YTread Logo
YTread Logo

Cup Series Championship | NASCAR Cup Series Full Race Replay

Mar 16, 2024
For the

championship

to begin, the field exits turn four. The green flag is in the air. The field fans out from the start, but then returns to turn one and turn two, still three back for the position we've seen. many of the cars go over the apron on the frontstretch, they haven't, they avoided it, try not to disturb or damage the underside of the cars, how much will they do that today? Okay, they'll go right there testing that platform. I just shortcut the dog dirt, it's trying to make a shorter path to turn, it picks up some dirt on the tires, but once they clean the beer where it is, the diffuser damages that, dragging it and shortening it changes the downforce on the short ones. they don't want to damage any part of that underbody Kevin Harvick rides along with Ford's onboard performance camera that's running right now in ninth waiting for William Byron there in 24.
cup series championship nascar cup series full race replay
You can already see how wide it is this

race

track we look forward to. only to see it wider, basically three wide, all trying to figure out where their car drives well right now for a

race

. The best in Phoenix has always been Harvick, nine wins, while we see Chastain trying to navigate her way through traffic and a difficult maneuver. It will have to be passed 11 because they have had a history. Ross' chastaines got off to a great start in this race. He has already gotten five spots, so going forward, he is the best at restarts all year and got more spots than anyone else.
cup series championship nascar cup series full race replay

More Interesting Facts About,

cup series championship nascar cup series full race replay...

Another driver throughout the year will need not to take advantage of all opportunities today. Michael Mcdowell at 34 right behind him, who was able to pass and now sees the bell 20 right in front, as we see. Denny Hamlin's 11, down to the Gate Bridge, not only are they worried about how that could damage the car, but it's absolutely hard on the driver to transfer in and out of that platform, Marty, what you have in that car. Ross Chastain Jr shows why he was the fastest car in practice, trying to keep gaining places here and avoiding those Joe Gibbs Racing Cars.
cup series championship nascar cup series full race replay
I asked Phil Search and his team manager what progress they want to see from 25th place and he said: listen. The first two-thirds of this race is about not making mistakes and just progressing after the two-thirds mark. That's when we can compete for a

championship

. You know, Marty, that's a great point and it's a different pace than these championship guys normally use. what you do during the year, you compete for stage points, you have to push yourself right away, you have to race all day to get those stage points, but today for those four guys it only matters where you finish, who can accept that pace and understand that today's goal is where you are at the end of 312 laps around the world Express gives us this onboard view with Ross Chastain and we see a lot of cars on the track, they already had some resin applied last year earlier this year year and none this weekend, but In the one of the best cars in practice we saw on Friday.
cup series championship nascar cup series full race replay
Brisco Larson and Elliott, the top five and the top two are separated by two seconds from the rest of the field and yet we see those two fall right on that yellow line proving the bottom of this track in every way, it's not a surprise in reality. At the beginning of this race, seeing teammates Legano and Blaney cruising around the field in practice, they had the best race cars. I really thought Fellaini had the best car and I think they really helped him prepare with Legato. They're both clearly exceptionally fast right now, but this. The track is going to change and you will have to stay on top of it and make changes all day.
We just saw the guy from Rochester using that high line as he tries to get past Denny Hamlin's 11 on a run. higher up, but the eight teams ahead of him, the 11 that are down, he can't pass any of them now getting past that 11. Yeah, it's in this dirty air right here, all these guys are really trying to go where whether the car is in front of the front. of them, isn't it? I was right on Christopher Bell's Toyota camera looking out of the rear bumper at his teammate last race as his teammates with Kyle Busch here on the backstretch for turn three watch him go in different directions trying to get air clean under the car we saw those images on the hood and all over the car in Kyle Busch's '18 paint scheme he will no longer be with Joe Gibbs Racing after this race, he will move to Richard Childress Racing in 2023 big battle here look how tall They're already pushing one and two and the drivers love that because you said it a second ago, Junior, since it gives you somewhere to go, you'd rather just follow the guy in front of you and get caught up in his dirty air.
I may run somewhere else in an effort to pass them. I think all the Groove still provides a little bit of speed, but in the next generation car, that opportunity to be able to downshift for the lower Groove makes that bottom line even more competitive. It's hard to beat these guys at the top when they can shift into a different gear to accelerate from the bottom of the corner fuel window for the Cup Series between 92 and 97 laps, so they'll be able to complete this first leg without having to do it. worry about fuel and yet Chastain can't pass these two Joe Gibbs Racing cars, so he has Kozlowski on the outside and now he goes down to the apron for one and two trying to get through 18.
So you can see how What he's doing, he's achieving the shortest route around the track, but the momentum that the 18 car is able to carry coming out of the corner is what Ross Chastain has to deal with; he's going to pass him in the corner and in the middle just like that, but now the 18th. Look at the immediate speed that helps maintain that momentum, but now Chastain will continue to do it as if he knows he's faster, if he can make that run, then he can punt, he can punt Bush right there, he tried to run as high as he did. it's not working for him now he has to migrate back to the back of the race track everyone chasing Lugano now every lead change is a chance to win 100 of Busch Light beer buddy, follow Busch beer on Twitter and tweet the hashtag bushline leader hashtag draw every time there is a leader change for your chance to win foreign, so by leaving this well the track decided not to, not only in some leftover residue, it is starting to kick in and the drivers are starting to use that top line, Foreigner specifically was one of the drivers who said he enjoyed what they did in the spring chasing that traction compound and seeing the way I was able to open up different lanes giving drivers more opportunities to gain traffic there, but his Chase side was more hopeful that would come into play this race you're watching NASCAR and NBC right now, a lot of Joey Logano fans are celebrating that one second lead he has over Ryan Blaney Parker, right?
Rich, has led every lap so far, but we often wonder as we get this chocolate on board and get In this great shot, looking back, we wonder how the teammates can work together for their 22 car and their Teammate Ryan Blaney have very similar setups on those two cars, allowing him to transfer information between the two. Listen to the team radio on 22 Recently, the left side of it is not yet in the dark, but it is closed. Spleeney has been one of the highest. Looking at some of the guys in the back, it looks like they pushed him into a half car link towards the wall in the center. talking about how to move around that line for jogato in reference to his teammate Ryan Blaney, these two teams work very closely together when they have similar setups which makes the transfer of information much easier Dave Chase Elliott has lost one position to six and Jeff Burton mentioned the fact that this track will change and that's probably a good thing.
I asked Richie Valley Gugusterson what he liked about this car in practice. He said it turns pretty well, but Chase can handle the car to get a repeatable balance lap after lap driving the The car works with its tools on the inside, that's a brake bias and things like that, hope

full

y he can work with the track at as it changes. Marty today, the social media world was abuzz this week with Ross Chastain's video game move at the end of Martinsville's run over 100 million. collective views on social media for that clip from the end of the race last week Ross Chastain got over 1000 techs so he did something he'd never done in his life bought Wi-Fi on the plane said he had to make a dent in those messages somehow he's only returned about 400 of them, but Junior, I have to wonder if he wins the championship, how many messages would you get?
So I guarantee you there's over a thousand, oh I don't know man, it's thousands, a lot. I think the most I got for a win was maybe a couple hundred, that's way up there, you're not as popular as rock, oh my god, well Fernando Alonso's tweets about him, I mean you got world exposure as to what Ross Chastain was capable of. a week ago Blaney has been running a little higher on both ends of the track and sometimes when you do that Jeff you can get hurt yeah well you have to push the edge the only way to find out is to get up there but Right here , Laney, right against the wall a little bit, it was a little harder than you'd like to hit the wall, this car is tough, Junior, it's tough, you can see the marks on the right rear of that car, Dave, that Makes me a little nervous for them so far, so good, Jeff stayed on track and kept running second.
He had just reported that the car was tight in the driveway at one and two and was moving up to get a better driveway. You called it that. Sometimes that happens. and he ran faster than Joey. Joey finally went up there and paired his laptops. Joey knows there's speed there if he wants to get there and use that line of the twelve who have gotten the car back under control and now he's running faster laps than Joey. The leader, there's no real problem right now for Joey, he can get up there, but he has such a lead and it's so early in the race that you don't want to make that mistake and damage the car, now you're going to have to go.
Up there to learn what your car needs to race there because if you have to go there to win the race, you don't need to wait until the end of the race to get there, you need to learn it right now, but do it. Being cautious this early, I know it's a lesson he doesn't want to learn, but can Joey Logano learn anything from running into lap traffic because he knows at some point he could be in traffic? Yeah, that last traffic he runs in. the racetrack gives you information like Jeff talked about, we see the night car now that he's back to Truex Jr and now Chase Elliott seems to be regrouping a little bit, performing a little better, he was falling off a little bit now that he's racing. get down to five or try, yeah, Truex when he started this race, he was driving towards the front, he was very fast right when the green flag fell.
I wonder if that's going to cost him later, you know, we've talked about how this track will change, but also, the cars are different, some take everything fast, others are better in the long races, let's see what this 19 car does and Truex, you know, I think a lot of people assume that when he mentioned he's coming back next year, that would be the last year. it's indefinite, he hasn't really made a decision on retirement, he's just okay with it, as long as he has fun he'll keep coming back, he's got a great team around him and a great opportunity to try to get the picture today, if not today .
They are going to be a strong team next year. This year has not been fun. Mark Schrex Jr and that's why she's ready for 2022 to end, but he's still excited about the prospect of returning to Victory Lane. He knows he can. do that, he knows what that Joe Gibbs Racing organization is, they can continue to be successful and run for a championship, but it was a surprise to all of us when Martin Trucks Jr went the entire season without a win, yeah, it's pretty interesting how that goes. has considered this next gem. the field challenged many teams and surprised us with some teams like trackhouse and so on, it has made it so competitive, each team is more competitive in each race, which they really are, and you talk about Truex riding alongside the Xfinity mobile camera, will chase Elliott's car, they came. so close this year to winning races and think about Miami a few weeks ago I just had a problem on Pit Road, you know, slowed down Mrs.
Box spun came in leading the race didn't make it, it seemed like all year For a long time time, that was his year. I know he's looking to come back next year and clean that up halfway through stage one. If you mentioned that you will be able to reach the end of the stage without consuming fuel,They will be able to do around 90 95 laps. about tanker fuel today we think they'll probably split stage two now you're saying it because Steve said yes, maybe texting us, texting us buddy Steve, I had a lot of help, we talked to a lot of bosses of team this morning Trying to cover the bases, we'll never be able to do it and Steve sees all this stuff coming at him long before we do, but he's gone, I have my phone open here and he'll text me if I do.
I don't see anything wrong nor do I need information for fans. Coca-Cola can look from Lagano's point of view, this one on the bumper, take a look at the telemetry that Progressive offers you. We ride together with Legano on a race track where You're going to see changes, they will also be on the brakes, okay, foreigner, okay, so free, free, tight, in the middle, drive in the corner, the rear of the car. it is not as safe as he wants he wants to make a turn then he reaches towards the center of the corner he tries to turn the car the car does not change direction he points in the direction he wants and then when he returns to the accelerator now, the rear he's starting to turn, now that's the guy leading the race, so if you're running 20th you have the same problems, but he's doing much worse, some of the fastest slaps came from Joey Logano in front of the field here in Phoenix overseas be sure to download the official NASCAR app, you can follow the action with free live scores, there are in-car cameras and a radio broadcast, all you have to do is search for NASCAR in your App Store To download it.
Start a free trial let's get some more updates on champion 4 and we'll start with Dylan Welsh Christopher Val rectus and it's not great in qualifying, a little better than in practice but Adam Stevens says there's no way to do it at this point really. We know how good we're going to be until the race starts, so Christopher's latest comments are that he wishes he were turning a little better, but he's been attacking it as he gets closer to them, so good signs right now of the 20 cars. They try to eliminate him and he moves to 12th place.
Marty Dylan with a few laps to go. Ross Chastain had gone from 25th to 17th and then had an interesting radio broadcast. Listen to me. Feel free to guide me. Your lap times look great here. that's 47 55 or one of the best lap times at the moment, so the championship four driver openly asked both his crew chief, Phil Surgery, and spotter Brandon Brandon McReynolds, they helped me train me a little since then, they gained two more spots, Parker, well, Barney. For leader Joe Lagano, he doesn't need to ask for that training because he has his spotter Coleman Presley telling him turn by turn which lanes the other cars are traveling in, as he can see that Blaney has gotten closer to him while cutting that lead of almost more of a second as they run into traffic here, but it's not just Blaney, they're telling him the lines of Chase Brisco, who's running in third, Kyle Larson and in fourth, lap-by-lap update because Joe Legato is one of those drivers who just want all that information. and then he goes out and applies it lap to lap and constantly changes lines as he gets that really fascinating information to hear right now as they try to maintain that lead.
Park, you're talking about changing your lines as you go through the lap. traffic the way we see joey logano ryan blaney are you learning about your car all this time? You know that, otherwise you wouldn't be driving where that car is. You have to go by people and you take that opportunity to learn, okay, what about the car? drive like in that lane how to drive in this lane and sometimes Junior you actually find a faster way around the track avoiding that traffic, we see that the 12 has closed the gap now it was a one second lead that Joey Logano had but now Ryan Blaney He's down to two tenths of a second, so he's trying something different, maybe a car that's a little faster for long runs than the 22.
I think Ryan could be more aggressive. We have already seen him hit the wall in turns one and two and he can really be more aggressive at the beginning of the race, we are talking about Joey, he will take it back with the lead, he will be careful, he knows that the next red championship is several positions behind, he's not very high on the track in grip or resin, he fouled the wall a little bit and that will cost him some lap time if he wants to go, he knows he has a little more speed in this car, there's definitely something else in this race. car for him I'll tell you I want this guy here Christopher Bell you and I, Junior on Friday, we're very concerned about the speed of this car, but right now he may have the fastest race car on the track now that he's got it. relatively clean air which is helping him but he is chasing Austin Cedric for 10th place so it's a good start to the race for this team obviously this team is racing with heavy hearts over the news about Coy Kids.
You know, feelings and emotions for that team. today, but right now they're being able to put that behind them and use it to help make this team better. Today we talk about clean air, all the cars around you are running the fastest laps on the track. Christopher Bell, Ash, Reddick Harvick, all the three or four best lap times last time, so track traffic plays a big role. The field stretched the entire length of this one-mile track. Lagano now with a lead of four tenths of a second, Elliott runs in sixth place. trying to chase Mark Shrek Jr, but our tricks Junior is almost a second and a half ahead of him.
Truex circled around him again, so Jay is scrambling to figure out how to make this car more consistent. He's complained about being consistent all these playoffs and now he's being chased by Byron Dave and they think they were going to be. Beyond some of that Junior inconsistency, we'll see how that plays out throughout the afternoon. It was interesting when I talked to crew chief Allen Gustafson this morning about 2020 when they won the championship. They remember that he started at the back of the field after technical violations in three races. The inspection has energized you guys, he said he, oh yeah, we knew we had to come and we had to come hard, so I asked him about today and he said, well, we qualified fifth. “We are not the best but we are not the worst,” he said.
I like where we are. We still have a little work to do, but it's not the same energy we had in 2020. I hope we can harness it. same end of day 2020 and a championship we mentioned, this is a team sport, now there are only 12 laps left, 11 laps away from pit stops in foreign teams, the amazing Ford F-150 Lightning is here and you could win one during NASCAR. playoffs scan the QR code now or you can visit

nascar

.com forward slash playoff promotion for your chance to win the most innovative F-150 Ford has ever built by looking down on this one-mile race track here in the desert air cover brought to you by Geico Lugano is still ahead eight tenths of a second Gap over Blaney, but you see, look at that bit of close up between Blaney and the Seven, yeah, that's some incredible contact between them even before this, the seven were tough for legano to get around and then Blaney got there and got physical, he didn't waste any time.
Yes, you mentioned how long it took Legano to get through the seven. La Joy, that worked well because there was no pressure behind Legano because of a teammate, but since his race uses his, you won't be able to be as patient with some competition behind you. Joe, you're going to have to find a way to push that issue forward. 14 by Chase Briscoe. He was knocked out after the round of 16, but had an impressive season. Brisco has been able to make it just a couple of laps left in the stadium but they have run over these guys without Duo to Penske ahead of Brisco Larson's 14th, they are stuck, they caught up with him pretty quickly cutting into that lead and we're wondering now if 22 is too much conservative or needs a tune up to change the rebound, that car is still struggling here trying to get around Stenhouse's lap car, he will go to the top, that will help a little. would put the car's stint in 29th place one lap down, only two laps left to go in stage one and then the opportunity for the teams to make some adjustments Blaney will take that High Line and try to get around Stenhouse as well. now Stenhouse moves up a notch and Blaney looks in Blaney, another one of those drivers who I think we're all surprised couldn't find Victory Lane in 2022, a seven-time winner with the Cup Series one lap from the end . we go to stage one here there is a battle for third place here they are on top of each other Briscoe the five of Larson Truex maybe behind the five down in a corner here there have been close 35 point races and the points were very important after each stage but for the championship four means nothing, the points don't matter, it's who finishes ahead of the other Joey Logano is going to win the first stage, which is the fifth longest stage win of the

series

in Phoenix for Lagano Blaney Briscoe Larson Trucks Jr. in the top five of the Chase.
Elliott, the second Ford Championship driver, was sixth. Byron Harvick Reddick and Cedric, all part of the Top Ten of the Championship, four fighting for each position on the track. The foreign driver with, by far, the most experience here in Phoenix, is the winner of the first stage, but, interestingly, when I met with Joey earlier this week and he told me that on the preparation side there was no feel like the experience really weighs so much, absolutely yes, I mean, you can't teach the experience properly, you have to have a good time and and that's the only way you learn a lot of times, you just have to go through the moment, so for us You know it's my fifth time, not only for me but for my entire team, who has been through this a lot, almost everyone on the team.
He's been here at least twice, um, and that's a big advantage, right? Getting to the championship four, five times, it gives you a little bit more comfort knowing how to be ready, can you? You can fool yourself. yourself to be ready, you can. Fake it until you get it right, you can do it or you can actually be ready and this added a couple of weeks that we have had to prepare in addition to the experience of knowing what is most important, what this whole week looks like your feeling of ready has never been more real, they are advancing slowly, he mentions having those few extra weeks to prepare the team by locking in the first race of the round of 16 in Las Vegas, the only championship so that the drivers have that extra time for repairs for this race Finally, the pit stops will be made soon, things are going to change here as we prepare to start the second stage.
NASCAR on NBC is presented by Ford, proudly built by Ford, and Credit One Bank, a credit card company. Junior pit stops are about to happen as an owner, yesterday you sat in the pit box, how stressful is this for this first pit stop, most of the time you know it would be like this every pit stop for these teams, in this race and as you sit there, you know the weight of the situation, the importance of the championship is on your shoulders, if you make a mistake in any other race, you can recover, there is always next week, there is always time to recover, but you don't want to do that. mistake today and then you feel that pressure, that guy over there, if you're standing right next to him, you can feel the tense moment of the tents as these guys feel these cars, these cars start coming down Pit Road, man, start to build and build and build and the nervousness in the box among the crew members is at an all-time high today during this day, especially at that last stop, they will be asked to do exactly what they are supposed to do and not They want to fail when trying to do it. make pit stops in less than 11 seconds.
I mean, the fact of the matter is that they're going to change four tires and they're going to add, potentially, 20 gallons of fuel and they're going to have to wait for the fuel to arrive, and it's that fast and it's that choreographed. Dylan, here they come, good progress for Christopher Bell, who finished 17th to 11th, said we were respectable in the long run. His only request from crew chief Adam Stevens helped me turn a little better in the middle of the corner, four tires and fuel for Marty, 25th to 25th. 13th for us, Chastain, let's see what the guy can do. number one pit crew on Pit Road for him.
He said he was too free and hurt his right rear on the start and it's important to note that Dave was the faster car for several of those. laps at the end of The Run, four Goodyear tires on Sunoco driven for 6th place running with Chase Ellie, they said I'm a little nervous in turn one, if we could get the track bar to adjust what we used to do, I I would say leave her.Parker, so they arrived at the bottom right of his screen, he showed every lap of that face and he was only two three on the brake pedal, but then he tightened up and received the 22 teams and he controlled this race and they They will win the race.
Road Legato controls the race if we see Larson Briscoe Byron gaining a few spots there to stay on top Blaney losing five spots though thanks for looking to Phoenix and such a beautiful facility here, this is the site of the championship for now the third year in a row. Talking to Rutledge Wood and racing is already an emotional day for Joe Gibbs Racing, but what about the fact that this is Kyle Busch's last race with that organization? Amazing Rick, you know it really is the end of a 200+ race era in the top three

series

for Kyle Busch, you think about all those wins since 2008, two championships, 2015 and 2019.
It's amazing to see how far they've come together as organization, but really one of the most special tributes this weekend is that his car still has Eminem's on it. Paint scheme on it, but it's filled with thousands of photos from those Rowdy Nation fans. I know it was a bittersweet weekend for Kyle on many levels, but it's amazing to see how many things Toyota Toyota Racing and Kyle Busch accomplished together. Wow, what a career, yeah, do you think about that? what he was able to do with this organization and we go back to 2015 and Iraq in the Xfinity Series race at Daytona takes him out of the car for 11 races but then he comes back, makes the playoffs and wins the championship that year, all with the support of everyone, Joe Gibbs' organization behind him, let's go to Kyle Petty in the peacock pit, everyone good, guys so far in the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series, the guy who won the first stage won the second stage and then he won the championship.
You see the shift, I see it, the Ross Chastain shift was very quick, it's all about track position, although you have to continue this restart, if these guys can get track position, they can shake a little to Joey, wait guys, I'm on the phone with Las Vegas, see if this is not live rats in Joey Logano, I answer you. Rick is always grateful that they keep us in life while the field goes two by two again, they choose. Whether it was the inside line or the outside line, he chose the inside line. We've seen the High Line get a little more speed.
Kyle Larson's five left Road second, yes you talk about Ross Chastain, how important the piss tops were, he picked up three. places, they've been the fittest team all year, he's also the best at restarts, you see, get a little more here, getting closer to the Geico restart zone and we're back to stage two, thank you. Look at it in a fan, four, five, wide. They come to turn a fight for second Briscoe on the inside Kyle Larson on the outside, side by side and then three open for third now that all these drivers gathered in time to test the highest pace of the track that really will do.
These restarts are much more interesting, it is a wider track than the one we had at the beginning of the race. You see all 20 of the nine very close together, maybe some contact in the Championship four. Contender side by side, four positions right now fighting for that sixth place. Chase Elliott. hits the car, it actually crossed that yellow line with its left side tires, sometimes if you do that the car gets really angry and pulls away from you the same way Blaney almost mixes things up and tries to go through the nine, but nine. moving into turn three when he had a bad pit stop he's trying to get back to the front hey Jeff I went and talked to the team and they showed me the tape the hose got stuck under the front Splinter when the tire changer was on Getting to the front he said it should have been a lot worse, it was actually a pretty decent save, well sometimes, hey, if you know you take a bad situation, if you can make it work or you can minimize the damage, and that's what they Are you going to make mistakes today?
You simply can't make one so big that you can't recover from it. Battle for third place right here. Larson took second from the 14th at Briscoe now Truex is out Byron behind the number 19 car trying to follow him into turn one as well. Frisco started third on the inside moving back a bit. We saw this in the first start of the race, Marty, what you got in 14. Well, Junior Rick mentioned how they got to the round debate for Chase Briscoe. and Stuart Haas racing and told me earlier this week that it almost made things worse because we were so close to winning the race in Las Vegas.
Remember that he was in front, he had a handful of laps left in that race and a chance to make it to the fourth championship. and he lost the lead and fell further back, so he said: listen, I want to go further with this racing team. I know he had the ability to make it to championship four, but Jeff, I think it's a big step forward for Chase Briscoe and his development. Next year he will be a championship threat, yes, I think you will have a real chance. He struggled so much his rookie year that he just didn't have a good rookie year at all, then he came out this year just swinging and did a great job.
Good job Parker, well another team, I think you can put him in that category as a championship contender in the future and he showed a lot of flashes of brilliance this year. 24 by William Byers dive under there, Chase Briscoe makes that path they've had. It was an interesting start to this race for a while. In stage one, the team couldn't hear William. They were trying to communicate with him. Finally he couldn't respond, just towards the end of the stage, they were able to start listening to him again. They clarified those radio shots. He's moving forward, this team.
Before the race it looks like they have a car in the top five and they are showing that right now they saw William Byron pass the number 14 car right there in turn two. Frisco had to get up. without accelerating I lost grip I lost grip on either the front or rear of the car immediately came off the gas abandoning that position completely let's take a look see it right there he's something made me slide the rear slipped the front whatever was going to happen he's going to hit the wall if he doesn't slow the car down, good recovery, but fighting a little balance issue, Frisco falls back to that fifth position from time to time, Briscoe won here earlier this year, so It's how they made the playoffs.
Dylan taking a Look at Christopher Bell, just behind Chase Briscoe, he's been on the move since this restart until six now and Adam Stevens, the crew chief, made an adjustment to help his short run to help free up Christopher and It was worth it here in these first laps. Mind you also despite their struggles so far this weekend at Pace, I think these guys still felt very confident in what they were going to have here today just because of the style of the track it is here in Phoenix, they won at Loudon, a flat Mile track like this.
Uno finished second at Richmond earlier this summer, another flat, bigger, shorter track, and I knew they were going to have a similar package here today and so far it's paid off, moving up from 17th and now sitting among the top 10. This 12-car Blaney takes a position away from Chase Elliott in relation to Chase, who has now fallen to eighth position. The further you go back in this field, if your car doesn't drive well, the further you go back in the field, the worse your car will drive. The problems will get worse and worse in that dirty, dirty air.
We have seen this throughout their playoffs. Junior, this team didn't make the playoffs. Many of people's favorites seemed to have everything going, but they just haven't. I wouldn't give it. above them, this is a very, very dangerous racing team, a lot of races fell right behind them, there's a four-car Kevin Harvick and then Chastain's, both guys are trying to find a way to get around these nine cars while They fight for the championship. four while the four contenders within the top ten now run Chastain the furthest back in that tenth place all the other Playoff drivers have advanced from their initial positions lagano obviously still in first place Chase is the only one who loses positions he lost a few at the beginning of the race and he kind of recovered a little bit now fighting again Harvick until the end here trying to take that place from him battle for eighth place in the back right away what kind of tame about the playoffs in NASCAR is that you compete with everyone else?
Alright, it's not just the four champions that are out there and you know those guys are putting a lot of pressure on Chase Elliott now. You also see the 12 planes that jumped out of Christopher Bell after losing places on Pit Road. He's getting it back on track a very strong car that we saw in practice also Dave Rick interesting bottom up screen there Kevin Harvick trying to pass Chase Elliott's car Harvick was pretty good that race in fact he told coochie Rodney Childers " I can't really tell you what I think he needs to make me faster and you can see he's moving forward again as Chase really contemplated what he wanted before they made some changes on that pit stop and I don't think they helped him much.
He has been very quiet on the radio and is losing positions instead of gaining. Elliott's team will have to make some big changes before this race is theirs. This stage is twice as long as stage one, so there will be a pit stop at some point. Steve Latark crew chiefs are leaders. The crew chief believes they will break this stage into a race of approximately 60 laps and go down Pit Road. He believes Pit Road will open around 122 up there when they come in for the green flag pit stops and again. putting all that pressure on the teams, the drivers try their hardest to get all the positions on the track, so there are racing gangs when in Las Vegas, stay where the racers stay at the South Point Hotel Casino and Spa, your Best pit stop on the Las Vegas Strip.
South Point, everything you want, all under one roof and we're seeing Ricky Stenhouse Jr's 47 has a little damage on the 77 here broke on the left front. The car from The Landing Castle and this is Stenhouse with nose damage so that's nice. died, so Stanowski laughed at the beginning of the first stage in which they were running 28 and 32. Landon Castle highlighted here coming out of turn two goes hard in the heart against the wall and then there is more contact from Stenhouse, so the right front steering is damaged on 77. .Yes, it's 10 hours to go anywhere, he's braking right here and only once you brake, lock the tires, he won't turn and if you don't brake and lock the tires. tires, you hit it. really difficult so it's a bad situation to send in the end both cars will be on the DVP damaged vehicle policy and that means they will have 10 minutes to fix the car if they go behind the wall at any time to fix the car they would be out from racing the cars were known to be so stiff and durable after hitting the wall many times you would have seen years go by that the car would be out no matter what there was nothing anyone could but now they have been able to fix these cars so this It's an interesting place for this caution to come out with 100 to go at this stage we think the fuel window is around 95 or you could run that time on a

full

tank. of fuel, which creates an interesting situation for some teams.
Some teams could pit here. They could change your car and fill it completely. Others may want to stay in track position. They will receive a warning. We just heard it. Come on. down let's put some fuel and tires on yeah it's been 20 laps they've run on this set of tires so they're going to try to go down and get a set of tires and see what it's going to do with the handling they got. eight sets of stickers, that's about 35 percent of laps and we talked to the crew chiefs saying that in 15 or 20 laps or more they were likely to get to Pit Road because there is a lot of fall here with this tire and we see Joey Logano Leading the field now to Pit Road Dylan by Christopher Bell said the first two or three laps of that race felt amazing, but then I got tense and worse than the first race, so they're going to go more in the direction in the that they did it. the first time I tried to free it up a little more, four tires and fuel and another chassis adjustment, Marty Dylan to confirm what Dale Jr was saying a moment ago, they couldn't make it to the end of the second stage and once they passed the lap. 20 you're going to see these cars go down Pit Road Chastain said I'm tighter but I don't have enough help with the throttle on the exit of the corner, that's my biggest problem, they gained three places on him last time Dave, let's see what they do this time.
Chase Elliott said: I'm actually better going into the quarter, but it's tighter. I know I'm slower, so they'll do a chassis tune up here for Goodyear Tires, Sunoco, Parker, Johnny Legato, Paul Wilson, in our window and lose theleadership. in the 43 team that took two tires, so the strategy for the 43 of Eric Jones with a stop with two tires gained 13 places, which gives him control of the race from Lagano, so we will see how he can avoid being the leader of the race here. In Phoenix we heard Christopher Bell criticize his race car a bit before the yellow flag came out, giving Team 20 the opportunity to lower it to Pit Road when I spoke to Christopher, although earlier this week he said to make those adjustments throughout The race weekend looks to be one of their strengths this season, the championship, I think it's one of our strengths and Adam, I go back to Adam because he's the guy who makes the decisions on this and he's done a minor job, amazing, putting us in the ballpark, even when we're not close to unloading, he'll take us there over the course of the weekend, so it's going to be interesting, sure Christopher didn't get the qualifying effort he mentioned he was hoping for . because in that interview the 20th car started in 17th place, but they were in sixth place when the yellow flag came out, they will restart eighth on Monday.
It is the last jump before the new year. Don't miss the action-packed fall finale of Quantum Lee 10 9 Central. on NBC and streaming on peacock for the two tires to stop, it will be Eric Jones and the 43 team that will be in front and they will be in front with Cole Custer because he also stayed on the track, but there is really a lot of talk about that . 43 Petty GMS team, we just discovered that Jimmy Johnson has become part owner. I guess he would say the organization and he will have a limited schedule in 2023, so back to NASCAR you have some different strategies, the 41, a cold Custer, they were left out.
They're trying to make something happen, they're trying to get track position, they're waiting for a warning, everyone else is more likely because of the fuel they'll have to save, about two laps they'll get to the end of the state. and these teams are going to be watching very closely Eric Jones with a two tire stop how that car performs if he can maintain his position, they separated from Legato until the end of the track, he is challenging for the lead in the inside no is done fighting, it's on the right rear quarter panel. Legato just walked away from him.
Cole Custer on the outside three-wide for third place. Ryan Blaney comes aggressively after that third place, but it's Larson in the five who pulls ahead and Custer holds on strong. the outside here on the engine tires 20 some turns on those tires tricks dive into the middle three four wide here Chastain is going to be three wide no, he's back to two wide three wide in front of him a contact with a nine and the 20 back there you meet three big championship contenders here Rick, yeah, door to door, and you see the nine and the 20. He just gets in front, it was such a close sign I can't believe how close it was and you saw it all.
Smoke came out of a car when it was dropped on the ground on the dog lying in the front. It immediately drugged the rear of the car, teams and drivers are nervous about the damage to the car by doing that right there. I know he's going to lose a lot of positions here, but he's very grateful he didn't hit the wall, that was a bad deal. and he's going to live to fight another day, I mean he was so close he almost saw the end of his quest for the championship right there, look at his face take it one at a time, we're good, look how Lucy gets here, just a enormous. save Junior, that's big for that team, remember it was these three wides and that was the contact right there, just a light contact with a car as it crosses the apron, you see yourself dragging the bottom of that landing gear and that It will take a little. of aerodynamic load, what is under the bell is being worn down to 13th place.
Now we will see if he is able to get out of the hole he just made in Legano, still at the front. 1.3 seconds advantage for Lugano over Larson Chastain. the next highest champion, Forerunner, in seventh place, Elliott is ninth and Bell is there in 13th. Bell is trying to get around this 41 at Coal Custer and can't really leave the track until he clears up his teammate's 11th. team did not handle it. Finally, he's going to go all the way, get out of this 41 and move on, try to get some of those places back that he lost, he calmed down, that was a great moment, be thankful that he's still there unharmed.
There is a lot of racing ahead. try to find your way back to the front once again Larson working on now Eric Jones' 43 remember Eric Jones started out front with that two tire launch strategy Marty that's now six for Ross Chastain Rick and we've talked about how he has the number one pitch at Pit Road, they have already been beaten by two places or two stops, four places on the day, these places at the beginning of this race are very key because his strength has been the longest race for Ross Chastain and proof that at the beginning of this year they started very far back and entered the game late in the race, now that they are already in the top six, that gives Jeff, this team, a lot of confidence to go from 25th place to sixth , yes, and On top of that, you just heard the drivers say that the balance is much better, so the pit crew is doing it by making great pit stops like they have done all year and the crew chief , Phil Surgery, are making big changes, so it's a good start to the career for them.
To get back to a positive pace there is still a long way to go in this race. They have a real chance to win this championship. You've seen the final pit stop of the championship four and it always seems like it all comes down to this final race. We don't really talk much about the crews or classify them or disadvantage them, but when we get to this race we know the important role they are going to play and make the difference in that last stop so far, Ross. has had the lead all season, let's see if when it counts, that team can move into second place as Ryan Blaney has really come back to the front with such a strong car for that 12.
It's been impressive, he lost that whole position in the track 22. hasn't been challenged the only other car that's been close is this one here this 12th Blaney Laney had the best lap average 5 10 15 in practice the other night we knew it was the best car 22 they learned a little bit what they were doing they improved their car and nobody runs as good as Penske today the lady calls herself the Kyle Larson five but there's still a lot riding on that Larson five you know it was 1963 when there was a split driver and owner championship , it's been so long since we've actually talked about it in the cup series, but this year there's a chance for a different driver-owner championship and the reason for that, with Kurt Busch winning a race before and then coming out of it, The 45 was still part of the owners championship and that is why it has been split as we enter this final race of the championship.
Marty's quick test for you. Rick, do you think Rick Hendrick reminded him of Kyle Larson? Hey, you're in the owners' championship, there's a lot of money at stake. For Hendrick Motorsports today, Larson won the title here as a driver last year and he had an interesting comment a moment ago, junior, he said: I feel like we're pretty good right now, the Penske cars are a lot better, so if you ever do it you have been. In that situation where you think my car is pretty good, but those guys are just faster, yeah, it's hard because you don't know what to tell your team to improve if you really like your car and everything is working as it can.
How can you be faster? What are you doing? What do you fix? There is no push or slack in the car I just need overall speed and grip. A crew chief doesn't want to hear that just give me more grip. That's like you can watch them roll. eyes from the pit box when you tell them to make my car have more grip Lugano now has a two and a half second lead he is LED 101 laps here today NASCAR fans can watch every lap of the Nascar Cup races from the inside the cabin of any car choose live in-car camera feeds for the entire field, visit

nascar

.com, driver, you can download the Nascar mobile app today, come back to those drivers, some action here, Jeff, yeah, Alex Bowman, first race back after being out five races. and Austin Dillon had a little contact that continued on the exit of the corner, smoke flying, guys running hard Alex Bowman getting back into the rhythm Dave, he's really trying with Jeff and one of the reasons he's trying is because his boss of team, Greg Ives, is the team. running his last race for the moment as a full-time crew chief at Pit Road, there's Ives there, he's taking Alex through the transition to the 48 full-time after Jimmy retired and Greg has been a racer his entire career. life, the interesting thing is that the eyes He wanted to get off the road to spend more time with family and friends, but as Alex made his way after crashing in Texas, with concussion-like symptoms and not returning, he remembered that he had also Went through that with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016, when he was the crew chief on the number 88 and Junior car.
I know you appreciate it, Greg then, and you know what he's going through with Alex now. They wouldn't have put Alex back in the car if he wasn't ready, but This race is very important for both of them. Alex was ready last week, they had the car ready for a different driver, they went ahead with that, but it's great for Alex to be able to check this box and also for Greg to have his pilot back. finish that final race together Greg his advice his daughter's 10th birthday was this weekend he was there for her birth but he has never been there for any of her birthdays and this is going to change his life and have the opportunity to be able to experience something of those milestones with his family in the future, he's a great guy, he always supported me, he's a great leader and it's just amazing to see him being able to change his life, do what he wants to do and that's what Steve has always talked about, our team leader. and how much time do you spend away from your family in this job, it's a year-round job, it doesn't matter if we call it off season, they are working constantly, so Greg will take advantage of the opportunity to be able to spend more time with his family this time with Jack at the house before the race and Chad said he was very excited about Greg's next opportunity within the company.
I bet these two guys are doing it, they've both had really good seasons. Michael Mcdowell Justin Haley just solid years. Michael McDonald's best year had 12 top 10 finishes this season and watching these guys do it, the racing in the back half of the field is more intense than it is in the front. I have experienced this and one of the first things I noticed. When I came into the booth with you it was how much you competed with each other in the back of the field. I mean, they are very contested positions, everyone wants to be able to advance and they have done a good job this year.
Both drivers had particularly good results. I think with AJ going there full time next year, that will all improve. We've already seen AJ have some pretty impressive runs this year in the collie car which will help this 31. car and part of the silly season AJ almendinger making the transition from the Xfinity series to The Cup series, he will drive full time here while we see Joey Logano trying to put another car down a lap and Parker, yeah, we're looking at lap 116. He's not dominating absolutely every lap here except three, and I think this really goes back to what we've been hearing all week from Joe Lagano, even at Championship Four media day, when he made it very clear that this team had time to prepare and get This car was ready, then they went out and won the poll, so this morning I asked him what the feeling was and he He turned to me and said, "Don't let the others get air," meaning he feels like the other three in the Championship have already been defeated.
If they lose the championship here and now, controlling this race continuously, they are not settling for that car either. He has been updating the team lap after lap on the handling while changing corner after corner, making sure they have all the possible and necessary updates. to make changes as they return to Pit Road nine, Chase Elliott was able to pass Eric Jones and so Elliott attempts to move back forward and is in eighth position. Chastain ahead of him in sixth, of course, Legato in front, the furthest behind him in fourth and twelfth is Christopher Bell. Agano leads by more than a second from his lapping teammate Blaney, but they still have work to do to reach this stage.
He was interesting and is concerned about fuel. When should I start doing what I can to save? That's not moving the car by trying to lift the accelerator first. He's got a really healthy lead and his teammate, his teammate Blaney, is right behind him again and they can definitely make the save. enough fuel to be able to reach the end, let's see this telemetry,pay attention to your shifts, it's an immediate upshift so no fuel savings, I seem to see the RPM get quite hot in a fairly high RPM range before it shifts. If you really wanted to be sure, if you could shift a lot sooner, lower RPM means less fuel burned, but you're not worried right now, Marty, how about Ross Chastain on your fuel situation, boy, Jeff, that's what you just said. listen to on the radio a moment ago?
Surgeon Phil said give me five laps without shifting, so exactly the same, Joey Logano, the message he gets, they told him not to shift here, let's see if Chastain does it and you'll see she didn't downshift in that corner, There will be no changes down here. the front immediately doubts that if you shift, if you don't shift in three and four, you certainly won't shift down here and to your point, Jeff, when you downshift, you increase the RPM, you burn more fuel, this is a minimal way to save fuel, get up early, get up much earlier, using less brakes also reduces the RPM, saving fuel and that is one of the problems and not shifting, now you have to use more because when you shift the RPM increases and that is brake braking. engine which slows down. the car goes down on its own now that you're starting to use more brake, you have to be careful not to slow the car down too much because then you have to use more accelerator to get it going again, so it's a really delicate balance for a driver and how to save fuel and surgeon Phil is watching all this at the top of the box, he told him just before saying not to send for five laps, he said that we have about three laps of fuel left to reach the end of the stage.
So Jeff didn't change for five laps with that Bayou, those three laps you need at the end of the stage, well, think about today's world. Barney is they know they have great tools that can calculate, oh, very loose, right there for the chassis, that's one thing. You have to think about downshifting so the car doesn't drive as well. You just saw Chastain lose big in turn three, but they can sell how much fuel that car is burning and whether or not he's saving enough fuel. One thing this does is put everything on pause in terms of fighting for the championship, if you're saving fuel you're not on the offensive trying to advance, so everything related to the championship battles stays put until it's over. fuel savings. he's definitely moving forward and trying to get to the front is Ryan Blaney, we'll see how much pressure he puts on Legano when he gets to him.
Lagano is still out front here in Phoenix, the official NASCAR tracks app allows you to stay up to date on the latest rain information, all your favorite tracks, you can search for NASCAR tracks in the App Store to download for free, try it, want go around the field and we'll start with Parker and Rick Joe Legato continues to dominate this race, but think about what he could accomplish here with this team 22 in 2022 remember this is the start of the next Genera, the first race was at the LA Coliseum early This year, who won the 22nd card to get it if he can go. here and win at Phoenix and win the championship, he's going to dominate this first year in the next generation car.
Dave, note that if Ryan Blaney overtook his teammate Joey Logano and Blaney won the race and Legano finished ahead of all the other drivers in the championship. Lugano would be the champion so that could happen today and Blaney is yet to win in 2022. He would like to get a win. Marty gave it to Kyle Larson who is in third place right now and is trying to win two of the last three races of 2022. Remember he won in a couple of weeks ago in Miami, Cliff Daniels, his crew chief, told him a Now that you and the 19 right behind you are the best cars on the track, we can overtake those two cars in front.
Dylan, good riddance, junior, running in fourth place right now. Not a playoff driver, but remember they were in the playoffs on points, but they didn't win and they were eliminated, so I feel like they certainly belong here at the front of the field, the biggest struggle for them this year and it's been a year of struggles, They're just finishing races where they run all afternoon so it's a good start for now but trying to finish in the top five is better for tricks Marty Chase Fresco trying to make a splash in Phoenix remember he won here earlier of the year in March and is having a very good run right now as the car is a little too free although they get a little better the more they run behind them Ross Chastain asked him to continue without changing they have not saved enough fuel to make it to the end of the stage Chastain says the car is really having problems Start with rear grip on the exit of the corner Dave and Harvick race next season in seventh position.
Rodney Childers told me this morning. I hope to do some longer runs because that is our strong point. Kevin restarted 12. He has passed five cars, it is a longer run and he is making progress on Chase Elliott's nine, what is his condition? Listen, there's a long way to go here, so Freyr this time, but the back is more on the track and that's better for this driver. Rick and Blaney are here, he's caught up with Legano. and this will be the fight for the lead again Blaney looking for a victory in 2022 Lugano looking for a championship Legato has been dominant 131 of the 134 laps and now 132 have been led by lagano you don't want to go a year without winning a race and Ryan Blaney knows that Joey Logano needs to win to win this championship, but he is going to push and try to win this race himself.
I don't think it's going to put Joey in a bad situation, but it's important if you care. you and your team were going to win and the situation developed earlier when Joey caught traffic up to 12 almost at the turn four wall and this is where we are again, Joey is catching the back of the field which will slow him down as that advances. You will find it challenging to get around these slower cars, all 12 of them will be lying in wait. I don't think Blaney will push the issue as the 22 try to pass the lap cars, but he'll stay close enough if Joey makes a mistake he'll actually get out of there. accelerate and that gives the 12 a clean pass enjoy Logano leading 133 laps a day that's amazing you don't want to hear this he's only won one of the last five races after leading at least 130 laps so yeah , racing very well early feels good, but it doesn't achieve the goal, you have to continue to improve this car and you have to continue to execute both the team and the driver.
I'm glad you said that because social media will criticize you for cursing him about that boat, oh. I get a lot worse than that, well, you mentioned before and I think it's because it's become so normal that the champion always wins the race, but the champion doesn't have to win the race, the champion just has to finish ahead of the other three, so if Laney passes Legano as I know, still in the big seat to win a title here in the cup series, he doesn't have to win the race, he just has to finish ahead of the other three, for example, right now. he just has it there in Harvick, the one that does, staying on the race track in one and two, looking for extra grip all the way to the bottom in three and four, this guy is moving.
I love it, you must have a driver who is willing to pick it up. Speed, well we know Chastain will go anywhere to find some speed, we saw him a week ago, well we talked about it, you know, he's not afraid to try things, you see, how much he's working the wheel again, look at his hand Right, let's see what. He's still there, he's still not making changes. Look, there's no change yet, so why does that matter? Well, the car drives completely differently. Every driver will tell you that they love the downshift because it makes the car drive so much better.
He's not doing it trying to save. fuel, so his car won't drive as well as he will when he can start shifting again. He's just trying to save fuel to make sure he can make it to the end of this stage. This battle here continues between Eric Jones and Christopher Bell for Tenth position Eric Jones currently holds that position. Dylan has the number 20 car there, yes, and he's not thrilled with the balance, he just says there's less grip than we've had all afternoon in this race for Christopher Bell, but keep in mind something Christopher said. He told me earlier this week that this playoff race for us has been such a rollercoaster that we've gone from feeling like we were out and then out so many times in a race that we've just learned it's not over. until it's over, so while he's running 11th right now, that's not where they want to be.
I don't think there's anyone besides this team of 20 who knows this race isn't over until it's over, there's still a long way to go to get these spots back. I talked about how the pit crews will play a role in this and the number 20 car, his two stops are the quickest of the four championship drivers in the chase and although that was an issue for him earlier in the year, I think that's exactly why he's here today they made a change with that pit crew it really changed this team he had fast cars but they couldn't get out of pit road now he can go out and win races they actually turned the whole team around this year it's a bit frustrated with his 43 here trying to get around it, he'll need those pit stops to stay strong all afternoon using the momentum there in turn four, we'll see if he can complete the pass, it looks like though now he'll be able to run that higher line to through one and two and Bell will move up to tenth position while giving the place back to Eric Jones.
Remember that big mistake he had earlier in this race and you know he's working to recover. but it's taken him forever, he lost four or five places in one lap and now all the work he has to do to get it back is very difficult when you give up places on restarts, well the next generation of Wi-Fi is here with supercharged speeds faster than a concert unbeatable internet made to do anything so you can do anything 148 laps he talked about the 2020 championship and how dominant the car he had there was, but it didn't win the title and he went on to say that he's eight since he couldn't finish that and win that championship, a second title, now he's looking for that second title and he doesn't want anything to come between him and lifting the trophy at the end of this race today, so you know he's had the speed, without a doubt, his teammate Blaney was there with him the whole time.
The teams were listening, they talk about not being able to do it even though they weren't changing when the driver said fuel, some talk about not being able to do it and some don't show any concern, let's listen to Joey Logano and his team, what our mileage is please so there's the word so here's the telemetry and oh it's still changing if you're wondering how the teams understand that information that they basically have, you know, car RPM data and all that stuff that can predict fuel consumption with software so they can see all the RPMs and the information they get from the car and the telemetry from the car and that data will tell them, hey, this is how far you can go when you start changing what you're doing inside the car.
Fuel consumption will change over lab time on the pit monitor, yes it is not a fuel consumption meter as you would expect, it is truly predictive software measured through RPM and many teams have become really smart about it. over the years. Marty Rick, this is a very interesting fork in the road in terms of the championship. They had a long radio conversation with Ross Chastain. They have decided to slow down. Continue without changing the cars surrounding you at this time. Both Cole Custer and Kevin. Harvick, they hit him, they have new tires and you see Chase Elliott catching him from behind.
Phil the surgeon told Ross Chastain a moment ago that the nine have stopped trying to save fuel to get to the end of the stage they started choosing. They increased their lap time, so we're looking at different strategies and there it is, the nine make it to Pit Road. Dave gave up eighth place. Marty, interesting strategy called Alan Gustafson, yeah, he told his driver to go ahead and change back because we're not going. to achieve it and then become one of the first to play this strategy to put the new Goodyear tires first and the Sunoco fuel first during this stage 32 to enter, they will certainly reach the end now we will see. how this plays out for Chase Elliott and it's really a scary situation for these guys to be within laps of the lead in the middle of this race if they get a yellow flag right now it's a big deal for them to lose a lot of track position that they achieved.
In my opinion, the decisionthat they didn't have enough speed to win this championship, they went into the pits early, put on new tires, to go as fast as possible until the end of this stage, pretending and hoping that others would do it too. having to pit or run away and the pressure that his teammate Ryan Blaney puts on Legano's 22, but he cannot save fuel if he wants to stay ahead two tenths of a second that still separate the first two Parker, has just remember Giordano. As the teammate was playing he approached his rear bumper, there was no change here, we are still worried about the fuel and the interesting thing is that when they caught up on lap 87, the team felt good because they made it to the end, but as you noticed it.
It was about 10 laps ago, they asked him to stop shifting and reminded him not to shift even if the plane gets its rear bumper. 48 of Bowman on Pit Road for his pit stop at this time, still the first 23 have stayed on the track, they have not been. to Pit Road and Joey's lap time really isn't that slow, everyone he knows ran a flat 29 last time, that's pretty much what everyone in the group of top ten racers, meanwhile asked Ross Chastain, who is sitting in seventh place behind this battle. slow down, don't change and now they'll give it to you for Ross Chastain too.
I think Surgeon Phil is about to call it Pit Road, it was too much of a risk for these guys now that they've seen all nine. I have new Goodyear tires and those lap times are impressive, yeah, so we, these guys, see here the battle for the lead under Lagano Lagana running down the middle of the track trying to keep the momentum, but Blaney challenged him for inside, you see the 12. ...he just wraps around the cars below driving much better than Legato just passes by him and the legato trying to look the other way, there he moved, this makes me a little nervous that this car can go to the end.
At the end, as hard as he's running, look at that speed, all 12 cars come out of the top and that car on the inside just came into the pits, that's Cole Custer on new tires, so now let's go back, we just saw the car Chase Elliott's night in the pits, you can see. he on the telemetry here he's here way ahead of him he's the leader Blaney right now that nine car is a second a lap faster so what he's trying to do is do as much lap time as possible to try to get there until the end. back on track with 26 laps left to unlock for Ryan Blaney a second or a lot faster, that's what he has to do.
Will you buy me right behind the leader with newer tires? We will unlock shortly and again now it is. 19 on the lead lap, so there are 19 cars on the lead lap right now Daniel Suarez is there Byron Kozlowski McDowell Haley Chase Elliott butcher Ty Dillon Allman Dinger Bowman Custer a whole lap down, look at this Christopher Bell on the 20. back up right here radio assistant the car 20 keep pushing here here Adam Stevens is so calm and collected on the radio there so when we get into 15 we might start thinking about saving fuel Parker well Joe's team Lagano told him to stop shifting, they were very vague about the fuel situation which made Joey angry.
On his radio we were one on two and we started one on two when we started, that was after about 15 laps of asking him not to shift and to save fuel, he had asked it repeatedly. After a couple of laps to get the information, they finally told me that they were one or two laps away, but they also noted that their last two laps in terms of fuel economy were right for them, so it should be on a good position for a while and He's still changing, he's only running maybe a tenth slower than Blaney, he still has really good lap times.
I wonder if they gave him enough information so that you at least know that he will get the information that he was told several times, but apparently Joey doesn't understand. The seriousness of the situation has put them in a difficult situation at the end of this stage. Yes, there are times when the engineering team leaders go into their computers and formulate their strategy and the driver doesn't even know he's having a conversation. and they come with some information, well, it's 20 laps late. I need to know much sooner if you want it to save fuel. There are 21 laps left for stage two.
Can they do it now? That is the question. Blaney Legato running one and two. Here in Phoenix, foreigner, it is worth noting here as the second stage comes to an end. Chase Elliott is the only championship driver to go down Pit Road for more fuel and back, although when it comes to traffic, he's in the clear. passing position, so the next time he comes out the yellow flag he will return to the lead lap. We just saw Chase Elliott on lap nine, he was able to be backed up by Ryan Blaney and we have to breathe a big sigh of relief. so that team knew how to do well by getting back to the lead.
The lack was huge, you can see it here, new tires much faster, remember that they entered the pits, they were running in ninth position, so for this to work for them in a perfect world, they could at least return to that position now. They may have had no choice, they were going to run out of fuel anyway, so they just kept going, pitted and tried to make up the space. Dave and Jeff that position would be 8th, so right now if you look back, it's 20th, so it's not there. yet, but they got another data point, listen to how happy the driver is to keep going.
All these guys don't know why, but it's amazing, okay, of course, one of the whys is because of the new tires, but remember the balance wasn't exactly there. for Elliott before so a new data point for Alan gustafson is trying to tune this race car it's a new data point Dave but you gotta be careful and Junior you and I have dealt with this when you get out of your green flag pit stop. The car drives completely differently than it does under caution and sometimes the car drives so well here that you say, "Okay, buddy, that's what we need, those are the shifts and then you go and restart with all the gears." traffic and everything that the car doesn't handle.
Same thing so they will have to stay or it's good news so far the car is better but don't assume it will be better upon restart with all the other cars. I would love to know what that phenomenon is at each pit stop under green. my car was looser on every pit stop under green my car was looser than any type of pit stop under caution throughout my entire career and so yes the flag stop on screen will change the balance of your car to a more flexible condition and we can also remember a Many of these guys who are over the limit on fuel, Pit Road closes when they are two laps away at the end of this stage, so it could be a double problem, a Double trouble if you run out of fuel, come close Pit Road too.
To get that service, you will be penalized if you arrive at a pit lane when subtitles are not available. Dylan Adam Stevens has told Christopher Bell: "We're still okay, we're pretty good, but save me just a little bit of insurance fuel," he was told. Just a few laps ago he asked him to stop shifting, but he's not going to catch up with the car in front of them, which at that moment was the four car that he showed to the five of Kyle Larson, who is really saving, but he They said I wasn't going to catch him.
Marty Dylan 30 laps ago we got on board with Ross Chastain and he stopped shifting, he hasn't changed since, in fact we saw Christopher Bell pass by him and a host of others, he has intentionally slowed down trying to get to the end from Jeff State. I can't imagine Surgeon Phil's nerves, all these crew chiefs on top of the box, this could be your season and you're thinking you can make it to the end. of the stage here with anything else, you don't go into a race thinking that I'm going to win this race by driving slowly, but to the situation that is presented to you you just have to adapt to it and understand what the objective is at this moment and that's what we see most of these teams doing.
Everyone is nervous. That is what we need. He is getting that excellent information from his watcher Coleman Presley and so he can trust that he believes everything Coleman tells him and that he will do exactly. what he needs to do he understands the last few laps or exactly the adjustment needed to save fuel what do we have to have it the rest of the way even if 19 passes us? What have you been doing? even if the 19th passes us more great information, he doesn't know that they are okay with the 19th passing, they need to let him know, hey man, let it pass, if that's what you have to do, we'll give up that position. gladly save as much as you can here, the last five, don't worry about the 19th in the number, five are missing thanks, great information, because when Pit Road closes again with two laps to go, it won't reopen until get the entire field back online. the position they're supposed to be in, it could be another, maybe, one or two laps under yellow, they have to be able to maintain that pace, they can't stop or run out of fuel even when they're under yellow, team.
The boss was asking his driver to give him some insurance here man, he really wanted me a while ago not to put me in this position now and this is a gamble just holding on to some position on the track. Logano still controls the championship. as he is ahead of Bell Chastain and Elliot, but it is Blainey at this point who is in control of this race leading by 2.2 seconds with only three laps left in the stage. Marty Rick, here's one thing to consider, Ross was just told. Chastain on the radio, it's one thing to get to the end of the stage, but Jeff, you have to get back to Pit Road.
There will be some laps between the end of the stage and that and that is what they are working on. right now with that one and that's a big Point Marty because when they throw the yellow flag they're not going to immediately go down to Pit Road, they're going to do a few laps. Yes, you can save a ton of fuel. the car shuts off does all that kind of stuff but fuel is still needed to get back on the track and now with two laps to go Pit Road is closed so they won't be able to come to Pit Road if they have a problem. and the car sputters into Legano holding on to the second Blaney in front for three seconds as we reach the end of stage two, one lap left to go there, one for Blaney as he crosses the pass commenting that they are right at that 16. the cars 12 almost They hit the wall maybe out of fuel Blaney's 12 moving hard, going again, yeah, I think he's out, I think he's out, he had some kind of problem, I think he's out, so now it's real tough, will end up winning.
On the stage, he crosses the strip and wins the stage, but does he have enough fuel to keep up the pace? And what about his teammate Lagano? Yes, you can't run the engine. What if he doesn't turn back on? I mean, it's a bit of a difficult situation. Okay, he's talking about the front brake might have been a problem there, so Blaney wins the Legano stage from Bell. Chastain and Elliott make pit stops coming here in Phoenix. Foreign NASCAR on NBC is presented by Credit One Bank, a credit card company, and Novartis two stages on the books one stage remains in the championship for the 2022 season all 12 are still running so it's not a problem of fuel by 12, but maybe a handling issue that they'll have to look into when they get to Pit Road this time.
These are going to be a little longer stops because they are going to have to fill these tanks with gas because they have left them almost completely dry. Yes, update on Chase Elliott. Remember that he entered the pits running from eighth place and made it to the end. back to 12. Dylan two loose was the report for Christopher Bell and he didn't improve in that race, they'll take another swing out of here four tires and two full cans and Adam Stevens said wait for me, come on. We have to fill this thing with fuel. Marty the same for Ross Chastain, you could feel a palpable sense of relief, although when they got to the really good shot, he said he just had no right rear grip at the end of the race and they waited too. with fuel Dave, didn't wait for Chase Elliott because they stopped at that stage, will need less Sunoco fuel which should help him gain spots on Pit Road, able to start chattering, front tires came late in the race but did a magical job holding on.
Mark shooter will wait with fuel will see Ryan Blaney win the race at Pit Road coming out of Pit Road the furthest back of the championship four will be Christopher Bell Legato still holding sir thanks some of Joey Logano's last big faster turns out in front of the field Joey Logano He is going to win the first stageElliott's team will have to make some major changes as each championship contender here, door to door, becomes one of the first to use this strategy to get new Goodyear tires into a championship. At the line, Ryan Blaney was able to go out and win the second leg of Legano's championship four, still ahead of the other three, although he lost a couple of spots on Pit Road to Briscoe Harvick and Byron, but is still ahead of Chase Elliott .
Chastain, who is running in sixth place, is ninth and Bell started eleventh after those pit stops and it is a good time to talk to Rutledge Wood and for that we will go to dinner with our view 150 feet above the track and greeting each other directly. there's Rutledge Wood, oh Rick, this is one hell of a dinner in the sky, like you said, we're suspended from a 300 ton crane and this whole operation that came out of this guy's dinner, Canada is here, wait, I've got my plate. of charcuterie, let me have it. ready guys, I have everything I need here to enjoy a first class race and I can tell you the view of the track is crazy, that Bobble that Ryan blamed was right there in turn two.
He was watching, he probably heard me scream, it was crazy. to see but it's amazing, the best view I've ever seen here at Phoenix International Raceway and it's getting hot guys. I wish you could be here with me. Rutledge, please don't spin around like that in that chair again. My stomach is a little queasy. it squeezes you just seeing what you're doing up there he's leading the field again with some unique views it's the Coca-Cola safety car camera looking back as he hits Pit Road okay all the championship contenders just did a pit stop Joey Logano lost three sees the big winner Chase Elli in that car nine won six Ross Chastain won two Christopher Bell lost five Christopher Bell like the track position he has to recover this is the final stage there are 120 laps left in the season the field approaches the Geico restart zone in front Laney in Brisco Harvick Byron reaches the top of the championship four and immediately Legato goes down to the end, he will challenge for third place just behind Custer's 41 there is a four from Heart, Excuse me, I'm really going to get to Look what this car is made of 22.
It's been out front. He's had it easy all day. The League never goes around in traffic now. The battle here with Chase Elliott. Joey. Oh, let's spin all eight cars around here in turn four. 34 involved like Well, Michael Mcdowell mentioned Tyler Reddick in the eight laps of turn four, it seemed like any contact for Tyler just got a few flat tires, so he was very fast on the restart and the return to the yellow flag broke something . Tyler Reddick involved Michael Mcdowell in this one. only two cars involved but it was a four wide situation coming into turn three and that's not going to work out well Ray rack, I'll be back for the restart here in a moment tonight is Sunday Night Football on NBC on peacock Fair the leaders of the division go to battle while Derek Henry and the Titans will face Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Coverage begins with Soccer Night in the United States which is at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. There are 117 laps left since Phoenix and Pit Road are open, but again only two laps since they were open. Right on Pit Road, I don't expect anyone to be there except the two guys who were involved in the incident. Blaney and Briscoe will choose which line they want to take. We'll reset it and go back to the reset. here on lap 196. Let's take a look and talk to our rookies here because this is the final race of the season, they won't be rookies anymore after today's competition.
You'll notice Austin Centric's two in the top ten right now running in ninth position Austin Centric is the Rookie of the Year, he finished the season with a win, we all remember that Daytona 500 win to start the year, a pole, five in the top five and nine in the top ten, you know, it's quite funny, although I caught all three. rookies earlier this week and were laughing reflecting on their rookie year, they said they had learned a lot more than they anticipated and the most important thing they learned is their place on the field. They joked with me that they're just Jade. and old cup drivers now, but they know very well where they land and, when it comes to this great competition, they also noted that they hope to stop being rookies because that yellow stripe on the bumper is definitely a target on the track.
Don't miss your chance to win the completely redesigned 2023 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro, scan the QR code or visit nascar.com. Click on Toyota Playoffs to start your registration now and be ready for any Adventure Championship four as they run. It's fifth to Elliott six. for lagano eight for Chastain and 12 right now for Christopher Bell Dylan and Rick earlier this week I had a conversation with Adam Stevens about what makes Christopher Bell so good, allowing him to win twice with everything on the line, He said his focus, his determination and His will to win is a lot, I think they have it, but those who really have it will show it.
They're going to have another one. They will need another performance like that today from their driver if they want to have a chance of winning this championship. Marty Dylan. wrote on board with Ross Chastain when he wasn't shifting Phil the surgeon reminded him he can shift now, that should improve handling a lot Dave Chase Elliott radioed his team that his brake pedal feels strange, let's keep an eye on Parker Dale, you asked that the The 22 car will now find out what his car is made of while on the restarts he said that the latter shoots very well in dirty air, he said that it is very tight, let's see what he does here from fifth position, restarting on the inside and Briscoe inside. the outside of row one, then Byron Harvick Elliot Legato again that third row formed the two championships, four contenders died against the wall on the inside just grazing it and the yellow flag comes out again, look at that steering wheel Jack, that steering wheel is not straight .
He got something, he made a big contact with the wall oh he just said yes when he was I asked about a lot of damage and you look at that race car and it doesn't look like it has a scratch right now. You see the right front. The right front has damage. You see the steering wheel. If you look scared to the right, just a little. This is how you do it. He happens to try to cross the racetrack but has Chastain's right there and Chastain turns him into the inside wall. Chastain gave him no breaks, Chastain is under him right here and the Knight crosses his nose and Chastain holds her ground. and he looks here, looks how he makes contact with both tires on the right side against the wall.
Chastain had a choice, she could have lifted, she could have gone even further to the left, she said she wasn't going to do that, she actually just kept the steering wheel straight, she said if you want to turn over the nose of my car, it's not my fault. , so that's the way he's going to see this. Chase will probably be mad because he didn't give him a break when you heard it on the radio, he tore us apart, yeah, check this out. run here Chastain makes a great throw gets to the start Finish line as soon as he gets there he turns to go under him and Chase Elliott starts turning too wait.
I feel like Ross had a great race right there he starts to gain momentum. Right here it looks left for a quarter panel and Chase rejects it. If I'm Ross Chastain, I don't live there either, I mean, I'm not under him, I have drive, that's my place, let's listen to the nine. I should fix this, so come to us and you'll see one of the crew members seems to be saying leaning, so he's talking to the crew chief, they're going to come up with a plan, they're on the vehicle damage policy. first championship really in a bad position now for Chase Elliott Chase Elliott's car nine currently on the damaged vehicle clock has five minutes to hopefully get that race car back on the track, the four championship drivers, of In fact, all the drivers in the field anticipate that the restarts here in Phoenix will be quite aggressive and when I spoke to Chase earlier in the week I asked him what his confidence level was in making those aggressive moves and he told me that you know every move is circumstantial.
It will all depend on what's going on around me, where we are in the race, and how fast my race car is, but I did note that one factor that will influence whether you're willing to be aggressive is who is around you and how. they have run He said: "I remember how the guys had raced me earlier in the season and I remember how they supported me at the start of the race. It will be interesting to see if Chase keeps an eye on Ross knowing Ross didn't give him anything." There's room there, but if Ross had done it, he doesn't seem to think you did it right, we'll have to keep an eye on Chase there because he may have made an enemy on the field and Roth may just stay here for the second half of this career abroad. work done by all nine pit crews, they took him out again, he's only one lap down and Junior were using some old equipment to do some hard work.
NASCAR made a rule that they can't fix the chains on the upper and lower control arms that they can't change. They have been changing them, they made a rule to stop them, they took out a power port, they basically just hydraulically fixed what was bent, if it was a tow link they would have replaced it, they took out a power port that is about 100 years old too I have used one in my stock street car many many times and now look at the steering wheel, we talked about it before the commercial break, the steering was turned to the right now it is straight again, amazing, I am very impressed with your ability to take this off card, you will be able to drive it, so Junior remembers that their goal right now, with 109 laps left, is that they have to reach the minimum speed, once they exceed the minimum speed, they can come down here and spend time in the pits and fix it 100 to right Blaney Briscoe side by side again running back here with just 108 laps to go now the whole field driving across that platform play now so Elliott one lap down running in 30th position Legato his fifth bell sixth chest eight seven and look legano, he has worked until the third chastain right in front of the bell and there are three behind here legano, it has been his career, he has dominated 156 laps in front and once again he is fighting In these four championships, he is in third place, Chase Elliott's nine is back running in 30th position a lap back, but let's see what it sounds like on the muted radio in the corner over there, it's just him saying, "Come on, so I know you." We're working on it, but David and the guys were told that if you need to race because of the situation you just described, if you need a clean track, you just need to give it a 31-second lap that will keep you from being dumped, so that's it. the idea. at this point and I confirmed with the team that we didn't see any pieces flying out of there and yes, in fact, they just folded things into place as best they could, no pieces replaced Marty Dave, the only words from Ross Chastain, who is there in the fifth position is the nine hurt, that's all he's asking, that's all he said about the contact, but Jeff, you should know that Ross Chastain, who was grounded for much of the summer for contact in the clue, he has to be thinking about what happened. to Chase Elliott, how can he, as a driver, put that behind him and now try to win a championship with 105 to go?
Ross has been under a lot of scrutiny for how aggressive he has been this year, he has caught some incidents and many drivers have been extremely upset with him, but in that case I don't know what Ross Chastain did wrong. He is trying to advance his position. He snatched the driver in front of him, who was racing, those things are going to happen, so Ross. I need to put him behind him there's a championship ahead of him he's two places behind Joey Logano one place behind Joe Legato just focus on what's in the windshield not what's in the rearview mirror Guys Dylan, bad news for Christopher Bell, he just He got on the radio and said, I'm exploding, the team told him to change the power sometimes, that causes something that may sound or feel like an engine exploding, but Christopher Bell seemed pretty adamant that they have a problem under the hood of those 20 cars. .
Listen to the engine as we move forward. I can't locate it. I don't see any signs that anything looks good from here. The laptop is a little far from the cars in front of it, but on par with everyone else. Yes, it looks good. I mean. On the street it seems to me that he is running well and remember they have to finish in front of the other three, so at this moment Chase Elliott is not out Christopher Bell is not out, there are still many races left, we have no idea. What can happen with these four in the Championship until the last lap?
Chase is off the charts in terms of competitive performance. He won't be able to match your lap times and he won't be able to get up and drive his car to the front. Now it's something drastic. He would have to pass the other three to put him back in the fight, but the snack caris out there running 28 30. The leaders are running 27-40. I know he's in traffic, but that car is still damaged. It's still not perfect. They won't be. able to get it exactly how they want today, by the way, it's off the clock, so they don't have to worry about that anymore, yeah, it met the minimum speed, so now they can take all the time they need to do what they need.
There are a number of caveats to being able to get in and work on this car and get it 100% fixed. He will have to take a lot of breaks if he wins this championship today, running 30th again a lap down. It's the last one around. Blaney still out front has a 1.2 second lead over Briscoe Lagano running in that third place. Chastain in fifth. Kevin Harvick will look for that position. Harvick must finish in the top 10 to set a new record for most top 10 finishes at One Racetrack. in a row consecutively is tied with my father Richard Petty Richard Petty, yeah, for 18 top ten in a row and Jimmy Johnson is also there on that list, so you have seven time champions that are on the same list, he could break that record. and make it 19 if he doesn't do it today, yes, William Barnes, putting all kinds of pressure on Joey Logano, then, under him, several times he has not been able to eliminate him, Williams a little faster than Joey, wow, he breaks the armor here and you.
I know where car number 22 was pulling away, leaving this race comfortably faster than everyone else, now being challenged not for the lead, this is for third position and the car is right there in the, you know, on this camera. take three quarters. right away it's the only car so we still have a healthy battle for this championship and Dale, I think the reason the 22 is having trouble here is because it's been in traffic, it's just been getting tight in the center of the corners which has been a complaint all day but as we know you start backing up more and get more dirty air which gets worse as has been the case with a 22 car they just can't get it to turn in the center as he falls backwards.
Dirtier, it's only getting worse Marty Parker, there will be at least one more stop throughout the entire championship. The four drivers speak with Phil the Surgeon, Ross Chastain's crew chief, and he said what impressed him with William Byron and also Chase Elliott at the beginning of the second stage. When the tires came on, they roared through the field, so Jeff told me I'm thinking about sliding into that last pit stop a little early and putting those new Goodyear tires on sooner than I originally thought this morning. I think that could be an advantage for you. I agree with that, it depends on the situation you're in Marty, if you have to find a way to get an advantage, if you can't match Joey Legato's speed, then you have to be willing to do something different and one of What is in the Playbook is to get to Pit Road a little early.
Put new tires on that car first to be faster and then try to run them over. That's something you can put in the Playbook and try. then hopefully you'll get the warnings to the way you want them and then you'll take advantage of the pit crew. They have a great pit crew. Use those guys to your advantage, so it's a Legano who leads the championship four but runs in third place at the moment. Up front, such a beautiful view and a championship venue here in Avondale, Arizona. Aerial coverage presented by Geico as we look down this one mile runway.
Up front, it's Blaney, he has a 1.1 second lead over Chase Briscoe right now and Legano is racing. in third place, but he is definitely ahead right now of the other three, Chastain and Bell and of course Elliott, a lap back running in 30th position after the accident just a few laps ago. I want to take a look at the Toyota driver update and check. on the 18th, Parker Ramsey checks in with the Cowboys for the Toyota driver update, you know, making his final start in this #18 Eminem Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing and it's a day we've seen Austin outside of the two-time Nascar Cup champion.
Kyle Busch started in 20th place and then slowly but surely they methodically worked on that number 18 car, managed to one up Fetterman and now they are running in the secondary position racing here with teammate Christopher Bell who is trying to go for this chip Hensley gives him that space to the outside in turn two, but Kyle Busch's 18 team is constantly improving. They were a little off this start, but now the car is really overtaking them here because they are in the top 10. You can see Kyle Busch with Joe Gibbs Racing 56 wins with that organization and we will move on to Richard Childress Racing in 2023, taking both of his championships with him.
As we look back from Christopher Bell, we see the top right of the screen. Chase Elliott should do two laps here shortly like Blaney. is catching up, he continues to fight, his lap times are now down to 28 eggs so the leaders run 28-2 Dave, what you have in these Night Guard, a very measured activity here at Pit Road, as this radio message was broadcast to the chase. I know it's Sarah, we're just talking to the basic channel. I think we know what we can do to improve it a little. We will try to continue working on this, so now there are only tools on the wall of the well, no pieces and pieces have actually appeared. yet, but it seems like Ellen Gustafson has an idea how to do it a little better, here's the problem.
I just looked at my score monitor. 83 laps left. This race is going too fast for Chase Elliott, yes, the trouble he got himself into. As he goes another lap down we see Blaney pass him, the problem he has now is that the car just doesn't do what he wants, he can't keep up the pace and two laps down it looks like the championship is up. finished. out of Chase Elliott's reach now, well they did a great job of getting the car back on the track so they could get enough pace, they just needed a caution like they needed a caution to happen so they could go down and work on the car.
Now they're down two laps and remember there are no guarantees that they can fix the car and not lose another lap even under yellow, so this team that's struggling right now is going to have to have a lot of foreign brakes here. For fourth place, Harvick was a little faster than William Byron, trying to take this position at Harvard with the announcement that they would return next year with this team. Both guys tried to go far in the playoffs, but they will try to finish their strum here in the top five. ten finals and this battle is unique because it is right behind this 22 Joe zagano.
I think if the board clears, he has the pace to catch Joey jumping on Lantern, get outside here, yeah, a little move there will do it. by William Byron allowing Harvick to get to his outside and complete the pass, you know, thinking about Kevin Harvick next year. I think one of the best things for Kevin Harvick and this is going to sound a little silly is how well Brisco's 14 is working, yeah, because really Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers carry Stuart Haas. races over the years, now they have someone who has speed and someone who can provide information to that team, so although you always want to be the best driver and the best team on your team, you also need help and I think these The guys here with this group will be able to push those four cars and make them both run better.
I know it won't help Harvick right now, but Ford is looking very strong in this Phoenix Championship race in the top four Blaney Briscoe. Legato and Heart all driving the blue opals Marty how's this race for Chase Presco keeps getting better the longer the race is a little too free that's his biggest complaint but they keep telling him he can go catch that car number 12 right in front? Meanwhile, Ross Chastain is being told that you're faster than 22 right now, so Jeff, I guess my biggest question is that he's eventually going to have to pass bar nine.
We'll see it right in front of me. See you there. Chase Elliott, this Chase competes with him fairly here, what do you do if you're a field surgeon? Do you make a jump here, maybe early, to Pit Road, as we talked about trying to put those Goodyear tires on faster to gain a little track position in the 22nd? Well, on the nine there you see here right there the message keep an eye on that car, no, we don't know if Chase is mean or angry with you and we know that Ross is hard to destroy Danny Hamlin.
He told us that all year I'm trying to get him back and I just haven't been able to do what he's going after here. He's in a position where he may not have enough speed to do anything. Do you know what he could do? I think he could have gone in there and run after him if he wanted to, well, listen and he didn't. Yeah, why do you know what I mean? He or Chase just said, Hey, did I do something wrong on the radio? He wasn't really sure what happened either. I want to give credit, uh, credit to Chase for having that self-control, so Legato is still in front of champion four, but it's Blaney's teammate who's leading the race.
Foreigner, foreigner. Thank you Legano on a mission for his second championship and he has been ahead of the other three Championship contenders four on every green flag lap except one today, so that is the dominant performance that Legano has put in and where they are now running third , sixth, seventh and Chase Elliott again in 30th place later. His crash is two laps down, so Junior, I think we're getting to that point where the attack teams are getting ready to start going up the wall. The crew chief will have to make a decision if he wants to split this in half at this late stage. halfway through, he's pretty close to making it and anyone want to get to Pit Road early and take advantage of that opportunity?
Where are Chastain and Bell? Where do you feel like you are with Legano? Do they have to do something happier and try to do something different? strategies, yeah, so you know, we think a lot of teams are going to come to Pit Road anytime between now and lap 255, but if you're not fast, if you feel like that, you really don't have a chance to go out 10-15. If you feel like you don't have to accelerate, you can stay out there and run and hope you get a yellow card, which would be your kind of Hail Mary to try to catch everyone, get a lot of track position.
Marty, who was Ross Chastain's radio, Phil. The surgeon gave him the information 10 to 15 laps before they reached Pit Road. I don't think this is the dilemma, Jeff. We talked about how they could come to Pit Road and put on those Goodyear tires a little earlier, but they are there. much better in the long run, so that's their strength, they want to take advantage of that strength, that's a difficult dilemma, you only know how far behind you are, so now you know that there are two and three quarters of a second behind the ghano, how are you ?
Are you much faster than Joey Logano? You can run over him. You know from so far back. I don't believe it. Even if you're good at a long race, you'd have to be great at one. long run to run the 22nd from that far back, I think if you're Christopher Bell, maybe get there early, go ahead and try LeapFrog, the news guys pull into Pit Road, speed up and set the pace on your car with the new tires, make them come to Pit Road, they're competing against each other, these playoff guys are just watching what the other playoff guys are doing.
The last two championships were won on the last pit stop, but so far, Ross Chastain's pitching team has been the best. Among the three that are on the lead lap right now, Christopher Mills ran that carve of Ross's chest down while you see Joe Lugano trying to hold off the four, but further back the one in sixth place and Christopher Bell Christopher has some pace here improving. Picking up the pace here, worried about his car exploding, they made some changes. Maybe they found out what that problem was, but hey, here they all are, they are showing Ghana, with a 22 car, the third, the tallest runner in the championship, whoever wins. the four best championships that will be the champions when they leave here and here are the guys trying to run him over so that everyone is on the street immediately, everyone can see each other and we talk about the importance of pit crews.
Speaking of all those things, it also falls to the driver who can enter Pit Road. Who can get into this box? Who can get off Pit Road? Well, there they are, they're not that far from their class, uh, last lap on the track. Chastain and Bell, second fastest and fourth fastest on the track, Joe legato, about two, two points slower, these guys are running him over, but here comes Christopher Bell on Pit Road, he's made the decision to go to you, Dylan, so they had that engine scare that The problem has solved itself. The only report from Christopher Bell now is that he needs some front turn.
They have gone back to how they were at the beginning of the race. Really good on long runs. Here fourtires and fuel for some air pressure to help Christopher. the next 62 laps and now we'll see if this brings the other four Championship contenders to Pit Road. It's good to call him, but I love it because he is the first one in, he will look at the one who brings the one he makes. the one coming to Pit Road so now Ross Chastain also on Pit Road you see him with William Byer right on his back bumper and he's got a long way to go to get to you Marty so how does Rick do?
Ross Chastain makes up two seconds, that's how far he was behind Joey Logano, his pit crew, as we mentioned today, the number one ranked team on Pit Road, they've gained four spots on him here this afternoon, and some issues on the right rear will cost you eight times in a critical stop. For Ross Chastain, what could be the last stop of the day, he loses some spots here today and Ryan Blaney wins the race today, his first of the season. They are going to make a change in car number 12. He had a little problem. Going through the middle of turns three and four, he'll get four Goodyear tires and Sunoco Parker fuel for Joey Logano.
He was supposed to go about eight more laps, but they had to react to Christopher Bell in the number 20 car and the Rochester and Lo They dropped one lap after Ross Chad's name and asked him what would happen if Justin CV was a little, but this team has been at Pitt Road this whole race putting those Quarters on and we came together, here we go, let's see how. that stands out Joey Logano coming out of the middle of the road there's Christopher Bell in the back of the screen Christopher Bell is gay at some point oh Joey Logano go get the old Pit Road before look at the profit they made but now the problem they has Joey Logano it's a little newer tire but a big game for the 20 and a big loss for Ross Chastain with that slow stop on the right rear you see it's on the top right of the screen where that car is compared to the 20th and 22nd Bell was two and a half seconds behind Legato as they began the pit cycle and now Bell has closed the gap very close to Legato as everyone continues to make their way through these pit stops.
Bowman just arrived at Pit Road and Corey La Joy was there. in front, but that will put Blaney back on top, obviously Christopher Bell would love to pass this 22 right now, if anything, keep him close, stay in there with him, you know you have more pace in the long run. 58 laps left to catch this guy. from the nose and you can beat it at the end of this race drive on the top of the track here really pushing hard into that resin that's still there from the previous races look at the gain on the back immediately running that High Line I love that Bell on the outside, yes, looking for the championship here.
Christopher Bell knows what's at stake and we've seen it before. He wanted the Rover when he had to. He won last week at Martinsville when he had to do it now for the championship right in front of him. he, it's Joey Logano, a linked car now trying to go around that yellow line with the left side tires. Legato trying to make a big run at this. Oh, Bill is doing a great job on one and two, let's see what he can do on three or four each A single race came out of nowhere in the final stage, a car here, oh, very tight for Christopher, a big wobble there for the 51 of Cody Ware and Christopher safe next to him, it got very tight there and one problem now is these drivers fighting with lap traffic. the joy in front of him is one lap down running in 27th place he's going to run in the middle of the track Joey goes to the back here Joey is sliding down the track he really can't finish the throttle on the exit of the corner Christopher Bell stops is going to close in a little bit in front every season they have had playoffs where the top four have to finish ahead of each other it took a win to win the championship it may not happen this year Blaney has a very strong car Brisco running second Harvick is third but Legato runs in that fourth position right in front of the bell for the title oh Christopher really has to cut at seven, he really couldn't finish the turn the way he wanted, it's so hard to watch these guys try to race each other . others and the return traffic and it's not working out well for Christopher as you can see it opening up between him and Legano.
It's all about where you catch these cars and how you catch them, mainly on corner exit. You want to open the steering wheel to match the Gasoline, you can't with your car outside, the other cars don't want to affect the race for the championship, but at the same time they want to have a great finish, they don't want to give up and give up a place, so They're trying to run as hard as they can and Chris is struggling here wasting a lot of time setting up a car that he just took a lap and now he's back inside.
Could there be a problem for Christopher Bell Blaney Briscoe and Harvick one two three? but Legano still leads the championship, four foreigners, Chase Elliott, just coming out of Pit Road, now three laps behind the field, a disappointing end to the 2022 season, potentially for Chase Elliott after the crash and going a couple of laps down working on it. car but it's legato who looked the strongest, he led 156 laps, but when it came to the championship four competition, he was only behind another Championship four competitor for one lap of this race, he put a little distance between him and Christopherville right there, but in the last few laps on the track, Christopher regrouped and was able to equal the lap time.
Christopher, however, feels a bit of pressure here from Byron in 24 as he checks himself in the mirror on each straight, but now he's matching the lap time on the cat. We remember the last race, it was the fastest car at the end of that race. There were 45 laps left and there was still a lot of time. Dylan and all Adam Stevens, always the entertainer. 48 by Alex Bowman, hit the front really hard. Remind Alex Bowman that he returned from a concussion and not the As he wanted it to be the last race of the season, he is in the top 15.
There is a lot of damage to the front of that car that is higher up. Jack put the right sides on it. The right sides are flat, but it destroys, man, he was running 15th. Here at his home Tucson Arizona race track Alex Bowman again driving for that team 48 Greg Ives final race all that in the pit box Tires falling apart and they will leave a lot of debris, so add a lap or a couple of clean ups in this caution, let's take a look at how this happened to Alex in turn two on the inside of Gilliland's 38 and wow, going up the track Michael Mcdowell right at the door.
I think Michael didn't realize there was a car outside. from Alex waiting for Alex to come out of the corner a little wider at the exit of the corner, very strong contact, fortunately no, it didn't seem like a very strong direct impact on the inside wall, a kind of indirect hit for Alex, wow, look this Yes. One thing I can imagine is that McDowell thought Bowman was going to move up the lane next to Todd Gillen and McDowell just completely miscalculated and just cleaned out Alex Bowman. Yeah, it was some hard, rough contact between two cars that you don't normally make. we see cars hitting each other like that and 34. just another thing that we also see is a glare, this is the time of day when the glare falls from the front to the rear immediately and it is very difficult for the driver Look what's going on, both guys come out, can the pit crews make up for any mistakes they may have made last time because there are 43 laps left in this race and everyone has to come to Pit Road to get new tires.
Christopher Bell and his team during that green flag stop made their best stop of the day, so at that moment you could see that he did a great job on Pit Road, they turned a lap early and had a great Pit Stop they need it now in the worst way Ross Chastain and his team simply made a mistake, they have to clean it up and fix it. They are not outside of this. They are good at getting you between three and five stops. some of these pit stops are exactly what you're going to need right now, the other two you just don't want to make any mistakes and how important is that number one pit stop for Joey Logano who won the race a year ago for Kyle Larson Let's see if The Pit Crew can rise to the occasion and take advantage of that number one spot that Marty Rick Pit Road hopes to open next time and I think we can't emphasize enough that NASCAR is a team sport.
Ross Chastain's pit crew is the perfect example we've talked about. how they've been the number one team on Pit Road and what was the money stop they came up with last time, they didn't have a good stop, they couldn't get the uh, they didn't put out on the right rear and you see the time they lost. he lost four seconds to Joey Logano. Potential redemption for Ross Chastain's pit crew if they all go down Pit Road, but Jeff that just goes to show that these pit crews are under pressure to get things right. In the last 25 stops this team has made, that was the second worst.
So it was one of the worst recently. The other question I have. Would you make two tires? Would you only use fuel? They haven't run that many laps on this set of tires and someone willing to try more than just four, yeah Jeff. Back again with this set of tires, let's see what they have. Team Dylan 20 has worked all year to put together the best possible team to get over the wall and they need one more good stop here for team 20. Adam Stevens used a Keyword, we'll see what they do here for the 20 size Marty, they remain three players in the championship, four, all coming down Pit Road right now in front of Chastain's team trying to make a good save, he said he just couldn't keep going.
In that last race I lost that early right rear grip I had before and the car just doesn't touch this enough to see if the team will hand over Parker for Joe Lagano. He came on the radio and said, "Tight, tight, couldn't turn there like you see them." go on the right side, this team has been absolutely perfect on Pit Road during this race, it looks like they will be ahead of the championship four. Briscoe with a great save, leaves Pit Road in front of Blaney Lagano and is able to stay in front. of the other four Championship contenders and a devastating stop for Christopher Bell's 20 car, thanks, warnings, the cars have made it to Pit Road, although it was a difficult stop for Christopher Bell's 20 car, which lost many positions there on exit to get to Road oh.
It seems there is now a problem with Brad Keslowski's six cars. There appears to be some fire under the front right rear right tire. Looks like they're taking it down the toll road now. I'll keep you posted here on what's going on. definitely some fire under the hood he will get out of the car as quickly as possible a problem we have seen before with this car and now it is Brad Keslowski who has the rubber build up under the hood on the front of this car and it catches fire fire to the point where he has to get out of the car.
We've seen this before and luckily Brad was able to get out. It seems like this happened to a lot of Fords this year. Harvick's four cars at Darlington passed his A teammate at Indianapolis NASCAR felt they had solved this problem. There is a ton of rubber and debris buildup on this race track. We could see it fall off the cars coming down the back at high speed and enough rubber had built up to get in and around that tailpipe it caught fire and then set the rest of the car on fire under caution for Brad. Fortunately for him he was able to get out.
NASCAR made a lot of changes in the last few months trying to avoid that and we saw some fires again. last week at Martinsville IN a similar situation where just tons of rubber was coming off those tires and now again on the day of the fire, something that needs to be fixed before next year, unfortunate first year for Brad Keselowski owning a driver with Roush Fenway Kozlowski RFK running. I had 18 cars on the lead lap, a lot of guys are going to get salutes here and that will make the car you know have a handful more cars, three or four more cars on the lead lap which extends to about 21 now. and that could be important, you know, for Christopher Bell or someone, if they're late, yellow, trying to get down, you know, their only hope is to put the tires on late or something, maybe take two more cars on the lead to the left makes those options more difficult, Bartrex Jr's 19 was accelerating, so that will give Chastain a position.
Yeah, I mean, Chastain certainly shut down the Legano. Check out these times in the pits. Lagano's team stepped up to the plate at the right time. Best pit stop of the three. Hood, a disastrous stop, a problem in the left rear, left rear, let's listen to the radio 20 on the axle, releasing the stop so we can put the nut back on, I got it, oh my God, and you see the ice on the crew member's hand on the right side. go up, theTires come out a little slow on the right front but nothing terrible, so look at the left rear, I hope it's okay, it's very dangerous, you know, we talk about pit crew members on all the Pit Roads with cars going down there , but the act itself is very dangerous.
There are things that happen, you know, the RPMs on those guns are absolutely flying, everyone is trying to do it as fast as they can, they are incredible athletes and I have a lot of respect for them, okay let's get some updates now, 36 years to go. In this Championship, Dylan and Rick, I keep coming back to what Christopher Bell said earlier this week. It won't be over until it's over. We've seen it too many times in these playoffs, just with our car, which won't be completely finished until this race is over. so they have a lot of work to do from 15th on this restart but crazier things have happened in these playoffs before Marty so we'll see what happens with 36 to go Dylan how about the pit crew from Does Ross Chastain recover after having done it? the difficult stop under green a while ago under yellow flag here they gave him another place, but here is the key Brandon McReynolds, his father reminded him, he remembers how he made a living here in the spring, he was on Pit Road and restarts.
I would expect rosh Chastain to be very aggressive and that's an understatement, he'll start seven and for Joe Lagano he led 157 laps when he won that championship in 2018, he took over that race at the end of 2020, he said that was the race and the championship that would escape him if he wins this. you would think the selection team would have been absolutely perfect today, okay Jeff we're getting ready to get to the shoes and we're here for NASCAR to add a lap before they have to make that decision whether it's in or out . Now, do you choose inside or outside on this race track?
And with these cars, NASCAR came up several years ago with the idea of ​​letting drivers choose which lane they want to go in so they actually cross this box and you before they get to that one. box The Orange Box that you are getting ready to see you have to choose left or right Joey Logano has a decision to make where he wants to go and that is where I think my car is the fastest the one with the difficulties the decision is Ross Chastain Ross Chastain is just thinking about what do I have to do to get to the 22 car, so she's going to watch what Legato picks and then pay attention, what Harvick picks, what Byron picks, what Kyle Busch picks. the shortest line, I want the fewest cars between me and Joey Logano, that's all I care about right now junior, he might make the decision to choose a line that is further away than Lagano because he thinks his car can drive better and can pick up. more places, but I think at this point in the race you just have to get as close to Logano as possible.
What's out there? What's in Ross Chastain's toolbox? Because we saw in Martinsville what he did to get to the championship. What can he do? do it now to get Legano and potentially pass him. I think the option for Chastain is to take the inside line, try to get a lot of acceleration on the guy in front of you, and while you're swinging, you can turn left past the exit. Line, you can't, you can't change lanes before you get to the initial finish line, so you want to time that perfectly so that you get to the initial finish line, you can dive to the inside and charge into turn one and try to take as many positions as possible. possible, so legano goes to the back Ross Chastain goes to the back now there's only one car between them Ross wants to time it perfectly to be next to those 22 at some point down here in one or two and he's going to try to be a little physical.
He would assume that both drivers are aggressive. Yes, he will risk it. he's going to come with some steam Ross Chastain is going to get super aggressive here with 33 to go there's a championship this guy has fought and fought his way for this opportunity he's going to do whatever it takes and look at that view of the drivers The sun setting at the most inopportune time blinded these guys, they got hit, terrible, dirty windshields to look through and that makes it that much harder, especially coming out of turn two, here we go. 33 laps left in the championship Brisco on the inside Blaney on the outside and Legato just backed off on that inside line everyone dives down William Byron under Joey Logano oh Joey tensed up right there in the middle of the turn Briscoe still out front what a race of Legano's 22 in turn two and he really pulled away from Chastain's right there Chastain couldn't get the run on 24 that she wanted now she's charging hard down the track with Harvey on the first straight, she's glad to have a clear Harvard , quickly watch what he does right here, he's going to I drive into the turn really deep trying to slide in front of Harvick Legato, even though I took second place from Blaney now, oh the 14 had a problem in turn two, still one to the Side by side, on the back, from the 12th to the inside of the 22nd.
He's trying the top trying to go around the 24th a good run from turn two, four turns to the inside, side by side, it's going to be clear in Legano even the second is now trying to run towards the 14 of Brisco towards the inside. Chase Briscoe is going to be a tough pass here Chase Briscoe is trying to win this race for this championship back to the top of the track here is going to try to get a run in turn 12 turn four Blaney has a good start I can't do nothing here for Chastain Chastain again on the platform risking everything down there in the last 30 laps oh he's going to make the last 12 right there he got tight that will cost him some time Pagano under Briscoe Legato was able to clear to Briscoe, that's a big advantage clean air clean air it's King Briscoe on the outside of Legano He dives down we'll see if he can make the pass before they get to turn one Byron is under Ross Chastain behind them and one and two behind 12.
The previous lap cost him any kind of momentum. He is trying to clear Byron. There he does it in turn two. Legano is in front once again and will begin to total 158 sled laps in this race. Dane could see it even if the championship is good. ahead of him, Frisco wants to win this race, he won't turn around for Legano, the car just isn't handling well, now he has a battle with Blaney for second, Blaney is also hungry and wants to win, he knows that if he wins the race and Legato finishes right behind him as Legano wins the championship.
Chastity's car just isn't doing what he needs right now. Lugano pulls away and this is what we've seen all day as Golicano gets some clean air in what is going to be a short race. It's very difficult to be Chastain is going to have some help with the caution chest, he's not going to back down, he's a second and a half behind the legato, these guys here continue to fight, crossing each other in one and two blaney again, I'm done . prepared for this man, he will try to crowd him in the driveway, skids on the race track, these cars next to each other are only hurting Ross Chastain because it's so much air that Ross Chastain can't get to the front of his car he just can't has the car to do it, we've seen it in that position before, yes we have, we could get a late yellow here and be lucky to get another chance, but the car just doesn't have enough pace to be able to drive there and challenge the 22.
He's been the best restarter all season, but now he'll need another one if he's going to have a shot at winning this title by 1.2 seconds over Blaney with less than 25 laps remaining. He's been great on restarts all year, but that last start right there. the one we just had, couldn't get to the inside of 24, get the race time right, had to follow 24 into the corner and it really created some distance between him and Joey, now he's fighting steel trying to keep this up . position, so now Chastain, with 24 to go, understands that he has to find some speed, so he will have to start looking for something different.
What can I do differently to get my car to start? Car 14 is now an obstacle in front of him that he needs to try to find a way to get around and that won't be easy. 14 card one here earlier this year, these two guys finished first and second in the March race together Chastain when we talked to him earlier this week, so humble that I've talked about how big that move was that he made to get there to championship four and said, guys, you have to remember that even though I used to drive a coach just to get to the track, I was driving for someone and I was running 2528 now I have a chance to win a championship, that's what I have in front of me, that is what I was thinking about when I found myself up against the wall, him and her pussy, he had to spot her, both of them and Vic Reynolds were driving coaches and now here they are.
They are competing for a championship, that's how hungry they are and now there are only 22 laps left and this has to be an unpleasant feeling for Chastain. Christopher Bales worked his way up to tenth position from The Pit Road issue. Both boys are praying for a warning. I need a yellow to reset things for a chat, try challenging the 22 with a different strategy on Pit Road or what has you now under pressure from the 24. Byron looked in for a moment, Marty, can you tell Ross Chastain he's losing? , TRUE? rear grip, especially on the exit of the corner, right there when William Byron tries to catch up, but they reminded him that right in front of them, Briscoe also talked about how bad his car got in this race, so Chastain is still in attack mode.
Look at him right there Rick, yes he made it to the rear bumper of Chase Briscoe, we'll see if he can get anything out of this 14-1 battle, the laps continue to decrease, although this makes this so difficult in the back, in the front, Laney has run over Legato two. tenths faster on the previous lap and two tenths faster on this lap as well as the one driving the inside waterfall here has to do something happier, he is sliding up the track trying to get Brisco out of the lane and he did , Chastain taking over the spot, so he's level with Third Blaney, as you mentioned to close the gap, he's only four tenths of a second behind Legato, but look how far you have to look to find the top two Chastains, two seconds and a half behind Legano, Chastain simply had to get ugly with Brisco. there and just take that spot away from him and now he can have enough pace to compensate.
Parker Joe Lagano may have 2.6 seconds on Ross Chastain, but his father Coleman Pressley let him know that Ross pulled away from the number 14 car and then said just Blaney and about a half hour back to Ross between us as they keep an update about who is competing for this championship much faster than this 22nd and honestly I feel like there will be a point here at the end of this final. A few laps where he will feel comfortable challenging and passing his teammate to win the race, once he feels there is enough space between them and Chastain to not put Lugano in a terrible situation, he goes for the win as Lugano goes. to achieve.
He'll be hungry, even though he doesn't like to be overtaken, he'll be fine if he can win this championship, but I have to imagine Blaney would love to finish this season strong considering how good they've been all year and he just hasn't been able to finish the races. , the more he hears that, the more encouraged he is. I'm going to look for Legato when there are four or five left. If I can pass him, I only have to do it within two and a half seconds of Chastain right now and 15 laps to go, think about Hudson, who is watching this race.
Legano's son is four years old. In fact, he will be old enough to understand what Dad is doing here and countdown to Green Lagano said that he told him that he was going to win. Poll, he went out and won the pole, then he told him: I'm going to win the race. He said: I can't let my son think I'm a liar, so I have to go out and win the race, and that's what he's trying to do. do now, the pressure of bringing that championship trophy home to your kids is a lot of pressure, that's what you want to do, but as this battle is fought on the last lap, Ross Chastain was about two tenths per second faster, Let's see what he does this round.
I feel like his car is not doing what he needs to do, he will have to take a break, yes he was the fastest. Ross Chastain was the fastest. He ran a flat Legato 28 with 28-36, making him almost four tenths per second faster. a ton still around two seconds, a little over two seconds separating Legano and Chastain for the championship. I think this 12 is pretty fast to be able to get up there and drive alongside his teammate and I think he wants to do it. I wonder what. type of information they are getting I wonder what information Legano is giving to the one car, is he learning that that car is much faster than him?
Marty, the battle for the lead is fought against Ross Chastain, 2.28 seconds behind Junior. I just want to shoot. We saw this done last week. Would we see another Hell Mary or a Mellon Hell by Rosh Chastain? HaveYou have to know that they want to try it at some point or at least think about it. What are you doing today? Well, I think so. It's not within striking distance if you can't physically get out and move the 22, but maybe it's five six car links back, it'll cross your mind, it crossed Noah Gregson's mind last night in the race from Xfinity, but he didn't.
I didn't think it was possible on this racetrack, the wall on the backstretch goes away from the traffic, you see it right there, it bends and how you follow it, how you do it. happens here, watch it disappear behind the fence, it would be very difficult to make that work here on this racetrack, it's worth a try if that's all there is, you absolutely have to be thinking about doing it, we'd never be talking about this if so out. If it hadn't happened last week, we wouldn't even consider it. I just don't know that with that curve on that wall when you look at that shot in the back right away and see how much it goes to the right, look at that.
So the reason it worked at Martinsville is because he was able to put the right side of the car right on the wall going into the corner and never had to turn the wheel, so when he went in there he looked all the way down the right side. of the car is completely against the wall of the car around the corner to do it here you would have to drive and you are going to hit the right front and if you hit the right front and it sinks then it is not going to carry the momentum and it is going to damage the car , so I think there is a much bigger challenge here and even Ross told us that now he doesn't know if he would do it again, what happened was almost lost. his vision, he said in that process in the last laps, although he has the fastest car, he tried faster, now he is two seconds away, 1.8, eight laps to go, that is not enough laps, but it is the fastest car.
Parker and Dale to answer your question from a couple of laps ago about two laps ago, they switched to giving Joe Logano Ross's lap times behind him and told him that Gap just went under two seconds updating Joy on what's happening there, they stopped giving updates on what Blaney is doing behind. the league, the only thing that is going to be difficult for Ross is faster, running him over, but that teammate, that Blaney teammate, who has been there throughout the race for Lagano Fellaini, is not going to sit still for this car, he It will put him in a difficult situation to try to move into second place if he even gets there.
Oh, if he got there, he would be a companion because they would throw him out of the way as soon as he got there. I'm serious. Only Rochester, unable to have time to play with him, would be forced to push him out of the way. Think about what awaits Joy Legano here as she climbs with five laps to go, with five to go in this championship, but Ford's last two-time champion was David Pearson in 1968 and '69. That's the last time Ford had not a two-time champion. 42 Ross was out of 40. There you have it, even the lap times for the most part, the last couple. of laps it's 22 car lengths, he pushes the button and it goes back to one, well it's 1.6, if you're waiting for Joey Logano to make a mistake you can forget it.
I mean, that guy is so stable, one of the strengths he has is that he knows these moments. he's been in these moments and he knows how to execute it, so Joey Logano will drive the next four laps very smoothly and intelligently at the bottom left of the screen, just as they cross the strip, they update immediately and legato runs a little bit . faster than Bell, a little slower than Chastain, but not enough as they approach three laps from the end of the season in the championship. Legano is six tenths of a second clear of Blaney now and Chastain is 1.5 seconds behind.
Pagano just hopes there is no caution. He doesn't want a warning, there are no mechanical problems, there is no traffic in the laps, there are no accidents, he just wants three perfectly clean laps. What a day, what a season it has been for Joey Logano. He has been dominant all day leading for 184 laps and among the four championships from him. Competitors, he has never faltered, he only has one lap left and a green flag remains. If he were not ahead of the other four or three Championship contenders, Lugano has had a perfect race and once again, everything could depend on which champion wins the race to win the championship. time with one lap left presented by Credit One Bank his closest competitor to win the race is Ryan Blaney, a teammate who has been hungry all year, but it looks like he will have to remain hungry until 2023 because Legano has been class. of the field all day Joy Legato, 32, has already built a Hall of Fame career today his name is etched in stone as one of the few to capture multiple championships Legano is a two-time Nascar Cup champion in the foreigner thank you thank you thank you great way to hang it proud of you great job guys great job you all started as a team owner for Roger Penske.
This is the first time he has won the IndyCar championship and the Cup championship in the same season. to get out of the car Joey Legato you can see the emotion how much he wants to get out of this car to celebrate winning two championships in 2018 another victory here in the season finale Paul Wolf is the crew chief who has his second championship. Sold out here in Phoenix appreciating Joey Logano's championship performance here he is today he told the kids before he left that he was coming home with the second championship Joey Logano congratulations you did it we did it we are champions again yes God mine, I'm very excited, thank you all, my team, you guys are amazing, you gave me a good race car, a good pit stop.
Diane got things up front and wow it was intense at the end so that's what championships are all about, we worked really hard the last two weeks trying to get in position and it all happened in 2020. I knew we just wanted to have one race solid and doing this today and I can't thank Ford and Shell Pencil enough. enough to support me for the last 10 years, to get a couple of championships together, all of our partners at Team Penske, everyone who works on these cars is very important to win these championships and impact the lives of so many people and obviously in the news this.
Good morning, with koi too. I don't know what to think, but obviously my condolences to the Gibbs family, but it was an incredible day for us and mixed emotions at the moment the family is here with you, they got the survey. It was a perfect race all day. Did you ever have any doubt, Joey, that you could come back here and get that second championship? Thank you. I don't know what you said, right? I don't really care what you said either, although Perfect day for you guys to do everything else the team was up and down.
Did you ever have any doubts? uh no no. Going into this, I knew we were going to win the championship. I told the guys they had a Daytona favorite and we really believed that and that's the difference and man, it's like I said I had a good team with a lot of confidence and we had every reason in the world to be confident. I said I've never been so ready for a championship run and uh, we did it, man, I can't believe it. Family has defined your career since those summers you spent with your dad in the caravan traveling around your family here.
What does it mean to you to have them here with you? Oh man, it's so special. and jmo and Amelia are home, uh, but, hey, guys, they'll be home soon, but my party is kinda first, it might be a little rough when we get home, but this is, uh, man, this is it It's about, although I I mean, when you were a kid his age, my dream was to win Cup championships and here we are with two of them, uh, it means a lot, it's so special. I just want to celebrate it. Congratulations. Joey Logano is a two time champion here at Phoenix Raceway Brittany's wife was there with him and Hudson who was only four years old the last time he won a championship, Hudson barely won it so he mentioned it would be great if he could experience that with me and understand what dad has achieved and that's why he is here now.
He'll be on his hip as he celebrates this, Joey Logano's second Cup Series championship, an absolutely dominant performance from the driver on the 22nd today. Joey Logano wins the race and dominates the championship in this race as well with Ryan Blaney finishing in that second. place, but all praise goes to Joey Logano for capturing the 2022 Nascar Cup Series Foreign Championship. Thank you in 2022, the very special NASCAR America post-race show presented by Progressive starting here from Phoenix Raceway. Joey Logano wins the title and celebrates there with young Hudson as they take the checkered flag finishing second in the points standings will be Ross Chastain with a third place finish in this race.
I'm sure that's not what I was expecting when it comes to this history book ending to the season that's already been. with Parker, right, Rick, he was a little over 1.2 seconds behind Joe Legato, so Ross, I have to ask you if there's anything different you could have done in that last race to try to catch that 22 card, uh, Parker, I think we did everything right there. The finish was a great ride for us, who had the only car in the second final points. On your bingo card, uh, February 1st, it's pretty wild, but, look, this is a continuation of a lot of people believing in my man.
I got into the Truck Series in 2011 with Stacy Compton, Bobby's daughter, Brad, um onwards. through put to work some of It was like internships, they were working on all four cars and it's pretty far-fetched to think that we just fought for a Cup Series championship, we had a fast enough car chasing at the end and that's a testament to that everyone at Chevy and GM did me. a better racing driver with Josh, Scott and Dan. I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else and myself and my family. I have to tell you, they stayed with me and pushed me forward from the farm to NASCAR and it's crazy while we're here, I don't understand it, but mom, dad and Chad, I'm so proud of what we've been able to do on the track and in the farm and for all the Watermelons around the world. country, it's absolutely incredible, so I want to take this moment and thank a lot of people.
A lot of people maybe thought I wasn't sure what it was going to be like when I got out of the car, but I'm very proud of the effort so proud of the execution on Pit Road with our pit crew and uh, this is just our first opportunity with Track House and having Justin Marks, Ty and Pitbull believe in me to drive this car, it's incredibly fast. Did you think that the hill melon? it can work down there in three and four is your patch to catch the 22. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think it would be like this.
I just think we're going too fast here and um, I just didn't do it. I don't think it would work, so I thought I would have Martinsville and I feel very blessed and fortunate that it did, but not here, the incident with the nine cars that were on that restart, what happened from their point of view had a really good race. It looks like William didn't move as well as he wanted and he went left, to the left of him and I saw some erratic movement, but he turned left to cover it and I was already there.
So yeah look that's not how I want to raise him or those guys and for everyone at GM I needed other Chevys in there to fight those other guys so you know it's not what I want to do but I feel like I had a position about him and he tried to cover it late, so I take my hat off to Mr. Penske and Rod Roger and everyone on Joey's team. I know a couple of those guys who have worked with him in the past, so I'm happy. for them and I'm really happy right now, I just wish we had to try for another successful year for Ross Chastain and the track team Dave Chase Elliott has discussed things with his team and talked about Jeff Gordon's point of view on what what happened there.
I've seen the

replay

a couple of times. They asked Ross about it. He said you made an erratic move and tried to cover him when he was there. How did he see it? I just want to congratulate Joey and his team, they did a very good job all weekend and I want to say that he is a very deserving champion and, frankly, I am happy for them, proud of my team for the effort they put in this weekend week, we felt like we had improved our car a lot. throughout the race and you know, I think we should be, we should be very proud, you know, it's good to do the round, that's a very difficult thing to do, obviously, I'm not happy about it, but certainly, it's good to come here and have a chance and hopefully we can come back stronger next year and give ourselves another chance and, um, let you know, make things go the way we want next time.
How would you evaluate the Chase season? Because there were certainly high points with the victories, there were comebacks. and they were really outdoing each other throughout these playoffs, uh, yeah, I mean, Iand I've mentioned this a lot over the last few weeks, but in each of the last three seasons I feel like we've gotten to the round of four in very different ways and I think that's why. We should be very proud of that, you know, the playoff points that we accumulated this year in that Regular Season Championship really is what got us here for nine difficult weeks until today.
In fact, I thought today was going pretty well. We just had our best pit stop of the day and our car drove pretty decent too, that's how it goes, but I appreciate my team anyway, they've worked really hard and we've put a lot of effort into trying. to be better and I felt like uh I felt like we were going in the right direction today, very proud of that, I'm looking forward to not worrying about Racing for a while, frankly, I'm looking forward to some time off and uh and doing it. something else for uh for a couple of months, today is not Chase day, but there will be championships to come.
I'm sure Dylan and Dave for Christopher Bell will be a third-place finisher in points today, but ultimately, I know that's not what's on everyone's minds on this team, but what are your emotions after your today and everything that this whole group has been through? Yeah, I mean, wow wow wow, you just know from being out and then the wins that Charlotte and Martinsville and then all of a sudden you wake up this morning and you're competing for a championship, you're happy, you're late and then you know that your world breaks down, so you know whenever you get news like that, it definitely puts it into perspective. that there's more to it than outside of racing so you know the whole Gibbs family is in all of our prayers and thinking of them you know ultimately today the best car won the championship it was really strong I'm proud of our group 20, although I fought hard and every time it was at the end of the race, the last pit stop or we thought it was going to be the last pit stop, we were there fighting for it, so I'm proud to be in this position, proud to be a joke, is a career. driving this number 20 car in the Camry on the wall, you know we're there, we're there and we hope we can come back next year statistically, this was your best season in your Nascar Cup career, so what positives can you take from it? everything you've done?
The guys fought through this year and will apply that to next year, yeah, I mean I feel good about where we are for sure and I hope my group stays exactly the same from the mechanics and engineers and obviously Adam Stevens . above boxing because I feel like we have something good going and we feel like we're on the verge of being there every week and being a title contender year in and year out, so, really, really. grateful to be here and very incredibly sad about today's news and thinking about the tough day for the Gibbs family for the team 20 Christopher Bell tenth on the track today in third place in points Dylan, the tough news you're talking about, 49 years old.
Coy Gibbs passed away this morning, the father of Ty Gibbs, who had just won the Xfinity Series championship yesterday, so the news reached the entire team and the Joe Gibbs organization this morning, right before that race, for what emotions like the ones he mentioned run so high. racing for a championship and then so depressed upon hearing the news of the loss of one of the co-owners and founders of this racing team and the unfortunate thing about that is that he gets into this race car for a few short hours and gets going work. right and that's out of mind for a few short hours and then you get back out of the car and she's faced with that reality again and so just the rollercoaster emotions for everyone in that organization over the last 48 hours.
I can't imagine what you are thinking, but we certainly know we are praying for Joe and the entire family. Ty in this industry will support them immensely in the future. See Joey Logano and again the highs and lows of the sport that Joy Logano achieved. everything I was looking for today Joey Logano wins the race wins the championship and it's time for the hardware to be distributed now we will once again see Joey Logano with the Nascar Cup Series trophy. He was on stage and will be delivered. here, momentarily, Hudson was able to take that trip with dad to the championship stage and when he came out we saw Joey when he initially got out of the car, the emotions and very focused and he's had two weeks to think about this because his winning in Las Vegas could open him up. this opportunity, concentrate on this race, only in this race did he know he was in the championship and with his signature he held the steering wheel, we see him with his base standing on the side of the car with his arms raised. and once again celebrating a championship, lots of people to congratulate the 2022 champion before he takes the stage and now for the championship celebration ceremonies we go to Marty Joey Logano is now a two-time Nascar Cup champion mark rushbrook of Ford here Joey will get to pick up this trophy a second time and do the honors, and as you mentioned, Rick will hand out the hardware.
I want to introduce NASCAR President Steve Phelps, everyone, Steve, thanks Marty, what an incredible season, but before we get started. Joey and Crowning an Incredible Champion for the Second Time want to thank the best fans in all of their sports and that's the NASCAR fans, whether they're at Phoenix Raceway or tuning in around the world, they want to thank them for everything they do. our great sport and Joey what a season Brittany here we are congratulations Joey you started our season in early February at the Bush Lake Clash at the Coliseum with a win nine months later here we are at Phoenix Raceway with another win but this time. comes with the big trophy, right, you're all American and you're a two-time Nascar Cup champion, so Joey, on behalf of everyone with NASCAR, I want to present you with the Coupe de France bill and crown you our champion of the Nascar Cup 2022.
A word with Joey Logano is Roger Pinsky and Kathy Pinsky have come here, as well as Britney and Hudson, their son. You talked about Joey the first time. You didn't realize what a championship meant. What does it mean to you as a family? Share this moment with Hudson, who arrived at Victory Lane with you. We've had so many conversations over the last two weeks before bed. I told him, "The first thing was that I was going to get a survey and that I was going to meet me here and I'm going to win the race and I could have done it.
I couldn't lie to my son, so this worked. Always, ever since Harvard took his son, in the car, I always wanted to do that with Hudson and he's a car guy, so it was a special moment to ride together, but man, I can't say enough about this racing team, he's, uh, they just try hard they just grind they are so amazing Paul Wolf oh man everyone that put that in a lot of time and effort in the last few weeks and not just this team 22 this is so much deeper uh when you think about Rousey's engines and the engine that's in this bad boy uh I mean, I think everyone has a Ford, everyone at Shell and Pennzoil, everyone that supported me, you know, they've spent 10 years with Shell and they got a couple of championships and 31 If we keep track, it is special that the book ends well at the beginning and that the last race means a lot.
Plus, it's a really special year for us with our third baby, yet I'm only 22-22. I told you so, so there you have it. Joey Logano is always confident. He and Rick gave birth today here in Phoenix, thanks Marty. We're going to talk a lot more with Joey Logano and the championship team our coverage will go to Phoenix now on peacock and NASCAR Kobe is always available on nbcsports.com. Next up on NBC will be Football Night in America, followed by Sunday Night Football Titans and Ron Skinner's Chiefs Dean Kaminsky and our entire NBC Sports team, we thank you for joining us for another incredible NASCAR season.
Congratulations Joey Logano foreigner officially a recap of the 2022 Cup Series season and what a year it has been since the start of the season with the debut of the next generation stock car a record 19 different winners a host of first-time drivers in Victory Lane Kyle Busch the end of an era in the 18 with Joe Gibbs Racing and now Joey Logano here in Phoenix winning his second NASCAR title the 22 are the champions in 2022, what a way to end the year by everyone here at Phoenix Raceway and all of us in the Charlotte control room. Thank you so much for being with us all season long, racing fans.
I'm Jesse Punch. See you next season abroad. This copyrighted broadcast may not be reproduced, retransmitted or used in any manner without the authorized written consent of NASCAR Broadcasting. NASCAR would like to thank all of our fans for their support and we hope you enjoyed it. today's broadcast

If you have any copyright issue, please Contact