2001 Pepsi 400 from Daytona International Speedway | NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay

and now, the most famous words in motorsports, the grand marshal of the 43rd

pepsi

400 at

daytona

, miss britney spears, oh the roar, you hear 43 Winston Cup engines coming to life, the roar, you feel the strong heartbeat of 180,000 fans, the next step in the

race

to the championship is about to begin and it is my pleasure to introduce you to the three men who will take you from the green flag in Daytona to the checkered flag in Atlanta Alan Bestwick Betty Parsons and Wally Dahlenbach. Thanks Bill with Benny, the winner of the 1975 Daytona 500. and wally dahlenbach, who has run about 226 winston cup

race

s, including just three weeks ago at pocono and wally, when I think about tonight's race, The words intense and moving come to mind, what do you think? there are a couple more stressful this is one of the most stressful In the races that we run all year round you have the fear factor, fear of the big accident, you have frustration, frustration at being stuck on that line that doesn't move and, hope

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y, in Somewhere along those 400 miles, you can have some fun, Benny. the drivers all day have been talking about the big accident capital b capital w what is the big accident every time you come to Daytona Talladega and these cars with six youth groups we will see 43 cars race together and when that happens, if something happens in in front of you you can't avoid it here Tony Stewart gets caught by Ward Burton up by Robbie Gordon these guys behind down across the grass they're trying to avoid it but you just can't you're running too fast these cars are too close together that's the big accident , you see them all there together, that's going to happen any day now, alan 19 cars out in that one that happened with just 27 laps left in the Daytona 500 in February and the closer we get to the end of the race the more likely it is there's a chance of a big crash the sights, the sounds, the adrenaline rush that is

nascar

at

daytona

, then the green flag starting lineup for the 43rd

pepsi

400, coming soon to nbc, coverage is brought from nbc's pepsi 400. for you by pepsi the choice of victory lane by dodge and almost 3,000 dealers who invite you to come see what's new buy kellogg's the official breakfast of

nascar

and by budweiser with the fresh, clean and refreshing taste you won't find anywhere else beer in this bud's for you some 180,000 fans are packed into the daytona

international

speedway

waiting for the start of the 43rd edition of pepsi 400, taking to the track for a couple of laps before the green flag appears budweiser, beer official of nascar, is the proud sponsor of the bud paul award given to the fastest qualifier in each nascar winston cup race this week it was sterlina marlon who took his eleventh pole position nine drivers in a budpoll award in 15 attempts this season will be in the shootout duel in 2002 since 1979 anheuser-busch receives more than seven million dollars its main sponsor of the nascar survey awards program 43 drivers are preparing to do it in the pepsi 400 why don't we take a look at the walmart outlet grill? sterling marlin his 11th pole position leading a sweep to avoid the top four places Warren Burton was running strong in the Daytona 500 until he was eliminated in a late-race crash inside row three Jeff Gordon, the leader of the Nascar mustache points standings, won the Pepsi 400 twice. inside row 7 john andretti the winner of the pepsi 400 in 1998. mark martin is one of five drivers who can earn a million dollar bonus with victory tonight kevin harvick first start for rcr daytona jeff purvis big race of qualifying and only his second winston start of the season in the cup is in row six dale Earnhardt jr goes from 13th finished second here in february in the 500 will be the sentimental favorite to win and dave marcus, 60, makes his 63rd start at Daytona tonight from the outside of row nine bill elliot says his team gave up speed and qualifying for race comfort and trying to win the race dale jarrett won this race two years ago is second in the championship behind jeff gordon ricky rudd one of the best drivers on the circuit right now makes his 50th start at Daytona tonight, but has never won here.

Daytona 500 winner Michael starts in 22nd. Rusty Wallace returns to row 12 along with Mike Skinner in row 13. It's Rockingham winner Steve Park. He has to come from deep down the field along with the 94 Pepsi. The 400 winner, Pennsylvania Spencer's Jimmy Spencer, starts in row 14. And on the inside of row 15 is Terry Labonte. He is a two-time champion of the series. He was fast in practice last night. He will have to be from that place. Jeff Burton, the defending winner. of this race, both gibbs race cars will start way back, bobby labonte in 33rd place and tony stewart in 36th place.

Now the drivers who got provisional spots to enter the field were not fast enough to qualify in time. Johnny Benson led this race late last year. and his teammate Ken Schroeder try to negotiate traffic together from row 19 and row 20. and we look at the rest of those who got their points, Mike Wallace returns to the wheel of Jim Smith's Ford Taurus and Brett Beaudian got the final point starting out was a nervous nervous man walking at the end of qualifying here yesterday look at those who didn't make it ron hornaday and aj point the car is not here buckshaw jones ran very hard in practice it just didn't work when he needed it to and in qualifying, he is among the five who will watch this race instead of being in it.

Daytona Speedway track description. Look at the lake you're looking at behind the graph. All the land that used to be where the water is now was used to make the 31st degree banking of this race track that is about four stories high from the bottom to the top, these race cars move it at about 190 miles per hour and there you can see the 31 degrees and these cars go through there now the analysis of the race and the key The number in this will be the pit window 50 to 55 laps for fuel. Some guys tell me they can only run 50 laps if they can't do it, they have to stop three times.

Guys who can run 53 laps can do this race in two. stops if you pass the green flag to pit road here's Bill Weber thanks Alan this track is two and a half miles long and there will be a lot of wild action on the big track but check out the pit stalls on Pit Road It's just over 15 feet wide and just over 29 feet long and there will be plenty of wild action there too. Who has the best pit stall? Well, pit stalls are selected in ranking order, so the argument would be that Sterling Marlin has the best pit stall you want, easy in, easy out, it has both and you have to watch the timing line.

In order not to receive a speeding penalty, the checkered flag falls on the track, but here at Daytona the race can be won in the pits. way here's dave burns bill we haven't talked about the race's defending champion jeff burton yet, remember he and his Roush stablemates have gotten more horsepower out of their R&D department since the Texas race of this year, they're going to look strong and, uh, Mark Martin. and jeff burton are also in the noble five program, so let's talk about incentives, an extra million dollars for those two. We went with marty dave last friday.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. actually became the man of the Earnhardt family when he walked his sister Kelly down the aisle. his wedding a job that was originally scheduled for his father now on the track that claimed his father's life dale jr looks to take on another role becoming the man of the winston cup series at daytona he has a fast car enough experience and this night most likely a little help from above, can Del Junior dominate Daytona like my dear father used to? Only time will tell, but tonight you could be off to a good start for Matt Yoakum.

Marty Ward Burton will start the 22nd car from second position. He is vying for restrictor plate redemption. He led. most laps of the season opening the Daytona 500 only to crash while leading at Talladega, lost the lead and the race when he missed the pits, says he feels it's his turn, what better way to get his first win in the restrictive game of the winston cup that here in Daytona, his best result was seventh three times, that is in the last three pepsi four hundred, he feels that tonight is his turn and this could be his best opportunity, alan approximately half a lap of the start of the pepsi 400, those elusive nine in the field.

They're very focused towards the front of the pack, Dodge hasn't won here at Daytona since the 19th of 1977. Tonight, Benny, I think it could be, I really think it will be because Sterling Marlon Ward Burton has two really fast cars in the 500 from Daytona and I don't. I don't see why I haven't seen anything that tells me they've slowed down something. One of my favorite parts of these night races here in Daytona. The flashes explode from the stands in this last lap. All the fans take their photographs of the moment. and for these drivers, Wally, your last moment of peace and quiet is about to get very tense, yes, the hornet's nest is supposed to open here, just a second, it will be great, your thoughts, you're in turn three , you're inside the race cars, they're what you know, it depends on where you are, but I actually prefer to be outside here in the outside lane just because when you come out of turn two everyone's going to start diving down. the bottom so you have to protect your line so hope

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y I'm on the top line and I'm just going to ride, hopefully I'll get through the next pair left, fix things.

You see so many cars passing inside here at Daytona and at Talladega, many of these teams have installed little mirrors with spot mirrors on the roll bar where the driver can look in the rear view mirror on the side of the car and see if there is anyone next to them. 20 straight weeks of racing to decide the nascar winston cup series champion. start now crowd is on its feet the 43rd pepsi 400 goes green on nbc three deep at midfield after the second quarter mike skinner saw an opening up the middle and went three wide trying to grab some points, the yellow line at the bottom. of the race, the outer limits line, think of it as the sideline on the football field, the drivers were told in their free race meeting, go down, you're going to be penalized by nascar and that's really what got us into a lot of trouble in the past before they made that rule because what would happen is the guys would go below that line, they would turn three, you have to get back on the racetrack and if there were three or four breaths there was no room, Ward Burton leads lap one, Jeff Gordon. squeezing under kevin harvick harvick in the white car on board with harvick jr nemocheck is in car 33 his first race since richmond in may he crashed practicing the bush car at dover and has been trying to heal all this time casey atwood on the night team Sterling Marlin passed the 20-year-old from Nashville for second place, not so quickly.

Our colleagues at Fox started a tradition of saluting the memory of Dale Earnhardt with a silent third round. We feel it is appropriate and we are proud to continue that tradition. foreigner do sterling marlin in the lead three deep for sixth place while warren burton returns to fifth andy houston the rookie looking for the lead on the outside hassan recruiting help with joe nemechek and good houston up front dave burns down last night in In final practice They made some changes to the 96 car and he said the changes they made a spring in the right rear and also a sway bar change helped that car tremendously and although he has lost the lead they now expect Andy Houston to drive a very comfortable car. race car in front all night marlon back to the point which is ward burton right behind him while you look out the rear bumper at the marlin car the front six now in single file then it's two and three deep from there on out, that is the most important thing What is a comfortable race car for this race, you know, this track probably has a little less grip than in February.

I think once the tires get really hot, the fuel will burn off, this car will get a little more comfortable. a handful now stacy compton in '92 racing joe nemechek for third place i can't believe these guys can do this lap after lap after lap side by side three wide my fists are all together up here i can't imagine what it's like in the dodge dodge dodge front three race car then kevin harvick and joe nemechek's chevrolets also mike skinner there in a chevy and mike skinner started 23 in that number 31. here comes ricky rudd and michael waltrip, the winner of the Daytona 500 in car 15 michael started in the22nd place, it's eighth place in the race for seventh and sixth Jeff Gordon, let's see if he has to go back in the curve, look for his engine that hasn't done it yet and that's what he was working on last night, he said. us some coverage of the final practice he was working on so he could run around the wide open track without having to break the truck while doing the 15 run on the 28 gordon on the 24 trying to advance the inside line for skinner which would be for fifth position and todd beaudine entering the mix the light blue car the outside lane machine 66 started in position 31 we will see that throughout the night the cars come from back to front shuffling backwards returning to the front It is one of the exciting things about this type of racing, yes, exciting and sometimes very frustrating because just when you get there and everything is going well, I go look for the lead guys, we will line up and they are going to take off and suddenly they split you up, you go straight to the back and it's like this all night leader sterlina marlin the silver car bobby labonte and tony stewart joe gibbs cars both started deep in the field both are still running deep in the field let's go with marty snyder and alan that shouldn't be a surprise , i was with tony stewart and bobby lovani right before the race, they had a little mini meeting and they said, listen, we're going to drop right to the end. we're just going to go there, in fact, they don't want to go to the back of the pack, they want Go beyond the back of the group, they want to be away from the main group to avoid what they think is going to happen.

It's going to be a huge disaster tonight now that they've tried this strategy before and every time they've tried it it's backfired, they hope it doesn't backfire tonight for Matt Yoakam Marty Sterling Marlon Spotter Lauren Renee son of the late Daytona 500 Owner of the winning car , Harry Reinier, said to Sterling Marlon, back off, you're getting too far away, try to stay more with the group, you're getting too far away, you're going to give them too much good air for them to attack you, he acknowledged. With that, he 10-4 and hit the brakes, backing up slowly to let the 22 suck on his bumper.

Well, Dale Jarrett started this race in 19th position. He loves coming to Daytona. He actually he likes to run here because he's had a lot of success, but despite starting. 19 hasn't had much success so far tonight he reported his car is a little loose he's also running hot in traffic water temp is 235 last time for 32 from his starting position 19 kevin harvick just went all the way to scrape the paint off the outside wall to take the lead for Sterling Marlin, isn't it wonderful to see these brave young drivers driving around Daytona and Talladega and hear the roar of the fans?

This was Dale Earnhardt's car and here comes Bill Earnhardt's car. Dale Earnhardt brought in Michael Waltrip on the inside trying. to take that advantage away from kevin harvick here's waltrip harvick to block you know what kevin just did he took him off the line and he's going to lose a lot of positions unless he can get back on the line right there marlin in the lead andy houston the second , the McDonald's car there now waltrip in third place todd lodine goes to fourth and they are three seconds from fifth behind oh man oh man we had 49 lead changes in the Daytona 500 we already had four and we are right in the first laps of the pepsi 400 at daytona are you watching nascar on nbc 14 of 160 laps are now complete in the 43rd edition of the pepsi 400 at daytona sterling marlin is the leader michael waltrip is second andy houston is third todd bowden fourth now they We're mixing from the sixth position back, you have Ricky Craven in fifth, Mike Skinner and sixth and now this race for seventh between Ward Burton and 22 and Kevin Harvick in 29.

And look at that move up, Mike Wallace. He started 42nd on that seven-card, he's in 10th, his game has 32 spots and Mike is fighting for his job here this weekend. This might be his last ride in that seven-wheeler, but he raced like that again in the Daytona 500. fantastic here at Talladega, yes Talladega, started last in the field in 43rd and finished ninth. Let's learn more about Mike Wallace's career so far from Dave Burns. Well, Alan Benny is right. He started 27th here in February and finished sixth. Now I just talked to Jim for a long time as a team. boss who said we knew the car was going to be good, we didn't expect it to be that good, I talked to the owner of the car, Jimmy Smith, and he said, hey, I spent a million dollars trying to make this thing go fast by itself only.

Shouldn't we take it provisional? But boy, he sure is in a group of cars from Mike Wallace in 10th place, now qualifying single file. I mean, you know, especially Mike had to sit back and watch someone else drive his race car one last time. couple, that's like watching your wife with someone else, I mean, it's a terrible feeling watching your race car go around the track without you in it, three deep, that's Dale Earnhardt Jr, on the left of your screen, Kevin Harvick in the middle, Ricky Rudd, down, inside. of the track and they are competing for places 9, 10 and 11 now he went up there yes, he did it on pit road bill weber just talked to kevin hamlin, kevin harvick's crew chief, i asked him if they had any damage in the race car, he says he doesn't believe it, so he's not sure why Kevin isn't talking to them.

Remember that he is a rookie. This is his first start in a Winston Cup race at Daytona. What Kevin thinks is that Kevin Harvick is concentrating on trying to learn where to put the race car on the track marty well bill when dell jr was in that three wide group his spotter ty norris said to get ahead of them or else They will release and let Harvick go, he wants to get to the front, it is not necessary to be out there being three wide, let's take it easy, we have a good car that can win the race, be patient, it's early to tell a racing driver to be patient behind the wheel of his car. car is an easy thing to do it's a difficult thing to get that yellow line right as we go down the back stretch that is out of bounds just like Alan told you at the beginning and this will be the most difficult place on the track to avoid going through below that yellow line before the race is over someone will be penalized for falling below that yellow line on the backstretch, let's go back and look at that case that Marty was reporting on a minute ago when Dale Earnhardt Jr ran into Kevin Harvick, It is pushing him, that is called a blow.

In the draft, you hit it a little and make it move and believe it or not, the cars run a little faster, crashing at 190 miles an hour, now you could hear the engine note speed up a little as it gained a little of speed when Earnhardt Jr. hit him and then fell a little when junior came out from behind him, mike skinner in 31. looking inside todd mobi, i had a report a little earlier that jeff fergus' car was maybe going overheating, a 51st machine is back to 44th place now Started in 11th. This is the race for fifth place between Skinner and Todd Lavine.

Look at the four forwards in front of them. Third place next to each other. Ward Burton above. Andy Huston. Below. That for me, if you had five or six veterans up there. At the front, they would stay in line and try to separate themselves from the rest of the group. We have some guys there that are rookies and aren't familiar with it. They want an advantage and that is to keep the group behind them, close to the leaders. I love, love watching these guys do 20 full laps of 160 in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. Sterling Marlin and Michael Waltrip take the top two spots.

You're watching Nascar on NBC. We return to Daytona and the Pepsi 400 as Michael. Waltrip makes a bid for the lead at Sterling Marlin with the help of Mike Skinner. Skinner pulled up behind that Chevrolet and they pulled out to the front. Look at Sterling Marlin. Everyone is inside. He has lost two, three, four, five places. Sterling Marlin has led. In the last 13 laps of the race, I think everyone has the idea that he has a very strong car, he's waving his arm, he's waving his arms inside the car, something's wrong, man, his teammate Jason went off. the 0-1 card, whatever he could.

He doesn't make it to pit road, could it be that his car just isn't right? Could it be that he's pushing or loose or just not right and has decided to go back and drive until they can make a pit stop and adjust them, I mean? one lap, I mean, you know he's leading the thing and then all of a sudden, one lap, Matt Joachim, what's wrong with Sterling's car? Allen speaking with Sterling Marlins crew chief Lee McCall told me that Sterling's complaint is that the car is too loose. try to back off like many of the other competitors and just ride back to the first round of pit stops somewhere around laps 52-55 to work on this race car, there's no need to risk anything right now because they have a very strong. piece there, you've got it right again and that's smart racing, that's just smart, we're barely 50 miles, not even 50 miles into a 400 mile race, now, out of turn number two, we're going to show you our trap NBC speed. real live speeds in real time as the cars rocket out of this corner at daytona steve park the new fastest leader kevin harvick takes that richard childress chevrolet to first place and watches the battle for second place as harvick watches dale earhardt jr and michael waltrip the eight and the 15 the two cars in the battle for the victory in the Daytona 500 ricky rudd first ford in the order and the 28 dale earhardt jr is in the lead all the fans stand up, look at those fans, they are absolutely I love this as Bernard goes to the front.

We have talked all week about what the young man's state of mind must be upon returning here and we have talked about people continuing to do business as usual. Benny Dale Jr. has put up the business front. as usual, but I have detected through our interviews with him that this is not a facade, it has been the same as always, but I also realized from the interviews and I spoke with Tony Yuri senior, the manager of his team, this Young Alan wants this race like he has never won anything in his life, he wants this today, can you imagine what a victory?

No, I can't even think about it, but we have a long way to go, just 28 laps after this, there is Tony Ury and Tony's response was that I just hope he doesn't love him too much. Jeff Burton with one run outside started in 30th place. He is one of the sixth and there is Mike Wallace hanging from that trio. Chevrolet is a seven and four car. It would be difficult to fire your driver if he finished fourth, wouldn't it? Yes, Andy Houston right behind him. Then you have Matt Kenzit starting to move forward and Michael Waltrip, who was leading the race just a few laps ago, has now moved on.

Back in seventh-eighth position, there's Jeff Burton, who a minute ago started in 30th position. He's now in fifth place and that's another driver he told me today before the race. That's what he worked on last night in final practice. Get in the car where Could we drive where I could drive around the curves without backing off the accelerator? Jeff seems to be doing pretty well so far. The orange dot on the windshield is designed to represent the five drivers competing for the extra million-dollar bonus. The noble Winston. five bonuses, were the top five finishers in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Memorial Weekend.

If one of those drivers wins the race tonight, they will receive a million dollar bonus from the series sponsor and a fan in the consumer contest will also receive a million dollars. Marty Snyder has more on Dale Earnhardt Jr's career and Alan has been very quiet on the radio so far. The only thing he has said. Ty Norris has asked his spotter to keep the oil at 2 30 and the water at 190. Very patient at this point. he's leading the race now the only thing he's started here is his pit strategy danny lawrence the engine builder for what used to be dale earhardt's team now kevin harvick's team came here they're trying to plan when they're going to pit The problem for the junior team is that they can only do about 50 laps in this first race, most of the other teams can do about 55 laps in this first race, so Dale Jr will probably go down to the pits with Bobby's team Hamilton even though Bobby is running. very at the back of the pack because they are facing side by side until allen bobby hamilton running in 35th position after 31 of 160 laps dale Earnhardt jr leads the pepsi 400 at daytona are you watching nascar on nbc nascar on nbc is coming his way from the Daytona International Speedway with live coverage of the Pepsi 400.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is out front with seven lead changes already in the first 35 laps of this race. I think we'll see a lot of wrenches turning on these dodges when they come, Benny, I think a lot of the cars are loose. Watching last practice last night, I saw a lot of loose race cars, but it seems like the Dodgers are suffering the most right now. Thebest way to dodge is in position 12. oh no, let's go back to position 13. john andretti in burger helper dodge the best dodge and remember that the first four finishers were dodges and in fact five of the top ten were dodges and Now, like you said, Benny Andretti and 13th is the best. a couple of dodges going around the back of the field bill elliot is in 43rd place he's last in the order let's go to matt yokum here in the ward burton pit i talked to tommy baldwin jr crouched down he says the car is very loose in the center of the corner they are going to tune this race car somewhere around lap 51 with air pressure.

He said they've been fighting all happy hour. They were in the race trying to adjust to that. Lee McCall says his car is still very strong. Both cars have fallen out of the top 19. Sterling just moved up to 18th, but both cars battled loose conditions from the start and you saw Bill Elliot's photo, there's Casey Atwood with the green bumper and see how far back your team car is. elliott elliott is in a lot of trouble yeah if I'm loose here I want you to give the car a little bite I don't know if the tire pressure is going to be enough but especially you know in traffic like you're with these cars I think would be looking for some bite casey would start in fourth place he is right in front of bill elliott and in 42nd place thompson started third he is in 37th and ward in 33rd we can account for the first two rows but jeff burton had moved up a lot in the field for 30th place now they're shuffling it just dropped six positions on that last lap back to 12th place frankie is loose when you add air pressure these tires will reduce the air pressure you make that tire putting more air in The pressure on you it makes the tire stronger and that changes the chassis.

If you take air pressure out of the tire, you weaken it and therefore make the car a little tighter. Change the chassis too. Dale Earnhardt Jr continues to parade in front of the field kevin harvick mike skinner runs right behind him we are in 39 laps in the pit stops coming soon we were talking about loose a moment ago let me show you what we are talking about the car enters the corner you turn the steering wheelGet back on the gas, that's where you want to be at the green dot, but the rear end comes loose, it goes up the race track and I say, honey, that's it, like that Wally that was a great save, a little over the top loose, a little exaggerated, but.

Your car was that loose, you're going to be on a good path now I think Bill and his car can be that loose, yeah, Mike Skinner is going for third place within Mike Wallace Skinner at 31, Wallace at seven, that's Matt Kenzen on the top side. Right behind him, I talked to Mike after practice and told him man, it was the start of practice. Last practice last night was your car getting loose. You said yes. They made some adjustments right there before the end of practice and he was very happy. With the car, he is on the wrong line right now, even though there is no line there and he has no choice.

You have to have someone behind you helping you push into the air. Are you going to lose a lot of position? Skinner was running toward third position a minute ago. he finally has some help someone pulls up behind him that's kenny schrader in the 36 car he's running eighth now skinner is schrader started in 39th that threatens him right there buddy mike wallace pushing in front of harvick now jumping in line behind kenseth and in front of kurt bush harvick is now in the wrong place on the racetrack mark martin passing in front of the camera with mark this is one of his best races at Daytona in quite a while three in front of him yes, mark one one of those guys When I race here it seems like I always try to race with the guys that I feel comfortable racing with, you know you can get on their bumper and they will take you to the front and I always look for guys like Mark Ricky.

Rudd Sterling these guys are the guys you can count on when you get to be tough on racing terry little bonnie another one you know you can really trust these guys to get you through the field is jeff gordon on the outside of those three wide this is not where you want to be where car seven is if you're loose right now you're in the middle and you had Skinner right behind you and boy it's hard to get through the curves if you're that loose because we have nowhere to go now that we're on lap 45, they'll do 46 next time, around lap 50, with no caution flag between here and there, we'll start to see drivers come into the pits for an important green flag. stops an update on dale earhardt jr the leaders strategy at this point for marty well again allen they don't have as good fuel mileage as most of the other teams so they will pit at the lap 50 along with bobby hamilton and joe nemechek, that's been worked on.

Even though Hamilton is at the back of the pack, they need a writing partner, so they're going to arrive a little early. Junior's biggest problem right now is that when he goes full throttle he starts to pull away from everyone and we heard Matt joke earlier. Say that when you get away from everyone, that allows them to surround you, so Junior isn't even at full speed at this point as he leads the pack back upstairs for Allen Dale Earnhardt Jr to lead the Pepsi 400. Matt Kenseth Todd Podin Mark Martin and John Andretti too. In that fight for first place in the pit stops when we return, we have already passed the quarter point of the Pepsi 400 with 49 laps of 160, preparing for a round of pit stops, yes, right now, I am.

I hear my team say, "Okay, let's stop and go, stop five." My crew chief is talking to the observer. Hey, ask so-and-so when he comes because we all want to get in together at least with the group you're running with. Those are the spotters on the roof watching your car and trying to help your driver with the problems ahead on the racetrack and a variety of other duties and other miscellaneous duties, in fact, trying to keep them out of trouble. , letting them know when they can get out of their turn back to the routine junior dale earhardt jr ducks for pit road the stop will come on lap 50. wow, someone is slamming on the brakes coming in there uh, jeff purvis was the one He hit the brakes, he'll need new tires after that, Marty Snyder will cover Dale Earnhardt Jr's pit stop for us and Dale Jr comes down pit road.

He is one of three drivers to finish in the top ten and two restrictor plate races so far this year. He says the car is just a hair tight, originally he didn't want adjustments but asked for an adjustment at the last second, a quarter pound on the right rear, that's a very small adjustment, he wants to be a little looser in the corners dale jr, back to the track, let's go to matt. yoko big ed watkins the cat man for casey iowa drops the cat is down and away from the air pressure was very loose his teammate bill elliot is also in also complains of a loose condition just like the dodge in the 92 is stacey compton hoffman's very slow coming to the pits he was fine without accelerating in turn three so maybe there's another problem, here's Johnny Benson in pit lane.

Jeremy Mayfield is in Rick Mast is in. Ken Schroeder has been, I'll tell you what, and these guys who know the strategy. I'm behind, Benny, I think that's going to hurt them because they're going to go out and lose that draft leader. However, your car has been all over the track loose and tight, they had to make an adjustment to try and fix the handle, but the most important thing here is that you ran out of fuel on the track, now that you are sitting here, they will have to push it to start. Compton ran out of fuel on pit road, another full charge coming out of turn four down. towards the pit lane often runs it once they were boxed in the air filter and the air intake was ether something that's like gas that they're spraying there in aerosol form that they can spray there Dave Burns Mike Wallace is now No They make no adjustments to the chassis, just four tires and fuel for Wallace.

He said the car is pretty good. The only thing they told him is to keep the radiator fan on when he is behind other cars that are going to pull. a windshield tear and wallace is out of here, let's go to Ricky Rudd, who got four tires and fuel that he originally wanted to use with the 29, but couldn't do it because the 29 was ahead of them on the track, behind them on the pit road. they would have had to get around them ricky craven had trouble getting to his pit stall he overshot yeah big time and here comes the other call todd almost ran after matt kinsen's 17 kurt busch mike skinner mark martin kevin harvick sterling marlon jeff burton old jarrett is at ward burton's at gibbs cars bobby labonte and tony stewart let's go to matt yokum mark martin already stops in his box he was complaining about a tight condition they made an air pressure adjustment on the right front a pressure adjustment air in the right rear front tire changer robert fanfield has kidney stones okay but they have todd ziegler standing on the left sides let's bill webber turn on and fuel kevin harvick's first pit stop in a winston cup car in a race at daytona watch for traffic to close quickly on the outside those are the cars that fit in alapago or two laps ago it looks like ricky rudd is going to go out with leader harvick still trying to get his car up to speed.

Check it out, it looks like Steve Park will pull away from pit road first. Well, now let's find out that they are still trying to catch up to speed. I think they make it so Matt Kendall can be the leader of this little event. let's go with ken with the leaders kirkwood second todd rodin third mike skinner fourth dale earhardt jr fifth then rudd park rusty wallace ken schrader and jeff gordon your top ten and look at junior go through kendo what was that all about and kenzik was leading the La last time, something's wrong with the 17 car.

Rusty Wallace behind Kenzit puts Kurt Bush in the lead, but maybe not for long, Todd Bodine up and laps before the owl gangs up on the rookie . It is not like this? Green flag pit stops have been completed todd bohen is now the pepsi 400 leader at daytona nbc's coverage of the pepsi 400 is presented by the 1-800 call att for collect calls by pontiac's wine track grand tree wider is better with original coors nothing better than an original and by ups the official delivery company of nascar new leader in the pepsi 400 dale earhardt jr has been restored to the front is mike skinner second ricky rudd third steve park fourth and now todd marine try to take fifth place from curt bush here's our coors pit recap, well, Earnhardt Jr didn't come out of the piss first, but now he's first.

He got out and quickly passed some cars. Kenzith was the leader after the pit stop, but he was dropped very quickly tonight. We will try to achieve it. a report from pit road about what happened to him there, you see Kevin Harvick dropped to 16th, we saw him have a lot of trouble getting up to top speed, yeah that's hard here, it's hard to know that when you go into a stop in the pits It's hard not to spin the tires and have a good race from a pit lane bush looking out from Las Vegas in car 97.

One of Jack Roush's entries in the race. Skinner is looking for the lead if he can get some help and it looks like this. Ricky. Rudd is going to help him, but he can't trust how strong a car is tonight. He came out with help and didn't pass, but you know we've seen sterling like that before, but he looks to see if those adjustments help. Now our pins on Sterling Mullen are back in 24th position, but he is just 1.8 seconds off the lead. We talked about Ricky Craven overshooting in the pits when he came onto pit road a moment ago.

Let's go back and take a look at what Craven is in the orange car 32. Well, from the looks of it, he had a little help, he already passed it through car 33, car 33 was in the back and now, and basically, unless they get a yellow card, that whole thing right there, you completely lost the draft and now everything. What you hope is that you receive a warning so you can recover. We have been warning-free so far. We are at 60 full laps. It's 150 miles. Rusty Wallace Racing. Kurt Busch. That will be for fifth place. They both check some speeds on the line to see who's faster right now, they all have about the same speed but Earnhardt Jr. was actually the fastest, it's kind of unusual here in Daytona in the draft that the guy at the top front of the draft be the fastest, I know it sounds awkward but it's unusual, usually the guys who get the lead on that car breaking through the air will be a little faster, just upgrade them over car 17, no problem them, vice president, in fact, their pit stop was very good.

They came out of pit road so fast as they increased their speed. Matt looked in his rearview mirror andThe entire field was picking up speed behind him. He didn't have a writing partner when he went out and received load. train the car is very good it wasn't at least he did an air pressure adjustment robbie reiser says his car and driver are strong well i appreciate that bill i was really worried something was wrong but that's what we observers talk about tell these drivers that when they have a big advantage, to row, back up a little and let the second place guard catch him, don't let them catch you, of the 43 who started the race, 42 are within the laps of the leader, Stacy Compton.

Running out of fuel cost the race leader a laugh. Dale Earhardt Jr. leads the Pepsi 400 in Daytona. Dale Earhardt Jr. leads race number 43 of the Pepsi 400 in Daytona, where 65 laps of the 160 that make up the distance are completed. so far, 11 league changes in this race, I think we have clearly established that Dale Earnhardt Jr has the stronger car at the start, it looked like Sterling Marlin, but it is definitely Dale Jr at this stage of the race, there is no doubt unless that something happens in the next one. stop to make one of these other cars much faster.

You're going to have a lot of trouble beating Junior tonight, but remember he has to stop twice. I guess I don't know how much fuel he had left when he did that. pit stop but 50 and what up marty well Benny you are absolutely right they can go a little further but it will be close. Jeff Clark is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s engine tuner. He went back and calculated, he said at the next stop. They can probably do about 54 laps, which will get you closer to the finish line and all that discussion if we get to the finish line without a caution flag, that's right, and these guys are driving pretty decently tonight, so maybe there isn't a cause . of flight, but 50 and 54 are 104.

That leaves 56. We talked earlier. The closer you get to the goal, the greater the chance that someone will make a mistake by pressing hard. Well, that's right, we'll see. Let's reduce the traffic a little. dave marcus racing in position 40 the 71 cars 60 years old originally from wisconsin david will make his 880th start tonight in the nascar winston cup second of all time only behind richard penny dave is one of the icons of the sport he is the racer worker who owns his own equipment, he works on his own cars, you call his racing shop, he will answer the phone and if he doesn't answer the phone, they will have to get him out of one of the race cars to come talk to you. he pays all the bills he wears wingtip shoes when he drives the reason we mention this is firstly because it's a great story that made the race, secondly he's getting ready to close out his career in the Winston Cup of Nascar, will race five more. events after tonight this year, then try to qualify for the Daytona 500 in February and then call it a race, a good, long race and then look for a young man to get in that car and become its driver, he wants to continue with his racing team, that's Bob Marcus small operation fraction of the financing fraction of the people that these with other teams operate, but you know one thing about Dave Marcus, he will always honor you as loud as he can aboard Dale Jarrett racing on 12.

So what Kurt Bush is doing, a battering ram turning that corner on three and four right against that. Outside the retaining wall Bird Bush, the 22-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada, in his 24th Winston Cup race in his second race here at Daytona and normally you're up there because you're loose, you're using the whole track to keep that car. from behind so he doesn't jump on you, so the only guys running there like that, trying to save him every lap, is Jeff Gordon running behind Michael Waltrip. I think he picked the wrong line, he chose to drive the hook with Michael Waltrip in the 15th and worked his way to the front, but he might be losing some spots, let's go with Matt Yoakam Benny, the four-time Daytona winner, Jeff Ford is currently in eighth position when he made his pit stop on lap 52 and was complaining. their car was loose and tied three quarters of a turn down on the right rear jack, they took out the screw, which also removes the shim and raises the spoiler, which should help this race car, but they also have questions about the fuel to make one more stop.

Meanwhile, Burton, the prize of 22 cars, has moved up to 18th position, but he still complains that his car is terribly loose. They made a track bar, shim, and air pressure adjustment. They expect to get a warning to pull a spring rubber band right now. We will also wait for the next pit stop to make more adjustments. Four cars have separated themselves from the rest of the field by lining up and staying single file while the guys behind them race side by side, Taylor and Hart Jr., Mike Skinner. ricky run and steve park are those four drivers we are at laps 71 of 160 that make up the distance tonight approaching the halfway point of the pepsi 400 in daytona our wendy racing menu is the championship race on nbc and tnt next Sunday starting tomorrow is the new track of the chicagoland

speedway

nascar winston cup series at 2 p.m. this one on nbc in a couple of weeks we will go to the new hampshire

international

speedway mile on tnt 1 30 this july 22 three weeks at the pocono raceway in pennsylvania and the pennsylvania 500 and in a month the brickyard 400 in Indianapolis can't wait to see the leaders work through some lap traffic now that Dale Earnhardt Jr and his three followers have caught and passed Kyle Petty and Bill Elliott turned them down a lap and Right now, Ricky Craven, the car back, Tide Rod has put himself between the junior leader and Mike Skinner, the 31st in second place, but Craven wants to stay there, hopefully he wants to try to stay there in case the caution play comes out, pass for the leader. getting his mouth back doesn't look like it's going to work steve park shook a little when they got into lap traffic lost a little contact with these front three skinner second on the right third crayman is back in 38th position on one lap below i mentioned elliott and kyle petty kyle is in 40th place eliot is in 41st place rick mastis before stacy compton ran out of gas at the pit stop he is in 43rd place look at this he is back in 10th place in down todd beaudine 24 cards jeff gordon have you ever seen mark martin matt kinsey and dale jarrett i haven't talked much about dale until now tonight second in the nascar winston cup championship we look at jeff gordon to matt kenza hale is one of those guys that he hides even if you never see him you will never see him and suddenly, there are 10 laps left, he is there, he is in front of you, tell how you do that.

More about Dale Jarrett from Bill Weber. Well, they had a bad pit stop and, if you remember, DJ had complained. Regarding the increase in water temperature, the original plan was to remove the tape from the grill to try to get more air in, they decided against it. Dale moved around a little bit on the track and got some air there, so that's not a problem. At this point, Mike Skinner switched to the front and did so in a very conventional manner. Here's Ricky Rudd trying to take second place, but it doesn't look like that's going to work.

The teammates work at the top, so watch Junior pass by on the outside. of Skinner, will he take the lead again? Yes it is. Okay, we saw that Spike will take the lead, but the record book will never show that he got a lead at the start and finish line there for it to count. Sorry Mike Skinner faced a dilemma from the driver's perspective ricky rudd helped him pass dale jr to take the lead but dale jr driving a chevrolet rickey run propels him forward skinner has to protect his brand ? It is not like this? It depends on who will be your friend last. back if ricky helped me get there, i need to help ricky all night so he will be there for me in the end.

You see, the air temperature at the start of the race is 85, it has cooled down 40 degrees and the track temperature has only cooled down three degrees steve park running with skinner for second let me tell you something that you don't forget and I, like driver, don't forget, if someone hangs them out to dry, they will be in the top positions in the pepsi 400. Dale Earnhardt Jr still leads, but second place is mixing up well in the last laps, yes, there are a lot of changes, except for the lead, the other night, Junior still maintains that position.

Mike Skinner will take over second place. third kevin harvick walker and fourth place never come to steve park and michael walter michael wallace is back in the mix and that's seven cars we knew who you were referring to yeah we do mike is running a great race tonight , stayed up at least 10 12 Most of the night they made excellent pit stops. Good performance for Mike. Those seven cars you're seeing on the lead lap. They have put the cars they overtook into traffic. They are fighting for second place. Michael Waltrip. mike skinner and now waltrips got help his built in teammate dale heart is behind him steve park mike skinner's richard childress racing teammates the white car kevin harvick bailing out look how far the junior has gotten away from these guys are fighting for second position and that other group that was a second behind them last time and is now on their rear bumper now that dale jr got too big of a lead when they lined up here andy houston on the wall the yellow flag came out of turn four, stopping houston led the race before you see him moving in the car letting the window net fall, that's his signal to the safety officials that he's okay.

I think you'll see much more aggressive changes now that we're under caution whenever everyone arrives at the same time, we may even see some spring rubber being put on these cars. Which this also does with the caution on lap 87. The pit deficiency and fuel economy deficiency Dale Earnhardt Jr had out of the equation for now. If the race runs on green from this set of stops, we'll see under yellow until the end, everyone will have to stop two more times, so if you're a fan of Dale Junior, this is a plus for you, this is big, this really It's big, Andy Houston, this is the low end of what has been a good week so far for him, which is why Flori gave birth to a new son on Monday of this week.

He led the race before. She now ended up on the outside wall. Something broke. He slashed a right front tire. Benny, yes, the right front tire. He had a flat car for some reason and when that happens, the car just turns right, there's nothing the driver can do, but you know one thing: he was very lucky to run close to the wall. I was just going to say that's the best place to If you're going to cut a right front tire, look at that passenger side window that the cars have here at Daytona, you see it flew out of the car when it hit the wall, it just popped out, hit so loud and there's andy out of the car, I have a question man, if you think if these guys were loose, you think maybe they increased the right front air pressure, maybe they got too hot, that might have been done, yeah if you add air pressure to the right front tire that will help the loose situation we will see everyone pit on lap number 89 and this caution flag will probably be a big break for some of those drivers that had been ejected of the draft like Well, Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart Casey Atwood were pretty far behind, but it's a horrible break.

Ricky Craven and Bill Elliot and the drivers who were passed by the leaders and didn't have a chance to make it up in a cycle of green flag stops. They're stuck one lap down and it'll probably be that way the rest of the night, so here we go, Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, Steve Park, Mike Skinner, Mike Wallace, the first five to Pitt Road, we're going with Dave Burns and Ken Trader. Come in, it was working great, they anticipated no changes other than air pressure for Ken at this point and Newt Moore has this going. They spent some time in the wind tunnel earlier this year to try to get this right.

Let's go to the Weber. Michael Waltrip came out of his pit stall, he has to back off and now the whole star will have to start over. It's still supposed to be four tires and he boosted it a bit with a track bar adjustment. Let's go with Marty Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in. I clearly had the best car in that race and I wasn't happy with it. He was a little loose and made a half pound to the outside or to the left rear and they will win the race out of the pits. Rusty Wallace looked dirty, oh man.

Miss 31's car had to back up out of the pits and was almost hit by 15 cars, Spike Skinner and Michael Waltrip, Bill Weber. Well, Michael Waltrip obviously came down to the pits hard. He just said something about his brake pedal on the radio, but what happened is he broke away from his position in Skinner's position, so when Skinner was hit there was no place for him here, then when Michael was ready to leave , had to take Skinner's carround, prepare his car to leave, he had to leave. a round car skidders Skinner's car was not in his since it generated all kinds of traffic.

I saw Jeremy Mayfield shoot across the grass. Remember two and a half miles on the track, but only 15 feet wide and 29 feet long in these pit stalls when they come into the pits. under caution it's a very hectic place when we were looking at Michael Waltrip's car on the bench I thought I saw a big dent in the left side door I think it's the American flag it's just the paint yeah I think it's an optical illusion, yes. I'm not sure it looked like he and Skinner made contact right there behind the numbers, Benny, and that could be a dead man there.

We'll try to get a better look when he gets back, so Dale Earnhardt Jr will be the first one out of pit lane. and it's these pits that look, they look big and when the car is in them, but when you're down there and you have to get to one of these pits, they're very small cars that circle down and head to the pits. road for service now let's go back and take another look to see if Skinner doesn't enter through the door of Michael Waltrip's car and watch Mayfield has to go out onto the grass we'll see him in this two cars are starting to leave look at one and the seventeen are almost there They bump into each other, okay, Mike Skinner is going to back off, Michael Walker is going to try to lead, you might have something there, Alan, he might have backed off a little, wait a minute, wait a minute, say that again, huh , you. you might have something you might have something there i'm not going to go 100 the first time i heard you say i just wanted to make sure i did it right 90 full laps in the pepsi 400 at daytona the restart when we come back welcome back to daytona under flag yellow in the 43rd Pepsi 400 race a few moments ago, practically the entire field on pit road and look what happened to Michael Waltrip's number 15 car coming down pit road, he slid in his stall, he had to put it. back up and back up now because he had slid through his stall the car in front of him was actually over the line but that's legal because it was a forced move so now when they finally have car number 15 ready to go , Michael has nowhere to go. because even though you can't see here, he has to go around the skinner of it and then you see the traffic coming down the skidder trying to get out jeremy mayfield cuts through the grass wow wally, I'm glad I didn't completely screw up.

Myself on that, let me move on, that was close, Allen, we're trained professionals, just remember how I'm going to live with YouTube for the next 19 weeks. Okay, getting ready to compete again. Dale Earnhardt Jr. maintains the lead. through the pit stops, steve park is second, matt ken third, ken schroeder fourth, all on new tires, there will be a lot of activity down the stretch, i think on this restart, four wide, three or four wide, this could be where we see someone pass under that yellow. line oh, that's a no-no out of bounds, nascar said in the pre-race drivers meeting, go under the yellow line to improve your position because this is what's going to happen, these guys in the back they say 12 15 back, I think they're going to duck, try to run at the cars that are circling below and split them up, that's what I did, well the green flag is out, we'll find out, but you can't go through inside until you get to the start and finish line, so all these the stars have to pass on the outside now as they go down in one you can pass it from the leader elliott and the red dodge on the inside it doesn't look like that's going to work tonight and because someone missed a turn or something in the middle of that group that took away your big load, I think Sterling backed up about six or seven car lengths, there someone bottomed out really bad up there in four big answers, new pit summary, look to Matt Kevin once again, a great pit stop. robbie roger and that team dewalt the eighth comes out the third crusher picks up a couple yharvick gets a couple of unique race warnings that came when andy houston hit the wall in turn four a short time ago let's hear from him the new Allen's father, Andy Houston, just called the new mom, Lori, to tell her it's okay, Andy, uh, what.

It happened out there, uh, a right front tire was cut on the McDonald's Ford, we had a really good race car, we ran to the front early, it seemed like the longer the road, the tighter the car got on the first lane. pit stop, we made adjustments trying to free the car up and uh it almost didn't go far enough, the car really pushed that second, that second run after the first stop and finally ended up blowing the right front tire and hitting the wall pretty hard, But I'm fine, just another. Bad weekend for the sport of golf and you know, we can't seem to change this.

Hopefully, we'll go to Chicago next week, get home to McDonald's headquarters and try to have a good race there. It's pretty frustrating right now. but this is the best chance they have had, it was the best qualifying performance of Andy's career so far in the Winston Cup and Allen apparently Andy also reports that he can keep Joe Nemechek is not feeling well and can fill in for him if the need arises . Joe Nemechek is making his first start in about six races. He had a bad accident in testing at Dover, in which he broke his elbow and had several other injuries.

This is his first race back, so maybe those injuries are still feeling the after effects. Watch the race. for second here matt kenzen steve park kenseth from 17. parking the one with ken schroeder behind kenzo 31 the car went from third place to lead kenzeth out of dale earhardt jr side by side now we will see how strong the car is as a junior, yes, and look While all these cars behind him were fighting for position, we see Schroeder literally pushing Kenza down the straight trying to get him in front of the eight cars in the first few laps of the race.

Sterling Marlin got the stronger car back into the field until he was able to get a couple stops for the team to adjust the car, he is sneaking back up, he is in 9th place as Kenzeth and Junior come to the line and still fighting for the lead Kensington 17. Dylan, our junior and eight, raced together in the Nashville series for a couple of years and became very good friends, but not enough to give the other a win. 000 seats at Daytona are all empty, everyone is standing, Mike Wallace, Wallace, watch out for that yellow line down there, oh, and here goes my big brother, rusty boy.

You know, that did his heart good, Kenzit couldn't make the pass happen speeds down the line, now the car is more likely to be back in the draft being towed a little faster, that's what we hope to see in laps remaining in the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earhardt jr has so far fended off another challenge to take the number one spot. NBC's coverage of the Pepsi 400 is brought to you by Dodge and the nearly 3,000 dealers who invite you to come see what's new. Buy Miller Lite. Grab a Miller. light it's miller time by pep boys all you need to know is where to go pep boys and by pfizer where life is our life's work 250 miles will be complete when they cross the finish line this time in the 43rd pepsi 400. dale earhardt jr is the leader who has rejected all challenges to his top spot and there have been some for a while now.

Now Bernard Jr. moved to the front for the first time on lap number 27. There was no room there, Kansas, there was no room. go outside, but somehow he did it, he did it because Dale Jr gave him the room, man, oh man, couldn't there be just inches on each side, I guess they're good friends, fuck after a move like that, oh man Oh. The man now remembers that at the beginning of the race, Matt was loose, so at the first pit stop they tightened him too much, so at the most recent pit stop they made other changes, half a pound on the right rear, half a pound off the front right. half a turn from the left rear they made those changes this car is good now but it's better in long races remember robbie reiser said my car and my driver are strong and bill actually what happened there is Dell Jr was trying to protect the high line. a couple of minutes ago he talked to his spotter ty norris junior's car can run anywhere he said where steve wants to run meeting with his teammate steve park ty norris said he needs to run high he said okay I'll run high he was trying to protect himself that high line and keep his teammate behind him.

Wow, what a strong car he has, he worked his way back to the front now he has the lead once again so the problem is that Steve parks on the low line and Earnhardt Jr has now dropped down to try to get the 31 to chevrolet skinner and steve park there's almost contact there between rusty and 29, uh yeah, that was really close, look at junior, pull down and get that bottom line with him. The junior car is very fast in the corner, I'm serious, basically. it stays the same right away, but if you look at his car on the curve, he actually leaves the car behind him as they go through the curves.

Here's our dodge race four times in this July

classic

at Daytona, the pepsi 400 has been won by a dodge 1977 the last one the king richard petty who is behind the wheel of that car we have a second retired from the race jeff purvis has taken his car to the garage the smoke is coming out from behind on that last series of pit stops, now he has officially exited this pepsi 400. three chevrolets two fords in the top five dale earhardt jr continues to show the way in the pepsi 400 at daytona on nbc the 43rd running of the pepsi 400 at daytona comes live with 106 of 160 laps completed and dale earnhardt jr the dominant driver so far here's our rundown of the napa field.

Sterling Marlin dominated early, then Earnhardt Jr. The race was Steve Parker's third and final lap and he was desperately trying to be on the same line as card eight and it was shuffled and dropped back to 16th. One lap, one lap, I blinked and missed that and you're the driver behind the wheel and you're trying not to rip the wheel off the car, this is the frustrating part. I talked about 35 cars on the lead lap now the only cars not on the lead lap are Ricky Craven Dave. marcus stacy compton bill elliott kyle petty and rick mast all fell far behind in a series of green flag pit stops where they lost the draft and then the leaders passed them and then the yellow flag came out for everyone else except the drivers and purvis in houston who are out of the race still in the hunt basically Mike Skinner has really given a great car to a 31 car tonight and we just saw on the graph that after that failed pit stop he had dropped back to position 22 and right now he's fighting for second place with Rusty Wallace Rusty showed some muscle for the first time tonight Bill Weber has more on Rusty Wallace Alan Two things everyone should know about Rusty Wallace: How hard the team works to getting this car ready for Daytona and how much Rusty wants it. this win has never won a restrictor plate race was third in the Daytona 500 crew chief robin pemberton spent the time and money to win the tunnel this car we showed you on the pre-race show right now Rusty He is desperate to get to the front.

I wanted to be able to run at the top of the track, so they made that change last time, but the track keeps changing first, it's up, then it's down, Robin said, "Really, it's like I told you after practice, there's no no one out there yet except uh dale jr said about the third or fourth guy mike skinner who came up to try to take the lead from dale jr and every time he seems to find a way to keep him in front he's making all the right moves , it's inspired, yeah, does it look like Rusty Wass is going to overtake Skinner to take over second place?

Mike Skinner's team asked Nascar if he really led the final lap to earn five bonus championship points. The answer was no. I checked it and they were. It was a very, very close finish to the line and the monitor said Dale Jr had led that lap three deep, yeah, Ken Schrader, on the outside, there's Jeff Born, on the inside, I don't know if mike can't run high. or what was the deal to leave that open he's going to lose a lot of spots hey man the 29 car but maybe he can't run that high look at that yellow line jeremy mayfield thought about it , car number 12 started to look great.

The last five laps are going to be very tempting. Skinner finally got back in line. Here comes Rusty Wallace. Oh, it opens up the outside a little bit and Schroeder just drives around the outside along with Matt Kenseth Junior, goes up to block. He has to really work. It's hard to determine which line to stand on nowyou're looking at both the dial and the windshield here's an update on the Craftsman Truck series this was today at the New Kansas Speedway how about Ricky Hendricks, son of the many time Winston Cup champion? Now team owner Rick Hendrick has earned his first victory in the truck series.

Congratulations Ricky, I know you're dead and your grandpa is as excited as he can be. And how about John Wood in fourth place? That's Eddie Wood's son, 20 years old, yes, the next generation. of the wood brothers coming behind the wheel rusty wallace running second richard childress racing teammates there skinner in 31 harvick in 29. and mark martin starting to come back into the picture dale earhardt jr continues racing ahead of the pepsi 400 you're watching nascar on nbc the pepsi 400 from the daytona international speedway under green on lap 116 of 160 it's been dale earhardt jr's night so far here's our made at the home depot track the lighting system installed here at daytona 1998 is enough to light up a two lane street from daytona beach to muscatine iowa here's your here's your knowledge tester benny muscatine iowa significant in that fact tribute for what's the name is the hometown of the company that installed the lighting system Moscow There you have it very good that was too easy I knew I wouldn't catch you with that look at this look inside oh, you almost made it right to the yellow line Sterling Marlin, the center of the post that dodges trying to get back to the front last time, bye was in About 7th position, Sterling led twice for 20 laps early in the event and fell far back in the field with a car that was handling poorly, but someone was smoking in that second turn, that's Joe's car Nemechek.

Nascar watchers are reporting that Benny is there, oh I see. hit the wall, well that will do it, yeah what we were seeing was tire smoke, yeah, right back here you see the bumper, the back of the bumpers hanging right there, I tried it, you were one of those kids that they couldn't get out. That was terrible, I was terrible, yeah, I would go in and give it to Andy. Now I think I would move on too. Andy would take her out. Andy Houston is waiting because Joe Nemechek wasn't feeling well. He feels worse. Now he's back in the lead and you hope that his aches and pains didn't contribute to hitting the wall or that hitting the wall didn't make it worse and while we watch this nemechek take his car to the pits, White Skinner posted a lot of rumors again . around Skinner regarding his future in this 31 car that perhaps Richard Childress could be considering a move, nothing confirmed there but certainly outside pressure on Skinner with all the speculation to have some good performances, let's get an update on Joe Dave Burns' Nevacek, well, Alan.

They didn't do much, they put two tires on the right side and told him not to accelerate and they didn't lift the hood, they didn't do anything else, in fact, I'm going to go take a look, there's fluid down there, I can't. Well, yeah, they, um, that's what they are guys, we'll check and see if there's anything really wrong with the car. They know they can reach this group. They will pass him in turn two and on the home stretch. he might be able to fit in I don't think first instinct was right dale Earnhardt jr has spent the most time in this race since lap 27 in the lead now we are at lap 120 300 miles in the pepsi 400 it's Earnhardt jr rusty wallace michael waltrip kevin harvick and ken schrader top five our race recap pepsi we went green in the pepsi 400 at daytona just after 8 p.m.

ET with Sterling Marlin leading the field of 43 to green fans salute the memory of Dale Earnhardt On the third lap, his son Dale Earnhardt Jr pushed Kevin Harvick to the front of the field and then took the lead from Harvick in lap number 27. The junior team and Harvecks planned their green and black pit stop strategy. They arrived together. This was lap 88. The only caution of the race was the slashed right front tires sending Andy Houston into turn four. It was good. He is one of only two drivers out of the race. Jeff Purvis is also retired with engine failure.

We have already passed 300 miles and we are getting closer. another series of pit stops will be made in another 12 15 laps or so this is back for 9th 10th 8th 9th and 10th oh man they're grouped in threes let's go now guys, easy, easy, play well, if it looks tight from here, it's very tight. Looking down at Burton's car, the gold Dodge, there I see that thing, it just starts pushing up into turn two, had to get off the gas and slide behind Schroeder, yeah I did, and the other cars passed by to him on the outside because he had to.

Hit the gas and Ward Burton's heart. Pilot 22 started beating again. I'm told Joe Nemechek made contact with Dave Marcus on the track. The 71 didn't hit the wall, but the damage we saw on the right side was from contact with Dave. marcus nemechek in 35th position, the first car a lap back and in fact he just got passed by ricky craven back to 36th. oh look at todd beaudine going up there angels. afraid to step on Earnhardt Jr. Sterling Marlin Matt Kenseth Kevin Harvick Todd Bodine Ward Burton Michael Waltrip and Robert Presley That whole gap in this race Presley staying on the track when everyone else pitted under caution on lap 89, he came in a lap later but you got five Bonus Points If you lead a lap in a Winston Cup race, you earn five extra championship points.

You lead the most laps and get another five bonus points. It's amazing what's going on behind Elena Jr. I looked a moment ago and Jeff Gordon. He was running 12th and there he is trying to take third place from Michael Walsh with the help of Kurt Busch. I'll probably look to get back to 15th place in a few minutes. It's just back and forth, but one thing is constant: white. car number eight, baseball car in front, yeah, no one has been able to do anything with them, even if they team up against them, Michael Waltrip after pit stop problems earlier on lap 89 when he slid into the pits recovering those lost positions, he took third place. the leaders should be in the pits soon marty snyder let's hear from you about it yeah allen about lap 142 or 143 which isn't long from now we'll see leader dale earnhardt jr on pit road he's fighting two problems, right? now one wants to make sure he stays ahead and two don't get too big of an advantage.

He's still three-quarters of the throttle. He can stay away from these guys if he wants. They don't plan any adjustments until the next stop. He wants to stay out front to bill, could Michael Waltrip write another Daytona miracle story? The winner of the Daytona 500 came here looking to sweep Daytona by winning the 500 and 400. He had a good car and came down to the pits while Allen was talking about sliding. The pit he lost all those positions almost hit Skinner when he came out he fell very far back in the field and then he came back to the front the big critical questions when they enter the pits, who will they have as a partner and how many guys are going to use how many tires?

If they cut something today, Bill, I've been watching Mike Wallace all night on my score sheet, it says the same thing every time, okay, okay, that's great, Mike Wallace hasn't had any changes and Jim Long, the equipment. The boss tells me that he can drive the car anywhere on the track he wants. Now it's up to him to find a way near the end of the race to be in front at the right time. Mike Wallace is having a great career. Matt Joachim. dave jeff gordon moved up to fourth position on his last pit stop the only adjustments they made were the driver was given a bottle of water and two bags of ice it was a little hot but no adjustments on the 24 cars the car is still A little loose on entry, but it's adjusting to your driving and keep in mind this car is very tough, its 24 machines are the latest non-rad non-associated team to go to victory lane in the restricted play race. devel brad is an aerodynamic group a partnership between richard childress racing Andy Petry Racing and Dale Earnhardt incorporated racing where everyone pools resources with an aerodynamicist to study and improve their cars, particularly for these races here at Daytona and its sister track Talladega.

Watch out for Michael Waltrip and Mike Wallace and here's Warren Burton back in the mix. We saw Sterling Marlin dodging there a moment ago, here comes the other one. Ward Burton has moved. It looks like the fist bump started in second place. He fell far back on the field. He's creeping back into the top five as we get closer. in the pit stops at the end of the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earhardt jr has dominated so far can he hold on to what would be an extremely emotional nascar victory on nbc looking down on daytona international speedway to see how the pepsi 400 comes to its end? laps tomorrow night at 7 6 central don't miss it all new date nbc street racing is fast and furious but it's also an illegal sport that can kill that's tomorrow night at 7 6 central date nbc 26 laps left in the Pepsi 400 and approximately six to nine laps from the final round of pit stops for the leaders, which will be done under green if we don't see yellow between now and then.

Four, four or two tires. You know, that's a question right now. I would think so the front group. comes in and has four tires. I would have to take two tires if I made it to the next lap, but you've already used up the entire fuel load. You can change tires as fast as you can fill the tank with fuel. I guess it depends. how much fuel do you need to put in exactly, you don't need a full load of fuel to go the distance so there could be some strategies at play yeah and we've seen these cars tonight run faster as they burn fuel they get faster . and look faster at jeff gordon trying to get to the outside of michael waltrip, he got trapped and his teammates left him moving to fourth place, they all jumped to the inside line, gordon will go after Skinner, he will drop to seventh, ricky craven.

On and off pit road, yearning for a lap down, a constant theme all night has been that the two Joe Gibbs Racing entrants were at the back of the field, Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart fell to the back of the line quite a bit. speed on the green flag. and they have raced there all night this is lavoni in 30th place but you know he is only four and a half seconds behind the leader and if they really have a good race car after that last pit stop then that is when he will try to start to gain ground. those positions tony stewart his teammate is in position 26 marty snyder can you tell us more about joe gibbs teammates and guys tony stewart and bobby labonte they have a radio channel where they can talk to each other and about 15 laps ago tony clicked on that channel and said bobby, let's go to the front, bobby said to jimmy naycar, as crew chief, it's time to see what we can do.

They've been at half throttle at the back of the pack all night since Tony Stewart hit nine. Bobby Labonte has gotten six and as far as the last pit stop goes, guys, some teams are considering fuel only down here and there are no tires on Tony Stewart's car. Let's listen to how he uses the throttle in the turn and then compare that to The leader, Dale Earnhardt Jr., eased off the throttle a little bit as he entered turn three. He now he's completely open again. You are all clear. It sounds like he's looking at me. Not sure?

We can't say that he can be running seven. strong eight or three quarter throttle, we can't say, but now some of these guys that marty schneider talked about is that jeff gordon and the fence is very high, he's backing off, he's back up to 14th and he's down to the En the inside, if you come to pit road, you may simply be pulling away from traffic to make your pit stop. Bill Elliot Casey Atwood and Stacy Compton are all on pit road for the stops, but now Marty Schneider talked about some of these fuel-guzzling guys and Wally.

We've seen cars make these pit stops, hit the brakes and slide these tires here comes Tony Stewart here comes Bobby Labonte on pit road you can't slide these tires if it's going to be just fuel you can't grade these flat spots these tires that's it Well, and what Benny would say what you're talking about is that when you lock the brakes, it just takes the rubber off that tire where the tires are locked and then they're around and it just vibrates and you have to come. and change them marty schneider tony stewart and bobby lavonny are in obviously they can go the rest of the way from here they are going to use at least two tires both cars will be on two tires and there will be no adjustments for either race car Advantages and disadvantages of two tires , well, it takes less time, that's the plus and the minus, well, I spokea moment ago, they are five seconds behind two tires, if Erner Junior changes four, that makes him good because they don't need a full charge. of fuel only a can, but the drawback is the grip management, yes, yes, the guys before the tires, when they catch them, they will go straight for Kevin Lepage, Ken Schrader, Jeremy Mayfielder on pit road while the leaders They go down the final stretch, we'll see. who stops this time among this group I think Schreiner was gasoline, only they have taken the tires back to the wall, we will check that two leading tires in turn four, who is rescuing johnny benson, there are a couple of cars in the middle of Pack out all front runners, stay out.

Dave Blainey is the other one heading to pit road. There's Benson Delaney right behind him. Laney just hit the brakes hard. A lot of smoke comes out. I'll be interested to see what they change. There are 19 laps left to reach the pits. The stops could be crucial in determining who wins this race. Two tires Now that the first couple has made two there's no pressure on the rest of these teams to just get there, it really is, unless you're deep in the field, here comes a big group of racers problems coming out of turn 31 several cars involved three four five six seven sterling marlin mike skinner jeff gordon is in it bobby hamilton kurt bush is in the accident dale jarrett goes to the pits terry lavonny is involved caution out I didn't see but it looked like some guys were trying to get into the pits and it just piled up see some damage on the right front of Kevin Harvick's car not a lot of damage but damage oh a lot of damage to that car that ran so good earlier in the night there's skinner against the fence mike moves looks like he's okay jeff gordon and kevin harvick took their cars straight to pit road but it all happened behind dale earhardt jr there's bobby hamilton trying to push his car back down pit road that car Go behind the wall we talked about the big accident this happened in a way we didn't expect all the damage to Terry Lebanon okay let's see if we can fix this.

Here they are coming around the corner, I think. this will be contact right there, skinner and kurt busch come together, he turns skinner against the wall, the head in labonte has nowhere to go nor does bobby hamilton when it's straight, when skinner returns to the other side of the court now there is no place for him nobody go oh oh, is that the justice league, yeah, dave marcus runs into the grass and somehow saves him, he's almost as good as you, i know it and you know what the seventh car was slowing down when it got to the pits 31 checked 97 crashed him, he was shot right in front of terry labonte look at the back of this dale jarrett at the top right of your screen he's going to come out through the smoke head towards pit road there's a lot of damage there dale I'd be careful on pit road if I were you, the race track seemed to be the The safest place you've ever seen Kurt Bush, right on the rear bumper and Mike Wallace goes to pit road, there's the contact.

Skinner turns around and the man, Terry Labonte, says, "Oh, no, Mark Martin is piling in there." Mark has continued driving, but he has a chance to win that million dollar bonus. he seems to have taken a little hit there, if the damage is significant on his car, it was Mark Spartan, another chance, get a better look at it here and it doesn't take much, I mean, you know, Mike saw the seven cars coming. In the pits he rolled through a small bush, couldn't see what was going on, it just doesn't take much, never saw the contact with Jeff Gordon, get this guys, oh man, there's nothing you can do, ya that they all are. those guys behind with nowhere to go they're up there minding their own business and Sterling that's going to leave a mark oh man I felt that did you feel that I felt that's because you hit me when it happened Ricky's lucky man Rudd, Jeff?

Gordon, let's see him down there, he makes contact with Sterling Marlin and car 97 makes contact with Jeff, he goes down the grass to verify that pit road is closed because several of the cars involved in the accident crashed into the pit entrance and They want to make sure they've picked up all the metal and other debris, so we'll take a break, we'll be back for the caution flag pit stops in just a moment, only 16 laps left in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, welcome back to Daytona Pit. stops that could decide the race dale Earnhardt jr the leader is in a lot of debate about two or four tires they decided to go the same route with four tires and they will still win the race out of the pits barely beating my followers good job good job guys see it What Nascar has to say about it: You see that white line right in front of Dale Earnhardt Junior's pit, all he has to do is step on the clutch and have the car cross that line that was close and that blocks his position in the pit exit order. so we'll see from where they place people, I don't know if the seven took four or two tires at that stop, it had to be two, yes, yes, all four tires, that's the right move.

Jeff Gordon continues to attract attention. One of the seven cars involved in the accident a moment ago in turn four Kevin Harvick we saw the damage on the right front, they are trying to put a piece of aluminum on top, now let's see the white line coming out of pit road stops that line, who came first, I don't know, I couldn't tell you, Betty, no, it's not for Nascar to decide, that's why they make so much money, so Mike Wallace for now defends his position against Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the track, but Junior tries to drop the hint that he thinks maybe he got out first.

I have seen this in many. Well, now they just told him that his team told him that he didn't listen to Nascar. Here comes Mike. The big winners in all of this are the oranges. car and the green car right there bobby labonte in the green car and tony stewart in the orange machine made their pit stop they only changed two tires but they have that track position they have been looking for all night here are the cars involved in the accident adding Jason Lefler to the list we gave you earlier. Mark Martin, one of five noble drivers with a chance to win the million dollar bonus tonight.Unchained with Kurt Bush on Mike Skinner's back as Mike Wallace slowed down to get to the pits Dave Burns Well and Alan Sterling Marlin is helping orchestrate whatever fix they can make here sterling do you think you can make do you think you can make fixes on everyone here and let's get back in, I don't know, something broke in the steering, I had no steering and I couldn't turn left, something broke. broke somewhere, but I hate that they follow Coors too much, guys, we had pretty good cars, just a little tight. loose sometimes, oh, whatever someone put into someone, what was the first reaction you had, you did it, your spider didn't even have time to say anything, didn't it?

You didn't look at me like Skinner cut someone off to get into the pits and put them on their side and we don't know where to go but that's the thing with these rules, they're all on top of each other and I pray to the good Lord that they change these rules, I just can't run well, a strong opinion from Sterling Marlin. about the aerodynamic rules they have on the cars here, as well as the restrictor plate competing with Allen Sterling Marlin, fifth in the championship coming into this race, will take a big hit in the points tonight, with 14 laps to go in the NBC's Pepsi coverage in Daytona.

Budweiser brings you the 400 with the crisp, clean, refreshing taste you won't find in any other beer, this is good, no-nonsense, worry-free technology from Home Depot, the official home improvement store of Nascar and Pepsi, the victory lane choice. one of the first fans and he's here at the race track, he's not even watching the championship standings at home, jeff gordon leads dale jarrett by 126 to start the race, but there you see if the race ended the way it is now, Ricky Road would move in second. Rank just 106 points behind Jeff Gordon Gordon running 24th, 21st and 11th on the track right now, take a break while track clearing continues and return for the final frantic race to the finish line in the pepsi 400 at daytona nascar the nbc at daytona international speedway the pepsi 400 has reached its final 12 laps preparations are being made for the big celebration in victory lane the question is who will lap through the gates no I know the complete race order been messed up by the yellow flag by the accident in the middle of the green flag pit stops johnny benson is the race leader benson made his pit stop under green on the left 141 remained on the lead lap and he was ahead of bobby labonte and the other guys who had already stopped when the yellow flag came out so benson is the leader dave blaney is second third is ken schrader jeremy mayfield is fourth tony stewart fifth then bobby labonte sixth dale earhardt jr back in seventh place and by the way he won Mike Wallace came out of the pit lane, so it's Junior, then Mike Wallace, then Rusty Wallace and Ward Burton.

There will be 11 laps to go. What do you think? I think you better watch out for Junior because he will come and he will have fire in his Eye, this young man wants this tonight desperately, he wants to end up where we saw that photo a moment ago in victory lane and we talked about the big accident and how much The closer we get to the finish line, the higher the chance that these guys are actually going to be nervous right now, yeah, we might have another big problem here before it's more than 11 laps to solve the Pepsi 400, here we go, now is when you're doing deals on board with Dale Earnhardt Jr all the way in, there's no room there besides. wisely he decides to back up a little, first he moved away from the lap cars, I didn't even check that the 33 was next to benson, the leader, he was the first to turn, boy jr wants to go in so badly that he doesn't.

I have some option towards the inside better look at the out of bounds line of the triangle the temptation will be great to try to go under elliott and nemechek warns of problems in turn four jeff gordon's car smoking a lot it seems to have made contact with the exterior retaining wall that is on board with jeff gordon and you can see that we can't see much, nothing to see as they run back towards the caution, they are told that the drivers are from Nascar and that they already took the caution. was out when they got here the first time, so slow down, big break for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Yeah, because on the restart all the cars will line up single file, those lap cars will go back to 25th position, where they are in a hurry. On the track, he can compete with these guys for the lead as he demonstrates all night that he has a very fast race car. The problem is whether you will run out of time if you are new to Nascar. There is a rule called the 10 lap rule once going into the last 10 laps of the race if there is a restart only the cars on the lead lap go to the front of the group and line up single file so the role of joe nemechek on that last restart not be there on the next restart and That's a very important rule and I'm glad to see it especially in races with restrictor plates because we've seen many times the big accident, the other big accident happened on a restart, coming close at the end of the race.

Well, Dylan, our junior. seventh place, I mean, he actually started 14th. Here's Jeff Gordon and we see that I don't think he hit the wall. Benny doesn't seem that way. I think some damage from that previous accident maybe severed an oil line or something. I think it looks like he cut a tire, Matt yokum, what happened to Gordon? The guys jumped out of the pit box getting ready to head back to the garage and Gordon said the car is still running but it doesn't have much oil pressure, maybe it cut out. an oil line robbie loomis told him to take the car to the pits, we'll see what we can do, we can possibly fix it, there are a few laps left, we can possibly save some points from this.

Alan, so Jeff Gordon, the championship leaders' problems. continues nine laps to go at Daytona we'll take a break and come back and see how it goes in a minute the pepsi 400 at Daytona comes down to a few precious final laps eight to go we're under yellow flag came out when something looks like a line of oil coming out from under jeff gordon's car johnny benson is the leader benson got the lead by being on the track when the yellow flag came out after making a pit stop the question is: did he get two tires, four tires, dave burns , that?

It was ok? We'll ask James. They are in strategy right now. James. When you entered green on pit road, did you put on two or four tires? We use right side tires and that's not really a concern for us. It is this. The car has always performed pretty well on two tires in one of two races last year here on two tires, so you know we would preferleading now with two than being behind again with four and you've been left behind before in At the end of a race like this, how can you prevent that from happening this time?

Well, if they throw him back, he'll have his back against the fence because they'll pass by and they'll have to hit him hard, okay, Johnny. Benson wants to win, let's go with Marty, well, Dave Tony Yuri Senior is Dale Earhardt Jr.'s crew chief. You've led 111 laps tonight, but it seems like time is running out, he's sitting back there with caution laps counting, yeah, situations that no one likes to see in a race call to the plate will be five wide when they come back. and you don't know what's going to happen uh definitely the best man probably isn't going to win this race you don't know what's going to happen, right?

I think he's not going to win the race because he said on the radio I think we can have a good time, we definitely have the car to pass him and we're definitely going to try and Budweiser Chevy will get there, let's go. to get there, but this plate racing thing is about who is in front of you and who is behind you or whatever, so you have no control of your own destiny, we can get there, we will get there, we can't, Hey, we know. who had the fastest car tonight of the cars behind him, they have promised him help but he doesn't know if he can make it to the front in time, oh man, there are six laps left when they throw the green flag and pass him.

Race tracks with restricted plates are a tough thing to do, we've seen cars that can't pass it all night, but we haven't seen how easily it can pass, I'll tell you what, you've got three guys up there in the top three in this one. Right now, two of them haven't won a race, one hasn't won a race in a long time. I would be making deals between them saying guys, let's not let some of these guys who win every weekend win one of these races, let's race together. laps and last lap, every man for himself, very good, in short, can Dale Jr win this race?

Yes, you're thinking about it too long. Yeah, you know, like Tony said, if they get three fours wide on the backstretch, anything can happen and will happen now. has a chance let's talk about the desperation factor okay the top two johnny benson and dave blaney have never won a winston cup race ken schroeder hasn't won the third place car since 1991 tony stewart, fifth, is one of the drivers eligible for the million dollar bonus i have five very hungry men sitting there right now yes, plus jeremy mayfield who is there and those guys all in front of dale jr behind dale jr to help him recruit mike wallace bobby lavonte rusty wallace ward burton I'm sure He would love to see Michael Waltrip or Steve park somewhere near him, but Michael is back in 14th and Park is in 22nd.

I don't think Dale needs anyone to get all the gears. Seven laps left. Now there will be six when they arrive. the start and finish line it's time to solve the pepsi 400 at daytona dale earhardt junior sixth in line and vincent lee is at the restart once again you can't get inside you get to that line okay it's free game let's ward burton quickly down the inside to try to get a spot see jeff gordon back on the track bernard jr stays behind trying to make him run he has that run but tony stewart stops in front of him he has time i guess schroeder pushed to the outside of the lane 20 cars the only one up looks at junior going there up to four here comes bobby labonte pushing junior to the outside of mayfield for the third kevin coming with you mike wallace it was worth it we can hear him tell him he got help abroad junior this lady blocked in 93 what about benson?

They will stay at the bottom of the race track. I think they are going to give the outside to junior jeff gordon getting the nascar black flag here is dale jr to the outside. dave blaney for second place mayfield pushes him in the draft so they are still out there to take the lead turn four rockets in front of daytona listen to the crowd and look at this crowd behind you tony stewart will be black marked by nascar black flag for tony stewart for going under the out of bounds line all clear all clear and tony stewart is in second place with a million dollars at stake worth 27 but it's all clear now, here comes bobby lavonte, he has a Millions of dollars at stake is also Michael Waltrip who is pushing it to the front and the body is below the yellow line in the back stretch.

This is not over yet. Michael Waltrip is trying to become the first man to sweep a season at Daytona since 1982. He's up. to third 18 15 I'll tell you what if junior was running three quarters that whole end because he's running wide open right now Ward Burton shooting forward look at him outside of Mike and also for third here's Elliot Sadler up to fifth place, what? Where did it come from in the Wood brothers' car? It's me, a frenetic, intense race in the last few laps at Daytona, but it's still Dale Earnhardt Jr. out front, what they have to endure trying to keep those cars behind him, trying desperately to keep up. he behind him runs so well in the corner that it allows him to run over him in the straightaway michael waltrip dives under bobby labonte they crash into the back wall trip to second eliot sadler and rusty wallace with him now two team cars race in the positions one and two, that's what Dale needs to see in his rearview mirror right now.

That's the best you can see for Dale Jr. Will he try to win the race himself? The white flag is on the last lap at the Daytona 180,000 standing screaming. With a wild two and a half miles to go, the exact opposite of the Daytona 500, it was 15 and eight Elvis settlers trying to keep Bobby Labonte back. He can't do it, but he moves down in front of Rusty Wallace on that fast, clear line. all clear bobby levati looks for help trying to get there his teammate tony stewart has never responded to the black flag and they are four back among the wallace boys here they come turn four last lap of the pepsi 400 michael waltrip in second but it will be Dale Earnhardt Jr using the lessons learned from his father to go from sixth to first and score the victory in the Pepsi 400.

That's amazing, yes, you guys celebrate, I love you, that was beautiful, very, very nice, junior, you're happy. look at that smile wow I don't think there's anyone here who wouldn't want to see that sentimental emotional favorite at the beginning of the broadcast we talked to each other some of the moves he made on the track today they look like his dad behind the wheel I'm speechless, tears and applause, very cool, Marty Snyder is on pit road with Tony Urie, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief and you wouldn't believe the emotion, the tears here for Dale Earnhardt Jr. if that wasn't like the old man who didn't .

You know what Tony Senior was Hey, he had a good teacher. He told her a lot about this place. He loves this place. Listen to them. Fans here. They love that child. Today I saw you look at the sky with a few laps left. What did you say? Well he said he knew he could beat him but we didn't know what was going to happen. Remember when we've seen this before and Steve Mills joins the fray now man Diaz hard diastolic what a finish at Daytona Dell Junior on top of the car in the box the 500 Miles from Daytona 1998 when his father finally won the great American race he threw the car into the grass doing victory donuts everyone joining in the celebration that's chocolate myers dale crewman richard childress racing from sixth to first in the last six laps is alright mikey you celebrate two you never got to celebrate your win in February you celebrate now Man that's such a great storybook ending come on Tony Urey and Dale Jr are getting together now he's gotta get back to victory lane let me tell you something, guys, it went to exactly the right place, exactly to the right place, I didn't.

I know how he knew to do that, but that's where he had to go and that poor Nascar official is responsible for that car to make sure it passes the MOT cleanly. There had to be about 300 people around him there on the grass, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is our winner and chevy congratulates him in the number eight monte carlo for a big win tonight and he will tell you that the only thing that comes close to monte carlo reputation on the track is its reputation on the street monte carlo more champions depend on chevy We will be there at Victory Lane and Bill Weber.

I'm Tony Urey, senior, Dale Earnhardt Jr., these friends are yours, man, I just don't know what to say, I'm more out, I can't think, uh, I guess I have to thank my friend. crew chief tony for hanging in there with me all my friends all the budweiser remington team guys i could talk all night how you got to the front after the rest i had a great car everything was a 100 car just waiting you've learned a few things along the way the years, although haven't you done it about certain people? Yes, yes, he was with me tonight.

I don't know how I did it, but he was there and Mike will help me. I guess we are. Even now you told Marty Schneiderdale that you were lonely on Father's Day and there were times when you wanted to cry but couldn't. You cried tonight. I'll cry later. I don't know. I feel so good now. I'm exhausted, you know, when your dad got his first win at Daytona, his first Winston Cup points win came 11 years ago today, July 7, 1990. I dedicate this win to him, I mean, there's no one else to who can dedicate it to him. it would mean more to me i want to say hello to teresa at home i hope she likes this because i sure appreciate it congratulations dale earhardt jr now here comes steve park his teammate who won at rockingham after we lost dale earhardt here so the celebration here continue let's go to matt and in february it was michael walter who pushed to victory lane for dale earhardt jr.

Did you return that favor tonight? It was that the game plan michael, I just wanted dale jr to win that much and I wanted to be a Part of it, I didn't want to finish tenth or twelfth and the Napa Auto Parts Spirit of America hot rod was running, it was very fast, but I was committed to Dale Jr just like he was with me in February and I'll tell him. you when i really learned my lesson when i was running third guarding dale jr and rusty that's what dale was doing in february that's a handful they were on me but i stayed committed i wasn't about to abandon them and dale jr He called me Monday morning after the 500 during the day and he said, I'm there for you, bro, and he was, and I just wanted to be a part of it with him on top of the car, you two hugged each other. and then they were talking to each other. ears, what were they saying?

This it is. All two. We are very excited to come to Daytona. This place is a part of our lives more than any other place in the world. We weren't more excited. than normal, we were as normal as possible since we lost our friend, but we were excited about racing and then having him like that it was great to be on top of the car with Dale Jr, but he's young and they go head-to-head. heads, I think my head is going to hurt, then he jumped out of the car and I think I weigh more than everyone on my team, so I didn't want to hurt them or me, so I sneaked out and got here thanks to Klausner. furniture ritz cookies coca-cola chevrolet goodyear tires and especially napa auto parts the biggest nascar sponsor thank you all a special night a special victory for dale earhardt incorporated allen dale earhardt jr becomes driver number 38 in the long history of this track in earn the right to go to victory lane and hold a Daytona winners trophy what I drove what I performed final results in the pepsi 400 elliot sadler excellent third place I don't know where he came from in those last 20 laps mike wallace will finish in 11th place spot dale jarrett 13. ricky rudd 15. getting a lot of points over points leader jeff gordon tonight let me mention that tony stewart i told you he never responded to the black flag while listed in sixth place right now he's under penalty and nascar hasn't yet I have not determined where its final position is.

I can assure you that it won't be in six, although the celebration will continue well into the night with that young man. I assure you, what a way to return to Daytona, so many things have been done. all week of what he would have to go through having to come here, he's been through the best he could dale Earnhardt jr won the pepsi 400 he'll be back in just a minute at Daytona as the celebration continues in victory lane it's time Since we choose autotrader.com career moves, can there be any questions? Well, don't move the camera, just leave it there, with that young man, that's my vote, dale Earnhardt jr, second, that one who was incredible, restarted sixth with six laps to go. and he won the race and took the lead with four laps to go dale Earnhardt jr let's go with dave burns bobby labonte has been standing down here producing television chatting with the crew chief jimmy maycard you're very relaxed you're relieved this is over well, yeah Of course we are, you know, and you know, tonight I ran eight laps the whole night.night and that doesn't seem right, does it?

But you know, really, I know it's a big deal for Dale Jr. and Michael Waltrip. and dei and all those guys and uh, that's what it was about here, you know, the race on my part didn't go much further than you know, right at the end, Jimmy and then he made a big call for Tony, not in the pits, They had that precaution. You know anything could happen and we got track position there and that's what you needed because sometimes you can hardly overtake and you can get stuck and with that restart I was running third there or running up front and uh. running second behind d uh junior and uh michael walter passed me he had a very fast race car so I got back to fifth place which is a better night it probably should have been tonight so I can't complain much more than what I did to you.

Now I know that the Pontiacs tonight weren't bad race cars, they were just playing a good strategy until the end, Marty Well, the day before tonight, Elliot Sadler's best finish at Daytona was 18th and I think Alan Beswick said it best. Where you come from? I don't know, I think we had a pretty good decision tonight, we just got stuck in traffic and right at that last caution we put on four tires, I came off pit road and beat Michael on pit road and I stopped and let it go. He said guys, he's going to the front, I'm going to follow him and I stayed with Mike and he took me straight to the front, we finished third, just a great job for Motorcraft, everyone would do it, brothers, I can't think of a better night.

I'm more excited here and more nervous than in Bristol, congratulations to Dale Jr. I can't think of anyone else. I would rather see the race win. He did a great job. We feel like we won the race and finished in third place. second top five of his career, the other was the win at bristol, above, great race for elliott sadler, i want to go back and take another look at the situation with tony stewart, we talked about the out of bounds line and then if you went down below the starting line of the boundary line trying to improve your position you were going to get a black flag so the question is did Stewart hit from behind did he choose to go down the inside how did it work out well this is the restart this is the restart and It happened I guess the next lap, yeah, so when he comes back into turn four, we'll see him go below the line.

You know yeah, that's just turn one going below the line as they come out of turn four back into the. tri-oval and the question is whether he intentionally tried to improve his position by going down there or not. I think someone forced him down there. Yeah, I have to agree with you on that, but it looked like he moved there to do some evasive action, you know, there we see Dale Jr passing by Tony Stewart and here's Mike Wallace inside, he's going to cut low, here We're getting close to the incident, so this whipper is on the next lap, well, I guess it's the next lap.

Well, while we look into that, we'll tell you that what the drivers were told in the pre-race speeding was that if you intentionally went below the line trying to improve your position, you would be black flagged. Now the question is in Nascar. The call, in Nascar's view, was that he intentionally tried to improve his position when he went down the stairs or was forced to go down there to avoid hitting someone. Nascar's call was that he came down trying to improve his position, so they black-flagged him. We'll fix it after the break. Dale Earnhardt Juniors won the Pepsi 400.

We'll get back to Daytona in a minute. Back in Daytona, where Pepsi 400 spectators are enjoying a fireworks show on Independence Weekend, we had some fireworks at the end of it. It also involves Tony Stewart. We have found the incident in question now and show it to you. This comes out of turn four onto the tri-oval and he's racing Johnny Benson in car ten. He looks like he just had a really good race on the track. The store car begins to cut under him. 10 The car goes down a little. It's a tough call, Benny, it's a tough call, but Tony Stewart was clearly below the yellow line.

Now the decision you have to make is whether Johnny Benson forced him down. there or he did it, he went down there of his own volition, he forced that angle, it sure got him there, Benson ran him over there and Tony Stewart didn't get off the gas, he goes down below the yellow line, Nascar black flags. him, that's greg zipodelli, tony stewart's crew chief, the man in the middle is gary nelson, the director of the winston cup series, and the man with his back to you is the team owner, joe gibbs, to me, it looked like tony would have stepped off the gas there.

It would have been a disaster to avoid going down there. Joe argued with the referee side of him over the course of his time. He has his hands full. Matt Yoakam has more Matt. Well, the fireworks continue down here. Alan. I spoke with Greg Zippadeli. Tony. The crew chief, right before Gary Nelson from Nascar arrived, said we know that the 10 forced him down there. We saw it on video the first time, that's what Tony told us too, but we have to get our point across to Nascar. hoping that we can get some video to show gary nelson and just then gary nelson walked down the coast joe gibbs is also making the case for team 20 very very forcefully as you can see he is talking to gary nelson, gary is listening, but they We hope that this resolution here is resolved in your favor, while we wait to find out exactly where Tony Stewart ends up in this Pepsi 400, we will come back and talk about Dale Earnhardt Jr., what a night, I mean the whole Preparing for this, what would it be like to return to Daytona for the first time since your father lost his life here in that terrible accident on February 18?

Dale Jr. subject to so much speculation that we question ourselves during qualifying. the other day asking me what he was thinking and what he was feeling at that moment we know what he's thinking and feeling at the moment yeah, you know, and he said bill, whoever asked him, did you cry? and he said and said no, I really believe that's what He said no, but I'll do it. I'm not ashamed to tell you that I shed a tear. I want to say it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in this sport. You know, Bill Weber asked me after the show's preview.

The most exciting thing about the first half of the season will be that this will eclipse anything that happened in the first half, whereas there are some races where, as a driver, if you can't win, you're happy to see someone else win, definitely. uh, you know, I think there's 42 other guys that were doing this exact same thing that Michael did. It was great to see Michael go up there and return the favor of the Daytona 500 and I guarantee Dale Jr wanted this. race, he may not have shown it emotionally, but he really wanted to win this race.

Daytona has always been a magical and exciting place for me, a wonderful place to go for a car race when we left here on February 18, it was the darkest place. I've ever remembered leaving a race track and this does a lot for those thousands of spectators, millions of Dale Earnhardt fans who need closure for Daytona, maybe the same for Dale Earnhardt Jr., obviously, it's not such a situation. simple for him, but maybe this can offer Dale Earnhardt fans some closure when it comes to this Daytona race track.