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>> and we expect a lot of long runs here.we've had in the last six races, a minimum of two green flag pit stops for the last five,over 100 laps of green and one race a couple of years ago more than 230 consecutive greenflag laps of racing. but is that on your mind now or is it wanting to flip that switch andget it going? >> the anticipation. i was ready to go threehours ago. now i've been walking around and thinking about it. i'm probably overthoughtthe start of this race. but when you get in the car, amazing, calmness komds over youand put that helmet on. when you're coming down to get the green flag to start this thingit's all business. that's what the guys have been doing, anticipating this start and nowit's time to go do the job.
>> this is jeff's first rain delay with nascar.i hope you're in that zone right now. >> i hope this is as long as it gets. thisis not bad. >> one of the fellows everybody watching isjimmie johnson. he's had such success here. 25 races over a thousand laps led. 19 outof 25 top tens. six victory a winning percentage of nearly 25%. a lot of six guns to fire often.for jimmie johnson and chad knaus all working toward the chase for the sprint cup. here'show the chase grit looking coming into texas. jimmie, league leader in wins. harvick, kylebusch and carl edwards starts from pole. logano alongside. a lot of contenders. for the checkered flag. ricky stenhouse rollsoff fifth. all in qualifying, best team performance
of the year so far, carl edwards has won fromthe front row here. though not from the pole. where he starts tonight only three pole winnershave gone to victory lane in this race's history. denny hamlin at the ready. boy, what a beautifulsight from our goodyear aerial coverage superior performing tires to face challenging conditionson the track and on the road. goodyear, official tire of nascar bringing you these beautifulviews of nascar's crown jewel of superspeedways. glad to have you with us on fox. after a nearlytwo-hour delay. the track is dry enough, pit road is dry. and we are ready for the command.>>> ladies and gentlemen, here to give the command to start engines for tonight's race,sadie and rowdy robertson. >> drivers.>> start your engines.
>> 40 drivers about to roll off into the unknownon a very green racetrack on a very cool night in texas.>>> ready to race. big boy racing down there. >> over 200 miles an hour is not the placeto play games. >>> under the lights, joe gibbs winning carowner one week ago at martinsville, virginia, gives a thumbs up to his pole sitting drivercarl edwards, we are ready to race at texas motor speedway. fox nascar coverage sponsoredby kfc. a big storm system stayed to the south of the speedway but a few pop-up showers blewthrough delaying us a couple of hours here. now it is mostly cloudy with a light breezefrom the southeast. 60 degrees. our very first night race of the 2016 reason. what is onthese drivers' minds as they get ready to
race up the lights.>> there is a big difference between racing during the night and day.>> neon lights. further pit times. so for me it's difficult.>> the biggest challenge racing at night is just practicing during the day and havingto take a biggest at it going into the nighttime and seeing how that works with your car.>> make a difference with the way they handle and who wins the race.>> rolls out behind the safety car. let's have a look at the geico starting grid fortonight's race. carl edwards had his second texas pole, first of the year, joey logano,third front row start this season, 2014 winner. martin truex fastest in both practices, chaseelliott won the xfinity race in 2014.
ricky stenhouse jr. 12th or better on themile and a halfs and denny hamlin a two-time texas winner. ryan blaney ties his best startof the year and brad keselowski, two-time texas runner-up. matt kenseth, two-time texaswinner in row five along with austin dillon who makes his best texas start top ten infour of six races for 2016. jimmie johnson, trevor blaney, the rest of the 40-car fieldready to go. >> let's talk to that prepared -- toyota here.i'll get it right here in a minute. martin truex jr., d.w., you got us, fox sports. hehad us. he had us a minute ago. hey, martin truex jr., it's d.w. you got us, buddy? youknow, with the rain, a lot of times, the radios and stuff, the moisture and everything, sometimesthe radios are a little problem. see if we
can try him one more time here. d.w., yougot us, buddy? >> oh, yeah, d.w.>> channel 2, guys. >> all right, we got him on channel 2. yougot us now, buddy. >> yeah, i got you, d.w., what's happening?>> getting a little nervous. thought we had a radio preliminary. we got a green racetrack.what's your biggest concern? >> just the tire wear. 25 laps making surewe -- trying to keep that track position but also keep the tires so we don't get in trouble.a little worried about that but all in all, the toyota has been fast all weekend. guysstarting off the race car and long race here at texas. ready to get this thing going.>> well, i have good news for you, the rain
is gone, the weather is good but that startingspot, the third starting spot have been more wins from there than any other place on thetrack. you're in the right place, buddy, take advantage of it.>> ten-four, man. we'll give it our best and i think we can do it. save me some fruit cocktail.>> he is on to us and get you a dove bar when it's over.>> all our secrets are out. >> no shrimpcocktail. our fox sports pit crew.what are you looking for, jamie little. >> chase elliott had a great weekend and qualifiedfourth and had a stable car that was fast. but after happy hour on friday they foundsomething they didn't like with the transmission,
they flopped it out so starting in the backand alan gustafson said watch for patience to be a virtue and the old-fashioned way,one at a time. matt. >> jamie, denny hamlin, our daytona 500 champion.when you look at his season, it resembles a heart monitor, peaks and valleys, tryingto turn things around. he finished 39th. now four times in his career he has followed upa disappointing 30th or worse finish with pay victory. two wins here at texas, his carhas a tremendous amount of speed and starts sixth but has to stay free on pit road, vincewelch. >> matt kenseth, former champion back by oneof the best teams in the sport. this season, missteps. penalties. black flags. bad luck.heartbreak at daytona. well, they can have
none of that tonight.>> a two-time winner here at texas and this 20 team that they have a clean race tonight,there could just very well be a texas-size celebration at the end. larry mcreynolds.>> any time we race at night we start in the daylight. that is a big challenge for thecrew chief. obviously that doesn't exist now. but now the big challenge you heard jeff anddarrell talk about a green racetrack but no rubber. that will start rubbering up so youhave to get very aggressive with changes and making those right changes and a competitioncause because of the rain left 25, probably welcome for a lot of teams. let's look at our race analysis. pit roadspeed, 45 miles per hour. fuel window, 50
to 54 laps. he qualified fourth so the rearafter a transmission change and grip level, a two, probably late into the night but speedsreally go up and that grip level goes close to a three.>> thanks, larry, now the lights are on in the safety car but the caution lights areout and starter indicated one to go. we're going to start this race under what nascarterms a green/yellow condition. green in that they will start counting laps but they wantto get some heat into the racetrack from these engines and tires, so the track will stillbe under caution, there's still a couple of jet dryer, working around the circuit.>> if you see they're single file up near the wall. exhaust comes out the right sideof the cars if it's a little heat dries the
track. look at this. see that area there,it's a little dark. that's because those jet dryers and the titans can't get to that areato truly dry it off and these drivers will be right up against that wall so they've gotto get a little moisture away from that wall before we can go green.>> there's your green flag and, mike, i kind of chuckled at larry's grip level. he's talkingabout the tires. one on the steering wheel. that one inside the car, that goes up to abouta 10 when this thing gets going. >> all right. so green, yellow have waved.laps are counting. caution lights back on. we are starting under yellow. so this willbe lap 1 of 334. joey logano starts from the outside pole second in line to begin the race,here's the team's erase pep talk.
>> joey, good luck down there tonight. let'shave a big win down in the pits. good luck, guys. great job so far.>> after that. have a good time.>> today's ford performance track facts. ford won the first two in 1997. both in the firstseason that the track had two races. that was 2005. ford will start sick, fourth, sixthand seventh in the top ten tonight. back before jet dryers and airtight tans they used tolay them down and bolt them together and drag them behind big dump trucks to create frictionand that was a painstaking lengthy process. >> and it took a long time to get it done.>> well, and we talk about rubber being laid down the racetrack. sometimes when there'sjust another series here if the rubber doesn't
match up let alone having different tiresfrom some kind of tractor tire putting rubber down so i can see that not only take a lotof time but being challenging for the drivers. >> we just saw a real nod to old school racing.the starter was asking for a thurmans up or a thumbs down from the drivers as to the drynessof the racetrack and when we can go racing. >> they'll come over the radio and talk tosome of the guys up front or near the middle to get an opinion about the condition of theracetrack and want everybody on the same page. these are the fastest race cars we've everhad and go fastest in the corners than any we've driven and have to be about perfect.>> the way i always looked at this, if you're a guy that will stop like carl edwards you'llget this first. if i'm further back in the
field thumbs up. i want to be the first one there.>> this looks like an episode of "spartacus." thumbs up, thumbs down.>> i'll either go further back with the thumbs up or thumbs down. how about a rabbit to checkthe racetrack. i think you've done that before. >> 1979 the daytona 500. rained all morningand started under caution like this. they wanted to have someone go in. we had somebodyrun the lap under caution and came back and report in.>> how did you get chosen for that. >> i was the only one dumb enough to do it.>> it was always you. >> yeah. me or buddy baker. two to go andwe'll go green. here's some audio from dale
earnhardt jr.>> up against the wall. all the way down the back and the same thing on the frontstretch.definitely wet spots. back of the track. >> yeah, as i mentioned earlier, especiallyfor dale earnhardt jr. here loves to run inches offer the wall here and a lot of tracks thatwe go to, that's why he's so adamant about that line and that area that is just literallyeight to ten inches, maybe a foot wide right at the wall and a lot of times a lot of s.a.f.e.r.barriers, amazing technology for safety but a lot of water gets trapped in behind themwhen it rains and just seems underneath it for a little while.>> they've picked up the speed. well above pace car speed. again, trying to get someheat into the racetrack. there's big hoss
off to the right on the back straightaway.showing the fans here the pictures we are showing you at home. all right, i think thetv had cowboys stadium -- well, i'd draw it for you but next tile around is about 70%the size of big hoss. >> it's one of the coolest -- the things theydo at texas are unbelievable and guess what, when they drop the green here, the racingis unbelievable. >> guess what, guy, i guess everybody musthave given them a thumbs up. the competition caution for lap 25 was moved to lap 28 becauseof these first four under green/yellow conditions. some drivers are more particular but i'm surethey took a majority here and everybody said it's good to go.>> i can't wait to see these tires that come
off that lap 28. i'm really anxious. thisplace is abrasive, fast. pushing hard because they know they don't have to go to a fuelfull run. >> the other thing that i love at night, nightracing is the sparks. man, you'll see sparks flying out. low air pressure and start torace, everybody will be sparking. front row, carl edwards' toyota and joey logano's carrunning along front row. martin truex and denny hamlin, row two. fords in row three,ricky stenhouse and brad keselowski. ford and a chevy in row four, ryan blaney and austindillon. matt kenseth he toyota and trevor bayne's ford round out the top ten and jimmiejohnson's chevy, greg biffle's ford and brian vickers and dale earnhardt jr. and last week'swinner, kyle busch, the top 15 of 40 drivers.
>> mike, you got -- jeff, you know, you gotto be a little careful. you don't want to wipe your car out before you get going soyou got to tippy toe a little bit. >> hold on. look who is on the front row.these are two aggressive drivers. >> i agree. these guys up front are happy.but the guys middle of the pack, that's where you have to be careful.>> i can't wait to see kevin harvick come up through here.>> he is starting right smack in the middle back at 21st. mike, we might want to watchhis start. it's still -- it's not wet and it's just a little maybe damp in the restartzone here. don't want to spin those tires and get run over from behind here.
a lot to think about coming to the green.>> speaking of coming to the green what do you say we get this thing started.>> get going, d.w. >> boogedy-boogedy-boogedy, let's get racing.let's go. >>> drag race at turn thee and logano forcesahead. look at the sparks like they're welding underneath there. who will lead the firstlap in texas, denny. whoo. carl. >> close.>> wow. >> 0.01 seconds.>> you heard joey logano hit that big bump and the car went under the racetrack.>> he got a little high and lost a bunch of momentum. had to get off the gas. there'smartin truex to second. here comes denny hamlin
hunting third.>> look at him get to the quarter and 22 tried to loosen him up.>> ricky stenhouse right behind him back to 11th place. kyle busch, trevor bayne in the6, austin dillon in the 3. that's some hard charging right here.>> wow. >> look at all the sparks.>> i swear -- they're not just hitting the skirts but underneath the car and hittinghard. >> the last time by, the lap times are extremelyfast so i think these cars are traveling a lot more than they anticipated.>> the lap carl edwards just ran he'd have qualified tenth with that lap and he's inrace trim.
>> wow.>> sixth place ryan blaney the rookie in the 21 trying to held off brad keselowski.>> that inside lane will be preferred for awhile as we see jimmie johnson also makea move on keselowski. he really wants to get down. i think he was trying to be uptop thereand get some passes made but just not enough grip. but ease the tires up.>> when everybody runs on the bottom, that's where the grooves will be and rubber willbe and where the track will be its best right now. vickers underneath the two and movesup a spot to ninth. jeff, i saw the 2 get up off the bottom and cost him dearly. hadto get off the throttle and regroove.
>> i think he was fighting really hard toget by that 19 and get down in front of him and thought it was worth doing maybe for alap and a half or two laps and hit that bump and just took it out of the racetrack.>> kevin harvick up three positions. dillon and bayne.>> now, later in that race that outside lane will be -- will come in and be a preferredlane maybe not on the restarts but certainly on the longer runs.>> what bayne did. d 3 car had edge -- chase elliott, the 24. eight spots he's made upfrom his start at the back of the field because of transmission trouble.>> these two can't figure out who wants to be in front.>> you were better than me last time but i'm
better than you this time.>> these first laps are important. we know there is a competition coming and it's a 500-milerace. let's take it easy but these guys want to push the cars as hard as they can and makethe proper adjustment and gain all the information they can, so when they make that pit stopthey can make improvements to their cars. >> seventh place, jimmie johnson inside andmatt kenseth. >> no surprise here. jimmie johnson is goingto be a real, real factor in the race before it's over so good going for what, four ina row. >> four in a row. i like they put those yellownumbers on the car. what's going on with the 78.>> the issue with martin truex jr., 78, debris
on the grill. we cannot run much longer wherewe are temperaturewise. you can see the debris right there. has to drop back. 22 of joeylogano to try to change here on the nose to get the debris off.>> he has to drop back. >> it's gone.>> did it come off. >> it flew off the right side.>> good for him. i think he's okay. >> no.>> i'm sorry. that was not it. he's dropping back and try to dive in right here.>> you got to orchestrate this and get close. >> got to get right up on him.>> and get around here on turn four. >> and watch that thing. get a little closer.>> he didn't get close enough. it's trying.
>> got to get closer and pop off.>> when he's behind him trying to get that debris off -->> it's working. it's working. >> but unfortunately making the water temperaturego up while he's doing that. >> practically closed off. that's where thearea is. >> it opened a tiny bit.>> what do you want to try here. >> pit before that -->> still on there. half of it's gone now. >> dale earnhardt jr. passing austin dillonand now pulling down on trevor bayne. >> carl edwards has led every lap. u.s. thefirst time he's led here since the fall of 2013.
>>> 20 laps cleat. carl edwards has led themall. you saw that denny hamlin helped martin truex jr., those two cars got close enoughtogether, the air pressure differential took that piece of plastic wrapping, whatever itwas, off of the grill opening of truex's car. >> mike, what is this green racetrack doingto these tires? the last time by, 30.35. >> 2 1/4-second falloff for carl edwards.now his lead has now expanded to 3.6 seconds. perhaps in part because of joey logano andmartin truex trading positions behind him. kyle busch currently tenth. the defendingsprint cup champion and last week's winner. >> really, really bad. aero tight up hightrying to run around him no good. >> copy that.>> sixth place jimmie johnson around matt
kenseth.>> last several laps able to work around the outside and jimmie is pretty fast right now.jeff, you got five laps before we're going to have that mandated competition caution.what do you want to try in these five laps? >> well, obviously i'm thinking a lot aboutthe way that the direction of the balance that the car is going in because now we'restarting to get rubber on the racetrack and more accurate to what we have once we takethe green the next run and also want to try to make up more spots. you know you got plentyof laps. >> here's what i'm hoping. my tires aren'tworn out in 28 laps. >> i can tell yous who are. carl edwards,he's been flying.
>> here comes johnson around ricky stenhouse,stenhouse was trying to break to the inside of denny hamlin, couldn't do that. jimmiewill take the long way around. that 48 is coming.>> those two spots. he got those quick and went by the 20. now just flew by these two.>> even with the pass, jimmie is almost as quick.>> amen. >> denny hamlin agrees. the only one thatcan compete with carl edwards and jimmie johnson is kevin harvick, as well.>> harvick up seven spots since the start of the race. so kasey kahne.>> he's been real patient. taking his time. he hasn't been super aggressivebut when you look at his lap times and i think
the track is just starting to come to himand his car, as well. really good. >> starting to see a black groove around thebottom of the racetrack for sure. >> yeah, i'd say my biggest goal right nownot to be a caution before the -- >> no kidding. that's what i was thinking.yeah, now, trevor bayne has dropped five spots since the start, austin dillon in the threedown eight positions since the start of the race, aric almirola down ten, they would alllove to see this caution that's going to fly in two more laps. martin truex has closedright back up to joey logano for second place. >> i should have mentioned truex, as well.he's super fast. he's won every practice session we've had this weekend and he's on the moveagain after getting that debris off his nose.
>> i really feel good about his chances tonight,jeff. that team is jelling. they got all the same thing that the gibbs guys have got. weknow how good they've been. i look for him to have a strong night. harvick keeps comingfrom 20th to 11 now. >> that pass of brad keselowski. you know,20 -- 28 laps here and get a caution. that's not very many laps but when you've had theconditions we've had you're happy to get this caution and get regrouped and see what you'vegot and where we go from here. brian vickers in the 14 is up five positions as is kylebusch from the start of the race. >> this green racetrack was eating those tiresapart. look at that last lap, 31.40. >> three seconds.>> and johnson challenging for third back
-->> this is the competition -- >> that's the voice of david hoot, nascar'sdirector. when he says that all of the crews and spottershere -- >> i love the caution lights that they havehere at texas motor speedway. they like to do things bigger and better and, boy, youalways know when you're a driver on the track when that caution comes out because of theway these lights are lined on the fence. >> most of the time you don't want to hearthem put it out but that was one of those types where you couldn't wait to hear themsay put it out. >> yeah.>> jeffrey earnhardt gets the free pass, he,
josh wise and reed sorenson had gone one lapdo you know in this first green flag run. >> well, that's another thing, mike, you worryabout. anywhere you start in the field that your car is so bad when you start to race,you get lapped. most everybody was able to hang on. carl edwards has led every lap sofar. i think if we'd gone another five laps jimmie johnson would have been right therewith them -- well maybe more than five. jimmie was really charging and so was martin truexjr. pit road is open. vince. >> jimmie johnson started 11th and as youguys said he has been on the move, one of the fastest on the track. that's for sure.he says it's a tick frye and just on entry and a tick tight on exit. not going to makeany changes, just four tires. matt.
>> new tire package, great opportunity forcrew chief cole pearn. he said the car, just a little tight around the center of the corner.jamie. >> joey logano said his drive off wasn't asgood as other, clear as they went, air pressure and four tires. meanwhile, carl edwards saidhe's just a little free everywhere but pretty consistent in that number one box. he hangson to the number one spot. >> your advance auto parts race off pit road.pit road not as dry as the racing surface and what a jam-up there.>> man, i don't know if the 48 got -- i don't know if he ran too into -->> he's got a little damage. if they were ramming into each other.>> mike.
>> going to run right into the back of the18. >> wow, texas size traffic jam right there.>>> nascar on fox presented by kfc sponsored by ford. we go further so you can. and by"criminal" starring kevin costner in theaters friday.>>> not just a traffic jam but a collision on pit road. look at the nose of jimmie johnson'scar. he got into the back of kyle busch, exiting their pits when busch had to break for a carthat jumped out in front of him. >> kevin harvick jumped out in front of kyleand had to get on the brakes and contact. damage to the right rear corner of kyle'scar. >> look at this. this damage there is prettysignificant. that's important area of the
car for side force. there's jimmie johnson'sdamage. that's significant but it's not going to affect the airflow.>> i don't think -- >> not of the -- for the water temp -- theradiator. it might add front downforce. >> i don't think that's a bad thing.>> johnson's crew had a bit of a slow pit stop to get him in that position and we areready for the restart. carl edwards, joey logano, martin truex and brian vickers, greenflag. >> carl edwards isn't messing around on thisstart. >> four wide in the middle. oh, my gosh. th2and 20 weren't being nice, kyle larson all the way to the top of the racetrack.>> nobody is more aggressive than going to
the top and make it three, four wide. therehe goes again down. >> restarts, >> biffle and bayne almost traded paint. they'reteammates. >> they were calm on that original start.now they know what they've got and go to go for it.>> ryan newman against bayne, biffle ahead of larson's 42 and here in fourth place, loganoand harvick. >> that's bit him a little and saw that atfontana. got beat on that restart. but it's really good on the long run.>> that's why he leads so many laps. he's got one that leads but when it comes downto those quick short runs at the end. sometimes
he doesn't have it right away.>> he easily could have won three by now. if he gets a full race together and if it'snot one of those late cautions he's going to win.>> look at the comparison and time of the stop for jimmie johnson. considerably slowerthan that of the leader. >> those couple of seconds right there wouldhave put him in a totally different position down pit road. probably allowed him to getto the outside lane to have a clear run. larry? >> what happened on jimmie johnson's stop,jeff, when the rear carrier and rear changer transitioned from the right rear to the leftrear they got tangled up at the fuel man and that's how that stop was so much slowermentthey couldn't get to the left rear tire.
>> so much orchestration goes on on thosepit stops. everything has to happen at a specific moment in time in order for that to be a reallyfast 10 or 11-second pit stop. >> the 4 car jumped out in front of 18 whenhe was coming out that caused kyle to check up. jimmie got right into the back of him.see dale jr. going by the 17 car for another position. eighth place.>> we saw dale jr. come up on jimmie johnson and say was that -->> four way. those cars are up. ten-four. >> talked about the -- i guess actually thatwas jimmie johnson talking about feeling like maybe the front of the car has lost a littlebit of front downforce.
>> vince.>> yeah, jimmie johnson, you know, one of the issues was that slow pit stop createdthe traffic jam, put him right in the middle of it as you guys were discussing. here'schad knaus talking about the potential damage to the nose of the 48.>> didn't feel like a hard hit from here but i wonder how delicate that is.>> well, don't know, jimmie. splitter is bad. hole in the nose is bad. we'll look at it,buddy. >> i think what it does, it disturbs the airgoing over the car so that contour of the front of the nose obviously directs the airover the car. so it could create a little bit of a problem. during that caution perioddavid ragan stayed out. carl edwards has led
the other, 39.>> you're watching fox nascar. >>> 45 laps complete at texas motor speedwayas we look at the hard work that goes into prepping for a nascar weekend sponsored bykfc. >>> dale earnhardt jr. past the of brad keselowski.and then after brian vickers. >> clear by three, all clear.>> earnhardt now in sixth place. kevin harvick, joey logano, fourth place changing -->> mike, we were talking about tire wear a little bit but here's the thing that savesthe tires. the fast lap is a 28.09 but right now running 30.38 and be in the high 30s beforethe end of the run. it slows so much it helps save the tires. carl edwards out in frontby one second over martin truex. now, jimmie
johnson in ninth place and talked about thedamage to the front end of his car. what about the damage to the rear of kyle busch's toyotain 11th place, matt. >> mike, crew chief adam and spotter lookedat the damage age didn't seem to be too severe but certainly upset the balance of the 18car. kyle says it's much tighter this run than it was the first and just trying to holdon. he's adjusted with a track bar adjustment and it has not helped.>> so how does a little in the right rear corner upset the balance of the car?>> yeah, you know -- >> go ahead, d.w.>> i think it's airflow. like the nose on the 48, i upsets the airflow which is so criticalfor side force, it upsets the airflow and
changes the balance.>> i'm surprised. i would have thought it would have been looser. i'm wondering if itflared out more but also think the rubber laid down on the racetrack is changing thebalance a lot. >> i think that's a bigger factor. that wasn'tthat big of a deal on the back of that 18 car. in dale earnhardt jr. going after joeylogano's fifth place position. jamie has our nationwide dale jr. performance report.>> in happy hour yesterday dale jr. was yelling about his car being stupid loose. so his crewchief tightened it up. well then last night junior raced in the xfinity race and saidloose is fast and greg said i'm so happy he ran that race because it's not going to becomfortable tonight but we are bringing this
car up because that is the fastest way aroundand gained ten positions. >> benefit to dale running in that race. kylebusch won that. >> he did the same thing at martinsville.won on saturday and turned around and won on sunday. very helpful. these guys get lap,particularly this new aero package and this tire is really beneficial.>> watch dale jr. the last time around trying to go to the outside. gets a little wigglein the back and loses traction but just trying to find clean air out there. you can get alot closer to cars with this new aero package and still need clean air and making nice moveslooking an the racetrack as he goes to the inside joey logano.>> he wanted to turn under and the back came
out a little so looks like the car looks goodonce he gets clean air on the nose. >> looking good. he is moving forward.>> he likes his place, one of his best tracks. >> i agree but i expected that to be all theway up against the wall, d.w. >> give it time.>> yeah. >> way early.>> martin truex has cut his advantage from one second down to a couple of car lengths.>> well, this 78 car, he was the fastest car in both of our practices. average ten-lapaverage right up with the best of them and martin likes this racetrack. he had this rawontwo or three years ago and lost to kyle busch so he likes it.>> if you're the leader like carl edwards,
you got to be a little bit careful how hardyou push in the first couple laps. the car might have a lot of grip.>> opening behind. >> to the inside of brad keselowski. showingthat long run speed we sort of saw that the last, you know, run. we only ran, what, 25laps but starting to get to that point in this run but carl has to be a little carefulnot to use up tires. >> uphill a little bit like the car. edwardsnow stretched that lead a little bit from 0.3 seconds to 0.6 seconds. >>> 60 laps above us. the spotter's standat texas motor speedway. a view from the spotters' stand cam. what brett griffin sees. he's thespotter for clint bowyer's number 15.
>> clear by five, 43.>> those spotters are amazing. how they can keep their guys out of trouble. see the cars,make those calls. that was during the last caution. lead change, martin truex jr. becomesthe second driver to lead this race under the green flag tonight. here's how he didit. just working that bottom to perfection, man, right on the white line.>> first time tonight, 78 come on. >> peyton hughes, the spotter -- they havea lot of fun that team does. >> martin truex jr. had been stalking the19 of carl edwards and carl was watching it and getting information as well and he wasrunning the bottom and truex got there and carl moved up to the middle but truex wentdown to the bottom and passed him.
>> go where they're not. good strategy>> that's when you have a fast race car like he does tonight.>> truex's led every one -- >> martin is a tick faster light now. he rana 2 that time and carl ran a 36 so about 0.15. >> the fastest i saw last time by was daleearnhardt jr. >> 31.08 la last time by. he and jimmie johnsonpretty good. >> big gap to gape on those.>> guy is in front of him but has the race car.>> he's 1.7 seconds behind kevin harvick in fourth. third place, matt kenseth, vince.>> yeah, and kenseth certainly needed that first pit stop because he was loose in andloose off and crew chief jason ratcliff fixed
him up with adjustments and matt says it isway better this run and he's moving in toward the front closing in on carl edwards. >> i just -- i just love the way matt races.this is right in his wheelhouse. 334 laps, 500 miles, got to get it to finish and he'sone of the best at doing that if yeah, i agree. he is so well rounded as a race car driverand can be aggressive when he needs to be. when it comes to managing the tires and equipmentand being smart about searching around the racetrack i don't know if there's anybodysmoother or bether than matt kenseth. >> what's so frustrating. almost had daytonaand had the lead off turn four, almost had a couple of other races where he ran well,martinsville, last week, just hadn't been
able to close the deal. had a lot of bad luck.>> in third place and he's like, this would be just -->> yeah. >> leave me alone.>> just leave me alone. let me just run a little while.>> martin truex jr. from may yet that, new jersey, driving for that single car team outof denver, colorado. he's your leader by 1.75 seconds.>> 71 laps complete in the duck commander 500 at texas motor speedway. had a coupleof pit stop, boy, got a bunch of them coming in now.>> loose off the wall. a little tight. it's thinner and tightness. i got this wear throughout.>> that's why dale earnhardt jr. is in. along
with kevin harvick, brian scott, david ragan,stenhouse and the drivers whose numbers are on the right side of your skran. blaney intwo laps ago, danica patrick one lap ago. >> kevin harvick already wrecking loose. rodney tightened him up. martin truex and78. we're seeing a lot of drivers talking about how the track is just continuing toget freer and freer. they're losing time on the stops. the changers had to wait on thejag man. he is away. >> falling off quicker than they like. fourtires, fuel wedge and air pressure adjustment for the 19.>> a lot of congestion on pit road. vince. >> 20 of matt kenseth comes in. he says thecar started out much better on that run but
has swung from tight to loose as the run progressed.begin, maybe the track changing a bit as others have noted. four tires and air pressure, faststop. jamie. >> chase elliott doing a nice job, startedin the back, worked his way up into the top 15 already. paying attention to his car andlearning this is his first time in texas and locks it up comes into his box, four-tirestop and fill him up with fuel getting food feedback as tire flies, no chassis adjustments,just air pressure? restarted 29th and led that lap. matt kenseth led the previous lapand we cycle back around to martin truex in the 78 as the race leader.>> mike, truex's pit crew, joe gibbs pit crew and train them and work, one of the pit crewsthat pits the 78 now.
>> that was only 40 laps of green flag onthese tires. that's way sooner than we anticipated. that tells you how much falloff and how muchtires are going to play a major factor tonight. >> let's take another look at that by martintruex. watch the jack man -- whoa. lost his footing there.>> he's a big guy. >> he's a big guy.>> he can jack that car up without a jack. >> that -- we talk about just how it all hasto coordinate together and you know, they practiced this over and over and over again. he just obviously got his footing down thereand lost the footing and look how much time he lost.>> yeah --
>> fill the leader. could be a little dampor moisture in the pit and just slid right up and his feet slip.>> he hopped up and got back after it. brian vickers, 1th. 29 or rather 26 cars are onthe lead lap. as we continue under green. and for the last six races have had at leasttwo green flag rounds of pit stops. here's fourth place.>> behind if you need it. >> matt kenseth going by. kevin harvick. talkingabout pit stops real quick and one of the things i learned this week is that pit crew,when they pit, when they practice they have the setup in the car just like they're goingto race it at the track because you think about with no rad height and how low theysit if they don't have the right setup and
the pit crew practice car and get to the racetracktheir pit stops are out of sync so they practice with the car set up just the way they'll raceit. wow. close call here as they were three wide around david ragan. jimmie johnson andlogano. >> just amazing to me how much went on therein a matter of a lap. just one or two laps. we saw one car come down pit road and ryanblaney, thought he had an issue and next thing you know everybody was hitting pit road andit was crazy and everybody wanted that fresh rubber.>> blaney started that round of frein flag stops at lap 69 and continue through lap 74.let's go back to martin truex's pitt. >> he tried to simulate different obstaclesduring pit practice at the pit shop but this
is unique. 65 to 35 mix of concrete and pavement.i talked to several jackmen this weekend about this and they said it is an obstacle. it is a challenge because you're going fromgrip to no grip when you come around the car. you throw in the moisture in the air, no surprisewe saw the jack man slip coming around the front.>> yeah, you could see where it was pavement then there's concrete. you'd wonder why it'snot concrete all the way out to the edge of the line but it's just not so that right frontsits right on the seam when he came around the corner he wasn't quite on the concrete.>> boy, menard has been holding up the 78 and finally be able to get by but that alloweddale jr. to close -- you will a see dale coming
into the picture right there causing 27 carwas giving truex a pit trying to get around him.>> yeah, and but at the same time, look at what the 88 did. i mean he must have goneon at pit road. got off pit road because, you know, he's all the way up to second placenow? and then he's complaining about his car. it's not handling right. not driving right.you got to put that out of your mind. you're better than everybody else. that's all thatmarys. >> this new aero package with less rear downforceand softer tire that goodyear has, no driver will be 100% happy with that is race car soabout getting the balance and being happier than your competitor.>> larry and i talked about this in the past,
jeff, sometimes the crew chief has to be asalesman. he's got to sell the driver on what's going on and get the driver pumped up. sothere's ryan blaney in the 21, the first car in this cycle of pit stops and carl edwardscoming back to the front, blasts past dale earnhardt jr.>> he said, go right on. >> dale jr. may have come in a lap soonerthan edwards and truex and i think that's where he made up a lot of that time.>> he came in on 72. they came in on lap 73. here's martin again, got his hands full tryingto get by the 13. none of these drivers want to go a lap down so it's hard for the leaderfighting through cars trying to stay on the tail end of the lead lap.>> it's a combination of two thing, a leader
who is super fashion has a great race carand others that want to make more adjustments and, you know, are going laps down and theyhave to fight and fight or every position, they're racing for all kinds of things onthe line as well just as much as the person leading the race. >> that puts the 13 in the lucky dog spotif we should have a caution in the next lap or two. every time he passes somebody, theyget the -- >> don't look now but the 78 is getting readyto get a.j. down here. >> one round of yellow and one round of greenflag pit stops in the books at 85 laps in texas.
>>> 91 laps complete. martin truex jr. isyour leader. 013, this race he led 142 laps and finished second. his best finish in texas.for a limited time switch 0 sprint and save 50% on most verizon, at&t or t-mobile rates.sprint, better for less. that race he had where it was won. late caution because theywere a having a little problem in the pit. got a little slower stop than the 18 car didand ended up running second. >> ryan newman goes a lap down, the 21st placecar so now just 20 cars on the lead lap. >> truex is just -->> called checking out. >> took a look at kevin harvick's pit stopand a couple of things stood out to us. >> well, one thing in particular. here's theleft side tire change. the wheel coming off.
>> coming off.>> had a look at it going on. >> look at that. right there. see that? seesomething missing? called a -- there's only four lug nuts on that wheechl that's a leftside tire and that's what the teams are doing to pick up speed on pit stops. they they knowonly need four tight ones on there so don't even put that on there.>> the fact that we want to make sure everyone understands that this -- this rule went awayat the beginning of 2015. up until the beginning of last year, nascar mandated five lug nutshad to be in contact with the wheel before the car could leave or it would be a penalty.beginning of last year nascar said, you know what, we'll let the team police it. this hasbecome pretty standard. five on the right,
four on the left and a late race stop, fouron the right, three on the left guarantee you.>> and this is actually a shot of the lug glued up on the wheel. they put this specialflew that's very elastic and the lug stays on the stud, but as we see here again, there'sabsolutely no lug nut there. >> well, it polices itself.>> absolutely. >> i mean -->> if the car starts vibrating, you got to pit.>> but now i will say this, see martin truex jr., that goes to show you his car is notperfect as fast as tomas scheckter better than everybody else's but he will get looseand tight and have handling issues as well
and continue to make adjustments. just wantto step back real quick on the lug nuts. when we hear teams talk about having loose wheels,it's because they don't get that fourth one tight. now they only have three.>> martin truex working hard to lap traffic and chase he will wrot is our hard workingkfc performance. hard working performance.>> yeah, chase elliott got his very first xfinity win here a couple of years ago. camehere this weekend and qualified fourth, but because of a transmission change after qualifying,he had to go to the rear of the field and now less than 100 laps he has cracked thetop 12. michael, i think it's safe to say that's absolutely a k 23678 c hard workingperformer.
>> he is something special and when he wonin '14 no one saw that coming and outdueled kevin harvick to get the checkered flag andtook the momentum from that win all the way to the championship in the xfinity series.now he's running well here in texas in the cup series. i wouldn't be surprised for himto challenge for a win here. this is a special kid behind the wheel of a the 4.>> michael, when i knew he was special when he went to darling ton. i mean, he went downto darling ton and passed the hot dogs and got -- won that race.>> to me this race or the xfinity race last year when he battled it out or maybe i thinkit was last year, two years ago, he battled it out with kevin harvick. i mean we're talkingabout a tough champion and he battled it out
with him and beat him. i mean i think thisis one of his best tracks and has a lot of confidence here and he's coming forward. lookat martin truex jr. -- >> wow.>> look at -- s. >> that's a hornet's nest.>> clear on the bottom. >> battling positions 18, 19 and 20.>> on the outside. kyle larson he's getting ready to go by.>> we remember larson was four wide on the restart in one and two and now gone a lapdown. >> 17 cars on the lead lap as martin truexis putting them down in texas. >>> nascar on fox presented by kfc sponsoredby coca-cola. taste the feeling. by toyota,
let's go places. and by credit one bank, theofficial credit card of nascar. >> 105 laps complete. martin truex in frontof dale earnhardt jr. by seven seconds. carl edwards eight off the lead, matt kenseth nineand kevin harvick ten back of the race leader. preparation has a lot to do with the pit performance.here's matt dibenedetto. >> the next round of pit stops. next fiveto seven laps. the right front and left front tires that will be going on the next stop,not the very next of martin truex jr. you can see they glued just four lugs on the leftand right side. this color charted here. now, the changer will start. you can see the hotpink helps guide him in and hits the four lugs. now the orange stripe is where the tirecarrier -- that way he can index this wheel
and tire every time. that way the changercan just hit the lugs as quickly as possible. >> here it is in action.>> you can see that that stripe on the top. they want to be right on the top and you don'tknow where the driver is going to stop if that's going to be there but chances are it'sgoing to be very, very close. >> ryan blaney led the rush to pit road lasttime around after 40 green flag laps and he's coming in again, jamie.>> well, he started and qualified seventh but it has been a bad night here. from badto worse. he's developed a vibration. that's why he pitted earlier. came in, madeall kinds of changes, way too tight. now he said he still has a vibration in the rearof the car and said it's something fierce
so they're still trying to find it.>> more frustrated when you have a big vibration. you don't know what it is and it doesn't getany better. you know that there's a good chance if it's that severe, it could turn into somethingthat could, you know, end your whole night. >> he was a lead lap car and goes two lapsdown with this stop. >> mike, we qualified that 193 miles an hour,right now, the pace is 174. >> i've never seen this much -->> it's incredible. watch the 48 of jimmie johnson. working on -- ooh. working on rickystenhouse. >> lack of down of force with this new aeropackage that's going to get like that. >> matt kenseth, said it's too loose in, lastrun he could arch the car into the corners
but this run, it's just too loose and he hasno stability. so they made a chassis adjustment to help hip. the 17 of ricky stenhouse jr.been running well inside the top ten and make a chassis adjustment on the 17, as well. he'sa little too free. >> you guys, up on the wall waiting for 78to hit his box hearing a lot of drivers. 9 track continues to make another swing. continuesto free up. once again, no adjustments to the 78 of truex. try to stop this guy. jamie.>> wearing out before fuel tanks are emptying out why we're seeing so many stop, 88 happywith it says he needs front grip but is not comfortable.>> a car spun at the end of pit rook, brian vickers turns it around. now he gets goingthe right way without further incident.
shouldn't be a problem.>> he ran up on clint bowyer and spun the car to avoid hitting bowyer coming in.>> matt. >> how about the tale of two run, kyle buschin the 18. first run he said it was wicked free. up top, on the bottom just wreckingloose up but starting to migrate back towards the hind side and said it wasn't bad up topstill wanted to work more on the balance of the bottom.>> lead lap drivers that had not yet stopped. kasey kahne, regan smith. now, four tiresand sunoco race fuel. >> mike, i just think the strategy is comingto get four tires when your pace gets really, really slow. get ytires -- brian vickers climbingup on clint bowyer ends up doing a nice pirouette
with the orange cone but gets him a commitmentline violation entering pit road. here's a look.>> oh, he's wheel-hopping. yeah, he wheel-hopped. saw it with denny hamlin and trevor bayneat martinsville. as he applies brakes, so little grip you could hear them hopping offthe ground. >> wouldn't expect it to happen but, man,sure did hear it. >> sorry, 15 slowed down and wasn't readyfor it. >> yeah, i mean the 15 did certainly wasn'tcarrying much speed getting on to pit road and caught him off guard. had to get on thebrakes hard there and a lot of these teams run a lot of rear brake to get on to pit roadat these speeds. but when there's so little
grip left in the tires when you come to pitroad you got to be rear careful with that balance on the brakes.>> josh wise also logged it up and had a violation. watch them come into their pit box and watchthe rear tires lock up long before the fronts start. that's a lot of rear brake.>> ride with a.j. allmendinger as martin truex leads matt kenseth by eight seconds. >>> nascar on fox presented by kfc, sponsoredby geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more and buy kentucky fried chicken. colonelquality guaranteed. >> a little more than one-third distance in,121 laps complete. martin truex, 7 -- there he goes, 7.7 seconds. there's your leader.over matt kenseth, the second place car.
>> carl edwards, kevin harvick, boy, that78 is flawless. >> flawless on that white line. big one.>> now the 3 just ahead of him, austin dillon is the 15th place car. dropped a lead lapwalking through the field right now. so much quicker than everybody else overall averagespeed. >> jamie mcmurray, they'll fight for the spot.>> they have to. >> they have to.>> that leader is coming. >> you never know.>> like he got the wall or loose off turn two.>> or got out of the way. >> driving the crap out of this trying tomake the most.
>> just went three laps down. not hard tofind your top performers. truex, kenseth, edwards. top third. these are so forgiving.that car was pretty out of shape and he's able to save it. jamie.>> well, carl edwards started on pole. led the first laps and after the pit stop toldhis team we're not keeping up with it and that took me back to something his crew chieftold me this morning. he said, i expect this track to tighten up whereas most other crewchiefs expected it to tree up. it has freed up and way off on their adjustments fallingback and took a big swing out of this last and put spring rubber and air pressure adjustmentbut carl still saying he has no grip. >> this track throw a lot off, d.w., eversince he went to the splitter. cooler track
temperature and make it looser when you thinkit used to make the cars tighter. >> we've heard that a lot. night racing, likeyou said, opposite of what you think. here's a new one, posted paul menard, a penalty foradjusting the body on the pit stop. >> you can see right there in front of theright rear tire. the side skirt. they pulled that out. now, richard, the series directortold the crew chief and driver that the driver's meeting today with under green, we see youadjusting the body, we catch it, you will come back to pit road under green and youwill repair it until we are satisfied. if you do it under caution. then you're goingto come in and fix it. go to the tail end, we go back racing, you'll do a pass-through.the reason teams do this, that is a huge downforce
advantage and nascar is trying to get theirarms around this in 2016. >> and, larry, the only way to stop it isdo that very thing. you got to penalize somebody and bring them in and make them fix it. whenyou start doing that, people will quit trying. that's not why brad keselowski just did ivince. >> unscheduled pit stop for brad keselowski.said he believes he had a loose rear and you see him investigating there on the loose -- onthe left rear so brad brought it in and said he definitely had an issue and said don'ttake a chance, bring it and it was a good call for keselowski. they also made a chassisadjustment to help him with that entry on stability.>> well, he and his teammate are not running
-- not running great. running tenth or 11thand 12th before that pit stop. what they're looking for, see if one of those five lugnut holes is elongated which would indicate a loose hug nut and the wheel moving on that.>> and the biggest fear if it damages that stud, then all of a sudden that lug nut willno longer tighten up on that stud and then you'll continue to have loose wheels all night.>> then you got to be sure to get the one without the lug on that -->> you got an extra one if you need one now. >> what a game we play. 130 laps complete.truex out in front of kenseth by 5 1/2 seconds. >>> yellow flag in texas after 103 laps ofgreen flag racing. debris in turn number four. puts us under the second caution. trevor bayne,first car one lap down gets the free pass.
>> 39% down from last year. 43% last yearof the cautions were caused by debris. and so this year we've only had 23% of the cautionscaused by debris. >> remember when brian vickers took out thecaution cone, put it back in its proper position. >> before they open pit road then somebodycan -- >> you wonder why is that cone there. it canbe knocked out on to the racetrack. when you're doing 140 when they come to pit road it'sjust a reference to the drivers can see it, spotters can see it. so -->> they had to convince him to go back. >> they had one that just laid down and poppedback up. >> you're asking a lot.>> i like your thinking?
>> what are those thing, the bowless -->> the ballers. >> that knock over and come back up. or bobblehead.whatever it is. a look from our visine spotter cam stand as the field rolls by under caution. prior to the caution dale earnhardt jr. wasasking about drivers and their lines. >> anybody running the top? anybody runningthe top? >> so many competitors running the top. thesame cars running the top that you passed, 46, 47, guys like that.>> only car i saw was kevin harvick. he is the only one.>> what i hear in his voice right there is he is searching, you know, he's done everythinghe can do. he wants to know what else is out
there. because all his options are runningout and he knows that he needs more speed to run down kenseth.>> and here's dale jr. about the track bar. >> let me put it into perspective. we ranthe last one 1.7 up. finished that run two down.>> ten-four. >> that's perspective for us.>> great guy. >> i like it.>> t's good perspective. >> what that means he moved that track bardown. that's how loose he's seen the track is getting and he got on that run. he putit down almost two inches from where it was before. and he -- i guess is saying it's stilltoo loose.
>> pit road is open and here come the leadlap cars, vince. >> matt kenseth had been looking for a moresecure entry and he said to jason ratcliff tightened him up but didn't make the car anybetter. another chassis adjustment with four tires. matt.>> only -- thus far in the race, he just barely got into the wall. from that point on truexsaid been on the tight side. a wedge adjustment to try to improve that, jamie.>> dale jr. says free as heck. air pressure adjustment and carl edwards did tighten itup last time. air pressure out of the front tires, four-tire stop and battle off pit road.carl edwards takes the lead. >> that he does, up two positions. matt kensethholes second and martin truex on our advanced
auto race drops two spots. there it is as they come off pit road afterthe second caution flag pit stop of the night. >> we've had two green and two caution flagpit stops. welcome back to texas motor speedway. hard at work in the garage prepping for anascar weekend sponsored by kfc. we heard dale jr. asking about line, line around theracetrack. who was up in the top groove. he's going to restart fourth after this secondcaution flag. larry, in the ford cut-away car.>> we heard dale earnhardt jr. tell greg ives about this adjustable track bar that theycould adjust from inside the race car at the beginning of last year and where the buttonis is on the steering wheel. he can adjust
it right there. i can move it up. he can moveit down and you're going to see it right here. that is it right there. the button and, again,he could flip that button up to raise the track bar, down to lower it. it is in therear of the car and this is that mechanism that actually the button is working. it's a little electric motor and there's thetrack bar right there. there's the part that's being adjusted and a lot of times if you raiseit on the right rear, it frees the car up. if you lower it, it tightens the car up andhow dale earnhardt jr. knew exactly how much it has been moved there's a readout on hisdigital dash. >> thanks, larry. pulling those gloves upthat he'll auction off for charity. blue this
month for autism awareness. now, martin truexhad a faster stop than carl edwards. getting up and down pit road cost him a couple ofspots. let's see here. >> he had a little damage. the wall righthere. and look, we see a crew member. >> tweaked it.>> if you have -- if you have damage you're allowed to pull on it as long as you don'tpull on it too far. >> fix that right rear. we got it.>> way to go. >> damage there when they brushed the wall.>> and they have such a good race car and they have good track position. they can giveup a little bit to make sure that fender is clear.>> fix it now and that was very different
from the paul menard situation where the carwas undamaged and they were pulling out the side skirt which they've been specificallywarned about in the driver's meeting. up around the fender, upper part of the quarter panel.carl edwards is the advantage number one pit stall and can fire off 138 feet from thereto the last segment. not enough to get caught speeding on pit road. edwards jumps out witha restart, matt kenseth alongside to the outside, three toyotas in front of harvick's chevroletand everybody is scramblingling for position three wide.>> three wide. all the back through the field. fighting hard for position.>> found that interesting that denny hamlin went up to block the outside and jamie mcmurraysaid, okay, i will take it right up the middle
and gained four spots i think and still gaining. >> mcmurray got two and restarted 11th.>> you know, the fight is so interesting, saw the lap time from the restart zone and,you know, going at pit road or pace car speed and accelerating taking the green flag. thatwas a 30.15-lap. a little faster than what they run 30 laps into a run.>> yeah. that last time by, 28.09 so that's pretty fast.>> joey logano has slipped from seventh to 11th since the restart.>> and that lap by that time 28.29 on the leader, carl edwards. 28.52 on truex.>> i promise you he's holding back. i mean he's trying not to go too fast and not useup the goodness of the tires too early and
abuse them because he's going to pay for itlater in the run, he knows. >> 11th place.>> down to the end -- whoa chase elliott got a little loose.>> crazy right in there. >> d.w., we get later into the race and latecaution you will see how fast they really go. down to 27s.>> saw the 5 of kasey kahne in that group. he is fighting to stay, the first car onelap down and stay ahead of ryan newman and greg biffle.>> you're right. lap times will get faster and faster and the cars get better and thingsget cooler. guys drive a little harder. speeds pick up. a nationwide dale jr. performanceupdate from jamie.
>> we heard dale skwn asking about that highside. he hasn't gone up there yet and his crew chief greg ives told me in practice focusedon running the bottom of the track, getting the car best there. but, of course, juniorloves running high so let him go up at the end of practice and adjusted for the bumpsup there so prepared to go there if he needs but the car has been goot good on the bottomand been free and told the team you did a good job tightening me up.>> nobody other than kevin harvick has really tried to run the top. only see everybody my great up there normallybut not tonight. >> what chad knaus told michael waltrip atthe top of the night, he knows he has -- are
you going to run up top. what did chad say?you'll have to. >> which i have a been surprised. look atthe plaque groove in the corners. these goodyear tires have really laid rubber down and talkedabout it in martinsville where they weren't. it's laying rubber here but i'm impressedwith how they're staying on the bottom where the good speed is. normally we see that topgroove come about 15 laps and all of a sudden the car is on top so really making up time.just not seeing it so far but maybe we will later.>> like those yellow on the 48. those yellow numbers, jimmie johnson in sixth. there iscarl edwards' lead as shown from our aerial coverage presented by goodyear. superior performingtires to face challenging conditions on the
track and on the road. goodyear, officialtire of nascar. >> that's a 1.2 seconds looks like from carledwards back to martin truex. carl's lap times are just a little bit better than everybodyelse's at this point. >> the driver trying to get -- where it goesaway. >> one and two.>> so actually the front grip in. what's happening getting down in there to the bottom. wantingto pick up the throttle but the front tires aren't wanting to work and cut the way thatkevin is wanting to so can't get the throttle. >> i think he needs to raise that track barback up. running faster lap times in. must have felt better with it down. running betterwith it up. put some edge in it. worrying
about his left rear like he doesn't want thewedge in. how about the 4, hackett. >> about 25 laps and just about every one,the car has started to go away, last two stops, rodney childress tried to fick the front ofthe race car and would not cut to harvick's liking wedge adjustments the past two stops. >> earnhardt moves to fourth ahead of harvick.chevrolet hit the race and one expected to contend with brad keselowski but he's madea couple of pit stops and gone a lap down if reported when he came in with the loosewheel there was certainly some damage there as we saw them pull that wheel off. well,there was damage so brought him in and wasn't able to take the wave-around and realizedthat the spacer plate which was on the wheel
had broken off and had to bring him in a secondtime to repair a bolt on that spacer plate. brad, a bit frustrated but got it fixed andshould be good the rest of the way. >> one of the things we talked about. gotto quit making mistakes. >> you're right. talked about this earlier.>> every week it's something. >> i can understand the frustration. you'reinside the car and you don't know what they're seeing. way too long.>> still. >> not going anywhere.>> there's only one car to lead a lap tonight that is not a toyota. chase elliott led onelap in the cycle of green flag pit stops, otherwise martin truex and carl edwards haveheld court here tonight at 153 laps. edwards
up by 1.5 seconds. >>> strong silverado for every style. themidnight hd, the rally, which one is your favorite? vote now at twitter.com/chevy trucks.>> just got around matt kenseth to move into third place, so must have gotten a car a littlebetter for him. >> find out where he put his track bar at.>> he'll -- >> he'll let us know in a little while.>> car is looking good. looks like a better run.>> yeah. >> carl edwards going to work on rochris buescher.>> saw it happen when carl edwards was leading. martin truex jr. -- we see a pass here, 18to 48 for sixth position between kyle busch
and jimmie johnson. kyle is starting to creepup in there. i think they've been making some adjustments and i think his car is startingto get a little bit better. he might be a factor in this thing. jimmie doesn't wantto give it up. too easy. >> what i was going to say about carl edwards,they hold this between him and the 78 and all of a sudden about five laps later thisis about 15, 20 laps in the run, all of a sudden that 78 just starts creeping in onthem so the 78 is really got a good car in the long run.>> jamie. >> carl edwards is now saying as far as thefirst ten laps it goes away and trying to work on in practice yesterday and make betterand they have been adjusting on it and made
an air pressure adjustment. the car is good.not as good after ten laps. >> t's what i'm seeing, jamie. taking offsuper fast. maybe too fast. might want to hold it back but just stalks him. >> yeah, the 4 car -- he's one of the fewfast cars we see work that outside and been working that pretty hard most all night really.>> oh, hope he doesn't get blocked by the 55.>> yeah, reed sorenson. >> green.>> look who is coming. kyle busch coming into picture.>> got his better too. >> matt.>> would love to pit road. trying to hold
off the 18 of busch. that's not going to happen.harvick over the past 15 laps has taken a turn for the worse. simply employing, extremelyfree on exit. rodney childress thinks during that last caution, that they were pickingup that rubber out of the racetrack and that's why the track has turned to the tight side.>> on pit road 27 laps ago and a couple of caution laps after that. not that far intothis green flag run. >> how about matt kenseth, vince?>> he was haskovecized by the 4 of harvick and 18 of busch because matt has his handsfull. the car is way loose on entry as jimmie johnson and he doesn't like the feel of theway the left rear and rate front are working. they'll try to work on it the next stop. adventureand a lot of changes in the 0 but kept him
in the top five.>> you guys, heard anybody say they like their car tonight. i don't think anybody out therelikes their car. >> tricky conditions and talking about rightfront to left rear, those two corners of the car really connected. leans on the right frontand pushes on the left and vice versa. >> first ford of the race, ricky stenhouse.i've been watching this kid. car running well. got -- this team is getting better and betterevery week and starting to carry the banner running just ahead of joey logano and justdoing a great job. >> used to be held by greg biffle. he was always the top roush fenway driverbut ricky stenhouse this year has been carrying
that banner.>> everyone couraging for that crew because they've been struggling. 17 has been comingaround. >> carl edwards has led 87 laps tonight. pitcrews at the ready for what would be their third green flag stop of the evening.>>> nascar on fox presented by kfc sponsored by bud light. raise one right now and by creditone bank. the official credit card of nascar. carl edwards leading at 173 lap, three victoriesat texas last one at 2008 in the fall race here. not leading any more, martin truex jr.pulls alongside in turn four trying to make the pass. the sprint lte plus network deliversfaster download speeds than other national carriers, sprint better for less.>> 78 on that white line and he is just digging,
man.>> when we get to this point on the run his lap times are so impressive. he could keep it on that white line betterthan anybody out there. >> greg biffle and kyle larson will beginthis round of green flag pit stops. and larson had quite an entry.>> yeah, he's always spectacular but even come to pit road.>> he brought her in, boy. >> orange cone was very nervous.>> i tell you, that's how you do it. get your back end out and get it down pit road.>> so that opens the pit window with 159 laps to go and martin truex leading carl edwardsnow by 0.6 seconds. danica patrick is in.
aric almirola on the pit lane as well. listenin on chase elliott up to eighth plate. >> closer. i feel like i'm paying for it heretowards the end of this but i think we got to start. not necessarily this run but justsaying. i think this is how you got to be, you know.>> matt kenseth, paul menard and others are in, vince.>> just try to get the balance better for matt kenseth running inside the top five.outside the top five onto run. >> martin truex, carl edwards keeping closetabs on each other as they come down the pit lane. matt.>> 78 of truex going to have to pull around the 27 of menard. sideways in the box, notmuch about the balance of the race car, the
previous one it was on the tight side. coleearn expected almost short-pitting at about 40 laps a run, jamie.>> carl edwards loose but not -- after ten lap, there's the advantage, drop the jackand hammer down, don't have to worry about speeding. get whoa'd up.>> fire on pit road. dale earnhardt jr.'s pit.>> i think it's just -- >> ought to go out. >> should go out.>> just got it put out on pit road. quite a lot of flames in. 21 car left with the caron fire and 88 left with the car on fire. >> 48, snugged up so they're working on thatand 17 of ricky stenhouse jr. is in, as well.
you noted what a good run he's had tryingto get a little more stability for ricky. >> matt, kevin harvick is in. can barely touchthe throttle. also the car just wicked tight. they were going to reverse a wedge adjustmentbut did it on the 4 car when stopped. >> man, these pit stops are crazy tonight.>> back to dale earnhardt jr. stop and see what happened there.>> there you go. >> whoa. pulled that can off, man.>> right here. >> then he almost gets into brian scott rightthere. then if goes out. >> i think we felt confident. what ious tosee what ignited it. how that fuel spilled out.>> wow. crazy, man. crazy.
>> well, prior to pit stop, martin truex had0.6 seconds lead over carl edwards and that flips about 1.2 seconds so edwards now hashalf a second on truex after pit stops. >> well, he had trouble getting -- martintruex had trouble getting into his pit box there. there was a car that he had to go aroundto get into his box. that slowed his stop. that slowed him getting in the box now. andthe stop itself was slower by almost 2 seconds. see, watch, a car right, the 27 car of menard,had to go around him. he's in the box crooked. doesn't seem like a big deal but it throwsoff the timing of the stop a little. >> when they do their pit practice, the caris perfectly on all the marks and it's straight. doesn't take as long to get around the rightrear, pushed way out like that so that definitely
has an effect on them.>> you know, drivers do not like it when you get called to pit road and there is anotherpit, another car in the box around your car. so you want your crew to orchestrate whenyou come there, the tires, important, got go to come in a hurry sometimes have to waita lap or two until it clears out. >> i was always hoping they would talk tothose around. when are you coming just to keep that box open but sometimes as you mentionyou can't control it. >> one thing, it aggravated me. whoever calledme in and there was a car in my way and knew he would be in my way i never liked that.but carl edwards was coming in that lap, truex had he waited a lap would have given up alap's worth of time and would have been on
fresher tires.>> had no choice. >> and bad pit stop, almost a trade-off tome. >> guy, when i look at carl edwards' pit crewversus martin truex jr.'s pit true five stops, three under green, two under caution carledwards' crew, their worst stop was 12.47 in fact they've had three stops in the 11seconds. the best stop for martin truex jr. was stop number three at 12.64. you cannotgive that up all night long especially under these green flag stops.>> larry, the last time martin had a shot at winning this two or three years ago the18 had the number one pit -- i think it was the number one pit stall and that's what martinon the last stop here two or three years ago,
number one stop in pit stalls is worth a ton.>> i'm noticing, d.w., the 19 car didn't take off, fire off as fast as he did trying tomake his car better on the long runs to save sol of those tires like the 78 has been doing.>> jamie, i'm guessing that fire in dale earnhardt jr.'s pit were not from the candles on yourbirthday cake. >> yeah, no birthday cake candles down here. it was the sparks from the lug nuts comingoff of the old wheels. greg ives, crew chief came down and talked to nascar. watched thevideo. two guys are watching the video, as well. we've only seen this a couple of timesover the past year but that's the africa, that's how fast they're spinning.>> thanks, jamie. and happy birthday to you
and matt this weekend.>> and my sister, carolyn back in -- >> are you kidding me. chase elliott passingkevin harvick? >> those rookies, they just don't know whatthey don't know. >> i don't think that's a rookie. he justgot a yellow bumper. >> doing a great job. dale earnhardt jr. lightsthings up in ft. worth. ponsor of the nascar sprint cup series andby toyota, let's go places. nearing 200 laps and live here, time for the fox nascar midracereport, at texas motor speedway, the start of the rate delayed a couple of hours becauseof weather but it hasn't slowed down, martin truex jr. and carl edwards, they led the mostlaps in the first half. jeff, who are you
keeping an eye on?>> i know that two toyotas are really strong enough there. i'm looking at a chevy, daleearnhardt jr. has been holding steady and keep making adjustments getting better. wonhis first cup race ever. junior loves his track. if there is a shortrun at the end, he's got a really good short run car, as well.>> kyle busch qualified 15th trying to win his fourth consecutive nascar race like atmartinsville and making major changes on the car. we may see kyle busch bowing to the crowdat the end of the night. >> my guy started last and all the way upinside the top ten and taken half the race to do that and look for chase elliott competitivesecond half and maybe get into contention
to win his first ever sprint cup race, therookie is tough. >> i talked to my guy at the beginning ofthe race. martin truex jr., tonight he gets his first win in that toyota.>> carl edwards came in with a brand-new crew chief in dave rogers and have been on a hotstreak and got their first pole of the season here at texas and tonight they get their firstwin together. >> i'm enjoying watching ricky stenhouse.so good on the big tracks this year, 12th or better at all of them. fifth at auto clubspeedway. started fifth tonight and won an xfinity race having a great run.>> jimmie johnson for his fourth straight texas win. currently fifth. as high as fourthand as low as 27. darrell mentioned truex,
28 races since his last win and lost at thedaytona 500 by 0.01 seconds. there's been five overtime finishes here. this race couldbe headed for an even later night. you're watching nascar on fox live from texas.>>> good luck down there. let's have a big win tonight.>> after that -- >> blind on both straightaways.>> definitely seeing spots on the track. >> talking about pit road.>> we're making big changes out there. >> i tell you, i know he's in the race.>> i know what i'm doing. >> let me put it in perspective. we finishthat run two inches down. that's perspective for us.>> 202 laps complete. battle for the lead
heating up. between carl edwards and martintruex jr., four seconds ahead of dale earnhardt jr. matt kenseth and kyle busch. looking downfrom the front straightaway from the spotter's stand. brad keselowski almost caused a bigmoment for the leader as edwards came up to lap the deuce. see the white car there. lookat that. >> through the center of the corner.>> brad, i think he was doing all he could do wobbling trying to get up out of the wayand how much faster the 19 is than the 2. >> the 19 hooked that white line, the paintdown there sometimes gives you a little extra grip. the 2 -- that's what i love about brad.drives the wheels off it. they just don't have the car to keep up.>> no, he's trying to get out of the way and
hitting the gas and almost lost it and martintruex was right there but did not force the issue. between edwards and truex, they havenow led as they come around 200 out of 205 laps tonight between the two of them.>> here's the difference i'm seeing. i talked about this before. went to the brakes. youknow, in the past he hasn't had to push the issue when we got to this stage of a run hewould run up on that 19 pretty easy and be able to get inside or make the pass happen.that's not -- it's not happening that easy this time.i think carl and that team are starting to figure out some things to make their carsbetter. >> back in fifth place. kyle busch is eightseconds off of the lead.
>> why is it every time i need rear grip igo down on the track bar and spin out? i'm faster than the guy in front yet i can neverpass any of them. >> that guy in front of him, matt kenseth,is going to use the 46 as a pick here. michael annett to get past his teammate.>> you know, kyle is one of those drivers that he gets animated on the radio. he getsexcited but it doesn't prevent him from still focusing on what he has to do to get his cardialed in as we look -- pats for the lead. >> this is where i get excited trying to gothree wide on turn two. a pass on the outside. kind of a pick for the 78 of martin truex.but, again, martin does not force the issue. taking his time.>> you can't. when the tires are falling off
this much and the grip level is going awayyou can't force the issue. what you have to do is find a way to just ease up on the tires,find a different lane, search around there, wait for them to either make a mistake orfind an area on the track where you are a little bit stronger.>> we saw that with brad keselowski. the harder he tried the worse it was. that's what yourun into. you got to be patient. >> there he goes.>> truex to the bottom. patience pays off. >> i got to believe. did carl point him tothe inside? that looked fairly easy to me and carl has been fighting him really, reallyhard for that lead. >> i think that's smart. even if he did ordidn't knew he was faster.
>> i think carl wants to follow him and seewhat he's got that he doesn't. >> earnhardt on pit road. the rest will bethere soon, jamie. >> dale jr., they were talking like -- itsounded like they were talking about a loose wheel and got three tight but another oneso i am speculating what happened but junior kept saying i'm ready to come in wheneveryou are so obviously pitting very early for the 88.>> i don't know, jamie. looked like something was weird with the right rear when he wentdown pit road. only ran 32 green flag laps. >> in the wall goes josh wise. caution. hehad tagged the wall earlier and came in for repair and now he's up against it and we'reunder yellow for the third time tonight.
>> yeah, the 30 had been in the garage andalmost caused this a second ago. vince. >> yeah, the 20 of matt kenseth came in. hesaid it was way better that run but about 30 laps in turned wicked loose.>> the 48 is going to go a lap down. the 0 car actually stayed on the lead lap, i believe.>> guys, where kenseth and johnson are pitting, what they had to do is beat the leader, martintruex jr. to equal to the start/finish line across pit road. it's the imaginary line thatgoes all the way across. the 20 did beat the 78. to your point.>>> jeff, i think the 48 did not. he'll go a lap down. the good news for matt kenseth,that 20, they should be leading this race when it all cycles through in this is goingto work really well for the 20.
>> now, at the moment of caution dale earnhardtjr. was the first car one lap down. he'll get the free pass. and to larry's point, kensethhas now made his stop so everybody else will make a pit stop under caution. if matt doesnot he will be the leader. josh wise up in the wall, turn three.>> yeah, the car they've taken it to the garage once and worked on it and brought it backout. >> really hard hit.>> look how flat the right side of that car is from that impact.>> got fluid running out of the front of the car so requires a good bit of cleanup. joshis okay and out of the car waiting for the rest of the field to file by under cautionand he'll go down to the ambulance, make the
mandatory ride to the care center to be checkedout. >> we have a little debate going on on theracetrack between the 48 and probably nascar. but you know they said that the 88 was thefree pass car and we saw where the 48 as larry mentioned was not at the start/finish linewhen the 78 went by. i think that chad and jimmie and them are arguing that point andthey're probably going to have to go back to video to prove it.>> so they'd be saying they were the first car one lap down as they approached that linethat larry spoke of. >> that's the other side and know they area lap down. they think they're the free pass car indeed.>> i tell chad one thing, do not take your
headset off.>> because right in front of jimmie johnson is the 88. so obviously even nationwide isnot quite certain on this. not the 88. >> the reason that dale jr. came in early,the left rear was loose on the number 88. larry.>> got to make an adjustment. >> i think chad sent the 48 by and i thinknascar is saying no. >> all right. here is truex coming to start/finish.>> 20 just crossed over the stewart finish line. you can see that the stewart finishline, i believe it's right -- sorry, sorry. got -- i think it's right there.>> 48 -- him back here. >> and the 43.>> back here. so -- so the 0 was clearly part
the line. the 48 was not and so now i guessthey'll hole the 48 and put him back in his spot. so race control is now checking on the positionof all the cars that were a lap down at the time of the caution.>> but again now here we go back to the free pass because they were giving it to the 88but wouldn't it be the 48? >> the question they're resolving right now.it may or may not be. just have to wait and see here. love those lug nuts stuck on hishelmet. and the l.e.d. lights. everybody -- michael is wearing l.e.d. lights on his glasses.>> i can tell you based on what i'm seeing on the wheels and gleeing up these lug nutsthey need less of those.
>> doesn't need one in the helmet. i knowwhere the fifth one, on his helmet. >> the wheel with the lug nuts glued up.>> hey, guy, i want to make sure and clear this rule up. if you're pitting before thestart/finish line, you have to beat the leader to that start/finish line that goes acrosspit road. if you're pitting beyond the start/finish line, then you have to beat him to the exitof pit road. in the case of kenseth he's pitting well before the start/finish line that goesacross the road and make sure we're night and clear on that.>> larry, absolutely, i've been in this position and burned on it where you come into yourpit stall and actually your crew chief says, yep, we'll stop but you only have to makeit to the stewart finish line if you're on
that half of pit road. if you're on the otherhalf pitting on the other half pitting on the start/finish you have to beat him to theother end of pit road. >> pit road is closed as nascar reviews theposition of the cars and that will determine who gets to pit this time around and reviewwho the free pass car is. >> that was always -->> i'm sorry, mike, go ahead. >> one of the most complicated things in oursport. when the green -- when the caution comes out and the leader is coming to theline and there are people on pit road, you know, time and score does a good job but needto back that up even with video. >> even this doesn't happen very often. oneof the things we were adamant about pitting
past the start/finish line for this very situation. >> i love looking for turn four down pit roadon this, the first night race of the year. it looks like the neon lights on broadwaybecause many of the 40 teams have used these neon lights to illuminate the pit boars andhelp guide their driver into their pit stall. some of them are really creative.>> i've never seen -- i've never seen pit road lit up like this. they are taking itto a whole other level and 88, they have a sign that happenings above their pit stalland the sign board that they put right in front of the car are both lit up in neon.>> 48. 48, 48 in front of the 38 -- >> i want to take this even a step furtherif we have time to describe this. in my opinion,
it's really beneficial to actually pit beforethe start/finish line in this situation because you're talking about you come off a -- offthe racetrack at speed. you get into your pit stall, now you only have to go to thestart/finish line. if you pit on the other side, d.w., that means you have to come allthe way down pit road real slow losing time to the cars under green and then with -- youcross the line, you come into your pit stall then the caution comes out. now you've gotto make it awe the way to the end of pit road so to me it's very beneficial in this situationto be in the first half of those stalls. >> how dale jr. won phoenix last year.>> but when the caution comes out, you have to slow down so it's probably 6 1/2 of another.>> while you guys are trying to sort that
out and chad knaus is trying to sort it out,as well now they believe maybe they didn't get all the lugs tight on the left rear whenjimmie came in on that pit stop. jimmie is feeling a vibration so they're going to considerhere bringing jimmie back down pit road to make sure that left rear is tight. >> that's a man in deep thought right thereabout this whole process. so pit road remains closed. they have removed josh wise's carnow being dragged to the garage. heavy hit between 3 and 4. now, you look straight acrossthe start/finish line. here comes the yellow car of matt kenseth. he passes the line. there'smartin truex. past the line -- way back here. >> no doubt in my mind. no doubt in my mindthe 48 is definitely down a lap. it's whether
or not he's the free pass car.>> all right, pit road is open. >> the key tonight for truex is to keep thecar cutting to the center of the corner. the second half of this last run the tire reallycame to him but it was a little tight down the middle of three and four where the cutteris. jamie. >> chase elliott doing a heck of a job, inthe back and up to fourth. they'll make a wedge adjustment, four tires, air pressure,carl edwards said all we need to do is beat the 78. the car is good. another air pressureadjustment, it's a drag race but 19 gets it. >> that number one pit stall, man, it's justso hard to beat that. >> there's your race off pit road. carl edwards,there he goes.
>>> nascar on fox presented by kfc, sponsoredby nationwide. nationwide is on your side. and by kentucky fried chicken. colonel qualityguaranteed. tomorrow, ufc fight night returns to fs1. heavyweights rule the octagon. juniordos santos. watch it live on fox sports go. slugging it out and matt kenseth is your leader.toyota, the top four spots with 116 laps to go with michael waltrip, chris myers, niceto have you watching. we starred late. rained a couple of hours. once they got going, theyhad that going. >> early in the race kyle busch and jimmiejohnson were the fastest. they haven't been as fast since.>> martin truex and carl edwards dominating the first half of this race trading the leadback and forth. edwards led 124 laps. truex,
87. dale earnhardt jr., top five. a problemwith the pits but they've got the fire out and hammed it hoping to hang in there. andcarl edwards who has turned the fastest time in the race just over 192 miles an hour currentlyright behind matt kenseth. kenseth has been the hard luck loser so far having opportunitiesfor victory. but, michael, just our fourth caution. we've seen guys on short run, thelong runs. it's a balancing act. which drivers have done the best with which.>> you have edwards with a blading fast car right after they pit and truex tracked themdown and takes the lead. these two have been dominant. matt kenseth has been looking fora break all year long and got his pit work before the caution -- he asupered the leadand got a fast toyota, as we. look for kenseth
to try to establish himself as a dominantguy. >> rookie chase elliott quite a day havingto start at the back. worked his way up, the 20-year-old in the 24 car currently runningfifth. remember, dale earnhardt jr. is the only rookiewho won in texas. that was his first top victory. >> you watch chase elliott and reminds youof who used to drive it, jeff gordon, so styling making moves around the track and fightinghis way to the front and he's my pick. >> speaking of jeff gordon, he's getting readyto call the rest of the race? >> we can sort out the issue of who was thefirst car one lap down and it was as called. it was dale earnhardt jr. when we saw thecars on pit road racing to the line to try
to beat martin truex to the line that extendsall the way across pit road, the caution had already flown and the first lap down had alreadybeen decided and that was earnhardt so a matter of not whether he would be a lap down or whetherhe would stay on the lead lap or be a lap behind.>> so just think of it this way, at the time that caution came out, junior was the firstcar one lap down so he got the free pass. >> now we're one lap to go. so we get to goback to racing. >> got that sorted out.>> so a little confusion. but all resolved now so earnhardt will join the lead lap car,there will be 14 of them when we go back to green at 220 laps.>>> problems for kevin harvick. too fat entering
pit road. and a tire got away. watch the reartire as they work the left side here. >> one of the gas guys is supposed to catchthat but bounced out and couldn't get to it. >> that will roll all the way across pit roadto the grass. >> almost got hamlin in the process.>> there she goes. >> a penalty for harvick, so he will go tothe tail end and harvick's been hard on his pit crew lately. this is not good for harvickand that bunch. >> he can't say too much. he was speedingcoming down pit road. you got more on that. >> too fast and section four, the sectionright before. it's just out of control. it will not repeat.one minute it's loose and one minute it's
free. a lot of work still ahead on the 4.>> now jimmie johnson took the wave-around so he will be back on the lead lap. however,he -- >> how did he get the wave-around? the 20car was ahead of him. >> we have to get back to racing.>> i'm really confused now. it was all clear until then.>> we'll restart. >> four toyotas up front, green flag. lookat that. >> all those gibbs cars right out front racingfor the win, racing for the lead but what a night they're having.>> look at joey logano coming on the outside saw him have early run speed earlier in therace.
>> been working on that little car. hasn'tbeen that great and happening an the top ten but showing speed but, man, did he go intothe third turn. >> only a short window of opportunity outon the outside before he has to get down to the bottom.>> i think he'll do that just fine. >> whoa, 11, 24 almost got together.>> carl edwards, he's off the pace. >> yeah.>> something is -- got a problem. something's happened. he'll get run over.>> the field flies by our polesitter. >> he'll come to pit road.>> definitely got a problem, not sure what it is just yet.>> what's going on?
>> i am not wrecking it.>> edwards led 124 laps and now sounds like a flat tire to me. he said he's trying tocome back without -- >> maybe they made contact and cut the tireor something. >> he comes to pit road.>> it's a wheel, guys. four tires. >> under green.>> jamie. >> and you heard it there. crew didn't knowwhat was going on because carl hadn't said anything other than he was trying to saveit so saying something is wrong with one of the wheels. carl right now saying he's notsure which one bringing it down pit road and been the dominant car tonight.
they're change all four. tough break for 19.>> tried to guess, it's one of those left sides only hit four lug nuts. maybe they onlyhad three. >> a replay of the pit stop. looked like tome the right front had maybe two, three lug nuts most. let's take a look at it right here.watch this area right hire on the front right. watch what you see when the carrier goes away,it's bouncing right there. any -- >> fairly -->> that's the problem. >> yeah, that wasn't even close, larry. onlyfour over there and didn't any any of those tight.>> great job, larry. >> first three or four, carl edwards' crewhad the three fastest stops of the entire
night. make a miscue here. one of the thingsthat is bothering me is, you know, we've been suspecting that they've been doing four lugnuts. but when they make it so obvious but not putting a nut on there i don't know howthat is will look at that in d.w., i'm pretty sure that's on the left side. on the rightwe think they're hitting five but you have to get the ones on the wheel first.>> never thought they would be so blatant with leaving it off and looking at it andseeing it. >> we brag on the pit crews especially joegibbs racing and their pit crew but that's the problem when you're going that fast whenyou're doing it consistently and the competition is on the line. you go too fast and you missone. you get out of rhythm and all of a sudden
have a loose wheel.>> 11-second pit stops. that's physically impossible.>> hard to do that every single time without making a mistake.>> matt yocum showed us 78 was only gluing up four on the left and right? oh, my.>> i know. as i say it's coming -- it's become pretty blatant and pretty obvious. matt kensethhas led in six of the seven races this season. best finish, though, seventh at phoenix. vince.>> yeah, hard to believe, mike, which is as well as they've run this season during thestretch of rates their average finish is 18.5. matt has talked throughout the course of tonightabout how dirty and turbulent the air is and
how it's affected his race car, being outfront is what the doctor ordered for that and helped -->> interesting to see if the martin truex can chase down the 20 like he was able todo the 19 of carl edwards over the long haul. 78 has really been the best car. 14 cars onthe lead lap. now, based on fuel mileage, we need only one more pit stop for sunocoracing but based on tire wear, it's going to take two more stops at least to get itto the checkered flag. >>> 100 laps to go in texas. chase elliottis the biggest mover after they drain the dance mission fluid yesterday they saw a littlebit of metal on the magnetic drain plug. changed the transmission so he started last, jumpedup to fifth as the lead is at stake. well,
this is what the 78 was able to do to 19 aftera few laps. always better than the 19 on the long run, same with the 20 now but the guythat's really lurking right behind these two is the 18 car. that green car back there ofkyle busch. they've really adjusted on that car and got it very competitive.>> i agree, d.w., but i really thought with the 78, the 20 got side-by-side we would seethe green interstate battery fly by both but he wasn't able to do it. >> martin truex's pit crew reacts.>> reel him in, baby. reel him in. >> oh, boy.>> that car is sponsored by bass pro shops. >> got me a big one. got me a big one. i lovethat.
>> we talked about chase elliott up in thetop five after starting last. you know, a weekend sweep.>> you know, one thing i want to point out this is the first time that matt kenseth hasbeen in the lead and controlled the restart and going back to what carl edwards learnedwhen i hook at the lap times matt took off super hard, he really was abusive on the tiresbecause of the lap times he was running to maintain that lead and now it's fallen off.whoever gets control of that lead has to really back it off and hold back as much as theypossibly can to make those tires live longer. >> kind of find the gap. don't drive off andleave everybody like we seen truex do and
still maintain the lead. might want to thinkabout doing that. also in the top ten, jamie mcmurray having a strong run here in texastonight, matt. >> two year win, mike, on a mile and a halfracetrack running in tenth. the car if anything on the free side. jamie just excelled, tiremanagement making his tires last, the car, a long run car and it's showing.>> he's trying to reel in denny hamlin in ninth place, about 0.8 seconds in front ofmcmurray, 19 to a 21 so will take him a while to did that if he can. mcmurray is tryingto chase down hamlin. just out of the top ten, kurt busch and 11, 11 seconds off thelead. dale earnhardt jr., 12 seconds offer the lead in 12th place. jimmie johnson andkevin harvick are the other two cars on the
lead lap. jepsen flew in and his wife wasin the hospital. i think she -- i'm not sure she got home or not. till in the hospital,right? that's correct, so we wish her well. carl edwards, 124. 91 laps to go in texas.>>> 86 laps to go. update the coca-cola family of drivers. >>> 86 laps to go. update the coca-cola familyof drivers. austin dillon in sixth. denny hamlin also in the top ten. looking at probablytwo more pit stops based on the tire wear so far tonight, martin truex jr. in frontof kyle busch by almost three seconds. and we're keeping a close eye on chase elliottwho radioed in concern about a vibration. hey, i recognize that guy.>> bass pro shops, johnny morris.
let's hear what chase elliott called in.>> got the wheels tight. racing. >> yep.>> is it getting worse? >> yeah, it's better than it was a few momentsago. if it gets any worse i'll come in. >> keeping an eye on that. alan gustafsonatop the pit box. there are fast cars and slow cars and sometimes the track just isn'twide enough for all of them. watch chase elliott come up on jeffrey earnhardt.>> never wide enough for kyle larson. >> kyle larson and jeffrey earnhardt.>> it's amazing save by jeffrey earnhardt. because that was pretty big hit from the 42behind and jumped sideways. luckily in the banking and straightened it out. now, remember,carl edwards a lap down has come in also with
a vibration, loose wheel. go back to chaseelliott as he talked about that vibration the first thing a crew chief will ask anddriver thinks about is it getting any worse because typically when it's a loose wheelthe vibration gets loose or, you know, gets worse. you know that it's a loose wheel andyou know you got to get to pit road. it's something you don't want to risk.>> these guys are getting a lot of experience with loose wheels. starting to identify.>> guys, let's talk about the strategy here now with 81 laps to go. we've been seeing40-lap runs under green. if you start backlogging it, that means the next stop could come at254 and 294. that evens it out to two 40-lap runs but they go back to lap -- going backracing 221 you can even that to 38 laps and
i think we may see them come to it 258, 259and again somewhere around 297. >> tight right now.>> we're in a one-stop window. a lot of guys might try it. some guys won't. it all dependson whether there will be a caution or not. >> wow.>> i like that i mean that's a definite maybe. >> long way to go on a set of tires.>> they'd have to go up to lap 280 and i don't think a lot of teams will tie that in they'lllose so much time to those on new tire, aren't they, larry?>> last time, larry, 31.44 on truex and he's a little bit quicker than everybody else sothey've slowed down again, a couple have, about 2 1/2 seconds. that would mean kylebusch would have to run 25 more laps from
now to make it a one-stop race.>> denny hamlin is in, matt. >> mike, pretty much the entire night dennyhamlin fighting a very loose race car on the 11. they made significant adjustments to thetoyota. haven't really made the improvements that he has wanted.>> brian scott also made a stop. more coming in. jamie mcmurray in pit lane and his teammatekyle larson. >> mcmurray 13th spot there. larson is running18th. he is a lap down. >> well, this opens the window for a two-stoprace as larry pointed out. three more laps and we should see the leaders. i'm sure the24 would be happy to get on pit road. >> the trend we've been seeing, once somebodycomes they all come and look at the line of
cars coming in pit road right now.>> the 17 of ricky stenhouse just been fighting loose, particularly loose in throughout thecourse of the night and had a couple of runs where the car wasn't really good but gettingbetter inside the top ten most of the night. chassis adjustment there, as well. the 48of jimmie just loose in the higher -- he said he tried to help that with his own drivingman. -- line. the 20 of matt kenseth is in, aswell. kenseth said the car is not terrible but he just doesn't have the grip that heneeds. loose in, tight center. it just goes away on him about 25 laps into the race.>> the leader is in. martin truex jr. comes in and he pits with a six-second lead on kylebusch. dale earnhardt jr. getting service.
four tires and sunoco race fuel and 78 slidesto a stop, matt. >> all three came in. no chassis adjustmenton the 78. the car just hugs that red line. very good on the bottom. service complete.>> and kyle busch, in, as well. trevor bayne picks up the lead. he's the first ford tolead today. trevor said the team was starting to thinking they were getting a handle onthe car and started to have pretty good runs and had trouble last week in martinsvillebut nice run tonight by just about all the roush cars.>> look at this closing rate on the 18 on the 6. wow, that's the difference betweennew tires and old tires. >> 43 laps' worth of difference. i would wantto get me some tires and than keep getting
run over.>> you do this because you think the caution is going to come out. you don't do it becauseyou think we'll make a green flag stop and take it all the way to the end.>> almost 50 miles an hour. >> wow. you can't stay out there long. youhave to get to pit road really quick or the caution has to come out.>> trevor bayne, i don't know if he led a race all year or not. i would maybe take advantage of this a littlewhile anyway. >> all clear.>> only got a 23-second lead. and plenty of fuel.>> let's keep watching that lead. it's going
to go down in a hurry.>> i don't care if i'm going to lead this race until i have to come in. that lap hewas nearly three seconds slower than truex. so at that rate, it's seven laps truex wouldgrab the lead. 56. >> clear behind.>> not now. he's just wanting to keep it straight, stay on the racetrack. that thing is loose.>> don't want to be the caution. first laps he's led since may of 2014 in talladega.>> that's what i'm talking about. take advantage of it but don't go wide.>> don't get run over. >> oh, my goodness.>> look at truex. that difference is steady at, what, ten miles an hour or more. 20.>> but he's losing even more time than he
would in -- you know, because he's havingto avoid because of new tires. only costing him more time by being out there.>> the good news you're the leader. the bad news you're about to be toast.>> he's going to be a lot down. >> the bad news is you got to pit.>> what's sad, guys, they almost are making their bed and laying here right away.>> they're going to need a caution and hope it's not them. give him another lap or twoand then he can pit and he'll be good to go. trevor bayne leads by 15 seconds with 70 lapsto go. >> that is a comfortable lead at this time.like larry said, they made their bed. are they really going to try to do it on one morestop.
>> i think they got to now. i think that'sthe plan. >> truex and heading off. bayne up in four.>> two seconds. >> this isn't going to work out for trevorbut i like it. >> it's great. for us to talk about and iwanted it to work out for him. it would be awesome for it to work out for him.>> if they do what everyone else does their chances to win are slim. still don't knowif they'll win the race but hoping to finish getter than if they stayed on the same cycleas everybody else. >> the chase is all about winning so you'lltake extra risks and chances and this is what i love -- one of the many things i love aboutit. you'll take these kinds of risks. at the
end of the day there's somebody very possiblethat's going to get in by points so they could go back to this day and say, hey, look howmany points we lost because we didn't win. >> right.>> matt dibenedetto. >> all right. trevor bayne's lead now comesto 9 1/2 seconds by a hard charging martin truex. >>> trevor bayne's lead has been erased. herecomes truex and there he goes. trevor bayne led 12 laps. he is the only ford to lead tonightand he's the only driver, well, no, one of two driver, he and danica patrick are on thisone-stop strategy. here's your busch race summary. martin truex, the new leader. 14cars on the lead lap. 15 lead changes among
eight drivers. four caution flags countingthe green/yellow start for 24 laps. dale earnhardt jr. coming on denny hamlin for seventh place.let's take an inside ride with the 88 sponsored by nationwide.>> outside and quick. >>> clear.>>> 15 seconds off the lead. >> you listen to that lap for dale earnhardtjr. where they bumped. >> outside and clear.>> you lay that lap overlap a where they just burp the throttle, and you i pick it up slowlyto get off of the corner. >> since the restart, jimmie johnson's gainedjust one spot, that pass of kurt busch who is in 13th.>> goes to show you what happens when you
get further back in traffic and all that aerodynamicsof the car, track position still important. look who is on pit road. he's pitting at 275with 59 to go. they can go to the end on fuel. now, my friends in the race say the averagethat the last caution in the last ten spring races at texas, 51 laps to go, about sevenlaps from now. >> larry mac, before it started trevor baynehas been running in eighth position. overall just losing grip. his biggest issue rightbefore his pit stop was loose on entry. >> danica patrick also pitted. the other driveron that one-stop strategy along with trevor bayne. a.j. allmendinger second last in martinsville.>> looks how close he gets to that wall. >> running up right against it the whole race.i don't think anybody's gotten closer than
a.j. allmendinger. look how big that bumpis. how severe it is. you can see his head move around.>> do that 334 laps. that's a long race. >> another one.>> caution is out. debris in the front straightaway puts us under caution for the fifth time. >> if only trevor bayne could have stayedout. >> it would have been huge.>> because all these cars are going to have to come down pit road and get tires so itwould have put him in the top three. >> he can take the wave-around -- i know heneeds his tires -- >> i think he'll definitely take the wave-around,larry.
>> now, everybody could make it from hereon fuel, of course, we know everyone is going to get four fresh tires, as well so this isgoing to be interesting how this unfolds. these caughts always fall at that interestingtime. >> 56 laps to go for this one. and kasey kahnewill get the free pass. >> kasey kahne was running in 14th spot. andpit road is open for what as larry says should they care to gamble could be the final spotof the night. >> matt kenseth coming into pit from the thirdplace position says it doesn't people like the balance is all that bad but they justhaven't had the speed that they needed. he made note that when kyle passed him he puta little -- almost a straightaway on him.
speed differential so they've been workingon this 20 car throughout the course of the night but just haven't quite gotten it wherethey wanted it. matt? >> big swing for the 18 and kyle busch. ahuge adjustment and pulled the spring rubber on one stop and made a packer change on another.the car still needs bounce change, wedge adjustment on the previous stop and martin truex jr.on the bottom, 11.6, solid stop by the 78, guys. jamie.>> 22, joey logano had a slight vibration and takes off on the splitter. came in fourthand goes out fourth. >> vince.>> had a problem on the 20. didn't get the left rear tight so matt kenseth will haveto come back.
you documented the troubles they've had throughoutthe course of the season. add this one to the list.>> better to find it now than after they go green.>> goodness gracious. man, you got to guess these lug nuts tight. he came out third.>> a lot of pressure on these guys on pit road. lug nut. how fast you can do it is crucial.>> track truck stops just shy of the start/finish line to pick up a piece of debris. under cautionin texas. >>> 44 laps to go in texas. one week fromtomorrow will be in thunder valley for our second short track race of the season.>> this week nascar on fox takes on the fastest. it's the coliseum of races and it's sure tobe bumping and bruising down in thunder valley.
it'll all be right here next week startingwith race day at 11:30 a.m. on fs1 and continues on fox at 12:30 eastern.>> always exciting. when we go to bristol. >> trouble is already brewing.>> matt dibenedetto. >> i am voluntarily here, but that is everyonedoing the opposite of whatever you do. so hopefully the clean air pays off and maybewe could get another yellow in here to equalize it all up.>> jamie? >> made the call for the right side, whatwas your thought process? >> i just wanted the bottom. those two guysstayed off out. i think if we get clean air we'll be fine, if not the guys with tiresmight have an advantage.
>> okay, starting behind truex and dillonthat did not pit. >> chase is giving them a nice push into turnone. dillon did a nice job getting to the bottle, the 2 will take advantage of the outside.>> here comes elliott looking for the lead, closing right up on martin truex. i thinki like what cole pearn said it might possibly be another yellow.>> i think the longer they run here -- >> just -- oh, in turn two.>> oh, yeah, this is going to -- >> dillon caused a big -->> big crash. >> crashing behind him.>> still going. >> teammates. menard. ryan newman all getcaught up in austin dillon.
>> somebody got into austin dillon. i can'ttell who it was. >> jimmie johnson, we believe.>> wow, i have not seen a melee like that on the back straightaway for a long time.>> guess what. we'll get to see it again. that was pretty big. that was unfortunate.michael annett involved. oh, ricky stenhouse. all right, watch the 48. so we watch him.48 is going to come behind him. see what happens here.>> see the closing rate of the nurrer tires. the 11 kind of got him loose and up the racetrackin front of the 48. >> comes across right in front of stenhouse.>> stenhouse just clipped him. >> nailed him.>> that's really going to hurt that left front
fender.>> looking all the worse of the childress cars piled up there. >> 3 of austin trying to get down in frontof 11 gets him loose and yvon is sideways trying not to get into him. wow, look at that.amazing save by jimmie. >> boy and by trevor bayne who got almostby -- >> you're right.>> like a pinball. >> 15 is pretty bad.>> he tried to pull down in front of 11. 11 sent him into me and i finished him off.>> you okay on your car. >> yeah, i just tapped him.>> he tried shutting the door on the 11 and
that just wasn't going to happen.>> that's the downside of -- >> 20 back got a run inside. check, watch,easy, inside, inside the track. he's coming. yellow is out. yellow is out.>> number of drivers have pitted led by chase elliott. jamie.>> well, right side has been to work well but they'll take four tires and see what theycan do with it. >> mike, i really think -- the 3 car was ina bad pot got 11 under him anticipate gets him loose and gets him up the hill a littlebit and jimmie really didn't have any alternative. tried to stay off but couldn't do it.>> ride with brian vickers. he was behind all that.>> clear, looking low inside. inside. back
it down. slow down. slow down. slow down.>> man. >> wow, what a mess.>> one more look. let's go back to the outside look.>> see, austin, if he could have gotten to the white line the 11 may have loosened himup but left just enough room similar to what happened to the 16 and 5 and it just broughtthe back end of the car around. he's already on older tires.>> i don't think the 11 touched the 3. >> i don't know -->> gets the 3 to -- up the hill a bit but gets loose and then that gets him up the hillin front of jimmie and with a head of steam and trying to get it whoa'd up.
>> he was lucky to save it there.>> what a save. >> look at harvick coming through there. somebodyturned bowyer in the back right in front of menard and that's where the 14 got all involved.along with newman and annett. >> all three childress cars.>> and listen. >> that last one i believe is 14 making contactwith the 3. >> yeah.>> there are all of the cars that sustained some or a lot of damage, 13 of them. kylelarson will get the free >> jimmy went through some interesting thingstonight. >> so did dale jr., he is running third. let'slook at this restart. this is our five-hour
energy big move of the race. truex on theinside. kyle busch on the outside. logano and hamlin looking on.>> you can see where the 78, he needed to clear that 18.>> did you notice, mike, on that, the 78 took him all the way to the end of the pit box.didn't tart at the beginning of the restart zone. took him all the way to the end of therestart zone before he went. he's in trouble now.>> yep. >> they're coming at him from all sides. kylebusch, 1.6 seconds ahead of logano. dale jr., two back. chase elliott, 3 1/2. jimmie johnson,4 1/2. >> even if the caution came out right nowand came down pit road, the chances of beating,
what, five cars in front of you is prettytough pass. >> yerngs i agree. let me show you one reasonwhy kyle busch is your sprint cup champion. in the races since his injury at daytona alittle more than a year ago, since he came back 31 races, 6 wins. 21 top fives. that'stwo out of three and he led over 1200 laps in that time. he came back with a vengeance.he missed those 11 races and got back in and raced like he was ready to race. didn't comeback too soon. came back just right. healed up. good shape. putting them down.>> you hate for anybody to go out for those reasons but interesting perspective that youhave on the sport when you're watching it from home. i think that, you know, he hasa greater appreciation for being a race car
driver and he realized you know what, i needto be more patient and i need to, you know, be kinder and be, you know, more involvedas a team and the whole job and he has come back a much better race car driver -- he wasalways really talented but now smart being smooth, making really good decisions. >> the thing about this last week he ran 750laps at martinsville. this weekend he's going to run 800 miles this weekend here at texas.>> hey, guy, it's a package deal, though, with this 18 car. i go back to martinsvillelast week. adam stevens, they've done the same thing with this car tonight, look rightthere. almost every stop they've added tape and threw our eagle out through pit road havebeen making adjustments on that every time
he's been to pit road.>> there's the man. makes some great calls and they're having some great success. theguy that kyle wanted to be his crew chief. >> the best suggestion you can make is aerodynamics.>> wasn't he complaining about that car? he didn't like that car at all.>> but, again, that goes back to how amazing, you know, this transformation has been forhim over the years and how he's improved and become a better all-around race car drivingknowing even if he's making those kind of complaints he's still constantly getting betterand giving 100%. >> great driver, great team, great equipment.316 laps tonight, the joe gibbs owned cars led -->> wow.
>> joey logano, now 1.9 seconds back startedon the outside pole. started up front at martinsville but everything went the wrong way for themthere. good to see logano having a great night for roger penske tonight. for rick hendrickthird, the leading chevrolet, his teammate, chase elliott, fourth, the rookie. and anotherhendrick chevrolet, jimmie johnson rounding out the top five. five seconds back. martin truex, sixth placenow after leading 141 laps. dominant car until that last bunch of cautions. carl was thepolesitter, led 14 laps. kurt busch, eighth. kasey kahne, ninth. denny hamlin rounds outthe top ten. there are 16 cars on the lead lap. jamie mcmurray behind hamlin battlingkevin harvick --
>> this is the one that surprised me. if youlooked at practice speeds and the way that kevin harvick is running the mile and a halfand at this racetrack in the past i thought he would be the car to beat. he just hasn'tquite had it. >> nope.>> debris on that nose there. >> junior challenging for second. they haveworked on that thing all night long and he has really given them some pretty good feedbackto help get where they are at this point. >> great guys for them. bunch of hendrickmotorsports has kept him in the game with pit stops and good adjustments.>> yep. >> see as he tries to search for clean airand uses the middle lane to get above the
corner.>> got about a 2.3-second lead over logano right now. there is the gap first to >> well, we're winding it down, boys. comingto 11 to go. last lap, earnhardt was about 0.12 seconds quicker than logano and deadeven on this. >> if logano allows him to have that middlelane it's just a matter of time i believe that junior will make it work.>> you see that car, that 88 car, that thing is moving around quite a bit. it's not drivingperfect by any means. >> doesn't seem like he has this option torun the higher lane. >> whoa.>> he got loose right there.
>> still gains on him.>> but he's staying this it and fighting that car. he know he has to but driving the wheelsoff that thing right now. watch this shot. >> got off there really good. kept it on thebottom. real patient getting back to the throttle. i think now he might be able to make thismiddle lane work. >> ten to go.>> here he comes. he's working that thing. he's trying. he's trying.>> inside might be able to make the move into one.>> not quite. >> there he goes. oh -- logano overdrove it.>> oh, a little bit. >> there he was -->> he knew he was in his mirror. had to drive
in there.>> bump ever and clear. all clear. clear by two. clear by three.>> now, they're a second and a half ahead of chase elliott but they are losing groundto kyle busch. >> yeah, kyle is running some really consistentlap times right now. he just ran a 0.15 quicker than earnhardt. so dale jr. moves to secondand puts all of the hendrick chevys in the top eight. all of the gibbs toyotas in thetop 12. joey logano, the first ford in the race in third.>> you know, nascar has three national touring series. sprint cup, xfinity and the camping worldtruck series. do you know it's been 21 days
since anybody but kyle busch has gone to victorylane in any one of those three. >> yeah, we had an off weekend. my goodness.unbelievable. >> unbelievable.>> from that organization and by that driver. >> he's rewriting the record book every week,it seems like. >> coach gibbs there on the left. he's gotto be feeling pretty good about his organization, things that are going on.>> and hoping caution doesn't come out. >> coach pretty happy right now, i tell you.i would be. >> if combination right now between kyle buschand his crew chief adam stevens, boy, they have connected well, communicating well, thecreme industry is there.
>> 98 bottom.>> and the difference between tonight and kyle's three previous wins in cup, xfinityand truck is he did not dominate this race. et cetera 'only led 29 laps tonight.>> i know and i keep -- you know, talking about this, it isn't just the maturity. thisis kyle busch taking it to the next level. >> i just -- i just am amazed. the kid hasrun 800 miles yesterday and today. >> we're only talking about how fit jimmiejohnson is and kyle is not the guy that we think of who is out doing marathons and triathlonsand things that carl edwards is doing but he's in great race shape because he neverseems to be winded. >> i races himself. that's his fitness regimen,winning and now he's going to have -- he's
got clocks to wipe and may have six shootersto load after tonight. oh, yeah, and video. leaving the racetrack.>> tell samantha to put a light on the camera. >> if they have lights that light up -- waita minute. going to be a good night for rick heindrick. the last time hendrick motors hadall four finish in the top was one year ago. has johnson led tonight?>> i think he has. >> no, he didn't lead last week at martinsville.>> chase elliott, he did that on a green flag pit stop cycle.>> between teammates before this thing is over between jimmy and chase.>> jimmy was going for four in a row. white flag in the air, one to go sponsored by creditone bank. call in the dogs. turn out the lights.
>> kyle busch going to come around to leadhis 34th lap. >> well.>> and score his 36th career win. kyle busch wins the duck commander 500.>> why you don't want to win, my man, kyle, you're the best.>> he joins jimmie johnson as a double winner. 2016.>> good job. good job, guys. >> he's finished in the top five in six ofthis year's seven races. for the ninth time get the broom out career weekend sweep, won>>> live it texas, a celebration in the central and east time zone as kyle busch after a two-hourdelay starting the race pulls into victory lane, second victory of this season already.nascar's reigning champ and jamie little is
will for the celebration.>> what a celebration it is after midnight. kyle's got a down the interstate battery win.a kiss for the longtime sponsor. and, of course, there we have a broom, eddie gossage, of course,came prepared, kyle. early on -->> this one looks recycled. >> it's been waiting for you. early in therace you had damage from jimmie johnson's car. your car wasn't to your liking in themiddle of the race. what did it take to get it right when it counted most.>> communication, just talking about it and keep making changes to try to make it better.about this interstate battery camry was fast and had really good speed especially entryand center. we had to work on the exit but
made great adjustments and i think the racetrackkept coming to us as the night progressed as well too but, man, can't say enough aboutnorm miller and scott miller and the whole interstate battery group. what better waythan to celebrate 25 years of a partnership than in victory lane in their hometown oftexas. pretty special. can't be remiss without m&m and monster energy drink and toyota. theengine ran strong all night long. really fast and these guys, they just continue to impressme. >> let's get real. you've won four races acrossthree different series in eight days. things drivers only dream of. what's it like to bekyle busch right now. >> got a great wife, great son and havinga blast, living the dream with adam stevens
and joe and thinking about you, back at homeand, of course, coy is with us so jgr and they're building great race cars and the crewchiefs there are jelling together and putting everything together. it's just fun. you know,right now it's all going together and maybe a little bit of a struggle for kenseth rightnow but i've been in that position and maybe i can give the old man a little advice andtalk to him but things are great for our team so can't say enough. cool to be in victorylane in texas. thanks to you guys at fox and eddie and everyone at texas. looking forward to those six shooters.>> two sweeps by kyle busch. sweet to be him, chris.>> happy birthday to jamie little and samantha.
we saw samantha cam after it went viral withthe fan and she goes in with the hug and so his eighth victory. sorry, didn't mean tointerrupt. were eavesdropping. you got to talk to some people. in the last 32 raceseight wins for kyle busch. heard who he thanked and fast cars and made the adjustments withhis crew chief through the course to come out on top. next to bristol.>> you have to appreciate what that team did. had a little damage backing up setting upthe balance of your car and consistently worked on it. changed that car. heard kyle say howbad it was during the course but made improvements all night long and before that last pit stopthey were gaining on martin truex and closed the ground on truex so had the car that couldhave taken him down had they been on even
tires but when adam stevens made that callthat gave him the advantage he needed? heartbreak for carl edwards who led 124 laps and martintruex jr., 141 laps. seventh time for truex. he's recently led over 100 laps, only wonone and standing by with our matt yocum. >> dominating night. cops home in sixth positionbut, martin, go bark to the decision to pit or not pit. was it yours or a call from thepit box? >> it was cole's call and called me in atthe last second. our plan was to stay out. i didn't want to hit the cone so, you know,i mean it's just the way it goes. had we went green that next restart we did okay. and wegot the lied and drove away. and we just kept getting yellows and caution laps and tireskept getting more air and more air in them
and by the time we got rolling didn't havethe grip everybody else had and just sliding around, you know. so it's frustrating but that's racing. that'show it goes sometimes. i'm proud of my guys for the race they brought. thing is so fastall night. and we did everything we were supposed to do except for that one deal there so idon't know. it's -- it hurts. it's tough but we got a lot to look forward to. great racecars and a lot to look forward to so go back home and get back to work and come out smarterand stronger. >> second time he's finished second at texas.second time he's led 140 or more laps. >> hard fought second place finish for daleearnhardt jr. had the loose wheel early, kept
digging and, you know, it's not the spot youwanted but next best thing, second place. how did you see it? yeah, we got a littlebehind and caught on pit road and that one caution. we had a fast car. probably goodenough to win, martin probably had the best car. but the best car doesn't always writtenand, kyle did a great job on the outside on that one restart and truex's tires were worsethan i thought. so we finished up where we should have. and we got -- man, we would loveto get a win. i know our fans want a win real bad and trust me we're working hard and runninggreatestry week. hopefully it's fun to watch. i had a blast inside the car. a lot of slidingaround sideways. >> that win is coming for junior. second tonight.>> carl edwards had the speed to put the 19
car on the pole but the issue on pit road,the loose wheel. the deciding factor for you? >> yeah, i mean that was the issue but myguys on pit road, they live on the edge. that as he what they do, the fastest on pitroad. i don't know, it was so loose. whether something got stuck behind it. they nevermake mistakes but it was actually pretty fun trying to come back through there and madea few mistakes. i should have come earlier to get the tire changed and i couldn't catchkasey. first half i wanted to be shorter. last half i wanted to be longer but greatday for jgr. we have an awesome team. >> solid top ten finish for carl. >>> that was kyle busch last week leavingin traffic. he celebrates with a reward, shooting
for another championship. you see with jimmiejohnson, win and get in. and you could just see it. that's what these drivers are allabout right now. take the pressure off so you can focus on winning a championship.>> kyle busch's 36th career win. thank you. thank you.>> i like him wearing the white hat in deceglie. i wore the black hat long enough. big winfor several reason, the two races at texas are the second and third highest paying racesall season. >> i don't know where to begin. certainlyanother impressive performance by kyle. we've become very used to this but they this onedidn't come easy. they had to really work for this. i think some others sort of helpedhim out. and, boy, don't you just feel for
martin truex jr.?>> oh, yeah. >> you just don't get race cars like thisvery often at this level and you can tell he's just deject the because he know whatis a special opportunity he had. >> and, mike, i don't think i've ever seendominance like this across all three series. i've never seen it before but a guy i'm happyfor is norm miller. if it hadn't been for norm miller standing by joe gibbs in the beginninginterstate gatries, their first sponsor and stuck with joe and that's why they love eachother so much. if not for norm i'm not sure they'd be here.>> quite a big night for them a young rookie. let's hear from chase elliott.>> all four of the hendrick motorsports cars
in the top eight including chase elliott.fifth place. how do you sum up the night you had?>> i think a strong car would be the best way to put it. all the guys, alan and allworked hard. fast car. we had a good pit selection and that played a role throughout the nightand you know we're happy about it and definitely not content. we want to be contenders. we'renot satisfied with fifth and feel like we have a group of guys that can do better.>> deciding to come and get the tires late in that pit stop. do it again.>> yeah, i think so. i think offense is good when you're tet a racetrack, alan's digs,i'll be all for it whether they go good or
bad. whatever he says i'm in for and makethe most of it. >> chase elliott, fifth place.>> and a pit call put the 3 car up at the front. older tires, can you walk us throughwhat happened between yourself and hamlin and johnson?>> i haven't seen it yet. i don't know. we were on older tires and i was trying to getall i could right there and, you know, part of trying to win a race. you know, we putourselves in the position of being out front. thinking that two laps wouldn't mean muchbut it did. it was some speed there. so look at it and see, good lord kept me safe andgave me a great race car and you have to be graceful in defeat and hopefully we can run up front next week.>> thanks, austin.
>> austin dillon, one of those 25-year-oldor younger drivers like chase elliott, trying to move in the last six races have all beenwon by past championship drivers including the current champ, kyle busch. more from texas straight ahead on fox.>>> another terrific performance from kyle busch and toyota, in fact, next year toyotamoving its headquarters to nearby . >>> another terrific performance from kylebusch and toyota, in fact, next year toyota moving its headquarters to nearby plano, texas,victorious here in ft. worth and wife samantha giving the hug and now he looks ahead to bristolshort track racing. begin, kyle has been successful there with five victories more than any othertrack and matt kenseth won last year, ended
that 51-race winless streak and joey loganohas had success. what should we look forward to.>> more kyle busch. he not only has won five cup races but won the truck race there. thiskid is on quite a roll. i think their workman like attitude and adjust all night long but,chris, how do you go to bristol and expect success? so many things can go wrong? such tight quarters of racing, i can't waitto get up there and watch. >> who will dethrone him. i'm amazed at thewear and tear at his age. he stays physically fit by racing in the truck series and xfinityseries but still has enough left in the tank when it comes time for the cup series.>> everyone talks about going and winning
xfinity and truck races. tonight he beat thebest in the world. in an accident on pit road early in the going so you have to not onlybe physically fit but mentally prepared to overcome obstacles and proven over and over he's tough. when he came back from his injury he's ready to roll.>> he's been on fire. coming up your late local news and i mean really late or partyover here, we'll be partying sunday in bristol, fox 12:30 eastern on the prerace show victorylane over on fs1. for patrick, our researchers, michaelwaltrip, our entire gang, i'm chris myers, thanks for being a part of
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