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

Hi everyone, I'm Mike Joy and I'm joined by two analysts who have had great success here: Larry Mcreynolds was the winning crew chief when Ricky Rudd won Nascar's first trip to Sonoma Valley way back when, and Tony Stewart, three-time eight cup champion. road course winner, his final victory was unforgettable here, as he dueled Denny Hamlin to the final turn to win the final

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of his career. By the way, Hamlin is trying to tie Tony's all-time wins mark today. I'm sure we'll hear more about that as the day goes on, but what about road racing in Nascar, Tony, since you got into the sport and since you won that

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in 2016, about the number of teams and drivers competitive when turning right and left, yeah, I don't know if necessarily all drivers and teams embraced road course racing when I started in cup in '99, but when I retired at the end of 2016, everyone was putting an emphasis on it, the drivers, the teams.

I knew how important it was to consider that if you won you got a place in the playoffs, so everyone puts emphasis on these road course races, now we have more than ever, six, now two, then six, the seven from last year and Larry Mack to 22. Of the 32 races here at Sonoma, we have run the two-mile short course using the chute from turns four, eight to seven. We've been on the carousel for the last few years and now we're back on the parachute. How does that affect your career? Well, the strategy is different, the distance is different, the challengers are the same and they were the same 33 years ago, in 1989, trying to give the driver grip, a race car with good handling, turning left and right. , and you want to make sure you don't.

I didn't repair one item and hurt another, but one thing I didn't have to deal with in 1989 was stage racing, which is a game-changer when it comes to road courses. The whole question today will be how to work in these stages. Can I get stage points? Am I after winning this race but being in position at that final stage? Well, something else none of you had to deal with was the new gen 7 car and its five-speed sequential shift transmission. Now here it is this year. This is what we hope to see. changes and shift points in the middle of a race and we compare it to just a few years ago when we had the gen six car and its four speed transmission and there are a lot less of those shift points and this is one of those tracks that doesn't have many long straights so you don't have much time for drivers to take a breather, relax, before they were busy with five speeds, they're even busier with an independent rear end, hope

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y you're not skipping wheels like you used to worry about back then with the four speeds, so the race we were talking about and I say it was one for the ages.

You always get excited here at the booth for the second place car. I want you to take the first car and then things like this happen, so let's see, Tony, who we should ask you to radio on the baseline. I think I should call my last friend here in Sonoma, Mr. Denny Hamlin. Hello, Denny Hamlin. Tony is touring the fox cabin, you got me friend 10, poor old friend, well, which one is it? What is the strategy today? And I mean, I don't know about you, some people say that Turn 11 is the trickiest turn on this track.

What is your opinion? Well, it sure was. versus you in a moment, uh, but I mean it really is once you're bottled up in a reset, but um, I mean, every quarter you know, they pose a challenge. Board seven for me was the most challenging during practice that the car really gave me. Conditions are a little better today so I don't think it will be too bad, but it will still be quite a conservation race. We've heard many drivers talk about a lot of rear end. The brakes lock up because we, with this next generation car, have better brakes in the rear.

Are you struggling with any of the rear balance brake problems? You're able to give it all the vault control you know, all the brakes it has, so it's very different from the old car where you just pressed the pedal as hard as you could and then hoped you didn't jump on this wheel. one, you definitely have to be conscious of not locking the rear wheels, okay buddy, we appreciate your time, uh, have a good race today, stay away from that, a car will do and the rivalries continue here it's your

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, save the March starting grid for today's race Kyle Larson dominated this race a year in which he was on pole again.

His teammate Chase Elliot was just a couple of tenths away and very close. Seven-time road course winner Chris Busher missed last week due to greed, but he returned and qualified third. mcdowell pair of fords in the second row his great season continues tyler redick in the top ten and four of his last five road course starts in a chevy cole custer in a ford started in the top ten in both road course races this year ross chastain the Coda winner in Austin Texas and his Track House teammate, Daniel Suárez, were very strong in Coda before a spin.

Joey Logano has won two of the last four races this season and there's Denny Hamlin, who almost won this race in 2016, but Tony did it at the bottom of the screen. We'll scroll through the rest of the starting lineup, 36 cars strong as we head to pit road for the latest news, starting with Vince Welch. Well, Mike, we're going to talk a lot about that today and Joey Logano actually told me it was going to be like that. The key to today's race is tire wear. Only four sets of tires placed here for the 22. The team that won last week.

Can they play again for the second time in their career? Legano said he should know in the first 20 laps. How are the tires adapting to their setup that will determine whether or not it will be a points day or a day where they can drink that wine in victory lane at the end? Jamie Little, well Vince, a guy who has been in the headlines all over. The week-long one is Ross Chastain and the one after messing with Denny Hamlin and going after Elliot. Well I asked him what the consequences are, what has happened since he said I spoke to both of them and I know where I stand so something can happen and pay the money. road, but to this day he feels like he has a car in the top five, remember the last time we were on a road course, he went to victory lane and that watermelon guy who broke a watermelon feels like he could do it here in Sonoma Mike, thanks Jamie.

Speaking of winning in victory lane and you're in, it's continued throughout the stage races and playoff races in Nascar now, if we have more than 16 winners, well, someone's going to be left out, that's one , but that's where they stand so far in the playoffs. for drivers with two wins each and here are the drivers trying to score points and you see that cut line and how close it is and look at the talent below the cut line and once you get down from about 18th position you almost have to do it. win a race to make the playoffs at this point, yes, and that's the pressure of this

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, but it's also changed the stage of the game and the playoffs have changed the way we race, we used to think from race one to the end of the season.

You did everything you could to rack up points now with the stage races and by winning you're in, now you take your chances. You have crew chiefs who think outside the box, their strategies are outside the box, the drivers race a little outside the box and are a little bit more aggressive when they need to be, so this has changed the game and with 11 guys already secured and five spots available, every week it's going to get harder and harder from now on and friends, we'll keep saying win and you. We're in until someone wins and comes out, it hasn't happened yet, look at this racetrack, look at these

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parking lots and the hillsides and look at the elevation change here in Sonoma, the difference between turn 11 and turn 3a that is 160 feet. of elevation change here, not like a coda, where you just go 130 feet up straight in Austin, Texas, you're up, you're down, you're pretty much everywhere and that's what makes this track so much fun, the elevation.

It changes the way you drive, but there are a lot of blind banked corners that you have to navigate. You have a big uphill section, long and wide, until turn two at the beginning. There are a lot of things that make you have to keep up with this. circuit larry, let's take a look at the analysis of today's race yes, again, we're going to do 110 laps here, that's 219 miles, look at the stages closely, stage 125, then 30 and then 55 laps in that final stage, speed on pit road, it's easy to get arrested here 40 miles per hour and the fuel window 42 to 44 laps it's all a matter of strategy in that final stage several cars behind christopher bell changed a steering rack aj almandinger had to work on exhaust eric jones did some work on steering rack and cody Items failed inspection several times and we will have to drive after the green flag yesterday, temp was in the 90s on Friday, it was close to 100 degrees and look at a very cloudy sky today, there is no real threat of rain, but the atmosphere has dropped. in the low 70s and the tip of the track at 91 perfect weather for wine yesterday the drivers were saying where am I going to find some grip the weatherman gave it to us today yes it's a free change that you get but unfortunately everyone gets the same change , goldfish onboard casino slot camera aj almondinger is number 16 for college racing

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in truax jr's joe gibbs

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will carry our cameras onboard toyota rookie austin cindrick with plenty of road racing experience has the camera aboard the Ford in his Allied Penske Mustang with Alex Bowman and the Allied Camera aboard the number 48 starting 19.

The Monster Energy Cameras travel with Kirk Bush starting from row six and Daniel Suarez starting eighth with the Coca-Cola on board for Team Track House. His teammate Ross Chastain has the Tootsies camera starting. seven chris bush will start third here is his team, very good guys, today here we have a good fast car, of course they give us a good starting place, let's stay in front all day and go home, yes, be afraid, we will work hard. all day Chip Childress driving the pace car put the turn signal on to get that 300+ horsepower Toyota Camry TRD onto pit road and they're going to come out of that hairpin turn 11 into the left turn of turn 12 and They will direct you to the exit.

Line 25 laps to stage one of three stages and here they come, we're underway at Sonoma, still, Tony, we weren't sure where Kyle Larson chose because that put him out in turn two, but I think there may have been a There's a little bit of a plan, yeah, I mean obviously getting into turn two can be a tricky spot and as you mentioned, you're on the inside for turn one, but that launch is on the outside for turn two, so than having two teammates in the front row. that allowed them to work together and line up in turn seven and now towards the essential leader heading into turn 10, the fastest turn on the course and now the straight ahead heading towards turn 11 of Dive Bomb City.

Yes, they go from the fastest turn, turn 10 to the slowest turn the opposite of a

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insville three and four right there going in the opposite direction the slowest part of the race track tyler reddick tried the outside with daniel suárez nothing there on the first lap you can hear that ticking sound which is actually the chassis hitting the ground I spoke to some drivers yesterday, if you hit it too hard it unloads the car and makes it unstable so they will have to be careful at the beginning Of the race, when tire pressure is low, these cars have about five friction blocks and are half an inch thick. that's under the chassis and that's what we'll start to bottom out, this is turn 4a, turn four is not used, that would lead to the carousel, 4a leads to turn seven and back to the essence, reddick, sixth place with Cole Custer, Tony, I think Cole Custer.

In that 41st car he surprised himself and qualified yesterday. In fact, when he got out of the car he told us that he thought he ran a lap that probably would have put him in 30th place and he finished sixth, so it shows. how good was a lapid actually from the point of view that when it feels slow it's often fast oh here we go three wide going down towards 11. Some of them were fixed, let's say a truck yesterday took away one of those piles of tires and sent him through the curve trying to take the hairpin turn.

I would say not in the group we have here today. I'd say there's a very good chance we could see tigers flying down the runway again chasing Elliot. His road course numbers are absolutely off the charts, but this is a place where he finished second to Kyle Larson a year ago, but it's a place he's still trying to figure out.meet and I am surprised that he is a good road course racer. I mean, I think without a doubt, even though Martin Truax and Kyle Larson have had success here recently, Chase is one of those drivers that just has a good feel and a good read on the circuits.

When conditions change, you can adapt to it. very solid but wait, he's not one of those guys that has to take the lead on lap two or three, he's a guy that waits until he really counts and it's time for the money to be on the line. Vince Welch, good on those seven road courses. wins while you guys were talking, Chase Elliot certainly has those strong road racing skills, but it dates back to a test at Watkins Glenn in 2017 that changed everything for this team. That day they learned something that lent itself to a style that matched perfectly.

His skill set a setup that perfectly matched his skill set, he said, without that test and what they learned that day, he wouldn't have those seven road course wins. Now here is Aj Almondinger, he had to start at the back due to unapproved adjustments and he has improved. three places so far working on ty dillon here's the second hardestThe hardest corner on the course because look, you can't see the exit when you get to that apex and you hit the gas, you don't really end up knowing if you're going to end up on the pavement at the exit of the In the corners or on the dirt, no, it gets a little easier as the race goes on and you get into the rhythm, but at the beginning of the race and at the beginning of the practice sessions it's blind and it's very, very difficult, you wait point it in the right direction. but you're already hitting the accelerator before you really see where you're going to end up.

Christopher Bell moved up five places, the biggest driver in the race forward, that is, he replaced a steering rack after qualifying and had to start at the back, and you know. As far as Joe Gibbs Toyota drivers Christopher Bell is concerned, he can be the fastest every week and finally now the execution is there and the finishes are on par with his performance. martin truex had a lot of success on road courses now there's an open lane under bubba wallace but bubba closes that door after the bell rings, uh, tell me, those aren't raindrops on our rooftop camera screen, that's wet dirt , Mike okay, four full laps at Sonoma, pole sitter, Kyle Larson with Chase Elliott keeping a close eye on the leader, response stage. one is underway here at Sonoma Raceway for Sunday's Pub Series race.

I'm Jesse Punch. I'll be here all afternoon to give you updates from Pitt Road. When you look at the running order here from the start you might be surprised to see Michael Mcdowell's 34. He is currently in third place, a good start to the day for Mcdowell who is having a good season overall, the team 34 He's led 38 laps so far this year and has five top tens, which is actually the most Mcdowell has seen in a season like I said running third here at the beginning of this race in Sonoma, so keep an eye on that team. 34, since they're off to a good start, so complete six laps, Chevy one two, look at these four, three and four close together here, Ford Track Back Sport. today that's too close Ford has won four races Austin Cendrick Chase Briscoe and two for Joey Logano they also won the crash at the coliseum and the star race Ryan Blaney third and fourth place Chris Busher has simply nibbled whatever gap Michael Mcdowell had so now there's no more gap 34, you know, michael mcdowell in that 34 car, I talked to his crew chief, Blake Harris, yesterday and he told me that they spent three weeks working on a simulator getting ready for Sonoma because they know a road course. o super speedway is their best opportunity and dale o chris are uh they are not chris but mcdowell is a very, very good road coach racer he has been for years uh this is a great opportunity and the work they did before Sonoma this weekend week showed the in the first lap they were on the track yesterday he had a considerable margin in the field looking to turn 4th there he is brad keselowski he has risen four places eh since the start one of those who moved the most christopher bell rose eight eric jones william byron aj almandinger is up five and then up four points from where he started Mike, you talked about the points before the green flag Brad Keselowski is 179 points below the cut line even with 11 races left, he will have to win to be in a good place, daniel suárez, jamie, yes, he is.

Mike already moved up three places and you know, yesterday in the truck

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, Josevar broke his right leg and had to get off the truck at the end of the first stage, so Daniel Suárez jumped out and was two laps down and came back to finish. sixth and I asked him about that performance and how it could help today, he said the car and truck are very different but the lap times here help, he said getting into that rhythm helped and it's showing that already at the beginning of this race He had a great drive in fifth place.

Now, what about his on-court teammate, Ross Chastain, who had that big problem with Denny Hamlin last week? Well, look who's facing each other, Tony, you can't make these things up, no, and every time there are rivalries it's like having two magnets in each car, I mean. he just puts them together and they never separate if I put on my field surgeon hat right now, Ross Chastain's crew chief, let's come here for a while, well, I think then he started behind him, so at some point Denny did it. has overcome and I think Ross is probably grateful that he's still rolling right now.

We could keep a camera on this pair all day, but today you really expect retaliation. Well, I used to deal with it differently than a lot of guys and I know it. Denny said he would wait until it mattered and that would be the playoffs. Obviously he didn't want to wait that long. He wanted. Everyone thinks I'd like to be upset with other drivers. I did not like at all. I hated it. because I liked the guys I raced with, I respected them, but what you want to teach them is how to be respectful on the track and how etiquette works and those are the things that Rusty Wallace and Dale Senior and Bobby Labonte Mark Martin Jeff Gordon a lot of great drivers taught me when I started and this will also happen in this scenario.

A lot of his fellow drivers will coach him and Ross will learn and figure it out, but I really like what I saw there in the corner. 11 because Denny Hamlin saw Chastain come to the inside and he got wide in the corner, which gave him all kinds of space, so no problem here and we're on lap 10 of 110. There's nothing to gain in this one point if a place is not going to make you or break you, uh, it's just being smart at this point, but you know, Tony, you mentioned lap 10, this is usually in Sonoma, when there are problems with the race cars, they start to Raise your head if it starts to have a very loose output or does not turn. in the corner now we've done so many laps just the first 10 laps here from lap five with kyle larson the leader who was running 18-4 on lap 10 is running 19-5 kaboom bubba wallace just get down there and stop, get down under the first yellow flag of the day in turn 4a on lap 10. now let's come back to this in a moment, but kyle bush had gotten right there uh now bubba downshifting four into turn 4a going down the hill and that's when that got loose, but here's Kyle Bush and company, wherever you say ice, he did it, that's his way of saying no grip, thinking it's not that cold, yeah, I thought, man, it was really cold when we got here this morning, but not so much, it's a tough break for bubba wallace let's ride with martin truex oh, it's going up the hill now tony, you tested these cars at bowman gray stadium and i know you watch the fluid coming out of the exhaust pipes , I know you probably didn't.

There's a lot of gearing there, but it's not possible to miss a gear with this gearbox, is it, it really isn't. You're not using the clutch when you're shifting, you're just coming off the throttle for a split second pulling the handle that indexes the gear and you continue, but it's uh, I think with all the downshifts here, I mean, who knows in practice Yesterday if you had any problems, if there was a part where you over revved on a downshift for example, so we're not likely to see an engine expire that early in the race, are we, Larry?

So we're still talking about the five-speed sequential shifter, as opposed to last year's four-speed, so let's go to our Ford Performance Cutaway car and show off the sequential shifter. now again it's still on the floor on the right driver's side, it's not like they've paddled it, but to change it it's not in every pattern, just keep pulling back from second to third, fourth to fifth, there's a mechanism back there that latches. in the gearbox there is no transmission, you have a gearbox and you have a transaxle which is very similar to most other racing series today, well looking at the fluids coming out of that pipe it will be like Kenny Schroeder used to say one of those big, important pieces must have broken, yeah, that's one of those that won't fix itself.

I work for an engine manufacturer who once said: can we just say it was an oil pan failure? When a dipstick comes out, the oil pan fails. got it yeah I don't see anyone interested here so that's what they're doing they're trying to get out of sequence here they see how good that five car is because we'll be racing here again probably in about two or three laps , I wait about ten laps later. Jamie Little will see other leaders making pit stops. Yes, Kyle Busch in 18. This car doesn't feel like yesterday. There is no twist. No exit.

It feels like it's on ice. It is not. I'm sure what's going on with that, but he wants to come here, they're going to feed him, make an adjustment to help get that confidence back on that 18. Aj Almondinger's good too, now the last few laps where Kyle Bush turned here, uh they were. In the truck race, yesterday became victory lane, so it would have been a completely different feeling. Bubba Wallace, who arrived at Sonoma 96 points below the cut line, is the first car out of the race and brought out the caution on lap 10. So 11 full laps.

Here for Sunday's Cup race at Sonoma Raceway, today we see for the first time some teams decide to pit. Something that we will see a lot today is varying pit strategies and that is because at this point in the season. teams have many different agendas some drivers are looking for wins other drivers are looking to rack up stage points, that said this is a good time to take a look at the regular season standings chasing elliott on top with 507 points, kyle busch nine behind him in second ross chastain, check him out in his first season with track house racing, he is third in the regular season standings with ryan blaney and martin truex jr rounding out the top five as you check out those six through 10 joey logano kyle larson alex bowman william byron and christopher bell i will remind you that as i mentioned teams use different strategies, that's because there are 15 playoff points at stake for the regular season champion, so as much as Even if there are wins, playoff points are also absolutely on the minds of these teams.

Keep that in mind as you watch the strategy play out in the pits today, all I need is always our favorite trip of the year to Sonoma wine country, appropriately the final Fox Nascar race for this season and a great place to be at the Sonoma wine region, so aj Almondinger's pit stop was due to a power steering pump failure Tony, how is that going to make that car very difficult to drive? It's going to make it very difficult for him physically to drive it. I mean, I know someone who's probably the only one I know. could get away with it now he's retired and that's Ryan Newman he actually drove a race without power steering and it's incredibly hard to drive these cars without that power so why other than getting over that pump that's still hooked up there , the wheel? in cars, when you turn, when you turn the steering wheel, you're actually pushing the inside of the wheel toward the track, so you're physically lifting the inside corner, so it's just to master physically lifting the chassis and making the tire turn up.

Due to the speeds, loads and tire grip it makes it extremely difficult without power steering, so in the back half of the field there are 11 cars stopping. Look at the right side of the screen, that new Turn 11 viewing area and it shows the location. that whole new building was just finished and the other night he hosted the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame induction. Here they come out of 11, that little turn into Turn 12 and then they'll face the flag for the restart, Reddick on the outside trying to get away. next to mcdowell in three, he is there, no, not until 3a, although on the sidewrong that way, yeah, Chris Buscher, no 17. took advantage of that restart and took that third position from mcdowell on the bumper 34. you're clear now during the caution flag, of course, you have five gears, you have a lot of options here, here's Ross Chastain and company, you're using a lower gear, more group two, four and seven than five, what's up with him? 99-year-old national team, am I the same as them or am I ready to downgrade?

You are also down compared to him and just for the record, how do they know they have that smt data? They can see his data plus that of his teammates. everyone else in the field rpm wise the throttle breaks the steering things of that nature ryan blaney on the outside trying to take a spot in turn 11 and he almost missed the nose and for what you mean that's for the best if someone is actually doing When the crew chief in the pit can get that data, they can compare everything from throttle travel, brake travel, gear selection, all of that, so it's free data that they have during the race and that five, six and seven years ago we never had that chase that Briscoe stopped. laney into turn 11 the last time there was a little jump on the curb, uh, coming out of 3rd and going down the hill to four, you know, Mike saw Ryan Blaine in that number 12 car at a ford the last time a Ford won on a road course.

I have to go back to his win at Charlotte Rovel in the fall of 2018. That wasn't just the curb that's widening the track and that's a place where you don't see a lot of moves made there, but oh well. He had his hands full right there talking about Ryan Blaney, Jamie, well, about 10 minutes ago, Blaney was on the radio with his team. He says I can't go anywhere in dirty air, it's not bad, it's just tighter than yesterday, so he's trying to take advantage. When you saw him next to Joey Hand and I asked Blaney about his road course prowess, what did you think?

How do you rate yourself? He said: I give myself a solid B B minus I'm okay, but not great. 15th place Kevin Harvick just ahead of Alex Bowman here and Eric Jones is of course, he was one of those drivers who had to start at the back of the field due to unapproved adjustments, we saw him coming up the hill in turn one, he was far, far away from the outside. I wonder if it just picked up a bunch of debris on the tires and when it got there it just had no grip. He didn't have time to clean the tire first.

They got dirtier when he put it in the dirt. Also yes, Jones continues without incident and this is what was said, willing to add to that microphone, he's just not happy with his car, he said it doesn't handle, it doesn't turn, he's just not happy with it and as he heard it , has no idea how. spun, I think Tony got it right when you get off the pace here, especially when these cars are mostly single file, which will be there on the side, all those little marbles coming off the tires, no grip, yeah , and in the first lap at the start.

We saw a lot of dust there. I don't know if they had problems during the truck race yesterday because they had to dry the oil, but anyway he's pretty dirty on the outside of that truck on the outside of that turn, so there it is. There are marbles that accumulate continuously, you can see them there. 16 complete turns. Kyle Larson, a second and a half ahead of Chase Elliott and Chris Busher. We'll take them side by side, the first stage underway here at Sonoma Raceway and that Daniel Suarez 99 is currently sixth. This is not the first time daniel has been on the track competing this weekend as he was running last minute in the truck series yesterday and replaced carson hosovar who had surgery this week and about halfway through From stage one he put on his helmet.

I hopped in and hopped in the truck, did a couple laps on the track here, not only helping the good motorsports, but also helping yourself as track time is incredibly valuable here at Sonoma Raceway In four starts here at Sonoma, Daniel has never finished better than 12. Now I know it's early, but I'm currently in the top ten, good start, team 99, hendrick camaro twins, kyle larson, and chase elliot with two seconds apart, keeping a close eye on each other, of course, they didn't stop at the yellow flag, now here's chris busher, right up against it. elliot, this is for second place with michael mcdowell in fourth, tyler reddick fifth, the first of the cars to stop and take tires, while kyle busch returned in 18th place, he has gained 10 places since that pit stop and it definitely looks like the handling of the nine cars is Come on we're getting close to 20 laps here, you can see it, Tony looks like he's a little happy, yeah, going into 11, you saw him braking hard just as you start to turn, you're asking the tire. to do two things, you are asking him to slow the car down and he also has to have lateral grip at the same time, so you are asking him to double the load that Chastain receives from his teammate Suárez, that is for the sixth place, Bubba Wallace.

First car out of the race here's Vince, well the hits keep coming in this camp 23, another bad break, engine looses for Bubba Wallace and how do you put all this into perspective? What's happening to you guys this off-season weekend, that's what I need to reset, I guess you need to get rid of the mustache, man, I was really just buying time and I was making less changes than in practice, I was just trying keep some tire and I never had an overhead problem, it never went the wrong way and she just exploded. I hate it, I hate it for a team, I hate it for all our partners, you know we deserve to be, you know, to finish much better than we have been these last few months and, like you said, the successes keep coming, but you know you have to do it .

Bounce back, there's nothing like a good adversity to fight through to get back to where we need to be, but man, it's just a bummer, um trd is for the best, we'll figure it out, uh, we're all scratching our heads trying to figure it all out, but just the unfortunate end to our day, thanks bubba, thanks to vince, his teammate kirk bush in an unusual 28th place as we watch the race for 10th place, well we've been watching this for the last 10 laps, as well as handling. starting to fade in that 11 car, Denny Hamlin keeps losing spots and I don't think anyone had enough time in practice yesterday to understand exactly what they're going to fight.

I'm serious, cars feel great when you put four new ones in. The tires they have feel really good on lap 15, lap 20 is when you start to really see what your balance is and what you're going to fight with for the rest of the day. Yeah, the longest run they could do in that 20-minute practice was about 12 or 13 laps to get four more laps to the stage which was seventh place Kyle Larson on cruise control Jamie and his crew chief Cliff Daniels, they got the weather for today. Yesterday he made some adjustments between practice and qualifying and Larson told him that you guys did great.

The car is amazing, it feels like his teammate is chasing Elliott in nine, the only place he's beating him is turn 10, everywhere else they feel like they're off so that's bad news for the team. competition right now, Chase Elliott has his hands full with Chris Bush. We'll be three laps from the end of this stage next time Kyle Larson comes, they'll close pit road once the leader crosses the start-finish line with two to go, but if you come back 13 seconds or more. behind the leader you can't trust that leader to pit and before he finishes the stage, so this opens the window on this lap for anyone further than 13 seconds behind to make it to pit lane.

Chris Busher was out last week with Kovan back. this week and what do they say about a bad cold sweat, man, that's what he's doing, that's exactly the best way to do it, this is coming out of turn 4a on the ramp to turn seven, something that wouldn't have happened last last year with the carousel portion of the tour is in use, but Elliott took a very wide line through there, Gabe Bush, there's all kinds of space and here everyone comes right, not all, but here a lot of them come to the pit road before the first stage ends.

Well, they had to do it. come now mike because you don't know that kyle larson is not going to try to win this stage vince now comes uh kyle's nine or chase elliott's nine also kevin harvick's four you see harvick just getting tires and fuel denny hamlin's 11 too with tires boy these guys couldn't wait to put these new tires on looking for a little more grip larry, i think kyle larson may be on the same plan as last year, something we thought couldn't be done. win both stages and win the race I spoke to a lot of crew chiefs this week and they said it might be feasible to try to win the first stage, you might be on the edge trying to win both stages and the race, we're just going to be Bowman. going side by side here that's off the favorite road and you can just tell because the tires are cold and normally on an oval we want cold tires but here you have to cut and scrub the tires to get long grip. for christopher bell in 20 this has been one of his achilles heels a lot this year on pit road, so buscher is in, as well as elliott and mcdowell, mike cliff daniels, kyle larson, they are doing the same thing they did a anus. to win this stage he didn't pit and pit lane is closed now pit lane closes with two laps left in each stage meaning Larson will have to do and wait and make his flag pit stop yellow at the break of the stage.

Now we saw a little bit of contact between Fellaini and Hamline coming out of 4a here towards seven. I think Denny just blocked the left fronts or the front up a little bit and took it out. Ryan gave him space and then he didn't. What I mean is do that, just lock the right front tire as soon as you do it, you have one tire spinning on the car, not two, and then the other four tires on the outside made it spin much better and also eight wheels. there's usually one turn better than four on the right, exactly larson, turn 11 with one missing on stage one, so cars that didn't pit include larson logano harrison burton curt bush ricky stenhouse and eric jones jamie daniels told kyle larson, okay, we can win this stage.

It's going to be hard to win next year but we're going to stay the course let's stick with our plan so Larry Mack you were right they want to double last year and my biggest concern is my calculations when we pass after the stage and pit stops it will start far from the top 20. Now, last year it was possible because we ran the carousel, the course was half a mile longer than this year trying to win both stages and the race and it may have added to the The fact that I had a car that was half a second to three-quarters of a second faster than anyone else's, that always gives you confidence to do things that are a little bit out of the ordinary and things that we're sitting here doing. the cockpit goes why did he do it why didn't he take advantage and maintain his position on the track didn't get in trouble to get back there in 20th place or beyond now you're putting yourself in a place that you don't necessarily want to be in, but that shows you how valuable these stage points are when it comes to the playoffs, well to show you how confusing things are, ricky stanhouse and cody ware back there in position to get some stage points here at the end of stage one and cody Ware started the last race due to inspection issues and had to do a walk-through after completing the first lap in the pits.

This will be Larson's second stage win of the season and third consecutive stage win here for Kyle Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels Larson, the stage winner. joey logano kyle busch justin haley and eric almarola regular stage one is complete here at

sonoma

raceway

and kyle larson is your stage one winner now if you remember last year kyle larson basically put on a clinic here at

sonoma

he went out and won all three stages leading almost 60 percent of the laps, which is very impressive considering that the winner of stage one has not finished in the top ten in the last five races on road courses and, usually, in Sonoma, the Winner of stage one or winner of stage two has never won the race in last place.

The year was the first time we saw that. I mentioned it before. We're going to look at a lot of different pit strategies. Today we saw a lot of drivers bring it here just before the end of the stage. Drivers like Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, others. championship contenders because those drivers are less concerned about stage points and more concerned about track position and preparing for victory, so keep that in mind as we approach the end of the second stage and you will see the drivers choosedifferent launch strategies as they have done. different agendas here in mind welcome back to sonoma 26 full laps end of stage one here are the cars that didn't pit on lap 10, yellow flag or lap 23 before pit road was closed vince joey legano said he would know within the first 20 laps If he had a car that could potentially win today, well, he likes what has just a slight air pressure adjustment to help it turn a little better along with those four tires.

Jamie Kyle Bush started terrible in this race, but remember he already pitted once. They were able to make some adjustments there but they're going to bring him in they're going to put a second set of sticky tires here and another adjustment for him in the meantime it's all about Kyle Larson at the five and he's in he said what's your balance like you need something He said, I'm fine, we'll see what he's going to do here in traffic, he hasn't done it yet, here's your battering ram out of the pits, Kyle Busch gets two spots, Almarola Burton and Kurt Busch, one each, like this Do you remember when Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin got together in turn seven?

Here's a look. Hamlin enters that corner and locks the tire as Tony pointed out. A wheel was spinning and significant contact led to this later statement about the car. blainey radio in this house and that's josh williams that's ryan blaney spotter yeah and this you know was a mistake it's these guys they're still trying to figure out what they can do with the brakes and what they can't and when you slide your nose like that , you get on a guy then he's doing the right thing, if Ryan gets to him he'll definitely give him that spot back, now it's just a matter of the spotters communicating and passing that information on because I'm sure.

Ryan doesn't realize he slid the front end getting in there, he just knows he was pushed off the road, so the first stage is completed with a new car, a different course than last week, but the same winner of the first stage, Kyle Larson. Just moments into this second stage here at Sonoma Raceway, Chase Elliott in that nine car lead as we approach the start of stage two, Chase has one win on the season so far, it's at Dover and historically he seems to be the one. . To see him here on road courses, he's won seven of the last 15 road course races and of course he's our 2020 Cub Series Champion, but with all of those accolades, surprisingly, he doesn't have a win here in Sonoma with a win in the coda of the Daytona road course. wrote america, the list goes on and on, but this is one race track you haven't been able to add to your resume, so chase Elliott, another one with eyes on victory lane here today, so, getting ready to the reset, they approached the Geico reset zone, Christopher.

Bell was scheduled to get the free pass, but when he put it under the green, he stopped outside his area, so he received a no-free pass penalty at the end of leg one. Chase Elliot Chris Busher side by side and here we go to stage two, at the top of the. Of course, right there and I know we've talked about tire wear being a big factor in these restarts. You want to get everything you can during the first two laps and then you have to adapt, but everyone is so aggressive in these braking zones that you have to take whatever you can get in these first two laps and then once it is sorted it comes back. to be single file and then you start going into protection mode, but you have to be aggressive on these restarts here, Tony, that's what Kyle Larson is going to have to do. do it because, as far as our point is concerned, staying out winning that stage he's somewhere behind that wad where he started 24th in that five car, Elliott's pit crew gave him the lead thanks to his performance in the pits.

There the driver's time is very similar, but a three-second gap by the pit crew put Elliott in front, which wasn't a huge surprise. track the four tire stop averages so far the first 15 races the nine pit crews led by alan gustafson that group right there at the top of the sheet now we hear about 11 and 12. so let's add the postscript Ryan Blaney after he learned of Hamlin's apology. He wouldn't have apologized to me. He said he would give it back to you if you answered him. I told him yes. We could also be sure that he is very sorry.

Well, what did Denny Hamlin say last week when they said yes? Sure, yes, we as drivers get our feelings hurt very easily and it's hard for us, it's hard to forgive, that's Alex Bowman in ninth trying to get away from Ryan Blaney who closes the road as he reaches the turn 10. Aj Allmendinger without power steering, tighten things up. here and looking outside, road racing specialist Joey Hand on the 15 this week watching a guy, look at him having to cut that wheel without power steering, this is tough and this is a tough place to do it, like we mentioned, I don't do it you understand.

You don't have a lot of time to catch your breath and relax a little bit and let your muscles relax, so he's just handling this right now, but the good thing is that we have a camera in the car, we'll be able to read it, I think a As time goes by you will be able to tell if he starts to get fatigued because you will see him start to use his shoulders a little more. I mean, now he himself looks as relaxed as you could ask for. Right now, given the circumstances, but as time goes on and the race progresses, he has to start to get tired and we should be able to see it from inside the car.

Kyle Larson only moved up two spots since the restart, so we're very methodical. here, well, Tony, you pointed it out to me earlier, looking at the lap times, he's stuck there in a peg, he's two seconds a lap behind Chase Elliot who's running as the leader, yeah, and these cars unfortunately are still very aerosensitive to the arrows and in the traffic. it gets a lot tighter, so the balance he had alone that he was very happy with now you put cars in front of him where he has dirty air. I guarantee you his balance is very different from what he was in the lead in turn 10, I'm not sure. who created that dust storm by removing two wheels in 10, but that's a dodgy move, but it happens quite often. ty dillon falls to kyle larson, that's 21st place and larson is up three from the restart, but I work to make it corey lejoy kyle busch side by side so there's first and second, elliott and busher, still close, like As they restarted, well, they restarted side by side, Ross Chastain in third place and his teammate, Daniel Suarez, sitting in fourth place after the first stage of Nascar, there is real magic when we cheer together, you're watching.

nascar

on fox 33 full laps here as stage 2 is underway and it's Chase Elliott and that nine car pace in the field currently, you know, I'm not surprised to see a little bit of contact there in turn 11, the last turn like The drivers are approaching the start and finish line.

You heard some drivers on the radio having to apologize to each other at the beginning of this week's race. I heard championship-winning crew chief Larry Mcreynolds, America's crew chief, refer to that Turn 11 as a Martinsville in reverse. said that's it, just look at it as a reverse martinsville, which of course is a lot easier said than done and martinsville of course generates a lot of aggression so keep an eye on turn 11 as I wouldn't be surprised to see more contact there and by the way, as far as being able to trust larry mcreynolds beyond the fact that he's America's crew chief, he was also in the pits for the first win here at Sonoma Bridge, even for Ricky Rice.

Welcome back to Sonoma, where Chase Elliott and Chris Busher continue bumper to bumper with Ross Chastain a second and a half behind Daniel Suarez Two seconds Tyler Reddick Three Kevin Harvick Four Michael Mcdowell Five Cole Custer Bowman and Blaney Top Ten Good race for Harvick, who has gained the most places since the start of this race. And talking to him yesterday I want to say that he was not happy with his qualifying race, but he was very happy with his race balance. He felt that he had a car that was going to be good in the long run.

Vince, yes, and I echo what Tony was saying. As far as Kevin Harvick was concerned, he was very happy with his race car, it's been almost two years since he won, but Kevin believes he had a car capable of racing today and like what Tony said, Harvick said the effort classification was simply that he simply failed it, it wasn't like that. Drive it the way it was meant to be driven, but he really liked his race car. They didn't make any major adjustments on that first stop, not just some air pressure to help it drive a little better.

There he is sixth and in the leading group he has the leaders in sight, which is always a good motivator and kyle larson has surpassed his hendrick teammate, william byron, taking him to 17th place and that brings us to our combination correct metro, kyle larson, the crew chief of five teams, cliff daniels on road courses won this race a year ago won both stages led 57 laps actually won three of the last six races on road courses five in the top three in the last seven led every lap here in 2014 to win the ark of an art series in the west and think about this hendrick motorsports driver he has won at sonoma seven times those numbers and maybe some strategy other than cliff daniels could be the combination correct for kyle larson and his team of five to get their second victory in 2022. well, right now he is fighting martin truex, who is going to be a tough challenge for truex, one of the most successful road racers in this generation of Nascar.

You know, right now, Kyle Larson is in fifth place, of course, his teammate Chase Elliot is leading Chris Busher, but Larson is back up to 17th. Tony if they can somehow get into the top 10 or 12. I think they will have to opt for a different strategy. I don't think they can stay out there and try to win that stage, but I think they can come back into this game well. the closer they get to the front the harder it will be to get into that terrain, I mean the cars at the back of the group are fighting, the cars are not handling well, it's easier to pick those positions, you get to the top 10 now you're in a little more difficult company and you make those overtakes and you have to drive harder, you abuse your tires and brakes a little more, those are things and factors that are going to come into play when trying to get to the front, which is why Larson passed to truex and Now he sided with joey hand from sacramento alms champ le mans winner for ford uh with the gts dentona 24 hours of the ford gt program and he has done a very good job in this auto rick ware in sonoma, the second largest motor since the restart and tony I think Ford has loved working with many of the four drivers when it comes to road course racing.

Yes, he spent a lot of time with our four cars and drivers at shr. I met Joey at the shop, super nice guy and his resume of road course racing is incredible, that's why Ford holds him in high regard and the feedback he's been able to give our drivers and how he's been able to work with each one of them. Each driver has a unique personality, but Joey has done it. Great job working with our four guys. He has been a great help. A great help for our program. Now here's Larson looking at the outside crossover as we look at Tyler Reddick in fifth place.

I talked to Tyler a couple of years ago. and he absolutely dreaded going to road course races, but then he put a lot of effort into it and now he's fast every time we go to road courses, this team here, I talked to Tyler earlier this week, said if we could get the start. the middle and the end of a race together we can close this deal on a fast race car jamie little and larry you're right he used to hate road course racing but he said i'm over it mentally i told myself i was going to like that and I was going to work hard on it he went to school in the gym he went to school on all the notes and data and how to get better at this style of racing and he's really enjoying it now until this weekend he said they're in the stadium but they weren't very good in practice he's working on getting comfortable he definitely didn't feel comfortable in that practice session yesterday but he's holding his own in this race so far he reminds me of a guy named Earnhardt who wasn't much of a road racer , he ran away to the Bob Bondurant school and went to the chief instructor Bill Cooper and the most winning action that our driver of his generation told Cooper to teach me how to do this and Bill did and suddenly Earnhardt was a real threat when we hit the road courses here's Larson in Joey's hand on the

replay

, it wasn't easy, he had to work hard on that 15 car and that's a tough spot to get out of, that's literally coming out in turn seven with good momentum forward, Joey was probably like protecting the inside a little andKyle Larson is never afraid to go outside, as we all know, so he doesn't mind getting in there for Kyle Larson to make it into the top 15 with quite a different shooting strategy than anyone else in the top 20.

Chase Elliott leads to Chris Busher by three-quarters of a second after 39 laps at Sonoma. The laps are breaking down here towards the end of stage two and the nine-car chase to Elliott remains their leader. Oddly enough, though those nine cars look like they will. be the stage winner this season, we've only seen one second stage winner win the race and that was Kurt Busch in Kansas just a few months ago. Note whether or not Chase Elliot has a successful race or stage win. This will be a big day for Hendrick Motorsports as they approach their 100,000 mile chase, which is about nine laps away, or any Hendrick Motorsport driver is about nine laps away from leading this race to reach that milestone. for that team again. 100,000 mile lead for hendrick motorsports should be completed here in just a few laps and hra returns to sonoma next month the sonoma nationals are on fox sunday july 24 at 4 p.m. m.

Seven of the upcoming NHRA races are on Fox starting next week at Thunder Valley in Bristol, Tennessee, here they are. Upcoming races, how are Smoke and his associates doing this season so far? Alright, Matt Hagan driving our funny cars, leading the points I earned last week, so he has three wins this season and Leah's team is a new group that they are doing a great job with. making solid laps just haven't had much luck yet but it's coming I can see it on the horizon well we're looking forward to nhra on fox from a lot of these motorsports tracks like bristol sonoma and bristol I just can't. say enough about this 17 chris bush car he just won't go away i mean rated in the top five and right there on the rear bumper of leader Chase Elliott Vince Busher really doesn't have much road course racing experience he said he's No, you don't know, it's natural for him, but he works a lot with road course driving coach Billy Johnson, and he credits Johnson for improving his road course driving, the way he approaches it, the way he visualizes the curves, the breaking points, etc., and he said that has been the difference. manufacturer and why he's a more comfortable racer on road courses these days, well, it's a big difference before today in five starts at Sonoma, Chris Busher had just six total laps in a top-five position.

Big twist here, he won an xfinity road series. race in mid-ohio several years ago kyle bush since the restart he has dropped three places and I'm not happy with that no, I used to carry a card in my pocket what if the car was doing this? I just never had a car that gave me the answer to horrible and a joke, usually when you say that means your average car gets a lot worse when it's a lot worse than this, it won the truck race here yesterday, but currently, whether due to strategy or setup he's stuck at 26th yeah and he and kyle larson restarted together and your point mike 26 kyle larson has now made it to the top 15 14 in that five card justin haley we're looking at Here Justin is a kid, I'm very excited to see him, I like to see him every week, I feel like he's a driver that has a lot of potential, he just comes out, when he makes mistakes, they're learning errors, it's not because you drive him too much. , he just makes mistakes that you learn as you go, but he's been solid, I mean he was solid in the coliseum, he had a good run there and he's had some really good runs this year, I think he'll do really well, yeah, he got that third place on one of the most difficult tracks we go to. darlington several weeks ago ty dillon in turn 11 here just ahead of haley and kyle bush chasing elliott a second ahead of chris busher right now the five and nine you see compared at the bottom of the screen have combined to win 10 of the last 15 road course races and there is a comparison between them in this race right now, he is in the top 13, he is 19 seconds behind leader Chase Elliot and the window is closing and we are getting closer and closer towards the end of stage two and around seven. eight laps in, that's when you'll have to make that pit stop before they close pit road.

Well, I'm surprised that some of those numbers are so close because, uh, Elliot has been in clean air and Larson has been mostly in heavy traffic. Yes, and he has to, he has to use these tires a lot more, he can't afford to brake where he wants, accelerate how he wants, he has to take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to him now, Tony, take us for a ride. daniel suárez in a lap around sonoma here it is in turn two right there you often use many curves that that curb helps to plant the left side so that it gets stuck it receives a lot of load on the right there at the bottom of three and then you reach the complicated 3a, where there is a blind corner.

You have to get a drink and be able to accelerate hard again as you go hard up the hill, breaking into turn four, here it crosses. the curb that has cut the curve down, which is good, the cars are not bouncing downhill in turn seven, this is an easy place to lock the rear brakes, go straight to the curb, set the throttle hard to prepare here for The s it's very important to get the nose cut early here, get it to cut another one over the crest, get it to accelerate hard, carry a lot of speed through here to turn 10 and turn 10 is really critical for the transmission speed of the impulse.

You have to cut the nose, but being able to get back on the gas is one of the fastest sections here, there is a small slope when you get to 11. You can really take advantage of the break on that slope because it really loads the car and then it is difficult . so the tires cut and turn at 11 and it's hard to get it to accelerate forward coming out of the corner, you accelerate at almost 100 miles per hour from 10 to 11. Starting and finishing one here is really fun because it's a double apex and you have Go straight to that sidewalk on the left side to prepare for two very loose Daniels at the exit.

This horse has so much character that there is nothing simple about it, but when you get into the rhythm it is really a lot of fun, but you have to know how to handle the load when you are on a slope where you can load the tires and then on the ridge where you are going up On top of that and the car becomes light, you have to be able to modulate the throttle in those corners. A challenging but fun place to race as Chase Elliott leads Chris Busher by 1.6 seconds with nine to go in the second stage.

We will go side by side. The second stage quickly comes to an end. Here you saw 43 leave the runway briefly, not caring that he had returned. on the track and the green flag is still out. I want to point out that four from Kevin Harvey, although he is currently sixth here as we approach the end of stage two, Harvick knows what it takes to get a win here. He wanted Sunoco in 2017, but he's still looking to end that winless streak without having seen victory lane since 2020 and after finishing 33rd last weekend in the gate, he officially dropped out of the top 16 and is no longer eligible for the playoffs, so more teams are really looking to find victory lane here at some point over the next two weeks to solidify a spot here in the playoffs, as the end of the second stage.

I'll keep you posted from here on pit road, so 48 full laps. 10 Chase Elliott breezes by with the lead 1.7 seconds ahead of Chris Busher. There is a good eight second difference with Daniel Suárez who is no longer fighting against his teammate on the track for that position. This is what happened to Ross Chastain while he was trying to pass Suarez going on a four to seven tour diving downhill and you see the back end and you come out and that's just the rear brakes the rear brakes are stronger than the tire grip on At this point in the stage you just lose grip well, let's keep going and you hear that ratcheting sound, that's when, that's when those rear tires are chattering, when you hear that ratcheting very loud and once it starts doing that, it The only thing you can do to recover the tire is to release the brake, but you still have to do it. stop and make it your bumper here so it costs chastain three positions on the track suarez is third chastain remains in seventh just ahead of ryan blaming because redick harvick and mcdowell passed chastain as he was trying to right his ship and move on and we talked about how You have two teammates like that and the car that is second of the two is faster and why doesn't the teammate let the other buy the way the sport's etiquette has become lately is that no one works ?

Among them, no one is willing to buy and most of the time it is because the tires are so good that they simply do not fall off as much. We are in Sonoma. Tire wear has always been a factor here. Goodyear has done a great job of bringing a softer tire here that allows the camber to have a much larger window, so if you can be smart and this is where the older drivers are, you have a bit of an advantage. If you're smart, you can let a guy go here early. a stage where they are racing too hard and then they have better tires and they are going to make up those places and then something for sure, while hendrick motorsports has reached a milestone in

nascar

today 100,000 miles lead in the cup series first team to achieve that of course in the early days there weren't many four car teams, now it's the norm among the super teams, but a hundred thousand miles, that's a wave, congratulations, well they've led the 50 so far today between Kyle Larson . leading at 26 and now chasing elliott leading at 24. that number 24 led a lot of them mainly at the hands of jeff gordon especially on these road courses jeff was tough for the five on stage two larry what are we going to see for strategy here, yeah?

I have to believe now, as we have talked, that it will be very difficult to try to win the second stage and be prepared to win this race, so I would say that in the next few laps you will see some of these people. most of these drivers are starting to hit pit road and remember you probably want to do it in the with when we complete 52 if you're sitting in the back like mcdowell blaney back because they're 13 seconds or so behind leader Chase Elliott, but I couldn't imagine That Chase Elliott wasn't one of the ones to make that early pit stop, 10th place, Kazlowski and rookie Austin, Cenric, Martin Truax just made his pit stop, well, James smiles, I'm trying to get a lap lead further. of new tires on that 19.

Vince Boy Martin Truex Jr It's been a frustrating day I've been yelling at the radio I just can't get that car to react the way he wants without rear wheel drive I can't get it to turn off the zero drive. It's been a handful, so truax returns to the track in 33rd place out of the 35 cars still running. Bubba Wallace went out on lap 10 with an engine failure. I would say it's going to be very busy now that you see Tyler Redick in the eight cars that came to pit road and I would say that you will see a lot more, some of these cars remain in the pits on lap 22.

And I don't think you will see nobody try to stay out, mainly from the point of view that you're looking at, we're looking at the lap times here Kyle Larson's lap times are a second and a half slower than Chase Elliot's and he was the fastest car , the first in Jamie Tyler's rankings yesterday. A great moment almost ruined, it still qualifies, apt to show you how much speed that car has had. pretty decent today very quiet behind the wheel sounds like he's gotten a little more comfortable that was the concern ryan blaney 12 said last time just shot a little louder hearing that as the temps are fresher today after each stop.

The ambient temperature is stricter, 20 degrees colder than yesterday. Alex Bowman has problems with his launch. Keslowski and Chastain go up the hill together and that's not Kesalowski trying to take him up the hill. They are just cold tires that don't have grip yet. We're trying to push to maintain that position, here's your leader, Chase Elliot on pit road. This is a unique pit road because it's actually two pit roads, so with a kick in the middle, Vince well, that nine from Chase the Clean Air is king, but they've also had a very good race car since the beginning and you'll see, no adjustments will be made on those nine, only four tires, Chris Busher's 17, also very solid, looking for a little more spin, but otherwise, good problem for Jamie with the night ride.

It's trouble again for Chase Elliot. They continue working on the right side since Daniel's 99Suárez just wants the rear of the car to work better. He needs grip. We've heard that a lot, but the car has been Well, I've been in the top five. It's going to be a penalty. They worked on that car out of the box. They had to put it back in the box for it to be legal to do anything to that car. And what we saw, all four of us saw. The wheels went back into the box, but the nose of the car was over the line and that's what dictates it being out, so Elliot just tried to take off and they called a loose wheel and they stopped him, but even that front splitter on the nose of the car. it has to be behind the line to be a legal stop but if he had gone off course and lost that wheel it would have been a lot worse now that we have gone through green flag stops pit road is closed joey logano here at car 22 is the leader paul wolf says we can't win this race today we don't have a race car I have two wins let me get another playoff point and 10 more stage points and that's where everyone has to be, they have to play their game own strategy based on their circumstances the guys can take advantage of this as you said you're not going to win the race if you're not going to win the race it doesn't matter so save those stage points for the rest of the day.

Nascar has penalized the nine for stopping outside the box and also a penalty for Tyler Redick for entering his pit too quickly. You must maintain that speed of 40 miles per hour on pit road plus a tolerance of 4.99 miles per hour from yellow line to yellow line. uh, they were both in the top four at the time of that stop. Now the penalty for stopping outside the assigned box below the green is a passing penalty. He has to go down pit road. You don't have to stop, just maintain pit road speed. He gets back on track and the good thing about that is at least the field is limited now that we haven't had a yellow flag at this stage so that will save some of that but he's going to lose a lot of track position here, eighth car. tyler redick is slow he has a penalty for serving a penalty for a can of fuel for chris busher those are the first two before that pit stop cycle that had a problem on pit road in the first three cars yeah , who had a problem, that has been the story in The 2022 pit road has made a big difference, the good and bad pit road will be closed with two to go.

Now it's the last lap, so the pit lane closed can't serve that penalty with the pit lane closed, but there's one stage left. having to restart at the end of the longest line here we go joey logano is our second stage winner in sonoma there is a green box good work by eric almarola and chris busher it is logano's second stage win of the season daniel suárez and kevin harvick top five todd gilliland sixth another rookie harrison burton seventh Chase elliott michael mcdowell and ricky stenhouse get stage points joey legato stage winner oh stage two is complete here at sonoma

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joey logano is your stage two winner you may have heard on the broadcast they spoke to.

He and crew chief Paul Wolf were communicating with their driver saying we're not sure we have a strong enough race car here to get the win today, so let's go ahead and rack up some points. of stage. Joey already has two wins this season and by that nature is locked into the playoffs, so that's where stage points are crucial because, keep in mind, playoff standings are reclassified based on stage points when we start the start of the playoffs here in about 10 races, stage points have pretty much been the name. of the game, although Joey Logano is done, he has earned points in three of the last five stages here at Sonoma Raceway, so the 22 car again has a little bit of a different pit strategy than some of these other drivers who have their eyes set on victory.

In the lane we'll probably only be about eight or ten cars making it to pit road at the end of stage two here everyone else has already been under green here's the problem this is what happened with Chase Elliott come back come back come back come back come back allen just needed to say come back come back about two or three more times and he would have gone back to that box, yeah, and they did a great job of catching him before he got too far. great job stopping him but unfortunately he didn't get it back the rest of the way vince bien joey logano with a playoff position already secured they have been looking for a good point today and have scored the most points and then just got a tiebreaker point for this win stage, so it has been a great day for the 22 and it has been a good car.

I saw Todd Gill there who got stage points in fifth place. Now Busher crossed the line in third place, but because he was under a fuel penalty. can cast at his peak, he doesn't get third place stage points, which brings up the 99 and also includes Ryan Blaney and the drivers who earned stage points for stage two, let's mark the winner of stage two here with Joey Logano, look what he's doing, Hi, Joey. I'm tony stewart in the fox cabin you got me hey joey it's tony stewart the fox cabin you got us good let's try channel two that's why they give us two radios in case one doesn't work hey joey logano it's tony stewart in the cabin We You got, yeah, I got you, congratulations on that stage win, man, I know, as a driver, you understand the scenario you're in by getting buried here by not stopping towards the end, but you got those important stage points, So what's your strategy for the rest?

From time to time there is a way to go from here, but I like to call Paul. Can I think it makes sense to maximize our day here? But from a point of view, you have to take a playoff spot, whatever you can, so, I've got them on the bench, which is good, um, 19 stage ladders, which is also good and we're trying to bring the car dealer mustang back here. It's going to be a flying festival from here. I'm sure he says she'll stay. Pick up and move on to the other race and we'll be in the middle of the horses, so with this new car we know we've heard a lot of different brake and shift challenges and different shift points, what's the most important thing?

It's caught you off guard so far um I mean it's a different change point, it's still Sonoma Tony, not much has changed, although the car has changed, probably the most important thing is that you don't worry as much about the jumps. the wheels, you can afford to be a little. more aggressive without as much penalty if you make a mistake probably the most important thing to force you would be a little more aggressive of course it's okay buddy we know you can be aggressive when you need to so good luck to the rest let's see If you can put that up front, happy, I'll accept it, thanks.

It seems that Lagano will start from 24th place at the restart. Joey Logano, winner of stage 2. There is one stage left here at Sonoma Raceway for the Nascar Cup series and as you may have heard. They spoke earlier on the broadcast. This street track has not typically been good for rookies in the past, but keep an eye on Austin's number two as he is restarting this final stage in eighth position. Austin has a wealth of road course experience beyond that. only nascar stock car racing, he has raced in imsa, the pirelli world challenge, red bull global rallycross and even in supercars, in fact, he became the youngest winner in the entire history of the imsa series consistent with a victory in 2015 at the canadian tire moe sport park, so two cars from austin centric if ever there was a rookie who had a good day here and revolutionized the rookie results at sonoma, it's that guy, along with golf, auto racing They are the most difficult sport to broadcast on television and these are just a few of the names of the best. technical team in the business those who bring you nascar on fox every week and they do it with such professionalism and we are very grateful for their contributions for some of the special shots that we give you like this and they tell us that fuel can penalize chris 17 busher had been checked and voided without penalty for chris busher's team, but there is another problem here is jamie, well mike, this is the first time in today's race that we heard about tire problems.

Suddenly I heard all these different teams. I said we had some problems, so I came to see Daniel Suárez's 99. This is the rear left side. He's blistered all over. This is after 31 laps. They told him you won't have to do that. away again and we have two sets of sticky tires on Vince with Alan Gustavsson, the crew chief, uh, the nine to chase Elliot, what happened at that stop, Alan, yeah, you know, it's very hard to say, but for the video, the night did not attract you. I know Chad got into the nut and just didn't aim the gun, kind of stumbled a little bit and then didn't aim and you know there's really no way you can dial in and stop quickly so we went down and had to bring them back and unfortunately we didn't get back into the box enough and got a penalty, so unfortunate, we had a good race, the execution was good at that point, but now we find ourselves with a big hole so we can make it up. 34th penultimate here they come to the geico restart zone stage 3 will take us to the conclusion of this race 110 laps in total chris busher daniel suarez still side by side this can't last no, but it's important right now, I want I mean, it's if you can get that clean air like we saw earlier in stages one and two, that leader has a big advantage, they want to get it right now, Suarez goes out at four with leader Mcdowell to second Harvick looking in the fourth and Buscher takes goes wide.

Everyone's missing in the corner, I mean, that just shows how important this track position is going to be and these guys know us, they're trying to get there early while they have new tires, they're going to have to adapt and slow their pace down. Justin Marks This year's Burnsie Award winner presented today before the race, watching his driver Daniel Suarez trying to get his first cup series win, actually did the Race Hub show last Monday with Daniel Suarez and just he had self-confidence that he really was. I really want to come here to Sonoma. Kyle Larson went three wide and turned 11.

You don't see that often, no, but again, that shows how important it is to get this track position early. You have to take advantage of these resets. In a lot of corners, once it's sorted out, your lap times are faster, but on restarts the guys choke in front of you at different points on the track and you have to find unconventional lines to pass, guys. Daniel Suarez is a lone Camaro up front, look at the front six lined up right behind him, that was Kyle Larson who we just saw right there in the five cars, he finally made his way back into the top ten sitting in tenth place right now, the first Toyota Hamlin. in the 13th, a little blocking, Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain together.

Ross should have two sets of eyes that are seen most of the time moving around the court to block and Austin Dylan will mess with him more than once. It looks like there are two to your right. Now you're clear, that's Brandon Mcreynolds, Ross Chastain Spotter, he's got a lot of hungry dogs after him. Right now we're going to have an open three on 11 with Truex on the inside Chase Briscoe and it looks like Cole Custer took the worst of that. On the outside, I think a lot of people told these drivers, hey, this is the final stage we have to go through, now it seems like they were told there were three laps to go.

They feel invincible now that they have new tires on William Byron, inside Denny Hamlin and here let's go back to kyle larson and ross chastain and see what happened. bailey ross just blocks. The easiest way to stay ahead of a guy is to run a lap time faster than him, but unfortunately, Ross spends a lot more time looking in the mirror and moving around. just to put his car in front of everyone else instead of learning to go fast and he's fast enough to do it, he just has to psych himself up that he doesn't have to spend every lap changing lines to prevent someone talented from coming this way. .

Driver daniel suarez is ahead of michael mcdowell here by four tenths of a second suarez a member of the coca-cola racing family today i had a little fun with the daniel zamiko fan club here in sonoma well friends who I work in Sonoma, myself, Nascar espio motorsport and coke. -Cola has introduced the Hispanic Latin community to a sport of Nazca starting in 2018 we created the Daniels Amigos program to welcome the Hispanic Latin community to a sport of Nazca to have fun lots of food and me, those friends who have a lot of fun watching their Driver daniel suárez leads the coca-cola racing family with dylan 11. hamlin 17 and joey logano, the winner of stage 2 at 22. mike.

I know we have 47 laps left, but I go back to what you were talking about regarding the playoffs with 11 leftraces and the need to win. I look at our top six drivers, each of them looking ahead of that first win of 2022. That's right, Larry wins and you're in, but uh oh, the 77 around Josh Belicky and I think eight got a piece of that tyler reddick coming straight to pit road, Mike, we talked about that earlier, unfortunately, this is out of the playbook with this eight car in 2022. They were running for 30th there, Jamie, yeah, the 8 just came in . radio and said the car was doing something funny and then you saw that incident, he got knocked down and Tyler Reddick told the team right now that it broke, something broke in the eighth, maybe that's why he messed with Josh Bolicki, wow, so Bolicki had to turn. miss out on those Tom Cruise style thunder cloud days right there and they were both lucky not to have a major contact that could have taken them out of the race right there, well michael mcdowell hasn't made any inroads on daniel suarez's lead because he's got a mirror full of Kevin Harvick right there on the form.

We have a new group of characters that we haven't necessarily seen in the top three today. Daniel has been up there most of the race, but the 34 and the four that have been. The top ten have just been buying time here, they are in the last stage and from what Larry says, these top six need to win to make the playoffs, so there is a lot of motivation here, which is also interesting for you. I have daniel suarez in that chevy the next six drivers behind him are all blue forwards vince you know michael mcdowell one of the concerns and i think you just saw that there when kevin harvick completed the pass for second place about mcdowell, was that they had very good speed on short runs, but the question looming today in this race was what kind of race pace were they going to have, how would their car react on long runs and, certainly, to Blake Harris, the crew chief of Mcdowell's car, he liked him. to shoot and they like it in the short race, but he loses a little bit the longer the race is right now, he's a second and a half off the leader.

Veteran road racer and cup driver Michael Mcdowell and you heard Jamie Little's report a while back. most teams have two sets of sticky tires on, no matter what we know, they have to make one more pit stop. The question would be if we get that late yellow flag deep in the race. What do they do? I'm just thinking about the track positions right now. king, let's take a look at Kevin Harvick's day so far, it's like the elevation change of this racetrack, yeah, he's made very steady progress all day, as we mentioned at the beginning of the show, talking to him yesterday after of the classification, I was disappointed. in his qualifying run, but he felt very good about the balance of his race car in the race room, you can see the gap closing in with Kevin at 99.

He was about half a second faster on the final lap, chasing Elliott in 25th place after that problem. pit road now racing kirk bush who's had a pretty bad day here backing up to the right nine is just to his right 31 trying to go with him that's rick corelli bush spotter and you saw chase with his left hand out the window just waving he gave him he had a lot of room, he knew he was faster, that's the old etiquette we talked about before guys working each other. With 44 laps left in Wine Country, I had a couple of spins and some thrills so far only seeing minor contact between the nine. of tyler reddick and the seven of corey lejoy both cars now one lap down tyler won corey two curiously the only two cars that are not on the leading lap, of course, with the exception of bubba wallace's 23 that did not finish this race after a incident at the start of stage one again, interestingly the only car that had to take you back to the garage in a season where we have seen problems, some trends here on the toll road caused some problems, this race has relatively been quite clean so 41 laps left here's the rest of our Nascar technical team at Fox and our thanks for their great efforts in bringing these races to your living room each week with such professionalism and great camera angles, views, coverage and repetition of a lot of hard work throughout the week. from one track to the next, set it up and start again and we greatly appreciate all your efforts daniel suarez right in front of kevin harvick that suarez looking back at harvick and chris busher both a second off the leader, suddenly chris Busher, ran those first two, he's faster than Suarez and faster than Harvick right now and he's there, power move pusher for the second vince, well the team just got on the radio, uh, on the last lap and he told Chris Busher, hey, it's time to get some more. aggressive we can't lose sight of the leaders we have to be aggressive but we have to be aggressive now he's listening jamie well you guys have mentioned chris busher how great he's been since yesterday well the team owner and his teammate brad keselowski were a a little out of place A little yesterday they qualified in 22nd place, but what a comeback, Kesslowski is fifth at the moment.

He hasn't had a top 10 since the Daytona 500. He is in desperate times to get a good ending and so far so good. Great opportunity for the team. rfk this busher and keslowski race with 40 to go both in the top five now mike and tony with 40 to go the window has opened to get to the finish with fuel and we are not seeing the tires falling off but It's not so good that a tire falls off now, if you want to split this stage in half you have to do another 15 laps, but if you're willing to roll the dice you come here in the next few laps and in the perfect storm you get a yellow flag. and you will jump all these drivers who are in front of you because they will have to come to the pits.

What strategy beat you in that race here in 16? We pitted short about three laps before everyone else got it right and then the yellow flag came out. it was our only chance, I mean we were running, I think 22nd, right when Mike Booker Rabbits made that decision and we went out and then we got the caution that we needed and that set us up, so you made your own luck my mate crew chief made our I was lucky, I just had to continue the rest of the way. Good decision before that window opens. We'll take a short break here with Daniel Suarez leading Chris Busher, Kevin Harvick, Michael Mcdowell and Brad Keselowski, so the rider has less than 40 laps left to get here. at Sonoma Raceway and when you take a look at the racing order, you might be surprised to see that 15 Joey Hands are in the top 20.

Or maybe not, Joey Hand knows a thing or two about road course racing, he has an extensive resume in the IMSA series 20 wins in the Insta class including two wins at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. This is his second cup start of the season. He ran the other road race at the Circuit of the Americas and finished 35th, so he's already on par with his best finish of the season in two races again, that's 15th for Joey Hand who is currently running 19th. Daniel Suarez leads with 37 laps to go in Sonoma time for today's credit, one of the banks to watch out for Hey, I'm going to take the obvious, I'm going to take the guy who's been in the top five for the entire the race chris busher i think he's going to steal the show today here hey i'm not giving up on kyle larson he dominated the first stage and then got stuck in traffic again he's working his way up i think kylelarson the team of five is going to victory lane for the second time this season, yes, jamie daniel suarez has 194 career starts and is still looking for that first win.

He comes to Sonoma knowing that he really needs to win to get to these playoffs, I think maybe if he can do it. The right strategy regarding this next pit stop can seal the deal Michael Mcdowell led 34 laps last week at St Louis, that's four laps and he had led for an entire season earlier in his career, he is carrying that momentum here today, It is a good path. career racer and is proving it in Sonoma, he is currently fourth and looking for his second career victory. I like Mcdowell. I like the old one. Kevin Harvick won here in 2017, the year after Tony, who made me pick one of his cars because I can go. last pick every week i have a pick last dame harvick so that's a bank credits to take a good look the pit window is open there's Denny Hamlin and his teammate Kyle Bush is also in Vince What for Denny Hamlin has been a chore all day? long, super lazy all day, how's the 18th going?

Jamie, yeah, anyway Vince, it's been a struggle, he said how terrible it was from the start, they went out of sequence, took a set of tires here, made a little adjustment, said it just won't work. lap again these are two drivers two teams no, they had no cars, they could win this race by just going straight to their perfect world to Tony's point, while before a yellow flag comes out here in the next few laps everyone else will have to. pit, they hold up well on another new wrinkle, Tony Sunshine, now on at least half the track.

The first time we've seen that today, yes, and as soon as the track surface warms up, we saw some tire wear at the end of stage two, which could bring a whole new element to this game in this race. which we haven't seen practically yet the north end of the track is in pretty bright sunlight here came in martin truex made his pit stop they still have the six drivers up front, all looking for their first win of the season, so I guess If you're winning you're here at the supertracks, the road courses at the supertracks have become Nascar wild cards, where you don't have the usual suspects lined up out front.

The timing, that's what's interesting, Mike, you think about these 11 races left in the regular season, four road courses including today, and we know we're the end of the regular season at Daytona. I'll be honest, I'm nervous right now because it's a thing. When that crew chief pulls the pin and calls his driver right now? We know that new tires have speed. We know that will make you gain the gap, but you know that the more laps you give them, you will have at the end of the race. That's less tire you have left, so Bubba Wallace exited the race early on lap 10, engine trouble and Tyler Reddick took his car to the garage.

Vince, yes, Matt Dash, trying to make amends for this, but here's the problem with the eight for Tyler Reddick. screws removed from the rotor, you can see here where the screws have rested and actually broken in this particular hole, so that's the problem with trying to change the rotor, but obviously a very long fix for the eight and Tyler Ruddy and it's been a While since we heard that happened, it happened a lot at the beginning of this generation car, we're starting to see more and more pit stops. Here you can see the nine cars on pit road chasing Ellie making the stop for her.

Daniel Suárez exits The front has now led more laps in 2022 than in any previous season of his Nascar Cup career. Mike pointed it out. I find it interesting in the four Joe Gibbs Toyota drivers with that window open. All of them have now given. what could probably be their last pit stop and they really have nothing to lose, I mean it's a very calculated and smart decision. I mean, they have nothing to lose, they don't have the pace, they don't have the speed. short pit stops, they will get the advantage of new tires and lap time initially until this leading group starts to pit, well uphill to turn two for austin centric and ross chastain trying to get a look here and floating with the nose in the corner, both standing on the gas going out and what would happen to a car if we didn't touch someone at least in this transaction?

Just a push just to say hello, but that's the best thing about these bodies you can do. that doesn't damage its shape, Larry goes out to where you don't lose any arrows because it doesn't take away from the car's performance, I saw it from the first day, Tony, you made the collision with the bushes. back at the coliseum how durable this car is, especially when it comes to that body, is something you see there in turn 11, you see it holding a lower line at the exit, this track has a very worn surface, so What the natural line is to let the car open wide on the exit, the stones on the asphalt that are further down the corner have more grip, so as the tires wear down you can help yourself by tightening the exit of the curve, which I don't do.

I think it will help you accelerate, but you get better acceleration. There are 32 laps left here in Sonoma every week. Catch all the WWE action starting with Raw on USA Network on Mondays at eight Eastern and then Friday nights on Fox on the biggesteight o'clock Eastern sports entertainment. shows on USA Network and Fox, the Bella twins were here before the race and the grand marshals gave the order to get things started here, muscles bigger than us, that's not saying much to me, Tony, well, it would be natural if we said they had. More hair than you, how about Daniel Suárez? 18 laps around the head today.

He's been working hard trying to get that first win, which I guess has to be a little harder when your teammate has won two this year, but Daniel has done a great job. Today, at the end of the second stage, we saw him a little weak, he has done a great job, this step of taking care of his tires so far he has barely put a wheel wrong, there is that corner in the pits at turn 12 and the second group of pits where jamie little and ryan blaney are in 12 said he just couldn't pass out there wanted a tune up to help the grip of this car it's interesting with the sun now how the cars are changing the handling is changing a little bit They came for a little bit those new tires for Blaney, he pitted from sixth place.

Now here's Alex Bowman trying to catch Ross Chastain. This is for seventh place. Alex with that bright color combination. It's pride month. lgbtq plus paint scheme in honor of pride month on Bowman's car, been in the top 10 most of the day, had relatively soft hands there going through turn 10. A little chat and a chance, and As soon as he saw that door open, did you hear him press the accelerator a little? He is there, yes, all clear behind him. Ross did a great job. Ross knows Alex is faster. seeing more and more drivers come to the pits austin cendrick in that two cars he just came to the pits if I'm up there the 99 of suarez bush of the 17 harvick the four of them I want to be the first to come to the pits I don't I don't want to have to hold back breathing if one of those others enters the pits and gets burned by the yellow flag.

Kevin Harvick nearly overtakes Chris Busher for second place. You know that we have only had stage breaks. We haven't had a yellow flag since. Bubba Wallace again on lap 10. It was a very clean road race. I have a feeling it will change a bit towards the end of this. The closer you get to the end, the dirtier it will get, so here's the second one. and third place on pit road, vince, well the interesting thing is that they are in the pits next to each other so they can keep a close eye on whatever the other one is doing and right now they both like their cars racing cars only need a little. more stability and a little more handling, otherwise pretty solid, this is just a race of the pit crews, who will go first from the 17th.

Oh, and a problem for Rodney Childers' team, they have to go back to lift it up, that was probably the last pit stop, which would be the money stop due to lack of money, in this scenario there is approximately nine seconds of difference when leaving pit road, here Busher accelerates again and Harvick has just arrived to the yellow line and starts accelerating, that hurts and That's the car owner talking to Tony Stewart and Ross Chastain with a problem in his stop, let's take a look here, behind left, we have seen several problems and if it is the hub, the screws, the rotor, but we have seen several problems with the right one. the rears aren't tight here vince just four and gas for michael mcdowell crew chief blake harris told me before that if we give him a good enough car he's talented enough to keep it in the front which he's doing Today Jamie Daniel led 21 laps, they never left much before this race, a good stop, the guys did it with only four tires for 99.

That was a quick stop. Michael Mcdowell came out, Kyle Arson came in, Jamie and Kyle Larson in their box, and they were also working trying to come back, but it's been lower there in that tenth to eighth place, it can't really go anywhere, they work on the left side of Kyle Larson's car, is now down and away, so Brad Keselowski, who last led in the Cup Series three laps. In Las Vegas, the third race of the season, Kozlowski is in the lead. I saw Brad Keselowski drive for Team Penske several years ago in 2017, he raced as far as he could and now we've lost a tire and a wheel. no target in the center, Kyle Larson, so there's the second cause caution flag of the day, right in front of Kyle Larson from our drone camera above turn one and into two, oh wow, so soon as you fed the flywheel to the right output stage, Larry, this will turn out. in one of Nascar's most expensive sanctions for this team, yes it will be a four week suspension for crew chief Cliff Daniels, the jackman and the tire changer, so yes, I mean, I think this is the tenth of 2022.

So we have had some left rear issues now they are on the right front with Larson what is the problem with placing this wheel correctly on the hub and tightening the signal nut? Yes you have the drive pins and you have the drive pin holes and you have to line them up and if it doesn't seat completely the nut maybe tightens mostly but it won't be tight but now we'll say this we've had several issues as well in which the key to the jack is when Let's see how the tire changers return. We had a couple like Denny Hamlin in car 11 where the tire changer thought the nut had come off the socket and wasn't even installed and then he left and the tire fell off so a couple things happened with the lug unique, so Larson returns to the pits and the car practically runs on the friction blocks on the right front and stays in the race and on the lead lap.

Penalties will come after the race. You know, I said it. Cliff Daniels. I have a lot of respect for him. He tried to duplicate what he did a year ago and win that first stage, but it just wasn't in the cards and it went downhill. From there, take a look at it real quick, make sure all the nuts are working well. It makes us believe that Josh Belicky will get a free pass in this general election. The fourth yellow flag of the day for Kyle Larson when he lost a right front wheel, making it only the second.

Warning of the day due to the track activity we've seen here in Sonoma and that was a bit of an interesting moment given the way the green flag pit stops were going and it looks like Daniel Suarez's 99 is going to pedal . Now back in the lead, Daniel, still looking for his first win this season, is in a good position here as stage three is underway and, interestingly, has never finished in the top ten in four races here in Sonoma , but he hasn't finished worse than 17 either. So it looks like the 99 will lead the fields here on this restart as we finish this race here on stage three.

I love seeing all the families at this race and especially the kids wearing hearing protection. There's a little noise here, that's all. Part of the fun pit road is open with 26 laps to go and at least the first five cars had not yet been on pit road at this stage. vince joey logano with the alternative strategy today scored the most points, but he has been out of sequence and what? that's going to be enough for his chances of winning he likes his car they're having a problem on the left or the rear they finally settled it jamie and brad keselowski's six we just talked about the day he's had one that's been Four Tires, which had been delayed a lot, stop here just to help grip, is their biggest complaint.

Larry, I think there are more problems with the left rear this week than we've seen in any race this season, yes, and again, there could be a lot of things that you know we haven't seen. really isolated it to one thing, but the left rear definitely seems to be the common denominator. There are those dry holes in the wheel. 18 of them, six pins line up with a group of those holes. There are 25 laps to go. Daniel Suárez returns to the leadership. Well, after we finish here in Sonoma, Nascar takes a week off and everyone goes on vacation while we turn the coverage over to NBC Sports.

Thanks Mike, it's been amazing to see you in the booth this season bringing us all the great action week after week. I'm excited to get back in the booth when nascar returns to nbc just two weeks from now we will be live from nashville super speedway. I hope everyone tunes in to NBC on Sunday, June 26 at 5 p.m. ET as the race begins. to the playoffs continue now let's get back to the action here it's normal thanks junior we will look forward to it and today's big announcement is that the busch light crash will return to the historic los angeles memorial coliseum on february 5th at fox ticketsfor this event of season opener going on sale in early August, visit nascarclash.com or use that QR code on your screen to register for an exclusive pre-sale offer later this summer for Busch's clash of lights.

There are 25 laps left until Daniel Suárez is in front. We'll take you to Fox side by side, there will be 23 laps to go when they come back, the first four drivers, all trying to win their first race of the year and in one case, in the race, that's Suarez, your leader, then Buscher Blaney and Mcdowell Kyle. bush leads the gibbs cars which are short and are now fifth ninth, 11th and 16th in taking advantage of those new tires in that short period of time which definitely paid dividends especially for kyle bush you heard daniel suarez team let's move on in the game, we are here for you, you have this man, they are trying to make that 17 appear. they are better than him, let's find out that suarez on the outside is on the inside, uh, inside the court, only the leader gets the lane. election on road courses here they reach the restart flag it will be 23 to go mcdowell going for second is a big jump from daniel suárez he must love seeing that in his mirror absolutely fine buscher prevails while they ordered kyle busch in single file with a movement towards the inside, Harvick isn't going to get there as he fights Bowman and they trade some three-wide paint coming into turn seven, oh, Kyle Busch locks the rear tires, spins Bowman with him, we're green, boy , this is the place where your feelings are going to hurt and your fenders are going to hurt, yes, it's feast or famine, unfortunately, I mean, when you have a good day, it's a great day here, but when you have a bad day, usually You leave here quite upset, it's already solved. now but let's turn seven kyle bush back inside bowman and it'll be three wide coming into the corner with briscoe but kyle bush is around as briscoe goes inside and bowman ends up outside and i think that's a perfect example. what those new tires are versus old tires, you know Rowdy is going to sit there and get everything he can get out of it.

He had more brake and more flair than his tires had at the time, everyone else is on newer tires and alex bowman does a little farm racing to get back on track, yeah he's back to 28th right now in that car 48 and Kyle Bush is back in 32nd, 29 laps off the lead after this, it was self-preservation, drove him out of the Furrow even further to make sure he didn't make contact with 18. Alex has been doing a lot of drag racing of land speed, so he is the one who goes off course. He's one of the guys I'd bet my money on if he has to go.

Daniel Suárez had a little wheelspin in turn 11 and that caused Buscher to come back to him in turn one uphill to turn two, Larry, I think with 21 left to get here, I don't think you're going to see these guys . holding something back I think they're going to use everything they have every lap yeah there's no stopping now whatever it is one thing Harvick is using is that bumper he just collided with Cendrick at the top of the hill, this is for 5th place, 3rd now down. the hill to four, well kevin is trying to recover from the problems they had on that last trip to pitt road with that pit stop, there's your xfinity, fastest last lap, chris busher, faster than harvick suarez in third place, then brisco and mcdowell, briscoe currently seventh mcdowell in third vince How about Chris Busher?

Well what a great race it is for Buscher and you know it's interesting even though this track is nothing like Watkins. Glenn Buscher told me this morning that they did a tire test at Watkins Glen a few weeks ago and he said we learned. something about road course racing in our package we made a change for this week and it really worked it brought life to our car so it's interesting with this new car it's a constant learning process even if you're on a track of racing that looks nothing like the one you're actually racing, I don't know Tony, one more lock in turn 11 for Suarez and Buscher they may have the advantage here, yeah, I mean, if he keeps doing that, eventually definitely youIt will take its toll, not like this. up front Austin Cendrick is having a very strong day for fifth place rookie Jamie it really is Mike and every time Austin Cinder goes to a road course you always count it but it wasn't easy starting yesterday and practicing qualifying just went disconnected, especially on the right. -The runners started this race in 25th place, they have simply been working on it, baby steps, were their words and now they are in the top five.

He hasn't finished in the top five since he won the Daytona 500. You know, Mike Sonoma can be tough on rookies. The rookie has finished no better than 15th in the last 11 races here. Wow, that's a tough track. It's like we've talked over and over again. This is a groove track. You have to have rhythm and you can run. As many laps as you want in a simulator, but nothing is going to be better. Get real track time here to get that rhythm going. I'll tell you what, Tony, if Daniel Suárez slips that much on a front or rear tire.

Chris Busher is there ready to pounce. that's 17. I don't know Larry Suarez is driving the race of his career, other than that occasional lockup in 11, he's barely put a wheel wrong and whether I'm Chris Bush or I'm trying to look right now and I'm trying to figure out where Daniel is strong and where he is weak, but your best corners and your best opportunity in the braking zones or turn four, turn seven and turn 11. So to be good there you have to be good in 3rd gear, you have to be. good at turn eight and good at turn 10 to get the driver into the braking zone where you're close enough to do something that's Daniel's busher radius within a car length when they get to turn 11 The last time we saw Buscher he was on his roof.

It took him eight minutes to fix the car. Get him out of there. He was not injured in that accident, but later missed a week due to the Covet protocol. Fifth place. Harvick on the outside in turn one if he can stay. there, he's in a good spot for turn two, he's there, he passes these cars. I don't remember ever being at Sonoma and seeing two wide races from turns one to turn two like we were on different sections of the track than ever before. It worked, the inside guy always prevailed, but I've seen more side-by-side racing in the corners and guys that were able to hold on and I think it's a testament to this new car, this new car has been perfect for road course racing. and we have six of them this season 18 laps to go daniel suarez with a small margin over chris busher is once again we take you to fox side by side the laps are going down here in stage three at sonoma raceway and it's 16 from aj almandinger just break into the top 10.

Surprisingly, we also heard him complain early in the race about not having power steering or perhaps not surprising considering Aj Almandinger's resume on road courses, he has two cup series wins throughout his career. race, both on the road. courses watkins glenn in 2014 and then last year for the first time on the independent road course, this series is a regular in the xfinity series until 2022, two wins there as well this season again both on the road course of America and simply The end Last week at Sonoma, 16 cars are in the top ten right now, as stage three is quickly coming to a close on the final lap and a half.

Daniel Suarez has increased his lead from one car length to about six car lengths, which on the track is about three quarters of a second michael mcdowell ryan blaney kevin harvick today are the lap leaders led by suarez Chase Elliott currently on eighth place Kyle Larson in 18th uh who lost a wheel Joey Logano in 26th and Chris Bush of course in second place just a few car lengths away leader william byron putting pressure on elliott there are your leaders heading to turn 11 which has been a problem spot for suarez busher wins it every lap there now right at the end of the top 10 aj almandinger who previously reported no power steering but vince is holding up well i will tell you what a battle it has been, they put a little bit of power steering fluid in there, but he said it didn't really help much, he just dealt with it and, you know, there was this guy who was bad all week before the race, which makes it even more difficult for a small guy and small in stature, but he's gotten stronger and delivered here today, well, share that journey with daniel hamrick and noah rex on it.

The car running the full schedule earned its first top 10 of the season at St. Louis last week and we're watching it in the car. I'm looking at the top of his shoulders. If his arms start to get tired. to see him raise his outside shoulder in whatever direction he's turning, he looks like he's pretty comfortable, I mean he's doing a great job of not having power steering right now, he looks pretty comfortable, the other guy looks pretty comfortable and also leads this race. Do you know what you were talking about, Mike? He loses almost everything going into 11.

But he looks at what he gains at the start, he takes it all back, so it's kind of tricky, I mean, you'll have such a big, long braking zone where the speed goes from so high. at that low and then reverse in the opposite direction as they come out of the corner and you drop at over a hundred miles an hour between 10 and 11. and maybe it's just a case of suarez not wanting to overuse his brakes or his tires coming in there, especially if He knows He can come out of that corner and retain the lead and has enough room now that He needs everything to be in front of Him.

If I am the observer of him, I tell him that you are not being pressured. from the back, everything is in front of you and let him run his lap if for some reason his pace is slower than Buscher's, then the spotters got a call and said, hey, we're going to have to speed up a little bit, but the best What Daniel Squares can do right now is focus strictly on his car and his pace, running his lap the way he wants to run it at the moment. A huge gap of about eight car lengths into turn ten.

Busher closes one and then as he brakes it closes. three more but here's this front bike tightening up and pulling away again so how maddening it must be if you're chris busher right now you can get so close it's a false sense of security unfortunately you get there you get to the corner. Okay, I just made up a lot of ground and then as soon as he comes out of the corner you think I've lost it all. Vince, well, Tony noticed that Suarez is pulling away from Chris Busher in the corners and that has been the problem.

Busher spends all day saying that when the tires start to wear out it's very difficult to maintain forward momentum, that's what they've been trying to work on all day, but Busher just needs a little better handling, he says, if he goes to catch up with Suárez. and Tony driving like he's coming out of Turn 11. That speed goes all the way up the front stretch, up the hill into Turn Two, but if he's having trouble with that right now, chances are he's not going to get any better, so if you are daniel you just have to run at your own pace, if you are chris you have to take care of it as much as you want, try to push to close that gap, maybe in these next 10 or 12 laps, maybe daniel's car will start to lose momentum forward. so you can't, you can't push too hard and make your problem worse, you have to sit there and run at the capacity that the tires will give you right now. 13 years left in Sonoma.

I want to thank our entire Fox Nascar production team. starting with producer barry landis director artie kempner pitt producer pam miller with darren foster eric mandia andy jeffers here at the race information booth with all our statistics and everyone who helps us present this race to you on a weekly basis it's our job, but it's a labor of love for everyone involved and we appreciate all your efforts and Tony, I know the weather has changed, we talked about the sun coming up, but if this stays green the length of this race will be the same as that race.

We did that in stage two, where we did not take caution, if you remember, Daniel Suárez had problems with blisters on the rear tires, so it will be important to stay there and you will not be able to handle it now, but you have the ability if you push. too hard to create a problem that doesn't need to be there right now let's get an update from the leaders pit here's jamie I'm telling you this is the quietest I've ever heard on the 99 radio mic he hasn't said much absolutely. He is focused and driving the race of his career and you just saw his stats.

He has been in the cup series for six years. He won the Xfinity Series championship. He was promoted to the Cup. He has jumped to several teams and never found a place. He never landed in victory lane one. What he's done this year is find a home in track racing and today maybe he'll finally break that winless streak and go to victory lane for the first time and there's that grandstand full of Daniel's friends that they love. spoke before. in the transmission they don't miss a turn and he goes up that hill, well, you won't meet a better guy.

We were honored to have Daniel drive our car. Stewart Haas Racing and just a great kid happy to have come to another house that he is happy at the moment and no one deserves it better than him or chris busher at this moment both boys equally deserve this victory his enthusiasm is really contagious must love him here at sonoma because there are more unrestored volkswagen bugs here in sonoma county than i think anywhere else in the united states, so just driving around looking for restoration candidates probably makes veteran road racer michael mcdowell of glendale smile, arizona, and had a lot of success at one point could have been on the road to Indy, but found a home in Nascar and the cup series and a Daytona 500 winning driver with a lot of ability on the road courses and currently in third place with a six pack, we'll do it here. fifth place teammate cendrick and blainey i will say something about penske drivers from three teams when it comes to competing with other drivers they don't discriminate no matter if it's a teammate or not well let's show them that pass again from above and that It's something that Austin Centric has excellent road course experience and he's really good at braking, we saw it at the coliseum, we've seen it in all the road course races, he knows how to stop that car and he knows how to maximize the braking ability. right, christopher bell and denny hamlin larry have come to the pits, yes, and I haven't, because they pitted basically on lap 74, lap 75, so there was 25 or 26 laps to go, so this is just a stop in the pits desperate.

Here, well, three of Joe Gibbs' four cars are in the 29th to 32nd positions right now, leaving Curt or Truax as the leading Toyota in 13th place, and finally, I want to thank the 20 guest analysts who have been at the nascar booth on fox this year joining clint bohr and me tony with the most appropriate appearances so you should start the season for us uh and finish it finish it uh here at the sonoma course uh flint was scheduled to be with us this weekend he is attending to a personal matter Larry Mcreynolds was kind enough to step in, but it's been great to share all the different points of view and experiences of all the people who have been kind enough to come and spend time with us.

Well, everything about him is very easy. to work with you do a great job barry pam hardy all of you in the booth you all are using electric cameras everything do a fantastic job and it has been an honor to do this with you we love this sport and being able to Cover it with you and bringing it to the fans is something I've done. I've had a great time doing that with you this year. Well, thank you, we have certainly enjoyed having you and all the guests who have joined. We and Mike have enjoyed the opportunity to come back and work the booth with you.

You and I were at this same booth 21 years ago to finish our first year of Nascron. Fox in time flies. Larry. It's still very fun. new stories like this group here, these four drivers at the front of this field, if any of them could take the checkered flag for their first win of the season and most likely punch their ticket to the playoffs of the daniel suárez cup series leading more laps here than probably in his old race 39 so far jamie in front with eight to go yes he's in front you know what he has a lucky charm today an honorary friend of the trackhouse team little six year old kinsley she's fighting, it's brain and spinal cord cancer, she's having surgery this week, but in the meantime she's here with her whole family, they met this morning, they were at our pre-race show, look at kim, for Please smile, very excited to be here supporting Daniel Suarez and maybe even Going to victory lane here in just a matter of laps is a great story, but to do it, Daniel Suarez will have to run seven more time trial laps here to stay in front of Chris Bush.

Well I thinkthat Chris has to race the time trial. span daniel just has to run seven easy laps like he's been running this whole period if he can do that he's in a good place right now they mirrored each other's lap that time but the two laps before that daniel were maybe about two two and a half tenths faster than chris bush and michael mcdowell and kevin harvick are three tenths of a second faster than both of them but they're still a little bit behind here and we're listening to daniel and jamie mention that they haven't been talking much to him on the radio, this is one of those scenarios where you just want to let the driver drive, I mean there's nothing he's doing that needs any more input than what he's already doing right now, so let him stay . focused, letting him stay locked up, don't tell him anything to distract him in any way, he, he, he's doing his job right now, frankie, please, whatever you get from travis smack to frank kimmel ii, the watcher, just talking of that car back in front of you.

You've got the job, we hire you because you know what to do, go out and do it, that's right, that's right, I mean, and he's doing a great job right now, there's nothing that the crew chief there's nothing that the spotter goes to do. is going to help you at this point with the lap traffic coming up, that spotter is wandering around trying to find those cars in front of him and trying to get help from his spotters to say "hey we need a break" here we are leading this . Can you give us some space when we arrive?

A difficult day for Martin Truex. His position now matches his car number, as Eric Almarola and Alex Bowman simply passed by Truex, as did their teammates who returned to pit road the only way this play works . for them it's that if we've run enough now, if we get a yellow flag, maybe it will force a lot of the other cars on the lead lap to come to the pits to get four new tires, yeah, that's a great point, I'm saying that in serious again. They have nothing to lose before, that's why they pitted in the first place and this means we've run enough in the race at this point that with five to go, you'll have six or five left if you get a correct caution. .

Now you're probably going to force these guys to make a pit stop, but the way pit road went today I don't know if I'll have to take advantage of that opportunity. Tony, if I'm in the top five or six, much like St. Louis, my pit stuff is done for the carrier. The friends are just outside turn one and Suárez looks and goes up the hill. Five are missing. You put three. The tents above him are a sea of ​​red and that's good information. Chris Pusher is now 2.3 behind. I think Chris threw everything he could at it, but his car just isn't there.

It's just not as good as that 99 car so far into the race. I agree, you wonder. If he could have been behind, what would the circumstances have been, would the end result be the same? Would his car have crashed at this point in the race or would clean air have mattered? But Daniel did a good job and especially at the end. In the second stage I thought he was going to have a big problem and in this stage he has done a very good job taking care of him every time we see him he doesn't spin a wheel, he is at the entrance, he is solid at the exit. he's not letting those tires slip away.

Such good things that have happened to daniel suarez uh this weekend kinsley wilkerson jamie told that story kinsley riding in daniel's car daniel's friends here had a big party before the race and they are at the hillside uh his girlfriend Julia Piqué has been looking for a particular car for her daily driver. I've been trying to help daniel find a porsche 912, one that was made at the beginning of three specific model years, they found one this weekend, so, and justin. mark the owner of his car got the burnsie award this weekend I guess that only leaves one thing and he's three and a half laps away from closing the deal there isn't a long list of foreign born drivers who won in the series Copa Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 when Pablo Montoya Earl Ross of Canada one at Martinsville and Marcus Ambrose of Australia at the speedway and that Juan Pablo Montoya victory right here in Sonoma 2007 Canada's only tower of the year to win a race here in sonoma you already know this track team of course, the team itself is only a couple years old, there's the car owner, justin marks, and all of these drivers in 2016 were competing against each other in the xfinity series. yeah what justin has done putting this program together is remarkable and i say all of them including justin who raised some for chip Ganasi and ended up buying Chip Ganasi's nascar operation so far so far so good for that go around I think he's winning time for 34.

You will have one more last car, which is 78. That will be Scott Heckert in front, who is it. one lap away from the leader, the last car on the lead lap, who thought we'd say Denny Hamlin's name in that context today? you exactly know that he shouldn't catch up to denny hamlin because denny hamlin has very new tires at the moment so other than he has a pretty clean track in front of him, meanwhile in 7th place chase elliot tries to keep ross at bay Chastain, here it comes and they're standing again in turn one, I don't know if that group can last much longer. laps they keep start jumping higher and higher each time with two to go it's a local track for justin marks the owner of daniel's team grew up here in the bay area and mike tony will know.

I speak from experience of being able to win in In this race, yes, you have to do the last lap in the 11 corners, but the flag you want to see is the white flag because you know that when you see it, the next flag ends the race, that's right With the gap he has, he gets up early. easy on the throttle, do everything you can to not make any kind of mistakes, he just has to keep doing what he's doing right now and he can back off his pace, make smooth, consistent laps right now and he'll be in good shape oh. no almandinger oh here he is coming back I think it's turn three but that's why you want to see that white flag like that that's exactly why aj came down to turn three well he got off yeah he took out the right sides from the ground, but it restarted and there's the white flag sponsored by Credit One Bank waving over Daniel Suarez, okay, white, black, about a four-second lead, five seconds, you had one coming back here at the top of 3a, take your time here, you have no pressure, that's very good. information, I wonder if that address was just blocked in almond or something had to happen there.

I think he just got the right sides in the dirt here. The good thing is that Daniel passed through that section and he doesn't have to worry about it anymore. to put in another solid half lap here and get this win under his belt, he's almost five seconds ahead of chris bush and that's 17 right now, so team owner justin marks, as we mentioned, a native of the area from the bay, his father, michael, marks there in the pit with him waiting for what would be the crowd of the new winner of the nascar cup race until turn 10 for the last time, headed to the hairpin and home, well , the fox season opened with pitbull giving a concert on the coliseum race track, it is a partner team track. house and until turn 12. daniel suárez is a nascar cup winner.

He must love it when the nice guys finish first. Absolutely, you won't find a better guy who's always smiling, no matter what's going on, he's always smiling, he's always looking at the positive. and that effort definitely paid off today, he's fine, he goes find her and gives her a win. Live, man, the 30-year-old from Monterey Mexico earns his first Cup Series victory in his 195th start and becomes the fifth non-U.S.-born driver to win. In the Cup Series, he is the fourth driver to earn his first career victory this season and Ross Chastain cheered him on a game-winning shot from Chase Elliott.

I don't think there is a driver in this series who doesn't like Daniel Suárez, this is exactly a feeling. -Good story for this whole series for me, it's a great motorsports win, but it's a great sports story at the end of the day, Chris Busher is second by 4.9 seconds, Michael Mcdowell third, Kevin Harvick fourth rookie, Austin centric, fifth, Ryan Blaney, sixth, Chastain, seventh. Chase Elliott eighth William Byron Brad Keselowski completes the top ten. It's fun to watch. Everyone on the field is slowing down to congratulate him on the final lap. That's what he's looking at to the right.

All his fellow competitors congratulating him. All with a slow. down and a wave there's curt bush what a weekend for the track team what a season vince justin marks t-motor wow can you put this into words like this? This one's hard to put into words you know daniel daniels as far as travis mack um helped build Track House and they've been working so hard together they've been so focused and dedicated trying to get into victory lane. The only car to win two races this year was tough for them, but they never gave up, they knew they deserved it. be in the victory and I am very proud of them and happy for them, congratulations, the whole team is on the wall in front of Daniel now that 99 is going to burn him, they just told us the element in front of the divider. the car was a taco, that's awesome, looks like Justin Marks is going to jump right into the car, well he owns it, he should do it.

Daniel's longtime girlfriend, Julia Piqué, his brother drove in Nascar, his father drove in Formula One, I mean, a big racing family, the young man from Monterey. Mexico started their races, came to the United States with Nascar dreams and now that dream has come true, this will be a celebration in victory lane that we won't forget for quite some time, it will probably last quite a while, so in Kansas it was in He came to dinner with us and yeah, it's a piñata, that's what it is, we talked over dinner about what he wanted to do, what kind of celebration he wanted to have when he first won and he says, you know, how about a piñata? ?

Did I like that better than watermelon? At least we can pick it up and eat what came out of the piñata there. It's already been quite a celebration and Daniel Suárez since you won your Xfinity Series championship it's been like that. a long road here in the cup series different teams a lot of angst how can you put into words the race you had today right now standing here it's crazy jamie i have so many thoughts in my head right now it's been a tough day, it's It's been a tough ride in the cup series and these guys believe in me, dragon racing, justin marks cynoris, everyone who helped me get to this point, you know, a lot of people in the gym in Mexico were all heaven from Slim, my family, you know, they never, ever gave up on me, a lot of people did, but they weren't very happy to be able to make it work.

I mentioned different athletic teams, it just seemed like magic. From the moment you started together, what has been different about this team for you is the energy. They believe in me since they won, you know, they believe in me and they put all the people, resources, everything to make this happen. Check out everything we have from Danielle Samino. there daniel talk to those friends there and all the friends watching at home on their couch tell them in spanish what you're feeling right now i'm sorry for what you said this is the first of many daniel suárez wins his first professional race in sonoma daniel suarez travis mack and his entire team have a celebration that could last a couple of days here you know, there's an open test day on wednesday at the track i hope they're done by then there will be a lot more to come from sonoma as we break it down big Daniel Suárez's victory on the road course here.