Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway | NASCAR Cup Series Full Race Replay

so normally this would be the one to signal as the cars exit turn four and approach the front straight, but instead the passing vehicle is slowing down and is going to stop these cars. The team members are lined up on the pit wall. As the field comes to a halt, NASCAR has stopped the cars here on the frontstretch so NASCAR President Steve Phelps can address today's competitors. We are no strangers to moving fast and we know how life can have the same quality, but now, but now, but. Now is the time to slow down and reflect on the events of the past few weeks, a highlight of the work we still need to do as a nation to condemn racial inequality and racism.

The deaths of George Florida Brianna Taylor Ahmad, our Bri and many other members of the black community. heartbreaking the heartbreaking are heartbreaking and can no longer be ignored the process begins with us listening and learning because understanding the problem is the first step to solving it we are committed to listening with empathy and with an open heart to better educate ourselves we will use this education to advocate for the change in our nation, our communities and most importantly in our own homes, even after the headlines fade, all of our voices make a difference, no matter how big or small, it is all our responsibility to no longer remain silent. not to continue be silent we simply cannot stay silent we have a long road ahead but let us commit to making that journey together together together our differences should not divide us it is our love for all humanity that will unite us as we work together to make real change to make real change as we work together to make real change during the moment of listening to those 30 seconds of silence that NASCAR has observed, we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men, all men, are created equal , that's from the Declaration. of Independence is as true or truer now than they were, but as we said before, live sports are our escape from everyday life, so for the next few hours we will escape at almost 200 miles per hour and entertain you with the best of America.

Drivers in America's fastest hot rods at one of America's toughest speeds gain one lap to go, so to get us ready for the

race

, Larry McReynolds says today's

race

analysis does, Mike , we mentioned it before 325 laps 500 miles the stages 105 the first two and 115 at the speed on pit road with the checkered flag, pay close attention 45 miles per hour, the fuel window of 58 to 62 laps, but yes, a tire window of 30 to 40 turns. 40 laps, it will slow down about two and a half seconds with new tires and we will have a Competition Warning on lap 25 and remind Mike of the rules: you can't put fuel in the car until that competition warning Larry 13 sets of tires, they are as many tires as these teams had to go 600 miles at Charlotte a couple of weeks ago Mike, if you run five laps and that caution comes out, they're pretty simple new tires this time, if enough warnings come in, they could use each of those settings today Mike Well, let's take a look at Ford's performance data on the track today.

Ford has won the last three races here in Atlanta. - by Brad Keselowski and won by Kevin Harvick the safety vehicle is in and Hayley Hartwig withdraws from the Honors scholarship and the Baylor graduate resigns from the green flag were underway in Atlanta Elliott Logano then everyone and we already saw right there in the start sometimes the outside team is a little disadvantaged when you are in the front row we saw it and aric almirola when he took off there that car didn't pick up speed it already lost a couple of positions Kurt Busch serving his passing penalty for not passing the inspection three times that will get him to the end of the lead lap when he picks up speed again Mike chases his dad Bill Elliott won here five times that's the first lap chase to land in a Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, there same, remember just a week ago, these two guys that are now one, two, Joey Logano, chasing Elliott looking for that win, you see right there, Kurt Busch coming off pit road, he'll be a lap down at the start of this race , that will be expensive.

That team's mistake was not enough to pass inspection. Erik Jones moves up to eighth place. Here comes Jimmy Johnson. He already got two from the start. These are the other Bush brothers. They told me the corn brothers, now wait, what is Kevin Harvick doing in it? top pace that guy that guy only knows one line over here that Harvick line around the bottom and he passes by his teammate using that top pace experimenting maybe well hey you go where the driver and the car aren't in front of you when they're hitting so big in the air you need clean air and that's what makes Kevin Harvick so good it's not really much we laugh about it and show how good he is deep down and he gets that clean air. he goes back to the bottom, but he showed right there that he has a fast race car and that he is willing to put that car where it needs to be, right behind the guy Eric Jones on the move, he's already gained four spots.

I can't even emphasize it. You, Mike, how challenging it is to take the corners here at 180 one hundred and ninety miles an hour, all the bumps, getting the heights right, getting the balance right, trying to hook the line around the bottom and doing it with absolutely no practice, look for both. guys, Eric Jones, a bubble, you know, there's a huge bomb in the bottom slot across one and two. They saw the two cars of Alex Bowman and Eric Jones turn sideways as they hit that bump. I'm bored here with early Jimmie Johnson's problems. BJ McLeod slid onto pit road in his own car that they wrecked last week, so they brought a super race car here.

Great interview with Pat Patterson this morning, bye BJ, but that's okay, Bubba Wallace out, Matt Kenseth moving up to 23rd, you can see on the right. There, how difficult it is for Matt Kenseth to keep those left side tires on the line at the bottom that got there, but he couldn't keep them there because it cost him a lot of time and that's the risk that Mike takes. Yes, there is speed when you hook that paint on the grip, that's because of the pain that is created when we see Christopher Bell going to the outside of Austin Dillon here, but if you miss that groove, if you missed that extra grip down there, you will lose . about half a second, that's laughing.

Wow, Ryan Blaney tire mounted on Jimmie Johnson, that's for 12th place, you know, Mike, you asked me about all those sets of tires we've run in seven laps, the pace is already down a

full

second and it looks good. There, Larry, I mean, these guys are looking for grip, they're looking all the way down the stretch. Jack trying to be very patient to get to the bottom of it. You saw him there with Brian Blaney, he went into the turn and in turn three he was off the throttle. and easy and still couldn't keep it on the bottom he slid down the track Jimmie Johnson came back remember this is a 25 lap sprint which is the distance to the competition yellow flag while Tyler Reddick accelerates by 13 and that was very costly for Ryan Blaney as he missed the bot lane in 3 and 4 now he has lost two positions he can lose a little more but he has lost a lot of momentum Kurt Busch hoping that no one is overtaken before the yellow competition he can get back to the lead lap the local boy chases to Elliott NASCAR more A popular driver leading his first laps in the Cup Series here.

The Honor QuikTrip 500

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are sponsored by Toyota and Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. 14

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laps in Atlanta if there was a home crowd here. They would be cheering on Chase Elliott leading his first laps of the Cup Series in Atlanta. 14 complete and he has led them all. You see Chase Elliott leading this race and hooking that red and white line around the bottom. I promise you it's not easy to do. Look, you see Bubba Wallace get a little push from John Hunter Nemechek in turn three hooks the line perfectly but right there in the middle there's a bump and it looked like it might be loaded, the front tire dumped the rear tire and it almost went sideways. , was this Watch Clint Bowyer do the same area, almost exactly the same as the paint, which is about 12 inches, why maybe 13 inches wide, about the same width as the tire, will help me here.

Why is the front left like the line on the back left? Yeah, well, you know you want to have that left rear, remember this, the cars are yaw, I mean they slide around the corners slightly, so there you go, that shows you the width of that area and it varies. On this race track, but that's how wide it is on the banking, you'll see drivers driving under the banking onto the apron to try to find some grip because as the rubber settles on that red painted strip and white, now it will add grip. here comes aric almirola looking for second place joey logano is around newman moving up to 15th yeah this is a buddy turn going back and forth in the last few laps and look at them going up the track down and turning three and four tires starting to place on this track to the fence Kevin Harvick started ninth, took three quickly here he is in sixth place Jamie when I talked to Rodney Childers this morning he told me after the Xfinity race yesterday that he talked to his teammate Chase Briscoe, his head of equipment. and he reminded her that these new tires, which are the same in both

series

, have much more stagger than last year.

Sir Rodney took that information and tuned the car this morning, so what's Kevin's fan? Now let's go for a lap and listen to the Chicago is not back there, you can't ride with the driver who does it best and that's why Kevin Harvick has led so many laps at this track. You hear how it doesn't fully accelerate, I don't believe it. There is no one smoother than Kevin Harvick transitioning off the throttle using the brake at the same time placing the car smoothly on the track and coming to the line in the perfect spot as he passes Kyle Busch, you saw what happened. with the two cars, Brad Keselowski, right in front of them while we were on board, Brad just went off that line a little bit and Kevin was patient, two, just wait, wait, wait to stay in that line longer before accelerate and he. shot by yes, Brad Keselowski, it's a beautiful thing to see and for me as a competitor to listen to it and I could watch it over and over again and I'm not duplicated, well it was four laps of the competition caution chase, Elliott led them. everything and Kurt Busch has been working hard to be the first car on the lead lap and so far he was.

JJ Haley was a lap down, so Kurt will have to work hard if he wants to get the bye at the race yellow flag. Elliott has led the most laps in Atlanta since his debut in 1992, bill 102, that day, yeah, that was a pretty quiet day, a lot of history did that too, so Kurt Busch will have to get past JJ Yeley and Josh. Palicki is now the first car a lap behind, they have their mission accomplished right there with two and a half laps to go in this first stint, so Kurt Busch has practically undone the penalty for failing inspection three times by having than starting from the back and making a pass down pit road on what was everyone else's green flag, my boss, oh, he's gaining some confidence in his race car because he's got a good enough race car to to drive to second place.

Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick are working to return Aric Almirola. in the second panel, of course, we're, I mean, second place, second place in the running order, you know, on the track, he knows he can compete with these guys once he gets back, you know, a Once this competition warning comes out, it will come back with the field Jimmie Johnson taking 11 from Denny Hamlin maybe here maybe as soon as you can see how that momentum takes you from that higher pace here goes Denny Hamlin to the high group it's a much longer place You know, laying on the track and you give up a lot of time in the middle and you go into the corner, but see what it does on the exit when that car gets the grip of that top part or if you lose the bottom part, see how much you can win by watching what Denny Hamlin is doing on that top team.

My shots from our Chevy onboard camera are traveling seven strokes as he lines up and we should see the competition yellow flag here with 25 full cycles there, so Chase Elliott led the first 25 laps. Daniel Suárez in 31st place, the last car. the leader's lap and Kurt Busch will get the free pass so all teams have a chance to review things and Larry can put together our credible communication race strategy. Well, let's go back to the analysis of the race. Mike, the fuel window is58 to 62 laps. So if you look at the 100 500 515 stage links, all you would have to do is one stop at each of those stages, but remember the tire window.

From 30 to 40 laps, they have 13 sets of tires. Actually, what these teams will do. "We'll probably split all the stages, even including this one where we had to be cautious to compete. You'll split them into thirds, try to make the most of those four new tires each time. Thanks Larry, that increases the windows a lot for who, then" . You're going to want to go on tires, you can go that far, but you don't want to, there's an Alan Gustafson ready to not go over the wall, but be on the wall. Remember that NASCAR continues to operate with a reduced number of crew members allowed on the track for each one. team, they have to check in early in the morning, they have to have their temperature and health checked and then they are allowed to enter the facility and get ready to run, there is no practice, there is no qualifying, line them up, let it break, yeah, and a lot of people in pit lane doing jobs they had never done before, like that, crew chief Alan Gustafson, several others doing the same when they got to the pits Jamie and Shake belly we saw their crew chief pulling the tire also their engineer in the front, you see Alan Gus then reaching out and told me he actually really enjoyed the little bonding experience for the pit crew working together chase Maggie wants it in the illusion of the ride lose track bar adjustment four tires, then the nine and that's something else, this track is going to change a lot, you have to be very careful about making too many adjustments here early, you don't want to fall behind the race track in the adjustments, but you have to be careful because here it will take a direction totally different Joey Logano and Kyle Busch win the race out of the pits Kyle Plus three positions, so 31 cars on the lead lap, including Daniel Suarez, our good cold coke, buckle up, we're watching NASCAR on Fox, the

folds

of Honor QuikTrip 500 is sponsored by four Ford Braun built, led 29 laps here in Atlanta by Joey Logano after the pit stops.

Heights and particularly where that splitter is located are always a big issue here in Atlanta, so where is the sweet spot for that front splitter? Yes, you can see how the air moves around the front of the car, that low pressure area and the distance to that divider. It's very important to stay on this race track too low, there's no downforce at all, throw darts at it, get it right, although, yeah, the goal, hit the sweet spot, you know, I didn't have to deal with the front splitter on my 18 years as team leader. Like he throws darts every week he's good and ready to go Chevy Silverado makes a sharp left turn toward pit road here we go back to green at 30 full laps three and three And three wide oh one on the wall wait William Byron no, this could already be loose, we have a problem with the tires, but he is coming to pit road, yes, he definitely made contact without the outside wall, fourth place marked.

Rex attempted that high side right on the restart, but Kyle Busch will prevail and move up to fourth behind the Fords of Logano Harvick and Boyer see that the contact between teammates Kyle Busch and Mark Jerk Jr upset the car quite a bit, the car No. 18, how about Tyler Reddick makes it to the top slot and gets to the front in sixth position? William Byron has a flat tire. he was running 14 and lost a lap here it's in the bottom right center of the screen against the wall on the 24th yeah it's hard to say if there was any contact there was a lot of three wide running on that restart.

Someone made contact with him, they cut the tire, we've seen a lot of that this year, but he clearly went into turn three. William Byron on that card 24, just goes up the track, pretty sure it's a right rear tire that's down. Of course it could also have been a left here and at these speeds Jeff was lucky to get away with that little damage, yeah I mean you know you have to have all the lateral force and downforce on the race car in this abrasive track that you can see. they spent some extra time on pit road to fix that damage, yes Jeff, it was a left rear tire that was down, yes, that tells me that there was contact between, you know, and another car, which probably caused that left rear fell off, so another The early race problem for William Byron, as fourth place is going to heat up here in a second, we have Boyer Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, as we have Blaney Bowman and Stenhouse there, I think we're sorry, you know Stewart-Haas.

Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick's cars have good speed, but maybe they don't take off as fast and we've seen that in these cars in the past, even especially for Kevin Harvick, as many laps as he led takes a little bit of time. his car came in right here Clint Boyer had a little trouble as the jgr Toyotas passed to the inside, Clint Bowyer made those passes right behind these two and on the move, Tyler Redick restarted 12th, he's up for 6th, he made a lot of gains at the beginning of this race and that continues and he continues to show speed Tyler Eddy and is just ahead of the right pair Keselowski and Elliott.

Sorry Michael, I'm curious to see what line Reddick uses. because I think if this guy is one of those guys that climbs the fence and runs and rides the fence and right now we saw that he's working from the bottom, here's a pass for leader Kevin Harvick to the bottom. I can't tell if that inside line painted at the bottom of the racetrack is his friend or not, he gets off there on the hooks of the car and then just wants to jump to the side, yeah it's bad even when you hit him well, it's not easy. achieve, but how about achieving this?

Kevin Harvick just led his 10,000th lap and that's just since he's been driving for Stewart-Haas running 14,000 426 laps throughout his Cup Series career. Now since 2014, look at all the laps he's led and I will share them. If I'm Kevin Harvick, I'm looking at that stat, yeah, I love that last 11. I'll help out before the wins. I had to put that into perspective. That's 49 percent of the laps run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in those years. Now here is the second one. place tracks coming to the front Joey can't run all the way down you can see him he's looking up here's another passerby Bowman reaching 14 members this this car Alex Bowman's 88 car that car he wanted in California that's an abrasive race track despite It is a very different size than the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

I'm going to keep my eye on him as well to see if he can back up the performance that team had earlier in the year. 39 full laps Kevin Harvick ahead of Martin Truex by a total of second Chevy vows to get him back on the road with confidence and ease. Visit Chevy. He calmly worries to learn more. 45 complete laps as he drives with Jimmie Johnson in 10th place, 9 seconds behind Kevin Harvick's lead over Martin. Truex and Kyle Busch it's good that these drivers are in shape, especially Jimmie Johnson as he focuses on his fitness because these drivers are going to be exhausted.

You saw a photo of Jimmie Johnson holding the steering wheel and how much he is working in that direction. roll through these corners through these bumps, let's see, we talked about the front splitter now, obviously on the straight you'll have air pushing the back of the spoiler down, maybe even trying to lift the front of the car, but there's a way it goes into the bank and it compresses into the corner, you can see there's a bump for Jimmie Johnson when he goes over that bump and that just shows you how these teams really have to map that based on how much he goes. to compress and how you know the gains that travel into the corners and then how you have to overcome these bumps and still create good downforce and a good platform and Jeff that didn't seem like a big deal, but every time you go up, the car loses a ton of front downforce. ton, front grip and tires good Tyler Reddick is not losing anything, in fact he continues to march towards the front areas below Chase Elliott, here is an example of chasing, Elliott goes to the back, Tyler Reddick up, top note, now chase to Elliott, he was almost tires on the left side until the platform was very low but he talked about being loose and right there you saw the car come loose on him right there in the hair here is Kevin, I doubt the other end of the race track what I find with Kevin is when he misses instead of staying on the gas, he just waits, he's more patient with holding the left side tires, both left front and left rear, below that line almost on the deck and he's very Be patient with the car before accelerating.

Tyler Reddick tries again as they split Josh Palicki ahead of the 7 8 9 cars and frame right there and he goes to complete the pass. Not at all. Jamie. A small problem in Choo's departure. He needs to work on that to get some time back. there and you guys mentioned the obstacles, he said he's getting loose and coming out with those bottoms trying to figure out who's doing it and you've got Brad Keselowski moving around, what if Kurt Busch got the free pass on the contest caution and he's made the most would have put him at 31st, but he's up to 50th at this point since the restart.

There are people here who move more, including Busch and Redick, the one in the 9 + 17, Mike, the one in the 8, to use me, that one is 17 younger. On that, I could promise you some frustration from what happened before this race started and having problems at inspection and then having to fight to get back on the lead lap. He knows he has a fast race car and that's it. What's driving Kurt Busch right now through this field and Larry, if you skip an inspection and fail it, is that often it's one thing to get back into tolerance and that leaves something else out of tolerance.

I think that happens most of the time, Mike, and again, we're not talking about center 18 inches, we're talking about thousands and you know they're pushing it to the limit or everything about that car, so yeah, you're just a stuff. to get it right you could certainly get another one off and I think that's what happens pretty regularly. It's interesting to see rich young guys marked second running lap times pretty much the same as our leader Kevin Harvick, he's running a different line down here. in 3 and 4, pretty much the same thing Kevin Harvick is doing, doing a good job, probably learning a lot watching Kevin Harvick how he hooks that line, even with as many laps as Church here, you always learn from other runners, but when you go down in turn one and two when we're about to go in look how your ex is different here now of course this time he goes for the bottom because he had to pass that cover back in the moment before, I love that now that was looking On the track, he moved up the track and I heard that maybe he's trying to conserve the tires because he feels how much they're dropping in seventh place.

Now Riddick Keselowski chases Elliott in front of them and Keselowski completes the pass, except look at Kevin Harvick here now. If I had to guess, there's probably a duck that's pushing air into the car, that's raising its hand and maybe just feeling that cool air a little bit, it's hot and humid in Atlanta today, Kevin Harvick is your leader, that's not it. no surprise. on Martin Trix Kyle Busch Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer Harvick at the helm since 1960 one of America's best racing venues Atlanta Motor Speedway Kevin Harvick is your leader now we race later and warmer in the year than usual and stage one It's 20 laps longer than last year and look at that 85 degree temperature, we don't have humidity but it's high and Mike, you know, the track is slipperier and it's hotter inside this car race, so these drivers are They're used to it, they're used to working hard, but in much colder conditions, Larry, yes, and as a crew chief on a high-speed track, we're trying to do everything we can to keep air out of the car because the more you can Preventing that from happening will help the car's strength, so use our Ford cutaway car to show you what they are really doing.

You see here, this is a NACA conduit and you see these hoses running there and right there is where Kevin was holding his hand and the good thing about an Atkins I. I'm in the car, Mike and Jeff, but it wasn't like that. It really doesn't hurt that much drag or straight line speed, Jeff. I imagine that it is not so important that your hand is cold but that it is dry. You're going to sweat a lot in this humidity, yes, especially these guys who work as hard as Kevin Harvick. You know, those hands are very important in that grip, in the way you hold the steering wheel, in the feeling that you have. and when your hands are sweating, that glove slips, that steering wheel slips and you obviously know it's a feeling that Kevin chases andplaces.

I think this is a pretty common thing he does when things started to get heated and he holds her hand. up to cool it down Ryan Blaney up by 12 looking back from our advanced auto parts camera to aric almirola who will try to get back through the 12 place battle here behind Erik Jones Larry Mac I know you have plenty of fuel, but how about those tires? Well Mike, I raced again on lap 30, so it's 75 laps until the end of stage 1 again. Remember what I said before. I think what some of them do is they split this in half, so I look at within the next four or five maybe six laps starting.

You get to the pits and once a driver comes in, you can't afford to stay there because you're going to give up two to two and a half seconds a lap to those older tires for a push up to 13th, but now you're recovering from that. that. penalty thanks Larry quit half has already been on pit road he is three down and to update William Byron who is now seven laps down they said they had a problem on the competition caution pit stop and damaged the stem of the valve on the left rear tire, you know.

I see this happen from time to time when the six-car Ryan Newman pulls into the pits, one of the first cars to show the rest of the field with those four new Goodyear tires and a little damage on the right side that may have waited until the end . decision to have all six cars on pit road early, but yeah Mike, it's easy since they dropped the jack when others got to pit road and that tire spun slightly when the tire changed, pulling that gun back back and can hit the valve stem very easily to knock. Take it off and get all the air out of that tire.

Blaney on the right is on pit road. Harvick comes, our Truex takes over Harvick's leadership. Jamie on an attack on the pit crew for Kevin Harvick. The fastest in 2020 so far, averaging 13.8 seconds. saying the car is pretty good, but then it took the lead, it's been good and clean air, you also see Alex Bowman's 88 on the green flag, he stops on lap 66, most of the lead lap cars are in their box or they come to the pits. way now Ryan Newman to come in quick well I'm just going to say Mike you know another thing these drivers haven't had a chance to practice is coming onto pit road with hot slicks brad keselowski for new good years we'll take a throttle Matt dibenedetto the same tricks that now lead from Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch in the pit stop cycle.

Now up to third Brad Keselowski to get in fast, so under green step penalty, okay. Truex and Kyle Busch give up and come to pit road. Jamie, frankly, when he looks at the tricks, it's a mile and a half track record team that has never won in Atlanta and has done so in 2020. Kirk is a little bit sideways in the box with him. I'm employed, I didn't have any suggestions to change at all four. Tire Stop: Kyle Busch's team gets to work when Mark trips Jr. sideways in that pit had difficulty getting around the car that was in the pits behind them, so Chase Elliott pulled away from race leader Kurt Busch, from worst to first in 68 laps, how about the words that came out of my mouth?

Mike and now he hit Kurt Busch. He's made it to pit road, so Kevin Harvick should take the lead again and will have a three and a half second lead over Truex as you watch Brad Keselowski take his penalty. Harvick had only a half second lead before the pit stops and seven seconds behind the third place car will now have a lead of almost four seconds and a bigger gap to third place and that's all it's two laps, my two extra laps that mark the jerseys were on the track with older tires versus Kevin Harvick. Coming in and getting four new Goodyears now that the hope is fearing March 19, our junior and James Small, his crew chief, that strategy call, will you make up that time now that you have a little bit newer tires if you can go all the way? time?

Heading to the end of this stage, one Kevin Harvick finished, driving crew chief Rodney Childers and his team put him in front by a larger margin here on lap 70, 74 full laps in Atlanta, that's Kevin Harvick disappearing into the distance, so imagine the surface here. like the grill and it's 128 degrees on that surface and those are the tires that just came off, it looks like Clint Bowyer's car, maybe I saw 14 there on the sidewall, so let's talk about tire wear here, well , this track grinds those tires, it's so firm if the rocks are sticking out, yeah that's what constitutes the stray and it's like a cheese grater.

I'm not sure how you like the grated cheese mic on your nachos, that's always constantly there Larry, that's cheese for nachos, you have animations. I got the real deal here like. A cheese grater simply grinds the gum. I mean, every lap around this track, the rubber just comes off. I usually used to tell my guys not to even roll the tires on the car, take them there. I can't wait to see that. on your expense report Hi Aric Almirola, unscheduled stop here. 29 to start on stage, so if you think about the cheese grater that Larry Mac was showing us there, the more pressure you put on it, the more the bet rubber will break. the race off the tire, so think about that, if you drive faster into the corner, you're pushing that tire onto the track harder, it's just going to squeak it a lot more, so you have to be careful how you drive them first. first laps of these races because if you push too hard you could fade much further back in the field in the long race, so Harvick is two seconds ahead of Martin Truex and ten ahead of Clint Boyer with 20 cars on the lead lap before today's race.

Jamie Little spoke to Coca-Cola Racing family driver Daniel Suarez, it's much bigger than the racing happening in our country right now. One of the first drivers to talk about this since the death of George Floyd was Daniel Suárez and Daniel, since you looked around. In recent days, have you seen signs of hope? You know, I really take this very, very seriously. I hate seeing these things the way I am and you know me. I'm not the type of person. I'm going to keep silent about it. I know it really hurts a lot to see these situations, obviously we are in the 21st century and this should not happen anymore and obviously you know we sing just a little bit about why it is happening in the world and in the country. every person has a cell phone and is filming everything that is happening and I simply cannot tolerate the black community, the Asian community, the Muslim community, the Latino community suffering like this it is not fair.

I feel like it really is time for a change. we have to work together on this in today's world not being racist is not enough that is not enough because there are millions of people in this country who do not resist but perhaps they do not feel in the position where they have to push and the reality that they will let the black community and all these communities work on this on their own, no one will ever make the change, so we have to work together, we have to be anti-racist so we can help them and help together and work together to make better water, a county for everyone, that's what we have to do and I will be there very proud to be Mexican, all these black people, community action community, they have to be proud of having a different skin. color and coming from different places, that's what it's all about, so you know, we have to work together, push in the same direction, really make a change, obviously, totally ready, we have a spare, a very nice paint scheme with coke -cola, you know, coca-cola, so we support different programs around the world in the country and this time I am really no exception to donate two point five million dollars in grant to the coca-cola foundation and also match the employee donation, so I'm very proud to be a part of this. program with them and I really hope that together we really make a change and we will put Daniel Suarez in 82 laps 243 left Kevin Harvick leads looking at Bubba Wallace who is 17th behind him Matt DiBenedetto Cole Custer and Austin Dillon just went a lap down the #20 car Bubba Wallace was on Dale Junior's podcast at Katz's this week the dirty moe podcast you can hear that great conversation and also on Instagram ty Dillon and Bubba had a tremendous conversation, I saw that they both listened learned a lot and you did too You know, that conversation that these two individuals had and shared with the public was a great moment for our sport.

Ty Dillon 22nd and just off the lead lap by a car or two here, Chris Buescher ahead of him and his older brother Austin. is the first car that is a lap down, Aric Almirola made that unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel and that removed the number 10 from the lead lap, but now he is just one lap behind Matt Kenseth, who is on the Leading lap in lap 42. How about this advantage at the front? Mike. We have seen these newer tires on trick jr's 19 mark. he's not saving tires anymore, he's really closed this gap to over four seconds behind our leader Kevin Harvick, he's now just a few tenths behind, you know, even though he's got those two laps fresher on the tires, you know, there's a point where it definitely evens out, but I think we might be seeing, it's like that Jeff, you know, it depends so much on how hard you run it at the beginning of a race, that's going to be the life of those tires, switch to Martin Truex up front and I know Harvick.

I don't think Harvick has slowed down, he's still 11 seconds ahead of the third place car, but Truex right now is a rocket, well he is and I think Kevin may have worn out his tires a little bit, but he's been slowing down. losing the bottom line, which is uncharacteristic of Kevin Harvick, that's what's on board here with Kevin as he tries to hook that white and red line there and you see that the 19 tricks have found something in that top groove and that's where he made that pass happen. Kevin Harvick made a mistake. Truex had the momentum. and I made that pass around the back immediately, but Jeff we heard earlier that Truex ran a little easier at the beginning of the race.

I think that's paying dividends now, with 18 laps left in stage one, you won't miss a minute. to take you Fox side by side 91 full laps here in Atlanta Martin Truex the race leader targeting Bubba Wallace the 17th place car let's go back and check that pass for the lead and we'll say it today is tied clean pass, this is Kevin Harvick, our leader, coming out of a curve in which he lost a lot of speed and on March 19, Rex jr. I gained a lot of speed using that top groove that makes the pla nice and clean and easy and turns three and four.

Matt can't really see where Kevin Harvick you made any mistakes or got too far off the bottom, they just looked like Marc trucks. Jr has a lot more grip right now at that top pace, you're tied, clean pass, here's Jamie in the 4 and Kevin Harvick has led 46 laps today and just radioed his team and told Rodney Childers after he came out of adjustment, actually. I think that made me worse, so his car realized that he was leaving and Truex is in the office. Well, do you think Kevin could have called on the radio and told Rodney happy birthday? 44 today may not have been before the race, he just wants to take home a trophy because it's his birthday, but until then it will all be Martin Truex's business, who is taking some time to pass Bubba Wallace here and now makes the pass on the outside, oh, we have a top.

John hundred Nemechek spins coming out of turn four and who had the lucky rabbit's foot Bubba Wallace he's the free pass car which will be only the second caution flag of the day Nemechek was in 25th place he was out of control already I have seen many of these cars. I'm surprised we haven't seen this. It happened before, oh yeah, you could see that it actually started in the middle of the corner, there was John, his Nemechek couldn't shine in the paint, oh yeah, he just got up and didn't even get to the middle of the body and the car turns, it also didn't have a lot of air coming in front and over the car to create downforce because there was a car right in front of it, so you rode with Chase Elliott there, how do you know if that car?

It's going to slide up or down the track, yeah, I mean, you really just have to, you know, slow down, but you can't hit the brakes or start locking the tires, you're going too fast, you know, But but. you look at how fast or slow they spin and they spin slow they'll usually go all the way down, if they slow down they spin fast they'll go up the wall okay hold the phone this just on Matt DiBenedetto. it's the free pass car because Martin Truex had just lapped it right before the last scoring loop before the caution flag DiBenedetto and dad are still on the lead lap he went back out he went back to the front he was actually ahead of our leaderwhen the yellow flag came Yeah, and look who's on pit road, there may only be ten laps left at this stage, but you want new rubber.

Yeah, I don't understand anyone staying there, so 17 cars with laps leading plus DiBenedetto and again Bubba Wallace were ahead. Martin Truex then DiBenedetto the free pass car four four stars for everyone it seems and here is the RAM race out of the pits Truex Harvick not by much and four tires for everyone Jimmie Johnson gains two places this is how close he was on the line timing that's close, yes it's lining up for the restart, it's like a lot of cars are taking the wave as we are 12 laps from the end of this stage. Now look at Tyler Redick, the blue and white car, Erik Jones in yellow, right behind him and Denny.

Hamlin out, yeah, Tyler Red is going to make an evasive left turn here, maybe just watching his pit stall and Erik Jones has to make a move to avoid it and that sends teammate Denny Hamlin to the grass, no contact between Jones' 20. and Denny Hamlin's 11, but sometimes you can pick up grass on that front grill, which lets you know that air allows air to get into the radiator, so I'm sure the team he had to verify that on pit road. So half the field waved sharply and about 10 of them got back on the lead lap, but now there are only seven laps left at this stage and a group of others picked up one of the laps they were down, let's listen. to a team of Clint Boyars and spotter Brett Griffin on the restart Boyer restarts third behind Truex and Harvick here we go anyone on their own they would love it's that feeling of everyone playing get away you don't have there you go back to the four boyeur and Kyle Busch fight for second place behind Truex, well there's some great action there on the restart, it's so hard not to spin the tires and when you're on the front row it's easy for the cars behind you to just roll with maybe half a mile an hour faster speed and they can come right at your bumpers they were three wide now going into turn three Denny Hamlin locked on the inside kept Stenhouse on the inside Tyler etic Stenhouse wants those points organized from the inside he gets Reddick and Hamlin are also now chasing Elliott and looking to chase Elliott and Joey Logano those two just can't separate themselves from each other Jimmy Johnson 48th in position to get the final point of the stage with four to go Erik's 20th voice Jones trying to make a move on Kevin Harvick for fourth place, he'll end up losing three spots, you'll see the back of that car slide coming out of turn four and Stenhouse is still moving forward now, he and Tyler Etic are going to fight side by side as I watched Jones from Johnson from 5 to 10. all under a blanket here in the last laps of stage one, yes, no need to save tires, Mike, they know they are going to reach the end of this stage, they are going to put four zones New Goodyears, so fight for it, go ahead, this is what is at stake.

Here, next week's starting lineup is set by scent points. If you are in the top twelve, you can choose in the first wave. If you are in 13th place, you have to choose in the second wave. So how do you leave this race in points? determines if you start 1 or 24 it's Jones the power around Johnson for 8 Joey Logano the power moved in will bring in Christopher Bell as they go Tyler etic great fighting in a stage one closes in on a close 4th place here with us , the Toyotas are watchingWell, Joe Gibbs Racing runs his first cow, Busch, second, now Hamlin passes Harvick in fourth, of course, don't forget our friend, good guy, there in third, Martin Truex, who was the king of stage racing when it was introduced, has never won a stage. in Atlanta he has never won a stage this year and all that just changed Martin Truex by three tenths of a second over Kyle Busch, wins stage one, Boyer Hamlin Harvick, in the top five and Martin Truex takes his first stage victory of 2020 in Honor QuikTrip. 500 is sponsored by Credit One Bank, the official credit card of NASCAR, perfect for racing fans, and Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

At the end of stage one, Martin Truex Jr, winner of stage one, but on this week's Friday Night Smackdown. Bryan and AJ Styles face off in a dream showdown in the finals of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament. You can get Daniel and AJ as they will be the grand marshals in the EMU maximum pain relief 500 blue for Martinsville on Wednesday on fs1 at 7pm. This, just two days before they meet for the championship, the petrodes will be open, we gave them the top five when we managed to break from six to ten winning stage points, chasing Elliott Ricky Stenhouse Erik Jones Jimmie Johnson Ryan Blaney, but some of those drivers who say hello "They're crying for tires now that the costume was perfect for them, so now we're back to 28 cars on the lead lap plus John Hunter Nemechek, the free pass car, Jamie Kevin Harvick, of course, no he liked the last adjustment," he said. got a little loose at one point where the gain team is, but also the Playboy 14 are trying to do a wedge adjustment on the last stop and the wedge key, yeah, one thing I see there, Jeff, is that many drivers do not stop. very shallow in the box if they can because it's been difficult to get out and how about Clint Boyer takes two spots to take the lead?

Let's say we mark your stage winner there Marc Tricks Jr. Hey Martin, this is Jeff and Mike at the Fox Sports studios, you got us, yeah, go ahead, yeah, well man, you're the king of the stages, you win more stage wins than any other driver in recent years. I couldn't believe it when I saw the stage. win this season very good, looks good keep up the good work thanks everyone, no problem Martin Truex is the fastest lap of the race came just four laps before the end of stage one QuikTrip 500 is sponsored by Progressive Insurance, save when combine auto, home or

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cycle insurance and by order from Pizza Hut today at Pizza Hut comm we want to thank all the military families who have been tuning in and tweeting

honor

ing today's Honor QuikTrip 500 folds and remembering those who served and those that we have lost so that today on lap 113 we have a special memory we are at 111 full laps about to turn green for stage number 2 Clint Boyer Martin Truex the field lined up behind them on the backstretch Kyle Busch Denny Hamlin line up to chasing Elliott Kevin Harvick third row Jimmie Johnson Eric Jones and Joey Logano made an extra pit stop to repair the damage to the right side he suffered coming out of the pits.

We talked about how small these boxes are. There's been a lot of action trying to get in and out of those pits on pit road. Today they also say that he may have made contact with Matt Kenseth's car, so this will begin the race for stage 2, also 105 laps long, and here they come to the quarterback of the Geico restart zone with his own electronic bumper tandem you are driving. away from the pressure bottles I'm going to deliver has been a pill on how can the cops to my mental feedback to the top on the quarterback coming outside Martin Truex on the outside of Clint Boyer we completed 113 laps for each of the last five Races at Atlanta Atlanta Motor Speedway and Folds of Honor provided fans with a folded paper flag to hold on lap 13 of the race. 13 is symbolic, representing the 13 original colonies and the 13 folds of a folded flag.

Today fans have been posting their flags to show

honor

and respect. and we salute you all here on lap 113 the fight for clean air oh yeah, well these two guys have it because you've got Rex jr marked. On the outside, with a clip of clean air, you're fighting in that inside lane, but you're right Mike, they don't want to give up that clean air, so this battle continues. Clint Bowyer may have the advantage now in the bottom groove. You see, Trex was able to hold tight on that outside for the first few laps, but as those tires started to lose grip with each lap, the bottom slot was the sweet spot.

Jamie's lawyer said he doesn't have the grip he feels. The guys around him, the guy, really sent him into turn three trying to establish that lead and he did. Hamlin now stepped up to chase Elliott for third place and what a bottom feeder and chase to the edge riding well like you said, he could be looking for that clean air, you know? If you go and follow Denny Hamlin to the end of this track, you will lose a lot of downforce, so Chase chooses to go up the track and ride you into one of those scenes that make up the different lanes.

The tires get into those seams and lose a There's a lot of grip there, so you feel like you're straddling, but getting that clean air carries the momentum from the top pace. Alright kid, your leader Truex Hamlin Elliott and Kyle Busch have been in the top five most of the day. Here, Larry, let's take a look. right combination sponsored by Subway, yes we'll focus on that 18 car. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch and crew chief Adam Stevens, this is their sixth season together in Cup, they've already won two championships together . 2015-2019, 27 Cup wins together as a duo and here's a little Larry McNugget on Kyle Busch before Adam Stevens joined him.

Kyle's first win with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota's first Cup win was here at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the spring of 2008, so Kyle and Adam are hoping they can find the right meter combination to give Kyle his third win in Atlanta when he comes here eighth in points, Larry, that's uncut: the season is not good, but one thing I'm seeing Mike is that the Joe Gibbs Toyota drivers look like they're coming to life because right now I'm looking at the four in the top ten, it's like they keep closing in on everyone else right now and Larry, I find something interesting here today is that we've seen these Joe Gibbs Toyota is very fast here and three of them are in the top ten. the first five.

This track has curves. We talk about how abrasive it is, how much the tires fall off. This track has bigger turns than any other mile and a half we go to. These teams have talked about the lack of speed of the Toyota teams. Well, they don't lack speed in the corners today, so that's for sure. The last title win here was in 2013, seven years ago. The lawyer and Truex have a full second chasing Elliott third and we hear from Jamie. We talked in that report about Boyer about his car just not having grip on some of those around him as we watch the battle for ninth here Erik Jones Ryan Blaney, but Clint Boyer has clean air right now and I'd love to hear it. what he's saying about his race car because that clean air will give him the grip he's been looking for.

Jones passes blady and looks at the rear bumper at Alex Bowman Clint Boyer from our DeKalb corn cam. I bet he's not talking. His team is probably sitting there singing country songs, is there anything cuter than that? No, we'll be watching right, right now I'm Simon, yeah, Dad's in front for a second over Martin Truex 2.3 over Chase Elliott 2.7 over Denny Hamlin and it's It's not easy even when you're in front, that clean air you see, clip boy or the rear came out a little bit through the one and two, ninth place Erik Jones Alex Bowman yeah, this is a battle that's been going back and forth over the last few laps. and right in front of them, the last yellow flag free pass car, Matt DiBenedetto, has made the most of that in 21, he sure has a great race for him and that team, Wood Brothers, and right behind that group , Kurt Busch, which comes into play. here, after using a free pass to get back on the lead lap after being penalized for failing inspection three times before the race, I really feel that this is a type of track that really suits the driving style of Kurt Busch.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Monster Energy Chevrolet continue its path to the biggest car on the move since the reboot. Christopher Bell has now gained ten positions from 26th to 16th. Nice hot and humid day in Atlanta. Oh, I'd say it's time for lap 129. to get it going whoo, let's get it down the flappers in the middle look toward the bottom middle about moving away build or cry very gently three charges up to 27 Stan 135 complete turns I wonder when brad keselowski and jeremy bowens go out in public now they do. They wear a mask like us or they used one that covers their entire face except their eyes because they are going to delay another race.

Two were stolen recently. They did a great job. Hey, I always tell you. I know if you want to have good luck, you put yourself in the right position, take advantage of other people's bad luck, right, a competitor will take it any way you can get it and listen, those wins were important in killing Brad Keselowski and Jeremy Bones in that. combination and now that will give them confidence that if we have theright car, we can put ourselves in position to get more of those, but Jeff Richard Childress always told me that luck in racing is when preparation meets the theory of opportunity, so go for it. tail camera for Daniel Suárez in a moment of caution Larry I'm not going to give you the transistor no no no we're not ready yet Jamie 25 to mention Erik Jones comes with one of his best finishes of the year fits the glass he has I had some trouble here today even though he keeps it in 9th position right now, she had some kind of demise and now he says he's sorry again.

She told his crew chief, Chris Gayle, and Chris said we can't fix it right now. Let's hope. fewer cars on the lead lap so we don't lose as much. I can't imagine Jeb being a driver knowing your travesty but trying to hold on well, especially on this track because on this track we already hurt, which Clint Boyer talked about, it's like there's an egg under the gas pedal, so if It's very difficult to run smoothly on this track, especially in that lower groove, as Harvick does with his teammate Kyle Busch trying to make a move on Kevin Harvick here for fifth place and his other teammate Denny Hamlin here.

He got caught chasing Elliott behind Quinn Howell's slower car and Hamlin pounced, oh yeah, he might not have been sure where Chase Elliott was going to go, he just chased Elliott, he didn't know who Quinn was, how he was going to go when He went down that straight line, I think he chased him. Elliott hoped to go overseas. Quinn House moved up since he had to check and that momentum was shifted that way, allowing Denny Hamlin to get by Jeff, all he had asked for a turnaround car or a car about to be. lap keep your line be predictable don't surprise me yeah and maybe that was the line he ran last time but they closed on him so fast you know I don't know if Chase Elliott knew what line he was actually running if that's his line .

I'm going to get another rod and reel and throw a different one into the water. Okay, we're going to take a break here, so we'll come back for the green flag pit stops. Clint Boyer is moving a little further away from the lead. by Martin Truex you throughout history Atlanta Motor Speedway has been a place where getting to pit road getting in and out of the pits is very, very complicated short pits with no room for error and Larry with green flag pit stops in sight , remember what we talked about about our credible calm race strategy about dividing this stage into thirds that window is open to pit right around lap 145, then you would pit again latin-1 75 and there's the leader Clint, boy, so they're dividing us into thirds, so once he gets to the pits Mike, like a while ago, you can't be too far away Martin Jurek stays out, takes the lead from his teammate Denny Hamlin chases Elliott Kyle Busch Kevin Harvick your boyar makes his way to his spot that's what I'm waiting for What I want to see is how long the 19 stays out Jamie checks that tire in Vegas yeah as soon as Jamie said I heard something flapping and hitting the side panel, maybe it's the right rear tire, hiss, boy, or I made it to the pits.

Don't know. I know if that's what brought him in or if they just got really lucky with it and then it happened once he got to pit road okay so far no other interested party will take a look at the boyars lap times as he regains the speed. Chase Utley, oh. he's on the race track actually side 18 and the four that pass by Jamie just got confirmation. I heard Johnny Boz Mayer, the crew chief trying to get the lawyers to say yes, his right rear end was falling apart, okay, good thing it stopped, now the boyars sped up again, yes, that really happened. on the race track in three and four, just as Clint Boyer was coming into the pits, you can hear that the tread has now come loose from the tire and is flapping inside the crush panel, so the leader running with 33 ATS boyer on his first lap in speed 33 10 7/10 faster but Boyer is a lap behind of course things will move forward as they get to the outside here's the thing though Mike I feel Boyer will have to do another stop, but if we are not looking If someone else comes, I think they have decided to divide the stage in half and they should come in the next eight or ten laps, they will make a stop and, if we do not take caution, you will reach the end, but look here, hit the right rear tire coming off Clint Bowyer's car, you'll see that the tread on that tire was in big trouble, that's right, check it out right in the middle, only if you know one of the chords or that.

The tread just fell apart right there. I mean it might have been a stroke of luck for Clint's lawyer to pit when he did without further trouble, but I think that wasn't a scheduled stop, so Foyer is now the only car a lap down, so it would be the free pass car if we had a caution flag. Kyle Busch is third, 5.2 seconds off the lead, behind teammates Truex. and Hamlin yes Kevin Harvick the first Ford in fourth chase Elliott the first Chevy in fifth here today's best performing Toyotas I'd say they're performing pretty well guards Lynette Boyer with those newer tires passing by second place runner Denny Hamlin trying to get back on that lead lap has about three more seconds left to catch our leader Marc.

Give Boyer an advantage trying to get back on the lead lap. Ryan Blaney 11. We've seen Blaney get really close to the wall on the exit of the corner here these last few laps. Yes, the grip disappears. Mike, you're looking for anything you can. you can find and you will use every inch of this race track so you know you think there is actually a shock absorber and a wall of air that creates this bubble effect as you get closer to the wall, giving you a little more grip. a little extra downforce for the car, well you see Alex Bowman and you hear Brad Keselowski and they both slide away from the corner, there just aren't many race tracks, let's go Mike, where you don't go full throttle until you're so far from the corner it just tells you how much those tires were worn out, he left, he talked about being a cheese grater, that grip goes along with all those tires that are coming off, those rubbers that are coming off the tires, something like that like chasing Elliott Logano Kenseth.

The Newmans haven't been able to separate themselves and now they will as Ryan Newman takes his Roush Fenway towards pit road. Cole Custer behind him and they were both cars leading the lap, they will go one lap down with a stop that Alex Bowman comes to make. In the pitlane we saw him sliding into the corner, he's decided to do something about it and here's Austin Dillon, his Symbicort camera mounted on car number three: pit lane, shift into second gear to get down to pit road speed Matt Kenseth on Tyler Redick adjusting the right rear window to the 42 matt kenseth and chases Elliott headed to the pits many interested now Oh black kids go to this box just as the nine come in Jamie in pursuit Elliott just arrives at his box like today will shoot 26 laps a little tight and then it gets good Matt DiBenedetto takes out jimmie johnson in the lane Bubba Wallace has been on the lead lap all day, but at that moment, just before a yellow flag, he got licked, a nun licked Jamie and Kevin Harvick went from having what seemed like the best car in the field, he says it's a lot tighter, wants to go straight in the corners, he said the car was a terrible favela, right here, getting four Goodyears x' Erik Jones new and now Martin Truex, the leader of the race.

It can be difficult for this number 20 Jones car to get out of his box, luckily he had an opening in front of him as he was on his side in that box. Truex and Hamlin pass the lead to Brad Keselowski. Jamie in 792 is flying like the happiest pilot. all day just no suggestions for changes Denny Hamlin on the right saw the wedge key go into a wedge adjustment there, but he's been on this splitter and he's kept talking about it, his teammates had it before, but he He put the fuse in every time he enters and enters the pits.

He's in this footer a little tight too for Bubba Wallace's 11-second stop. It looks like something on the left rear maybe didn't get enough nuts. Tight, difficult to rest. Timmy Hill pitted just ahead. Now before the pit stops brand tricks have 2.1 seconds on Hamlin and that's now almost 3 yes, but if you go back further remember that Boyer had the lead before he had that problem with the right rear tire when going down to the pits. Will this cycle end? I think that's how it will be. Since he arrived so early, he has newer tires for longer, but can he hold on?

I think Boyer will be our leader as this goes through Jeff. My concern is that if we stay green, he will have to run 63 laps. on those sets of tires and remember you already had the problem on the right rear well before the 63 laps, that would be my concern, well I hope that right rear tire is not due to the setup or yes, I drove it, yes , just You know, sometimes weird things happen like Brad Keselowski in the pits and Larry, that's going to be my question. Looking at that tire that we saw coming off Boyer's car, it looked more like a setup issue or maybe an issue with that one. tire I mean, it could definitely be a single tire, Mike, but to me it looked like a race car that has the free side and just bypasses the right rear tire, okay, and we definitely saw that guy you're on working in that direction. the wheel slides the back of the car and you know they could do an air pressure adjustment but the problem is they didn't know the right rear tire had a problem before they put this set of tires on, at least I don't think so.

They had enough time to adjust four tires and a piece of tape on the nose for Keselowski and that makes us the leader of the race again 8 seconds ahead of Martin Truex and 10 ahead of Kyle Busch 11 ahead of Denny Hamlin and here it is as each of the top five stopped counting for the last time 46 to go in stage 2 of 3 in Atlanta Atlanta the skyline shoots out of the freeways you are surrounded the sprawling metropolis welcomes you to the south it is home to many stuff, fun food and music is a staple of every person here.

I bet you didn't know we have one of the largest aquariums in the world. Everyone has a name for this place. You have a, we call it ATL or we just call it the capital of the south. it's Atlanta chases Elliott talking about his hometown fighting right now for eight with Matt DiBenedetto Matt's up to the owner Matt DiBenedetto sliding up I'm doing a slide job right in front of Chase a lady comes out of turn two I'm chasing whatever What's happening With Chase Elliott's car today, he just can't run in that lower slot, he really has to run high.

I don't know if you know where his splitters are or just the balance of his race car, but you know he started from the pole. The laps led by position early in this race have shown signs of having some quick speed in this car at times, but right now I'm working on that long run, my shots from our Mountain Dew camera in the pursuit of Elliott's car , Jimmie Johnson, two cars ahead in seventh place and Johnson holding on. station about 12 seconds off the lead at the moment, so Johnson is no stranger to knowing his way around this racetrack with five wins.

You know, cars change tires, competition changes and you know right now, Jimmie Johnson, you've been looking to try to get back to the lead. winner's circle, but this is a track and he's confident he can't find his way and he's having a good race here today and his teammate, Alex Bowman, in the position ahead of him in seventh, having a good day , saw him just beat Timmy Hill, who ran in all three events here at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend, xfinity trucks and the Cup Series, so there's Clint Boyer and there's a look at his lead, which when the stops in pits were made was six seconds and now it has been reduced to two and Boyer has been told that they want him to try to stretch it and finish the stage.

It will be difficult for him to do it because you know he has been overheating the right rear tire. You know, we think he's just wearing out at the core. tire sliding the car and then, that's actually separating the wire by exposing it in the center, so you know he's going to make that last, he's going to have to drive the car very straight, so he's going to have to give up a little bit. speed here in the first half, don't forget to remember how hard he fought for that lead, that clean air with mark tricks jr. on that restart after this stage he had to get those tires going Oh, II and you saw the result when the right rear faced Jamie, there wasblisters, so they thought it wasn't air pressure related, it was a tire problem, okay, that's it. an abrasive track, a very long speed: - high speeds, it's like a bit of everything, but wow, that's when as a driver you don't want to know what that looks like when you think about Blitzen or tires, it's the same as The Blister on your skin it simply comes from excessive heat, but many times it comes from a race car that is very loose on a race track.

There is some reinforcement, so you're saying the child will have a blister on the toe of the accelerator foot. He will again have to run 63 laps to take this to the end, Mike, because we are still essentially 34 laps from the end of this stage. Remember he pitted on lap 147. I think that's doable with fuel, the way the pace slows down, but that's asking a lot of that right rear tire and if he stops Larry, it's already six cars a lap away. back, it would be difficult to get back to the leading lap before the end of the stage, yes, he would be the only one if he stopped.

He would be the only one who would do this in two stops and it's like I put them in a box of mine and Larry for me if they are going to stop, they have to stop right now, they have to take that risk, but you I saw how much time Boyer lost in the turn two, he was trying to run that line, that white and red line and he slid down and did a big slide abusing the right rear tire, one more chase for ninth place and Brad and Jimmy, yeah, clothes. rape Jimmy Johnson, you know, I was never good at running down the bottom and I wanted to mic the bumps at the angle you had to go in, you know, the patience you had to have.

I loved running that top groove right up against the wall or straddling it. seam, like we've seen Chase Le do now here at three and four, you almost have to be down to make the fastest laps. I think you can save those tires a little bit by running that line very high and a line wider. I know in turns three and four I'm sorry, turns one and two you have to be very disciplined to run down that lane, he's looking at Brad Keselowski he's passing Jimmie Johnson, he's trying to pass to chase Elliott, that's Reed Sorenson at seven to the high side. another Atlanta native, Sorenson Peachtree City, so now Martin Truex can target the guy in the clip, he's got it down to four tenths of a second and getting close, but that advantage of those new tires I'm starting to see level out a little bit.

A little bit for Mark Turek junior because that last lap was actually just a tenth faster, where he had been six, eight tenths of a second faster every lap, eighth and ninth here and Eric Jones trying to get back into the top ten and I wonder . If Jimmy Johnson also feels something in those tires, did he overheat a tire or maybe even blister a tire because he's been losing a lot of positions these last few lives trying to get to the end of stage 2, which is 28 laps away. emotion? of Jimmie Johnson and Ally Chevrolet's 48 coming out of the turn for #20 Stanley Toyota Erik Jones looking to pass Jimmy Don on the underside does it pretty easily Ryan Blaney 12:10 closing in on Johnson makes the pass, yeah I mean , when Jimmy Johnson, you know, is not putting up any kind of fight for these positions.

I really think he's just trying to preserve that car right now and those tires. Jami'a Martin Truex is very happy with the car. Everyone had some suggestions today, but he Now he says that you guys pushed your butts too tight and that's in the closet, even though he's now he's moving up the road and taking control of the blade. I don't think the guy is going to put up much of a fight here because again he's just trying. get to the end of this stage and take care of those tires but now what marked Rex jr.

What you have to think about is that his teammate, Kyle Busch, has been moving up to close that gap, he will go to second place around the Boyer clip. Boyer is just trying to stay on the lead lap until the end of the stage and he can do it. Don't overuse those tires Tourette is trying to create a little distance here, I said that last time, I know there's a little traffic, but hey, the Cowboys fast are calling the drag strip, so the advantage it narrows between the Joe Gibbs Toyota teammates, yeah, I mean, it's a little frustrating, honestly, you know it's honestly one of my favorite tracks.

I love going there and you know the success has been pretty good other than we haven't been able to win so you know there have been a handful of We should probably go with them so it's been a little frustrating from that standpoint but I I love going to a big race track, it's one of my favorites and I always look forward to it. I hope this time is our time. Martin Truex is their leader. in 191 laps, but he never won here or in Texas, so Larry Truex led 46 laps today. What happens with that state? Did it catch your attention?

Well, we continue to monitor the Toyota camp and we know that this is not necessarily their playhouse as you mentioned above. I've had one here since 2013, we race here once a year, Mike, and in the last three years, in three races, the Toyota camp as a whole has led a total of 40 laps in the now Martin Trix jr. He's led 47 last year, Martin led four laps, the only Toyota driver to lead a lap and that was just during the green flag stop cycle, so Larry, that begs the question to me what have they done, what? they have been able to do.

Get better because we've already documented that this year hasn't been a really dominant year for Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, but here today, one, two and four with Hamlin, they seem to be dominating this race right now, they worked hard and they achieved great things. get better now they really have Jeff, you went through that in your career, it went through your mind when you fell behind It's not that you lose anything, it's that everyone else catches up to you and I think that's what we saw with the Fords, especially the Chevrolets, and I think Joe Gibbs Racing especially, but now they've realized the Toyota camp, after nine races, where the little guys behind and your point.

I think they got to work and came here with no grip and a lot of fourths like you mentioned before and strength, thanks Larry, here's Denny Hamlin in fourth and closing in on Clint Boyer, now Boyer hasn't slowed down as much and was keeping the pace . with Kyle Busch until Kyle passed him for second and now he and Denny Hamlin are following pretty identical speeds, yes, but if I'm John Klaus, my skirt sees, Bob said you could slow down a little more because we need those tires to get there Any further than any of these guys you're racing 15 laps is a long way to go to crush it and destroy those tires.

There's Johnny so far. The longest race on one set of tires we've seen is 55 laps. I think the boy will have to do it. go to 63 as we climb aboard here and watch the telemetry skin clip boy you're the only thing Clint Boyer can do now remember he raced really hard we already talked about this in a battle with Marc tricks jr. on the restart at the beginning of this stage I think that caused some damage to the right rear tire at the beginning of the stage, if it's nice and smooth and it doesn't slide the right rear tire as much as it did, don't try to do it. abuse it in the early stages, I think this tire could last the 63 laps it needs to get good, those three or four laps where they raced side by side for the lead and Boyer kept pushing him into turn three so hard. strength as he could and ultimately prevailed, that couldn't have been good for those times, no and you wouldn't think you could damage the tire early, but you know a little bit of damage at the time and then the longevity after racing and sliding it about this. abrasive track and the other thing the clinic can do here is try not to abuse the tires that Denny Hamlin struggles with, you know this is a time where you have to run your own race, the race, the track, no the competition, so Hamlin takes third place Truex Kyle Busch and Hamlin one two three with his teammates Boyer and Harvick four and five and then Bowman fifth and you know one last thing about this track and the tires.

I think of all the tracks, this is probably the one more than any other you can. You really feel how much you're abusing those tires is that you go out into the corner and the car starts to go out, you feel it because you can slide more on this track than on any track. another track because of how abrasive it is. and how much the pace drops so you know, as a driver, when you hurt the right front tire and the right rear tire. Now Matt DiBenedetto was up 1/7 and now he's lost some Erik Jones. Harvick is coming, oh look at the borders, car boy, that's what you can't do, this is capital L, capital o, capital E, and you know this doesn't help because you've got the 17 - chris buescher taking the air out of car 14 Clint Boyer and they just bite right now, I'm sure he doesn't like the level of grip and how loose this race car is, so Harvick Motors moved into fourth place as we were down to ten to start the second stage fighting for the chase of points in the last stage.

Elliott Erik Jones and then Matt DiBenedetto 11 turning in turn four into the grass at the start/finish line Michael McDowell saw his teammate John Hunter Nemechek pass in that same spot earlier in this race lap 202 fourth caution flag of the day not he did, it was that his teammate is fine, I hope not, certainly not. I mean, I know no, I wouldn't say it was intentional. I think you know that McDowell just slid in from underneath, opened the door a little bit, and I think it was the Nemechek 3100 that tried to crawl inside. a little contact with the left or if he made contact, it definitely pushed the air to the left rear to force the car to turn.

I guess I saw it in progress when McDowell was already halfway to the fourth caution flag and Larry you. Well, now there are eight to the end of the stage, it will probably restart with five to go. I'd say yes, probably, so my Kia and all Abbey on pit road because as we've mentioned, it's been a long time since they got four Goodyears. tires, so they will come here with four tires, so this is a pretty critical pit stop, but it is about maybe having entered a stage or having gotten some stage points, so we have eight cars a lap behind of Cole Custer's free pass and so on. the last yellow flag before the stage on some of those lap cars can stay outside and wave to Mark Truex leads everyone down Jamie 18 from Kyle Busch said you gave me the front lap that's what I needed his car has improved the 14 a flip Boyer Speaking of relief from a driver's perspective, he was so lost that he remembers when you talked about blisters on the right rear, they'll take a good look at that this time, but luckily he has new tires.

The race was won by RAM outside the pits. Kyle Busch, go five, Levin is the 19th draw, he just doesn't want to be in that outside lane, but he piled them all up behind him trying to back him up, the big winner, there was Ryan Blaney gaining three spots, that's how he did it. He hit the brakes because Harvick's four and Truex's 19 tried to play a little game there across pit road, so Kyle passes and then it's after you know, after you know, after you know, you go namely. You're going to see your tire engineer looking at the right rear end that just came off Clint Bowyer's car, oh wow, and that one looks like it wouldn't have made it to the end of the stage, why did that cost him?

She came out at a great time for the 14 teens 17 drivers took the wave Kyle Busch will be their leader in this restart. I will say this might seem like that problem isn't going away for that 14 team anytime soon, but look at the gap for Kyle Busch 20 19 to 20 20 in the first nine races, a couple of goose eggs, they're looking to change that statistic here today, so now we restart with 29 drivers on the lead lap, including those waves. Cole Custer got the free pass. When we came back under the green of Kyle Busch Martin Truex, we saw that battle at the end of pit road and all four Kevin Harvick cars were in the preferred lane, but even he spun the tires and now we have a drag race, I think Marc Church Jr.

He's going to be very happy with the way this outing has gone now he's going to get a push from Blaney and take the lead fighting hard for the stage points whoa Kyle Busch sliding down the track, we're going to loosen positions here, we're going to chase Elliott with a race and every point matters, Jeff, because Martin's tickets line up from his base in the top 12, getting the first 12 ties, four out of turn four, the great Erik Jones Jones with a problem, well , had a long pit stop because they were trying to fix that throttle. problem, he is running buthe's not picking up speed on this coast right now omg yes that car not sure if it has power if it's a tire issue he's chasing Elliott going after Kyle Busch here comes one to go at this stage and the pits.

They're closed, so tough luck for Jones. Throwing some rhymes at you ladies, he's getting a second right front position over Jones. He arrives at the pits. Here's the fight for eighth Boyer and Keselowski with Johnson's teammates in tenth fighting here to the line. Denny Hamlin Cowboys. martin truex stage winner again 40th career stage win, that's 8 more than any other stage 2 winning driver mtj Chase Elliott now 50 places in the top ten today you know that by drilling you'll get free fried pickles in Hooters on Monday and if Chase wins, you'll get ten free boneless wings when you order ten available at all Hooters that have safely reopened in the United States now Erik Jones had to pit with a flat tire remember that four wide coming out of the corner here's another look at how that rarely works yeah look at the right front of the 20 there's a Christopher Hill guy that's all it takes to cut the right front tire and the result is a tough race.

Micah, they were just racing and trying to get those positions on those wild restarts and pit road is open this time and that time. It looks like all the leading lap cars are now 29 and Brennan Poole will get the bye. The Hunt Brothers Pizza camera in Kevin Harvick's car on the right is your leader. Truex. Jamie is not red jr. They work on the right side of the car, they didn't make all the adjustments at the last stop, so they wanted to fix that this time to stiffen it up. He was good today, he is good on pit road.

Kyle Busch also drops. Almost now the timing line is the white line before the yellow line, which are the determined words, and you see a camera just to the right of the one mounted on the top of the pit wall, which is where NASCAR determines the timing. pit lane exit order. White line, so check it out now. Martin Truex is your stage winner. How about we call the guy who crossed that line first? Hi Kyle Busch, this is Jeff and Mike, Fox Sports 2. Did you give us a ride home? Hannah, you know what? It hasn't been the kind of season to start so far in 2020 that we expected from you compared to last year, but today it seems like you have these Toyotas tuned up, well, you think you have a chance to win this race today.

I think the bench seems pretty good too, they've definitely picked up speed and a little bit before we got the Boyar, it looked like you might get back at me as best we can to try and win this, yeah, sounds like you. and Adam Stevens they are definitely making some good adjustments for me so good luck the rest of the way thanks for talking to us thanks Toyota one two on the stage they only had one stage win coming in today Toyota won both stages today and now Kyle Busch is in the lead 110 laps to go in Atlanta Kyle Busch your leader let's take a look at how the Coca-Cola family of drivers is doing Denny Hamlin in the top 10 Joey Logano Austin Dillon in the top 20 Ryan Newman Bubba Wallace all in head turned Daniel Suárez currently three laps back forms filled in double file to begin stage number three, the longest of the three stages with 115 lights and something to point out Mike, you know Eric Jones' car number 20, right, he had to come to change that tire underneath Unfortunately, Green simply couldn't limp and stay on the lead lap, so he lost a lap.

I'll be curious to see how he fights back to the lead lap and how things will play out in the rest of this race. To get you back to this, only five caution flags in total so far entering stage three, so most of those 13 sets of tires the team started with need to be new tires safely in the pit box and available for use, let's listen. to Tim Fedewa Kevin Harvick spotter coming from third position as they approach the Geico reset zone array in I can't get away five quite quite quite quite I closed all mine here still there clearly Hertz clean versus nuclear, you're clear, I think he's going to call just go up there you have to block him a little here take your bottle he's probably back trying to get to the top we're still clear now we have a line to the bottom you 18 new 1819 come with you still there that will become clear, will become clear, will will clear the table with you, everything will be erased, the mark will be erased, go back to July 19.

I'll be in your marriage, when you get the greenest and that's how you restart third and take the lead in Atlanta, what a move. Kevin Harvick, the way he set up Kyle Busch to take the lead, you saw him run around the back immediately using a push from Kyle Busch's teammate Mark Treach jr. and then he peeked around the outside and got to the quarter panel and completed the pass to Keselowski or they woke up, those two cars started in quarter third and dropped one early. I can't, Brad Keselowski, this to Teemo, big chase slide, Elliott trying to cross.

Brad Keselowski is Brad, but what does this team have in this driver of these two cars that knows how to fight to recover and overcome things and put himself in position for good things to happen at the end of this race? crossover chase Elliott sees them slide up tries to turn under them and loses all downforce slides doesn't check the middle sees Elliott stayed on the throttle and was still able to make that pass happen, that's one of Keselowski's favorite moves going deep, chasing shots on the lift, trying there, teammates second, when we heard Kyle Busch, the cow Adam Stephenson did a great job making some good adjustments and making the right balance on Kyle Busch's 18th and then on the other side, March Uruk. jr.

It seems like he and James are small, maybe they have gone in the wrong direction. The track has changed. He doesn't seem to be doing so well at this point in the race. Last time, Kevin Harvick's final lap was the fastest lap of the race. Thirty. one point five seven seconds Jeff, I think this track is changing the ambient temperature, which means the track temperatures are dropping, so this is definitely going to go through some changes in these last hundred laps. Yeah, great point, Larry, so there's Harvick, a verb. that was coined here at Atlanta Motor Speedway, lower the car to that white line and spin around the corner, that's Harvick, but that's not what he's doing here in turns one and two and that's not how he took the lead So you know, a great driver knows how to adapt, he knows how to change to the conditions and I think that's what, I'm sorry, Kevin Harvick has had to do, that's what he did to take this lead and now he's looking down the road. mirror Kyle Busch trying to understand.

I figure out what I have to do to keep this air clean, you see it back at the bottom, I mean, I really think the preferred line in turns three or four is the bottom one, but you have options here one and two, you can run up to that same bottom or you can race three lanes above Roger Penske's teammates Blaney and Keselowski, fighting for fifth place. It's good to see it. IndyCar started its season last night in Texas, congratulations to Scott Dixon for winning that race you see here and now here's a difference in three four you can run different paces in three and four and you might want to look for clean air like Ryan Blaney Still, we're seeing a couple more do the same thing, but it doesn't seem like the High Line works as well in three and four as it does down here, 1 and 2 again straddling that seam.

I owe this bet to the line that I always love. For racing, there's something about that part of the track that allows you a little more room to slide the card on the exit because I always found a little more grip and in that lane versus right up against the wall you can hear the car hitting the race track as he goes over those bumps in 3 and 4 and he can look for his Laos key by letting go on the turn in front of him and just sitting there, going here, I come, yeah, this is where you have to be very patient, see Brad? slides down the racetrack, that's where you have to control not to get back on the gas too soon, keep it low, load the left sides with that paint and drive that car up from the corner, take advantage of that looking back from our ford. brad keselowski dash cam jamie last week mikey overcame a pit penalty to win the race today but needs more patience for vanie studies to push the car he's doing today thanks Jamie Keselowski in fifth place now about three laps ago Kyle Busch almost caught Kevin Harvick and now all of a sudden he faded to third place, yeah, I just don't know if maybe that pressure he put on Kevin Harvick.

I fused those tires a little bit, maybe I just changed the balance on that 18 car, so very often on this track you can push and slide those tires and on top of that he won, you know, the right rear, the right front tire and it'll take a couple of laps to recover, so that could be what is happening here with the 18 achieved, it could also have been what happened at the beginning of this stage by the 19 of Mark Trix jr. 28 cars on the lead lap to Corey Lajoie 14 seconds off the lead 97 to go and it's Ricky Stenhouse and Kurt Busch here for 11 a quiet date for Ricky Stenhouse jr. but doing a good job maintaining a good race position, him and Ryan Preece, both on the lead lap still for JTG.

Dougherty we expected a little more from Kurt Busch after we saw those first problems, but he had a fast race car to start this race, but that shows you again how much the tracks change 95 laps for Kevin Harvick to be ahead of Martin Truex by half. second the folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 is sponsored by Ram trucks built to serve and by credit from a bank, the official credit card of

nascar

. perfect for racing fans 91 laps to go here in Atlanta Kevin Harvick is leading the time to our credit the bank to get a good look Mike I have my eye on Mark Truck Juniors in second place right now he has a great long run. car, he has won both stages so far in this race, the last time he did it was at Martinsville and guess what he won?

I think today he gets victory number one in Atlanta. Jeff Kevin Harvick earned his first career victory at Atlanta in 2001. It took him 17 years to find Victory Lane again at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He was a little worried before, but I think with at least one more pit stop to get out front, he will give Rodney Childress the best birthday gift you can give a team. The boss of the

series

is on the move, he will follow in his footsteps and win at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch began the final stage with the lead he gained here for two different crew chiefs.

Adam Stevens could be the third for Kyle, that's to his credit, those on the bench for seeing Harvick. The lead is opening up at a point two seconds now and Martin Truex Matt Kenseth, after early contact, sees a lot of tape on the nose, but he's solidly on the lead lap here among 50 twenty-eight drivers on the lead lap, we've had 8 different ones. leaders 5 caution flags for 24 laps now harvest, he's looking in his beer, he's seen Mark Church jr. Make some good turns right now so you can see how hard it is to hook that line, even as good as Harvick isn't Harvick, it's still hard to do, but he's searching around the track and turning 1 and 2 because Mark Trek Jr. . he's closing in on the teammates fighting for fifth place those Mustangs of Keselowski and Blaney let's chase Elliott right ahead of Keselowski Wednesday night let's do a short tail we go to Martinsville on fs1 under the lights but yeah, hell froze over the assembled Eagles and put on the Martinsville lights imagine but that'll be fun yeah can't wait we'll see those brake rotors shining yeah Austin Dillon 1614 seconds off the lead as fifth place It's still under discussion here, you know Mike, since we left.

We're racing you again, I don't know if the drivers and the teams were focused on this, this track lineup coming up and some of the changes in the calendar, you see this battle continuing to heat up, this is a big battle here. that Lana Motor Speedway today, we've seen a lot of this today, but they've gone to some tough race tracks. I mean, you think about opening in Darlington, you know, we've been to Bristol, we've been to Charlotte, now we're here in Atlanta, I mean, this is a tough lineup, a lot has been taken away from these racing drivers, Josh Palicki in the middle, as Keselowski and Blaney have taken their battle to the finish to chase down Elliott in fourth place with 83 laps to go, here's a look. your progressive race summary Kevin Harvick led the most laps today 71 one of eight different leaders 18 lead changes28 cars still on the lead lap Martin Truex winner of the first two stages his first two stage wins of the year Ryan Newman 21st 19 seconds back 28 cars with laps leading to tie the villain, who is that battle at the front?

You can see Junior's marks every two laps, he just shaves off about half a tenth, but Kevin Harvick is leading now Kevin Harvick now these tires have worn down a little bit. A little bit, the pace starts to drop, you can see him start to work the bot lane that does so well until one and two, chase Elliott, woman, High Line, three and four, that's how loud for Keselowski, yeah, this one auto back will affect your line. Suarez running in the same line chasing Elliott does a good job of adjusting and moving around that Suarez vehicle and not wasting too much time on Ryan Blaney who is working hard to try to make that chase pass so he sinks to the background here. & 2 look how high up in the chase at the racetrack Elliott is running out Ryan Blaney looks like the chase is on Harry Gant pace now and that's one of the fun things about coming to Atlanta and watching a race is which is a racing track with multiple paces and Drivers search and find different places to race at different times during the race, that's what every driver dreams of.

I mean, yes, you have to have a fast race car in a car that isn't too abrasive on the tires or wears them down too much. but you play an important role as a driver in the sense that you play a role in the speed you encounter, how you navigate through traffic and what you do to treat those tires well, man as a driver. I loved this race track, Larry, 78 laps to go, what are they? Are you thinking right? They usually make numbers at the fs1 race level at 6:00 p.m. Every week in the East, I've been running numbers on the tire windows inside the frame, so we went back to racing with one hundred and eight laps left based on what the teams were doing in that last stage, if you divide it in half, That means you need to run. 54 laps in group, so basically they'll lock in around lap 271 and Mike.

I can't make this stuff up. Do you know how many laps Boyer had run before when that yellow flag came out for Michael McDowell? Give me four turns. Listen if I am. Johnny class Myer, I'm thinking how many stops that Larry you had has for everyone else, never many events, three or two. I want one more pond boy. Well, again, you can break this down into one stop, but there is a way to do it. break it down into thirds, I'm not sure anyone is thinking Jamie yeah, firefighter Johnny Vaught was talking about that berry pinwheel in green about fear of rock, so I talked to the pressure of his titles, but I still haven't we've done, we'll think about it, I mean.

The way this track is young you know new tires are very important to me, if you know there will be no warnings the fastest strategy is a two stop strategy and I love new tires where I don't have to worry That's why, but I'm not a strategist or a crew chief if we knew that Kevin Harvick, your leader, with 75 laps to go Kevin Harvick leads the Honor QuikTrip 500 in Atlanta with 71 laps to go, he's one second ahead of Martin Truex, let's take a look at the summary of today's race sponsored by Advance Auto Parts on pace laps, stopped cars on the frontstretch as Steve Phelps, president of NASCAR, addressed competitors about the turmoil in America today and after a 30-minute silence seconds to listen, they started the engines and resumed the rhythm. laps and we were off and running Kevin Harvick, the first leader to fall Martin Truex here with only the competition yellow flag and then a brief caution before the end of stage one Truex took his first stage win of the year Clint Boyer had a fast car but kept burning the right rear tire not once but twice, that's a look at the second right rear that came off the car while they were trying to extend the tire mileage to the maximum, it didn't work for Erik Jones in the yellow car, he got on to Christopher Bell and who cut the right front tire Jones is still one lap down, only a yellow flag in the second stage for a spin by Michael McDowell and the second stage also won by Martin Truex Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick in the third stage Harvick jumped to the lead that he hasn't relinquished I'm not sure about the advanced auto parts racing weekend, here his lap leaders today Harvick 86 and counting sixth place chase Elliott Denny Hamlin.

We've seen today that Denny Hamlin has a good car in longer races and as we get to this part of this race, 48 or so. 48 laps later you can see Danny's car really starting to get to the front Jeff, we've seen this in several races since we've been racing again, we've seen it with this 11 car, Charlotte, we've seen it in the grips, we've seen it . live since we have been racing again in the last few weeks, good on the long runs and Denny is one of those drivers who I think is very good on the long runs, taking his own pace and taking it easy with the tires on the early stages of a batch. but you know right now you have to find a way to get that track position a little bit higher for him and the team so they can take advantage of that speed in long races if they want to regain the victory here, a 13th Alex Bowman. and Joey Logano were supposed to be the favorites here today, but for a variety of reasons, Logano suffered some damage on pit road and is still trying to get back up.

He's at No. 13. Bowman at No. 14. Matt Kenseth at No. 15. Yeah, I agree, Mike, I mean, you know. If you look at Mountain House and the bigger tracks this year, Alex Bowman's 88 has been really strong in position to win, he won one of those, then you have Logano who won two races and one of them at a mile . and a half, so yeah, I was expecting a little more from those guys and here's Hamlin again, he continues to move forward in this race. Hamlin restarted eighth now he is fifth. You are traveling with Daniel Suárez. He recently made a stop to change tires.

Corey Lajoie forward. from the leader Kevin Harvick and here comes Suárez with those four that feel good, yes, they feel very good right now Matt DiBenedetto is in the pits Austin Dillon is in Cole Custer comes, these are cars towards the end of the lead lap, the bets were 63 to go Could they just be trying to ride a little early what we call short stroke to try to make the most of those four new tires and see if they can make some profits to get back close to legal so we Are there 25 cars left? right now on the lead lap, excuse me, 23 and the priest is the last car on the lead lap every time Erik Jones gets into position to be the free pass, another car does a lap down Dillon's pit road. , that big piece of bear link, I guess, in the left front corner there previously damaged Ricky Stenhouse is going to give up a top 15 position to the pits and few more interested here now all of these are in the second half of the cars who are on the lead lap Ryan Newman another Newman one lap less now and Suárez also with these stops, but so far among the leaders, the 15 best cars have not accepted, but Jimmie Johnson, who was 10th and Dillon to quickly enter pit road, got a pass through marolla, is pit road when Jimmie Johnson leaves his pit stall.

Wallace is on the bubble, so now these are the top 15 cars that are stopping trying to get ahead of the leaders. Clint Boyer is coming this time, he's the eighth place car, Kevin Harvick is out so far, as are Truex, Kyle Busch Blaney and Hamlin, the top five. That right rear looked pretty good on Boyer's car. I didn't see any evidence of blisters and we heard radio communication. That car is very, very tight. They tighten him up and I don't think he's using his right rear as much. what it had been like to chase Elliott into his position Kurt Busch on pit road, well you saw how fast those new tires were for Daniel Suarez, he was avoiding the leader, this is Kevin Harvick and here is Truex, a second place in pit road, this should bring everyone. right, Larry Jamie for the 19th, you immediately see our leader Kevin Harvick heading to the pits as soon as he saw that the 19th of the church is in the pits, now they come Tyler Riddick James has been solid all day one to one another with duct tape on his nose.

Ryan Blaney takes the lead from Joey Logano and Alex Bowman Keselowski and Hamlin had a difficult entry, so Keselowski had to go around John Hunter Nemechek. In his pit, the boy Ryan Blaney closed him in when he reached pit road, for which left only three drivers from the leading lap to enter the pits. Logano Bowman McDowell Joey is the lead car with newer tires zipping past him. We have seen Hall walk around trying to follow this same strategy when he was a crew chief or Brad Keselowski now switched here to Joey Logano look how long they decide to stay here is the only thing they gained by doing this.

I mean, right now there are only 12 drivers on the leading lap, but the way the tires give up. If we got a warning right now, even all these drivers who just put it on the green would follow Joey Logano to pit road again to change four new tires, if we could get a warning, yeah, that's exactly what they expect, TRUE? caution to fall at the right time and we've seen we've seen it happen before Alex Bowman was in his pit stall and here comes Joey Logano at the Pennzoil yeah Jimmie Johnson and Clint Boyer just ran 32 50 seconds.

Logano was in a second and a half. slower than them, that's too much to give up and stay out of. I mean, I think it's worth risking a few laps, but not much more, so Michael Mcdowell will be the last of these leading lap cars to whistle at Erik Jones under this. staying out and getting back on the lead lap, at least temporarily, invites what Paul Wolfe did with Joey Logano by racing to lap 271, which exactly divides that stage into half a lap, 54 laps. The first race you see Paul Wolfe right there, 54 laps from here to After the checkered flag, I thought Martin Truex Jr, coming in a lap ahead of Kevin Harvick, could take advantage of that with those newer tires and take the lead, but I didn't get a two-second margin before the pit stops; second margin now.

So many of you know that the merit of the pit stop for the pit crew was making two equal stops and that those drivers were even on pit road with fifty-three laps to go in Atlanta, but now Martin Truex is starting to eat into Kevin Harvick's lead a little. A little bit as we take them to Fox side by side, that's Gerald Duke in '92, he was from Atlanta, he worked at the Ford plant, he jumped 19 times as a paratrooper behind enemy lines in World War II, he came home to racing stock cars and competed here in the first race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1960 Gerald Duke last Friday at the age of 92 one of the war heroes and greatest racers of America's generation 47 laps to go Kevin Harvick ahead of Martin Truex by 2.05 seconds Kyle Busch Denny Hamlin Ryan Blaney the top five and Blaney thinks he may have a vibration, he has called his team to be alert, it's always a fear, you know, when you get to the pit road, you have to be careful entering pit road, you don't want to waste a lot of time and then under the green flag.

You just and this could be the last stop and you're trying to do everything right to get your driver ahead of who's racing and sometimes that's what could cause you to just hit or miss a couple of those nuts Jamie and Brad Keselowski before going into the pits he said it was too tight when he came in, they looked at the tires they found spots on the rear, they were told to be more careful, he's saying now the car shot up, now we told them Eric Jones took the lead again. lap with everyone else in the pits, Jones finally made his stop to get in quickly, you know, and Christopher Bell had a 25-second stop, went from 17th to 25th and fell off the lead lap, so 20 cars from the lead lap now they return to Bubba Wallace with 45 to Ve, then you are Brad Keselowski, one of those drivers who then stayed out a little more than others, with a couple of laps cut and losing some positions, but you will see that he will begin to recover them at as it progresses. here we run green if it continues under green so to your right Ryan Blaney who may have a vibe to the left Kevin Harvick has a low contrast style talk about a quick steering box on the nose hands work Think about doing it for 500 miles, it's nice to have next.

Well you can see Kevin Harvick waving out the window at one of the cars behind on the left and I can't wait to talk to RyanBlaney next time and ask him why he has two stripes on the steering wheel. I have a pretty good idea of ​​that. the white stripe there is where it refers to that wheel, but you would think that the steering wheel manufacturer could maybe eliminate that other line, it's hard to say, well, Kevin Harvick drives with one hand, you know, if he were Dick Trickle, he. He would have time to light up a cigarette, maybe I don't know, he just takes it easy, but his lead is not increasing.

Currently the difference in the diameters of the steering wheel is 1.8 seconds over Martin Truex. I guess it's just a matter of driver preference. or it's an old school and new school bike. I mean, you know, I've seen a lot of these teams have been able to get grip in the front geometry of these cars to work the front tires a little better. a smaller wheel runs on a smaller, faster steering box and is driver preference, if you have very quick hands and like to drive it like that then go for it because there may be a little more speed and grip on those front tires but I like Kevin Harvick's old school way, just big, we know it's nice and smooth, he just drags it to the bottom and makes it look easy.

Austin Dillon trying to compete for a top ten spot here. it's your way at Twin House Wednesday night on fs1, aired live in primetime in Martinsville for the EMU Maximum Pain Relief 500 blue race and then Sunday NASCAR comes to Miami Homestead for the Dixie vodka 400 3:30 hour Eastern on Fox, both races are also available on Fox Sports. double dose app of NASCAR this week Mike, you mentioned Austin Dillon in that third car sitting 12th. Justin Alexander got him to the pits well ahead of most of the leaders and that paid dividends at least in the first part of this. ahead we'll see what he does now that we have less than 40 laps left until Kevin Harvick is in front by two and a half remember that his second Cup race in 2001 was right here, he was in that 29th place for Richard Childress Jeff Gordon, until the flag, scored a very emotional victory for the memory of the all-time winner of the Atlanta Motor Speedway with nine Dale Earnhardt in 2018, not exactly consecutive, well, they are all sweet, yes they are, and we will certainly never forget it.

The 2001 race meant that battle you know at the close of the 25 laps there were about four or five different cars and then finally it was between Kevin and I and it was an incredible battle but also a very emotional day which was a great victory not only for Kevin. Harvick, but especially for this sport and grieving the loss of the late Dale Earnhardt senior, which was pretty epic, is one of the 10 races that I like to point to and say I'm glad I was there that day and was able to call it. you and I it's a great day Harvick is one point nine up right now with 36 to go Truex Keselowski and Kurt Busch fighting for ninth and ten, one has to wonder what would have happened today if Kurt Busch had started 12th, the position that tied for the top 12, but had to start at the back when this is the best position, as you can see on the screen with the statistics this team has been in all day.

I mean, yes, they started behind the 8 ball. and they've been able to continue to work on this car that they were able to follow, caught him off guard at one point in the race and then ultimately made some adjustments to make this car suitable for Kurt Busch as he finds his way to the top. 10 behind him, Matt DiBenedetto, about five seconds behind Kurt, who had an up-and-down day up to seven in the second leg, currently 11, has a cushion of about a second over Austin Dillon for that spot and Ricky Stenhouse has been in in the top 15 for most of today and it's been a quiet day for Ricky, well some days you have to put that together.

When you talk about points, you know how important they are, especially now, how they are having an impact on the next race. You're going to think it's extremely important for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. be aggressive when you need to be aggressive but on days like today be smooth and consistent so let's check out our rookies first Idol Redick currently in 18th place Cole Custer 21 one lap down so is Christopher Bell John Hunter Nemechek one lap down so is Brennan Poole is three laps behind and Quinn Hoff is nine laps behind. I can tell you a lot about my first day.

The first race is at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. We came and tried it in the old days. Tests were possible and we were incredibly fast until I backed off. It's on the wall. I am halfway through that race that was the most brilliant of November 92. Well, what a historic day and moment you speak of, proud to be part of a race that I was so proud of to be part of that meeting of drivers with Richard. Petty's last race and being a part of that event, yeah, that's another one on my list, let's take a look at it.

November 92, Atlanta Motor Speedway Richard Peddie unfortunately crashed out of the race the car caught fire Jeff Gordon's first cup start They learn a lot about art in the picture and it came down to Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki after Davey Allison had difficulties . Corky knew exactly what he had to do to win that championship by leading the most laps and counting how many laps each tied, how do you count that in a hundred? eighty miles an hour, but Alan did it and won that championship the last time a single-owner driver won the Cup championship in NASCAR.

I doubt that will happen again with 30 laps to go. Harvick, it has to be infuriating to still be second by 1.8 seconds. after chasing Kevin Harvick so hard but that's where Martin Truex sits with Kyle Busch Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin three four and five I spoke too soon two drivers pushing him look at Joey Logano thinking about taking the open three in defense of Stenhouse ty Dillon They're two laps down and these two drivers are fighting for positions on the lead lap, you're going to miss a minute, we're going to do a double box with 29 to go, 25 laps to go in the folds of the Honor QuikTrip 500 at Fox. winner's trophy and everything this symbolizes Kevin Harvick now has a 2.2 second lead over Martin Truex, not exactly pulling away, but Truex isn't making progress either Kyle Busch still four and a half behind Ryan Blaney 10 and Denny Hamlin 13 seconds behind That's 17 cars with laps leading, Mike, I have some bad news for the competition as far as Kevin Harvick is concerned, so the track started out at about 130 degrees and it's cooled down to less than a hundred degrees at this point and for me that is pushing this right into Kevin Harvick's wheelhouse.

I think when the grip is better as the track gets colder, it allows him to run that bottom groove even better and more consistently, and to me, right now Kevin Harvick, when you watch him do these laps, he's able to nail it. your lines and just wrap that line around both ends of the racetrack, we're not going to light the candles on Rodney Childers' birthday cake just yet, but Larry, what do we have to wait for? Well, Mike, my tendencies have been a little fickle here. Lately, I really dug into this when I looked at the last 10 spring races at Atlanta, at the last caution, the crash average was around lap 303, with 22 laps to go, which is exactly where we are, in fact, of those 10 races, it happened six times in the final. 20 laps and we've had three overtimes here in the last 10 spring races, thanks Larry.

I wouldn't be surprised if those trends showed that that probably happened while Kevin Harvick was leading, well, yeah, I mean, Oh, in Atlanta's last twenty-eight races, Harvick. He only has one win to show for it, but now he's opened the gap to two and a half and there's Kurt Busch looking back from Clint Bowyer, he's a grinder, he's fought his way to eighth place, yeah, I give him a lot of credit. Kurt Busch and Matt McCall, number one crew chief. I think they've considered a great race and also made some good adjustments here for this final race to the finish.

Jamie and you are talking about substantial track temperature. At the moment there are overcast clouds, there are many drivers, however, that one does not have the right tire for his tire that we have been talking about. Well, he's in seventh place with 20 laps to go and this is the hard part of all this. It was very tight in the last race because I think maybe they made an adjustment or that set of tires is much tighter and it didn't have a problem on the right rear, but it also couldn't go as fast as it wanted to, so now they released the car again. suddenly it's spinning, it's fast and then it's blistering the right rear tire again.

Look at chasing Elliott around the fence, going through three hits, four and how much speed takes him down the frontstretch catches up with Kurt Busch and here he comes after Boyer. -He uses the top groove of the hellnet compared to the bottom lane, but wow, it's working for him, look, look at the run he makes from the corner, so Elliott moves to 7th and JCM's last time is actually about two tenths faster than our leader Kevin Harvick Hendrick. Chevy is now sixth, seventh, 15th and William Byron, who had an early flat in 35th, yes, Jimmie Johnson leads the Chevy brigade in sixth, came in a little early.

Cliff Daniels took him three laps ahead of the rest of the field. most of them anyway and that has paid off, he has been able to maintain sixth position, but there are 17 laps to go, let's see if we can maintain that position. Jimmy, who started the engines to run this race today, running in sixth place. Nemechek, just ahead one lap. down and Kurt Busch trying to get back to chasing Elliott, you know, Mike and Jeff refer to Jamie, little talk about air pressure changes throughout the day, let me clarify something, we're not talking about air pressure changes like when you go to the gas station to put air in their tires these guys are changing the air pressure in these tires quarter pound half pound it would be weird if they made more than a one pound adjustment on these tires that's how sensitive these cars are race Wow now Stenhouse 14 Ken's at 15 and Bowman is the last car leading the lap there in 16th haha ​​up 4/7 working every square inch of this track to try to make this Elliott Pass chase not go to the endright there up front he had to go to the middle and in the top chase Elliott took advantage of that at the bottom now we talked earlier about how points factor into this if Jimmie Johnson could pass three cars he would tie for the top 12 starting positions at Martinsville based on The owner's points, as it stands now, has to tie 13 to 24.

The right rear tires can be heard rolling again. The tread blistered in the cabin. The 14th here in the clip, Boyer, will have to come to the pits. Well, he said he didn't think he could make it and he has nothing. Here he exits turn four into the pit lane and Clint Boyer is going to give up one of the top ten spots to get new tires so he can finish this race now. There are 10 cars one lap back and so one of them won't be the first car one lap back but will finish between 15th and 25th, another with blisters on the right rear, luckily that's been the story of his day.

Boyar should be able to stay a lap down, but he's not going to have any chance of getting the bye and you know, I'm just going to say this is one of the reasons why, if you're Kevin Harvick, you want to build. a considerable lead over the second place driver marked by Erik's Union because as Kevin Harvick's four cars have caught some of these lap cars like Alex Bowman, they are fighting to stay on the lead lap in case the yellow flag comes out and you've really made life a little bit more difficult on your allowed tracks to get close and you know, maybe about a second ahead, sure Jeff, with 11 laps left, you have little to lose by fighting to stay on that lap of the leader, coming to tend to go, Larry, yeah.

I guess I've been watching these issues with Clint Warrior in the 14 car, Johnnie Cloth Smile right rear and there's no doubt they have three teammates and it certainly weighs, for example, Rodney Childress, Kevin Harvick 240, what's going on there in the 14. but these crew chiefs know where all their settings are and I bet they already know what was a little bit different on that 14 car that pushed them to the limit with that right rear tire, yeah, no doubt, Larry and if you I would have done. I guess they knew from the beginning that they probably won't be able to do much to save the right rear tire from this problem, but every race well once is an incident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern below.

Are you going to tell me four times as a trend nine ahead Alex Bowman makes a lap down that leaves us 13 cars on the leading lap and we are closely monitoring Aric Almirola in 18th place because if he loses two more places or Jimmie Johnson wins with one of them, we will be able to draw a top 12that will not qualify at Martinsville, the other one will not, yes, because if you are in 13th place and the owner scores, but you could start in 25th place based on that random drawing and a track where the position of the Martinsville track on the short tracks track position is huge Jimmie at six 20 seconds off the lead 21 now and about three seconds behind Kevin Hamlin excuse me Denny Hamlin Kevin Hamlin is one spot Kevin Harvick now three point four ahead of Martin Truex Harvick just pulled away with eight laps remaining, yes, Harvick lost a little in lap traffic, but then he was able to open that back up, here's that battle, oh boy, that tightens 3y with ty Dillon in the middle to chase down Elliott Kurt.

Busch, but yeah, once Harvick got him clear of that lap traffic, he really opened it up again and these two, as they fight, are earning Jimmie Johnson about a half-tenth of the laughs here, yeah, on those tires they have about three or four. more laps on them for Jimmie Johnson, this is when you really start to feel the effects of that, oh boy, Kurt Busch cutting Chase Elliott, a break right there, you could have opened up in front of them and pushed the issue, great battle for the seventh place, oh. Man, it's fun to watch and in second place, a couple of teammates, Martin Truex, Kyle Busch has now fallen to within three and a half of the leader, Ryan Newman, just ahead a lap down, we'll see if second changes hands in these last five laps. how good Kevin Harvick is and how hard he is charging there are only nine other cars left on the lead lap, that's incredible, that era he's been in there goes Kyle Busch to second place, real Hicks fighting on the outside.

Wow, just slide in 180 190 miles. per hour Mike, that's it, so Roush-fenway teammates Numan moves up our Fenway teammates Newman on top and his teammate Chris Buescher is down a lap in 21st place and Kurt is chasing Jimmie Johnson, sees those new tires on Clint Boyer's 14 after having that regular tire problem and is having fun passing cars right now, getting some of his anger and frustration out and with our dynamic scoring Jimmie Johnson and he arrived into the top 12 in points until Kurt Busch passed him for me to be Matt DiBenedetto. I was told he had a tire going down and now he's on the verge of being a lap down, yeah I don't know it's only two laps to go but why would I be worried if I'm some of these guys about that? tires even with two laps to go joey logano 25 seconds back is the last car on the lead lap and the white flag is flying as we have one lap left sponsored by Credit One Bank and that is the mercy flag for the rest of this field.

This has been an impressive day. Kevin Harvick was strong at times, but he and Rodney Childers had to work very hard to get their car back to the front and I give a lot of credit to Kevin for how hard he pushed to take the lead from Kyle. Busch, we'll light the candles on Rodney Childers' birthday cake because Kevin Harvick wins Atlanta 50, the first career victory for Harvick, who takes sole possession of 12th place on Nascar's all-time wins list breaking a tie with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett, his second win of the year and his third at Atlanta, tying him with Kurt Busch for the second most wins here among active drivers.

Jimmie Johnson has five, as you pointed out earlier, he has now allowed over 10,000 laps since he joined Stewart-Haas Racing. This is his seventh season with the team. I might find out how much Goodyear rubber Kevin Harvick has left on these tires when he starts doing this wear. Harvick, 44, becomes the oldest driver to win Atlanta since Dale Earnhardt in March 2000. Dale was 48 when he earned that victory. Ford is now in the last race in Atlanta. Victory number 33 in Atlanta for the blue oval. I know there are no fans here to cheer for Kevin Harvick right now, but I think Kevin Harvick right now is still paying tribute and greeting the fans in his own way. paying tribute to Dale Earnhardt I feel every time he wins here Mike, this will be something we'll see in Kevin Harvick, Kevin Harvick salute number three and remember we talked about Alan Kulwicki winning the championship here and here's a Polish victory.

Kevin Harvick's Kulwicki-style lap sixth win this year for Ford 33rd at Atlanta for the farmers. Crew chief Rodney Childers scores his first thirty wins, 28 of them with Kevin Harvick on his 44th birthday. I'm sure there's definitely a big smile under that mask. talks with Bob Smith, the boss of the car in six of the last seven races in Atlanta Kevin Harvick has led the most laps and today he leads the last perhaps today the silence will not be as deafening as it was in Darlington for the winner of the Kevin Harvick Jamie race is certainly a special place for Kevin Harvick as he is now third.

I saw Rodney Childers coming out of the box. Kevin Harvick unplugs, unhooks and takes off his helmet. NASCAR officials stand and wait with flag in hand, a lot of things to get off, he's been there for three and a half hours at this point Kevin. He was just saying that this is a special place for you and you just walked back down the track with that greeting. What was going through your mind at that moment? Why couldn't I show very well a couple of years ago with the gloves on, so I made sure to take the gloves off this year?

Obviously, the first win came from me here in Atlanta and this is just a race track that I've grown to like. and you always come back and you have those memories and now you want to celebrate, you know everything that Dale Earnhardt did for this sport and to come here and be able to do it with wins and go to Victory Lane is pretty special, so I have to do it. thanks to everyone from Bush light we have we have corn all over our car this week so Busch site for the farmers campaign go buy all those corn stalks so we can donate a hundred thousand dollars Kevin this car was not a walk through the you parked the whole race you actually said it was terrible at one point yeah what did it take for you guys to be pointed in the right direction and so dominant there at the end?

Well, they made a great pit stop, we restarted from the bottom and I. I got my car off the ground, so you know, I was able to get positioned on the track and then once I was able to complete those first ten laps, my car was free enough that I could get into a rhythm and really start hitting my marks and then Approximately on lap 25 I was able to start pulling away so I'm proud of everyone from Bush Light and Ford Stewart-Haas Racing, thank you all for everything Hunt Brothers Pizza Fields Mobil 1 Jimmy John's. I know I'm going to forget someone, everyone, everyone who helps us.

This car and you fans appreciate everything you do for us. Victory number 28 with crew chief Rodney Childers, who celebrates his birthday today. Mike thanks Jamie Kevin Harvick with a big celebration here in Atlanta. Joe Gibbs Racing, three of the top five. Blaney fourth and Kurt. Busch lifts the first Chevrolet by six Kevin Harvick salutes the memory of Dale Earnhardt