About : tv stand for flat-screen tvs up to 42
Title : tv stand for flat-screen tvs up to 42
tv stand for flat-screen tvs up to 42
>> rick: thank you, blake, and welcome tothe new hampshire motor speedway for the new hampshire 301. great crowd filing in as we get ready for 301 laps of racing fromthe magic mile. let's go to pit road for some of the story lines. we start with dave burns.>> rick, yesterday in the xfinity race, kyle busch dominated. i asked him crew chief ifthat helps his confidence. he said, confidence, steady as ever. what we could use is someluck. they expect to get back to victory lane today. kelly?>> kevin harvick won on this track back in 2006, but it's probably the wins that havegotten away that stand out most. kevin has led 379 laps in the last three races, buthas been passed for the win all three times. they'd love to get one of those back today.even though he starts eighth, he thinks chances
are better than that.>> dale earnhardt may not be here in new hampshire, but his presence is very much being felt. throughout the weekend, he's made severalphone calls, including one to the crew chief. they went over setup changes together. earnhardtis still very engaged in the process and wants to make sure alex bowman has the best possiblemachine today. marty? >> mike, brad keselowski trying to do somethinghe's never gone in his career. we have a setup that we know works here at new hampshire.we think we can win the race. time to go trackside for the chand.>> announcer: and now, here to give the command to start engines, please welcome your grandmarshal, governor of new hampshire, maggie
hassan.>> drivers, start your engines! >> rick: definitely a big day for brad keselowski.but what about alex bowman? how will he take care of this opportunity? hey, i'm paul, and i used to ask if you couldhear me now with verizon... not anymore. i'm with sprint now, because guess what, it's2016 and every network is great. in fact, sprint's reliability is now within 1% of verizon.and sprint saves you 50% on most verizon, at&t and t-mobile rates. so, i switched tosprint. and millions more have too. can you hear that? don't let a 1% difference costyou twice as much. switch to sprint today. hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,the cow jumped over the moon... then quickly
fell back to earth landing on the roof ofa dutch colonial. luckily geico recently helped the residents with homeowners insurance. theywere able to get the roof repaired like new. they later sold the cow because they had allbecome lactose intolerant. call geico and see how much you could save on homeownersinsurance. >>> keselowski's going to hang on! keselowskiwins at daytona! >> brad keselowski will win!>> oh, my god. that was awesome. >> what an incredible start to the secondhalf of the season. >> rick: welcome back to new hampshire motorspeedway. brad keselowski starting ninth today. beautifulrace track here in loudon, new hampshire.
today's starting grid brought to you by nationwide.front row, jimmie johnson and kyle busch. kyle busch actually won this race last year.>> jeff: row two, martin truex jr. starting next to kurt busch, a three-time winner hoar.>> steve: a pair of two-time new hampshire winners make up row three.>> rick: back in row four, rookie chase elliott and kevin harvick. kevin harvick has beenpassed for the win in the last three new hampshire motor speedway races.>> jeff: row five, brad keselowski. won this race in 2014.>> steve: row six we have kasey kahne starting next to tony stewart.>> rick: back in row seven, carl edwards and ryan blaney.>> jeff: row eighth, austin dillon, who needs
a good run for his chase hopes.>> steve: row nine, kyle larson and two-time winner matt kenseth.>> rick: back in row ten, jamie mcmurray and alex bowman, of course subbing for dale earnhardtjr. yesterday finished eighth in the xfinity series race. 23-year-old out of tucson, arizona,trying to take advantage of a huge opportunity today. now let's chat with brad keselowskias he gets ready to go for three in a row. >> hey, brad. it's jeff up in the booth. youwith us? >> yes, sir. how are you today?>> jeff: i'm doing great. you're going for three in a row. think you got a car good enoughto make it happen? >> yeah, jeff, we've been really good herethe last two or three seasons. really one
of those tracks that i think we would circleon our calendar as being a track we can really have a good shot at winning. i think todayis another case. feel pretty comfortable, ready to go.>> jeff: this race track seems to be really hard to repeat wins and get wins. why is this track so difficult?>> i think there's a lot of things that come into play. there's a lot of strategy in hereand a lot of traffic. of course, the track is kind of narrow with the groove. all thatkind of adds up. we'd like to change that today.>> jeff: we'll all be watching. good luck. >> thanks, guys. appreciate everybody watching.>> rick: i love that we can chat with the
players right before they're about to takeon 301 laps. leading the field is the 2016 toyota camry, the official pace car for today'srace. we'll also ride along with a few different drivers. they'll be carrying cameras. onceinside their car. a little closer to the front with the nationwide in-car camera is alexbowman in the 88. ford on-board camera starting ninth is the number 2, brad keselowski. kevinharvick also carrying a camera for us. he'll start eighth today. joey logano has the coca-colaon-board camera in row three. and starting third -- excuse me, starting in the thirdrow, fifth, with the sprint on-board camera is denny hamlin. there's kevin. he'll havea camera on board. we'll be able to look at the vantage point from kevin harvick. lastthree races he has been passed for the lead
late in the race, which i'm sure he's nothappy about and will want to change that. we'll have another vantage point for today'srace, our aerial coverage provided by our partners at smithfield foods. giving us agreat shot of congestion as the drivers funnel into turn number one. it will definitely becrazy on restarts here. we take a look at race analysis. 301 laps,the track a little over a mile. pit road speed, 45 miles per hour. the fuel window, steve,80 to 85 laps. >> steve: i'm not even sure we should haveput that. that's what we think these teams can go later in the race. i expect cars totry to run 85, maybe up to 90 laps with enough caution to give themselves a position to winthe race. remember early, rick, competition
caution on lap 35.>> rick: there was a little rain that went through the area over the evening and in theearly morning hours. so they're going to give a competition caution to the drivers at lap35. field now in the hands of jimmie johnson as they come out of turn number four, he'salongside kyle busch. crowd's on their feet. we're racing in new england. side by sidefor the lead, kyle busch on the inside. hanging on. yesterday in the xfinity race we saw theoutside line work the best on starts and restarts. will jimmie johnson be able to hang on? theystay door to door, three wide. jimmie johnson out front now. here comes the 41 of kurt busch.jimmie johnson, kyle busch, kurt bush. one, two, three. martin truex jr. in the 78 nowfourth. here comes a pass for the lead. kyle
busch working the inside early. kyle buschtaking away the top spot from jimmie johnson. kurt busch following right behind. now jimmiejohnson looking low. left-side tire is all the way down on theyellow line. >> jeff: remember that, yellow line is thebottom of the race track. those dotted white lines, that's where the most banking is. whenyou see a car like denny hamlin down there, there's much less grip.>> steve: the competitors know that. that's why you saw jimmie johnson leave the roomfor the 18 but continue to keep the momentum in the middle line, forcing kyle busch torun that flatter groove. >> rick: kyle busch able to get back out infront of jimmie johnson. a great side-by-side
battle at the start of the race. now kurtbusch lacking at that lower line as chase elliott looks to the inside.>> jeff: the 4 has a decision to make. you want to keep him down. you want to put hisleft side on that lower banking because it takes grip. the danger in doing that is youexpose yourself to getting hit in the door and getting spun out. there's a race for themiddle of the race track, not the bottom here. >> rick: progressive banking at this racetrack from two degrees to seven degrees all the way up against the wall. more than likelywe're not going to see anyone get close to the wall unless they've gotten out of thegroup. >> jeff: and if you get up there, the otherthing you have to deal with is all the debris
that comes off these tires. all the debrisgets pushed up. if you get out of groove, it'll take you several laps to get your tirescleaned off. you can see these guys, that's where you want to run. you're not on the bottomline. you want to be right at those hash marks. denny hamlin, a great move. able to get position.>> rick: has position, takings the spot away from joey logano. joey logano, a connecticutnative, looking to get his first cup series win at this track.>> steve: another ting that happens a lot at this race track, it's very difficult forthe driver to be consistent. a couple feet, maybe less than two feet froma good line to a poor line. if you can't overtake the car in front of you, just continue toput the pressure on, like kevin harvick is
here. every corner entry, be right on hisbumper. try to get joey logano making a mistake entering the corner.>> joey slow through the middle of the corner. he cannot carry spied like the 4 car. the4 car, on a lot of race tracks you just turn left to get underneath him. now he's on thatlower bank and it's hard to get your car to grip. even though kevin is faster throughthe middle, getting that position is more difficult at this race track than most. that'swhy it's so hard to pass here. and by the way, that's why these guys are racing so hard.they know there's a competition caution coming in a while. track position is huge. you wantto come on pit road with the best track position you can possibly have.>> steve: and jeff, one of the most annoying
things for it the driver, a radio key that'sstuck open somewhere. joey logano is hearing noise from the race track. they can't findthe open key. every team member is checking his radio to see if it's on or having a problem.joey logano hearing an open mike somewhere. >> jeff: while they're not in a big pack likedaytona or talladega, it's important for joey logano to know how close that car is to him.>> steve: imagine if you're driving in your car and somebody took a microphone, turnedit on at this race track right now with 40 cars making 800 horsepower. all that noise,that's all he's hearing. it's aggravating. it's also disruptive to the ability to communicate,just like steve talked about. >> rick: only nine laps into this one. let'sget some updates from pit road. marty?
>> rick, for a six-time champion, jimmie johnsonwas unusually excited to win the pole position here at new hampshire. number one, it washis first career pole at new hampshire. he told me also it's been a rough couple of monthsfor us on the 48 team. but number two, we bought a brand new car here this weekend withnew concepts and setups. that was validating for us to be on the pole.now we need to see if we can put it in victory lane at the end of the afternoon. kelly?>> kurt busch has been the model of consistency this year. he has 15 top-ten finishes, morethan anybody else. but his crew chief told me it's time to get back to victory lane.he said a win before the chase will give him confidence and morale. we got to prove tothe rest of the field that we can win on any
given sunday. if they do it today, it'll bekurt's fourth win here at new hampshire. >> chase elliott is a 28-year-old bachelorfrom georgia. yesterday all he wanted to talk about in practice was marriage. easy, ladies.he was talking about how the corner marries to the entry. he thinks that'll be to hisadvantage today. mike? >> after practice yesterday afternoon, hesaid that's about as happy as he's been with a race car all season long. his crew chiefconfirmed this is the fewest changes they have made from the beginning of the weekendto the end of the weekend. paul told me just before he buckled in today, his only concernis keeping up with the race track. >> 14th right now. rick?>> rick: just in front of his teammate matt
kenseth and right behind 21 of ryan blaney.brian scott in that battle. carl edwards won the pole for both races last year but startedoutside the top 12 for this one. kyle busch is out front in new england. england. i don'twant to live with the uncertainties of hep c. or wonder whether i should seek treatment.i am ready. because today there's harvoni. a revolutionary treatment for the most commontype of chronic hepatitis c. harvoni is proven to cure up to 99% of patients... ...who'vehad no prior treatment. it transformed treatment as the first cure that's... ...one pill, oncea day for 12 weeks. >> rick: and there goes martin truex jr. aroundkurt busch. that is for third. kurt busch is going to look to the inside after the passis made. get the latest nascar news, results,
and highlights delivered straight to yourinbox. never miss a story. visit nascar.com/newsletter. kyle busch out in front. it has been jimmiejohnson and kyle busch, the only two that have led. and brad keselowski trying to workhis way to the front, running ninth right now behind the 24 of chase elliott. afterwinning daytona and kentucky last week, looking to make it three in a row consecutive winsfor brad keselowski, which he's never done in his career. kevin harvick inching towardthe front as we're closing in on the competition caution. again, nascar's letting us know it'llbe around lap 35. how hard do you push tires, fuel prior to that stop? in this sport, wedon't normally know when there's going to be a break in the action. in this situation,we do. so as a crew chief, how do you plan
for that?>> jeff: i think you have to be smart about it. you look at the 4 with an opportunityto pass the 41. so he's probably giving that information to kevin harvick. 13 laps awayfrom what we think the caution lap will be. push hard, try to get that position. if youhave a gap out front or back, you're not going to want to push so hard. kevin harvick, beingnormal kevin harvick, is already starting to work that top lane. he's one of the firstguys to go up there. later in the race, he'll exit on the top lane as well.>> jeff: yeah, that's right. kevin harvick, he pushes this group better than everybody,sooner than everybody. now he's even doing it in one and two. i've seen it a lot in threeand four. he's moved the groove up in one
and two as well. watch as he goes into turn three. he enterslike everybody else. now he runs up the race track, way higher than everybody else. whatthat allows him to do, it allows him to carry so much momentum on corner exits. it's probablyharder for him now than it will be later in the race as the track rubbers up. even thisearly in the race, he's making it work. >> rick: able to get by the 41 of kurt busch.here comes the 11 of denny hamlin. >> steve: that works for kevin harvick, theni'll try up there, see if it works for my car.>> jeff: see if he does it over here where kevin actually made the pass. enters low,gets up the race track. now he should be able
to throttle up harder than the 41. didn'tquite stay out as late as the 4 car did. listen, it takes a lot of nerve to get up there. ifyou miss it by inches, you're in that tire debris and you're not turning and you're inthe wall. the danger in doing it is getting out of the groove too much. now he's tryingthe bottom. how hard do you run to try to save tires? i think this is the answer. yourun as hard as you can. you need track position. you want to come on pit road. it's bettercoming on pit road fifth than sixth. on this next restart, it's going to be crazy.>> rick: camera right on the bumper of the 11 of denny hamlin. we saw how close. again,speeds over 135 miles an hour average. of course, 160 when they enter the corners inturns one and three. denny hamlin makes that
pass.>> jeff: so much trust in your competitor. remember, at the end of these straight awayswhen denny hamlin or kurt busch decides to get on the brakes, it's a major slowing ofthe automobile. if you misjudge that by five or ten feet, you're going to run that carover getting into the corner. >> steve: and why is he running the high groove?what is the advantage in doing that? when you run that higher groove on corner exit,you're not having to turn the steering wheel as hard. you're not putting as much pressureon the front tires, which also means the car is leaving straighter. as you accelerate, the weight is more eventuallydistributed to the rear wheels as well as
the front tires because you're in the havingto turn the wheel and ask the car to do more than it wants to do. that's why the outsideline works. steve, i'm going to give you nightmares. every time we go here, we talk about looseskidding into the corner. watch the 24 car. gets in the corner. the only thing he cando -- you can see the back of the car starts wiggling. the only thing you can do is quitturning the steering wheel. if he turns the steering wheel, he's going to spin out. onceyou get it, it's hard to get it going, but it happens every single race.>> jeff: and rick, this is going to sound simple, but the corners start with cornerentry. the 2 of brad keselowski below joey logano. if your driver can't get into thecorner comfortably, use the amount of brake
they want to use, then they can't positionthemselves to the middle of the corner. handling issues on entry really contribute throughoutthe rest of the corner. >> jeff: and even though brad keselowski wasable to get by, he, too, very loose. he said i need a lot of security. he's already gonedown a couple turns on the track inside the race car. word travels fast as you watch abattle on the right-hand and left-hand side of the screen. brad keselowski's father said,hey, that 4 car is doing what he always does here at new hampshire. try it a lane and ahalf up. you got to be brave, but you also have to be watching what other teams are doing.truex going for second. >> rick: martin truex jr. has reeled in that48 of jimmie johnson. looks to the inside.
can he make it stick. a little contact madeas they're working their way through three and four. jimmie johnson able to stay up front.johnson trying to pinch that 78 down, not allowing him to get on the gas as quickly.closing in on that competition caution. once again, martin truex jr. goes down. the other thing that plays intothis battle is where they pit on pit road. >> jeff: that is a really big deal. how theywere running would have been good for both cars. the 48 would enter, then the 78. nowyou'll have the 78 pull into his pit stall. who's going to come around him but jimmiejohnson. i like the aggression out of martin truex jr., but i'm not sure this was the bestidea. you can't tell a race car driver much,
but that's why they're so talented. they'reaggressive. these competitors make nascar what it was. we're coming up on the competitionyellow. he doesn't care. if he can pass the 41, he's going to do it.>> jeff: kurt busch, he's up the race track. you heard marty talk about, hey, harvick'sdoing what he always does. i promise you, drivers, teams, spotters, they study racetape. they go back and they evaluate what happened just like we see in other sports.a lot of time is spent studying tape, watching what happened at races. what kevin harvickis doing right now, he's done for several years here. he's kind of pioneered this, inmy eyes. he's the one that started it, and makes it work so well. you cannot ignore it.>> rick: and he makes it work one more time
as he takes third away from jimmie johnson.kevin harvick up to third. kyle busch, martin truex jr., kevin harvick, jimmie johnson,denny hamlin. they're the top five. the battle for sixth on the left side of your screen.kurt busch and brad keselowski. keselowski has tried numerous times to get by the 41.just hasn't been able to complete the pass. he comes out on to the front stretch thistime side by side, door to door. it's a drag race now. the caution comes out. that is thecompetition caution. we knew this one was coming. now the strategy comes into play ofwho will take two tires, who will take four tires. maybe somebody doesn't take tires. maybe somebodydoesn't come to pit road. you don't have to.
>> jeff: you don't. track position is key.it's a new tire goodyear brought, hoping to get more falloff, forcing tcompetitors toneed new tires. already in this race, i would say there's a little more of a wider groove.we've seen more passing. we've seen kevin harvick do it on the top of three and four.other cars making that lower, flat, bottom groove work. seems like the newer tires itare allowing drivers to use more of the race track.>> that's really going to influence these restarts as well. as they work that secondgroove, or third groove, rather, that entices the driver to make it three wide. maybe ican make it three wide. so restarts are always crazy at this race track. they'll continueto be today, i'm sure.
>> rick: toyota camry picks up the lead car.we see josh wise in the middle. he's two laps down. remember a week ago the controversyon pit road. martin truex jr. going by kevin harvick on pit road. it was a topic of emphasisduring the driver's meeting today. they assured drivers, we are watching this. you cannotpass a person on pit road on the left. so they will be watching that again.>> jeff: with this many cars on the lead lap, we still have 34 cars in the lead lap, andmost teams probably taking two tires. it's going to get very condensed on pit road.>> steve: track position so critical today. a full load.>> kelli: kevin harvick has gained five positions, but he said he needs more forward driving.he didn't expect it to fall off that much.
>> mike: martin truex jr. saying this carchattered, but it got better the longer they ran. it's two tires. for jimmie johnson, it'sfour. >> rick: take a look at the race off pit road.kyle busch, martin truex jr., they held their positions. two tires for the top six.six. >>> one of the things the teams may have to hit today becauseof the damage on the track is right behind me. this is a crash car. everything a teamcould need ready to go, like this minor adjustment hammer, everything from a hood. this one isfrom a camry. also, there's a generator on here that powers a welder. at the simplesttimes, you could cut off the complete run in, get it going. they've got radiators, everythingyou need. you know how important having these
parts on the ready is.>> steve: yeah, you're going to need them especially for these crazy restarts. thiscould be where we see some of the of the damage. >> rick: we hope not to. first restart ofthe day. kyle busch chose the inside line. martin truex jr. was outside. here comes dennyhamlin using the bottom of the race track. martin truex jr able to surge ahead and hold on tosecond. carl edwards making a move on the bottom of the track also.>> steve: brad keselowski with an aggressive move to try and go with him on the apron.pulled right in front of the 48 of jimmie johnson.>> rick: again the 19 down on the apron, trying to make that low lying work. able to stayin front of tony stewart. now keselowski on
the inside. trying to hold his line and keepkurt busch higher. he goes all the way down to the yellow line. chase elliott followingand learning. his first cup series start in loudon, new hampshire. 44 of bryan scott willhave to do a pass-through penalty. too many crew members over the wall there on pit road.just seven drivers took two tires on that last stop. normally when we think two tires,we reference the right size. but steve, that's not always going to be thecase today. they may be taking two tires just left side.>> steve: one thing that's unique to the short track, especially here in loudon, is the leftrear tire wear. these sprint cup cars have so much horsepower. if you get that driveoff the corner that jeff talked about, as
you see kurt busch and brad keselowski tryingto pass elliott. to complete this pass, brad keselowski is going to have to abuse thatleft-rear tire, really put the power down. as they abuse that left-rear tire, it'll wearout. that'll force these crew chiefs if you only want to change two tires, you may haveto change the left side. >> rick: depending upon when the cautionsfly, that will determine the amount of fuel also that they have to put in. sometimes they'llhave to put in enough fuel that they could change four res because it's going to takethat long to get the fuel in. >> jeff: all week we've heard how fast the19 is. they did not qualify well. they were pretty far back in the field. he couldn'tgo anywhere. the strategy of two tires gave
him track position. then on these restarts,he's used that track position to get himself up to fourth. so that's why you do two tires.you get yourself in track position, but the driver has to take advantage of it and havegreat restarts. >> rick: that's exactly what brad keselowskijust did. took advantage and was able to get by tony stewart.>> jeff: to be honest, really surprised we only saw seven teams take right-side tires.i don't think that's aggressive enough. really all eyes are on this 2 of brad keselowski.he's the first car with four tires making a move back towards the front. we're already,you know, a few laps into this run, and laps go by, he's all the way up to seventh. wherecould he be on right-side tires? i expect
more crew chiefs to be making notes and onlytaking right or left side tires later in the race. >> steve: take advantage of those becausethey'll not handle as well. there's a window. you want your driver to be very aggressive.>> steve: yeah, there's a window, but this is working for brad keselowski. how aboutjimmie johnson, the other car on four tires. those four fresh tires are not helping himgo forward at all. he had trouble on the restart, was in the nonpreferred line going throughturns one and two and just continued to lose positions. now he's getting run down by the4 of kevin harvick. >> jeff: this is a very difficult call. historicallyat this race track the last four or five years,
you put two tires on pretty much every stop.this is a softer right-side tire that goodyear brought. the tires that have been broughtfall off more than in the past. i think a lot of teams were assuming that was goingto happen. what we're seeing right now, so far, that's not the case. teams are goingto have to adjust their strategy. if this goes long, maybe that i do fall into the nextcaution. you have to stay aggressive. pit strategy and track position matter so muchhere. >> rick: and right now teammates fightingfor the position. joey logano and brad keselowski. brad keselowski, the 32-year-old out of rochesterhills, michigan, has already won a championship. joey logano still searching for his firstchampionship of the sprint cup series. right
now searching for the same track position.two tires versus four tires in this battle. joey logano, two tires, brad keselowski, fourtires, as far as the change last time on pit road.>> jeff: joey logano wide he lets his teammate go. you fight for the position when you can,but side by side is not where two teammates need to be.>> rick: one driver who's been able to sweep a weekend more than anything else is the 18of kyle busch. he was able to win the xfinity race yesterday.trying to finish this week today. >> rick: as we take a look at the laps ledthis weekend presented by sprint, kyle busch already has led 245 laps this weekend, andthat number continues to grow as he's out
front here in loudon, new hampshire. sprint'snetwork reliability now within 1% of verizon. switch today and save 50% on most verizon,at&t, or t-mobile rates. visit a sprint store or sprint.com/network today. you know, youcan watch every sprint cup series race with the nbc sports app. get closer with additionalcamera angles, driver stats, and track information. it's available on mobile, tablet, and connectedtvs. download the app and find out more at nbcsports.com/live. all over the back of joeylogano. we mentioned the 2 of brad keselowski probably the better for team penske. kevinharvick trying to get by joey logano as well. that's a fight for the eighth position.>> jeff: joey's car looks like it does not rotate to the center. you hear the 4 car ofkevin harvick. you hear him throttle, came
back off it. sometimes you're just tryingto get position. he threes he's throttling the car up more than he can take it, but he'strying to position his car next to the 22 to exhibit to joey logano, this is my spot.sometimes it'sshowing that driver, this is my spot.>> rick: harvick has the eighth spot now, kelli.>> kelli: and trying to work his way back through the field as they lost positions dueto a slow pit stop last time down. listen to the radio.>> there's something going on with the left rear. we'll get a pit stop here.>> kelli: so you can hear the crew chief explaining that the gun wasn't working taking the lugnuts off. they figured out what that issue
was with the rear tire changers. they're going to use that same gun next timehe comes to pit road. >> steve: you can almost hear the frustrationin his voice. pit stops are difficult enough. then you have an equipment issue when allthe players play correctly and equipment is the problem, it's even more frustrating.>> make sure it's not a valve or something stupid.>> steve: i think, too, this team has not had the best pit stops on pit road. at somepoint, it seems like there's always something. they've gotten by with it, but i just -- they'vegot to find a way to get more consistent on their pit stops. they're not horrible, butthey just aren't where they need to be.
>> rick: biggest story of the weekend is daleearnhardt jr. not here. subbing for him, alex bowman. mike?>> mike: it surprise so many people, including the crew chief. i spoke with him this morning.he said they were lucky they did not have to change much on the race car. in fact, he'susing the same seat that dale earnhardt jr. uses. right now he just lost a spot on therace track, but otherwise he feels like he's pretty comfortable behind the wheel. he saidthe biggest thing is communication. steve, you can probably identify with this. he saidhe has to assume alex doesn't know anything. that's quite different than working with aveteran driver like he's used to. >> steve: i mean, yes, because you don't wantto overlook some of the simple things that
you maybe take for granted. so where the switchesare, whether you run one or two batteries, how you communicate what level looseness.you have to be very methodical with your communication because if you take something for granted,that is always the issue that seems to bite you in the rear.>> rick: you see the numbers on the left side of your screen. the line is right below the88 right now. it's going to move based upon the guys thathe's racing against. dale earnhardt jr. not here, so he's not going to gain any points.it's just how well the other drivers do. >> jeff: we we talked about it in countdownto green. i just don't think it can be said enough that dale jr. knows the situation thatthis team is in. dale jr. wants to be in the
chase and contend for a championship as muchas anybody in this series and anybody on that team. him having the courage to step up andsay, you know what, i'm not feeling right, let's figure this out. he knew he was exposinghimself to not being in this race this weekend. it's leading by example. everybody in thecountry that follow racing knows about this. not just racers but soccer players, baseballplayers, adults and kids. leading by example is what dale jr. did in this case.>> rick: alex bowman trying to take advantage of an opportunity. currently running 20th.great opportunity to be in great equipment and just in front of greg biffle right now,veteran of the sport. >> jeff: and we talked about the veteransmoving up the race track and trying different
grooves. you can see matt kenseth. he's aguy that's experienced. he's been moving forward for sure. it's harder for alex bowman to dothat. he needs to run the normal groove, where you normally see people run, because if you'rea rookie driver and you make mistakes, if matt kenseth makes a mistake, he's fast andmoving forward. it's matt kenseth. he's a champion. he's won all these races. it's okay.but when you're a rookie and make a mistake, the pressure is much higher.>> steve: also, when a rookie gets beside you, you might contest him into the corner,but they're not matt kenseth. you see right in front of him is the 2 of brad keselowski.that's for fifth. only a few tenths of a second in front of keselowski is the 19 of carl edwards.while the 20 hasn't been leading laps yet,
he looks to be one of the better cars on therace track. >> rick: dave?>> that was the case in the first run. anybody who goes camping knows if the bear gets hisnose in the tent, you get the whole bear. well, matt knows that's how you pass hereat new hampshire as well. he said, i can get the nose in there, but i can't keep it inthere to complete the pass. they made a four-tire stop. he said it's 100% better this run. thebear is moving forward. >> rick: i believe he's a grizzly by the way.kyle busch continues to lead. matt kenseth, his teammate, chasing him down., chasing him >> rick: that's car racing gives you accessto features that let you follow your favorite
driver as if you're at the track. it's availablenow for an all-new low price when you visit nascar.com/raceview. welcome back to loudonand the new hampshire 301. marty? >> marty: rick, jimmie johnson seeps to bestuck in the tenth position. because he qualified on the pole, they have the number one pitstall here. that gives them a unique perspective on the race. he's pretty much sitting highabove the race track at the entrance to turn one. he noticed something on the 41 car hewanted it tell jimmie about. >> just a little note. nobody ahead of youand the 24 as the front row to be flowing. looks like you and the 24.>> marty: after that little tip, you see on the left-hand side of your screen, he radiosto jimmie six laps later. he said those are
the most competitive laps you've ran all day.these speeds are about 160 miles an hour going into the corner. it's also a trap. you haveto be careful about the amount of brake you use.>> rick: great opportunity for us to take a look at our nascar evolution, talking aboutbrake heat. >> jeff: well, it's not just up to the driver.the crew chief as well. you see the air going in the front grill screen of the car. thatgoes into these hoses that feed the brakes. you have more air to the brakes, keeps themcooler. the chiefs have the opportunity to tape up the hose or remove a hose.>> steve: when you remove that tape or put more tape on it, now you have less air goingto it. that hot air coming out and getting
into the wheels. it's a real balance betweenhaving the brake cooling like you want it for the brakes and like you want it for thedriver. the driver wants to use those brakes as hard as he can, but you can put too muchheat in the rotor. that makes the handling worse. >> jeff: so why not run all the air possible,rick? because every bit of tape you can add, every hose you remove, that's more front downforce. even here at a flat one-mile race track, down force is helping these cars get throughthe middle of the corners. >> steve: people say you're in the going fastenough. i promise, you're going fast enough for down force to matter. when you're racingagainst these competitor, you have to be an
the edge.>> rick: gap between one and two almost nonexistent now. kyle busch has martin truex jr all overhis bumper. all of those drivers, four of them run for joe gibbs racing, the other hasan affiliation with joe gibbs racing. the top five right now -- as i say that, carledwards gets passed by kevin harvick. five of the top six affiliated with job gibbs racing.they have dominant. >> marty: last week they said this was themost important race weekend of the summer for the 78 team. we have to come here andmake improvements. saturday in practice, they did not make those improvements. martin truexjr. described the car as terrible. he said it wouldn't drive. he said, i have no ideawhat we're going to have today. the setup
they put underneath that 78 car, the setupfrom the 19 car of carl edwards. everything they've ever done on that 98 car is here.i would say it's performing pretty well. that's a big risk sometimes for crew chiefs to gowith a setup they've never put under the race car.>> jeff: it's also a huge strain on a relationship. that's what martin truex jr. is doing, currentlyrunning into second position. i appreciate the teams working together. that's furniture row racing and joe gibbsracing. they've proven they know how to do it. they did it through the daytona 500. thechase is coming. it'll be interesting to see how well those relationships work when thechampionship is on the line.
>> a quick update. carl edwards is prettyhappy with the balance and the speed of the car. still feels the same. his biggest concernwas keeping up with the track as the weather changes. right now he just said he's a littlebetter in the shade than he is in the sun. other than that, he feels pretty good. theonly other thing he wants to mow is where people are beating him. keselowski is runninga tighter line. >> rick: the battle for the lead really heatingup now. kyle busch havingard time getting by the 83. the 78 of martin truex jr. continuesto watch to see where can i get by the 18. >> steve: denny hamlin is watching both ofthese cars. he's kind of coming into the picture as well, rick.>> jeff: talk about how hard it is to pass,
this is a great example. he's a slower car.he's a car that does not have the pace to win this race. look how many laps it's takento get by him. that's why this track is so challenging. the 78, big move on the bottom.>> rick: here comes martin truex jr. look to the inside as kyle busch was running alittle higher. martin truex jr. looks to the inside but not able to make the pass. ellisrunning up high. here comes martin truex jr. to the outside of the 18. going into turnnumber one, side by side for the lead. kyle busch still holding on to it. now truex onceagain diving to the bottom of the track. almost on the apron. you're riding along with the11 of denny hamlin, who was on the apron. a three-car fight now for the lead.
pulling away from these three cars. that allowsmatt to stay on his line, hit everything perfect and able to pull away.>> jeff: he is driving away. he has good speed in that race car. again, the 11 car has toprotect -- i'm sorry, the 18 car, busch, has to protect just a little bit. the 78 has shownhe's faster. so the 18 can't just run the line he really wants to run because you cansee the 78 keeps making these moves on him. >> jeff: i'm going to defend him. he has everyright to race these leaders. martin truex finally completes the pass on kyle busch.we're at lap 88. the 83 has every right to fight to stay in the lead lap.>> steve: he's supposed to fight. that's what his team expects him to do.>> rick: now we'll see if martin truex jr.
can get by. kyle busch tucks into second.deny hamlin is third. carl edwards has dropped to seventh. chase elliott, kurt busch, andjimmie johnson the top ten. martin truex jr. worked for about five laps to get out front.now he's trying to pull away.ay >> rick: great look at the granite state'snew hampshire motor speedway. martin truex jr., of the 19 races run, has led in 12 ofthem. sprint's network liability is now within 1% of verizon. one caution. it was the competition cautionon lap 35. you see the 18 of kyle busch and the 20 of matt kenseth. kenseth able to getby busch and take that position. >> steve: here comes kevin harvick. he's makingmoves also. these two cars are rolling. they're
coming to the front for sure. two fastestcars on the race track for sure, the 20 and the 4.>> steve: and both of these cars have four tires. perhaps those newer left side tiresare starting to pay off. remember, kyle busch only changed right-side tires. that left reartire could be getting a little worn, hurting his drive off the corner.>> rick: only one caution today. kevin harvick is going to try to get by kyle busch for thefourth spot. it's martin truex jr., denny hamlin, matt kenseth. the of kevin harvickmaking lying work of kyle busch. >> jeff: up to fourth position. when he pitted,he was running third. it's taken this amount of time. the competition caution was lap 35.it's taken him this long to get back to fourth
with one of the fastest cars on the race track.we talk about track position and how important it is. if you lose that track position latein the race, you don't have enough time to recover from it. so it's taken him 60 lapsto get back. he hasn't got back where he was yet.>> rick: the 34 goes around. that's chris buescher. it does bring out the caution for the secondtime. now crew chiefs will have to decide, do we do a two-tire stop? does someone stayout? do we do a four-tire stop? >> jeff: you've run 63 laps since the lastpit stop. you're going to need 14 to 16 gallons of fuel. that time it takes to put that fuelin would be m advantageous to put four tires
on.>> steve: he didn't want to cross that commitment cone. that box coming on to pit road, he didn'twant to cross it. he was trying to go around it.>> rick: why the caution came out. in front of him, the 30 looked to be smoking.>> jeff: 30 may have gotten in the wall leaving turn two.>> rick: the 30 looked to be smoking right in front of chris buescher. could have gottenthe wall or put some fluid down just in front of buescher. as you mentioned, he had to avoidthat commitment line. when the caution comes out, they close pit road. pit road now open.you can see the cars on there, and we go to dave.>> what a run for matt kenseth. loose off
the corner. he'll take an air pressure adjustmentand four goodyear tires. >> kelli: kevin harvick said he's not as looseon entry and exit. four tires, fuel, and a wedge out in the right rear well.>> marty: very few words from martin truex jr. they said let's take four and see wherewe're going to come out. they're going to come out in the lead. truex in the lead.>> rick: and the top cars coming off pit road, all taking four tires. a couple spots beingmade up by kyle busch and keselowski.nd keselowski. >> rick: still under caution laps so we canshow you more green flag laps. we'll take another commercial break. be right back.eak.be right back. >> nascar drive is nascar.com's live raceday companion. you won't miss a lap. visit
nascar.com/drive on your personal computernow. track position so very important. when you lose spots on pit road, it makes it thatmuch more difficult. >> steve: we had three losers on this pitstop. 20 gets blocked in by the 15. stopped a little short in his box. he came in thirdand went out tenth. >> jeff: then you look at the 11 of dennyhamlin. coming in second, out eighth. trouble with the front tire and rear tire coming around.bottles up the crew. >> steve: and the fun continues. the 4 carcontinues to have trouble. trouble on the right front, slow coming off. remember, hecame in fourth with a fast race car. as you move around, watch the left rear. car getsup in the air slow because of the right front
problem. troubles continue on a left rear.another slow stop. he came in fourth and now 11th. we took three fop five cars and put them 10th,8th, and 11th. >> kelli: the tire got stuck in the rear wheelwell. kevin is not happy about it. >> [ bleep ] time we have a good race carand we [ bleep ] it up on pit road. every time. can't win a race like that.>> kelli: this morning i talked to his crew chief who told me they made some changes totheir pit load crew a few weeks ago. he said it seems to be paying off. we haven't hadany hiccups or anything. must have forgotten to knock on wood.>> steve: and rick, when you have guys with
trouble on pit road, somebody has to benefit.jimmie johnson, tenth to fifth. >> rick: big advantage. row one, up front.martin truex jr., kyle busch. green flag back in the air. brad keselowski information -- waslooking to the inside of the 18. way up high this time on the restart.>> steve: 19 of carl edwards. now they're forced to put themselves in situations theydidn't really want to be in. you have to be ultra aggressive.>> rick: chase elliott moves to the inside. brad keselowski trying to take that spot away.so impressive as a rookie this year has been chase elliott. chase is 20 years old out dawsonville,georgia. here comes carl edwards. looking back from brad keselowski's vantage point.jimmie johnson after a great stop moved up
into the top ten. running sixth now. kevinharvick, another one of the drivers that will have to fight back to get the positions thatwere lost on pit road. tries to get by kasey kahne. the busch brothers,kurt busch trying to get by kyle brooush. kurt busch now will hunt down the 78 of martintruex jr. >> steve: the 41 continues to move forward.pit crew did a great job on pit road. gained four or five spots on the last cycle. thedriver on the restarts continues to gain position. >> rick: the pressure tires seeing speedsupwards of 160 miles an hour. they'll enter turns one and turn three. then they slow downto about 110 miles an hour in the center of the turns.>> steve: and why do we keep putting an emphasis
on these restarts and pit stops? we're atlap 112. this is only a 301-lap race. you start digging a hole -- we saw it took kevinharvick 60 laps to get within one position to where he pitted at the first pit stop.if it takes another 60 laps, look how many laps you used up just to get back where youwere. not to mention, what if you gain spots on pit road? what if you gained two spotsversus losing spots. think about the loss in those terms as well.>> reporter: another driver who had an issue on pit road.>> his crew chief reminded him that the first three pit stalls are not active. the fieldhas gone from 43 to 40 cars. he can drive through all these and then just the one pitstall behind him, who is chase elliott. if
he wants to do that to get a better angleexiting and avoid what happened last time. >> steve: so the advantage in being able todo that, you can enter pit road straighter. you don't have to leave pit wall, hang a left,get into your pit box, which makes it difficult to position yourself to make the exit clean.if you can enter pit road straight and not drive through many pit boxes -- remember,if you drive through too many pit boxes, it's against the rules. that allows him to enter straight and anglehis car in the position he can to get off pit road better.>> rick: great battle for fourth here as chase elliott has it but brad keselowski, lookslike the car comes to him a little later in
the run than some of the other cars. we'reseeing brad keselowski start to surge toward the front.>> jeff: really just three or four laps when the tires get grip. then you start to movehim back forward. although, chase elliott is not going to give up the position easily.he knows that middle groove can be defended. he's going to drive it on the outside of thetwo. >> rick: you may be noticing on some of thecamera angles and vantage points on the lens, there's a little bit of precipitation. itsprinkled a little bit. now you can see it's full sun all the way around the race track.that was changing some of the philosophy and strategy some of these guys were looking at.the radar show it may sprinkle or rain a little
bit. some of these guys might have been thinkingwe might want to be racing to halfway. >> steve: well, it also changes the track.we heard all weekend long about crew chiefs and drivers trying to keep up with track conditions.this track can change between temperatures when the sun is out, when the clouds wereout, but also as the cars run on these long green flag runs. they put more rubber down.>> rick: 48 of jimmie johnson trying to get by the 24 of chase elliott. teammates onceagain fighting for positions. >> steve: what a great shot. you see chaseelliott in that second line, the 48 in the bottom line. what a great shot.>> rick: how about the teammates behind them, matt kenseth and carl edwards. looked as thoughedwards got a little loose and matt kenseth
is going to take advantage of that. thesethree cars that you're seeing on the screen now, all joe gibbs racing teammates. justbehind them, jamie mcmurray in the 1. kevin harvick still trying to fight back from theissue on pit road. >> jeff: you try to not follow the car infront of you. the 19 enters in one line. the 11 in another. one goes low, one goes high. kevin harvick has worked inside jamie mcmurrayand clears him getting into turn three. how rough it is into turn three. s bounce enteringthe corner. >> kelli: jamie mcmurray in 16th. he's comingoff a seventh place finish in kentucky. his crew chief told me that was a really big racefor him. it helped build some confidence and
has everyone on the team, including jamie,feeling upbeat. another reason for them to be upbeat, he's got a good car. jamie sayingit's not horrible. it's a little tight rolling through the center, but they made a wedgeadjustment, which has helped. at one point, he had cracked the top ten. currently running11th. >> rick: jamie mcmurray, just one spot aheadof the cut line. dale earnhardt jr.'s 88 now just nine points in front of 17th. jamie mcmurrayhas kasey kahne behind him. >> jeff: what's so interesting about thischases is we see every week, if you're back there 13th, 14th, 15th in points, you're racingeach other. that's generally where you run. this battle making your way into the chase,you constantly have your competition with
you. you can never let your guard down. boththese teams need strong finishes heading into richmond.>> rick: a great battle for second. kurt busch, kyle busch. kurt has it. kyle's trying totake it away. again, kyle busch, after starting up front, has fallen back just a bit. nowhe will go back ahead of his brother. so kyle takes second back away. the gap between kylebusch and martin truex jr., almost three seconds. that's how big of a lead martin truex jr.has built over second place kyle busch. very strong run once again for martin truex jr.not as dominant as we saw at charlotte earlier this year. still, looking very strong at new hampshiremotor speedway. let's do this.
>> rick: welcome back to new hampshire. let'sgo to the toyota camry on-track car. >> steve: there's been so much conversationthis week with dale earnhardt jr.'s concussion-like symptoms about head injuries. all this thatyou just saw is a head surround system the driver's head fits in. this thick foam isbuilt to absorb the energy. it's made so when you hit the wall or another car, it slowsthe impact down for the driver. we talk about g-forces and how you hit the wall. what reallymatters is obviously the number of gs but how fast it takes for the accident to happen.if you can slow down the amount of time that the head hits and absorbs the energy, that'show you help a driver not have head injuries. >> jeff: you see here on board with dennyhamlin, all that foam against the right side
of his helmet, not only is it very thick,but it also comes probably two-thirds of the way forward on his helmet. picture an impactas denny hamlin moves forward in the seat towards the steering wheel. there's stillenough foam on the right side of his helmet that if he hits and moves to the right, it'llprotect his head. >> steve: and remember, behind his helmetis the system that protects the shoulders. as his helmet moves forward towards the steeringwheel, that engages and slows ma movement down to keep the head in relation to the body. >> jeff: they're really incapsulat safety,but they also need to move around. >> rick: carl edwards, denny hamlin, kevinharvick. harvick trying to rebound from the
incident on pit road. as is denny hamlin.those two have made their way to ninth and tenth. right along with denny hamlin on thebumper of that 11 car. >> steve: it's taken harvick this long toget to ninth. and that's new hampshire. it's so difficult to pass. all these shots we'veshown with the multiple grooves, yes, there's places for cars to go, but you don't havethis huge advantage from one groove to the other. when you get underneath another car,the fight has just begun. idifficult to get underneath them to begin with. it just takesforever to recover. >> rick: pretty good battle here for 16th.eric amerola has it. >> steve: his crew chief said this morning,we were pleased with a good exit on a long
run. usually that's a goodbd cay to be.>> jeff: we jump on board with the 43 car. a great opportunity to see all the work thedriver has to do. this is out the front windshield. you see amerola working the steering wheel.what this camera allows us to do is pan around 360 degrees. not only does eric have to workout the front windshield, but when you look at the rear windshield, you'll see what'sreally on his mind. that's the 14 car of tony stewart. tony looking for a little air, tryingto run a little tighter line. a little bit faster than the 43 through the corner. this is one of my favorite shots. it reallyshows you what the driver is able to see out of that rearview mirror.>> rick: we'll continue to pan to the driver's
side and look at everything that's in thecockpit as well as what's going on with the hands of eric almirola. right behind him wasthe 14 of tony stewart. mike? >> mike: before the race, tony stewart wasall smiles. it doesn't have anything to do with what transpired in new hampshire. ithas to do with his dirt track at eldora last night. a major event. the kings royal cameoff without a hitch. in addition, a car co-owned by tony stewart won the race. so obviouslytony very happy getting into the car. however, after about 137 laps, not quite as happy.>> marty: tony stewart in the chase. ryan blaney would love to be in the chase. 24 pointsbelow the cut line. how important are points for those guys trying to make it into thechase? well, they told me they worked one
hour on that wrecked car at kentucky duringthe race. they gained two points. he said those two points might be the difference inus getting in the chase or not getting in the chase. right now for ryan blaney, caris the best it's been all day. they might have to play a little track position gamelater on. might see two tires for the 21 car trying to get into the top ten.>> rick: a lot of strategies going to be played by every time, trying to figure out how theycan get to the front and maybe close the gap on martin truex jr., which has been very difficultto do as we see edwards and johnson fighting for the seven spot.>> jeff: problem these crew chiefs are going to have, strategy isn't going to be that size.if you're the 21, ttey're not going to be
able to take two tires and get to the front.the 48 of jimmie johnson, the 19 of carl edwards, the 4 of kevin harvick, you see them battlinghere. they know how hard it is to recover. we talked about the 4 and the slow pit stop.their not going to want to give up that time. >> rick: let's listen into the 48 radio.>> the big thing i did notice was, like i said, traffic. they bobbed in there and takethe lane away from the other guy with complete blatant disregard of the slower car.>> steve: you have these two guys that have won six chamtogether. they push each other.not many crew chiefs talk to their driver about things they're seeing other driversdo. normally that will come from the spotter. chad will constantly jimmie. and jimmie takesit. he does a great job of taking that information.
sometimes we hear it and think they're inconflict, and they are. but you know what, when you're trying to win races or be successfulwith anything, you're not going to agree all the time. you're better off talking aboutit. sometimes they argue in public. but there's no question they push each other to be better.>> steve: to your point, they make each other better. jimmie told me that several times.sometimes when chad challenges me in the middle of a race, he makes me better. a great exampleof that was earlier in the race. chad said, hey, your break rotors a glowing, might wantto lay off. five laps later, he said, there you go, best laps of the race.>> jeff: chad is not a comfortable person to work with, but i can say from experience,i was a better crew chief sharing a shop with
chad. he not only pushes jimmie johnson tobe better, he pushes his competitors to be better. as his teammate for years, he pushedme to be better. he didn't worry about people's feelings. he worried about running fast andbeing aggressive with pit strategy. he is a tough leader. but he's very smart and very,very aggressive to try to be better. i owe a lot to chad. he showed me how yourace and how you be aggressive in every area. >> steve: and i believe that you don't havetime not to be on it. it's a race going on. this race is 301 laps. you don't have timeto, you know, just not say something. hey, man, you know what i noticed? it's too late.talk about it now. you've got to be honest and straight forward.>> rick: 77 career wins between the two. three
of them at this race track. jimmie johnsoncurrently running in the top ten, chasing after martin truex jr.ruex jr. >> jeff: and i think tony is right. i think a lot has todo with this new right-side tire. goodyear should be given a lot of credit. there hasbeen some rule changes, but they continue to bring great tires that give these driversmore options. >> jeff: i think that's the key, the combinationof the tire and the tire is because of the lower down force. remember this year, there'sless down force on these race cars than what they had last year. that enables goodyearto build a softer right-side tire. like we
saw at richmond, we saw the groove open upat rich monday that we haven't seen in several years. with this lower down force and softertire, we're without a doubt seeing more grooves in the race track.>> rick: let's go one time through the field brought to you by credit one. we start withmarty. >> marty: rick, so far today martin truexjr. has led 65 laps. at the beginning of the weekend, they told me nothing was going right.the data crashed for the race team five minutes before practice on friday. this morning hespilled hot tea all over his computer. it didn't work anymore. he said, i'm ready toleave new hampshire. now that truex is in the lead, i think this whole race team isa a little happier, dave.
>> i think it was a little better for the18 team of kyle busch this weekend. but right now he said i've given everything it has.the tires he's used up at this point to try to keep up with the 78. he's just riding rightnow, according to the driver. as for his teammate, matt kenseth, his entry was not what he needsright now. talking to his crew chief earlier, he said the last 15 to 20 and beyond, stayingpower was what they hope they built into the car. that has shown up. right now matt justneeds an adjustment, marty. >> marty: sometimes race tracks just clickfor a driver. for new hampshire, that's our place, where we just seem to click and wecan always go back to an old setup. keselowski said he's one adjustment away from being agreat car. a little too loose for brad keselowski,
kelli.>> kelli: kurt busch in the 41 trying a completely different package. hoping to find somethingthat will work for this race. started off as, quote, a hot mess. the team has been working on it, making adjustments.it's gotten much better for kurt. he's been as high as second, now fifth.>> chase elliott had had the fastest single lap in practice yesterday. the crew chiefwas happy with their speed. chase said my car is too loose, especially on entry. marty?>> marty: not only did jimmie johnson's team have a nice stop last time, currently they'reback in the seventh position. you see kevin harvick trying to track him down. how didjimmie johnson relax this weekend? with a
32-mile bike ride on friday afternoon. hetold me it took two hours, as if he was apologetic. kelli?>> rick: kevin harvick's crew chief said he's not worried about getting anymore wins aheadof the race. he said he just wanted to find more speed. he said they would love to winthis one because they feel like they've let the last three slip away. he's had two hitcheson pit road that have caused a lot of fuss. now kevin harvick working hard to make upthose positions. >> rick: yeah, the 48 gets a little loosecoming out of turn four. giving the advantage to the 4. kevin harvick is going to make thepass. so harvick trying to pull away after the issues on pit road. getting some of hispositions back. not all the way back to where
he was, but harvick's made it up to seventhnow. more updates. we go back to mike. >> mike: in his second year with joe gibbsracing, carl edwards says he's much more comfortable this year and admitted last year he may haveput too much pressure on himself and found himself making moves and mistakes he wouldn'thave made in the past. being more comfortable now, he came into the day very optimistic,taking a peek underneath jimmie johnson there, thinking better of it. feels like the onlything holding him back right now on this run, locking rear grip, kelli.>> kelli: mike wheeler on the 11 car, honestly, i don't care if we win another race untilhomestead. if we finish third every week until miami,that would be fine with me. our team already
has the confidence it needs to get to homesteadand have a shot at the championship. they had a mistake on pit road that cost them somedecisions. they had run as high as third. he's in the tenth spot now.>> marty: earlier this week i talked to one of the co-owners here. i said, what impressesyou most about ryan blaney? he said, no doubt, just how calm he is. a good example of thatis today. the car terrible in the first couple runs. they've made it progressively bettereach run. a while ago he was in 12th. he's already gained another spot since then.>> kelli: jamie mcmurray has that 16th and final spot in the chase. his crew chief says,i can't look too far ahead. we're just taking this thing race by race. his focus, minimizingmistakes and not making calls that will make
them loose.>> mike: talking with kasey kahne's crew chief, you got the sense they were incredibly motivated.very disappointed where they finished a week ago in kentucky. he told me they took a seventhplace car and turned it into a 14th place car. they know they're below the cutoff inthe playoff chase. he's a little loose off. they need to improve on that as the day goeson. >> marty: a couple weeks ago austin dillonsit they felt like this was one of the places they could come finish in the top five. thisis a team trying to make their way into the chase. they're currently in the 14th position.they've lacked forward grip on this run. i had said, if you can get me some of that,we can make our way into the top ten. rick?
>> rick: alex bowman right behind the 3 ofaustin dillon. pretty good run here as he races against austin.>> steve: a really good run. this is what you need from alex bowman. a substitute driver,never been in great equipment. i think you can have a good, solid finishfrom him. >> rick: and look at this. a little bit ofa run on the 3 of austin dillon. >> mike: he tries to duck up underneath. alittle surprising considering he's said he's had a loose end. trying to make it work, drawingeven into the corner. gets a nose out front. may have the position. another layer to thestory, it was mentioned that jeff gordon may cam out of retirement next week and driveat the brick yard. i spoke with them about
that this morning. he said, yes, i've alreadytexted with jeff. they've already made preliminary plans as to when jeff is going to come backfrom his vacation. as you may or may not know, he's in france right now. he's already makingplans when to come back in case he is needed next week.>> rick: thank you, mike. once again, we hope dale earnhardt jr. makes it back and is healthyenough to race in indianapolis next week. a week ago it was a penalty on pit road thatrelegated him back in the field. now today he's got smooth sailingand nothing in front of that windshield as he leads in new hampshire.ire. kyle buschtrying to take it away. he has to pitch it down behind the 6 of trevor bain. kyle buschwill make the pass work.
>> steve: just has not been able to get by.trevor has given no room whatsoever. that allowed the 18 to get caught up. now let'ssee if the 18 can get underneath him. >> rick: so the 18 is going to try to getby. as he sits behind him, they almost go three wide as they go into turn number one.it ends up being kyle busch having the advantage. they'll both clear trevor bain. truex jr.holds on to the second spot. now truex jr. all the way down at the bottom of the racetrack. yellow line. left-side tires on that yellow line has he was trying to come offa lot lower than the 18 of kyle busch. >> steve: that's so frustrating. if you'remartin truex jr., you're hot. like we talked about before, if you're trevor bain, it'syour job to try to stay in the lead lap. it's
a big difference between being the pass-aroundcar and the car that's still on a lead lap. you see 78. he's underneath the 6. no roomwhatsoever. the 6 was riding really, really defensively. what i was saying is if you getthe free pass, that allows you to get your lap back. you're the last car is, on the tailend of the longest line. that's a huge difference. you have to fight for that position.>> rick: track position is key at new hampshire motor speedway. right now out front, it'skyle busch once again. he's led the most laps, 89. martin truex jr. was able to accumulate84 laps led. jimmie johnson has led one today as we see the battle for tenth. carl edwardstrying to hold off rookie ryan blaney. blaney just a 22-year-old out of high point, northcarolina.
>> steve: that really hurt him in his chasehopes. he's got to earn some points back to get in position. zbln.>> rick: again, points are very important, especially for those right along the cut lineright now. with the opportunity that's been presented to them with dale earnhardt notbeing able to run in this case, they've got to accumulate as many points as they can todaywhen he's not on the track so they can gain position.>> jeff: well, the ultimate goal is to make points when they're not important. you seethe chase bubble right here, how close it can be. you have the 88 only ten above thechase grid. the 5 of kasey kahne ten below. there's still a whole summer worth of racing.so 16 points is not a lot of points.
>> steve: this system, we talk about winsand moving on. wins are everything. that's not 100% accurate. never before has 15th or16th in points with seven races left to the go had a chance to win the championship. butthat's the case here as we see a battle for the lead.>> rick: kyle busch still behind the 10 of danica patrick. now kyle busch looks to theoutside of the 10. maybe setting him up. as he goes a little higher through the turn,the 78 of martin truex jr. was down there. big wiggle out of kyle busch as he looks tothe inside of danica patrick. >> jeff: you expect danica patrick to fightfor this position. >> rick: truex jr. fighting to get by the10 of danica patrick. able to make the pass.
>> jeff: as we close in on lap 180, we'reclose to that pit row opening. harvick passing elliott for the 26th position. it's kind ofthat cat-and-mouse game. they're almost racing within one another.if you're kyle busch or martin truex, you do not want to be beat to pit road. try toleapfrog him on the race track. >> rick: pit stop is coming up. here's whatthe 4 had to say on the radio. >> doing good. the last couple have been fasterthan the next three in front. >> just got to figure out how to make a pitstop. we got a fast car. we can't come out 11th every time.>> kelli: 80 laps now since they had that mistake on pit road. obviously still veryfresh on kevin's mind as we see the 48 come
down pit road.>> rick: coming to you, marty. >> marty: trying some higher lines on therace track. they've made the car better. they've gone along still a little too loose on exitfor jimmie johnson. now you have to wonder if this is going to start a whole bunch ofcars coming down pit road. four tires here for jimmie johnson. an air pressure adjustment.jimmie johnson the first of the leaders to come down pit road.>> kelli: denny hamlin making his way down. he said he needs more forward grip. they'regoing to give him four goodyear tires and make an air pressure adjustment to help himout. >> eric amirola was loose off the corner.he'll get an adjustment for that and four
goodyear tires. marty?>> marty: it's been a rough day for joey logano and his race team. see him sliding to a stop.he said at one point, i'm getting beat in the corner, on the middle of the corner, andinto the exit. i guess that means i'm getting beat everywhere.>> chase elliott's too-loose chevrolet will get adjustments.>> kelli: he restarted 11th, made his way up to sixth. something seems to be working.looks like a better stop for the 4. >> leader kyle busch was so patient waitingfor his car to come around. it's been pretty good. it does edge adjustment on the right-handside. marty?>> marty: martin truex jr. running second
when they came to pit road. it's an air pressureadjustment, hoping to make that better for truex and four goodyear tires.>> kelli: kurt busch said the car was, quote, hanging in there. they made an air pressureadjustment to both rears. mike? >> mike: carl edwards says he needs more frontgrip, especially rolling the center. they're going to make a four-tire change in the 19car. an air pressure adjustment and a full load of fuel for edwards. marty?>> marty: brad keselowski coming down pit road. he said he lost the center turn a littlebit. he said, i would love some more left-rear security. he's been asking for that sincethe beginning of the day. paul wolf told him on the last stop, you're a little too closeto the wall. pull out a little more. so an
air pressure adjustment for the 2 car. fourgoodyear tires also. >> rick: can't make a mistake on pit road.that's what ryan blaney and the 21 team did. too fast entering. they were running 11th.>> steve: we focus on the pit crews, but drivers make mistakes too. just pushing it a littletoo hard. >> rick: let's listen in to the radio.>> no freaking way. no way. >> rick: and you see on the bottom the chasepoints. 33 points out of the chase. >> steve: rarely do drivers believe they spedon pit road. but it's really no argument. it's done in a way with lines and computersand transponders. it is what it is. but drivers, it's hard to believe that you sped. you dideverything right. you just can't believe you
sped.>> rick: and we apologize. obviously a frustrating time for ryan blaney. the language there.you know, when you're in your office and you're working as hard as you can and you make amistake or someone tells you, you make a mistake, it's very, very hard to deal with. >> steve: we just talked about it. he's racingfor his season. all this pressure, all the things going on, he's racing for his season.he's racing to try to get into the chase to win a championship. and this greatly harmshis ability to do that. so the emotions come out.>> rick: kyle busch, martin truex jr., matt kenseth. remember, it was a great battle betweenkyle busch and truex jr. still tight on the
track.l ghonherathe >> rick: stay tuned for the nascar americapost-race show. later tonight, be sure to catch "nascar victory lap." that's all comingup on nbcsn. kyle busch starting to put a little gap between himself and martin truexjr. it was about a second when we went away. now that we're back, it's 3.3 seconds separatingkyle busch and martin truex jr. >> jeff: rick, this has the feeling of a classicnew hampshire race. long, green flag runs in the first 200 or 225 laps. we'll get acaution somewhere in the 80 lap to go range. we have a rash of cautions in the last 100laps. we'll see. statistics would say when you have this many green laps early, you'llhave a lot of cautions late.
>> rick: you referenced that, there's onlybeen two cautions. only 12 laps have been run under a caution. eight lead changes betweenfour different drivers. brad keselowski was credited as leading a lap. so kyle busch hasbeen the most dominant. he has led 107 laps. now 108 as he crossed the finish line. andmartin truex jr., 85 laps already for truex jr. out front. mike, what's going on withalex bowman? >> mike: just want to get you up to speedwith what's going on with the 88. the car has been three in, three off throughout thecourse of the day. they made some adjustments. he said this is the best it's been all daylong, currently running 12th. >> steve: you have to feel great about 12th,right? what more could you ask?
>> rick: and we want to remind the fans thatthis isn't alex bowman's first start in the cup series. as a matter of fact, it's his72nd start in the cup series. he has run a lot of races, but it hasn't been in the qualityof equipment that he's in now. so that is why we reference this opportunityfor alex bowman to show his skills. this is the best equipment he's ever been in, in hislife, in the sprint cup series. >> steve: and it changes. when you drive goodequipment, your approach to the race, your approach to every lap is ly different. youhave to learn how to compete. when you're driving a car that can run 35th, it's differentthan a car that can run fifth. you have to approach it different. you have to learn howto race like that. you're doing it at the
highest level. you're racing some of the bestdrivers in the world. it's difficult. >> jeff: a team trying to take advantage ofdale earnhardt jr. not being in the 88, kendrick motor sports. currently running in the tenthposition. lost those 15 points from a penalty earlier in the race season. trying to bounceback. currently seven points out of the chase grid. having a solid run in the tenth position.not the run they want. tenth is not where kasey kahne wants to run. this team wantsto compete for wins. we talk about momentum in this sport, they need to have some goodruns to build on. currently having a decent run in the top ten.>> steve: typically you don't go from running 15th to winning races. you have to grind yourway to it. you have to find a way to lead
laps. you're going to have a bad pit stopwhen you should have won a race. you have to put yourself in position over and overand over. that's why we keep talking about points. for these teams trying to get in thechase, they haven't exhibited the speed or ability at this point to win the race. sothey have to gain as many points as possible. >> rick: a guy who does that, a guy who'sup front. already three wins on the season. >> you guys touched on it earlier. the septemberrace here in the chase comes up very quickly. rick told me you want to leave here feelinglike you have a good setup to start from. you don't necessarily have to win, but youhave to have a strong day. you need to leave here with something to lean on.
>> marty: further back in the field is joeylogano. it's amazing to hear they're running 15th and they're happy with that. logano hashad a car that's not been good all day long. you're riding on board with him right now.he said, i'm getting beat in every part of the race track, i need help everywhere. iasked todd gordon about their approach to the weekend. he said a lot of teams that arelocked into the chase are approaching this as a chase race weekend. we're approachingit as a test for a chase race weekend. so we have a completely experimental setup. we'reasking joey to do different things behind the wheel. i can tell you this is not a setupthey'll be bringing back in september. but todd's point was, we know we have a setupthat can run third to fifth. we want to be
better than that. sometimes the best way tolearn is to learn whatnot to do. >> jeff: you have to fill your notebook withsomething. with the next new hampshire race only nine weeks from today, what are you goingto come back with? i think the most important part of that entire report is they have asetup they feel can run inside the top five. they're looking for a winning setup. that'sdifferent than if you come here without any confidence. you just have to hope it workswhen they come back in nine weeks. >> jeff: how do you know you have a setupthat can run in the top five? it's a different tire. i don't know you have that confidence.>> rick: tell you who has confidence right now, kyle busch out front as we go nascarnonstop.
>> rick: kyle busch, 92 laps away from sweepingthe weekend in new hampshire. he did it last year at indianapolis. that's what's comingup next week. the xfinity series at 3:00. the sprint cup series on sunday at 1:30. amazinglyenough, kyle busch sweeping the races at indianapolis last year, trying to sweep here. kyle buschlooking very strong in whatever car he gets behind the wheel of. let's go to dave.>> and rick, always a discussion here in new hampshire are brakes. at 8:20 a.m. this morning,jason rath cliff, the crew chief, climbed inside of matt kenseth's car and touched hishands to the brake pedals to feel the brake pedal tension. they wanted to give matt justa little more so he wouldn't put his left foot on there and ride the brake while hewas competing. now, in the race, they had
to % remove some debris from a brake ductbecause the brakes were a little squishy. very important they get that braking righthere at new hampshire. kelli? >> kelli: denny hamlin sealed his spot inthe chase by winning the first race of the season, the daytona 500. since then, they'vereally just been prepping things to get ready for the chase. although, denny has alwaysbeen a good flat track guy like he is here at new hampshire. his crew chief telling me,if we have problems with tires, that's where he's really good at managing. they took twotires early in this race. they've gone with four tires since. interesting note on denny,before his last pit stop, he said his heel feels like it's on fire. getting really hotdown there. mike?
>> mike: kelli, talking with carl edwards'crew chief this morning, he said the thing that really sets carl apart from some of theother drivers he's worked with, his mental toughness, and communication. they were extremelyoptimistic coming into this afternoon. right now, though, he had been searching forrear grip. the car has gotten better. still, they need to keep working on it here in thenext 80 laps or so. >> rick: thank you, mike. kurt busch justin front of kevin harvick. harvick trying that low line, see if he can get by kurt busch.he's going to make the pass. 88 laps to go. kyle busch is out front 2.5 seconds. as acrew chief, what are you thinking for, say, drivers truex jr., kenseth, keselowski? whatkind of strategy can you play? you short pit
and say, maybe save fuel? could he go therest of this race if they saved fuel? >> steve: i think the next four or five lapsare going to eliminate a fuel strategy. once we get past about 82 or 83 to go, you're prettyconfident every car in the field can make it from there. really, you're starting tolook at if you would take two tires or four tires, how you would break up that last run.if you get longer into this run, you could say 60 to go and split up this last 118 laps.the fear is with kyle busch running such a dominant race, he has such a lead over hiscompetitors. this is a good chance you would end up two laps down pitting.>> jeff: the other concern is just the fact we know the history tells us we have cautionscoming. historically at this race track, we
end up with cautions at the end of this race.if you pit early and get caught by that, then you are those two laps down. that's a biggamble. >> rick: big move there for denny hamlin ashe took seventh away from chase elliott. the top five, kyle busch, martin truex jr., kylebusch, brad keselowski, who won the last two races. won at daytona and kentucky. kevinharvick running fifth. >> steve: with 85 laps to go, if there isa yellow, those usually breed more yellow. how is your car on new tires? we talked howimportant restarts on. you can very slippery. maybe you're going to change your air pressure.right now your cis set up to run a long run. >> jeff: having a good pit stop and askingyour driver to do what we've seen already.
you've got to make it three wide. put yourcar in a position you wouldn't normally put it in. so hard to pass. the 48 on the apronof the race track. these are the things you have to do. the 19 of carl edwards all theway on the apron. left side on the flat of the race track trying to get good position.you got to ask your driver, get us some on this restart.>> rick: every driver trying to find an opportunity and advantage over their competitor. rightnow everyone chasing after kyle busch. he has just over a second lead over martin truexjr. matt kenseth, brad keselowski, and kevin harvick as we go nascar nonstop. >> rick: as you saw, nascar nonstop cautioncoming out for debris in turns three and four.
that opens up pit road. kyle busch will leadall the lead lap cars on to pit road. what will the strategy be now, dave?>> third place matt kenseth in that yellow 20 said his car is looser on throttle andentry. he'll get a little bit of an adjustment for that. looks like air pressure and twotires for kenseth. meanwhile, he'll take -- yep, four tires for kenseth and busch as well.marty? >> marty: brad keselowski coming down pitroad. he said it took off better on that round, but i can't go low off the corner exit. that'swhat's hurting me. i'm just too loose. trying to make that tighter from the center of thecorner. for martin truex jr., it's a four-tire change. i believe truex beat the 18 off pitroad, rick.
>> rick: great race off of pit road. you'reright. four-tire stop for truex and kyle busch. truex wins the race off pit road. road >> rick: at some race tracks, it's jukebox.others, it's a grandfather clock. we come to new hampshire in loudon, it's for the lobster.they're racing for the lobster. the race off pit road was won by martin truex jr. by thatmuch. less than a car length ahead of kyle busch. they're still under caution. we wantyou to see more green flag laps. we'll take a quick break and be right back to new hampshire301.t back to new hampshire 301. >> rick: restart so important. we're aboutto have another. sprint cup series race from new hampshire. it's the new hampshire 301.two by two. truex jr. and kyle busch. truex
jr. got to choose lane choice. the lightscoming back on the pace car. looks like they're going to go around again. truex jr. choosesthe inside line. kyle busch will be on the outside line. a little bit of communicationbetween -- well, not between drivers but between spotters as to strategy on the restart.>> not to do that again on the start. you good with it?>> yeah, i'm good with it. >> okay. just making sure.>> rick: so that was the 78 team. with martin truex jr. starting on the bottom of the racetrack, we'll see if there's an opening for the 18 right behind him, even though you'vegot teammates of matt kenseth back there as well of kyle busch.>> steve: self-serving. you've got to go get
what you can get. this caution offers an opportunityfor several cars toward the back. the 17 car was running 19th. all the way back to the15 car in 25th, they were all a lap down. they stayed out. they did not pit. they wentaround the pace car. now they're back on the lead lap. this gives them an opportunity totry to catch another caution, come in and pit, and try to make their way forward.>> jeff: what makes new hampshire so difficult? this is what. 25 cars on the lead lap with75 laps to go. we have a rash of cautions here. pit strategy becomes way more complicatedfor the leaders. >> rick: take a look at the rows. into therestart zone. green flag back in the air. truex jr. a very good restart.
dile busch, the 20 of matt kenseth going toget by him through one and two. so if there was some work between those two teams, itdidn't work out for the 18, as matt kenseth has been able to move up to second. righton the back bumper of martin truex jr. >> steve: loose off of four. kenseth has arun. >> rick: martin truex jr. hanging on to thattop spot, running the groove through one and two. matt kenseth peeking to the inside. downthe back stretch they go. less than 73 laps to go in this race. martin truex jr. has led93 laps today. kyle busch has led the most at 133. martin truex jr. trying to hold offmatt kenseth. >> jeff: that 20 car of matt kenseth reallygets through the middle of the corner. you
see him gain right to his bumper.>> rick: kevin harvick looking to the inside of kyle busch. they try to take the thirdspot away from busch. bausch powering around the outside. able to get on the gas a littlequicker than kevin harvick. they stay side by side for that position. and this time it'skyle busch that's able to stay out front. matt kenseth chasing after the 78 still forthe lead. kenseth the most recent winner at this race track. won in the fall last year.and he is yet to lead a lap today. it has been pretty much all kyle busch and martintruex jr. keselowski and johnson led a lap apiece. kevin harvick all over the back pumper ofkyle busch.
>> steve: you see the 78 trying to hold offthe 20. when you have two cars that dominate the day like martin truex jr. and kyle buschhave, it's hard to continue to work on your car, trying to make it better, because you'realready up front. you're already leading laps. you think perhaps you have the car you need.kevin harvick has had to pass cars. perhaps rodney childress has a clear idea of whathe needs. >> mike: and there have been very minimalchanges for the 48 car. only little air pressure adjustments. truex says the car just getsbetter the longer they run. it's way better than they expected. they said if they leavehere with a fifth and seventh place car today, i'll be happy. they did not expect this.>> he was warned before the green flag by
his crew chief that they cleared that 18 car.>> kelli: rodney childress and the 4 crew have tried a number of different changes totry to help kevin harvick. last time kevin said his car chattered all the way throughthe run. he said what we need to do first is fix those air pressures. they've addedair into that 4. now he's making a run at the 18.>> rick: so many things they can do manipulate these cars and give them a little better handling.but you have to figure out exactly what it is and do it in less than 12 seconds.>> steve: that's why communication is so important. we got to give the pit crew credit. they didnot lose spots. that's enabled them to be fighting for third. every other spot they'velost spots.
in this pit stop, they did a great job.>> jeff: you have kyle busch, who i think has been slower the last five or eight lapsbut has done a get a job of holding the 4 off. now worked to gain back a little bitof the window. >> rick: you see chase elliott and alex bowman.mike? >> mike: alex bowman has been a story sincethe beginning of this weekend, rick, substituting for dale earnhardt jr. it's not his firststart in the sprint cup series, yet he's never had a top ten finish in the sprint cup series.right now he's poised to do that, running ninth. some credit might go to dale earnhardtjr., who made a call to the crew chief this morning to go over setup notes.>> jeff: i think that test had a huge influence
on alex bowman. now you can go back and lookand see a battle for the lead. >> rick: here comes matt kenseth. he looksto the inside. martin truex jr. will try to hold him off again. all the way down to under100 miles an hour through the center of the turn. martin truex jr. able to hold him off.kenseth, though, working on martin truex jr. every lap. truex jr. not only has to lookforward to see where he wants to hit his marks, but he's also got to keep his eyes can onthe 20 and find out where he's going. >> steve: a big gap between the 78 and the20. the 78 gets really loose right in the middle of the corner. that allows the 20 ofmatt kenseth to make a big run on him. gets inside of him. i'm surprised the 78 couldpower up in the middle of the corner like
this. typically if you're loose on one endof the race track, you'll be loose on the other as well. >> steve: martin truex jr. said it's justchattering, the right rear. that's been the complaint. very strong at the end of the run.you've had cars like this before. if you can just hold that guy back there for about 15laps, you're good to go because you know at the end of the run, your car is better thanhis. >> jeff: that's right. marty a chatteringrear tire is very difficult to deal with. when the driver talks about a tire chattering,the tire actually hops across the race track. when you drive in the corner, the right reartire is actually hopping. it doesn't sit on
the race track. it doesn't stay on the racetrack. it's hopping up and down. a right rear chatter is very difficult to manage, especiallyon a race track where you're already loose on corner entry like you always are at newhampshire. >> steve: i know the 78 is hoping to get awayfrom the 20. both of these cars need to look in the mirror. as they're longer into thisrun, the 18 of kyle busch has driven away from kevin harvick and is closing in on thefront two cars. >> rick: martin truex jr. has been able tohold off matt seven ket. we go nascar nonstop. >> rick: today's great aerial coverage providedby our partners. at smithfield food. giving you a view of how drivers are able to takedifferent lines and make the passes. we just
saw denny hamlin get by kurt busch. now chaseelliott right behind him. martin truex jr. still out front. matt kenseth running second.>> steve: you see underneath the driver's name, the last time they were on pit road.they're good. there's no issue for fuel for the rest of the race. a handful will needa caution before the end of this race so they'll have to come to pit road for fuel.>> rick: so other than them, fuel not an issue for anybody on the track.>> jeff: going to come down to speed, and more importantly if the caution does comeout, do you pit or stay out? how aggressive can you be on pit road?>> rick: i want to look big picture for a moment as we have a little over 50 laps togo. martin truex jr. is out front. he's been
dominating at mile and a half tracks all year.he's been great. now at mile tracks, he's showing a lot of strength as well. when welook to those final ten races, there are eight race tracks that are either a mile or mileand a half. does that mean martin truex jr. is maybe the favorite heading into the chasethis year? >> jeff: i also think the thing martin hasdone a great job of is think about kentucky. that's completely different than any othermile and a half. they ran well there. they ran well at a lot of different types of mileand a halfs. i promise you they're all completely different in the way you drive them and theway you have to set the race cars up. they have shown the ability to run well in everyone of those types of race tracks.
>> steve: but we've seen it's when you gethot. they're going to have to run well in the chase. this is the 78 and the 20. lookat how many cautions we have here at new hampshire. last six races, very few yellows in the firsthalf. even more in the second half. 13 yellows in the second half of this race. we've beenmostly green flag racing today. with 50 to go, these leaders, especially if you're the78 or the 20, are looking for this thing to go green. once we start getting cautions,they seem to breed for cautions. >> rick: martin truex jr. continuing to workby lap traffic. martin a 36-year-old out of new jersey. he's been so good at virtuallyall the tracks we've been to this year. >> marty: remember, this was the weakest racetrack according to the crew chief. they felt
like they had to get better here. clearlyleading and running up front. they're a lot better than they've ever been here at newhampshire. also, indianapolis next week. they're one of the teams that tested there last weekin indianapolis. everyone said the 78 car is the one to beat. cole told me, we havethe mile and a halfs figured out. it's the other tracks we need to get better at. wefelt like we took a step forward at indianapolis. clearly today they've taken a step forwardas well. >> rick: yeah, this is a big step forward.>> jeff: i think every drive has strengths and every driver has a weakness. one of thestrengths martin truex has, watch as he enters turn three. look how high he stays. he staysagainst the wall a long time. it's inches,
not feet. but he stays against that wall alittle longer and arcs the corner. that helps his middle speed and exit speed. i think martintruex does that as well as anybody. jimmie johnson has a big arc in corners too. that,in my opinion, gives cole hearn an advantage. >> rick: martin truex jr. has really beenimpressive this year. >> jeff: he has. but he's not shaking the20. matt kenseth has been hanging back there lurking. that wily veteran. he's run all racein the middle of the pack. this is his best track position of the day. he's taking advantageof it with under 50 to go, putting pressure on the leader.>> marty: when i talked to jason this morning, i said, how far did you get in practice? hesaid we gained a lot, we're close. he knew
they had a good race car. matt is provingit out. >> steve: remember when matt got out of thecar? they were laughing. they were upbeat. they were laughing, didn't have their headsdown. that's confidence. we qualified today, but we still believe in each other. makinga big move here. >> rick: here comes matt kenseth looking tothe inside. trying to take the lead away from martin truex jr. going into turn number one.going hard into turn number one. way up the race track they go. martin truex jr. fallsback to second. >> jeff: we saw earlier in the rain each otherroom. not now. >> rick: now the 78 will get back on the bumperof the 20 to see if he can get back by. remember,
there is an association, an alliance betweenthe two teams. even though martin truex jr. is in a single-car team based in denver, colorado,they have an alliance and share information with the rest of joe gibbs racing.>> steve: only monday through saturday. when it comes time to drop the checkers, it's everyman for himself. >> rick: let's talk strategy. we're now under43 to go brought to you by smithfield foods. >> jeff: well, we talked about this trackand how it tends to have cautions late. under those late-race cautions, what do you do?do you pit or stay out? if we don't have cautions, you're seeing it on your screen now, traffic.how will the leaders get through lap traffic? matt kenseth has made it in front of martintruex jr. lurking, kyle busch. we've seen
this 18 car be good in the long run today.>> rick: so working through the lap traffic is matt kenseth. out in front now. martintruex jr. now in a position of chasing. we go nascar nonstop. >> marty: under caution here at new hampshire.a development for the second place running car, martin truex jr. he just said, i haveno shifter in the car. for the first time moments ago. they're going to hand him a vicegrip, try and put it back together himself inside the race car. big development for thesecond place man, dave. >> no such problem for the leader, matt kenseth.his car is just a little loose at the start of the run. they'll go to the tires and thefuel. two on the right. as for kyle busch's
teammate, way too loose at the start. he'llgo for two tires as well. >> kelli: kevin harvick said his 4 got looseras he ran it. right side tires only. >> marty: truex will come to a stop. they'regoing to put right sides on it and push him out here. they're not going to hand him avice grip. he's going to do his best to leave in fourth gear. you can see him strugglingto get off pit road. he had to do that in fourth gear. a tough pass for truex.>> rick: very tough pass. not only to get out of pit road but for the restart comingup, which we're going to see in a moment.moment >> rick: next week nascar is on nbcsn at indianapolismotor speedway. xfinity series saturday at 3:00 p.m. next sunday, 2:30 p.m. for the sprintcup series. last year it was kyle busch that
swept both races. the big story coming inpotentially to indianapolis next week would be jeff gordon. would he end up being in the88 next week if dale earnhardt jr. still has concussion-like symptoms and is not able torace next week? it's already been said jeff gordon would substitute in the 88. quite abit of experience at that race track. >> steve: we talked about being aggressivewith your pit strategy. a race win in their column already, the daytona 500. he figuredhis only chance was to stay out and get track position. i assume this 11 team, and mikewheeler expected more teams to stay out behind them.>> rick: marty, also issues with the 78 team. seems like it's getting worse for them.>> marty: well, he's led 123 laps today. it's
been a terrific day for martin truex jr. notonly does he not have a shifter, when he left pit road, he lost the clutch as well. here'sthe radio. >> now i got no clutch. burned the clutchright out. >> is it slipping?>> it's not slipping. i can't disengage it. i've got no clutch, and i've got no tranny.i'm direct drive. >> marty: if he's in fourth gear, he cannotrestart here very well. everyone behind him has to be paying attention. he's going totry and lay back and get a run, but it's not going to be easy to do.>> rick: and they can't pass before they get to the finish line. they're going to becausehe's slow. green flag back in the air. 33
laps to go. drivers knew he was going to causea little bit of an issue there. the smoke now coming out from behind the 24of chase elliott. chase elliott was right behind the 78 as the battle for the lead starts.matt kenseth looks to the inside of denny hamlin.>> jeff: hamlin holding him off with those old tires. you're not supposed to change lanes.the car in front of him is having mechanical issues. i don't know what you're supposedto do. you got to get away from it. >> rick: kenseth still working the bottomof the race track. hamlin staying out under that caution, trying to get the track position.now trying to hold off matt kenseth. up the race track denny hamlin goes. 31 laps to go.is it enough time for denny hamlin to have
the opportunity for those two tires that mattkenseth got to level off as far as speed. he's going to try toold him off again.>> steve: denny hamlin's doing a really good job of using that second line. he got it done.>> rick: kenseth makes the pass on denny hamlin. matt kenseth now has led eight laps at loudon.most recent to win at this track. denny hamlin will try and hold off the 4 of kevin harvick.>> jeff: if he wants any chance of running the 20 now, he cannot waste time. i expectto see a very aggressive move down here in turn one.>> steve: or just position on the restart. try and position yourself where you can startnext to the leader rather than behind him. >> rick: oh, into the wall goes alex bowman.
he was running in eighth.>> mike: that left rear tire damaged. the team was scrambled. they were ready to comedown pit road just before he slammed the wall. >> rick: also, the 24 of chase elliott. wesaw a little smoke coming out from chase elliott. may have been some contact on that restart.a lot of damage to the left. >> steve: left rear tire smoking here. 24to his inside. the 88 had the flat tire. he's up against the wall. when he has a flat tire,he also had a flat front left tire. >> hold the brake, hold the brake. let itroll. stay up high. let it roll. >> jeff: what a big change of events, especiallyfor the 24. we keep talking about this chase. this is the third race in a row these guysare going to end up with a bad finish. they
had this huge lead. they were high up in thechase grid. but those points are coming off quickly. >oming into this race 63 points.chase elliott was in front of the cutoff line. now working hard just to get to pit road.>> mike: looking for his first sprint cup series top ten win. damage all the way aroundthat race car. the team did a nice job pulling away some of that sheet metal from the tires.able to change all four before pulling away. >> rick: alex bowman going back outs on thetrack. he was running eighth when that tire went down.>> steve: chase elliott restarted eighth and got into some contact there. for his first time here in a sprint cup carat new hampshire, had done a very credible
job all day. now of course as you mentioned,really good on the chase grid coming in. doesn't want to lose this many.>> rick: so much body damage. the 24 was behind martin truex jr. on the most recent restart.let's take a look again at what took place. we know martin truex jr. stuck in fourth gear.>> jeff: they approach the restart zone. the 24 tries to go. he makes a little contactto the back of the 78. didn't look like a lot of contact. from that point on, we sawsome smoke come out of the 24 car. >> steve: i think the 41 car actually getsto the side. watch right here. the 41 car had no -- i'm sorry, the 14 car had no ideathat he was going to turn left. typically on a restart, you have to stay in line. soyou're not expecting a guy to turn left. had
he taken the line, it would have been a bigwreck. >> jeff: to be clear, nascar's rule is youmust stay in line on a restart. there's an exception, if the car in front of you doesn'tintain speed. they don't expect the entire outside lane just to wait for the 78 to go.but it is never a good feeling when you're stuck behind a car with a problem.>> steve: and all the spotters know this is going on. still, you can't plan for what'sgoing to happen because you just don't know. >> rick: still under caution. they're cleaningup the race track. we'll take a quick break and be back with a restart.start. >> rick: getting ready to restart. 24 lapsto go in new hampshire. kenseth will restart
on the outside. denny hamlin on the inside.they enter the wicked fast restart zone. great restart for matt kenseth. not so good fordenny hamlin. kyle busch able to get on the back bumper of matt kenseth up to second.left rear tire rubbing for kurt busch as they go three wide into turn one. out in front,matt kenseth. martin truex jr., after his issues, has fallen all the way back. truexjr. trying to hang on. he has fallen back to 21st. a little bit of smoke out of kurtbusch. denny hamlin trying to hold off jamie mcmurray. joey logano, new england native,working the low part of the race track. >> steve: you're hearing all these names,this is what happens in new hampshire. these late-race cautions. moving them up the tracka little bit. we have new players involved.
>> rick: jamie mcmurray, we hadn't mentionedhis name pretty much the whole race. now right in the thick of it. we saw denny hamlin goback down the race track. didn't appreciate a little contact. he was going to give itback. maybe a little bit of tire rub on the 11 as well now. less than 21 laps to go. kenseth, kyle busch,denny hamlin. here comes kasey kahne in the 5 as the caution comes out.>> jeff: the left rear of the 41, we saw the smoke. ly gone flat. he's going to try tomake it to pit road here. as soon as these cautions came, the restarts get crazy. the2 and the 41 exiting the corner. 22 comes up the race track, squeezes. 41 was way down.contact and ultimately that leads to the tire
rub, tire being cut. 41 in the wall.>> jeff: and that's racing. the 41 was turning left to try to get underneath the 1 car. the2 didn't expect him to be there. you see him coming off turn two down the back stretch.left rear goes flat. conveniently for the 41 of kurt busch, it happened on the backstraightaway. you see the left front of the two also flat.>> rick: locked up. so he will bring it to the attention of the crew. the 11 also onpit road. 78 has come to pit road this time. kelli?>> kelli: the 11 also had a tire rub on the left side. they were going to fix that whilethey're here. it gives denny hamlin four tires. that i had stayed out under the previous cautionthat brought a lot of guys down pit road.
>> marty: yeah, brad keselowski said on theradio, i'm pretty beat up, but the steering wheel is fine. that left front was lockedup, as you mentioned, rick. a lot of left front damage. they'll have to push the leftside of the car up to get the jack you should the car. martin truex jr. also coming downpit road. they're going to take four tires. the consideration here is they're so far backin the pack, maybe these four tires will help them a little bit. again, car still stuckin fourth gear and no clutch for martin truex jr.>> rick: so the guys will try to push it out of their pit stall. >> steve: my concern sitting here is if youhave no clutch, i'm not sure how the crew
is going to push it off in fourth gear, sittingin gear. >> jeff: they can push it off in neutral.>> steve: he's got no shifter. >> jeff: they're putting vice grips in thecar. now he can get it in gear and get it moving. that's what they were doing. theywere in there putting a shifter in or putting vice grips so he could put it in gear.>> steve: how this entire complexion has changed. we have players we haven't seen all day long.kevin harvick and tony stewart. >> rick: tony stewart had this to say on theradio. >> i don't know about you, man, but it's agood feeling to be up here racing these guys that are in the chase and ahead of a lot ofthem.
>> a lot easier to race guys you trust uphere too. >> 10-4.>> rick: mike? >> mike: and you know, talking with tony'screw chief this morning, he said he thought they had a top ten car going into the race,but because they have a win in the back, he felt like they had the opportunity to takea little risk, take a big swing. he said, we're going to try to make it into a winningrace car. throughout the day, they have worked on the car. hearing the demeanor of tony throughoutthe afternoon, you can tell he's been relaxed. he's in position to perhaps pull off a win.>> steve: and it's not just about the front row in this restart. stewart, harvey, mcmurray,kahne, larson, a whole new list of players.
>> rick: back into the restart zone. greenflag back in the air. 17 laps to know. harvick trying to take second away from kyle busch.>> steve: kyle busch really spun the tires in the restart zone. again, we see smoke outof cars exiting turn two. >> rick: a lot of tire smoke. around goesthe 42 of kyle larson. contact was made. caution once again. kylelarson around, and he was helped around. there was contact made.>> rick: it was the 19 of carl edwards involved in that.>> steve: new hampshire restart. it just causes everybody to be really, really aggressive.>> jeff: you see the 19 and 31 made contact, which turns the 19 into the right rear ofkasey kahne. he goes up the race track and
catches the 42. these restarts are so crazy,we're having a hard time going around the back stretch. it's a straightaway.>> rick: a straightaway and guys going the wrong way, like kyle larson. happens quick.31 and 19, contact made, then into the 5. 5 into the 42. the 42 sits in the grass.>> steve: you see the 31. it all starts with the 31. catches the left rear of the 19 ofcarl edwards. he catches the left rear of carl edwards. it spins him to the left. hecatches kasey kahne. kahne goes up the race track. who comes through clean? 31, ryan newman.>> jeff: by the way, before that pass around, he was all the way back in 21st. they stayedout. did not pit. they caught the caution. now he's running seventh.>> rick: marty?
>> marty: guys, you can see the 78 back inonce again. crew member going inside the side window. they tried to take a pair of vicegrips in last time, but the problem is the brake where the shifter is, is below the boot.they couldn't access it really. so truex had enough clutch to leave last time. they'regoing to make one more attempt to get those vice grips on so he can shift gears. again,enough clutch left for him to leave pilot road last time and was unsuccessful this attempt. >> rick: let's listen in to ryan newman'sradio. >> i hit the 19 there. i don't know what hewas doing. i hit him and knocked him into everybody there. it was entirely an accident,but everything's fine.
>> rick: you see the damage on the right frontof the 31, where there was contact made. >> steve: yeah, that's exactly what we sawon the video. i don't think 31 meant to do it, but he definitely got into the 19.>> jeff: and watching it, ting started actually a little ahead. as we watch them come offturn two, this is the initial restart. >> steve: you can see everybody going threewide, trying to force the issue obviously. coming off turn two. right there, the momentumgot slowed down. obviously the incident at the head of this. but the momentum got sloweddown. they got loose leaving the corner. >> jeff: right here he catches the 19 on thebumper. nothing he can do at that point. >> steve: they were battling. they both goteverybody slowed down behind them. then they
started running into each other. it's justeverybody going hard. it's just racing. you have to race hard for position. when you'reracing this hard and this close to a situation, you're going to have, accidents.>> rick: mike? >> mike: obviously a tough hit for kasey kahne.huge chase implications. he was below the cutoff coming into today. he told us on countdownthat he needs to make sure he comes away with solid finishes. this is definitely going tohurt. they repaired the rear spoiler, tried to take as little time as possible on pitroad. they cannot afford to lose a lap. they get him away, but the car is far from perfect.>> rick: it was two cautions ago when quite a few drivers, seven drivers took the wavearound to get back on the lead lap. included
in those was the 17, greg biffle in the 16,the 31 of ryan newman. ryan blaney, danica patrick. numerous driversdecided to take the wave around. now they're in position to where they're having potentiallya top ten, maybe a top five finish today. >> steve: the best any of them running was19. when the caution comes out, you have to take chances when you're a lap down. if youcatch the cautions right, you can be a big benefactor.>> kelli: this could be a big points day for jamie mcmurray, who's very much on that chasebubble. 16th coming into this race. they'd been fighting a tight race car all day. nowit's really come in for jamie. they've also beenting on pit road. he's looking for hissecond top five of the season, dave.
>> greg biffle up to eighth now. radioed intohis crew chief, man, if this keeps up, we'll end with a top five. he said, i told you somethingbig was going to happen here at the end. they had brake problems all friday, couldn't workon their handling. really appreciate the attrition. >> rick: seven cautions, this one the mostrecent. >> steve: this is what i was seeing. the 14and logano, they get together off of two. that slowed the momentum up. now you startrunning into each other. ahead of wreck, it actually started way ahead of the wreck. itended up happening three or four rows back. >> jeff: with 12 to go, this restart shouldbe way calmer. >> rick: wait a minute. this is going to bethe last caution?
>> jeff: no.>> rick: there's going to be another? >> jeff: yes.>> rick: the intensity picks up as the lap winds down. 11 laps to go. once again, kensethout front. kevin harvick running second. kyle busch, joey logano, jamie mcmurray.>> steve: this bottom lane has had a tough time getting going on these restarts. >> rick: this time it was kevin harvick thatcouldn't get up to speed as quickly. logano gets up to second. harvick dives way left.trying to get by the 22. still tire smoke coming out from underneath the 22. and itwas the 22 and the 14 that had some contact. could that tire rub come into play with only11 laps to go? now only ten as they come to
the front stretch. marty?>> marty: and yes, rick, this is the same joey logano who said he was, quote, gettingbeaten everywhere on the race track earlier in the race. logano now into second. toddgordon told me this morning, we'll be good at the end of the race. that's when this carwill come to life. i walked up to him a moment ago. he said, see, what did i tell you thismorning? here they are with a shot to win it.>> rick: todd gordon is a pretty smart guy. >> steve: he's proving it right now. he putan experimental setup in the car. tony stewart, here we are with nine to go, and he catchesthe 22 of joey logano. >> rick: closing in on joey logano. they bothgot to get by matt kenseth if they want the
win and the lobster.>> steve: if i know tony stewart, he's not going to be very patient with the 22. if hefeels he has a better race car, he'll be very aggressive.>> jeff: he'll be very aggressive, but he told his crew chief before the race start,we are we can be aggressive, but we need to race these guys the rest of the year too.>> steve: there's a give and take. there's respect that you have to have for your competitors.when you give that respect, you expect to get it back. that's what tony stewart talkedabout. >> rick: biffle trying to stay in front ofthe 18 of kyle busch. busch going to the inside. can't get by. a little loose was the 18. thatopens the door for the 1 of jamie mcmurray.
quite a few going by kyle busch.>> steve: kyle busch is like who are all these guys i'm racing? he's been in front of themall day. now he's in a battle with them. >> rick: seven to go. matt kenseth about a half a second lead overjoey logano. take a look at this. i mentioned kyle busch getting loose. there was a littlecontact there. sideways he went. lost three spots. mcmurray and newman both getting by.>> steve: see the 22 all day long. he's worked himself up. a really great opportunity tohave a good finish. they have not had the speed through the center. even though they'rerunning second, you can see the 14. that's where the 14 beat the 22. right here. he tendsto make a run. 14 got a little too high. that's
the weakness of the 22 at the moment.>> rick: battle for second, about two car lengths separating joey logano and tony stewart.we come up on five laps to go from loudon. kenseth out in front. putting a little moredistance between himself and joey logano. 0.7 seconds.>> jeff: matt kenseth with five to go. just wants to see five green flag laps. doesn'twant to see anymore restarts. >> steve: biffle, mcmurray, newman, i thinkthey all want five laps too. they're going to squeak out of here with decent finishes.they just want this thing to end. >> jeff: a much better finish than they hoped.they're all going to race politely. >> rick: of course, you look at jamie mcmurraytrying to get into the picture. four laps
of racing to go. matt kenseth. the only winin the 2016 season game at dover. a mile race track. a high-banked mile race track. buta mile race track nonetheless. he's put over a second between himself and joey logano.the gap still closing between the 14 and 22. maybe a little bumping now. tony stewart allover the 22 of joey logano. the pass for second. stewart has the inside line. stewart takes over second. after missing agood portion of the beginning of the season, tony stewart had to get a medical waiver.if he was able to win, he had to be inside the top 30 for him to be chase eligible. well,now with a win on the road course out at sonoma earlier this year, he is in the top 30 andlooking strong again as he runs second. under
three laps to go. now down to two. kevin harvickrunning fourth. trying to chase down the 22 as well. kenseth closing in on the final lap.a very eventful day for the 20 team after a bad pit stop that relegated him back a fewspots. one more lap to go. he's led his 37th lap. matt kenseth with a two-second lead overtony stewart. kenseth won here last year in the fall. one of the chase races. and nowwants to go back to back in loudon. matt kenseth on cruise control as he comes out of turnnumber four. kenseth will win again. >> nice job,y man. nice job. that was beautiful.>> rick: a fifth place finish for greg biffle. matt kenseth, the 44-year-old out of cambridge,wisconsin. that is his 38th win in the sprint cup series.
matt kenseth will be celebrating at new hampshiremotor speedway. this moment presented by sonoco, fueling victories all season long. dale earnhardtjr. not here because of concussion-like symptoms. matt kenseth, dale earnhardt jr. entered thesprint cup series the same year, ran for rookie of the year side by side together, battled.they have battled on the race track week in and week out. matt kenseth won that rookieof the year battle way back in 2000. now matt kenseth celebrating another win in his career,this time at new hampshire. >> steve: building momentum for another championshiprun. you come back here while this race is in the chase. matt kenseth, without a doubt,you have to consider him. he's driving for the hottest team in racing. he has the experienceto get it done. you have to consider him a
favorite going into the championship hunt.>> jeff: you heard him on the radio to his crew chief. after the first stop, it was money.thank you so much. we talked about the 20. he didn't have track position early. we sawit early. four tiefrs. he was one of the few cars who could drive up through the fieldand put himself in contention on the race track.>> rick: kenseth becoming the fifth different driver to have at least two wins in 2016.what that means is more spots for guys in the points department as far as getting intothe chase. matt kenseth winning. we'll hear from him next.m him next this is the fordf-150. >> rick: welcome back. matt kenseth has madehis way into victory lane. a little easier
of a drive the last two laps for kenseth as he had a good-sizedlead. but the battle for third, that one was impressive. logano and kevin harvick comingout of turns three and four. >> steve: kevin gives him a little shot, getshim up the race track. close. >> rick: look at how close it was.>> jeff: you tell me these guys aren't competitive. they've both won races. they're both in thechase. it's bragging rights. they want to beat each other.>> rick: dave? >> victory lane filling with confetti forthis man, matt kenseth. from cambridge, wisconsin. a winner once again in the sprint cup series.and matt, after a day that started back in the pack, how pleased are you to be in victorylane?
>> you're always d to be in victory lane.thanks to everybody at joe gibbs racing. i've said it a million times, but the lord hasreally blessed me with an opportunity to be over here. great people i get to work with.great sponsors. a great team over there. made some great adjustmentstoday. i didn't do a very good job qualifying it. after round one today, it was pretty muchmoney all day. we just had to get there. it was a fun day.>> then got blocked on pit road and had to have adjustments in order to make passes.whoa, you're tackled. you're down. >> yeah, that was my bad. i slid a littledeep in the stall. i knew clint was coming in there late.>> congratulations on your second win. looks
like the family is pleased as well.>> tony stewart the runner-up this afternoon in new hampshire. it was a testament of patience.you worked on the race car throughout the day. seemed like it really paid off.>> yeah, we had a much better chevy today than yesterday. they did a really good job.he was working as late here as i was at eldora. really paid off. doing such a great job fora rookie crew chief that's only got half a season. veteran calls, veteran moves. reallyproud of him. proud of this whole team. mobile one, bass pro, they're all -- i think ourpartners are as excited about all this as i am, which is making it fun. they're as mucha part of the team as anybody. rusty and eric and dan, just everybody at mobile one andjohnny morse, bass pro. we're loving it. chevrolet
most of all. they haveeen a great partnermy entire career. proud to be running my last year in the chevy.>> how much confidence does this give you, knowing this will be a chase race the nexttime you get here? >> i like it. the hardest part about it isjust the restarts. two lanes of cars going into turn one all fighting for one lane. asmuch as kentucky lar last week, we had tires that weren't very easy to race on. this isprobably the best tire goodyear has ever brought to loudon. they're working hard at it. they're gettingbetter. we'll keep plugging away with those guys. i'm happy. this is the kind of day wewanted here. we're getting close.
>> tony stewart second in new hampshire. rick?>> rick: take a look at the unofficial results. kenseth, stewart, logano, a new england native,coming home third. kevin harvick, greg biffle. a great finish for greg biffle today.>> kyle busch with such a dominant car comes home in eighth.>> rick: ryan blaney, jimmie johnson. started on the pole, finishes 12th today. danica patrick,a top 15 finish at 14th. >> jeff: martin truex disappointing. had achance to win the race. carl edwards down in 20th.>> rick: alex bowman winds up in 26th after cutting a tire, getting into the wall.>> jeff: ran much better than that. disappointing finish. solid day.>> rick: on back through the field. as we
take a look at the chase grid now. after 19races, still just 11 drivers that have been to victory lane with matt kenseth gettinghis second win. the points now tightening up as far as who is going to make it intothe chase. >> jeff: good day for jamie mcmurray. allthat strategy in the middle part of the race had a huge role to play. chase elliott hadhis problems. he's got to find a way to stop these bad finishes.>> steve: and how quickly it can change. >> rick: mentioned how well alex bowman wasrunning today. let's hear from him. he's with mike.>> he was running inside the top ten for much of the afternoon until the tire went downand slammed the wall. otherwise, pretty strong
run in your debut with this team. what wasit like for to you? >> it was amazing. i can't thank all theseguys enough. they took me to my worst race track by far and made me look good. i just got to thank mr. h. i had such an amazingtime. everybody, greg, and all the guys were so welcoming. i hate the circumstances andreally hope dale is feeling well, but i had so much fun today. obviously i hate that wedidn't get the finish we deserved. i've raced with a lot of these guys for a long time.i raced around them. i've never actually got to race with guys like jimmie johnson, tonystewart, kurt busch, all those guys. had a lot of fun passing really good cars. thankfulfor nationwide and hendricmotorsports for
letting me be here.>> what led to the tire rub? >> i think the 19 was backing up because hewas blocked in as i was leaving the pit box. my left rear hit his right rear as i was leaving.caved in enough. we thought we would be fine. obviously when i got in the 41, it was alreadygoing down and got loose. i hate that for kurt. then it went down. just tried to hangon to it. obviously it's really unfortunate. but i had a blast.>> they definitely knew he was here. >> alex bowman subbing for dale earnhardtjr. he tweeted this just moments ago. the result will not show what a great job alexbowman and the nationwide 88 did this weekend. proud of them guys. he can have a smile onhis face after a very impressive run. didn't
get the finish they were hoping for. anotherguy who didn't get the finish he was hoping for, martin truex jr. led 123 laps. problemslate for that team. relegated them back outside the top 15. marty?>> unfortunately for martin truex jr., the shifter, i can tell you, is laying on thefloor of this race car. an up-and-down day. you have to be encouraged by the speed. thatwas the goal of the weekend. but frustrated by the end.>> yeah, i mean, a lot of positiving we can take out of today though. i think lookingforward to the chase and what we're trying to do this year with this team. it's a bigrelief to be able to come here and run well. we knew this was one of our tough tracks.
if we can get through here good in september,we'll be set up to start pretty good in the chase. we'll see. all in all, couldn't bemore proud of everybody. we weren't that good yesterday, as we talked about this morning.guys went to work last night. we had some good ideas. some things stuck out. all inall, total team effort. pit crew was outstanding today. we'll just keep our head up and keepworking hard. our race cars are fast. everybody's going a great job. sooner or later, you know,we'll get everything straight. >> stuck in fourth gear, how tough it wason those restarts and leaving pit road? >> it's not tough, you're just a sitting duck.there's nothing you can do to get going. unfortunately, we got passed by a lot of cars. we pittedfor tires that last stop just to try to start
all the way in the back so we could get somemomentum going and make sure we didn't destroy our race car getting in a wreck. i think wepassed ten cars in the last ten laps. we had a good car, just nothing to show for it today.>> not the finish they wanted, but nonetheless some encouraging things for martin truex jr.today. >> look into that car, the broken shifterlaying there. >> looks like it broke off the top of thetransition. shifter itself is there. still hooked to part of the tran mission. not agood sign. >> no, that can be very frustrating. almostimpossible to fix during a race. >> the lobster is on the hood of the dollargeneral number 20. coming up next, it's nascar
america post race. then at 5:30, indy carseries racing from toronto. 8:00 tonight, victory lap. time now for the nascar americapostrace show presented by advanced auto parts. >>> thank you, rick. the party continuing here in vikt ri lane.coming up over the next few minutes, you're going to hear from a lot of drivers. if that'swhat you like, you're in the right lace. welcome inside victory lane. the confetti laying allaround us right now. matt kenseth, the winner today, is going to join us in a few moments.let's start with your thoughts on the race, kyle.>> solid race. we saw guys lead. we saw guys get runned down. we saw a lot of action onpit road. we see our typical cautions at the
end of the race. a lot of mix-ups. a lot ofchaos. then you see a guy come out on top. matt kenseth today, that's typical. to me,that's a typical new hampshire race. >> we talked in the prerace show about thetwists and turns, what we thought was going to happen. the announcement of dale jr. notbeing here changed the way we looked at things. we had that many twists and turns throughoutthe day. we can count four or five different drivers we thought we were going to see righthere in victory lane. matt kenseth took hold of this race when it was time to get downand win. >> the trail of our noteds leading to victorylane. nope, not that guy. >> that was the confetti. they just choppedit up.
>> matt kenseth is going to join us when heis done with some of his responsibilities in victory lane. you'll hear from matt kensethhere on the post race show coming up from new hampshire.p from new hampshire >>> nascar america is brought to you by advancedauto parts. let's get you back on the road. today in new hampshire, the road to victorylane was paved by matt kenseth. if you walked away from this race, let's say, with 75 togo, you missed a lot. matt kenseth, joe gibbs racing, definitely had strong cars throughoutthe day. taking a look at the chase grid, matt kenseth now becomes the fifth differentdriver with multiple wins. there you see the guys in yellow. those are the ones that havea ticket to the playoffs. not a new driver
in yellow, but solid finish by a lot of thesedrivers, including joey logano. >> well, i did double check the scoring twice.joey logano did finish third today. you were the same guy who was like getting beaten everywhere.i think at one point you said in the race going into the middle, the exit. how did youmake the car better and fin wish a top five? >> ty gordon and the whole team, the never-quitattitude. me and tony raced each other all day. ty made some good adjustments. we triedsomething new here. we've been a second to fifth place car here in the past. we wereable to get ourselves faster to where we were in eighth, tenth. it wasn't where we wantedto be. overall, if you told me we were going to finish third, i would have taken that.i'm proud of the attitude this team's got.
>> tell me about the battle of harvick. thatwas a tight one at the end. >> it's fun raising kevin. we're both hard-nosedracers. we're going to run each other hard. it's a lot of fun. i knew i was going to getthe bull, but he did just the right amount to move me up a little bit. that was a lotof fun. >> nearly a photo finish for third place.joey logano wins it. >> a top five finish for kevin harvick. iknow you're clearly frustrated by some of the miscues on pit road. on the other hand,you were able to work your way back through the field at times. what will be your takeawaywhen you return here in the fall? >> we just got to perform better. we underexecuted.got to do a better job. jimmy john's chevrolet
cars are always fast, but we always do somethingwrong. >> how do you help correct some of those issues?>> you know, it's really going to have to come from the top. they're going to have toclimb down. there's no way we can win a championship like this unless they straighten some of thisstuff out. >> thank you, kevin.>> the wave around back to a top ten finish. are you surprised at that?>> no, i mean, i just want to apologize for whatever i caused in the back stretch. thatwas not intentional. i think everybody knows that. it's easy enough to crash here in thecorners. it was just dominos. we had a good run when our chevrolet into the finish. notan easy day by any means. quite a struggle.
struggled in traffic and dirty air. proudof the guys to keep us in the game, do the wave around and all that stuff. we've gotto perform better with seven races to go here. >> what are those quarters like?>> hell, we were down on the apron at times. four tires below the yellow line. just hardracing. >> making up points heading toward the chase.>> some solid finishes for some of these guys. nobody better today than matt kenseth. you'llhear from him live next. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by makingevery dollar count. >>> matt kenseth has done this 38 times inhis career. he wins again and wins back-to-back races here in new hampshire. welcome backto victory lane. we're joined by today's race
winner. i know wins are fun. they pay a lotof money, but let's be honest. you just wanted to get back here and talk to us on the postrace show like we did so many times last year. >> i was hoping i'd get back. yeah, therewas a time at new hampshire here i was happy to finish back-to-back races. used to be areal bad track for us. between jason, all the guys at jgr, and really kyle and denny,those guys helped me so much at this place. there's things they taught me i still applytoday. we've had really fast race cars here. came together today.>> tony made the comment he felt like this is the best tire goodyear has ever broughtto this place. you talked about adjustments. how many adjustments did you have to maketo keep up?
>> that would be a better question for jason.at first i was really concerned. the first run we were really, really tight. typicallythe middle gets tighter and tighter. it's easy to tighten something up when it's loose.when you don't roll to center fast enough, it's really hard to fix that. i don't knowwhat he did from run one to run two, but run two, it was money. after that, it was justreal small adjustments. trying to keep up with the track. i was pretty happy yesterday.after the first run today, i was really pretty happy. just took us a long time to get backall the track position. i did a poor job qualifying. then i got blocked in the pits.>> speaking of that, talk about the patience that you have to have in knowing this race,to how the ebb and flow goes with it. as a
driver, knowing you have a good race car butnot pushing the issue too much and creating another problem.>> yeah, patience probably isn't one of my best quality, honestly. there's a couple differentpoints in the race, one time when the brake pedal started getting long. i was concernedabout that. we got the brakes cooled down. the end of that run, i really had to slowdown. i couldn't charge the corners like i wanted to anymore. another time, i guess iwas behind martin. i finally got the second. i wanted to getin front of him in the worst way. knew i was pushing the car too hard, so i backed up andwaited about 20 laps. . >> all right. what were you thinking thoselast 1500 restarts we had? seemed like every
restart there was somebody else there. tolook in the mirror and see that 22 car, you had outrun those guys all day long. it's likeevery restart, one of your competitors fell off.>> yeah, the thing that really made me concerned is the 22 at one point was almost a lap down.i didn't know where he was when we did our last pit stop. if anything, that's what probablyconcerned me the most. i saw he was lining up for us, so he was going to be behind me.i'm just assuming he had better tires than we did. i was hoping i'd get through the gearsclean and get through the first four corners and get a little cushion. i thought we'd beokay. you're just never sure how it's going to fire up after a restart.>> we talked about this week about the drivers
that have wins and are looking forward tothe chase and building a good notebook. sol we've let you enjoy this long enough. lookto september. i guess you've got a good notebook and a good starting point for that importantchase. >> yeah, you know, things change a lot. theychange pretty quickly. you have to be willing to keep up with that. we actually ran somethings for aly different than what we ran last fall. i was able to sneak in there andget that win. you have to be willing to change with it. we certainly got a good baseline.>> i know it's always nice to have your family in victory lane. even more so when you getto have a little fun with them. this trophy they have allows you to do that. looked likeyou were having fun with the girls.
>> yeah, clara isn't exactly sure. she's stilla little weepy at victory lane. kaylyn broke her arm at fourth of july. she was tired ofpeople asking her how she broke her arm. >> i asked her this morning.>> she doesn't want to explain it anymore. so anyway, it's exciting wherever they canbe part of it. you never know when your next one is goingto be or if you're going to have a next one. you got to enjoy them all. it's definitelyspecial when they can be there. >> just so you know, we have kidnapped -- thisis a ransom. >> by the way, the lobster isn't making menervous. kyle is. >> how cool is this, really? are you goingto keep it for a pet? what did it do when
you laid it on the car?>> you didn't get my joke. >> i got your joke.>> i put it on the hood and said i was going to bake it instead of boil it. that was myother joke. pretty much out of jokes for the day.>> can we take this to nascar america as a trophy?>> you can do whatever you want. but anyway, yeah, i wasn't sure what i was going to dowith a lobster. the first one i got was mounted and stuffed. ended up on the wall up in cambridge.yeah, that's a unique trophy. pretty cool. >> this is your third, right? third lobster.you still need to -- you got work to do because you have one more to catch for jeff burton.>> i'll do my best. jeff will be one to tell
you he probably thought i was never goingto win a race here. we were teammates for a long time. i couldn't figure it out.>> you won at a high-bank mile track, a flat one-mile track. i know we've got other races,but you have to be thinking about that. where do you need to get better as you look at thosegenerations? >> that's a great question. i really feellike the last couple months that we've really been off at a variety of tracks. michigan,which we won last fall. we just ran really bad this time. charlotte we ran bad. ran wellthere last year. polk know we ran really strong. there was a few weeks we just did not runwell. i really think we got to run good everywhere. to stay in these rouds, you never know what'sgoing to happen.
>> thank you for letting me ride home withyou and this lobster. i'll be your trophy guy. >> put it in your side car.>> i'll fill my side car with water. >> congratulations, matt. you've become theseventh driver with three-plus loudon wins. appreciate it.>> we're going to give you the lobster back. >> thanks, guys.>> congratulations. matt kenseth the winner here at new hampshire. he still has a lotof responsibilities here at the track as the winner always does. we still have a job todo. more interviews from drivers. you're going to hear them coming up. upog here for propane.you know, i'm just a humble dog. i didn't
attend the elite boarding kennels, but i doknow that nothing beats the freedom of living out here with propane, people can live wherethey want, and just as cozy as they want. >>> let's take a look at today's advancedauto parts back on the road moment. alex bowman filling in for dale earnhardt jr. in the number88. a lot of eyes on him. a lot of pressure on his shoulders. he handled it very well,kyle, especially early in this race. >> yeah, he did exactly what he needed todo. just run laps. we talked about it in prerace. all he needed to do was make some laps. gottogether leaving pit road and got in the back of somebody and cut that left rear tire. justhad some issues. >> very impressive run by that young man today.>> yeah, not the result he wanted. dale earnhardt
jr. even tweeted that, said he was reallyproud of alex and the team. he was home watching. now we're joined by the winning owner, coachjoe gibbs. with this win, your 136th, you now move into fourth most by an organization.congratulations. >> well, thank you. we got so many great people.even back home, thanking them all. wish they could all be here. it really comesdown to our people. today matt was just awesome. jason did a great job calling the race. dollargeneral, our sport, you got to have great sponsors, as everybody knows. get them togo with you and celebrate, it was really awesome rick got us started. had a chance to talkto him. all the people that go with you, it's really great.>> you talk about all your people. did you
ever think when you made that phone call tothis guy standing beside you that this would be what this had grown into in this is whereit started right here. >> actually, that first meeting, i think helooked at me and norm like we were crazy. this guy is supposed to have a football inhis hand. he's asking me to drive a race car. they gambled and came with us. it was awesome.i can't say enough about dale and jimmie. they did a great job for us. i want to sayto dale jr., hurry back, man, we need you. >> yeah, we do need him. when you look atyour organization and your teams, and obviously there's only one. victory lane is only bigenough for one. when you go back to the shop and you're part of the meetings and the othershad decent days but maybe somebody had a bad
day, how do you make that work?>> actually, it's those guys. when you sit in our meetings and listen to all five ofour drivers, martin is in there too, i tell you the way they work together, you wouldn'tbelieve it. it's great teamwork. as you know, our sport, what's fascinating about it, yougot to have -- it's four tea, but they all work together to solve problems. you comehere, somebody hits it, somebody doesn't. it's teamwork, but it's very unusual thatyou got to have four drivers, four crew chiefs that work together. it is a team sport. allour guys on pit road did a great job today for us. so this is a team sport. it's a littledifferent the way it's organized. you got to have a great sponsor. i'm blessed to bea part of it. the lord has blessed me. it's
been a great experience for me to be a partof nascar and win like this. >> and i don't want you to look too far ahead,but looking to the chase, obviously you've got denny. you've got matt. you've got kyle.you've got those guys. now let's move to the xfinity chase. you have daniel. you have eric.you have an opportunity to take home both these championships in a brand new chase format.do you let yourself look that far ahead? >> actually, what you try and do is be asstrong as you can all the way across the board. as you guys know, when that chase starts,you don't know what's going to happen. i've always kind of looked at it as, man, i gotto tell you, we got to be fortunate to get through this. i think if you're well prepared,you got four good teams over here, three over
there, our guys work extremely hard. that'sall you want is a chance in a great sport. we don't know what's going to happen whenyou get down in the chase. >> you mentioned martin truex a moment ago.what a great run he had here today. you have to be proud. talk about the alliance. it hasto be a two-way street. there has to be things they bring. there's a lot that you can getfrom that organization and their group too. >> i think that's a great point. we startedthis. you kind of say, hey, you're going to do an alliance with somebody, can they bringsomething to the table. i can't tell you, this year you guys saw it, how many timeshe goes right to the top of the board in practice. you kind of feed off that. but that's reallya car over there, barney and everybody. we're
proud to, you know, be in association withthem. toyota is the big deal because they're our partner. they make it go.>> i want to ask you a question off subject here because you brought it up a minute ago,dale jr. you come from your other business, okay, where concussions were a concern, havebecome a concern. it's becoming more of a concern here. how much of it is a concernto the owners' group? where do you see some of that going maybe?>> first of all, the most important thing for us is safety. honestly, i think our cars, as you guys knowhow far we've come. i think we put a lot of effort in that. any discussion that comesup on safety, nascar is behind it, we're doing
it. i think that's always our move. our medicalteams are so much better today in dealing with concussions and everything. obviouslyit's come close to my family. so i think it's something that in dale's case, i think it'simportant he's got the medical team and we go through a period where sometimes you sitout. that didn't used to happen. i think the medical issues and the safety issues are hugewhen it comes down to potential injury like that.>> well, as we continue to talk about this weekend, no question, as you said, coach,driver's health, the number one priority. we want you to enjoy this win too. up herein new england, patriots country, it's the redskins that take out the big win. congratulations.>> let's go, redskins. i may not get out of
here after saying that.>> you've earned the right to say it, especially today. thank you very much, coach. congratulations.coming up here still on nbcsn, we'll have indie car series racing from toronto and victorylap. more discussion about the race here in new hampshire. they'll be talking about allthe guys. we want to give one more of them to you now. kelli caught up with jamie mcmurray.>> jamie mcmurray came into this race 16th on the chase bubble. you guys worked on thatcar all day, gained a lot of track position. how big is this top ten finish?>> really big day. our credit one bank chevy was really solid all weekend. we had goodpit stops and good restarts. you have to have all that here. the race kind of drew out fora little while. we had long green flag runs.
the last 40 laps were just crazy on all thoserestarts. it seemed like on some of them you want to be on the top, some you want to beon the bottom. the guy in second is at a disadvantage on those restarts, especially when you startto spin the tires. really solid day today. >> you also had a good finish last week atkentucky. what's the feeling around this one car atthe moment? >> well, we're getting better at the righttime. last year we made the chase, and we have a pretty good buffer going into richmond.it seemed like we were going the wrong direction at that point. right now i think three ofthe last four races we're in the top ten. they've made our cars a lot better. the 42has been really good. it's just a lot of work,
a lot of hard work by everyone. fortunatelywe were able to get a good finish. >> momentum building for this 1 team. thanks,jamie. >> somehow greg biffle winds up finishingfifth. could you have done more damage if you had more laps?>> the first time, you know, we felt like we've had a fast enough car to race up there.i was catching the 4 and the 22. they were racing for position. you know, i was aboutfive car lengths behind them finally when we got to the finish line. once i got by the18 and the 1, you know, we set sail and ran down those cars. i don't know if we couldhave passed them or not, but we had good speed in the ford fusion. brian made some greatcalls today. our pit stops were good. we need
to get our cars just a little bit better andrace in that top five. we're getting there. it's just frustrating as a driver and a team.we want to be there every week. but we're chipping away at it. it's a big mountain.>> restarts were crazy today. tell me about the contact with the 18.>> yeah, i mean, he was real loose. i'm surprised he drove under me. when i was behind him andmade the pass on him, he was having a lot of trouble. the car was real free. when igot on the outside of him, i knew it was going to be hard to drive down on the inside ofme and hold it down. obviously he couldn't and got up into me a little bit. it didn'taffect us any. that's how guys were cutting left rears. i was worried about it. we wereable to keep going.
>> strong day for greg biffle and this burch.they wind up finishing fifth. >> yeah, this is a huge day for greg biffle.his third straight top ten. that team started this race, dale, 28th and came home with thattop five. >> what a tremendous day. i'm so happy for greg biffle and that organization.this is a veteran talking about, you know, making his way back. when you've been there,and he's been right at the top winning races, challenging for championships. with th strugglesthey've had, he did a tremendous job. i know their car was pretty good there, but thatwas a veteran race driver making his way through the field here and taking advantage of everysituation to get that car to a fifth place
finish today.>> another good solid run for roush. these guys had solid runs today. that's a plus.they want to run up there all day long. they don't want to just finish there. i think that'swhat biffle was trying to say. we're getting there, but we want to be able to run fourthor fifth all day long, not just wait until some of these later restarts and get positionon people. they are getting there. i got to give them credit. i've slammed them on theother side. >> greg biffle, top five. stenhouse with atop ten. a lot of activity still behind us here in new hampshire. matt kenseth will workhis way over to the media center. there you see jason radcliffe, the crew chief, havingfun with the crew. when we come back, we're
going to start to look ahead to next week.a big race at indy. you'll hear from tony stewart on that next.t. >>> on the road is exactly where those haulerswill soon be as they head to indianapolis for nascar's next race at brickyard. herein new hampshire, a great day on the new hampshire motor speedway, especially for many drivers.i know if that's how kyle larson would sum up his day.>> kyle larson having a solid run until late there in the race. what happened, kyle?>> i don't know. i haven't seen a replay, but newman apologized. i guess he said hegot on the 19 maybe and then hooked the 19 into me.
so just sucks, frustrating. we weren't greatall day, but we were going to end up with a good finish there. we were similar on speedto the 22 there throughout most of the race. that's disappointing on our end, but we hada good test at indy last week. hopefully we can go there next week in the target chevyand get another solid run. >> we will be coming back here in september.any positives you can take away? >> i didn't run as bad as i did last year.i guess that's a positive. but i don't know. it's a track i struggle at. jamie was actuallypretty decent. i just got to get better at this flat short track stuff.>> thank you, kyle. >> thanks.>> he mentioned jamie. jamie mcmurray, his
teammate. kyle larson is 25 points back. heneeds some work. >> yeah, this was a day that he and kaseykahne, you look at those two guys right there, could have scored some points. we saw blaneysalvage something, come back to 11th. he had issues earlier.>> both of them involved in this incident, which took place in the top four positionswhere the 22 and the 14 were battling. they got a little together coming off turn two.backed things up. then all of this started to happen. the 5 of kasey kahne and the 42of kyle larson were the ones that suffered the most damage in the way of points because,you know, they were right there where they were going to have good solid points daysit looked like. all of that went by the wayside
with this incident.>> yeah, and in that shot you could see that the 22 car and some of those cars were upin front. when they got boxed up, the accident happened five cars behind. jeff burton pointedit out great on tv earlier when we were doing the broadcast. but the 41 car absolutely gotpretty much the worst end of the deal here. you see the 5 car hook, get into the outsidewall a little bit. the 19 car had some damage. everybody else was able to drive on through.these are guys, the 5 and the 42, kasey kahne and kyle larson, they needed a solid pointsday. >> any win is a win that could get you inthe chase. as these races wind down, those tickets startto dwindle. next race, though, it's a big
one. epic venue. the brickyard.>> it is an unbelievable story that has happened here at indianapolis.>> a native hoosier, his dreams come true. >> add his name to the list of brickyard 400winners. >> that one is going to be big indeed. lookat how busy our weekend will be. plenty of time to talk about all the story lines atthe brickyard. there you see join us starting at noon eastern on friday. tony stewart, ofcourse we know it's special to him. he won the brickyard in 2005 and 2007. he's alreadytalking about it. >> i think any distraction is a nice distractionfrom, you know, now until friday morning. but it's a big weekend obviously. i'm notgoing to down play it because it's one of
the most important weekends of the year forme, being at home, and racing in front of friends and family for the last time there.so it'll be emotional for sure, but you know, i've got to plan on how i'm going to approachthe weekend. i'm just going to stick to that plan and go about our work.>> dale, you know how special it is to win that race. we're going to have stewart tryingto do it in his last season. gordon possibly back on the track.>> let's talk about tony. he just has thought up to this point that things have been emotional.with the way the season started and didn't start for him, then to come back and get avictory, going to indianapolis motor speedway for his last time, he's going to have a lotof distractions, a lot of things there. he's
gotten himself in a good place now points-wisethat he can afford to be a little distracted until he gets in the race car. then i thinkthat's when we're really going to see tony stewart. this run here today proves he's ready to challengefor another win. that would be great. >> i think the word that dale used best isemotion. it's going to be emotional for him. it was emotional for tony when he went therefor the first time in a stock car. he had been there in the indy cars. he wanted towin so bad. when he finally won that race, it was an emotional tony stewart we saw invictory lane. for him to think this is going to be the last time possibly that i competeon a competitive level at this level, at the
cup level, at the highest level, it's goingto be an emotional day for him. i think he will be overwhelmed. the distraction willbe getting in the race car. that's the distraction he's looking for. for some reason, there'sgreat drivers like dale jarrett and guys like that, that rise to the occasion on the bigstage. >> what if the last lap comes down to tonystewart and jeff gordon. >> we don't know if jeff will be in the car,but if dale earnhardt jr. isn't ready, itgordon. today it is matt kenseth with 20 wins in newhampshire. >>> the story of josef newgarden in 2016 isalready one not to be forgotten. >> huge crash on the front straightaway. conordaly and i believe josef newgarden coming
into the trial.>> josef newgarden moving in the car. that is a big relief.>> one week after surgery, josef is back at road america.>> time to bring the action. >> look who is all over the back of juan montoya.>> that's an impressive win. >> go to iowa and try to heal up and try toget another win. >> green, green, green, you hear them calling.simon pagenaud gets the jump. newgarden immediately looks to the outside. newgarden leads lapnumber one. >> this guy's got a broken collarbone.>> just dominated. >> josef newgarden wins in iowa!>> oh, baby, that was good!
>> the remarkable comeback of josef newgardento now sit second in the standings in the verizon indy championship continues to bea story. driven to race with a fractured collarboneand broken hand. the young american returns to hickson place in toronto a winner. thisstreet course last year delivered newgarden his second career victory. now carrying themomentum from iowa, let's see if josef continues to rise.>>> it's a perfect day north of the border in canada's largest city, toronto, as we welcomeyou to nbcsn's coverage of the verizon indycar series. it is indy toronto celebrating its30th anniversary. yes, there has been so much history here on the streets of exhibitionplace, and a little bit more ready to be made.
hi, folks. leigh diffey along with townsendbell, paul tracy, katie hargitt, kevin lee, working what is below us a revised pit lanehere on the streets of toronto. how does 2016 look thus far? well, jpm got things off tothe best start in st. petersburg, florida, and you work your way all the way throughthe field to josef newgarden, the most recent winner. and oh, by the way, he is the defendingrace winner here. time to go trackside for the command.>> toronto race fans, are you ready! [ cheering ] it's time for those most famouswords in all of sports. >> please welcome major mike rillo to givethe command. >> drivers start your engines!
>> almost time to get going for race 11 of16 on the 2016 schedule. and all eyes on the local hero paul tracy. you know what thatfeels like. how is james hinchcliffe feeling right now?>> there is a lot of pressure. he wants to deliver i know for fans how much pressurethere is from the media. every time you turn on the tv, he is on tv, talking about -- it'sthe first question is dow dwloy you can win the toronto indy. the pace car has rolled.the two-seater has rolled. and we're ready. >> leigh: yes, and what is honda has the fastestseat in sports today. we have a special riding along with gills de ferran and radio personalityrich gainsler from 97 rock from nearby buffalo. how is that ride, rich?>> it's bananas!
>> i think that could be the best answer we'veever had. you enjoy it. you're riding along with an indy legend in gilles de ferran. yourchance to get in on the sweepstakes like rich did, or did he?