Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Sonoma Raceway | NASCAR Cup Series Full Race Replay

the willing here to our prayers we ask that you give hands attentive eyes prudence and perfect control keep safe each driver help them to do their very best bless the race cars and those who maintain them for they are examples of teamwork bless we the fans that we may compete oh god and be inspired as a human race god we know that in every race someone has to set the pace so we pray today that your amazing grace will set the way here to perform our national anthem please welcome country music singer songwriter who's ep featuring the hit single two hands out july 9th california's own cali twistleman can you see by the dawn [Music] [Music] who's brought stripes [Music] we watched [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the [Applause] really well done beautiful weather the start of the here and the command coming right up foreign this is my is yes the fox bench super six app giving you a chance to win ten thousand dollars of court boyer's money all you have to do download the app answer six questions for your shot to win it's free to play we don't want you to miss out so play now while there's time good luck hope you cash in hottest driver in nascar is kyle larson who hopes to win for the second straight week he's on the pole but how about this that no winner from the first starting position in the last 15 sonoma races has come from the pole the last driver to win from the pole jeff gordon that was in 2004 he'll be in the booth with clint boyer and mike joy calling the race for you but before they do and before the command let's get to know sonoma a little better the valley of the moon where life moves slower and moments like fine wine are savored but in this place the outside doesn't always match the inside the people here are resilient living through drought fire and now a pandemic a face of calm the heart of survival and ready to return a reflection of its people this track serene from the stands but on the course a complicated maze where every turn asks the driver to prove his worth this is not an easy place here the journey is always worth the prize this is sonoma you know it's a good race good track to come to and michael jordan guy fieri kyle shanahan are all here drivers they have a job to do focused for this the 16th race of the season and again after this just 10 races until we get two and there's ready to cook up a meal and drive the pace car last five sonoma races won by drivers who have won championships right now let's get ready to hear those words and now for the most famous words in motorsports please welcome san francisco 49ers head coach kyle shanahan [Applause] hello faithful hey we've missed you guys man so pumped to see you guys in levi's again this year hey on that note let's get this started drivers start your engines coaches always know how to work it with the crowd and the guys they'll be watching we'll all be watching thanks for being with us from sonoma california nascar at fs1 [Music] [Music] so how you feel about me in the vineyards of sonoma a finely aged product develops its texture the timeline between tannins and vinegar is a delicate balance meanwhile other vintages are being claimed off the rack timing is key settle for consistency and quality may fall short keep digging become too greedy and the wine can sour on nestled in wine country timing is the game plan but the outcome is unpredictable welcome to sonoma raceway welcome to sonoma and the toyota save mark 350 on fs1 beautiful wine country and a beautiful road course for nascar's best to contest today from start finish it's a quick left you carry speed all the way to the top of the hill and turn two it's a blind exit to turn two down into three turn in at the depression and the next corner is another blind exit a hairpin at the left side of your screen leads you to the s's all the way down to that fast turn 10 and into the hairpin turn 11 and back to the start finish line it is one of the most technical and one of the most challenging road courses anywhere in the country why am i telling you this let's hear from sonoma's all-time nascar winner jeff gordon and clint boyer who's also here you have more laps than we do today this whole weekend he's been out there uh run running the uh uh transition car's a mustang hey i'm gonna tell you it's gonna start right when they get the green flag this front row kyle larson chase elliott they've got to navigate the grip level and the braking zone in turn one and turn two so that's where trouble is first gonna start on this racetrack but it happens often also but i'm gonna focus on where you make speed and where you make passes turn seven big heavy braking zone you gotta get down into there as deep as you can get on the brakes but those tires are gonna be slipping and sliding and those downshifts are gonna be happening and the wheel hop also then you're gonna come down through the s's very narrow very fast section of the racetrack and then the next great passing zone that's into turn 11. another big heavy braking zone but boy that car is going to be jumping and sliding all over the place again but this is a great place to make passes but also a great place to get a lot of trouble cleaning oh absolutely all weekend long jeff and i have been talking and learning about tannins and and bricks and and legs and headaches and now the headache lies in you said breaking zones that's a trouble zone no no no no long before you get to that breaking zone you got to get yourself to that corner get off a six get up through these tires are softer they're gonna wear out long runs are important off of six off of ten leading to those trouble zones that you're talking about that's where the juice is you know that's gonna be fun and i know you wish you were out there oh i love this racetrack all right well let's get the word from a couple of the champions that will compete in this race time for a little two-way radio yeah i want to talk to you guys one of the last couple of them hey mark trex jr this is jeff up in the booth you got us yeah i got you jeff i know we gotta be quick here you're gonna get on pit road but man you won the last two you're starting deep how are you gonna get to the front win this thing again i'm just gonna have to be smart here at the start and uh you know pick them off one at a time and hopefully get on the right strategy i think that'll be key he's about to go through the blind spot spotters talking to him about the one place there on the track there they don't have great visibility all right man hey thanks for talking to us it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch have a good one take care a lot of places where you can pass a few where you dare pass and some that are just downright difficult and intimidating as the drivers check pit road speed and we'll allow them to complete that before we get back on the radio here big wide pit road the boxes aren't that wide but the driving surface on pit road is pretty wide well yeah you can really attack the entry of this pit road because of where pit road speed starts but you're actually in that narrow lane before you ever get to that section but then boy so important you see that yellow line that's where that pit road starts so you're gonna the speed starts you're gonna come all the way around that narrow uh alley before you have to jump on those actually roll around there very fast always drags you into going too fast let's see if we can dial up the old pull sitter here kyle lars hey kyle larson spoiler gordon mike join the booth you got us yeah i got ya paul cat baby big weekend last weekend winning all the stages and stinking up the show up front again with your teammate on the other side of you how are you going to get through this first turn first corner at the top of the hill i don't know we'll see but i think we should have a good day we have a really good car um you know chase has done a great job on all the road courses so i know my car will be fast but i'm also a little bit nervous because he'll be fast behind me so hopefully we can hold him off for a little while and if not you'll learn as much as we can on him but uh should be a fun day love being at home all right buddy we'll have a good race we'll be watching all right don't have too much fun up there i think the key word was behind me all right here's your toyota starting grid for today's race kyle larson on the pole starts first for his fourth straight sonoma race and chase elliot six road cars wins but not yet here row two william byron 12 top tens in the last 13 races and denny hamlin that remember that great dog fight that he and tony stewart had here in 2016 to the finish and let's go to row three two-time sonoma winner kyle busch starting fifth and alongside him with his best sonoma start austin dillon row four right here alex bowman top tens in four the last five road races becoming a good road racer himself and none before kevin harvick 2017 sonoma winner still looking for his first of the season brad keselowski a three-time road course runner-up looking for his first win turning right and left and tyler reddick who has never raced at sonoma you'll find the rest of our field along the bottom line ticker as we check in with our crew chief and a former sonoma winner larry mcreynolds so mike we've been coming here since 1989. we didn't race here last year but this will be the first time we've unloaded them on sunday morning and put them on the grid to race with no practice now if you think it's a headache for the driver it's a migraine for the crew chief this is the hardest handling track to get your arms around left and right up and down loose off tight end it's about a compromise you're never going to get it perfect and rigging maybe only three trips to pit road larry it's gonna be a very quick diamond pit road kevin harvick past winner of this race very good at this racetrack the addition of the carousel section though through this team for a curveball they've relied on last time we're here's notes to figure out what they needed to for this year jamie kyle bush a two-time winner here is new crew chief ben bayshore told me this has been the biggest headache to this season so far he said we're going to use this first 10 laps to see what we have and go from there mike thanks jamie the all-new toyota trd camry leads the field and heads for gilligan's island where it will stay until it's needed hopefully not till the end of stage one here they come to the starting line and the green flag waves were racing in sonoma well we were wondering how they go side by side jeff good jump by kyle got him out front but right now now it's oh look here left him a little bit of room right there now it's about making sure you had some temperature in those tires and more over temperature in those brakes i was pretty impressed right there with larson being able to carry good speed up the hill and carry that momentum off that exit and now into the carousel it'll be a blind rise into your braking zone and then a long looping left-hander downhill all the way after they cross this crest can get really loose in right here car wants to be light as you're going through this cara so you can see that part's sliding up yeah that was danny hamlin that preferred lane you really want to hug that curb keep it as tight as possible to get that launch down this back straightaway oh danny hamlin make an aggressive move not gonna stick though is it 24 william byron does the undercut well that was turn seven that you spoke of and i think this is probably one of the most important parts of this racetrack obviously the fastest part of this racetrack is you're going down this back straightaway the s is up through here you crest this hill the car wants to get light that dirt you see already you never you kind of want to be that guy in the front right maybe put a little dust in the racetrack for the guy behind you because it sets you up just turn 10 and you're coming off of here here comes the dive bomb you seem looking to the inside that's the passing opportunity the best one on this racetrack from 125 miles an hour down to 35 for turn 11. yeah i always focused on turn nine and ten coming down that hill carrying a lot of speed through that left-hander nine right-hander ten because that could protect me from somebody else passing or giving me an opportunity to make that pass in 11. already you see the five of larson really stretching it out i'd be a little careful this early in the race these tires you know i know we've got a competition caution coming but you really want to take care of this those tires and they can go away in a hurry at this rate you saw martin truax right there looking at the inside here's a guy that's plenty capable getting the job done here we've seen him win time and time again there he's on the inside making another pass starting 19th if he's going to get up there and challenge these hendrick cars he's going to have to be aggressive and that's what you see him doing that's what i was going to say that you know you always want to be smooth and and patient at this racetrack but not if you're mark trex jr and you know you can win this race but you're starting that deep in the field right with them 16th and 17th there having that history behind you helps you a little bit as you're getting up through the field the guy looks in the mirror he knows man that guy's won here a time or two i'm just gonna follow him you can see kyle i see him tailing out a little bit it's important to keep these tires underneath of you you heard me say they're a little bit softer long runs are so important here at sonoma 11th place logano and blaney coming down through the s's and from here it's full throttle through nine and off to ten yeah and as i'm watching these guys you gotta give credit to these drivers you have to remember these guys haven't been here since 2019 and already just posting crazy fast left that's exactly what i was talking about chris busher he got through nine and ten and is going to be able to make this move on the 12 of blaney because he carried all that speed off of 10 and got the the inside line once you get that inside line mike and in that breaking zone you're going to make that pass happen most of this track at least this morning had really good grip the exception was turn 11. if you get a little bit outlined to the outside i mean you're dog paddle you're swimming you're looking for ores everything but traction mike you should have talked to us you never asked our people you got to be down on them tires right up against them in that paint that's where the grip's at corsita had to call and woke us up yeah and good luck with that [Music] you heard kyle bush stop the show in the pre-race tell us what he's focused on and usually when i think about sonoma i think about ford bike the drive keeping that throttle you know being easy on the throttle he actually said something that it caught my attention a front turn he wants his car to turn well you know to me front turn as you see kurt busch making a move here christopher bell [Music] you heard him spin the tires up off the corner when he made that pass with kurt busch you're riding with you could hear that engine really rev up that's what we're talking about on the forward drive and you see him bringing ryan priest right along with him but yeah you know you talk about that front turn to me to get good drive off you got to have that car pointed straight unwind the wheel the way you do that have a good front turn and larson he's making qualifying laps out there he didn't get to qualify so he's like let me lay some down here early if i was his crew chief i would remind him hey we need to be good on lap 30 not two man how about this truex all the way up to 13th already six spots he's gained and that was that the paint that i was talking about right up against those tires i mean almost dragging the right side off of it on those tires so much grip to be had there [Music] trouble for uh you said twenty christopher bell has an issue we saw him going backwards there some kind of problem he's on pit road inside the car man he was 23rd and remember this is unload and race one-day event and they're back if they're in the trunk of that car it's got to be some sort of a fuel issue or something right out of the carousel here climbing to turn 11. kyle larson picking up right where he left off last weekend so [Music] five laps complete in sonoma cop caution coming at lap 10. here your ford performance track packs for today ford has eight wins here at sonoma all with different drivers beginning with davey allison in 91 and most recently kevin hart in 2017. coming out of the carousel and headed up to turn seven there at the bottom of your screen kyle larson sorry mike i says it's so hard to understand the elevation changes at this racetrack even from this angle you get a great idea of the cur the the turns how much speed these cars are carrying this braking zone here in turn seven but this section here coming downhill it's pretty aggressive downhill before you start going across the start finish line and this is where you want that front end to turn your car is it's a really fast part of the track you can see him set him up right here when he gets high up over that uh eight right there always get your car loose trying to find the right gearing here was always difficult as well and then setting yourself up being good here man did you run out of real estate in a last minute dive bomb looking to the inside so while martin truax has picked up a bunch of spots and is the fastest car on the racetrack what about one of his joe gibbs teammates that's already fallen into trouble christopher bell jamie well mike talking to crew chiefs this morning they were all worried about today's race they just didn't have any data to go off of with this new rules package and this new tire ben bayshore the crew chief for kyle busch one of those he said this is the most stressful moment we've had all season including the bristol dirt race because at least we had practice there so we said they're using this 10 laps to listen to the feedback of their driver to see what they need moving forward and what strategy they'll go with right now kyle busch saying he is stupid loose at the exit of the carousel thanks jamie christopher bell made a pit stop they had no fuel pressure they reset the ecu and got back out on track there's your usaa biggest movers in just six laps two x yeah no surprise mark trucks you know i've never seen mark tricks jr this aggressive at the drop of the green flag and man he is just picking him up taking him down and he is really i tell you what he's the fastest car by doing all these passes he's still been one of the fastest cars on the racetrack now chase briscoe third on that list won the arca west race here yesterday man i mean he's making pass every time he gets to a breaking zone of passing zone mark tricks jr is picking up a spot and that's exactly what you saw right there you know you always talk about the breaking zone turn seven use that opportunity he's going to catch the next guy try to set him up off at 10 moving into 11. tyler reddick 11th place uh just two spots behind truex right now in that black chevrolet region well mike jamie just talked about teams getting feedback from their drivers for tyler reddick it's the exact opposite he's never seen this place until today it's actually the team that is giving him feedback on what he's doing with his brakes his steering his throttle everything that he's inputting into that race car right now again never saw this racetrack till this morning to give pace car rides just so that he could get a couple laps on the track thanks regan now been a change up in the front for danny hamlin watch the 11 the white 11 dives to the inside on william byron textbook passed right there got off the tin better than him with a lot of momentum moved to the inside no choice but to give up that spot you know he just kind of held with him through turn 10 but boy really able to be good under the breaking and downshifting and so important when you hit those down shifts you got to have your revs right if you will hop right there dress is history let's get back to martin truax in ninth place and listen in on some team radio firewise it's still worse than i expected but mostly like seven a little bit everywhere though today like it's hot slick it feels like this tire's a little different drive off well i think there's two things going on oh you see that plastic just hit uh a tear off that kevin harvick ran over they're gonna hopefully he can get to this caution we've got a few more laps here before the competition caution he might be in trouble right here um back to the to what you heard truex say lower downforce in the last time that we were here that's a big contributing factor to being able to put the throttle down softer retire that thing's gonna feel good that first lap or two then it's going to start falling off have to take care of these tires you do that with a throttle pedal off the corners i just love the 19 trillion he's saying that his car is not driving very good he's just blowing by everybody watch the four car kevin harvick locks up in the breaking zone there's there's some ripples and some bumps right there so if you try to drive in there too deep jump on the brakes and you don't have the balance right on the brakes you could very do just what he did lock that right front tire up larry looking at that piece of vinyl cellophane whatever it is there on the nose of that car is that blocking a cooling inlet yeah that's the radiator inlet mic and they run quite a bit of opening here at sonoma because they know how hot it is and how debris can get on it but honestly that's blocking the entire left side of the radiator opening the good thing is in about a lap and a half we're going to get the caution for that competition caution bad thing is it's several miles to get to that lap and a half that's a lot of racing guys we've been documenting tricks but these gibbs guys these those cars saw the 11 go to third with denny hamlin now you got kyle busch working on the 24 william byron to go to fourth and and truex is not too far behind those guys byron got a good launch out of seven bush took a different route but unable to get alongside entering the s's [Music] [Applause] riding on board right there with denny hamlin and watching how they use the curbs you know that's one of the things i've seen here's tris going to make us a pass another pass another pass on austin dillon man that car is just so good coming down the hill to get to the turn 10. how about the 48 on pit road and the 18 on pit road here hitting under green before the competition yellow jamie yeah alex bowman in i'm telling you these crew chiefs just were not sure what to do they all wanted to mix up strategy especially if they weren't starting up in the front couple of rows so kyle bush alex bowman in for their first stop today each team has five sets of tires sitting so now those two teams obviously four sets for the remainder of the race so larry what's the rule on pitting before the competition caution they can change tires they can make adjustments they cannot fuel the car until the caution is displayed for the competition caution what you may see a lot of these teams do when the competition caution does come out they may come and do fuel only that will shorten their time on pit road up and because the lap time is so long here if you're up with that front pack you can pit and get out under green and stay on the lead lap see right here our leader kyle larson has put the 20 of christopher bell a lap down he'll when that caution comes out he'll he'll get the free pass so that's not too big of a deal now mike one thing that pitting there for tires only that it will allow them to also do is stay out and that can get you to the end of stage one without having to worry about fuel maybe score you some stage points stage lengths today 20 laps 20 and 50. comes your leader kyle larson the pit road and i think that those guys drew them in as soon as they saw them pit you about have to well we've also seen hey the fastest laps are 39.9 40.0 that last lap was a 42-35 by larson so they've already slowed down over two seconds that's why they're coming to get these goodyear tires jamie chase elliott into his box now said he's just trying to figure out how to drive the track again it's a little bit different and it's been two years since they've been here and with no practice time that was it those first handful laps a four tire stop here regan it's been smooth sailing out front for kyle larson the biggest complaint with that race car it's too tight through the right-handers right now for him that means the front end won't turn won't do what he wants it to do exactly so denny hamlin assumes the lead from brad keselowski and kevin harvick and with lap 10 nascar will judge it complete when most all the field has cycled through the stark finish line and throw the caution and that was what was crucial crucial about these guys getting in there was while the pit road was still open before that competition caution comes out you heard him say he was too tight to just the right i like that as the crew chief man that's adjustable you can fix that if that thing's just flat out too tight won't turn either way that's what's hard but just having a right side you can make it a track bar adjustment and correct that wrong so the top five did not come in plus uh drivers that did not pit include james davis and anthony alfredo uh cody ware who has picked up 22 spots since the start of this race and by the way last week wasn't his best career finish it was his best finish of the season i was quickly reminded also not pitting ben rhodes running his first cup race heckert and belicky competition yellow in sonoma [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so oh [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] over six pounds is a huge chunk have you entered clint's fox bed superstage stage two contest for your chance to win some of ten thousand dollars of his money make sure you download the app and pick six race outcomes about stage two for a shot to win it's free to play so why not don't miss out play time uh play now while we're still in stage one or this what do you think clint hey let me get done with this race i might come down there and join you there chase elliott fan all right pit crews are about to be real busy jamie brad keselowski said considerable fall off and that he was getting wheel hop in the corner especially under the braking zone so they said let's pit for four tires here we'll focus on trying to win the stage and get stage points today regan the plan for denny hamilton was the same do everything they could to get stage points in stage one right now that race car is too loose through the left-hander corners but too tight through the right-handers they'll have an adjustment for that and the four-car kevin harvick is absolutely plowing right now he is not very happy with his race car so almost everyone who did not pit the last time around as pitted now the exceptions might be anthony alfredo and scott heckert who is driving b.j mcleod's car this week see the 22 here joey logano hearing something about some tires on that 22 car i don't know if he had a lock up or a flat spot but uh we're going to try to see if we can't get a shot of one of the tires he took off that 22 team we're also hearing that austin dillon may have a battery issue so before we go green here's larry well mike this will be our credible.com race strategy probably going to make me an old man before these 90 laps are over you pit either at the competition caution or before pit road closed at the end of stage one essentially everybody has pitted for the most part so far then it becomes a little clearer depending on cautions you pit right before pit road closes at the end of stage two four tires and more fuel and then when your fuel window opens to get to the end of the race around 26 to 30 laps to go you pit for possibly your final trip to pit road mike that's thecredible.com race strategy thanks larry 12 laps complete we're working the competition caution at lap 10. lap 20 will be the end of stage one of three stages you're looking at the entrance to turn seven one of two hairpin corners here so what about that issue on austin dillon's team yeah right now so that means alternator must not must not be charging off the battery right now um likely what we're gonna have to do is run off this battery and then when it gets low enough we're gonna have to come and change it if the alternator does not kick back on and what else that means is that you've got to conserve that battery to make it last as long as you possibly can and we know even though it's not a hot day here the sun is out and these guys work hard all the shifting all the braking that they do they really have to get the air moving so they run those fans to the driver trying to cool that driver can't do that right now for austin dillon all right let's check back in with regan well guys just to update the 22 of joey legano the right rear tire on that race car actually came apart started to delaminate just a little bit as you see it right there so big issue good break for them to have this competition caution this early wow this looks like a flat spot locked up but you wouldn't think that on a rear tire if that was a front tire to said i just locked it up but point a rear tire didn't expect that you know back to austin dillon and the alternator issue that you heard you know yes jeff you're right you could turn your your personal blowers off but the blowers that we run on these road courses and the brakes and things like that they take a lot of amperage you can't shut that off so deja vu all over again with larson and elliott on the front row for the restart the front five take off and truex is one of them i'm gonna have to call martin truex and tell him hey i'm sorry i didn't give you more credit leading into this race unbelievable job by him passing as many cars as he has putting himself in contention already what 13 laps into this race he is i promise you the hendrick boys are talking about the 19 coming third place see how important it is to get that drive off the bottom lane as you saw kyle busch trying to run to the outside of the 24 william byron what about this breaking zone is he got anything for him there and i agree with you clint i i thought okay you might be able to get up to nine ten track position is hard to gain here you only have really two sections to do that in but man great job to mark truex jr i think he's going to get close enough but he might hear you see this is such a we we keep talking about this is my favorite part of the racetrack trying to get him set up get close enough to him right here off a tin where you can try to make a pass looking from the inside they're eating close enough well we all know right it only gets tougher and tougher as you get up to that top five those guys have some good speed down to the inside michael mcdowell made the pass on chris busher there and kirk bush tried to outbreak daniel suarez into 11. oh yeah there's a lot of action further back going into turn 11. [Music] up the hill turn two see ross chastain making a nice move up to turn two there behind those guys eric jones is the driver that ross chastain was able to make that move on kyle larson has now led more laps today than in his six prior sonoma starts combined it you know it's funny to hear you say that because he's set on i think four poles here always has crazy fast speed struggled you know in the gadassy cars with the long run stuff but was always blistering fast for one lap through turn seven and headed for the s's you won't miss a minute because we're gonna take you fox side by side [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] so so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] 16 laps complete kyle larson has led 14 of them kenny hamlin led two laps before he stopped and that puts these two groups of drivers on very differing strategies what's to be gained by waiting until that comp caution to pit other than you have fresher tires for this restart yeah i'm really curious to bring larry mcreynolds in he's got the pulse of the garage but clearly you know these guys know oh danny hamlin's got some damage that's the other reason you don't want to lose track position you can get caught up in a lot of things especially in those breaking zones like turn 11 but you know let's bring in larry because larry i just want to know what the two what the 11 some of those guys that stayed out you know what is how is this going to play out for them well i like to say it's a very fluid situation before the competition caution you've got tires only i feel like they're going to have to pit possibly right before pit road closes at the end of stage one here in a couple laps if you are like joey logano who came back and got fuel during a competition caution or someone that pitted during that caution like blaney like harvick custer you probably plan on staying out and running it out to the end of stage two trying to get that track position and i gotta say to me larry they're gonna be sitting ducks on old tires if these other guys come and get new tires and and they might lose even more track position what has happened here to denny hamlin uh right side right side check the nose damage copy the damage pass back up we haven't yet take care of it [Music] from wallace chase briscoe coming to pitt road with three to go in stage one this is about to start a firestorm i believe because some of these guys further back couldn't wait right because the leader is going to you know be too far ahead of them and they will close those pits i guarantee the leader some of those guys in the top 5 10 will be coming in the next lap they'll have to come because again once the leader crosses the start finish line pit road will be closed this next time ross chastain ryan newman don't tell kyle larson but stage one winners at sonoma well that just hasn't been a winning plan well you're not gonna have to worry about telling he won't be the winner this stage either mike he's coming to pit road i guarantee it but here shows it all and that right there shows you why this place is so wild and crazy when it comes to strategy and on the pit stop bubba wallace too fast exiting so he'll have to do a drive-through penalty down pit road well i might be wrong on the five i i don't know when they're going to shut the pits but he did not come larry we need you buddy well i think it's the next time bye though is that not if i'm not mistaken i think it's the next time in that by right now close jeff that was two to go and larson crossed the start finish line that was two to go pit road immediately closed so did byron make it that is the question did he make it to the yellow line in time was the commit i think it's the commitment line that's where pit road starts but he made it past the commitment line which is on the other side and nascar commitment line here is a concrete wall nascar confirms that's a goo that's a legit stop by byron he made it to the pit road before the pittsburgh i'm shocked that the the five and some of these other guys stayed out right there but that goes to show you that i think the 11 and the two some of those guys made it maybe had to make them make some adjustments on the fly that's the fun of this race yeah that's such a the unpredictability of being out here on these road courses michael mcdowell chris busher daniel suarez all pitted under green here [Music] and at about two laps we'll see how it shakes out so how is chase elliott's day going so far this time [Applause] yeah that runs that close pit road for some reason [Music] jeff the only other reason that kyle larson would have stayed out and again i'm kind of with you about to sit and duck do they plan on possibly staying out at the end of stage one they're only gonna have about seven and a half laps on those tires which i know is a lot but that could be in the plan well they're definitely gonna now but i don't think that was in the plan listening to allen right there this could have been a mistake hopefully not a costly mistake for this team well fortunately for them they've they've kept a lot of the other guys out on track also behind him [Music] you've got to go all the way back pretty far before you start looking at the guys like byron's all the way back in 31st before you go to anybody that's actually pitted here before the end of this stage is over so now mike go back to that stat kyle larson is gonna win this first stage what is that going to mean for that five team going forward into this race because we've never seen stage winners win this race then they got like what was it seven point something percent [Laughter] stats don't lie gonna have to do something there you never know about this place though i mean we i in my opinion we talked about it before this race ever started with in our meeting you know when are these guys gonna pit how is it gonna be utilized around that uh lat 10 competition caution we knew that was a pivotal moment in this race and it turns out it's pretty true [Music] final lap of stage one hendrick camaros for larson and elliott leading joe gibbs camrys for kyle busch and martin truax can you believe kyle larson has won six of the last eight stages we have run this year beats chase elliott to the flag boy 3.8 kyle bush truex and bowman to benedetto and kurt busch fighting it out for eighth place give that to curt and the final stage point eric jones kyle larson dominating stage racing this year so [Music] [Music] so so thank you [Music] so kyle larson leading at sonoma at the end of stage one well we got a sneak peek into austin dillon's favorite ritual here's fast cooking sponsored by coca-cola [Music] austin what is going on man you got uh quite the spread here yeah welcome to the house uh we're doing a little grilling i love the grill family loves it so we do a little hot dogs man it's my that's my go-to i really like putting barbecue sauce on my hot dogs so let's put a little barbecue sauce on these i like to put braised onions on my hot dogs so we'll throw a little onions in here some strong smells i might shed a cheer for you here right now yeah a little vegetable oil salt and pepper we'll just go ahead and use this throw it in there now that we got the onions mixed up we're going to put them over here in the grill we're grilling i like it nicely done man [Music] fast cooking for austin and uh battery issues for his car you saw the hood up they were replacing the alternator belt and the battery not sure if the all chainer got replaced as well but pretty sure they can't change that alternator that quick but yeah maybe they did see something there with the belt that might fix whether the alternator starts functioning yeah but if that belt's broke usually it's due to the alternator being locked up bearing going out or something like that all right now remember we had the question of chase elliot as to whether he would pit before the stage ended and they said well the road was closed for some reason so we listened in what was the deal on that why they closed it i'm confused i'm not really sure how they did that that's not typically the way it works when the leader gets the two to go that's when they shut it and we didn't get there [Music] i'm still confused i'm a little confused too and it's chained it's going to change this strategy up big time again it roads open jamie kyle busch says he's left on the left he's loose to the right he is tight so they're still going to work on that make some adjustments here including air pressure a four tire stop for the 18 the nine of chase elliott finally come into their pit box he gets a tear off has to do it easily around that windshield wiper a little bit tight they're working on it but they're still all scratching their heads about what happened they wanted to pick before guys regan well your leader kyle larson that race car right now is swinging the back too much on that run meaning it's going back and forth as he goes through the s's in different parts of the racetrack the eight car tyler reddick that car doesn't have forward drive when he hits the gas pedal he needs help with that here's your ram race off pit road now this is not for the lead [Music] boy that's the least amount of position changes on pit road we've seen all season jeff your timing is not going to be good on this radio communication right here i'm very curious so two contenders did not stop kurt busch who's the new leader and matty benedetto they did not come in style upper stage one winner hey kyle this is jeff the guys up in the fox sports booth you got us yeah i got you well i gotta be honest i didn't think i was gonna be talking to stage winner because we just expected you guys to come down pit road we've heard some different miscommunications on whether it was going to be open or closed was this part of your strategy or were you thrown off fight also um i don't really know i think this was part of our plan but i just kind of drive until they tell me to pit or not so i don't pay attention as much as i should i guess the strategy but um either way yeah we picked up good points and another playoff point so happy about that now pass some more cars here and see if we can set ourselves up for the other eight good all right man hey well you're doing your part behind the wheel getting after it so uh good luck the rest of the way thank you yeah thanks guys so he is the first of the cars that pitted kyle larson our stage winner will restart [Music] 15th all right [Music] oh oh oh foreign [Music] [Music] music so so [Music] the xfinity more than fast moment from charlotte goes to tommy joe martens he avoids that spinning 39 car to stay in the race proving it takes more than speed to succeed vote for this week's more than fast moment at xfinity racing on twitter xfinity proud premier partner of nascar coming green this time for stage number two oh boy oh boy oh boy kurt bush is up here leading this race but that front row has not been on pit road since lap 10. it was my long shot this guy can get it done they have the oldest tires on the track right now you know kurt busch told us in the pre-race show they're so far below the cut line they're not worried about anything but winning a race and austin dillon who's having that battery problem he is 14th in points and 16th is the cutoff this could be a pivotal race for them if you're the five of lars and the nine of elliot those guys true exits back there these guys are on old tires very important not to not to knock the front end off of it like we saw with denny hamlin in 11. very tricky to do get up through these the new tires are about row nine on back excuse me row row eight and back that's where larson and elliott line up kurt busch matty benedetto here we go [Music] [Music] i think they got to watch here it might be that 24 william byron because remember he came in at lap 18 so he's got he's the first one with slightly fresher tires than these guys he's racing around you can see the traffic right there in front of kyle three wide that's not what you want to see with the fastest guard here leading all them laps you're mired back in traffic but honestly this is what i wanted to see out of that team can he pass up through this field like we saw martin shreks do i saw him putting big lap times out on that clean air out front i want to see it in traffic how about this drone cam footage amazing so good so you see kurt bush on your track map leading and uh the next little marching ant there is the five which is kyle larson who is in 14th right the other thing that i see right there is you're looking for larson look up and you see chase elliott passed him exactly when they dropped the green that outside lane that the five car was in because remember we don't have the choose rule here you have to line up by position he was in that outside lane and man they just did not get up and go when they dropped the green and he lost a couple spots immediately sixth place here [Music] well nice recovery for christopher bell who's won a race on the road course in daytona earlier in the season so he knows how to go left and right but under a lot of pressure from a little bit fresher tires on the 24 byron yeah think about it he was a lot down this little bit ago that's right he got back on the lead lap when kyle larson pitted before the end of stage one byron stalking bell down the hill up over that blind rise to the carousel and the other question is how long do those fresher tires create more grip as you're passing up through the field like chase elliot like the five of larson some of these other guys further back truex and them kyle busch how how much how many many laps do you have of that much fresher better grip in those good years to take advantage of it will it eventually level out with those guys on older tires and you know it will and that's the hardest thing to do is capitalize on the benefactor of having that you know better grip you got to pounce on them when you can because it will equalize kozlowski and blaney third and fourth [Music] byron inside of hamlin turn 11. well we saw the opposite of this right earlier in the race these two guys are battling it out hard to beat that fresh rubber on those goodyear tires [Music] see denny hamlin going up the top of hill you have a choice there some guys will go all the way down to first gear which i think i heard denny hammond do that right because he made that last uh shift at the very top of the hill that tells me yes he's going down to first gear to get that drive off the corner some guys oh there i think chase is feeling a lot of pressure from kyle larson coming behind him made an aggressive move there chris busher not happy with that contact kyle gave him a shot and busher whacked him back [Applause] and that's the other thing if you're kyle larson you're sitting there he's going to punch that hole get underneath that car you got to make sure you go with him and that it closes up if you don't it's just another separation you have to wait to turn seven to a turn 11 to get it christopher bell right in the mix in seventh place now jamie mike early in this race he had no fuel pressure had to come in you guys mentioned he went a lap down hats off to him in this team not only back on the lead lap but strategy paying off he had never been to this race tracking anything before no practice laps they didn't know what to expect here they need a good run today guys this 20 team has finished outside the top 10 the last six straight weeks and he battles with danny hamlin with the hendrick camaros behind him he saw william byron make that pass and that pass was begun all the way at turn nine when byron got a great run down to shoot from 10 to 11. yeah and it also began when rudy fugle made that decision to come down pit road before the end of that stage big tire rub for tyler reddick that's why he's on pit road well the these restarts are crazy here because you go immediately into the left hand then a right hand back left then right you're trying to be side by side see where that contact came from looking back from alex bowman tyler dive balm into seven yeah not only a dive bomb it was on the outside putting them three wide that was a pretty gutsy move right there 27 of 90 laps complete in wine country in the toyota save mark 350. so so [Music] william byron is our new leader as he outbreaks kirk bush took the inside line away from bush's camaro and set sail a little contact between teammates here as kyle busch got into the back of christopher bell yeah that's a tough place to make that pass i think he just maybe misjudged it a little bit but that's a lot of damage to the right front fender oh whoa left front fender and ryan blainey not happy about everything right now all right i'm moving every one of the teammates copy that ooh this is an important pass right here that car's got 19 on the on the nine car but yeah that 12 has a lot of damage and obviously something happened with he and his teammate not sure which one that was i'm assuming that was keslowski here comes kyle larson to the inside of kurt busch remember bush is on older tires in fact the front four cars are all on differing pit strategies byron was in at lap 18. larson at lap 22 kesslowski lap 12 kirkbush lap 10. you know i thought that that was a game changer with those guys not petting before the end of the stage but larson's so fast it might not matter what strategy he's on [Music] 30 laps complete with william byron out front let's go under the helmet with denny hamlin brought to you by toyota my second season is when we started the denny hamlin foundation which mostly benefits cystic fibrosis my cousin has cystic fibrosis and i remember playing with him as a kid and seeing all the medications he had and i never understood why that's the charity that i want to give back to there's been a lot of different charities that that i've seen and a lot of hospitals kids hospitals i've gone to that have really when i go there i'm like i want to give to this group because once you see it firsthand and the difference that you can make it it really changes your life nice work by denny hamlin who currently is ninth [Music] so we have drivers that pitted at lap 10 18 22 and 12. pick a strategy go ahead any strategy i think we're gonna have to bring in larry mack for this one help us out larry well the bottom line is when the when this caution comes out for this next stage in stage two which is about ten laps from now we're still gonna have you know over 45 laps to go when we restart but i just think if you want to win this race whether you're william byron kyle larson or we talked about kurt busch in that one car needing to win you better be hitting pit road here in about seven laps before they close pit road and get those fresh tires and you'll be ready to go for one more stop about halfway through the end stage regardless of what agenda you're on right now well i can tell you this my mind has been changed fast cars make fast lap times and that's what i've seen out of the five the 19 doesn't matter the strategy these guys can get to the front what's this speaker than 47 a stent house that's oh oh out of turn one no he's got into the wall hard carrying the right front tires down and caution is on the speedway this is going to shake things up oh man look how hard he has hit that barrier that's on the front straightaway before you get to turn one or maybe right in turn one oh man that right front is already down yeah i'd be wondering if he had a tire rub or something pretty hard hit right there well that's a fast section of this race track you just don't you take it for granted camera lived and i think back through the years this turn one and some of the things that it's created we've seen cars going upside down into some tire barriers in that section many years ago remember no inner liners on these tires as we'd run on the super speedways so larry does this caution change any or everything it's so clear i can see mud but right now you can actually pit right here and make it on one more stop regardless about the stage in or not so you might see some cars coming right here to make it on one more stop so you could stop now but would you stop now let's discuss that during the commercial break nascar at sonoma caution three for ricky stenhouse turn one flat tire so [Music] so [Music] the pits are open and kyle larson has chosen to stay out many of the other leaders have come to pit road jamie kurt busch one of those teams desperate for a good run today they haven't had a top ten finish since february at homestead strategy playing into their favorite four tire stop here the 24 of william byron they have the back end in the track now he wants the front end to work a little bit better so they're going to change that with an air pressure adjustment to help him out and the nine of chase elliott in with an air pressure adjustment for tires as well regan we saw the damage on ryan blaney's car that forced their hand to pit right here he's been very concerned about that on the radio he also hurt his tires early in that run racing too hard with guys burned him up didn't have anything left you see him pulling the fender out right now and the car drops off the jack so more problems for ryan blaney under caution guido from the movie cars made an appearance you know the little forklift from guido and luigi's tire shop he drove right down the front straightaway to where ricky stenhouse moved the big barrier picked it up and set it right back in place we are good to go there he is there he is a little forklift and there is lightning mcqueen on display for the fans but saying that car is not on track nobody has to test them down force light-year tires and of course pixar headquartered not far from us here in northern california how about your xfinity fastest laps today kyle larson chase elliott kyle busch boy that looks a lot like last week's finish doesn't it martin truex alex now alex bowman has been saying all week i'm not a road racer i've got to learn from these other guys well boy he is taking it all to heart boy he's showing he's got speed and hey he's in the top five right now so somebody else who knows how fast kyle larson is are the folks who are calling the shots for william byron listen to i still don't load this front three but if i put enough load into it that's good just gotta put it uploaded to it you wanna tell him how much faster the five is than he was that last no i mean what good does that do just in case he's saving i don't know hey you don't have to tell him he saw that in his mirror he saw that five car getting closer and closer rudy fugel calling the shots but hey now he's got the fresh tires now maybe he can go after kyle larson mark church and those guys on older tires so next week is nascar's all-star break and we have the all-star race next sunday on fs1 at texas motor speedway for a shot at a million bucks next sunday 7 30 eastern and we have two announcements about the all-star race the side deal will perform the national anthem made up of founding members of trained sugar ray and pawnshop kings and sammy hagar will be there at texas motor speedway to play i can't drive 55 just before the green flag yeah very cool god that just makes me want to sing and i'm not going to on live television i love that song so a couple of cars stayed out there jamie well james small left it up to his driver martin trix jr to pit or not and so he decided to stay out when he saw that the five was staying out so their communication afterwards went like all right well he's the car that's fastest today so let's stay with him but time will tell if we're good enough to hang with them on old tires all right in all 16 drivers did not pit here at lap 33 those with the oldest tires are ross chastain in third and bubba wallace in 11th they last pitted at lap 17. so kurt bush and chase elliott back in row nine are the first drivers with new tires and here we go this is the match-up i've been wanting to see i want to see if martin truax can keep pace with this five carton speed they had [Music] up over 3a another blind exit corner you're on the throttle you just hope there's asphalt under you when you get there and into four and then you better hop on the brakes real quick and make that right-hander and then they'll pop over the top and down into the carousel you have to be careful getting into this carousel you see right here the car really likes to go just like a little contact between eric jones and carla joy and then down into the seven right here big passing opportunity here seeing a lot of guys have trouble here a lot of fenders knocked in hey briscoe got a lot of laps yesterday in that arca race making some good moves here [Music] bubba trying to put on a good show he's got michael jordan in the house kirk bush up to ninth a gain of five with those new tires and where'd all that dust come from have a look and nobody giving an inch you see oh he was there yeah he was there no doubt eric jones tried to squeeze him and that's where that contact came from good thing it never rains out here you would have been in trouble right there and that's a good point you know that on a track like koda that we were at last that was a paved runoff area the drought out here has really created it you know these guys i've seen him get off and turn 10. where years pass i've been out here that was a for sure kurt busch and william byron are making the best of those new tires byron's up four bushes up five and then gave one back bubba wallace just ahead as you watch from our monster energy cam kurt bush is the only driver up uh up front there without a win this year up at the very front now of course corey lejoy in six ryan priest and seven chase briscoe eighth bubba wallace knight as they've cycled through [Music] pretty good battle right here three wide somebody's gonna have to lift byron doing it the hard way on the outside there i think daniel suarez hopped it out of that battle probably a good decision right there seven is a double apex corner you can see there you enter and then you kind of flatten out squares up and then you enter again but where these guys william bar and his team chase that is not an error you can run side by side and make contact a little bit there see william had to lift and give it let him get it gathered up is he going to make an ambitious move here to get position in this right-hander no not able to do it well how about down into eleven as larson and truex lead them off that corner yeah oh yeah there's the two of brad keselowski was it wasn't really there but he just made a late breaking move still not able to complete that pass on the 24. ryan newman cole custer side by side for 24th by the way ricky stenhouse made it back to the pits made repairs he's back on track a lap down this is coming back down the hill through the s's see william byron he gets up on that curb trying to stay away from his teammate but it just pushes him over into the door but really no damage on the nine car now mike when i look at larson tricks junior legano bowman chastain and a few others they they got about a lap cushion they're either going to come this slap or the next lap wow there's a power move for chase elliot around the outside above the wallace now he's got the inside on byron how about that racing hard yeah that's a power move by william byrne he got he backed out of it but that was putting him in the same situation that chase had him in a lot before so here's a question from clint's ten thousand dollar game here in stage two how many fords will finish in the top five well there's one there now joey logano well one just peeled off for pit road [Music] [Applause] [Music] see william byron was able to take advantage we saw chase elliot going after the 14 of chase briscoe right there and that opened the door for william byrne to kind of go three wide well a little contact between kyle busch and chase elliott now whoa look at ryan priest curb climbing putting that thing up on two wheels that's the top of two those are always the best shots you leave here and there's all kinds of awesome pictures of climbing that curve and the car up on two wheels like you just saw ryan priest do excuse me that was the curve at 3a another blind exit corner [Music] [Music] so now we have four cars at the top larry that haven't been on pit road since lap 22 and chastain since lap 17. and mike they have to come this time they've got the pit this time oh flat tire in the left rear will uh bubba wallace [Music] so if you're thinking about hitting you just pitted you got to keep an eye on that guy make sure he can get all the way around five stays out on track again so probably knock the valve stem or valve core off of it on that 23 car in that pit stop jamie james small tall martin sherex jr do the opposite of the five if he stays out we pit so they did just that four tires stop here air pressure adjustment for the 19 team truex trying to make it three straight wins that's another like that call that crew chief wanted to see if he could hold pace with him not quite so much tell you what we're gonna do we're gonna get off cycle with him that's how we can beat him lap and a half to go stage two [Music] all i know is cliff daniels and kyle larson they got a fast car but they don't have nine lights i don't know if they can keep doing this uh bubba coming down through the s's with that flat looks like he's gonna make it back to pit road that's absolute worst case scenario on that 23. it's coming apart a little bit right there these are not run flat tires but if that thing lays a carcass out on in right in the middle of the race shack they're going to be forced to you can see it just barely holding on did a good job bubba that was a complete lap that he had to nurse that thing back around here and he is safely on pit road so hopefully we'll get to finish this stage without incident unfortunately oh there it goes right there it went out to caution but we're going to have a caution here pretty soon question is whether he goes a lap down i think he will yeah if that would have happened right here in the middle of the racetrack they'd have been forced to throw a caution that was very very lucky for some of those guys and the strategy call that they made so here's larson and when he rounds off this kink and passes the start finish line he will put bubba wallace one lap down building those playoff points right now know these stages nobody's won more of them this year than kyle larson and you start looking at it wins you add that to those playoff points and those things will make a big difference when you get later in the season gonna lift this thing up get it on the jack good job [Music] a couple of nice runs in this part of the going corey lejoy in ninth place in the number seven pretty good company seeing what's right there kyle busch denny hamlin brad keselowski and he's on older tires than a lot of these guys he's racing around right now they might pick him off here that's staying tough right there that was kind of a late last minute dive bomb right there by denny and and you know he held his own stayed alive now michael mcdowell also has uh retires on his car 10th place race here who's going to get that final stage point boy hard to make that car stick those front tires slide out on the outside of that carousel in any of our pre-race discussion did we ever talk about kyle larson as being a great road racer i'll tell you what we did i don't remember well i i knew that he was fast and obviously i said that he'd been on to poles here but the long run speed that he and his team has but moreover the decision to lead you know stages win these stages and try to have uh you know be in a conversation for the win that was something that we did talk about no way you can win stages to win this race they're going for it stage two to kyle larson joey logano is about 6.2 seconds back alex bowman a second behind him hurt bush leads chase elliot across the line then it's byron kyle bush kozlowski hamlin and by one car link christopher bell picks up the last stage point it is kyle larson's 21st playoff point stage wins and two victories so far [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] oh oh [Music] 41 laps complete in the toyota save bart 350 the end of stage two three drivers would just that were last on pit road at lap 22 out in front of a whole bunch that came at 33. so let's check with larry for today's right combination sponsored by subway yeah mike 19 team martin trex jr and sonoma raceway martin has three sonoma wins including the last two he's the only repeat winner in our last 11 races here his three wins at sonoma it's been with three different teams he has led the most laps in four of the last seven sonoma races including the last three and in fact in those three he led 47 percent of laps there sounds like me the subway right combination for martin trex jr to get his fourth sonoma william could well be larry but now we're gonna have to sort through his running order which currently is 28th now that will change as many of these lead lap drivers pit but we don't expect them all to chase elliott is fifth they are discussing their options yeah so we can go as little as 15 and make it to a window and we have the option to stop but you know you could do 15 get to your window you know go to the end hoping for caution and or you know we do stop it so we got options things just get going and clean air and make laptops gonna be the key well i think that that pretty much told us what the nine teams gonna do they're gonna stay out here i just don't know those top three guys that pitted it at lap 22 larson logano bowman pretty sure they'll be on pit road here yeah they have tires a pit they have to pit they last got tires 19 laps ago chase elliot's tires are only eight laps old that's right oh chase elliot looks like he's decided no [Music] deep there jamie alex bowman said his front turn started to go away but he is about the only driver i've heard today that's happy with his race car enjoying it top five here would be great for this team but like you guys said they had to come in here the top three it last pitted on 22. regan well kyle larson that's this run the tires were a little slicker because of the cycles that were on him the turns 10 and the carousel were in particular the big problem and joey logano his braking isn't good he's tight through all the corners he needs more rear grip he doesn't like anything right now by the way he's running second [Music] four new goodyear tires and top off the tank and here's your ram race off pit road again not for the lead but among the cars that pitted eric almarola gains a spot he's been a top 15 car all day good for him and corey lejoy i want to talk to stage in 12th i want to talk to the 19 martin trex jr aren't shreks junior clint boyer up this booth here you got me yeah i got you bud all right man you got track position arm seems like you and the five car cars to beat right here been a battle of track position both of you guys got up through the field fast was able to pass cars both of you fast out by yourselves what do you got here for the end of the race [Music] i don't know i will set to see how it all plays out here so you know been a lot of stuff happening and just uh trying to keep it somewhat clean you know and all these restarts and uh the bass pro shops toyota's really fast and i think it's uh like you said the fives real fast as well so there's a couple cars they're really good we'll just see how it all plays out and uh hopefully be where we need to be at the end absolutely bud good luck thank you man truex will restart 15th larson will restart 21st stage 3 at sonoma coming right up on fs1 i think he's got the speed we've seen him chop through traffic here a couple of times already really not having a problem with that but when you're back in that kind of traffic somebody makes a wrong move gets out off the racetrack maybe kick some dirt sand rocks up on the racetrack you get into that or somebody gets into you that takes you out of contention so certainly a little bit of a nervous time right now for fireworks number seven which is gonna [Music] [Music] the last time christopher bell eighth is michael mcdowell kevin harvick ninth tenth is chris bush 11 is ryan newman 12th is anthony alfredo and ben road's having a decent run today he is up to 13 this is his cut debut [Music] my yes is getting ready for stage three to take the green flag seven rows of drivers stayed out all the way back to ryan blaney's seven roads full 14 drivers did not hit now they're doing another battery replacement on austin dillon's car larry well mike justin alexander the crew chief they've been fighting this since right before the end of stage one so let's go to our ford performance cutaway car and let's show you how they go about changing the battery it's not under the hood like in your passenger car it's in front of the left rear tire they take that door right there off they slide the battery out it's a quick disconnect slide the other one in actually a pretty quick change but it gets kind of old mike after doing it about two or three times during the race wow i'll bet he is on the lead lap now bubba wallace was the only car one lap down at the stage ending caution however he had pitted because of that shredded tire when the pits were closed making him ineligible for the free pass yeah that was just a tough double whammy break for him so kurt bush and chase ellie to be on the front row the first seven rows have tires that are five laps older than martin truex on back kirk bush has done a good job keeping that car up front fenders are on it still i mean they start at 28 up there leading this field [Music] sure everybody's gonna have to stop one more time will it happen under green will we have another caution lots still have left to happen in this race how to turn 11 onto the pit straight [Music] and we're back under green [Music] [Music] [Music] turn four and then that blind pop over the hill and down to the carousel you know i was just as i'm watching these amazing shots from our drone and all the camera work that uh folks at fox sports dude thank you so much for this great action but it just makes me think about this this track every time you get positioned on somebody mike and you get to the inside what happens next you go to the next corner it's opposite turn right you're on the inside on the right-hander it goes right to a left-hander it's so hard to complete a pass unless maybe you get down to one of these big breaking zones like we're in right now in turn seven now ryan blainey on the outside at seven that will put him on the inside entering the s's for 12 to your point and then we're going to turn right then we're going to turn left then we're back right chris busher just ahead and 11th this is where you want to put the pressure on just like you keep talking about this jeff it all comes down to this corner right here getting off at turn 10 to set up a pass like you see the nine looking to the inside of curt but you have to be so careful to downshift not wheel hop so easy to wheel hop right there and man great job not to wheel hot and take the lead number nine chase elliott our new leader [Music] now martin truex had some uh contact back up at the top of the course i believe the turn seven area and we were just talking about that nope keeping defenders on this thing you get mired back in traffic he tried to stay off of the 77 right there and got into the left rear of blaney i'm surprised i'm not seeing more damage from either of those cars but that that's where it gets very difficult you talking about track position versus uh tires and and you know once you get mired back at traffic like truex is and like the five you see a larson there man it's so easy to take yourself out or get knocked off the track damage to the car he saw it with denny hamlin in 11. same thing leaning to the inside of ryan newman picks up a spot that's the emotional roller coaster of these road courses though you know when you're out there smooth sailing even if you're kyle larson you know out there just drumming them in that first stage sooner or later it's going to come full circle and you're going to have a you know a whole fleet of cars you're gonna have to pass all right all right so my question for both you guys and larry we can bring you in on this too which strategy would you want to be in right now which position would you you want to be chase elliott up front there with track position or do you want to be somebody like truex or the five of larson with fresh tires i still want to be up front with track position knowing that everybody's probably jeff gonna pit about the same time somewhere around 28 29 30 look out three wide eric jones on the inside of buscher and kyle larson wow as truex completed the pass on ryan newman [Music] what about you boyer what do you think where would you like to be here i mean of course it's easy to say you want me chase elliot and clean air out front right now i want track position for all the reasons that we've just talked about getting damaged back here getting caught up in somebody else's battle happens time and time again it's happened to me at this racetrack when i'm out front i can control my destiny you get me back there sometimes you're at the mercy of somebody else you know where i want to be jeff larry mcreynolds in a charlotte fs1 studio just talking about it i'm sure it's very stressful for these guys on the box today kyle busch william byron and brad keselowski this is for third [Music] so torn watching these cars go through that you know the inner loop that we've added here i got to remember we added that in 2019 the old way i loved that opportunity four five wide craziness and getting into seven it kind of took that away but it also opened the door up for a carousel corner that's so tricky somebody's off the racetrack right there just a little bit that was chase elliot kicking off all that dust but it it really did change you know the the look of this race but it's added a couple opportunities as well chase elliott getting after it there close as it gets he's pushing it to the limit now you crest that corner and that's the the you get through the apex you're looking for that curve where is it where is it where is it on the other side of it easy to do like that third place to kyle bush never never count out kyle bush and that's with a little bit of damage still in that right front fender or headlight area brad kaye going after the 24 byron oh he gets position as he comes over 3a he's been quiet all day long but been you know putting some good lap times down seems like he's getting better and better as the race progresses right here with 43 to go i factored 43 laps to go the stars are out in sonoma guy fieri our celebrity pace car driver michael jordan celebrity race team owner kyle shanahan celebrity grand marshall [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sonoma where they broke ground for this beautiful racetrack in 1968 trans am raced here in 69 and then nascar came to wine country that's larry mack as a winning crew chief here and jeff gordon in victory lane and that's how you drink wine and sonoma right clint no actually that goblet is what they call that that one i have in my trophy case but it's it's laying on its side because i broke the bottom off of it that day yeah there's a story behind that well we may have had some of that red stuff well congratulations to 124 players that pending eligibility split clint's ten thousand dollars i got all six questions that's a good number heck yeah what a good time that's been this year watching our fans take on that stage two challenge picking their picks and taking my money mark truex taking fourth place and look who's right on his tail man just hard to deny the speed of that five car up 15 position since the restart you know but we talked to martin shrewx you heard right there hey catching him is one thing getting around him to the other gonna have to put some pressure on him that's a three-time winner of this race gets around here well knows where to be good and where not to you know you can give up on this racetrack what you can't give up is getting off the six getting off the 10. you know high marks to the three group for austin dillon with battery changes they're still on the lead lap yeah the question is will that battery last all the way in they're not going to have another caution necessarily that they can plan for in case unless something does happen on track that brings it out you can see martin really pick it up as that five's gotten to his bumper you can see the sense of urgency getting to occur it's gonna be important to try to get around him as fast as possible don't let them stack you up because if you don't make that pass at the right time the five is gonna get you this is where both of these guys are so good into the braking zone nice block there by truex to prevent that move from happening from the five behind him as he's working on kurt busch [Music] you heard that forward bite right there thing is on the verge of breaking the tires loose gotta treat that gas pedal like it's an egg underneath of it it's really easy on the throttle gotta set them up right here through nine then in ten not get too close but get a run off this corner just like that turn underneath him and now outbreak into turn 11. oh look at five looking underneath what a move here almost oh so close it's the one thing i've been noticing about martin his breaking you know the fives fast kind of everywhere just seems like he's got overall speed martin really focuses on getting into that corner he can get in as deep as anybody he didn't just slam the door on larson he knocked it right off its hinges well what i saw there was that martin felt like he had positioned on the one really didn't think the five was gonna make him take him three wide so initial breaking he didn't get aggressive but when the five dove in there he was actually able to release that brake pedal carry a little more speed in there to protect that line let's get up to second place and kyle bush four seconds behind chase elliott jamie having a really solid day for this 18 team talk to his crew chief you see him there on the right ben bayshore and he told me this season it's just taken a while to figure out what kyle bush needs in his race car he said after a few races they went a different direction and it has been showing they have been firing off top five top 10 speeds every week and once again today and it's interesting kyle went around his older brother kurt bush and said anything for curt and then he said larson good job anything for kurt so i don't know what he means by that but he's certainly keeping an eye on his brother kyle larson made a big move there under-breaking taking the line away and taking the spot for martin truax yeah that's one of the biggest longest braking zones on the racetrack because of that speed you carry from the carousel up the drag strip and i tell you that was a power move by kyle larson going back to what you were saying clint i didn't think that he could outbreak that 19 car and make that pass but he did i it's gonna take strategy to keep that car from winning this race they're so fast in every part of this racetrack [Music] here's another look at that pass that's coming out of the carousel and looking up toward turn seven and it wasn't like he had position on him look how that's how aggressive kyle larson was you saw the back tire slipping and sliding as he was jumping on the brakes and downshifting he earned it it's rough into that corner guys and and that's what promotes some of that wheel hopping and very difficult conditions to get stopped in so now what does he do with kyle busch and where it won't take long i can tell you right now it's probably going to happen in the same place he just made that pass on mark truax jr i mean they're about a second faster than both both chase elliot and kyle bush right now it might right there you see the oh don't get too wide here almost he'll make it either heavy breaking and downshifting turn seven right there what i just saw is what i've seen chase his teammate do time and time again over the competition over the last few years now you see these other hendrick cars having that same opportunity breaking zones are how you win races on these row courses 38 laps and one pit stop to go in sonoma [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] so with 36 laps to go in sonoma here are today's credit one bank ones to watch mike when i came to sonoma it was all about coming home kyle larson is at home elk grove's california driver kyle larson is trying to do something has never been done here before sonoma win both stages and the win and get his first win in sonoma yeah jeff martin shreks jr is trying to score his third consecutive sonoma win he's done the first two by leading the tunnel out so i know he's not led today a lot of that because of where he started in strategy a lot lot's gonna come down to who makes his final pit stop win loving what i'm seeing out of kurt busch today came in 83 points out of the playoffs needs a win needs a good run here for sure kurt busch is definitely doing that today well kyle busch is a two-time winner here but guys he just pitted and it wasn't strategy it was a vibration check out that tire right there can he make his way back up will it be good enough if my mouth is right he's gonna be about three laps short wow only two drivers in all of nascar history have more wins on a road course than chase elliot you know them jeff gordon tony stewart elliott adds to that total today and those are your credit one bank ones to watch larry early pit stops mike i was quite surprised because i still feel like right now we are still about a lap or two shy of the window opening now i do believe when the window opening opens you need to come in case the caution comes out but i felt like a lot of those guys that pitted two or three laps ago as jamie little pointed out i think they're going to be a little little short larry i'm listening to your strategy calling and i'm also watching over your shoulder these tires coming off those cars that's the second tire i've seen looking pretty bad i don't know if these things can make it right here i think that was a right front off christopher bell's car i've seen rear tires i've seen front tires where is an issue we knew that going in this is designed that way we need that kind of tire for this rigging well the 12 car ryan blaney pitted just then and he had to also was not strategy the tire looked exactly the same as the 22 car joey logano earlier another tire problem down here that could be that untimely caution that nobody expects shake this race up in a big way man that's delamination right there where that you know that softer compound is almost just separating from the main part of the carcass on that tire you know this place is so hard on these tires under heavy brake but also under acceleration that load of those rear tires taken off can also do that i wonder if that's a result of flat spotting that tire and the added heat from flat spotting it perhaps causing it to deal out he's seeing rear tires too mike yep i'll tell you what right now i've never seen this before where strategy is usually so important track position so important right now it doesn't matter for the five car of kyle larson and cliff daniels they got everything going right right now as he goes after the number nine of chase elliott for the lead here elliot chose track position larson chose tires that's the difference between them right now [Music] tell you what this is a battle that's not only heating up on this racetrack it's going to heat up this season between these two teammates we saw four hendrick drivers competing against one another at dover last week at charlotte i tell you what these guys are going to be battling a lot almost a move right there by kyle larson getting into the carousel that's what you do right there how do you pass people get them looking in the mirror all over the place you see kyle looking he's passed a lot of cars right here getting into seven but i don't think he's close yeah he lost a little bit there see how good he can get into the breaking zone here doesn't want to even try it this was also the battle at coda and this is how they finished elliot larson when the rains came when more rain came when it rained really hard when we launched the ark at coda yeah that's how they were running interesting if you can get close enough to him jeff right here you go down the hill in these s's get him set up turn ten we've talked about it time and time again well that's the thing about sonoma you only have to be good to prevent a pass you only got to be good in certain parts of this racetrack like right here be good in that right-hander turn 10 and you can make it very difficult to somebody to make that pad oh larson thought about it oh the nine he kind of tried to get out of his mirror and he maybe overshot that corner a little bit boy you got to believe trex is loving this right now he's like this might be my chance you talked about the battle of these two it's got to be hard hey chase elliot he came in to hendrick motorsports and and he won a championship came into this season he was still the guy this five car is keeping him honest every week [Applause] this is the only sport that i can think of where it comes down to teammates battling each other to win yeah that teammate thing that kind of goes out the window when they drop the green mike there's two different conversations right here though if you're kyle larson you're trying to utilize those fresh tires to get around him while you can put the pressure on him if you're chase elliot you're trying to make him wear those tires out to where they'll equalize and you can stay ahead of him he might be able to get it done right here that's the other section of this racetrack yeah there he goes he was he had to dive it in there yeah he did look at this oh it ain't over yet crossover turn seven all right but i was gonna say also coming out of that character that turns six to seven that's the other place you wanna be really good to get that launch down that straightaway [Music] and here he comes yeah those guys are not only were they battling it out they were using up their stuff brakes tires allowing mark church junior to close the gap 33 laps to go in the toyota save mark 350 and you'll see it all as we go fox side by side [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] bye how will rey mysterio respond so [Music] how will rey mysterio respond after roman reigns vicious attack on his son dominic has the head of the table finally gone too far it's an all-new friday night smackdown live at eight eastern 7 central hot fox you saw martin trix get past chase elliott that's for second place and it splits up those hendrick camaros pit stops have begun ross chastain has been on pit road daniel suarez in and out and um and the 11 of hamlin now ben rhodes comes to the pit having a fine drive in his debut in the cup series you know mike especially if i'm the nine of chase elliot i'm coming to pit road this time there's going to be 30 to go the last thing you want to do is keep running and a caution come out and it's people are pitted and you're still out there i don't understand just continuing to run here chase elliott looked like he might have been headed for pit road and was then told to stay out chase briscoe you're right along with our fox visor cam inside the ford performance cam equipped number 14. pretty nice run here for chase briscoe i think those laps he made in that race yesterday really paying off here he's in the top 10. yeah this helmet visor right here cam is so much fun to watch shows the elevation change it goes up hill how rough it is a little curb action what it didn't show was eric almarola right on his tail thank you i just i just want this thing to end with those guys with a good finish they have had such a tough year you know watching it hey put a little dust in his face right there [Music] so larry could chase elliott and company be waiting to pit with truex and larson so they can all be on equal tires well i wouldn't want to be on equal i want to be on fresher tires i want to i want to come before they come mike and i mean we're right there now where we've split this stage in half and i would just i would come this time okay well i'm anxious to see them on even tires because i gotta say i thought chase elliott hung on really good holding off the five holding off the 19 as long as he did on those older tires so how good is the snap of chevrolet on new tires it's a good point you're gonna have to be as close as possible to him even-wise if you get too separated if you try to pit early and he stays out of three or four more laps that's not enough so right behind chase that is the 77 that's been rhodes remember he just pitted for new tires right and i'm telling that goes to show you just how much more grip there is with those new tires but right now the 19 and the five are starting to gap the the nine of la so even if to larry's point if they he waits and comes with them they're gonna have a pretty good advantage on him just track position so he may need a caution to stay in the race so there's larson truex james davison i believe that was and then chase elliot [Music] maddie d on pit road for tires [Music] tyler another one of those guys putting another good never even seen this place mike never been he was in the pace car this morning to try to see what this track is like i'm sure he did a little bit of time on a simulator but simulator just doesn't you know even out and and give you the real true uh elevation changes and breaking zones like you see on ovals versus these road courses on the simulator so great job to him putting another solid race together for tyler reddick well larry i know you were all but screaming i think chase elliot heard you well i i they've got to come they have to come they don't want to be on equal tires they want to get a lap or two leg up on i don't know if that's going to be enough but i'd rather do that than just be dead even with them okay and behind there he comes he's listening to you larry [Laughter] so important watch him go around this thing keeping a bunch of speed remember that line right there is where you finally get down to pit road speed a lot to be gained and lost as you're coming around turn 11 and pit road jamie alan gustaf sent his crew cheap off the pit box assisting his pit crew holding the tire called his driver in a four tire stop they're also going to make a track bar adjustment go down he's a little bit tight on the left really good pick box for this nine it's just straight out he can watch his speed last thing he wants to do here is speed at this point regan [Music] eric jones quietly having a very good day in the 43 car every time we come to this racetrack eric jones finds its way into the front that race car right now lacking a little bit of overall grip they've been doing small adjustments all day long in that car to try and make it a little better yeah he'd been flirting around the top ten for most of this race you hear those guys complaining about turn we heard kyle bush tell jeff and i in the pre-race man really want my car to turn good with the front end as i'm watching those laps and you're covering pit road of kyle larson that car is pretty loose oh he just raced going into the carousel this racetrack has a short track of rogue courses when i think of running the rogue court speaking of course stay on the course bowman but what i was getting at sonoma reminds me of a short track right stop and go got to get in the corner hard you got to slow this thing down a lot and then you're creating a lot of speed from a 35 mile an hour corner right here as you see bowman in this seven the acceleration up through the gear box very difficult to get off here keep those tires underneath if you need a car to turn i'll tell you what great lap right there by mark trex jr gained almost a second on our leader that last time was closing on him he's the pit road first with fresher tires it's gonna give a leg up i think to the 19 car because the five did not come to pit road that time jamie martin trench junior told his team he's wheel hopping through the carousel and that's the only place he feels like he's really getting beat a four tire stop here at the 19 has been so solid you saw the 48 they had just told him to pick then he went off-road he said his grip has been zero for the last couple of laps he saw that alex bowman in jamie he's happy to get in and get some fresh rubber into the fourth pit stop for alex bowman most of these teams have one set of tires remaining if they need it with 27 laps here to go they wipe the grill make sure all that dirt is cleaned off at the point game i tell you who else is struggling i think larson's struggling right now i think he put a lot on these tires for that run and he's gonna have to get to pit road this time and jeff the biggest reason he needs to come we've had so many cars pit if he stays out there and the caution comes out i don't know if that's gonna be enough laps to get back to the front because all these drivers that's pitted they're gonna be staying out he'll have to pimp a moment ago saw denny hamlin make a pass on ryan newman he's since gone by eric jones so hamlet's worked his way back up to 17th but still a ways to go to the front [Music] looking back from denny at eric jones and there comes lars thank him so kyle larson will surrender the lead likely to joey logano who's just now in turn nine i'm telling you truex by having those fresher tires a lap earlier is going to close that gap even more see the track map in the upper right of where they are unless he had trouble on pit road or something else i mean honestly he should assume the lead right here the 19 to true x reagan well immediately after the 19 pitted cliff daniels got on the radio and told kyle larson next time bye that was their plan right now his race car has been good he has been absolutely silent on the radio a nice smooth stops all he needs and a clean in and out from his pit stall [Music] this may have been what he needed if the five i no he's gonna get him for sure [Music] not what kyle larson wanted to see there oh but that'll tighten things up but a lot of traffic he's gonna have to get through and that's gonna help you stay close to him but again as he punches that hole you got to go with him you can't get mired back in traffic and if you're going to pit again i agree with larry you can't wait because if we get a caution there's 33 cars on the lead left so the best you're going to restart is midfield under a caution and a pit stop so logano was last on pit road at lap 42 making his tires about 12 laps older than the cars chasing him remember you got chase elliot that came in a little bit fresher tires then you got the 19 you know and and now you got the five on the the freshest of these three but i'm telling you him staying out that extra lap we're gonna see how that plays out there's the knight of chase elliot a little bit of traffic he's gonna have to deal with pretty heavy traffic here and good cars from chastain and bell's tires are older than elliott's otherwise they're pretty much on par with the rest of that group laney to the pit lane there here are your toyota top performers californian second truex fifth bell in 10th hamlin 18th and wallace a lap down after losing a tire regan we'll just update the tires that came off of our leader kyle larson the inside edge of the left front tire down to the court you see it right there on the camera probably a good part of the reason as to why he slowed up so much at the end of that run good point well i'll tell you what right now he is running some hard corners and laps on that five car so he's uh he's gonna need all the goodyear rubber on that thing he could possibly have if he's gonna get by truex and be able to stay ahead of him to the end still a lot of racing left 25 laps to go i i would believe that these guys need to save a little bit of that tire that you just saw regan talking about can't just overdrive these things on the front side of these runs burning tires right off tyler redick back on track after a pit stop we'll take you back side by side [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] 24 laps to go let's see where the coca-cola family of drivers are in the field uh joey logano just got passed for the lead kelly hamlin trying to fight back to the front mark daniel suarez right with him brian newman austin dillon with battery issues legato after surrounding the lead comes to pit road now here's what kyle larson went after mark martin truex well we we certainly saw as soon as larson got out there he was running really aggressive and i believe his team has told him hey take care of those tires those things weren't looking great when we came off well here's kyle larson and team discussing martin shereck just said on the radio he's going to run his pace and see where it ends up to be smart about that well mark church junior knows what it's like to win here he knows what it's like to be in position to take care of tires so i'm really curious about him running his own pace right now go back to that last run though and you said it he closed the gap on him on the back side of that run kyle started to get wheel hop like you said he closed up a second on the last lap maybe that'll play into martin's hand pretty smart race car driver right there not quite as fast on the short run but maybe we can beat him on a long round here [Music] x looks to the inside on kurt bush and will take over third place [Music] well there's a lot of exhaust coming out of the booth here today and every sunday on fox fortunately we have the folks at borla to handle the exhaust system so borla's going to crank it up for us [Music] up five or [Music] later [Music] [Music] for the lead kyle larson takes his camaro back to the front [Music] against kyle busch making it look easy right now mike but i i just i gotta believe there's some nervous crew chiefs on top of that pit box trying you know looking at all these tires up and down pit road there's the pass for the lead made it look easy by just driving in there aggressively boy the brakes are just so strong on that five car today larson has set a blistering pace all day with what we've seen of tire issues from some teams is there a concern he's running this car too hard and if so what do you tell him yes there's a concern that the crew has been concerned about told him his tires are beat up they're beat up for a reason because he's putting abuse on him man that thing is super fast making great speed you talked about we just saw him make that pass for the lead i can't tell you how many passes he's made in seven over there but all that getting off of the carousel and six setting that that pass up let me add to the concern we went back racing at lap 44 after the end of stage two that's when the five had pitted they pitted at lap 64. that's 20 green flag laps that stop they made it's 26 laps until the checkered flag he's going to have to run six more green flag laps wow jamie well when larson went around martin sherice jr he came on the radio and told the team we're no good in the slower corners where we need the front end to work that's what he's realizing maybe he's not as good as the five all over the track and that's when he said guys i'm just going to run my pace here and see how it works out in other words i'm going to take care of my stuff and hope it works till the end well that's interesting that you say that jamie because what i've seen now as kyle lars has gotten the lead that last time by within a tenth of a second of second place mark tricks junior so i think they're both going to be playing this cat and mouse game about pace and keeping those tires in good shape to the end that's what this track's always been about always been about saving tires taking care of your equipment those long runs the other thing that's hard to do is manage your brakes on these long runs your tires wear out those big dive bombs you see getting into these corners the seven passing zone the 11 passing zone those keep getting harder and harder and harder as you get temperature on these long runs in the brakes [Music] so larry looking at the drivers that stopped on lap 54-55 and i'm talking uh kyle busch kurt busch brad koslowski christopher bell kevin harvick william byron among the top ten can they make it yeah mike by looking at the fuel numbers i'm looking at right now even with the pace slowing down it looks like somewhere around three to five laps shy of making it to the end [Music] coming up thursday special edition of nascar race up featuring the return of the better half dash virtually this event features the women of nascar highlighting their contributions to the sport allowing them to raise money for charity motor racing outreach be the participant and they'll have a virtual legends car race at the virtual texas motor speedway thursday night 6 p.m eastern on fs1 kelly earnhardt miller and bobby lavonny's wife are among the favorites will certainly be a lot safer some of those races have been wild over the years wasn't it wendy venturini that flipped one a few years back i think i remember was it matt kansas why i think the wives aren't competitive yeah look no further than that caution oh and brad keselowski was on pit road when the caution waved quinn house has come to a halt well i'm going to say something i hear larry mcreynolds say all the time and larry please correct me if i'm wrong but have these boys made their bed these guys that are up front now or do they come in you know jeff we're going gonna have probably 16 17 laps to go and we do our hearing that brad keselowski had made pit road so he's good to go i just think with my gosh you have 32 cars on the lead lap i just don't see how you can pit if you're especially if you're up there in the 5 and a 19 car if you don't you might get beat by somebody that does very tricky situation here i would not want to be a crew chief i don't know jeff 19 to go i'd want tires how about you i would especially when i've seen some of the trouble but you know what i that's why i was never i like kyle larson's attitude i don't make that call tell me if the pit or not pit i just drive there's a reason oh it looks like the engine expired and he tried to find a safe way off the track but couldn't get fully out of harm's way yeah but i see a oil trail underneath that car too there's a green light upper left that shows that the pit road was still open in the upper right there yeah that's a commitment line right there yep so a legal stop and a big break for brad kaye i think that's going to pay dividends for him you know that's not necessarily unless all these guys pit that's not going to be the winning move but that's definitely going to gain in positions having those tires big break for them you know who really gains on this caution garrett smithly because garrett smithley it's kind of like uncle albert he hasn't seen a bloody thing all day there hasn't been another car near him the whole race caution is out it just got really interesting in sonoma right now [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] so [Music] other guys other guys those pits have been a busy place today and they're about to get busier 18 laps to go were under caution the impact of the pandemic on youth sports has been significant recovery has started in some communities but kids most in need are still on the sideline sidelines learn how you can help fox sports and good sports restore play for at-risk youth and the programs that serve them through donations of brand new sporting equipment visit goodsports.org to learn more when the caution came out brad keselowski was on pit road that was judged a legal stop however they had equipment over the wall too soon for the number two so he will restart in the back after they serve their first pit road penalty of this season who comes in who stays out wow and no mistakes money stop looks like they're all coming 32 lead lap cars cody ware gets the free pass we'll restart then with 33 a couple in the back stay out and they may be lapped cars jamie yeah the 19 james small said yes we have to pit let's bring it in no adjustments all day for the 19 just air pressure you see kyle busch in as well with a wedge adjustment to help that race car he needs a little bit of lateral grip good stop here all day long actually for the 19 but they said they had to come good call because everybody else did as well the pick call for kyle larson was silver dollar that meant come down pit road his race car continues to be good he hasn't said a word about it on the radio the only thing he has asked for is a drink bottle during this pit stop [Music] so several stayed out here's larson spinning the tires and he gets out in front of martin truax chase elliot and the rest so joey logano who just came into lap 67 stayed out brad kaye uh stays out but uh tyler reddick corey lejoy anthony alfredo do not pimp so it's about what's out of two maybe three green flag laps on the tires of the 22 of joey logano dang it look at keselowski though the opportunity is right in their lap that mistake will be costly that'll cost them a lot of positions they're going to look back on this and really be bummed out long way home from here legato has four laps on his tires reddick and lejoy they have about six laps on theirs [Music] so with cody ware taking the free pass we will restart with 33 lead lap cars when i come to sonoma at least when i'm up here in the booth mike this is the way i want to see this race play out you just hope for that late caution and and to line them up with some guys alternating up their their strategy maybe have a few more laps on their tires and those guys a little further back with new tires oh yeah but if i'm kyle larson and i've been dominating this race i'm out front have track position those cautions are not what you want to see i have to get around these cars got to keep these cars protected restarts at this point in the juncture are going to be wild you know they are so larson elliott truex they will start six seven and eight they will be the first cars on new tires on the outside row three and then all of row four and back well no and the one thing here this puts larson in that sixth position that puts him on that outside lane on the restart so what that means is the first turn which is turn one right not much of a turn but that's a disadvantage when you're on that outside but as you come to the next one now you've got the preferred line but i've seen that that lane that's you know now when he goes to the right the lane on the left side actually has the momentum off that corner so this might open up the door for truex yes i tell you it put him there you know where it put us on our feet this is so exciting this is what i was hoping for one of those drivers had little choice and he's going to restart on the front row tyler reddick did not pit because they are out of new tires [Music] well now see i'm i'm seeing here okay so so i kind of i thought that lars okay so yeah larson's six i don't understand why he's in that position because he's because the five in front of him did not stop so he restarts sixth yeah i know that but i thought he was just getting the monitor hadn't reset kozlowski has to drop to the right oh that's what it is okay so he's actually fifth right now and that's so now i'd flip-flop that what i just said right put truex in that position in the better spot no going to two no no i want to be in the where larson's at all right we'll see because they will come to 16 laps to go and take the green flag [Music] clean getaway for legano and that's exactly what i was worried about you see how truex got held up behind anthony alfredo yeah we got to be careful not get held up in the next corner that's what's so cool about these switchbacks on road courses not only you're good in one corner oh wait get to the next one you're not so good so sell it now getting another position on [Music] truax about the day corey the joy is happening great to see him up front he's done a great job today out of the carousel headed for turn seven well he did exactly what he needed to do he wanted to get through those the the traffic on uh without tires is before the other guys did so far so good for the five of kyle larson what that that just did not work out good for the 19 of truex at all because now he's going to come down this hill through the s's and he's got alfredo and the joy on older tires he's got to try to navi he'll get at least one of them in turn 11 in the breaking zone might have to get a little closer than this to do it and they're side by side not going to happen as larson goes to second and truex is bottled up now he gets some drive off the bottom of turn 11. and he'll get la joy [Applause] [Music] lined up on alfredo but their single file up the hill how about alfredo here's the fellows never run a full season in any one of nascar's top three divisions but man he likes road course races doesn't it he does he's been really aggressive looking sliding that car up over the curb doing a nice job here holding off some guys on much fresher tires [Music] really see martin being aggressive now he's pushing him but he heard him talk on the radio we're just going to ride pace ourselves that all went out the window when the caution came out now we got to point out alfredo he must have come to pit road the exact same time as the two of brad keselowski and made it on to pit road at that same time but he didn't have the penalty for the lead kyle larson on fresh tires takes legano chase elliott comes to third against tyler reddick truex did get alfredo [Music] but he's got a ways to make up with 15 laps to go plenty of time but uh martin truex getting jammed up on this restart we'll show it to you again to jeff's point that really was a problem well well you had the leader who is legano right was able to just kind of get a bit of a jump that allows that inside lane to go and it truex you know he just saw what was happening he saw not only the five go by but also the nine oh we got an issue here with alex bowman and corey lejoy is turned around at turn 11. dang it caution waves oh big damage here to kevin harvick's hood both ends of his car right front end to left rear heavy braking turn 11. [Music] la joy x oh it looks like the 42 of chastain maybe got into the tires or i didn't see what oh i see he checked up because it happened ahead of that picture yeah and man william byron's front end is really messed up right there [Music] ah what's up there with chastain i think he got into the joy and what time have we seen stuff like this happen down in turn 11. all right now watch the seven it'll be a white car coming into frame on the outside and chastain tries the dive bomb yeah that doesn't go well seven of the joy you know he kind of got the car slowed down and was gonna make sure he made that apex but you know when you that's the thing when you're on older tires versus these guys with newer tires they're going to be aggressive and you got to not only see what's in front of you you got to see what's coming behind you [Music] and it's just it's just aggressive hard racing at this late stage in the race is what that is [Music] oh you know i've been watching kevin harvick all day he was just putting one of those clean kevin harvick race days together just staying out of trouble didn't feel like he had a car that could win just you know getting as many stage points and getting a good finish and then that happens doing what he does best just taking care of business you were right and i was you took the words right out of my mouth just kind of having a quiet day but just staying right there and in the thick of things and and all it takes is one little thing wipes not only him william byron a lot of good cars out right there bubba wallace gets the free pass so he'll get back on the lead lap pit road is open with now 14 laps to go probably about 12 to go we'll see a restart see bubba wallace getting his lap back and that's gonna be a shot in the arm for those guys you know there's a lot of cars right there that they can surpass with all that damage getting that opportunity late in the race like this that was one that they didn't get because of the timing of that that tire harvick will pit for uh crash damage and with 14 to go and kyle larson leading the toyota save mart 350. we'll take you back side by side right so [Music] oh they'll do anything because 13 to go heavy damage to kevin harvick in that one and to william byron in his day and this all started when corey lejoy left the inside open coming into the corner just a little bit ross chastain and the green 42 right there thought it would be enough see what he did do though he spun around backwards here grabbed him the gear jeff and shot up through the infielder i don't know what nascar's take will be on that was that uh did he gain spots who would i ever thought the guy that caused the caution but who would have thought the guy that caused the caution was backwards at one point on the racetrack would have gained spots if he'd just gone to the left and blend it in a little sooner you can do that a hundred times over and 99 of them you are not going to gain spots when you're backwards on the racetrack all right william byron with heavy damage in that crash jamie yes that was the big one of the race william you just saw the replay for the first time what did you see from the driver's seat yeah i was uh i was trying to roll to the outside of the and uh the four was in front of me and i thought he was going to run the bottom and obviously somebody spun in front of him and caused a big pile up and at that point you're just a passenger you know you're obviously going to knock the radiator in and be done for the day so it stinks but we're struggling all day to be honest so we we gotta go back to work on that but uh definitely learn some lessons thanks to exalte the chevrolet and everyone and um yeah we'll regroup the first really bad week of the year so we'll all re-grow from it first dnf of the season for william byram but he still says it walks away with a smile on his face [Music] so he will join ricky stenhouse and quinn half in the garage we have double checked with nascar on the 42. he did it all right and they said ross chastain after spinning came back out on track and he's okay [Music] so next weekend the westminster dog show is on fox on saturday the masters agility championship beginning at five eastern then sunday at seven best in show he'll catch it all on fox and the fox sports app we're going to the dogs boys oh cool chris myers she's pretty sure he'll be working that no oh pretty sure the dogs are only probably the ones that have more grooming done than him when he does he'll go through a gallon of hairspray every pre-race i love him 425 wineries in sonoma county one racetrack can't say enough about the numbers i know there's a racetrack and a winery i can't you might not know about it yeah yeah okay oh david abreu all right 12 laps to go let's recap the day for you [Music] kyle larson started on pole jumped out to an early lead martin truax started deep in the field and was on the move early [Music] a lot of different pitch strategy working the race forward or backward trying to get on a winning cycle whatever that would be of course cautions would pretty much dictate what would happen teammates 12 and 21 not exactly happy campers there ditto 18 and 20. ricky stenhouse into the wall after a cut tire came back out on track ran a few laps finally put it in the garage [Music] and kyle larson won both stages today [Music] and then the big one corey lejoy left the door open just a little bit for ross chastain and around they go hard hit for william byron there yeah it's just i mean he was doing everything right there and like he said can't anticipate them checking up like that right in front of you lane's right in your lap larson legato elliot reddick truex alfredo the bush brothers chastain and jones are the top ten green flag with 11 to go good jump by joey on the outside that's something we haven't really seen today he'll hold tough in position right here right position but the momentum is going to be on this outside now they go into the left-hander no he doesn't have position now he does episode tight through four martin truax right all over the bumper of chase elliott yeah and then that opened up the door for tyler reddick through this right-hander up and over and into the carousel i'm going to be curious if chase ellie could get by the 22 of joey logano here and what he may have after kyle larson we've not seen anybody to have that short run pace if tyler ready can hold on to a top five here he can't say enough about that drive out of him and his team never been here before that is pretty impressive entry to seven double wide from about fifth on back now it sorts out a little in the s's chastain hanging tough too wide all the way through the s's i know those tires are hurt and gains a couple of spots doing it i was curious also to watch kyle bush right now in that fifth position had some big damage to the left front fender he was able to sort of weave that car back and forth as we see chase elliott now going after joey legano for second place and behind them top 10 spots everybody double wide this is what i love about joey logano man i'll tell you what that guy's a fighter he gets aggressive at the end of these races especially on these restarts 10 to go cool shot right there fellaini and custer side by side fighting hard for 18th christopher bell battling reddick this is for ninth daniel suarez up to eleventh there man what a great move right there late break for suarez to get to that inside tough crowd here oh i see michael mcdowell trying to squeeze alex bowman look at the day that mcdowell has had the right side of that car is almost gone that's the cars you see in the in the back of the hub got into a little bit gonna get them again here i can tell you what that's gonna make michael mcdowell a little angry as they go down into this breaking zone you're not going to outbreak michael mcdowell very accomplished road racer he's got the line there and here comes hamlin to battle bowman through the that damage to the right front fender of alex bowman heard him short shift right there that section that's definitely an option [Music] you either do it there jeff or you have to do it up over the hill which is right here in the middle of that that you know you're sliding the back of that car as we see here wheels spin place yeah that car is sliding out and then you've got to go you know over to third which is an awkward shift well that your g-forces are pulling you to the left side of your car you reach over very hard shift to make second to third most of the track is paved however sometimes there's james davison i can't tell you there's not enough of it that's paying mine because this is one narrow i'll tell you now they don't teach you how to do that at skip barber racing school i promise you they got a great curriculum this is not part of it sorry james you might be able to get away with that in that 66 mustang that you were dropping i can't do it keep it on the pavement but guys i i hate to say this but uh kyle larson just had his fastest lap of the race that last time by he's not holding back on these goodyear tires right now you knew it was gonna come down to these three cars chase elliott the domination he's had on road races as of late the domination of kyle larson and his team and then martin truex three-time winner out here in sonoma i don't wonder but what we're seeing the championship four up front right here very well could be well and so you know my pick was these three that are one two three and and i was between legano and kyle bush so you could you can kind of flip-flop those guys and i agree i think that could be your top four that go to phoenix to battle it out for the championship [Music] a lot of racing left though oh yeah a lot can change a lot of guys can gain it'll be eight to go at the line here keslowski working his way back up through after serving that penalty up to 23rd but man it's hard fought back there last lap larson two tenths of a second faster he backed the champion i think his crew chief got on the radio and said hey we don't need to go that fast i appreciate you showing me how fast it can go this really shows the elevation that camera angle there this is it's hard to a lot of blind corners and it's a blind spot in a bad spot you come up over the corner you keep looking for that exit where is it where is it oh there it is contact hamlin and bowman get together turn 11. turns in oh that's somebody uh that was eric cameron he got into the back of the 11. but the 48 missed a little bit i think well he's trying to make that late apex oh no they it was mcdowell and somebody on the outside getting together that caused that dust up accordion in that corners these cars are starting to look it might have been eric jones [Music] oh yeah there's no all that give and take that's completely out the window right now no it's all take yes it's gimme gimme gimme yes it is i'll tell you from reddick on back there's just like a freight train of cars and they're all within a car length of each other but that's got to be so frustrating to be able to get that close and not close enough to pass well that's why i say it's it's not you can be super fast in sections and make up speed overall in a lap but you still can't pass somebody you've got to find the right places as we see this ninth place battle between christopher bell and anthony alfredo and be good in those places yeah so off of six right through the carousel to get that run up to that breaking zone at seven and off of ten that fast right hander or maybe just down the hill to ten to get that run to turn 11 breaking zone in the example of that almost every single shot that we've seen kyle larson pass cars it was that set up off of six into seven how he got it done laney with a try there [Music] well you got to wait so long for this carousel to pick up the throttle you want to really get it pointed as straight as you can at the very very exit of that corner to get this run to turn this uh turn seven [Music] and then boy you really gotta get those revs up on the on the rev match on that downshift he's sir he's short shifted right there also going into the s's [Music] we're gonna use our fox ghost car to show you turn seven and how differently kyle larson and chase elliott approach one of the slowest corners here so this is that turn i was talking about that late exit off the carousel down basically the drag strip let's see what happens in this breaking zone whoa man but over the years when i was racing chase elliott that's where his dominance has been and under-breaking now you've got a guy equal equipment figured that out put it to good use here six laps to go three seconds the margin [Music] i'm surprised ross chastain i mean that car spun out gravity gears spun back up through the infield may have passed a couple cars but nonetheless spun out and staying tough right here on those old tires pretty impressive i would have thought those things would have been smoked and got pretty fortunate on the damage like he got hit right in the right spot where it maybe even helped him i think it propped that deck lid up a little bit larry you know guys it has been a dismal year for chip ganassi racing you're riding with kurt busch right here in the one car starting back in the 30th position inside the top ten he has not had a top 13 finish since going all the way back to homestead 12 races ago and right now chastain and six in the 42 kurt busch in seventh and uh jamie how about more on ross chastain yeah he hasn't said anything about that race car he has just been eyes forward focused and i talked to ross about this team in this year being his rookie year and he said kurt busch gets so much credit he helps so much and he sets the bar for me exceptionally high but guys he had his best career finish at cota fourth on a row course and we've got a car off track and that would be cody ware who has brought out the caution with five laps to go ryan preece also involved they were not yes they were on the same lap not what our leader kyle larson wanted to see but what that man alan gustaf said in that nine of chase elliott maybe wanted to see i don't think he wanted to see it look at the top of the screen and look for ryan priest on the purple car of cody ware probably trying to run side by side through these uh no i think he did he just lose it i don't know where cody ware came in i saw maddie d was really close oh oh boy that was one of those days of thunder moments right there dust cloud that was that time when you don't want to head for the smoke i'd like to go back and see that replay again the 20 21 i thought was right on the back bumper of priests when he got loose yeah that's what i'm curious is how ryan priest lost you know traction in the rear and the car came around [Music] i don't well i don't know if the benedetto was close enough i don't well the front end looks like it was the damage the damage is on history i'll help you out mike he might have got him with the left unless that happened earlier in the race i will stand corrected but that looked like a little assistance that was a lot of assistance nah miss talk about assistance larry i need some assistance are we pitting what are we going to do how are you going to win this race for me because it could be out of my hands we've already packed the pit equipment up that's already in the hauler clinton well how about the opportunity i guess you're gonna have to see who's got tires yeah about everybody has tires except as jamie little reported uh tyler reddick in that eight car course he's falling all the way back to 16. most everybody else has a set of tires but we're gonna go back racing probably with what two or three to go and you can see right there the right front was broke that suspension was broken he had no control of that right front tire after he made contact with priest once he came out on track in front of him yeah i'd sure like to hear from ryan if he got turned i mean that damage on the left rear was from cody ware the secondary collision got a tire up against the wall right there right you got to think about how many laps you're going to have when we go back green here there's only going to be a couple laps no takers we've made her bed boys a couple in the back came in probably those with damage like priests five laps to go as they go ground pounding in sonoma [Music] um right um oh he gets out away from you again to uh [Music] we're gonna restart with three to go james davis gets the free pass back on the lead lap jamie only five drivers pitted under this caution why yeah that's because they're out of tires six sets and they are done but every team has to glue up one of the sets they already used these came off and chased elliot's car earlier on 11 laps of green flag running you are not coming down pit road to take this but if you have an emergency you blow out a tire this is what you're getting wow so kozlowski newman reddick davison and priests all pitted now these guys must clean these tires up you see them swerving them up it is paramount to get these cleaned up that's exactly what jamie just showed you that's how much buildup hot tires will pick up on this racetrack under caution get them cleaned up boys hard to get those fronts cleaned up too we will restart with three to go and look at this front row larson and elliott truex and logano kyle busch ross chastain kurt bush daniel suarez bell and alfredo the top 10. [Music] it's going to take some aggression i don't know if it's going to come out of a teammate but that's what it's going to take to beat that car but also that's experience of the five of kyle larson being in that position that inside lane being able to restart this race several times today from that position and knowing what's going to happen in turn one and two see kyle busch getting the inside legano got into him a little bit didn't get him passed sixth place in doubt and alfredo is around bad place [Music] hope he can re-fire and get going no caution is action is out [Music] caution breaking that'll make it eighth caution of the day for anthony alfredo's spin well let's see how much help he might have had white car with a black roof mcdowell the yellow car alongside oh man they're just all checking up and alex bowman made some contact then the 20 goes around 20's got a lot of contact he got straightened up so bell was the first to spin and i think he had some help from alfredo after this contact yeah yeah [Music] actually was bowman that sent alfredo into christopher bell [Music] i i i don't think we can express how crazy these restarts are on these left and right switchbacks on these road courses it gets nuts out there well let's try it from the visor cam [Music] it ain't over yet avarola's teammate was out there throwing up some dust [Music] so now we will go to overtime and alex bowman's cars really tore up couldn't tell if he got pushed into those cars i was gonna say what goes on what car is not torn up first three that's about it yeah cuz you go back to fifth place kyle busch that one's torn up here's almarola oh man come on well this the final nascar cup point race on the fox family of networks but we're not done just wait till next week [Music] [Applause] and somebody's going to win a million dollars sammy hagar will be there the side deal and will be there to bring you the final nascar on fox presentation for 2021. fans coming back to the tracks things are pigments is picking up oh man think about that right all-star race no points on the line and a million dollars to win it only driver in the top five without a rest on the restart without a road course win it's kyle larson yeah he was also the guy that never won a race after leading 200 laps or more until last week he's got it if he won what two or more stages had never won a race to last week he started to change a lot of those yeah he's gonna have to continue to keep chase elliot guessing on these restarts he got a great jump that last time but you know chase elliot's gonna put that in the bank gonna be better on this one it's gonna take aggression if they're side by side coming up the hill this is isn't over by any stretch of the imagination so elliott truex logano and kyle bush the four drivers behind kyle larson between them have 15 road course wins in total kyle larson has been in the front all day long can he stay there i think he does i mean he's been so strong that car is just great in all the right areas and he's been really good on on the restarts but i'm gonna tell you what we saw mark trex jr was pushing him when they came to that green trying to get position on chase ellie in second place didn't work out that time but i both think i think both chase elliott and martin church jr are going to get more aggressive on this restart well i think my answer to that mike is kind of two-fold yes it's his teammate chase elliot which is what i want right i want my teammate beside me because i know he's going to give me room he's going to race me clean that being said chase elliott's used to being the man on these race tracks he's going to be aggressive he doesn't hey it's all about being a teammate and everything else but you want to be number one guy at that camp here's a look at chase elliott on nascar cup road courses he's won them all except sonoma well that's another layer to this story a little added motivation for chase elliot to get that first sonoma win and if hendrick motorsports finishes one two today they will tie a nascar record that has stood since 1956. carl kiekafer's team those chrysler 300s were one two four races in a row hendrick's done it the last three races they're in positions one and two right now looking through this running order i see daniel suarez down there 99 running in the top 10 again they've been strong on on tracks that you wouldn't think a fresh team like that would be strong on dirt races on these road courses these are hard places to get a hold of doing a good job so kyle larson what's it like racing for the win against the drivers who are your teammates it's a good problem to have when you're battling your teammates for wins other teams maybe get competitive within within their walls and a lot of times that can be good but i would say more often than not that's a bad way to go about you know being a teammate we all want to see each other do good for the organization and for mr h well as we said last week rick hendrick says this is not a four-car team this is one team with four cars yeah but they're still competitors mike at the end of the day when you're a competitor you want to be the top dog you want to be in the winner's circle especially when you're in a position to be able to do that but you also got to know how to race your teammates so that it does not become an internal issue you want to be you want friendly rivalries within your race team to make you be better but you don't want to tear up one another's race there's no damage on christopher bell i told you that thing had a lot of damage on the right front but the other thing is going to that point both of those guys have chin straps on them helmets when we have that chin strap on we lose our mind you must have had yours a little too tight a few times i think i could think of one or two once or twice i had mine a little too [Music] tight [Music] you know final post script on the koch 600 memorial day and an image that i just can't get out of my mind is a little video that a fan posted after the race b.j mcleod had just raced 600 miles and there he is signing tires for a group of marines talking with them chatting them up and just gosh what memorial day is all about i mean good on you if i'd raised 600 miles i'd be super getting iv fluids i can promise you that but uh you know there he was working with a group of servicemen who came to enjoy the race and we were glad they were there well the presentation that charlotte motor speedway does the job that you do mike within our broadcast um man it is just so great to have that that remembrance of how important that day is and how thankful you are to be able to race in such a great country we all get to play a part thank goodness there they are some here this weekend as well u.s air force man i'll tell you what there was a show before this event guys flying i don't know if that was the air force but wow that was amazing i guess former navy and air force pilots putting on a show here for these fans here in sonoma today remembered across europe and across the world is d-day and here we go for nascar overtime two laps green white checker leader takes the white flag under green next flag ends the race and it's credit one overtime can't spin your tires here jeff and you can't lock up those brakes and turn two boy larson with a whole car length sure did whoa chase ellie got a little loose these guys are getting after it love it guys all over the curve she's trying to get a little bit more turn in the front right there larson got wide [Music] heavy braking zone ahead we've not seen anybody be able to outbreak larson today but i tell you what right there chase elliot did a great great job closing the gap get get him in the mirror that's what he's done put the pressure on him in the mirror looking back there not paying attention you can wheel hop very easy this is this is that section where you start to get those tires cleaned up yep through turn nine down to ten fastest part of the course and the important part we haven't said it i know we've said it a lot but that's a prime example he needed to get some distance on him because you know the next opportunity is this turn 11. and chase really dove it in hard and slit up in the center now what the nine has to do he's got to watch that five trying to be aggressive as soon as he makes a mistake that's when you gotta pounce and you gotta get you gotta close that gap you gotta make kyle larson not think about the next corner the next shift but think about chase elliott i think kyle larson did a great job at opening lap you could see he was pushing his slip and slide around just trying not to overdrive it and that allowed chase elliot to stay right there now he's starting to settle in what can chase elliot do with that that's the hardest part don't let him force you into it you know continue to keep the poise and it's so challenging to do when somebody's breathing down your neck don't make a mistake and beat yourself and you still got two major breaking zones here's one into seven don't wheel hop but you got one last one into 11 if chase elliot puts a little pressure down through these s's will the five of larson we'll hop into that breaking zone and turn 11. remember five years ago denny hamlin tony stewart just that same kind of battle down into 11 on the final corner of the race but chase has got to get closer to have a shot so strong in this fast part of the track right here i just don't think he does turn 11 the final breaking zone and rick hendricks team is going to tie a record that stood since 1956 one two finishes four races in a row as kyle arson wins at sonoma and he's excited about see him go sideways there as he crossed the line thank you guys so much a lot of local fans here cheering on the local boy get out the room fellas kyle larson just swept the day two stage wins and victory i believe that's two weeks in a row at his home track the 28 year old from elk grove california gets his ninth career win third of the season and there was action back in the pack in that final corner quite a bit in fact i'd be let down if there wasn't mike classic turn 11 here look at everybody driving in super deep into that breaking zone and the 99 of suarez sends mcdowell around man what a lot down for mcdowell to get dumped like that and then newman got dumped too coming off the corner scores settled perhaps more to come i believe might see some more scores settled down here on pit road so larson leads a hendrick chevy one two truex's toyota third legano's mustang fourth and kyle busch rounds out the top five for joe gibbs racing kurt busch and teammate anthony chastain sixth and seventh hamlin eighth hardly saw denny all day alex bowman ninth after an earlier skirmish and ryan blaney comes out of here tenth [Music] for hendrick motorsports now 270 wins seventh this season and their seventh here at sonoma man what a role they are on right now hey this guy likes to dirt track it have some friends and fans down there turn 11. i think he's got a lot of fans here in this part of the country and he's just gained a bunch more so what is the significance of kyle larson defeating nascar's current road race king chase elliott on the road course [Music] [Applause] yeah you know talk about these guys sharing information how long does that last that's a good student so he sets a couple of career firsts last week his first career win over 400 miles and this week first road course win here at sonoma i tell you what that guy right there that we just showed chase ellie he kept him honest man he pushed him hard that last lap or two those last couple restarts sure did you just weren't going to keep that car back i mean it was lights out from lap one really definitely the fastest car all day long so instead of at start finish kyle brings his car past the start finish line stops in front of his pit stall so his team can celebrate with him and great job to cliff daniels also we requested some of his strategy calls but man couldn't hold this car and this driver back regan oh kyle larson getting all the equipment off kyle you've always been a good qualifier at sonoma now you're a good racer you get the uh you get the win today second in a row in dominating fashion was it easy as you made it look uh it was not easy any any real course isn't easy just trying to keep it on track is tough but especially when you got two of the best behind you on the last restart chase i felt like i did a good job the one before and stretched out a little bit and then didn't want to give it another try at it but he kept the pressure on martin was strong too but what a car hendrickards.com chevy thank you mr h uh this is unbelievable i thought i would be okay today um but i just didn't know how i would race i don't think any of us really do with no practice but uh our car was really good there and i can't say enough about it i'd say you were more than okay today in front of your hometown fans too what does that mean to you yeah it means a lot uh northern california this will always always be home to me uh even if i live way out on the east coast now so thank all you fans for coming out i know there's a lot of sprint car fans in the in the stands and around this race track i've got to see a lot of my friends here today um i got my family here uh owen and audrey they are here but i'm sure you're watching grandma's house so wish you guys were here um just unbelievable and and to get you know back-to-back wins in the cup series is something i've always dreamt of doing and to get it done feels great so to win last week on memorial day weekend four in a row now if you count my dirt racing too and got a big week of racing coming up so i look forward to all that and look forward to just keeping the streak going kyle larson your winner let's join jamie with the runner-up chase elliott brings it home second his best finish at sonoma but what a battle between teammates chase where was he just better than you today yeah i wish i wish i knew i would have you know tried to give him a little better run but congrats to kyle and and cliff and everybody on the five team have been doing an amazing job so i'm really proud of our napa group though i feel like we were a lot better there at the end than we were at the beginning and and definitely the best i've ever been here i feel like uh sonoma in particular so pleased with that you know wish we could have got another spot but we'll try again thank you four straight one two finishes for rick hendrick and hendrick motorsports martin truax comes home third we'll hear from him in a moment as kyle larson celebrates in sonoma and so do his fans okay so let's go right okay well the playoff picture has become somewhat clearer the drivers in yellow have victories but by larson and truex with three apiece i don't think we'll get to 16 different winners so the regular season champion gets into the playoff winner or not and they'll fill down to 16th based on point standings chris pusher right now holding on to the bubble spot jamie martin tricks junior brings it home third today good news is it's your best finish in a month since darlington but the bad news is you didn't get the win where were they just a little bit stronger than you today just a little bit everywhere i felt like you know um right-handers i i couldn't quite lean on the left rear like i needed to and i didn't quite have to drive off but more so than that i didn't have the short run speed you know i think uh the really long runs was our really our only chance there and um you know all those cautions at the end just they killed any chance we had so proud of the guys the best pro toyota jjr trd everybody that makes this possible and um just not quite good enough you know the hedge cars are really strong right now they're really fast um making a lot of grip making our job tough but you know like i said uh we definitely needed long runs at the end not all those cautions thanks martin thanks jamie well how do you stop kyle larson can anybody stop kyle larson this kid just keeps on winning yeah you know we saw he was dominating races earlier in the season but wasn't putting the victories along with it we saw martin trucks jr was getting the victories now it's starting to become clear clint that they can close it out and now they're starting to become the clear favorite for this championship and i look at our top five today i think it's very possible our top four for going to phoenix could come out of that five look at the wave of the season that's what i love about this sport first of all it was the gibbs cars it was that 11 car that was dominating he wasn't knocking it in in a victory lane but he was weak in a week out consistent up front everybody's chasing him now it's the hendrick cam the one that i'm looking for the ford boys they got to show up pinsky stewart haas racing they've got work to do but there's still a lot of racing left right a lot to go before we get to the playoffs but boy right now rick hendrick and his drivers they are in the driver's seat of the nascar cup series so we're off for the all-star break we're off to texas motor speedway next sunday race day the all-star open race day again and then the all-star race and for all the news about your sport and more interviews from today make sure you check out nascar race hub nightly on fs1 i'm told that at our friday night dinner kyle larson promised the winner's trophy to guy piety wonder when he's huge and if that will show up kyle larson great show in sonoma [Music] [Applause] [Music] i can see the future [Music]

Channel: NASCAR

Views: 79,392

Rating: 4.8900633 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: DIqCJP5HiPg

Length: 226min 15sec (13575 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021