but not what they thought they would be fighting for in phoenix which is the title and marty it's yes they had something to fight for but it's so hard to bring the same energy and enthusiasm and passion as those four guys racing for the championship it's just so hard to do that not that kevin harvick and this team has anything in them about letting down but it's hard to bring be up as much as those four guys are to beat them on this championship sunday is a tall task and it's interesting you know right in front of him is the driver that's trying to get back up to those other championship four contenders and chase elliot and most drivers will tell us when they're running for a championship you know we can't make mistakes we can't make mistakes we talk to all the drivers we've talked to the crew team a lot of times that's the phrase that they use chase elliot said we have to minimize mistakes so right off the top they have to start in the back because of failing inspection twice they're trying to minimize the mistakes now they've already been you know dealt a little bit of a difficult hand starting the race now they've got to fight for that and minimize those mistakes see chase closing in on clint boyer who's running his final season full-time in the cup series he'll be a broadcaster for fox next year i think he's going to make a great addition to that booth he's had a pretty awesome year 41 years old from emporia 10 wins second championship 2012. junior i won't lie sitting on the couch in february daytona 500 is going to be exciting with boyer on the mic yeah he's going to be a lot of fun he's got great energy says what he thinks he loves the sport absolutely loves the sport a wonderful personality joey logano is up front and he has led every lap since the drop of the green flag he has just completed lap 30. we were told by nascar on or around lap 30 would be the competition caution so we're expecting that but sure enough there it is we had touched on the cruise a little bit to start this race for a little more before the teams come onto pit road let's go to kelly nascar's always been a team sport and it was the quick thinking of jackman t.j simke that may have helped keep the nine teams championship hopes intact last week at martinsville he realized he had jumped over the wall too soon which would have been a penalty but had the presence of mind to come back and reset himself at pit wall before performing a seamless pit stop something that alan gustafson said hey you want to eliminate the mistakes but to correct him was a big moment he's got a colorful background a college football player at the university of kansas and a former bounty hunter parker he's used to performing in high pressure now joe said that he feels like his pit crew's been so good lately and he's not wrong they've been fifth fastest on four tire stops over the season but in the playoffs they were third fastest and most crucially the fastest of the championship four which might help them get to a championship here that moment in martinsville that kelly just just noted i i still have as the mvp move of the year but everyone understands the rule you can go back and reset but never have i seen a crew member over halfway through the pit box normally you lose your balance step back on pit wall don't have a penalty look at that he's in front of the car and now he goes back and goes the wrong way unbelievably well coached great smart thinking i know he feels bad that he was too early because it did cost the nine spots but that opportunity to go back and reset and to not drive it to a penalty in my mind is why chase ellen had a chance to win that race and why he has a chance to win a championship not to mention that race win got him in the championship ford also got him this the number one pet box here at phoenix they're closest to the exit of pit road a big advantage you just drop the jack and drive straight out so quit thinking you were up in the booth i was shocked shocked that he pulled that off it was a high pressure situation and he rose to that occasion well nascar drive is your live race day companion you can follow your favorite drivers by selecting up to eight different high definition cameras all you have to do is visit nascar.com drive or you can download that mobile app today so the field now making the way on to pit road to those crews that we have talked about and an interesting pit road here long on the back stretch around the corner through turns three and four marty rick you saw it early on what a catch by denny hamlin you might have guessed from that how loose that race car is hamlin saying the car is loose everywhere especially when he wants to run the bottom of the track and he needs a little more help on the exit of the corners as well dave brad keselowski's car over rotates in the back end dragged at the beginning of the run tire carrier jesse mills will make two adjustments down on the track bar and tape to the front end parker that's the same for joe agatha really struggling in the exit corner just too loose you'll see that very fast pick crew make a couple of adjustments there for the gunner kelly okay elliot said he was really pretty happy as nine car started off a little bit tight but then was turning as the temperatures came up four tires air pressure adjustment maybe the first mistake of the race kozlowski's team loses six spots on pit road hamlin gains one nascar on nbc is brought to you by usaa join usa in thanking those who serve at usaa.com veterans day sonic this is how we sought it and by credit one bank the official credit card of nascar perfect for race fans under this caution we see leading the field as the official pace car the 2020 toyota camry trd rick you mentioned brad keselowski lost those six spots on pit road just a little bit of a messy stop two and a half almost three seconds slower than most of his competitors a little bit everywhere right front right rear jack man going around the car not a real major issue it's just messy look right here this is dropping off the right side the jack man is going to leave after already having a slow stop well he should know confusion with the tire changer small things remember this is the pit crew that won with austin centric yesterday so they've already won a championship this weekend working on their second coming back to the restart can he handle it on the outside joey logano has chosen the inside line and fires off down to the apron three four and five wide as they come into turn one yeah joey fired off late in the restart zone if he hasn't control these restarts they're gonna start taking note of when he's going trying to predict that kyle busch last year's champion in the 18 up here running in the top four right now alex bowman in the 88s on the outside fighting for that third spot restarts is so aggressive kyle bush not even on the racetrack he's too close below the lane he's taking the shortest way around there chase elliot trying to work himself up he actually chose the outside line actually restarted 12th when he came off pit road in 10th and his car is fast he is rolling up on guys in the middle of the corner so so fast able to get back to the gas quicker and just drives up on and under people off every corner look at this already fighting with brad kozlowski for a spot yeah if you're brad keselowski that's not what you want to see right you know chase elliot started into the back and there he is already in your mirror that 39 coming to that 40. and he's basically erased the penalty we talked to allen this week about the nine cars this is a brand new car the verizon on board with brad because last week you saw the nine go out of the screen a brand new car for chase elliot as he's to the left now they're down on the apron he said you know a lot's been made about execution and pit crews and all that's important but he felt like sometimes they forget about the value of the car and a fast car can fix everything else brand new car for the nine here at phoenix and it is showing up dave had a quick word with rear tire changer greg donald on the two car there and pointed out kind of what you guys said there wasn't any one thing there were just a couple of little things that slowed down and a quick reminder as this battle continues the information being fed to jeremy bones on the top of the pit box here he's missing a couple of people here all year what 2020 looks like engineers andrea mueller and grant hutchins they're back at home interpreting what to do next and when brad gets back in traffic like this how to play out the strategy how about that you look up front you see the nine of chase elliott he's already into the top four and getting smaller out the window you don't want that right he's past brad keselowski and driving away and dale to your point i don't need time to get scoring visually the nine car through the middle of the corner just carries so much speed compared to the competitors yeah he reminds me of austin centric yesterday at infinity rays just an outstanding car but we'll have to see just how good he is once he gets up here to this 22 and 11 eventually but those guys have broken out to a healthy lead over alex bowman we ride along with denny and the toyota cam looking forward to joey logano and legato's not pulling away like he did before legano now can't get away from denny hamlin so hamlet's crew must have made that a little bit better for him well two you know denny was kind of stuck behind brad keselowski there on the early part of the first run so now he doesn't have that hurdle to get over and he's able to build talking about his car they you know he was loose because he slid up the racetrack in three and one or two here earlier in the race he probably made an adjustment he wants more of that get the car a little more comfortable to allow him to challenge his 22. he wants to be a little bit tighter meaning the back of the car just does not have the grip that he wants he's just having to chase the back of the car a little bit can't go to full throttle as soon as he wants to probably can't drive into the corner as deep as he wants to as well because the back of the car is trying to slide around on him riding on the bumper the 22 car the coca-cola cam for joe logano in the throttle through the center trying to commit to full throttle he's saying about a half of our length lower for a little bit of air in the middle right on the edge spotter tj majors telling joey that the 11 car is running a little bit lower offline of the 22 to get a little more air on the nose of the car trying to help with the downforce on that levin pay attention to something everybody is it right now look where they're running out of the back of this camera you can see that dark part of the racetrack that's what they're looking for that's traction compound that's gonna fly to the racetrack that's gonna wear out and as it wears out how much does it wear out and what team can keep up with these changes right now these two former phoenix winners look like they are the best but they're gonna have to do a great job to stay up for this racetrack chase elliott up to third chase elliott already into the top three after starting in the back but it's still joey legato up front here at phoenix [Music] such a beautiful facility here at phoenix raceway our area of coverage brought to you by geico as we look down on this one mile track out front still joey logano you could score the ultimate prize built for the ultimate fan all you have to do enter now for a chance to win a customized ford mustang gt plus get five bonus entries when you use the code championship get started at nascar.com ford playoffs promo parker gigano just started to finally maybe pull away from denny hammond a little bit there but remember in the first round before the competition caution he was very loose on the exit of the quarters that 22 card paul wolf made from the wedge adjustments air pressure adjustment now just a little tight in the exit that's the fine line you have to balance here and they give you a little idea of the emphasis these teams put on these cars team penske saved wind tunnel time every team only gets a certain amount of hours they saved it for these cars to actually go to the wind tunnel before this race at phoenix and it seems to be paying off a little bit marty for a moment ago steve was talking about how chase elliot has a brand new car well so does denny hamlin and chris gabor told me this thing is quote a beast they started working on this car at the end of august and steve this kind of fascinates me how you crew chiefs make a decision what to bring here you have chase elliott denny hamlin brand new cars the latest and greatest their organizations can build meanwhile the two team penske cars those are cars are proven kozlowski's won twice in this car this year so how do you make that decision new car or a car that you know and trust what do you bring to a championship race well it all comes down to opinion but i'm a new car guy i think race cars are like socks rick they're never better than when they're brand new so you want to bring the newest the best you should be able to build cars right you have a team of engineers every race you learn something else take that knowledge and put it in the new car every new car should be better than an old car so while i know it's comfortable to bring a proven piece of equipment i'm bringing new if i have that option [Music] and look at the clear track in front of both legano and denny right now they have got a lot of territory that they can work with we'll take a look at the xfinity fastest lap legato he's got the fastest lap denny hamlin on lap 39 so not that long ago turned his fastest lap so those two clicking off some pretty good lap times of course brad keselowski on lap four when he was running up inside of the top three a lot of question if phoenix would race different how would the championship four stack up would they race for the win would they dominate the race well one started last and he's got it up to third and now they're one two three four so i think our answer is pretty clear that these four guys that's what i don't and i want to kind of toss on you i want to toss this you man like if we come here we could come here ten times and and these four will not run one two three four they it we've been here many many times where they're sprinkled throughout the top ten having good runs maybe winning here and there but when we're racing for a title now they're all four up front that blows my mind we've seen this year after year at homestead where the champion had to win i think two things first of all let's talk about the car and the effort of the team this is it you work all year for this so the whole organization the budget the money the effort can be funneled into this versus the rest of the field this is another race it's the last race but it's another race for them for these four it's their season i think that makes a difference the other is i believe the people throughout the field do race the championship four a little cleaner and a little easier they don't let them go but kevin harvick knows that he wants to be here to race a championship he doesn't want to disrupt one of their things so let's take chase ellie right here he started last he's up to third i thought it was a great question that brad asked in pre-race about this this is what chase had to say about his team listen if you're not if you're not pushing and trying to get the get the most out of everything uh you're in the wrong business so i have all the confidence in allen and my team that that they're making the right decisions and that's really all that matters so i believe in them and you know regardless of our starting spot we still have that first pit pick down there out of turn three which i think is very important um 312 laps is that right is that how many laps it is today i think that's plenty enough time to make your way back to the front if you have your car driving right well it was 312 laps and apparently it only takes 60. because that's where chase elliott is is in the third position so there you go dale i think when i look at chase right there right that focus i know drake's car drivers are focused for every race but this is a career it doesn't matter if you've won one if you haven't won this would change your career and he knows it's in front of him and one thing we've learned in the playoffs we've all had these conversations before we always thought we were bringing 100 every week we found out that when there's more on the line there's more to go get and it's crazy how in the playoffs everybody steps up and they make these incredible moments it's just an opportunity to win a championship brings out the intensity in you it's his first opportunity for that title and chase elliot's trying to make the most of it he's already up to third [Music] [Music] [Music] it's nascar cup series championship on nbc was telecast presented by usaa this is us has been nominated for six people's choice awards be sure to catch an all-new episode tuesday on nbc out front joey logano has about a half a second lead over denny hamlin let's listen into his radio instead of getting into the 30 mark he's into the 20 mark down here and he just gets to turn a little earlier to help him yep even him about another two car lengths earlier than that still a little bit too afraid to do that it's a great conversation with tj majors giving him giving joey the gondo information about what denny hamlin is doing where he is positioning his car on the racetrack and joey's remark back to him was okay i hear you i appreciate it but i can't do that my car is too loose the back of the car does not have enough grip for me to do that and that's great information for the crew chief steve he's learning at the same time the driver's learning the crew she's learning it's great information i had a conversation with paul wolf remember january 6th of this year penske made an entire crew swap paul wolfe went from brad keselowski to joey logano so they have two cars in this championship battle that swapped crew chiefs at the beginning of this season they worked through the pandemic not being able to be together all of this and still made it here and he he fascinated me today said you know i knew brad so well brad like to be involved in all the decisions so much talk on the radio it took a few weeks and finally legano said listen buddy you got to give me a little space all i want to do is drive you tell me when to pit you ask me what questions you can adjust the race car but don't get me involved in every conversation that's why i think it's fascinating that's tj giving him some information how quick was legano too loose to do it so now i found paul wolfe i know i need to make adjustments marty closing in on the end of stage one here just five to go danny hamlin starting to catch joey logano and you heard that radio transmission a moment ago where hamlin said the car is still too loose it's actually gotten better as they run gotten tighter and it's showing up on the stopwatch he is closed in on the back bumper of that 22 parker barney we just heard that information tj majors was giving i think that's every other lad for every couple acts that is every single laptop each corner at t.j matrix describes exactly what denny hamlin is doing in that level so joey can adjust his line if need be remember this is the combo that got them to victory at candace and holding off cam harvick to get themselves in to the championship four at phoenix those two are working like airstrike controllers in a well-oiled machine right now holding off that 11. all season long the end of stages were very important because points are paid at the end of the stages if you're in the top 10 you get points and everyone was collecting those points well this race is different if you're in the championship four points are out the window you don't earn anything at the end of a stage all you are thinking about is finishing in front of your competitor you know what's not out the window though ego head games the battle coming to the end of this stage danny hamlin has a chance to beat joey logano you mentioned no points but that's kind of like a check mark it's like leading into halftime a football game listen we're here and we can win i know you think you have a good car but i'm back here and i have a chance with a couple laps to go i think he has a shot to beat him let's see where hamlet's better where is he making this ground up looks like the knee dono changed his line a little bit entered a little bit lower then he entered really high right there i don't know if that was on purpose or not but he lost a little bit of ground from the center of the corner to the exit now let's joey breathe a little bit come here on this final lap of this stage which is good because there's a lot of left traffic in front of him and let's joey navigate this with less now the pressure stretch for the final time in stage one and the gap has closed now as denny hamlin gets within two car lengths but it's gonna be joey logano winning stage one so as you mentioned steve as they go into the locker room or in this case on to pit road a little confidence there they have just won the first stage of this championship four almost like old school racing again right the last lap of the race is the only one's going to matter today joey logano trying to make that momentum pay off as he's looking for his second championship i'm that uncut real wrong that's when nascar on nbc is brought to you by liberty mutual insurance only pay for what you need coca-cola together tastes better and by credit one bank official credit card of nascar perfect for race fans stage one completes here at phoenix raceway in the desert for the first time to determine a champion and the crews will now be under a microscope as this will be your second opportunity to make adjustments to the car try to make them better but also minimize the mistakes we saw the two crew already have a little bit of an issue on that first stop jeff yeah rick i think it's really important for joe logano and his team to make the right adjustment here you just mentioned it remember they let 93 of the first 176 laps here last fall they got lapped on the green did not keep up with the racetrack so we saw the 11 car gaining on him he's gonna have to make that car better i mean you're a debbie downer you're feeling so good i mean why you want to bring a stat like that up for the poor guy he's racing for the lead and you bring that up that's all right pep talks by jeff burton and here they come so the championship four on pit road denny hamilton told chris gabe hart we got better as we ran clearly caught the 22 car but you only fixed about 70 of what i need i'm still too loose on exit gonna be an air pressure adjustment to try and tighten up that 11 car and see if they can gain a little ground on joey logano here early in this run and maybe some tape on the grill as well they were 25 degrees below optimum temperature day big high five from front changer ryan flores and jackman patrick gray trying to make that transition around the front of the car smoother this time much better four tires for kozlowski's tight car parker for joey legal just still struggling to put the bottle down an exit especially late in the run paul wolf's gonna make an air pressure adjustment to try and hook up that right rear kelly chase elliott said the nine fired off better that time and he's really quite happy with the balance of his race car just four tires and fuel for the night well the teams did their job they got them right back out in the same positions they came onto pit [Music] [Music] road stage one complete the championship four are running nose to tail one two three and four in this fight for the title and rutledge wood is hanging out at home enjoying this race hey rutt presented by toyota what's happening back at the homestead boy rick i sure wish i was with you guys but exciting news toyota announced last week their support of a new cup series team 2311 racing which is co-owned by nba legend michael jordan and cup contender denny hamlin they're going to make their debut at the 2021 daytona 500 with their driver bubba wallace with the chassis and support from joe gibbs racing engines and tech support from trd michael jordan is confident they're going to be in the hunt for championships toyota toyota racing and trd are all thrilled to be a part of 2311 racing and i want to give a big shout out to ed laucas who's retiring from toyota thanks for helping grow this sport in so many ways guys it's going to be exciting next year seeing what bubba wallace can do in that car when you have owners like michael jordan and denny hamlin to one for sure one of the most competitive human beings on the planet and of course danny hamlin you know that they want to put great equipment out on the racetrack for bubble walls i'm just excited to see you know i've been around racing my entire life but in the competition side right worried about cars going fast breaking down raises i'm excited to see what michael jordan perhaps can bring to the marketing side you think about uh brands and companies and the things he's been involved with his entire life mark you know line that up with bubba wallace has become a marketing machine this year so brad i think this is just an amazing announcement and i personally am excited to see another one of you legendary basketball guys come over here to the racing world i i agree with you steve it's a great opportunity and from a business standpoint for all of us on the ownership side when you can have a cultural icon like michael jordan join your cast of folks it really helps out the sport tremendously so i'm excited to race against michael and denny i'm excited for bubba wallace it's going to be really really fun to watch and see how that team evolves over the next year i believe michael jordan will then be the second tallest owner in nascar right behind brad dougherty let's listen in on chase elliot's radio that joe he's pretty worn out yeah it didn't take long it still got some grip in certain spots just you know just getting it right i can see it with that too it's pretty sensitive you think they're talking about that second lane guys the stuff on the track kind of wearing out is that what you decipher there yeah definitely it's going to change all day you know they're going to have to analyze it and stay on top of it and it's going to matter all these restarts we haven't seen a very aggressive restart i think as this race goes on the intensity will pick up there's the field approaching the geico restart zone legano and hamlin picking up that front row and a great launch again for joey logano look at him fan out joey being able to use that inside line can go as low as he wants through the apron with the dog leg we've seen this out of kyle bush in that 18 many many times he'll go two lanes under the yellow line on that apron to gain a little ground pretty successful for the front three on that restart brad kozlowski a little less successful losing a couple positions here comes chase elliot yeah we finally get to see what chase has on new tires against these guys they all kind of faded and wore their stuff out on the long run before the last caution now with new tires just how good is this nine card against jenny the 22 logano also you saw penny hamlin he drove up the racetrack and got in that traction compound that's something chase elliot's gonna have to learn how to do he hasn't raced these guys on these restarts the competition's gotten harder as he's gotten to the front they have to change his strategy a little bit he's able to find speed rolling that bottom early in the race but it's just not there now as any of those guys have kind of perfected that high line found out where the grip and speed is running that higher line then he really put it to work there and turns one and two rolls right up to the back of the 22 car going down into turn three another run down the front straight away old joey joey chooses the highline this time to try to block the 11 car take away that here he has to turn down low on corner exit and behind him chase elliot he went up the racetrack as well but lost ground doing it now getting to the bottom here we go battle for the lead the 22 car getting challenged here by 11. did he handle it to the inside sneaks back in behind the 22 follows him down into term one how does joey logano screw up danny hamlin's line this racetrack is just you have to put your car wherever it needs to go you just run the fastest line you can that's what this is all about today you say that but you know joey is one of those guys that's going to try to go wherever he needs to to take away the air and the downforce the guy behind him even with this package and the smaller spoiler there's still dirty air behind him he knows that's a tool for him to use he's making it work for him right now he always is the very best at that but it just is not as effective as it is like we saw in kansas where joey logano was able to hold kevin harvick back jenny hamlin trying that bottom again and you gotta have a great spotter to be able to get that information on where those drivers are at behind you and i think joey has one of the best in tj majors i work with t.j t.j is unapologetic as well steve latar you know tg i think him and with him in the 22 joey gonna they match up really well on the racetrack yeah they're confident in their own styles you said it tj is not apologetic he feels he knows best about a lot of subjects enjoy legato feels he knows how to be the best on the racetrack i think it's a great team they have put together there and i think it shows i mean that win at kansas people could say whatever they want but hold off kevin harvick was anything but easy and they put together just a great battle and i feel he's doing the same thing here i would feel comfortable saying i think the 11's a little better here just joey's doing a nice job not making a mistake and i'm sure he's getting help from the roof while doing it i think the 11 took off better but i'm not so sure that the as this run is going on that 22 doesn't have a little more speed right now [Music] we see him varying his line more and more joy legato sometimes will enter a little bit lower sometimes enter a little bit higher and it seems like denny hamlin has to adjust according to what joey's got to do big piece of debris right there on the grill the 22 car the orange piece is a piece of tape and that white piece there you go there's djs senators are in a tough spot here too dale jr is going to say they're in the middle of three and four so this end of the racetrack three and four very good right but down here where the cars are currently that's a long ways away for the spotters yeah i wonder how much that debris is gonna hurt the temperature on this car steven that'll drive that temperature up pretty quick even though he's a lead car [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] catch a star-studded e people's choice awards that's live next sunday at 9 8 central with a special performance from justin bieber and hosted by demi lovato this year bubba wallace is nominated for the pulp culture game changer of 2020 along with basketball legend above his team owner next year michael jordan let's listen into joey logano's radio [Music] so he's going to try to get up behind the lap cars and get that debris off it's flipped up a little bit burton mentioned during the break that it's almost half of what it was as far as obstructing the grill but still covering some holes in the grill still driving those temperatures up she's going to try to get behind some of these lap cars if he can to get it to come off here's a great opportunity there you go what a move very very smart the pressure he gets behind the car yeah the turbo air coming out the car in front of him really sucks that tape right off again time and time again and he did that without having to give up the lead to do it that was really really critical did not want to have to let that left card go by just like that the pressure on the front of that car changes dramatically you have to make sure if you have an engine fan or anything like that on you want to turn that off to be able to allow that pressure to change party just like the last run dale here comes denny ham on tracking down joey logano still hasn't led a laptogato now leads his 99th lap of the afternoon but if you'll notice here in turns one and two this is where denny seems to have an advantage over the 22. he can catch him a little bit corner exit but three and four that's where denny is struggling a lot of teams talking about how that traction compound may be wearing away and turns three and four sometimes denny will run in that compound sometimes he'll run lower than legano so dale if you know you're a little bit quicker maybe than legano how do you bury that line and get them around get around them here when everybody seems to want to run the same line here at phoenix traffic there's debris on our left front brake duct we'll need to try to work interesting there i think to answer your question marty you want to hope that you meet the traffic better than joey does you're all good more debris for one of the lead cars to get that off so that was the 11 ratio that we were hearing there and he was able to use one of the lap cars right now there are 30 cars on the lead lap and joy logano has led now the most laps he's ever led at phoenix 101 and counting with denny hamlin still within about two car lengths of him up front dave nice to see the 48 running strong today seventh position right now for jimmy johnson and after a season that was sort of non-plus only four top fives the four-time phoenix winner is driving to the front 26 he started today that car was a little bit snug on his first run but the crew patched him up and got the 48 where he needed it to be and he's [Music] fast good to see jimmy johnson having good speed in this final race [Music] this is this type of package with the uh four horsepower less downforce it's kind of what he really enjoys driving drives so much with that throttle i think i think the power helps thanks to the jimmy johnson foundation for riding this on board camera i mean you've got to document the guy's last ride right i mean what a fun think about going back and re-watching this tape you know especially this view hey to his daughters you won't always like me one of my jobs left here let's sit down and watch my final race from the view of the helmet put the heat on 120. turn the volume way up no no brakes gotta sit right here with me the whole day jimmy johnson running seventh right now and coming in as an 83 time race winner he put out a message on social media one last time and in response to it chad canal said appreciate it brother so those two have had so much success together seven championships between chat canals and jimmy johnson and of course a change there for chad knaus's role as well carter well guys continues to try and hold off jenny hanlon there the tenth time for the team down here joey came on the radio and just reported a vibration the team confirmed all the lug nuts are believed to be tight on that 22 car right now and then he added and filling it through the brake pedal so definitely 10 times they try to see what that might become on the 22 get worse so you could have a brake vibration but if he's feeling a loose wheel type vibration through the brake pedal that would tell me it could be the right front possibly and more likely the left front now if it's getting worse down the straightaway i think the most important thing is we're looking at 82 laps to go they can go 80 laps on fuel that we know so if joe logano can ride this up with just a couple more laps he'll be inside the fuel window everybody wants to hit this point here there you go i'll tell you driver knows the thing let me know when i'm in the window so i can come if i need to everybody needs to pit but you'll lose a lap and and it's so early everybody else won't pit right away they'll have to have the thing go green if they do come to pit road look look at that nine car he started to run these guys down it took a little while for him to get going but he's rolling down up to the top three as we go nascar nonstop you're able to see the progression in nascar non-stop chase elliot now fighting for the lead here at phoenix looks like denny hamlin was going to take the lead from joy legato chase said i'm gonna get him outside of you take that spot now he's a guy man legato for this lead yeah we heard about joe logano possibly with some vibrations maybe a loose wheel but thought he was losing a little bit of speed out of that car because of those problems seems to have recovered a little bit as these guys are having a hard time putting the pressure back on him here comes the 11 back the back bumper of the nine so denny hamlin fighting back trying to get that second spot once again as joey logano comes into the lap traffic traffic will play a role at some point [Music] so far they've been out of rolls doing pretty well well why we've been watching this battle for the lead top of your screen you're going to see the 18 of kyle busch just gets a little too quick into one and two makes pretty hard contact we got another great look from on board brad kozlowski you're gonna chase him down into the corner and the 18 hits damages both right side tires so since then rick he's falling back checking my timing and scoring man he is having a little bit of a struggle with that car put a fender inside the 22 for the lead [Music] this is awesome yeah kyle busch pinned it two lives down back to 30th so chase is trying to stay on that quarter pound with 22 car just keep him just loose enough just to upset the balance of that car joey's really lifting pretty early for the corners and he's got these guys a little spooky following him into the corner but they want to stay right up on the back bumper there to keep the back end of that 22 car off the racetrack you see how difficult this pass is a little contact right there how difficult this pass is on the bottom of the racetrack chase going to try to slide him a little bit slides up in front of me can joey cross him over new leader in phoenix oh joe to the outside the 11 almost gets there and joey wanted to go underneath the nine into turn three but he knew he couldn't because hamlet was going to jump on the outside of him i thought then he might have turned him in the fence right there that was pretty tight those are the first laps right there chase elliott has led here at phoenix after starting in the back chase elliott leads two laps legano has led all the other laps on the racetrack look how close he is pushing him now the frustrated way like hey we'll go by here slides up in the grip has to be patient to the gas 22 tries to cross over it's not working he's going to get back in line isn't he there nope hey what was so impressive about that junior is that when chase elliott slid up in front of him he really didn't have to slow up but that much to keep his line really joey never gained on him very much that's how fast chase elliot's car is big run for the 11 here off a turn two down into turn three and four he's gonna make that pass pretty easily i wonder if joey's just trying to get this car assistant to what they're talking about the 22 car how much is this vibration balance going away front tires losing grip but dale i like that we questioned the vibration smart race car driver and he goes i know it's tight but is it the vibration you know when you have a vibration anywhere from a loose wheel that harmonic will take grip out of that into the race car right so don't over adjust to get this thing sideways where i can't drive which now that's now for paul wolf what do you do well well is it the loose wheel is it tight and you know in a short race you give up one extra pit cycle of adjustments junior you're like one stop behind the rest of the car yeah basically i would hope that you'd take the information that i gave you before i talked about the vibration make the adjustment to those those those those notes if i was telling you the car was a little bit tight or neutral there or free but just to that like you say the vibration can really affect the balance pretty bad steve do you try to cut this stage in half as far as pit stop it's a big risk this is a trap where you can lose two laps i think if you're the championship for you have a good day going you're only racing each other so unless one of you pit i don't care what the rest of field does well we invite you to the fast lane brought to you by toyota denny hamlin right now running in the second spot chase elliott has about an eight tenth of a second lead over him once he was able to get by joey logano elliott started to pull away hamlin was able to get by legano as well the top four still running nose to tail elliott hamlin logano and keslowski the championship for up there on the left you see on board with denny hamelin look out front this is kyle bush you had that issue with the wall i point that out because look how good the new tires are right he gets on the gas and just drives away from danny hamlin so when you ask about pinning early that's what you get for an advantage but you know kyle is trying to unlap himself [Music] well guys it's no secret that the durability of toyota trucks all started in the desert by none other than the iron man ivan stewart ivan's still a fan favorite of toyota fans 40 years later and has a special message for another iron man [Music] in the early days of 1983 toyota really wasn't that well known but over a period of time they became fans and slowly changed them to realize how tough and competitive the toyota product was and it took me years though they say i've been there 37 years and and just now i think i still get a lot of fan mail and facebook people that remember in the early days and the reason they bought to the other trucks is because we proved out too normal and tough they weren't winning with them and it will be ivan stewart and jimmy johnson hey jimmy ivan stewart here uh i just wanted to congratulate you on your retirement and one of the most successful careers in nascar history and from toyota toyota racing trd i want to congratulate you again on your most successful career how awesome was that have a driver like ivan stewart give jimmy johnson that send-off as we see pit stops are underway keslowski was just on pit road dave rick the mo of brad keselowski's career was has to work hard nothing handed to him that's the way today's championship is going to be already had mistakes on pit road and not the fastest of the four he had a small vibration about 10 laps ago said i'm probably going to need to come so they came a little bit earlier than everyone else he has enough fuel now to make it to the end of the stage but he goes laps down so he pitted because of a vibration we've heard joey logano complain about a vibration the question i have is you asked the question i said well i wouldn't worry if it wasn't one of the championship four well brad kozlowski is and the reason i say that is will these other three championship crew chiefs say well he had a trouble let's not worry about him he's a lap down he needs things to go his way or will they say man he's on new tires jeff and he's running faster than us if we don't come now he'll be the leader of this race you see right here jeremy bullins inspecting the wheels trying to find out if he did really did have a vibrations or something else on the car how loose was it has damaged the studs that tighten the wheel is it wheel weights he's looking really closely at the wheels here he's looking at the back of the wheels if you have a loose wheel it will take a round hole and oblong [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] 55 laps still to go in stage two of the nascar cup series championship on nbc telecast presented by usaa out front chance elliott running second denny hamlin joey logano is third and the fourth championship competitor has come to pit road has new tires is a lap down scored 26 right now steve yeah but about a second of a lap faster with those new tires now we see ryan blaney come on pit road as well kelly yeah brian blaney and the swell team riding a bit of momentum they had a terrible start to the playoffs with their first three races and were eliminated early but since have put together a run of solid finishes of his crew team todd gordon said they wanted to finish the season on a high note again they said make no mistake we want to go out there and win this race but we don't want to do it while jeopardizing anything for our teammates in the championship four parker and joe again you see there on the road was doing an incredible job nursing that car had a vibration that was not getting worse for most of that run and asking paul when he was in the window debating back and forth when to come in and then the vibration got worse paul wolf called him the pit road here to get the 22 in for four new future tires just struggling a little bit tight in the center of the 22 card marty and it's not been a fun day for kevin harvick out of the championship race after last week's race at martinville in fact at one time he called his car absolute junk perfect struggling with the handling we expect denny hamlin to pick from second on this lap as well guys [Music] so you got only two right there i'm sorry rick joining the little brat kazki's already gone by we knew it was going to be a big advantage well now we have the nine and the 11 also on pit road on board with denny hamlin you see not right in front of him but two cars in front of him the nine of chase elliott as well kelly yeah there was some discussion between chase and his crew she fell in gus and about making a track bar adjustment chase was hesitant to do anything to mess up the balance of this car sounds like it'll just be half a turn of track car down on that number nine marty you gotta wonder if denny hamlin was maybe a little too patient with joey logano when they were battling for the lead he said i'm really good to start the entry is still good late in the run i'm just a little bit too free that's where i could use my help chris gabar is dead will it hurt your speed if i tighten you up hamlin said no they went with an air pressure adjustment hoping to tighten them up and lead some laps here at phoenix right there you see the two of brad keselowski go through the screen the nine of chase elliott blending on to the racetrack i say that i know there's a lot of cars to pit but of the championship four the early pit stop by brad keselowski has allowed him to leapfrog his other competitors now the downside is the nine and the eleven see the nine shaking his car trying to get some heat in those tires they have better tires now can they run brad keselowski down we'll see was 5.6 seconds back when he came to pit road so those new tires definitely paid off early on that run we'll see if he can hold on to it now the new tires are about a second a lot faster for brad keselowski but now like you said steve this nine car the 11 car the 22 car they're all going to be a little quicker right now than brad him down yeah jimmy johnson right now is leading at phoenix which is why those two passes we just saw so important now they've unlocked themselves they're out of what i call you know the the risk of pinning under green is getting lap down deep breaths now the 22 of joe logano he has yet to unlap himself he's the next car that wants to find the 48 has the 48 pits though 22 feeling better he's out of the danger zone 22 did not fare as well during that that pit stop round remember he pitted before the 9 and the 11 but he didn't make any ground up [Music] he did jimmy johnson on pit road now remember the car was going forward and as the track changes jimmy's words to his crew were more of the same so the trend was to get the car a little bit freer throughout the track here they're gonna do more of that remember most of this crew will become the five crew for uh kyle larson next year so they're trying to have one final run for jimmy johnson that really counts so far it has and another nice stop here for the 48 crew you know rick i was fortunate enough to call jimmy johnson's teammate perhaps the majority of my career hence motorsports as a crew chief at least you know dale had some time words earlier dale you interviewed him earlier i'd like to say you know his numbers at the bottom are obvious seven time champ five in a row 83 wins you would have no idea if he knew him as a person he texts you has conversation with you like he's your neighbor like he's your buddy you went to college with it's really amazing even after all of that i can say the jimmy johnson i knew when he first walked into hendrick motorsports in 2001 2002 is the same jimmy johnson now i i can't believe it um a great career an even better guy a great dad it's gonna be uh we're gonna miss him out here i'm a little envious of the indy car guys he's gonna go up there around 13 races lee different in them get to cover him it's going to be fun to watch his transition you were fortunate to call him a teammate i was unfortunate to call him a competitor well now hold on a second i'm up here talking to you probably because he was in the era that i was a crew chief because i think we ran second way more than we actually beat him is so good on the racetrack and he did it the way he did it was he was just faster than you right i mean you know dale earhart pushed people around jimmy johnson just outran you just flat out fast he's going to be racing indycar you mentioned that uh with chip ganassi racing we see matt kenseth in the 42 he's going to be out of that car at the end of this season matt kenseth great teammate great person has so much respect for matt kinsey think about this cup champion rookie of the year 39 cup wins two-time daytona 500 winner southern 500 winner coca-cola 600 winner this guy has done it all in this sport tremendous amount of respect for matt kinsey yeah came into the sport kind of with matt our careers were parallel to the infinity series into the cup series and we leaned on each other a lot going through uh the bumps and grinds and ups and downs of racing in the cup series being young and trying to figure it out and he figured it out became a champion and [Music] see the battle here between the 11 car closing in on this two newer tires that's right the 9's already gone by the two with those newer tires now danny hamlin is trying to follow him through [Music] so the championship four chance elite is in front now of brad keselowski here comes danny hamlin he's going to try to pass brad as well so hamlin is going to move up into the fourth spot still to pit is eric almarola he's right now shown as the race leader and here's the fight for that position hamlin trying to get fourth away he will take it a little pressure tires on the 11 and the nine the two came to pit roads first shaking things up steve yeah he came to pitt road first i don't think he wanted to it was a vibration i think that forced him to come to pit road uh but luckily for him i don't think it's hurt his chances at all 41 laps to go so i think he's gonna be all right jeff there's 22. i thought he came to payroad early enough he was going to gain some time but really didn't i'm unaware i'm kind of unsure why yeah i don't think they're fast i mean i think that their car they've lost their handling on their car they had a difficult decision to make they had that vibration so they didn't really know what kind of changes to make to this car but they just do not have the speed that chase elliott hamlin and keselowski have right now keslowski you know obviously a little bit over tire joey logano will be able to run him down but i don't think it's because his car is better i think he has less laps on his tires but i'd be very concerned right now on that 22 car take a look at this the nine of chase elliot now out front as the 10 has come to pitt road erik almarol will get service on his car chase elliott out front what a day he's already had had to go to the back fought his way all the way to the front and everybody at the dawsonville pool hall celebrating that [Music] so after the green flag pit stops this is how the championship four sit chase elliott up front danny hamlin running second brad keselowski's third joey logano fourth chase elliott trying to be a part of history as far as nascar champions fathers and sons have won championships only twice before lee petty had three championships son richard petty seven of course and then ned jarrett with his two championships and dale jarrett winning the title in 1999. [Music] there's awesome bill and he has his 1988 cup series championship already under his belts and we mentioned the dawsonville pool hall well every time bill won a race they would sound the siren there's a siren there at the dawsonville pool hall they would sound that siren well they've picked up that tradition now for chase so every win by chase they're also celebrating by sounding the siren in dawsonville and you saw a shot of there's actually a shot today when chase elliott was able to take the lead saw them celebrate their back at the johnsonville pool hall kelly jesus said he thinks it is a cool tradition and he's so happy they continue to bring that cyrene as they call it uh anytime young chase wins well it's his first appearance in the championship floor but obviously he didn't have to go far far to look for advice not just from his hall of fame father but he also has the seven-time champion and jimmy johnson as a teammate so what did they tell him well jimmy told them do what makes you you don't change who you are what got you to this point and the best advice he said he got from his dad phil was really just to enjoy these moments he said he felt like his dad admitted that he didn't take enough time to soak up his own big highlights throughout his career so he told chase just to enjoy this moment don't take anything for granted we got a caution yep sure enough caution has come out this one's the first one for incident third one of the race the first one was the competition caution looks like it's for the 77 josh balicki saw a lot of damage on the right side as well as that 53 of james davison so maybe a couple cars getting into the wall possibly putting a little bit of debris down as well and team up the racetrack a little bit of contact [Music] all right rick we talked about the top of the show the decision to pit or not to pit it's going to be on these crew cheese mines all day long i think this one's pretty easy with the 20 some odd laps on your tires i think the safe calls just come to pit road but just got to be careful because with 29 laps to go you don't want to let your guard down pit and have a bunch of people stay out lose your track position but i think new tires mean enough you want to continue to put them on your car and maybe a little bit of a shorter run though to the end of the stage i think you're going to see some busy pit crews alan gustafson looking over the top of the sunglasses paul wolf here during all that run there alex bowman faded all the way to 21st i was wondering what was going on with him he had a great car top five car earlier in this race but they're gonna get the free pass so he'll be able to figure that out get back on the lead lap kyle bush who had gotten in the wall earlier in the race pitted early was lucky for the caution coming out he's the last car on the lead lap we'll be able to get more repairs on that car and try to salvage the day well wednesday's most watched dramas they're back chicago med fire and pd chicago wednesday's return this week on nbc cruz up on the wall getting ready for another opportunity another chance to make the car just a little bit better marty and rick dennehy hamlin knows that he's not quite as good as chase elliott and he knows he needs to gain some time he said i've got to be a little bit tighter to chris gabriel he said i can get into the corner fine with everybody else i just can't finish the corner and get back to the gas so gabe are going to take another swing at it trying to make it tighter for denny hamill we'll see if it pays off dave brad keselowski told his crew they're beating me first with turns second with drive off multiple adjustments to address that parker joe legano said that's the best the balance on that 22 car has been all day paul will provide him this will be a short run for using this learning experience for later kelly chase elliott said their last adjustment made that nine car even better better getting into the corners and better turn through no changes on the nines i think a little pit strategy came into play here you see two tires stop for curt bush he comes out first austin dillon also up there in the top three just a two tire stop we're gonna have a mixed up field on the restart rick should be fun that's rambling [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] tonight two future hall of famers we're gonna go head to head on sunday night football on nbc drew brees and the saints facing tom brady in the buccaneers that coverage starting at 7 p.m eastern with football night in america and let's go back to rutledge wood rick i thought what could be better right now than checking in with all our friends up at the dawsonville pool hall michael's there with us uh michael are y'all watching right now your boys up front how cool is this we are pumped everybody [Applause] all right i gotta know if if chase ends up winning this thing who's who's setting the siren we're a little excited sorry i love it it's beautiful i can hear y'all the way down here in peachtree city if he wins who's setting the siren off tonight who's setting the siren i think i am actually but i don't know gordon purple probably will be yeah all right this is accepted he's here we got an undertaker here from our local fortress we got everybody here so who knows who's going to set it off this is awesome buddy we're going to check in with you a little bit later good luck rick they got everything you need the sheriff the undertaker they're set they're ready for a party up there and this just this feels like a western battle too when you've got the sheriff the undertaker ready to go uh at the pool room there at dawsonville i went down there to talk to chase elliott uh after his win at talladega a year or two ago i'm gonna tell you great cheeseburgers i can go ahead and confirm it great cheeseburgers i've yet to go there i'm dying to get there but the address is nine bill elliott street oh that's pretty good that's pretty good it's not like a road trip it might be changing in a few more years chase how about chase and bill there's a choose roll the that's a it's a cone right past the start finish line and the drivers will choose either on the outside or inside before it was just this the leader of the race they got to choose either inside or outside now everybody has that option they have to make that decision before they get to that box if they go over the box they'll have to restart at the back of the field you know he had a choice chase ellie went to the bottom denny hamlin could have gone to the bottom or the top he chose to go to the bottom because that one car kirk bush is out there on only right side tires so feeling like he can get by kurt on the inside another little update as we showed all the leaders with their chews 15 cars took the wave around so with only 24 laps to go in this stage we are now up to 28 cars in the lead lap [Music] also awesome he also put on two tires but he was speeding guys so he's going to start back can't do that field approaching the geico restart zone kurt bush in the wad on the outside kirk got a pretty good launch getting down into turn one it's pretty even chase 11. didn't hamlin right there in the middle legato in that 22 also fighting legato yeah look at the two guys fighting it out here now it's three wide as they go into turn three and all of that started with the 11 car with the decision to choose the bottom thinking he was gonna roll right around the one car but could not get around him [Music] don't count out brad keselowski finding his way back up here that's crew chief i'm taking note of how successful this one is on two tires he's not holding the lead off but late in the race if that's the hail mare you need for a championship looks like two tires could be an option guys brad keselowski up to second now legano trying to follow him to third gotta slap the right rear off to turn four not able to make the pass a lot of pressure coming from behind denny hamlin right there here comes the 48 jimmy johnson also getting into the mix oh then he came so close to taking that spot from joey legato to try to be the first car on the bottom when he got to kurt bush but just couldn't do it joey has to try it again beat this one car off the turn four not able to do it we got good run right there though he's gonna shortcut this back straight away [Music] now he's just gonna take this spot he's gonna muscle his way up there championship battle buddy i'm taking this spot away this is going at it [Music] all right just a kiss now danny right along watching him trying to get around this one car kirk bush these two tires kind of holding these guys up look at that for the lead we saw brian kozlowski peek his nose underneath the nine hey chase guess what the veteran's back dale has mentioned this multiple times these penske cars are known for their short run speed brad kozlowski showing they have some short run speed here today yeah bracket laska insisted that his team bring this car to the racetrack he won two races this year in this car on these types of race tracks with this package this rules package they wanted to build a new one brad said no this is the car i want to race they're like we can build a better car he said no i want to drive this race car to try to win the championship you make brad makes his mind up he's hard-headed he's analytical and he thinks about things all week long and he makes his mind up and he's sticking with that he's not gonna change his mind chase pushing him hard into the turn got him up the racetrack a bit but not enough to clear him so keselowski has all sorts of pressure now chase is really trying to make things hard on brad when you stay real close to the guy's bumper it takes the air off the spoiler lifts the air off of the car in the front in the lead this there off the back of the car makes it really loose takes takes the rear tires kind of off the track a little bit that right there is where all day long chase elliot's been really good on the exit of turn two so he made a little bit of ground slow lap car here break this battle up a little bit really slow [Music] so now a little breath there for brad keselowski up front keslowski now leading laps at phoenix we haven't seen him up front yet of the championship four legano has already led 117 laps chase elliott was up front for 38. and now it's keslowski's turn up front so brad keselowski leading the championship four with just 15 laps to go in stage two [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] kozlowski's still up front nascar comes through his championship on nbc telecast presented by usaa and things heating up up front again chase elliot right there on the back bumper of the two of brad keselowski all over the two and you wonder like why did he just go lower and go around it will it there's no grip down there it's slower so he's going to try to dive down into the corner slide up in front of brad here and take away the line from two car brad's gonna cross over brad do it brad lifted early into three he gave it up getting into three lifted early so he'd accelerate sooner to get underneath chase elliot now will brad do that down here we haven't seen anybody try to slide job in three and four he doesn't clear him so he's gonna have to get past right here because the momentum of the nine cars is too much if this is for the race win a little bit later you might have grown up in front of him oh yeah yeah that's what i was going to ask you all i felt like i'm watching like a heavyweight battle kind of measuring each other up in round five or six this is a 12-round match but you know you're kind of showing each other to him and not show everything well i like what brad did right there over in one and two where that's the first guy we've seen do that say okay you're underneath me i know what you're going to do you're going to put a slide on me i'm going to fight you back i'm going to lift early let you slide up let you lose your momentum and i'm going to accelerate back by you that was great move by brad but maybe showed it a little bit too early steve like you just talked about you got to save a little something right and if you're at home looking at that nine card you said man the number's a little funny they look a little greener than they do yellow all four hendricks running that 48 number that color the jimmy runs kind of a tribute to the champ yeah i thought the knife would just drive away i'm surprised that hasn't happened here brad's hung on the back of this car like you're trying to figure out who's better i'm not sure i figured it out yet look at brad driving in here he's buried it into the corner see if he can keep the pace off the corner made a lot of round up he did steve your point about learning from each other i think this is a lot of that's going on right here in the corner chase up near the wall when he came out of turn four that's a bad spot to catch a left car and it's checked up to nine a little bit brad wants to get underneath him to try to use that 53 as a pick he's gonna get there three wide down the back straight away oh a little contact maybe but lap car and chase chase up the racetrack here brad this is what's so difficult on the exit of the corner chase he'll have so much more momentum yeah wonder if brad could have tried to really have been aggressive to slow him down with the side draft there i'm guessing a cheer went back up at the dawsonville pool room when chase elliot got back out in front they're probably watching pretty intently right now as this two cars put the pressure on brat on the chase down into turn three free to go in this stage brad got a great run through the middle of the corner right there stay alongside him this is what you're talking about little slide jack now what does he do down here into one what is going on i thought the nine was just so much better the two what's going on as we're at phoenix for a championship and this one-mile racetrack has delivered the balance from the bottom lane to the top lane the rules package the pressure whatever combination it is it's the right combination brad he drives in the corner gains all that ground on chase [Music] yeah one more time around in stage two will elliot be able to hold off brad keselowski right on his back bumper once again through one and two oh he's got chase loose looking left here what can he do down here in turn three he doesn't have a power line oh he's gonna sail it in there fights to win stage two what a move yeah you asked the tart what they might do at the end of the race well they they did it right there that's what if if you if you're on the inside going into turn three that's the move you make to try to win the championship does that mean you lift in the old video game turn back underneath them we hadn't seen anybody sort of do the slide job in three and four just one and two but it works down here that's good to know later in the race i love it definitely worked out for brad keselowski so joey logano wins stage one brad keselowski wins stage two real wrong nascar on nbc is brought to you by sonic this is how we sonic toyota and by usaa join usaa in thanking those who serve at usaa.com veterans day well guys later tonight on nbcsn following the nascar america post race show stay tuned for the e-nascar coca-cola high-racing championship special it is going to be a blast at 7 30 tonight a champion will be decided racing for a 300 000 purse the biggest ever 100 grand for the winner big night for esports in e nascar let's take a look at some of this awesome racing between these two championship contenders for the final lap brad gets underneath the nine car right there gets him a little bit loose off turn two down the back straight away wonder what he was gonna do right here he decided to finally just overdrive the corner slide up in front of chase elliot first time we've seen it down in one in three and four we've seen it at one and two today but red keselowski showing his hand a little early here i love the pass but did you want to show it that soon also just a little concerned with the speed in the nine car you know before and when he takes the lead we think he's got the best car he takes the lead and then the you know the tour brackets last he's all over him and then passes him right there at the end so what are they what are they struggling with and what they need to do to make that car better for for chase long run and interesting to me because you can see right here the 37 car ryan priest was actually on pit road and they couldn't open pit road because of that but he's lost power in this car but you know of the four championship contenders there's even a time in this race where all four of them haven't looked fast enough there's also been a time in the race where all four of them look like the best car so what these changes that are coming up right here are going to be huge let's listen to brad keselowski and his team just a little bit too free off would be my biggest complaint but maybe that's what i gotta beat tj one is really going away everybody's struggling with drive jeremy there you go thinks he's a little bit free off but then making the assessment that other people are having the same problem why is that important because that's an indication the chat track is starting to change and you may have to make a bigger change than you would have great information from brad to give his crew chief what he needs great information and the pressure purely on these crew chiefs in these pit crews now going to have a great pit stop but as a crew chief is it air pressure is the track bar is a little bit of wedge what is that magic knob i have to turn to give my driver that last little bit they're so evenly matched the nerves are there rick because you want to make your car better but at what expense in another area of the racetrack marty fourth is the furthest back denny hamlin has been after that tough restart last time and you can also hear a little doubt in his voice telling chris gabe hart it's a little bit better in three and four but i'm still just too loose on exit and i have no forward drive off like here at planet koslowski say on the radio a moment ago so chris gabart going to take a little bit of a bigger swing here going to make a track bar and air pressure adjustment dave big swing happened last time for brad kazlowski you saw the result he won the stage smaller swing this time for goodyear tires and sunoco fuel parker the same case for joy legato the 22 car pool wolf only doing the left side air pressure adjustment just a little too loose on the extra corner kelly sally said the nine car got a little bit tighter wasn't rotating as well as he liked he said it felt like it was getting lazy as more rubber got on the track it was an air pressure adjustment and some tape on the nose for the nine penske pretty strong here logano blaney kozlowski in the top five chase elliott needs a spot he's up front for the restart out west for nascar's championship this year four drivers they're seeking to claim the sports ultimate prize and they're going to have to go through one another if they want to do it a year unlike any other in the history of nascar comes down to this final race and right now chase elliott has the upper hand a showdown like no other out here in the desert phoenix raceway we've already mentioned how incredible it is to transition the beaches of miami and the sand is the way the championship used to be determined now it's the sand of the desert here in phoenix two great places to be in november but i will tell you guys no practice no qualifying has kind of settled in it's the norm here in 2020 stage one's over though stage two is over no more guaranteed yellows no more guaranteed breaks we may have yellows we may not 114 to go 114 laps between one of these teams and a championship let's listen into the two radio all right man long way to go here we'll get that back good car head down bud head down yes sir yeah he lost a couple spots uh four spots on pit road was up there it won that the race obviously to stage two but then was it a bad pit stop here steve well you tell me i mean look there's nothing that stands out a little slow in the right rear jack man goes around it's not the cleanest left side you're gonna see him jack it up and right here you know the exchange on the left front pretty good a little slow on the left i mean i bring you this because i'd love to show you how bad the pit stop was it cost them four spots that's how competitive this field is i mean it was a little off a few tenths of a second and that's four spots i mean these teams these drivers dale you asked me earlier how they went through four i really wish i had an answer but it seems like the competition is as equal as it's ever been stu carr right here they're going to have to get it together lost 10 spots on pit road today you can't do that in a championship battle 12 car his teammate in front of him laney chose the outside line brad starting fifth on the inside line all right guys let's look at the ram trucks built to serve before this restart restarts we've seen how poor that they are junior they're only going to get more aggressive as this race goes on that's right i think keeping up with the changes the track is changing it's a almost a living thing out there as we start to wear away this pj-1 will they chase up the racetrack to continue to find grip finding pj one that's not been used or will they all gravitate to the bottom and setting up the key pass we just saw brett keselowski find a way around chase elliot gonna have to do that at the right time [Music] off of turn two look at brad keselowski though coming from fifth place back up to fourth and once again the championship four nose to tail denny hamlin putting a lot of pressure on joey logano right now he was almost into the back of the 22. let's check his feet up a little bit to keep from getting into him to the bottom of the racetrack down here one and two not in the traction compound on new tires important to know if we get a late caution guys come in and get stickers this may be where we see the race one denny the first one to move up in that traction compound but it opens the door for keslowski i'm not sure that movement of danny hamill was on purpose it almost looks like he chased the back of his car in the middle of the corner of it and this movement from denny right here though battling back on the outside good lap there for denny hamlin gets him back in front of the two as they go through three and four chase ellie still uses the bottom of the racetrack joey logano moved up the racetrack found a little more speed up there try to close that gap chase sees it gets that information from his spotter takes the high line himself down in one and two coming up on the final 108 laps of the 2020 season and once again the championship for nose to tail out front running for a title and we asked the question at the beginning of the show will it take a win to win the championship and i think the answer is yes look at this they're right now fighting the top four for this championship marty it's just fascinating that they're one two three four right now denny hamlin sitting in third this is the part of the racetrack where he struggles the most in three and four they've really fought it all day long and you gotta wonder if everyone's saying that traction compound is starting to go away especially in three and four when you gotta start working on being better on the bottom this end of the racetrack dave that's where hamlin's good one and two that's his strength brad keselowski runs behind him in fourth now remember lost four spots on that pit stop the hallmark of the crew all year long has not been their outright speed but then their consistency that has bit them today with 107 laps to go probably one more pit stop maybe two the crew needs to pick it up and be their championship best for brad i want to take a look at the toyota driver update denny hamlin mentioned running up in the top four all day in the third position now the highest he's been his second he has been the one championship four driver that hasn't been up front has not led a lap yet in this race but of course the last lap is the most important one that's the one you want to be in front for one that's going to pay the big prize a season's worth of work even more than that for these four drivers this isn't just one season these are the careers collapse so we talked about restarts and how aggressive they're gonna get let's check out brad keselowski on that last one came in leading came out fifth what are you gonna do to make it up i'm gonna go three wide on the very bottom drive underneath denny hamlin don't even get on the racetrack just make the shortest way around and work my way back up to this field now he does not make the pass on hamlin but he does get to fourth taking advantage of all the racetrack available oh heck some of that wouldn't even racetrack but wherever he had to go it was paved check this back here this 24 car william byron running in sixth place jack and house unbelievable career as a crew chief 708 starts 82 wins seven championships moving on to director competition at hendrick motorsports checking out one of the very very best ever in this sport kelly and i chatted with chad earlier this morning and asked him how he was feeling he said i'm really pretty good it hasn't totally hit me that might change in the drop of the green flag that might change in the checkered flex but he said he thinks when it's really gonna hit him is come daytona in february he said the offseason will probably feel the same but when i am not on a pit box calling the shots at the daytona 500 that's when he expects it to hit him he plans to spend more time at home with his family but he also plans to spend some time around other motorsports he might even show up at sebring for the imsa 12 hour race next week he said he might go check out some of jimmy johnson's indycar races but he definitely wants to broaden his horizons and experience some of those things he has missed out while achieving all he has here in nascar david that'd be fun to see chad at the indycar races wouldn't it jimmy will be having a great time there not such a great time on that last pit stop his rear tire changer actually fell down so he restarted in the 11th position but he's got four of those positions back we said the 48 was fast earlier it's one of the better cars on the track today a nice way to end a career for jimmy johnson yeah i mentioned earlier how much you know meant to be jimmy as a teammate well that time chad and i basically our offices shared a wall we spent a lot of early mornings a lot of late nights a lot of time at the coffee pot talking about things he taught me so much about crew chiefing and i couldn't think of a better person to move up in that position ahead of motorsports we're gonna talk about a leader a general guy that's gonna you know keep everybody focused never once in his career did you question what his motivation was it's been all about trophies and i think he can bring that same just determination into management a hedge motorsports excited for him when we talked to him at the middle of the year he said we need to give the drivers a better product well now he's going to be in a position where he can give all four of the drivers at hendrick motorsport a better product well he said he didn't know when he was going to hit him it's going to hit him when all the crew chiefs start yelling at him i need better cars that's what he's going to hit nascar cup series championship on nbc from phoenix raceway this telecast presented by usaa still out front chase elliott we look down our aerial coverage brought to you by geico and the gap closing a bit now between legano and chase elliot as elliott trying to hold on to that lead you can get in gear for race day check out the greatest selection of t-shirts hats die cast much much more for all your favorite drivers you can visit nascar.com looking back from chase elliot's chevrolet on that chevrolet on board you see the gap back to the 22 of joey logano all right steve so we know they have to have a pit stop we know at least one more time they'll have to come to pitt road we saw brad keselowski come earlier when the green flag stops we're going in stage two do they try the similar strategy or are they gonna wait for the full fuel run before they come to pit road i don't think they're gonna run it completely out of fuel new tires are still better and there's an advantage to coming earlier it's really you come as early as your stomach can handle uh and i really think it's different for keselowski and fourth it is with elliott in first you know you don't want to hit from the lead with a gamble when you have control of the race but you see either the 11 or the two who are third and fourth of the championship four respectively they may decide this is the only chance or our best chance to leapfrog those leaders but we're still talking 23 laps on these tires 90 to go we're a long ways away 40 laps from a pit stop uh pretty easy [Music] outside playoff championship four ryan blaney's hung around in the top 10 running in fifth position william byron jimmy johnson hendrick teammates having a good run in sixth and seventh kevin harvest made it into the top 10 and eight kurt bush is hung around the top ten most of the day in the ninth place matt dimino just as well he's hung around tenth place throughout the race keselowski taking that third spot from hamlin [Music] accomplishing the wall earlier today worked his way all the way back up to 11. kozlowski continues to move forward when he has an issue on pit road they're able to get it back on the racetrack if the time's running out you can't continue to start at the back and move forward at some point you have to start in you know attacking distance be up there next to his guys hamlet on the other hand just it's good he's fourth but he just doesn't have quite the car all right let's go through the field brought to you by sonic kelly start us off coochie val augustus has worked with some incredible drivers over the years including champion kyle busch hall of famer mark martin and four-time champion in hall of famer jeff gordon so i asked him what attributes chase shares with those guys he said look when it comes to car setup and what he's looking out of for a race car he reminds me of mark martin when it comes to just raw ability talent and speed behind the race car it's reminiscent of kyle push but he said chase's greatest attribute is his intelligence he said i feel like he is well beyond his ears perhaps 10 years beyond his 24 years of age but he's still got all the youth you want of a 24 year old well kelly trying to chase him down right now is joe again on that 22 card remember he and paul wolfe got put together at the beginning this year for the first time they started off great some early wins but then as we went into the summer months they really started to struggle they just were not connected they weren't understanding each other the two had to sit down and have a chat about what are we missing here what's the disconnect they eventually figured out because we got in the playoffs they put themselves in championship connection and today they made very new adjustments from very little talking from joe legano that's how connected these two are now dave brad keselowski runs third and if you're a red sox fan you're familiar with the phrase why not us before they won the 2004 championship i believe brad coined it this year because so many people felt like maybe he wasn't on the best end of the crew chief swap deal jeremy bullins didn't have a championship but brad said the way i see it he's just the next one at team penske to get one that's how hard they're racing today marty dave when i asked andy hamilton earlier this week does he need a championship to call his career as success he quickly said no he said look at the drivers in that category have not won a title mark martin and also junior johnson i can't carry their helmet bag if i don't win a title it doesn't mean i haven't had a terrific career a moment ago chris gaber told hamlin it's time to put the cape on and lock in hamlin trying to get back to the front but struggling with the handling kelly ryan bellini had a rough start to the playoffs and was eliminated from this championship early but he's had top five finishes in three of the last four races in his crew chief todd gordon told me they wanted to close out this season by continuing to ride that momentum in their first year as driver and crew team together he said look we've identified some areas where we need to improve we'll work on that all in the off season and be ready to go in 2021 jimmy johnson runs six of course his career numbers outstanding 19 years 83 wins five championships in a row seven total but chase elliot his teammate might have said it best this week when he reminded us his friendship meant so much more than his being a teammate to me that's the way a lot of people feel about this championship driver kelly william byron running seventh well with chad canals moving up that means he'll have a new crew chief next year and it'll be rudy bugle a familiar face because the two of these two of them ran together in the truck series in fact won seven races together so william byron looking forward to getting back with a familiar face next year marty kelly after the struggles early on kevin harvick finally starting to come to life here at one of his favorite racetracks he used to come to this racetrack with his grandfather back in the day bought him to see the old winston west races and of course the cup series races when they were here as well harvick finally back in the top ten and moving forward they made the car a little bit better he said it has a little bit no grip right now parker behind him in ninth place he's racing for two things today first of all to get his third consecutive top ten which would be a great way and build momentum for this team in the offseason the second he came to this race 14th and points 11 points out of 12 which would be a big mark for this team to get that close to the top 10 right now beating boyer who's in that 12 spot kelly pushing that number one car driving a brand new race car today he was eliminated from the championship a week ago and his crew chief matt mccall said hey our seasons had plenty of ups and downs but they feel like they really stepped up their performance here in the playoffs he said i feel like our pace has been better maybe the results haven't always been there to show for it this is another team that uh has a lot of confidence as they head into that kyle bush running in 11th place really rebounded well from hitting the wall pretty hard earlier had to come to pit road under green flag was two laps down at one point got a timely caution to get themselves cycled back into the lead laugh and now has good speed kind of holding off flint boyer and swelton warrior in 12 conversation about a point battle very tight point battle between the 14 car the 24 card 21 only a few part few points separated by each other rory trying to finish his career today in strong fashion 10 career wins for clint personality enthusiasm excitement all those things clint's biggest attribute great person marty i talked to clint this morning about the emotions of the final race 542 career starts and he said you know i was fine all weekend until i woke up this morning to about 68 text messages he said i was not expecting that he said honestly i did get a little emotional coming to the track today knowing hey it's my final start but as you guys have mentioned he will be on the broadcast booth next year he said i'm super excited for that rick with the fox guys to start off the season nascar cup series championship from phoenix raceway telecast presented by usaa [Music] [Music] nascar drive that's your live race day companion you can follow your favorite drivers by selecting up to eight different high definition cameras all you have to do visit nascar.com drive or you can download that mobile app today so steve right now the championship four driver that's running in the worst position is danny hamlin in fourth what can they do do they take a big swing at it when they come to pit road and maybe it's the last time they get to adjust on it well you have chase leading at jameson joe lagano only six tenths of a second back it's hamlin who's two and a half seconds back that i think is in the most trouble right now on the right hand side you see chris gabe you know a year ago at miami i was vocal of what i thought was a mistake chris gamehart made a big swing trying to put some tape on the nose of this 11 car it was too big of a piece put in the wrong location and this move right here is what eliminated the 11's chances that piece right there made the car overheat in future conversations he said you know steve i appreciate your feedback i have confidence that that was the right move but i heard your feedback about sometimes you gotta let your star be the star and i thought he took it out of daddy hanlon's hands with that move now a year later the slower of the championship four it's a quandary and there is no right answer and i have no thoughts on what he should do but his options are run nice and long or run short let's listen in what they're thinking tighter bud thinking [Applause] [Music] i love the confidence of chris capehart and danny hamlin having one another that right there seems like maybe they're going to run a little long marty but in the end i feel bad for gabe hart because at this point i don't know the answer should he try to be creative and help his driver or should he say you know we're pretty close 66 to go no reason here [Music] he said a moment ago i'm worried about the breaks that he had a long pedal on the brakes you know you go back to miami last year steve that was him really needing the last two percent then he felt like they were in range to go win the race right now they're in scramble mode they're three seconds behind chase elliot they clearly got to get the car better and in three and four where hamlin is right now that's where he's struggling the most that's why they struggled all day long but through that section of the track they've taken a car that's been loose now it's way too tight through there and denny has said that three times over the last five laps way too tight through three and four and the be ready the team is ready they just don't know what it's for denny has not commented further on that yet and the long pedal what does that mean and basically he's gotten the fluid in the brakes so hot that he's losing the pedal like the pedal goes further down toward the floorboard of the car before it starts to actually apply brake and slow the car down and you can't use the brakes so you have to start lifting earlier and give up a lot of track time to try to stay off of the pedal to allow the brakes to cool back down sometimes that long pedal will return if you can get some temperature out of those rates it's just such a hard decision because the superstars are the drivers as they should be my whole job in my career was to provide a car to show the drivers their skill set right to put the thing on so the question is what do you do right you're still i know three seconds seems like a lot but with a caution a good pit stop you could win it that way if you pin under green trying to be creative and the yellow comes out now you've removed your driver from the chance or will that be the call to win the championship there there's no clear right answer here these last 62 laps gonna be fascinating the best way to win this race is with speed and right now the two car has it 22 cars just he's run these guys down brad keselowski's making better lap time and he's going to need it his pit crew so far today has been the slowest of the four kind of saw can't find a way to step it up he's gonna have to have this speed you know he saw that how good that two is on the long run but his final run to the finish won't be a long run so what can they do to improve that car to give him the speed earlier sooner so that he can attack and not have to wait until this lap this far into the run to have that speed over the other two guys some of the track position right he's started a little bit behind every time so maybe he's had to hustle his car a little earlier than that maybe burn their stuff up a little bit so we're getting to that kind of magical spot 53 laps in the tire 60 laps to go and two or three more laps the math would say that's the perfect time to pit have the newest tires both sides of the run but as i always say there's that risk caution can end your season in the hopes for championship dave steve you heard that discussion quickly from brad that the temps are spectacular they've been adding small pieces of tape all day long to get the engine to the optimum level but also allowing it to use the downforce that the tape adds to that car makes it turn better they feel like they've gotten it where it needs to be brad said the balance is the same we're just faster parker for a ghana just ahead of him that 22 car right now struggling with a tight and the center described as a 2.5 tight or two and a half against that sense just struggling that center portion and lacking a bit that drive off that they fought throughout this race especially at after ej1 wears off he's just been struggling on the excellent corners trying to keep that nine honest i just my stomach is churning for these crew chiefs i mean i've been on the box trying to win a regular race or improve a good day by when you come to pitt road it's so nerve-wracking to push the button on the radio and say pit because you know there's no going back that is jumping off the wall right there and that's for a regular day this isn't a regular day this is first second and third for a championship what are the crew chiefs thinking what kind of gamble are they going to have and in one lap when you're this close one lap on new tires can make a difference if brad keselowski comes a lap early he could leapfrog the nine car now oh there you go good information junior we always just talk about that right hey man won't be long just start thinking about where you want to come make sure your brakes are where you want them give you a little heads up that we're starting to think that way that's right if you're if you're adjusting the brakes to the front or to the rear you want to reset all that so you can slow the car down hard with the brake pedal on the pit road and also you want to just start taking a look over there at pit road and remembering exactly how you can challenge your car into that pit entry and get everything you can get we see blaney hitting pit road that makes it even more difficult because now as you see other guys out there now on the track you have new tires and old tires those sometimes can generate a yellow you know that old guy old tires trying to get out of the way fresh tires can quickly turn them around these pit cycles this one becomes the most dangerous for a kind of abstract yellow you know the change of pace on the track steve one of the things about the 11 car i find interesting is he's gone far enough behind now even if he pitted early can he pit early enough to make that ground up like the game for pitting early now may not be worth the risk at all so you can almost go the other way let them all pit and run your car out until it's out of fuel and just hope you get the yellow joey legato likes the left-hand turn he's gonna be the first one to come to pitt road there you have it paul wolf the most aggressive of the championship four he said this is the moment this is what we're gonna try to do didn't show his hand denny hamlin from that distant back he shows that he's gonna come with the 22 so he's not gonna run long two of the four are on pit road will the other two follow them down marty here comes denny hamlin yes talking about turns three and four just being way too tight for him chris gaypart we'll see what he does does he loosen up the car and make a big swing with a chassis adjustment or just make air pressure adjustment in the forward goodyear tires we'll see what hamlin does what's going on in front of you parker well one thing that made it easier for paul to call joe logano down as he remarked at the vibration and come back that they had earlier in the middle of stage two it's four figure tires and air pressure adjusting for joey logano no positions gained by the eleven and their crew on pit road dave that kid's lost his spotter coleman presley reminded him nothing special that means don't speed just get it in well that's what the crew needs to do here solid pit stop by the two crew they need to change those four goodyear tires plug that snowco fuel in and get him through solidly kelly hey celia said that nine car just got a little bit too tight we just saw the wrench go in to move the track bar up on top of that four goodyear tires to no go fuel there you have it the 22 the first to pit road aggressive by paul wolfe and there is the pass the 22 joey logano will be the first of the championship four not on the racetrack but on a pit cycle first to pit road good on his entry good hunter's exit good in the pit box the nine to chase elliot now has to track down joey logano 51 laps to try to win a championship and steve where's the two the two came out behind the eleven he pitted right behind the nine look how far behind brad keselowski is the nine car is driving into turn three into turn one the two isn't even there yet he was a trouble on the rear guys trouble on the rear it was slow there you have it issues on the rear for brad kozlowski they pitted a second back now they're you know now they lost like three seconds on that pit stop exchange he just gotta find a way to get this together they've lost spots on pit road all race long out front though of the championship four it's chase jealous we go nascar nonstop 45 laps to go and legano's out front but here comes chase elliot now a lot of congestion here they're getting into lap traffic and elegant has closed the gap he's on the back bumper the 22. they're too wide in front of legato pagano nowhere to go right here lap car timmy hill up high is going to predict the line the 22 is going to have to take now chase elliott three wide with those lap cars going down into turn one legano car legato looks loose right there in the middle of the racetrack you saw the back of the car move around a little bit i bet chase elliott saw it too he showed the weakness down to the bottom turn three 22 off the bottom of the racetrack a little bit missed the corner the knives right there so sally let's put that front bumper right to the rear bumper of the 22 22 is loose make him even looser pushing him into one now for the lead here comes chase elliott catching joey logano is another he's pushing him look at the aggression from the nine car what a pass by chase elliott leading once again in phoenix joey trying to get back to the bumper of the night car trying to keep the fight going and we do not see chase elliott too often get this aggressive the man he is after this championship today what a drive started last on the field worked his way all the way up lost the lead to that pit cycle ran the 22 down and drove by him joe logano changed his mindset right there went to the top and three and four and it worked for him so immediate one and two he tried to do the same thing got blocked by lap traffic see right here legato moving up the racetrack trying to pull away now the gap a half a second separating the top two can legano regroup and catch back up to that nine and fight him for this championship in the win oh see logano loose off of turn two yeah joey's giving everything he can try not to let this nine car chase elliot get too far away chase pushing him down the back straightaway off into turn three joey up the racetrack chase is going to just commit say i'm taking it i'm using the racetrack up here does a great job clears that 22 car [Music] [Applause] tap on the bumper here until he's like hey [Music] i like that chase knew he didn't waste a whole lot of time to get around joey and give joey too much time to start maneuvering to take away his downforce in his air he just i'm gonna come through here i'm gonna take this spot and is that the pass for the championship i mean here's this 24 year old looking for his first title wants to become just the third father-son combo to win a championship in nascar at the highest level still his dad awesome bill over there on the right yeah not only that you know if he wins the championship today he'll be the first driver to win the most popular driver in the championship in the same year since 1988 when his dad did that it's pretty amazing he may be nervous in that car but there's two people right there mom and dad i suspect they're the most nervous you know jeff you talk about the nerves i asked chase that this week as a chase in martinsville when you in a muslim situation in those closing laps you had that big lead could you feel the nerves could you feel the moment and he said honestly no i didn't let my mind wander what could be happening all i told myself is if akasha comes out what do i do what do i need he always thought ahead of what could be next here we are with 36 laps to go i have to ask myself i assume he's doing the same thing every lap asking himself if i need a short run what adjustments do i need what do i communicate to my crew chief the one thing about chase elliott okay first of all it's racing over right we have seen so many times yes in 12 of the last 16 races the last run has been 12 laps or less so this race is not over but the thing i love about chase elliott is that his self-accountability after every single thing that didn't work out for him in his career he's the guy that stands up and says that's on me i did something wrong and you know what that does that prepares you for these moments because he's already accepted responsibility through his whole career so he wants that he wants the responsibility he wants the pressure and he's sure taking advantage of it today yeah he said himself i have been down on myself maybe a little bit too hard at some point in time throughout my career when i finished second so many times before i got that first win but he said the one thing i know is like martinsville we have to perform a must-win situation a week ago at martinsville to get into this championship form he knew what it was going to take he delivered at martinsville and right now he's delivering here as we see the two trying to get by the number 11 of denny hamlin well once again we see kevlar a little bit slower pit stop a pretty good race car trying to recover danny hamlin in 11 the opposite had pretty good pit stop pretty good pit cycle just doesn't have the car to keep up so that's my question to the two drivers 33 laps to go we know where chase's situation is but if you're logano kazlowski hamlin what are you focused on right here task at hand improving your race car searching the groove making adjustments you know i mean junior at this point it's kind of everything you got with 32 to go yeah all joey legato wants to do is just try to stay within distance of that nine card and hope that lap traffic works out better for you than it does the leader chase elliot i think these other guys are going to need a caution i just feel like that brad there's they're all all these four cars are just too even for brad and the 11 of denny hamlin just to drive up there and pass the snack our chase elliott with only 30 laps left brad keselowski is impressive on the timing chart though just so far back 3.9 seconds back but he's been the best car the last three laps just that pit cycle cost him so much time i don't know if he can get there in 31 laps yeah the pit stops have just not been good enough for this team today it's really hurt brad keselowski i i think i think with denny hamlin the only thing you can do right now is make sure you stay in fourth right so you come on pit road you have the best shot of picking up spots if you lose enough you lose enough spots he's not in jeopardy of losing any spots right now but if you lose spots it makes it that much more difficult to try to come out on the front row marty and jeffy in four and a half seconds behind you can hear the frustration in denny hamlin's voice he has only said one word on this run tight that's all he's told chris gaypark they just do not have the handling they need in the fedex toyota today he's been back here and fourth and it seems the further this race has gone on they have really gotten away from the handling they're pretty good early on but here late in the race they have just struggled with the 11 car they certainly junior you are right need a caution figure to get back in the game [Music] jeff you mentioned it we've had a lot of cautions at the end of these races it's happened in the infinity race yesterday in the truck race we had a late yellow that changed the whole comp complexity of the race [Music] there's a crew chief i'm on top of the box you know whether you're chase elliott's guy allen got the scent or whether you're gabe hart for denny hamlin you have to always be fighting always be planning right so what am i thinking if i am chris gabe hart can i take four tires and make a big enough adjustment or does it a two tire change a track position and hope we get a great restart if i'm alan gustafsson that is so good chase elliott is so confident he's not willing to think this thing's over he's confident he's going to have a restart he questions allen allen very confidently says oh we are don't worry we are the same way when you're a driver with a two-second lead you know a cautious coming i mean that's just in your head we asked chase we said what are you willing to do to win a championship and he said you know guys honestly i want to be fast enough that it doesn't matter i i don't want to be in that position where i've got to decide what do i want to do for a championship like at martinsville he was pulling away from his competition there he said i don't want to have to be put in that position i want to be fascinating right now he is you have to prepare yourself though because if that caution does come out and you have this restart of this racetrack you know you're going to be too wide three wide you know everybody around you is going to be exceptionally aggressive you're going to have to match that everybody knows it 2.6 seconds to get back to joey logano running in second right now and it's kozlowski back four seconds behind chase elliot denny hamlin almost seven seconds behind chase elliott 14 cars in the lead lap so if the yellow does come out i think that uh you know that helps a crew chief understand that you know you're definitely gonna have to come to pit road there's not enough cars to probably protect you unless you get down to maybe a green white checker or a very short run we might see something crazy uh but you know these guys are gonna have they currently have 30 laps on their tires so tires have mattered we saw the truck race yellow come out we saw the xfinity series race a yellow come out there was the gap you saw where denny hamlin was in comparison to chase elliott on this racetrack chase elliott rockets down the back stretch early in the race we had a car just lightly brush the wall down in turn one and two and that brought the yellow out okay ellie is not being easy on that throttle right against the wall on the corner exit trying to get as much gap as he can knowing anything can happen look a lot like martinsville though when they needed to go get it done they drove away from the field there [Music] pretty interesting we've never seen chase in this situation where he's this is his first appearance in the championship four and we're learning a lot about this young man and how he handles the pressure very steady and it seems to not affect him seems like up to this point the pressure is not too much for chase elliot that's the big question mark for all for the championship for when they come here it's as high as it gets and as a matter of fact joe degano said pressure's a privilege we're privileged that we are put in this pressure because we have the opportunity to win a championship well right now chase elliott he is rising to the pressure well joey logano might get a chance for all of that privilege to fall his way if anything happens like what happened yesterday we saw it in nick's finished serious race chase briscoe one of the championship four with three laps to go ends up weak flirting having a left rear tire going down spins his car out in the middle of three and four that brings the decision to pit the 22 of citric comes to pit road the seven didn't have tires and with this the 22 a three wide battle on a green white checker and in the end cedric wins the race and the championship we have seen it time and time again so chase elliot also understands that as does alan gustafson crew chief on top of the pit box they're already planning and steve do you have a notebook do you say okay if it's 15 laps to go if it's 12 laps to go if it's under 8 laps to go this is what we're gonna do you have a lot of data in the end you know you just have to make a gut decision that's the big difference um you know it's easy to sit up here and say what i think they should do and could do but this is totally different and you know telling your driver making a call leading a team just like i sure i'm sure it is driving the car i never was able to do that but from a crew chief standpoint these calls at the end of these races what you live for much like what joe lagana said you know that is what the best part of the job is but it doesn't make it any easier or any less nerve-racking still good see chase elliot just very smoothly working his way through lap traffic he's being really smart has a big enough lead where he doesn't have to push the issue right here still late in this race got the championship four drivers still running into top four the champion since 1975's won the final race twice 1998-2011 then in 2014 they've won it every time since and here again today it looks like the champion is going to win again well the running one two three four the championship four and the guy right behind him running in fifth in his final race in the cup series jimmy johnson he's put together a great race he's running with the best that have been running all season long as the championship four are the only ones in front of him but this final race for jimmy johnson i know a big send-off for him he's going to go indy car racing at least the road courses and he's looking forward to that i mean he mentioned that he wants to run well there so that he can potentially get a good sports car ride too uh has talked about letting his kids grow up overseas live abroad and do things for his kids he said that's the one thing they sacrificed for me i want to now be able to give back to whatever they want to do well teammate chase elliott continues to lead kelly and rick you guys were talking about pressure a moment ago and the question was posed to chase earlier this week that if perhaps there was less pressure on him because he is so young and presumably will have more opportunities to chase a championship and chase said look you'd like to think that but we really don't know what tomorrow brings we don't know when it'll be our last race our last win our last championship for appearance so it's important that you just soak it in right now and when asked what makes them a championship caliber team we said look when we are performing at our best we're as good as the best and i'd say they have been just that here today closing in on his teammate joey logano for that second spot remember chase elliott this is his first appearance in the championship four everyone else has been here done that so far chase has answered that pressure call always amazed at the athletes that can enjoy or see the video look at this opera this is like this opportunity be thankful for it you know not come in here and go oh my god the pressure i gotta this is this is it that's my title chance the guys that come in here and go man what a great opportunity this is for me and you wonder if his dad you know being an ex in that you know he's been there done that and that was one of the things chase said that his dad told him was enjoy it like go have a good time because you want it so bad it almost takes the fun out of it you put all you put pressure on yourself and you crumble in the moment and some of these guys just have what it takes or just don't let that happen that's a big pass right there if we do get a caution where brad kizlowski got by his teammate joey logano joey fighting back knowing how important this position could be coming on pit road you guys were mentioning with chase elliott appreciate the moment is what he said to us head down ice forward but appreciate the moment that you're in and that's pretty uh pretty mature coming from a 24 year old listen we talked a lot about chase allen take a minute to talk about alan gustafsson i think one of the brightest minds on pear road this is the guy with 30 wins on top of the pit box with names kyle busch jeff gordon mark martin and now chase elliott so many years in the sport of working with seasoned veterans he kind of started with chase he took that young driver that xfinity series champion and i don't say groomed him because i don't think chase needed grooming but believed him and they work together i think chase leaned on allen's experience i think alan leans on chase youth and enthusiasm and skill you know he is a driven crew chief and you know think about this 16 years in the grind i was down there that grind will do it start at henry motorsports back in 2000 he has worked there 20 years worked his way up but you know for me i know how much this championship will mean to chase elliot if he can pull it off in his legacy i also love to see people within the garage that have committed their entire life to success trying to find success and in my mind when i look at his resume the only thing missing for alan is this final trophy and now he has a chance for seven laps to do to go to do it with chase ellie this racing family bill elliot the 1988 champion watching on as his son who followed him around was in victory lane with him throughout his career and then took over behind the wheel through the truck series through the xfinity series and now to the highest level of stock car racing he's up front he's five laps away from his first championship i watched phil elliott many friday and saturday nights and local short tracks all over the country going with his son chase elliott didn't chase that experience but also letting chase do it his way bill elliot great example of a dad with tons of experience been there knows how to win one of the biggest names of the sport but smart enough knowing that chase elliot's gotta make his own mistakes gotta make his own way always there always supportive but letting chase do it the way he wants to do it there you see mom and dad watching on the dawsonville pool room take a look we don't want them to celebrate too early but they understand the magnitude of what's happening right now chase elliott looking to become the third youngest driver ever to win a championship in the cup series he's got a healthy lead over brackenzlowski with three laps to go fastest car on the racetrack that time by still driving his heart out you look at first-time cup champions bill rexford at 23 years old was the youngest coming up on two to go [Music] remembering it took a win a week ago to even be here had to win martinsville to make the championship four did he go back-to-back wins to be a champion nascar's most popular driver he can make this last lap and a half holy become more popular this is important one lap to go presented by credit one bank one more time around one mile away from a championship for chase elliot he goes down the back stretch for the final time the 24 year old from dawsonville georgia is about to join his father awesome bill in elite company chase elliott is a nascar cup series champion [Music] [Applause] very good the streak is still alive you had to win the race to win the championship but chase elliott at just 24 years old shows that he was the best he was the champion in 2020 you see mr h rick hendrick there team owner congratulating the team how about this there's jimmy johnson you remember when he won at watkins glenn the win at watkins glen where he ran out of gas and jimmy johnson pulled up behind him and pushed him back to victory lane so he could celebrate all these drivers bumping in that nine car that's like giving giving your buddy a high five out on the racetrack he can't even believe it you want to be the guy that's in that car winning the championship but you have so much respect for when chase elliot just pulled off [Music] what an awesome moment to have a seven-time champion roll up there next to you tell you congratulations all these drivers coming up to chase elliot tells you how well liked he is amongst his peers how respected he is amongst his peers for the way he drives on the racetrack the way he treats him off the racetrack he's going to be a popular champion the third family to do it father-son combo as you see the emotion reaching chase now tear it up a little bit there just thinking about all the hard work all the years racing short tracks the trucks and xfinity series all those laps [Music] hot miserable days disappointments successes jimmy johnson they called the polish victory lap allen for wiki did this where he's driver side to the fans waving and now he comes up to the young driver that just won his first championship it's gonna be a handoff right there is that the passing of the torch right there yeah that could be handoff chase may run here and go make his run at that seven titles [Music] [Applause] [Music] remember ready to hand him the championship flag [Music] [Music] [Music] back down here to celebrate with his team all his guys standing on pit wall [Applause] champion baby [Applause] the pit crew flawless today it's a team sport chase elliot congratulations from his crew chief alan chase elliott the champion kelly and i think it's all finally starting to soak in for chase elliot the sport's most popular driver now it's newest champion just 20 days shy of his 25th birthday the youngest champion since jeff gordon won his first of four titles back in 1995. that's for you champion it's going to look good on you [Applause] chase you've been asked all week time and again what it would mean to you to win this championship you didn't have an answer back then how do you answer that one now i'm not sure that i still even know i just man my lost words this is unbelievable i just uh my gosh we did it i mean we did it that's all i got to tell you unreal uh championship crew chief alan gustafson is now a nascar cup series champion and very deserving i just can't say enough about our group you know i felt like we took some really big strides this year and last week was a huge one and to come out of that with a win and a shot to come here and have a chance to race is unbelievable you know and and heck i don't know i don't even know this is unreal well taste you got back around joey logano in that 22 and then you just had to wait it out i know you were anticipating a late caution we've seen him in the other championship races what was going through your mind in those closing laps yeah just waiting on the caution as always you know i saw joey was pretty loose there and felt like i needed to get to him while i could and i knew i had been kind of tight on the longer run and i knew he was probably going to get a little better so just uh unbelievable i i i mean i just never would have thought you know that this year would have gone like it has and i mean nascar cup series champion are you kidding me unreal you come from a hall of fame pedigree you've got your your parents bill and cindy here to celebrate with you they're behind the car here what does it mean to you to add to the family legacy oh it's unbelievable you know i mean all you can all you can dream for is opportunity and i've been very fortunate to have that over the years you know and that's all thanks to some great people you know my parents obviously have played a huge role past years been been tough i lost my best friend about a year ago tonight i lost my grandmother last year and all those things bring families closer so i really can't thank them enough mr hendrick for taking a chance on me and believing i mean when a lot of people didn't i think it really says a lot about him and then to have a championship sponsor like napa all of our partners and chevrolet uh huge thanks to team hendrick and everybody at our shop that peaked at the right time and you know that that's all we can ask for it almost seemed like a changing of the guard we saw a lot of people come by to congratulate you there after the finish including the seven time champion jimmy johnson what did that moment mean to you oh my gosh i mean to share a moment like that and jimmy's last race and and uh to win and and to lock the championship i mean i just those are moments you can only dream of you know and this is a this is a dream i'm just uh hoping i don't ever wake up well he said he didn't get to celebrate the win from martinsville a week ago but you can bet this 24 year old will be celebrating this one tonight rick [Applause] kelly when i asked him who do you think's going to be the most exciting for you winning the championship is it my parents he said they've just invested so much they sacrificed time money effort to put me in position to be able to go out and win races and now he's gone out and won a championship [Applause] chase [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] pretty big moment right there you have rick hendrick but his seven-time champion who's just ended up his career and now his 24 year old champion is really just starting out his career all together in one spot right there big hug jimmy's family congratulating thank you for joining us chase today at the conclusion of the race such an incredible family the elliott family all smiles he's done it chase elliot knew what was in front of him when he came here to phoenix after racing his way into the championship four he said that changed him what he had to do there showed him what it takes to go out and win a championship he passed joey logano for the lead and the eventual win and after he took the checkered flag almost every competitor that he raced against on the racetrack was congratulating him chase elliot has won the 2020 nascar cup series championship

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 181,535

Rating: 4.8598275 out of 5

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

Id: N8p3u9Tyt18

Length: 186min 5sec (11165 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020