 Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and caffeine. Welcome to Daytona International Speedway for the Great American Race and hello from the World Center of Racing as well. You're seeing this aerial shot just happening at the racetrack. Hello everyone and welcome in. I'm Katelyn Vinci alongside Alan Cavana for our infield party. This is exciting. Alan, the race is underway. We got a great seat for it. It is and the cars are going by right behind us. You can hear the crouch here and you can hear the cars. They are very loud and you call it the Great American Race. It's already a great race. We're on lap 10 right now. Matt DiBenedetto is leading and we heard the whole crowd go crazy when the 95 Toyota took the lead. That's really cool. That's right. Yeah, so I know it's really early in the goings, but hey, we see two lines working here on the racetrack. That is a great thing. And I know we are worried about the two lines and I think if you're watching right now on Fox, you can see we're heading lap 11 and they are about to do a tribute to the late JD Gibbs for the lap 11. Joe Gibbs Racing, the whole NASCAR community. It's a really special moment that we have to acknowledge right now. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, if you're watching on Fox simultaneously with us, you're seeing there a coach Gibbs obviously. Shots of him from the pit box as they commemorate his late son. A very special moment obviously for the entire Joe Gibbs Racing family. But we want to again welcome you guys into this very unique one of a kind show here from the Daytona 500. We have another member of our team who will be joining us shortly. I think you guys all know who he is. Michael Waldtrip, who was just doing his grid walk for the Daytona 500 coverage on Fox. He'll be with us soon. Yeah, a two time Daytona 500 winner. That's two more than I can say on my resume or yours. But you know, that's always a positive thing to have. It is. But hey, you know, we'll get our shot sometime. Yeah, but just to be down here, as Fox finishes up the tribute right now. I mean, this is a unique way to watch the Daytona 500 right now to hear it and see it and then be able to talk about it. And I mean, I know you were a race fan before you obviously became a broadcaster. What's like your first memory of Daytona? Oh, I mean, it just goes back to being a kid and watching it with your family, right? I mean, we used to have Daytona Day here on Fox. We had Daytona Day's way back when I was a kid. And I remember was the first one I remember that probably in 1993, when Dale Jarrett beat Dale Earnhardt and my man Rusty Wallace, if Caitlin, he went flipping about 11 times down the back stretch, which is just there. And it just blew my mind. And from that moment on, I was a race fan. You were a race fan. I know your whole family, your dad's comes with you to quite a few races to experience it with you as well. My first time coming here was working for Speed Channel back in the day. And when you come to this venue, you're just kind of blown away by the enormity of it. It is a very big racetrack. And this particular event is such a spectacle for the fans. So much goes into putting on the great American race. This is our Super Bowl. It is, it is. And look, what we've been very, we've been benefiting from so far is look at the racing that's going on. Yes, there were some people who are a little worried about the races before today. So hopefully this is silent seeing the critics of what we're seeing right now is pretty fantastic because Alan and I have a big screen in front of us able to see it. I'm getting a cue now from our producer. I'm told that Mr. Michael Waldrip is on his way. So we're going to listen to him as he walks on over. All right, let's take a listen with Michael. The best racetrack in the world, the biggest event in the world. It's sold out in the grandstands. And we're going to have a viewing party. We're heading down to an area in the garage area where we're going to stand to the side, watch all the cars go by, listen to the fans, answer questions. That's magical to me. Did you hear that? That's 40 cars in a pack side by side battling for the lead in the Daytona 500. So many things to come. We got stage breaks. We got pit stops. I'm sure we're going to have some accidents and actions. And so the garage area is empty right now, but we're going to have a party. We're going to get this all going. How you doing? We're live. Have you sweat going? I've got a couple spare teachers in the car, so I might go change for stage two. What kind of desire and love do you have? It's all for Jeff Gordon. It is, 100%. 24 ever right here. 24 ever. You don't never go away. So I'm a diehard now, William Byron fan for life. Chase Elliott was with us for a few years, but now it's Willie B. But I think we got a good start today. Do you want to hear an interesting trivia factoid? I would. Willie B went to high school with my daughter. Wow. Macy. Let's go get her. Come with me. Macy. This is the world's biggest Jeff Gordon fan. And now he's a Willie B fan. And so he wanted to meet you because I told him you went to high school with Willie B. Yes, I did. He's awesome. I hope he wins today. I hope so too. We're all cheering for him. Where is he at on the pylon? Seventh. You okay with that? He's keeping it safe right now. Yeah, he's playing the long game. Are you Jordan Taylor? I'm Ronnie Sandstorm. I'm glad. I got Jordan's watch. Oh, wow. Are those Jordan socks? Those are Jordan socks. Yeah, I get to borrow his outfit. All right, Ronnie. I'm glad. So listen, we're going to be watching the race down here at the end of the garage. You want to stop by? All right, we'll come stop by. Okay. Text me and let me know what's going on. Sounds good. Nice to see you. Nice to see you too. See you later. This is how we were on the Jake Owen concert introduction. You want me to do it? Yeah, okay. NASCAR fans, are you ready to rock? What? I want to do it. I want to do it right. You ready? NASCAR fans, are you ready to rock? Yeah, yeah. Let's welcome. You do it. I don't remember. Let's welcome multi platinum recording artist, singer, songwriter, big loud music. That's how it was supposed to go. But we had a technical difficulty. My hair is kind of a mess. So I'm looking for, I'm looking for Alan and I'm looking for Caitlin, Vincy, because they said they were going to be watching the Daytona 500 with their friends. And I said, that sounds great. And he's entertaining to see Michael roaming around the garage area. What? He's close by. He's very close by right behind us. I can see Michael. All right, Michael's back. Michael's back. Hello, Michael. Here he is. How's it going? Good. Caitlin, you told me you and Alan were going to be down here watching the Daytona 500 with all your friends. Oh yes. I have zero friends, as you see. Where are they? They're off watching the first few laps. You guys are it, honestly. I keep a small social circle. It has been. So we just saw a bunch of cycles of pit stops already taking place. We got one dead in the water on the bottom. That's right. Yep. We saw the Fords pit together and that's it so far. Daniel Suarez didn't get the memo. Your buddy Denny Hamlin a little out of shape. He did not. Oh. Probably. Gas can down on Perot. Uh-oh. What happened there? That's a very open-ended question. Caution on the speedway. This is a good time. Yeah, here we go. What do the spotters say when everybody comes pit road? Don't slide them. Don't slide them. Don't slide them. Don't slide them. Don't slide them. And they're talking about. He slid them. That means he flat-spotted his right front, went back on the track, it blew out, and now he's blown his whole car up. Don't you feel bad for that paint scheme? The one thing you didn't want to do was ruin that hood. That's right. Now it's gone. We talked a lot about that paint scheme for Corey Lucho. So now we're going to get a good look at it. Yeah, you don't want to slide your tires. Your spotter, your crew tells you that. Now I just walked up. I've been hanging out down there with Rodney Sandstorm. Oh, yes. We saw you with him. Rodney. So I didn't see if Corey had come to pit road, but my guess is when he came for his green flag pit stop, he got in too hot, slid his tire, and then he ripped part of his right cheek off. Yeah, look at that. Oh, my cheek. Damaged car, yeah. Well, you are a two-time winner of this race, Michael. How awesome is it to win the Daytona 500? It's the best feeling in the whole world, and you know what's great about it, Caitlin? And so many things in life aren't this way. It just gets better every day. Yeah. The looking back, the memories, the trophies. Oh, yes. Having those victories with your team, it's just something that will live with me forever. And whoever is fortunate enough to come to Victory Lane or drive to Victory Lane in this race today, they're going to have that same life-changing experience. When it first happens, I don't really think you think of it as life-changing. It's just you want a big race, and it's pretty awesome. But as time goes on, it's part of who you are. You can win a lot of races on the NASCAR circuit, whether it's in the trucks or in the car or in the car, but it just simply doesn't hang with you like that. You've been doing too much walking. I'm going to let you sit down. Oh, you're leaving? Well, I'm going to go put on the scanner. I'm going to listen to some reports and come fill us in with the information that we need for this race. That's right. Well, here's something else I'd like to do. Caitlin, we're going to go on the way down here. And Biden, some of your friends, she said she had this covered. I'll go find some friends. The truth is out, I have zero friends. My buddy JJ Watt is out there. Oh, no, I interviewed him. Yeah. Yeah. Bring him along here. Sit down, Michael. Okay. There we go. I'll be right back. I want to tell you what, don't kick me with sitting down next to Caitlin Menzey. That's pretty good time. Michael, I'll take your wireless mic. Perfect. And do you have a question for us? We actually have the fans want to hear about Corey LaJoy's car. The Corey LaJoy's car. And his face on it. Yeah, he's manscaped. That's what that's all about. His car is about grooming your beard and other things. Other things. And we see here is hero card. It says a breath of fresh hair is the slogan they're using this year. Very creative paint scheme, though. Have you ever seen anything quite like that? No, it's one of, I'm into that kind of stuff. I love crazy paint schemes. He has a nice set of teeth, which certainly accents this look. But what they're going to have to do now is tape up his face. We saw he's lost part of his right cheek. He's got some damage there. Yeah. And earlier in the week, we actually talked to Corey and we want to listen now to what Corey and a couple other drivers had to say about that car. Nice. On the hood of that car. It's a old spice. Wanted it. And they had a pretty good idea of how it was going to blow up social media. And it did that times about 10 of what everybody thought. So funny enough, what the sponsor wants, the sponsor gets, and they slap my face on the hood and an old spice on the quarter panels and actually looks, it's growing on me a little bit. I didn't like it at first, but it's all right. So the thing about Corey and the joyous car is, although it's original in the fact that he actually did it, everyone's always joked about doing that. And all of my friends back home have always wanted to like pool money together to buy the sponsorship on my car one time, to put their own faces. So when they saw that, they all texted me and they were really disappointed that we were not the first to do that. But I think it's awesome. It achieved exactly what they wanted to do, which I think was, you know, to get social media play and that sort of thing. And I love seeing that sort of uniqueness from sponsors. And I hope more sponsors meet just as innovative in the future. I think for the right scenario, I definitely do it. I definitely think that seeing that car in my rearview mirror would be an interesting experience this weekend. You know, everybody has their own stick and Corey, I think it fits well for him. No, I don't think I'll be doing that one anytime soon for me, but I love it. I think it's absolutely probably the best paint scheme in the field. Well, it seems like a lot of the drivers were pretty surprised that someone actually did this idea of putting a face on the car. But it's worked out for him, right? Well, I mean, you've got to do more over deliver for your sponsors. You've got to do things no one else does. And I think Corey LaJoy's car is a perfect example of that manscape. That sponsor, I could hair less. There's so many jokes that you could make and have fun with as a driver. I had some awesome sponsors when I raced cars. Napa and Aaron's, Toyota, just to name a few. And Aaron's, they sponsored my Xfinity car and they even sponsored some races in Cup as well for me. They were all about just having fun. And that fit in right perfectly with what I like to do. And so the Aaron's partnership, the commercials we made, heck, we even got ODW to come out of retirement to run a race with Aaron. So they did it all and they were a special partner. And I'm just so thankful for the memories and what we were able to do together. Yeah, well, you certainly can't go racing without the sponsors. They're very important, very important. So we obviously have been talking a lot about Daytona. You've been coming here for years. What do you think is so special about this particular race? Our Super Bowl of the year. Let me ask you one question before I answer that. What year were you born? 1987. All right. My first Daytona 500 was 1987. So, okay. So whatever you've been about your whole life, what do you like? What are you into? Racing, racing, and broadcasting. And broadcasting. And by the way, you were awesome hosting the pre-race show for the trucks Friday night. Thank you, Michael. You were awesome in the booth as you always are. What a race that was. That's what's so interesting about today. We'll have to circle back to the question, but that's what's so awesome about today. Drivers watch every race. They want to see whether they're a cup driver or a truck driver. They're going to watch the race. And these Monster Energy Cup Stars, they're here. And Friday night, they watched a truck race. And they saw crash after crash after crash. They're like, okay, I'm ready for Sunday. It's going to be crazy. I'm going to crash a lot. Then they watched the XFINITY race. And it was not a lot of crashing. Complete opposite race. So a lot of single file. Right. So as a driver, you know, you take all that information in and those are your two data points. And what are you supposed to expect today? Who knows? That's right. What do you think of what we've seen so far though? I think it's been very entertaining. We've found out that just riding around the top isn't a safe. I mean, it's not going to work. Right. They're going to be down below you. The inside line is working well. Here we see the cars going three wide, which is awesome. So, you know, today, what I would love is to see a Daytona 500 a lot like the 2018 one. I mean, we got Austin Dillon in the three car winning. We had dramatic passes and crashes. And you know, it's our biggest event of the year. These guys have got to push. They got to go. And you can see we're only 25 laps in, not even a quarter of the way. And we're three wide. That's right. And what does it take obviously with your past success winning at Daytona? What does it take to be a good plate racer? You know, you have to be ready and able to adapt. And a lot of people ask me that, you know, why were you so good when it came to racing at Daytona and Talladega? I think there was a couple of reasons. I really paid attention to what my car was telling me, what it wanted, how it handled. But then also, I was never just running wide open in line. Even if it looked like I was, I was working my gas on, off, trying to figure out how I could get runs, how I position myself to make passes. And you can't just run blind wide open and hold on. You know, you've got to be mentally sharp and mentally prepared for the challenge. Yeah, it certainly seems like there is a whole finesse to being able to do that type of a racing. So why don't you kind of explain to the people who are listening why your teammates and your partners are so important at a race like this? Well, they are at the end. And they are at times in the beginning. But to think you're going to go 500 miles hanging out with your teammates, that doesn't usually happen. It rarely happens in fact. And so you better, you better be ready to race around everyone. And then you just keep looking in your mirror. If you're upfront and you're hoping that one of your teammates comes, how are you looking out that windshield and say, what I've got to do? What do I have to do to get to my teammates? And so listen to this, while you're thinking all that, while you're performing all that, this is what it sounds like. That's right. That's, that's the driver. I think they're just, they're, they're unique special individuals to be able to do all that thinking, do all that planning and have that engine under the hood yelling at them like that. I don't know how you guys do it. It's like a bad girlfriend. And no one wants that. That's what an engine sounds like. I see our producer here. Do we have a question? Yeah. So we're getting a lot of questions because people are seeing this. Yes. This. What is that all about? This is our, our board of picks for the race. Our Daytona 500 picks. So you can see I have some and Michael has some. Did you pick those? Yes. Those are my guys. I like Denny Hamlin. I like Ricky, Clint, Kyle and my long shot and a guy that I believe if you're watching at home, you better listen to me. I've been around a long time. That's right. Ryan Priest. Yeah. So my picks were Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Martin Truyx, Chase Elliott. My long shot was Corey LaJoy who we've already been talking about, but that probably might not be a good one since he's already had issues. Well, he might have put some tape on his face and be back in the fray. Right back in the fray. Yeah. Let's pan back with our Fox Sports cameras and see if we can find Corey LaJoy. I don't know how far we would have to pan back. I don't either. You know, I picked Kyle Busch who has won a Daytona, but never the 500. And I'm going to tell you, Caitlin, we might have to pan back all the way to Orlando to find your guy. Great. So you're making me feel real good about these picks is what I'm hearing. Look at these tight shots. Look at that bass humping up and down. Look at the young man enjoying the race from the stands. This is Fox NASCAR and this day couldn't get any better for me. Okay. So that kind of brings me back to my original question for you about this racetrack being special and this race, everything that goes into it. It's such a spectacle to Daytona 500. Maybe what's your best memory of coming here? Obviously your wins, but anything else standing out? Oh, you know, my first trip. Your first trip. I roughly have 45 seconds to tell that story, Caitlin, because that's when our 40 friends will be back. But just, you know, as a kid, I grew up in Kentucky and I watched my brother race at the local tracks and I was a huge race car fan. I wanted to be a racer just like my brother. And every February since in the early 70s, my brother came south and went racing at Daytona. And when my family, my mom and dad finally let me come along, just the memory of driving through the tunnel in turn four and up into the infield and looking at those massive banks. I'm telling you, those moments, those memories, they shaped me as a young kid. They made me want to be a racer. Those banks intrigued me. I saw them. They were so steep. How's the car stay on there? And just to go out there and run around the banks and be a part of this great event, eventually being able to fortunately enough win it and have those trophies at home. I don't, I'm pretty sure there's nothing better that there's no possession other than my kids and my grandkids now that means more to me than those trophies. I believe it. We're letting those cars pass. It's very loud. So we've heard Michael talk about what it has meant to him to win the Daytona 500. We do have some driver reaction from other drivers on what it would mean to them to win the 500, the great American race. So you can take a listen to hear some other driver feedback on winning this race. That's working really well. Oh, Jimmy. Contact. 18 gets him a run back. Right there. They make contact. Turns 18 around. Jeff, it must be something going on with the nose and the tail of these cars. Oh my God. Oh man. I went on Sunday. The party is going to go till Monday. That's going to be a big one. That's for sure because you're stuck here Sunday night. So you have the opportunity to make it as big as you want to make it. You know, I'm definitely not going to be going out to the tattoo parlor and getting any tattoos or anything like that. Oh man, I'm sure it'll be another epic night as a tattoo parlor. I'm not a partier. I'll tell you right now. It's usually I go home and maybe get a pizza. Hell yeah, it's going to be our weekend and I hope we party again with winning Daytona. It's surreal with all the emotions and then just the excitement of where are we going next? What are we doing? There's a lot of eyes. We need to cross our dots and tees. We need to cross before we get there. But man, if it happens, everybody's invited. Call me that night. We'll find out. But it'll be a fun night. It'll be a rough morning. But that's all I know. All right. Well, we've heard a lot of the drivers talking about what it would mean to them to win the Daytona 500. One of the guys who's won this race is Jimmy Johnson. He has turned a little bit of heads throughout the course of speed weeks. A little bit. What do you make of the 48 so far of what you've seen? Well, the move in the clash was just very aggressive. And you've got to figure your approach in the guy. Look at the Toyotas. All the talk has been about the fours. Then we got a couple of fours and Ricky Stenhouse and Kevin Harvick teamed up on the outside. But the Toyotas have driven around them anyway. I'm excited about it. We're still excited about the race. Yeah, of course. But the crash with Jimmy. Yes. What your opinion is on that? You know, he was very aggressive and Paul's going to move over a little. You know that. And when he did, they made contact. I can't place 100% blame on Jimmy there. I just know that you kind of got to know a guy's going to move a little bit. And try to respect that. And he's a leader, so you give him that room. But then he admitted up to a mistake. He admitted up to a mistake on Thursday in the duel where he clipped Kyle Busch. And I'm going to tell you, Caitlin, in 07, I had to race my way in the Daytona 500 through the qualifying races. And I did it. I mean, it looked exactly like what Jimmy did. I did it to Dell Jr. off turn two. Oh boy. I needed it in a hole and it was a tight hole. And I went for it and Dell Jr. was in part of my hole. And I spun him around. So, you know, I understand it happens. And what I think, what I hope, just no, not what I hope. What I know. Hope is not a strategy, right? No, hope isn't. Hope's a terrible strategy. That never worked. What I think I will see today out of Jimmy Johnson is a very competitive mistake free race. Yes. Does he win? That'd be pretty cool. It would be. It would be a great story, obviously. But he's definitely going to compete. But something that happened in the draft yesterday that I not only saw it, I witnessed it. That's a joke. But anyway, when Kyle Busch got out front, he ran lap times faster than we saw the leaders running in the duel on Thursday. Right now, Kyle Busch has fought his way to the front. He's leading the race. And he's stretching things out. That's right. So, we were just talking about Jimmy Johnson. Obviously, what an eventful speed weeks he has had so far. Michael's brother Daryl Waltrip spoke about this earlier. A little bit of his thoughts on Jimmy Johnson so far in speed weeks. Well, look, I don't think there's any question about Jimmy Johnson's having a bad week. You know, he's been involved in a couple of the incidences, the one on Sunday. I got to be honest with you, I was pretty upset about that. I thought it could have been avoided. Jimmy just didn't give Paul Menard enough room and he got into him. And of course, it wrecked 16 race cars. And I think as a driver most of the time, my mind operates more as a driver than it does an analyst. And when I see all those cars wadded up in the corner, it upsets me. And I don't like to place blame, but if Jimmy doesn't hit Paul Menard, there's no wreck. So, okay, so we can pass that off as that was a racing deal. I misjudged a little bit, took a little bit of responsibility for that and we move on. But in the qualifying race, that's all on Jimmy. And I told Jeff Gordon, I said, Jeff, you got to go down there. And maybe you got to get in his car. Maybe his view is obstructed. Maybe his headrest is too high or maybe he's got a mirror in the wrong spot. I'm not sure what's going on. And even Jimmy said himself, I don't know what happened. Well, but when we have it on tape, we know what happened. His car jumped into the side of the 18 and spun him out. So I know Jimmy's concerned. Look, Jimmy's a seven-time champion with 83 wins. And there's a lot of us in this sport have said probably the greatest driver we've ever seen. So when you're the greatest driver, you have high expectations. And this is what Jimmy got upset with me about. It's when a hero of mine does something that doesn't live up to my expectations, that's disappointing to me. And that may have been a little bit over the top because, you know, we're in cars and we're out on the track. We're doing 200 miles an hour. Anything can happen. But first time, probably that was a racing deal. Last night, it was all on Jimmy. And so we got to figure out what's going on here and correct it before Sunday. Good insight from him. Oh, yeah. Talking there about. My brother has won this race before. He's a three-time champion. He's probably watched more races than you and I have together. And so anytime Daryl speaks, you better listen. You better listen. There you heard it. Well, we've been talking about Jimmy Johnson. Obviously, big change for him in the offseason. No longer paired with his longtime crew chief of Chad Canouse. Do you think that there is a friendly kind of battle between the two of them on who will get a victory first without the other? I don't know. I bet you they were both happy for their success leading into the Daytona 500. Jimmy won the clash. And Chad. Chad won the poll. And I mean, yeah, you're but, you know, you want to beat your enemies. But you kind of want to beat your friends worse. I bet. You're going to have bragging rights. And to be able to be the first one of those two to victory lane, that'd be nice. But I'm telling you, it's more about a, I think, a bigger body of work. Who races for a championship? That's true. Who is the next real contender for the to be the top of this sport? I think that's what those two who I'd almost be like, who cares, who wins first, who cares, who wins most wins most. That's true. So we've been talking about obviously Jimmy Johnson and splitting up with Chad Knauss. There's been a lot of changes in the off season within the sport. Michael actually did a piece for us from race hub, talking about new faces in new places for 2019. Hey guys, bad producing alert. Oh, bad producing. We don't have that tape. Oh, I'm very sorry. Way to go. You put it on my list. You didn't have it. I'm sorry. It's Janko's fault. However, we do have a really cool tape on a rivalry that's very special to NASCAR that we're going to play for you right now. I got to go team Gordon because that's my boy. That's who I grew up watching, following and cheering for. But I also love the sport in general and everybody around it. And so I was an Earnhardt fan, a Jarrett fan, a Lobani fan, a Gordon fan, Wallace fan. I mean, I just, I just love the sport in general. So it was always cool to be able to watch these guys, the different personalities, how they went about being able to win their races, how successful they were, and just what came about and being a NASCAR fan. Yeah, I'm definitely an Earnhardt fan. I mean, I think Gordon give Earnhardt a run for his money and obviously earned a bunch of it. But I was always an Earnhardt fan. I loved watching that rivalry. I grew up a Gordon fan. My brother grew up an Earnhardt fan. So we'd sit on the couch and harass each other during all those times. It was a great time to be a fan of racing. You know, if I had to favor the rivalry, I would probably say Gordon, simply because my dad was an Earnhardt guy. And so I was always, you know, I was a Bill Elliott fan. So, you know, him and Bill Elliott had their, their moments where they butted heads. And so anybody that was against Earnhardt, I was for that guy. Yeah, definitely. You don't think I'm on the Gordon side? No, growing up, obviously being a huge Dale Earnhardt fan, my whole family was, and our weekends were based off of where Dale Earnhardt was and hoping that in that time, the antagonist, Jeff Gordon, wasn't going to win the race. And he was our rival at the time. But you know what is so cool is I got to make a start in Jeff Gordon's final start. And I really appreciated that moment. It meant a lot to me because I look up to him so much. And he's an awesome guy. He's done so much for our sport and guys like myself. And to be a little bit apart of his history meant a lot to me. He is a hero and a legend of mine. And my wife was his biggest fan growing up. So I think now I have such appreciation for Jeff and that whole series is going to be a lot of fun. I'm caught in between because my family, we grew up rooting for the black three car. But then this guy named Jeff Gordon came along and him and I share the same birthday. Of course, Jeff's older. But it was great to have August 4th as a birthday to share. And his first race was one of the first times I was starting out racing as well. And so I always had my rainbow warrior shirt on, but it was underneath my Dale senior jacket. No, I mean, people are going to take this the wrong way. But I mean, Jeff's a friend of mine now because I've got to know him, but I wasn't a fan of either one of them. Just from the standpoint of, you know, my dad was also in that mix. And yeah, I didn't pull free to one of them. I respected them, but I was never, never really a fan by any means. So I hope people don't take it the wrong way. But I have to kind of look at it from my view. I had family ties, so, you know, family first. Man, to be on, it's hard not to be on Jeff's side just because he's such a good friend. And I wasn't fortunate enough to ever meet Earnhardt senior. There was one time I was actually down here for the 24-hour race. I believe junior and senior were running it at the same time that year. And I walked by him and they were talking and I almost introduced myself and didn't quite do it. But the amount of respect and what you've learned about what Earnhardt's done over the years, you know, there's just a level of respect with that guy that just flows through the whole NASCAR garage. And it's hard not to, you know, want to be on his side as well. But I think just the fact that, you know, Jeff and I were such good friends over the years, it'd be hard not to pick him. You know, for me, that guy growing up was Dale Earnhardt. You know, being from Knapkins, North Carolina, myself, same place as him. It was incredible to see what a guy, just a hard-working guy that's wanted to provide for his family, was able to, you know, make for himself and, you know, build the things he built and the legs he built in our sport. And I was five years old when I started racing and he was the guy I wanted to be. And for sure, without a doubt, is the reason that I want to pursue where I am at today. Jeff Gordon, for sure. I have to say that, but also I like him. Yeah, I never had a chance to watch, you know, Dale really race when I was younger. So definitely be on the Jeff's side of it. You know, I've heard about all the stories and watched some of their rivalry going back and forth. You know, I was one of the random people that was kind of unbiased. I mean, I watched through that era. I loved watching every week, loved their rivalry. And I wasn't really on one side or the other. I just loved the passion that the two of them both had. Well, the bad thing is I'm a little bit too young to ever have remembered Dale Earnhardt racing. I was born in 96. So I was always a huge Jeff Gordon fan. So I guess, you know, I watched the few years between himself and Dale Jr. when I was a bigger deal back then. But I was always a big Jeff Gordon fan. I'm fortunate enough that I've been doing this a long time that I've raced against Senior and Jeff Gordon. And I think it's knowing the quality of the people that did it. I know who did it. And I think it's going to be absolutely amazing. I can't wait to watch it. I do have it set on the DVR so I can see it. And I'm excited to see how well it turned out. Do I have a side? No, I'm just a fan. I don't have sides on it. I like the whole aspect of it. And, you know, Senior versus Jeff, you know, the old man versus, you know, the pretty boy. And I mean, it was, I can't wait to see how they did. My derasic background wants to take Jeff's side. But, you know, Dale Earnhardt was a man. And everyone knew it. And he was, you know, everyone's the intimidator. He literally intimidated everybody. But I love their rivalry. Oh, team. I'm Gordon. Yeah, I've been a Jeff Gordon fan. And nobody else in my family was. Nobody, none of our friends were. So I've stayed strong with it. And, you know, a couple years ago, he actually recognized me in street clothes, walking through, walking between two garages, I think, in Indianapolis. He just said, hey, Ross. So that was, that was really cool. And I was just running Xfinity. You know, I just started. So that was, that was really neat for me that he recognized me. I don't know. I'm going to see the documentary first. But I'm going to have to probably lead to Jeff since he's my colleague now. So I'm going to have a hard time going against him. I'm from Canapas, North Carolina. So obviously I'm going to be team Earnhardt. But both those guys did amazing things for the sport. And Jeff's a great dude. All right. Well, if you're watching the Daytona 500, which I'm sure that you are, here is the aerial shot right here from Daytona International Speedway. We have had a wreck on track and involved Bubba Wallace as well as Kurt Busch. So big incident for them. We're going to show it to you a replay in just a moment. But we just heard all those people talking about Earnhardt and Gordon. I know you watched the documentary on rivaled the other night on Fox Sports One. Tell me some, some of your thoughts about that, about the two of those guys. I just think Fox Sports did an amazing job of capturing what that rivalry was all about. Right. And it's so interesting. It almost, you know, the rivalry between Dale and Jeff reminds me a bit of the friendship that Dale and I enjoyed. You know, we're, we're different. I was Darrell's little brother. I grew up in Kentucky. People kind of didn't really know what I was all about. And Dale is the man and we became really good buddies. And, and through his friendship, he always told me if I could drive one of his cars, I'd win. And I think he wanted to prove to the world that I could win in one of his cars. And so our friendship certainly was, was the polar opposite of a rivalry, but the relationship between me, Darrell's little brother and Dale Earnhardt is as interesting as the rivalry was between the kid from California and the greatest NASCAR racer of all time, Dale Earnhardt. And so I watched it and obviously I was, you know, I've relived a lot of moments, a lot of things that, that I saw and I knew. And I just think that it was really well done and entertaining and well told. And then at the end, you got a visitor. They are beautiful. That's my daughter, Macy. And then at the end, when Dale, when Jeff went to Dale's memorial in Canapas and we saw that and Jeff was there and just respect and appreciation, Macy was, was a baby when, when Dale and I were buddies. And so she remembers us going fishing or being on the boat together, but she didn't really know the relationship, you know, as much, but we're making a documentary about, about our lives and our times together. That's really exciting. I wasn't aware y'all were making a documentary. That's awesome. Where you been? At the bus. You're in school right now, studying mechanical engineering. Yeah, at the University of Michigan. That is really impressive. Do you want, are you hoping to be a crew chief for engineers? We'll see. I don't know yet. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do. NASCAR is always a really good option for me. Oh, absolutely. You're all around it and I know all about it. And plus I introduced her to Mr. Pinsky and Mr. Hendrick. So I know some, Katelyn, I know people. He knows people. I can get her a job. That's right. And I know how bright your father is, so I'm sure you will be just the exact same way. We just saw a big crash, baby, in the Daytona 500. It was so hard to tell. We have great angles, Katelyn. I'm not sure there was ever contact. I think maybe, I think maybe in this wreck that Kurt was just trying to close the door. Certainly Ricky didn't give him a break. He stayed in the gas right on him and around went the one monster energy car. Ah, Kurt Busch, past Daytona 500 winner. That's not how he wanted to see things. No, and Bubba Wallace, such a big story a year ago here, finished second in the Daytona 500. He's been very competitive all week. And then Jamie Murray, making his last Daytona 500, his last NASCAR start. Yeah. He got it. That's three guys I didn't want to see wreck. Well, now absolutely. Jamie Mack, he's our teammate now. He's our teammate. And I know Alan Kovana has been on the pulse all throughout the course of the race, following the scanner of the team communications with everybody. He is once again joining us back. And what have you been seeing? What's your observations, Alan? A lot of drama guy. I don't know. Yeah, I'll talk to both of you guys. But no, just listen on the radio, Michael. I mean, we saw the Fords, first of all, get out there and dominate. Right now, the Toyotas and the Chevy's kind of working together. The Fords went backwards. You can hear it on the radio, Michael. Kevin Harvick kind of mad. No one wants to get in the same line and work together and go back to the front. So they're trying to organize that over the radio. None of them, they're not on the same page right now. That's what they're saying, at least. What do you think about this wreck, Alan? We have yet to see contact from Ricky to Kurt, but just look how close, like it was so close on the track, what we saw. It was. And Ricky over the radio said we didn't make contact. We're trying to keep looking at these replays and it's close. We know how the air works and it kind of forced someone out. The first thing I heard on the radio, that's what I'm doing inside there, is Eric Almerola was right behind the 17 and just commented how poorly the 17 has been handling. That's why the Fords would have trouble because the 17 was the first in that forward line and no one can get together behind him because he was handling so poorly. That's what the 10 said. It is intense. We got the restart going underway. You can probably hear it. And once again, it's going to be very loud in here right now. Michael, are you wanting to take a break or to see your daughter? Or what's going on with you? No, I'm just hanging out with her. She actually is flying back to the University of Michigan. To go to school tomorrow. So Mace has a car taking her to the Orlando airport. Katelyn, we're just normal people. We fly commercials. I like that. That's good. I don't send planes to get her. I just am thankful she's here. So in a bit, I'm going to take a break. I want to watch the end of the stage though. Yeah, we got seven laps to go. And although you stole my pick, Kyle Busch, you put him on your team. He's my guy. He's the guy that I've told everybody I think wins today. All right. I took his guy, but one of your guys is Denny Hamlin. He's running second. Yeah. And we flipped for it. It's not your fault. You went first. You took Kyle. I wanted Kyle. Oh, tight racing on the track. I hope people are tuning in to us and listening to the fun we're having watching and also checking out the competition. We were so worried about single file racing. We've been talking about it all week. It's not happening. So what about Denny Hamlin though? What do you think are his chances? Obviously, he's won here before. Obviously, he's a great talent and a fast racer. Hey, Katelyn, look behind us. We're starting to get some people. Oh, we have friends. We have friends after all. So Macy, Katelyn is my dear friend. We've worked together for a long time. And she said she knew a lot of people and they were all going to come watch our party with us. And that turned out not to be so much the case. Yeah, I see that. She's like, wow. She's like, this Katelyn girl must be a total loser. No friends. There's a... We got some ladies behind here to meet you, Michael, probably. Who likes the ladies? It's Janko's fault. Hi, ladies. It's not Katelyn's fault. It's Janko's fault. Hi, it's Michael. Nice to see y'all. That's my friend, Chad, over there. Got some Fox trading cards for her. So people are beginning to show up. I think the word's getting around, darling. Maybe it is. We're starting to draw a little crowd here. And also, something else is getting around. This race. Coming around in the end of the stage. Just five to go. Portigo now. Macy just pointed out her high school colleague. They went to Charlotte Country Day together. William Byron. Isn't that crazy? That is. In the world we live in, of all things, you are. I mean, you're not. Yeah. Okay, Michael, you said I was the other week. I'm not. I'm 31 years old, but I am, apparently, I'm old. Look at Matt Tift. I love this. As you look at your screen at home, Matt Tift has charged his way inside the top 10. And Jimmy Johnson, a contender again. Once again. Was he one of your picks? No. Yes, he was one of your picks. FYI, in case you didn't know. Jimmy Johnson. I know. You also got Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on there. We've seen success on restrictor plate race tracks for Stenhouse. A near miss for Ricky, too, with that contact with Kurt Busch and the spin. So he's a guy that you better keep your eye on. There's three to go in this stage. I think this is going to be interesting to see. Kyle Busch yesterday in practice, excuse me, Friday morning in practice, he pulled this draft along faster than we've seen ever before. So can he just set there? He's got his teammate Denny Hamlin right behind him. Can he just sit there on the bottom and win this stage? Or is there a move coming? You mentioned Denny Hamlin. There were some changes for him in the offseason. Obviously, he's got a new crew chief working with him with Chris Gabe Hart. What do you think that's going to do for him this year? Well, he loves wheels. It's crew chief Mike Wheeler. Mike Wheeler moved on. He's having a good day. He has Wheeler driving working with Matt DeBenedetto. Isn't that fun to say? Let's do it together. Matt DeBenedetto. That's cool. You say it better than me. No, we say it the same. But it's fun to see wheels having a good day. But I think Gabe Hart, that's the guy who's been in the Xfinity series. We've been able to get to know him a bit in the Xfinity and he's just been a real, I think asset to that, to the Gibbs organization. I think he's going to be a big benefit for Denny. Yes. And we also see another name of a young guy who you mentioned earlier, William Byron running up there in the top five as well with Chad. Knows now obviously guiding that ship. Veteran crew chief with a very young, pretty inexperienced driver. How do you think that pairing will benefit William? I think it was time. I think it was time for Jimmy and Chad both to have something new. It's the last final lap of the stage. We see a lot of jockeying on the TV. On the screen with Jimmy Johnson moving around. Joey Logano making moves. Here comes the outside line. Alex Bowman's got a big push by Logano. Kyle goes up the block. Can he shoot to the bottom? This is what we hope for when we talked about the Daytona 500. We want it to be dramatic. We want it to be intense. And it's just that. And dramatic is exactly what it has been so far. You see there, Kyle Busch looking to get that first stage win of the year. And he does. Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney following him. My pick, Kyle Busch did good, didn't he? He did do good. You called it. Michael Waltrip is a genius. Well, could you say that again? You broke up. Michael Waltrip is a genius. I lost you there for a minute. Stage one winner, you see it there. Kyle Busch off to a good start for the 18 team. And now that the stage is completed, I see our producer. Yeah, an interesting question from a fan who asks, right now at the end of the first stage, are drivers nervous or anxious? No, I think the drivers are totally just loving what they're feeling right now. They're up to make moves. They're up to make passes. They can get runs either on the inside or outside. We saw a big change in the top five running order. Sure, Kyle Busch was able to hold everyone off. And I'm telling you, he's my favorite. He's the guy that I think will win this race. And he's in the front. He's going to be very hard to pass. So that gives the crew chiefs on Pit Road, Caitlin, a little more information. They're like, what strategy do we have to employ in order to be able to get Kyle behind us? Get him not being the dominant car in the race. So that first stage, you know, a wreck that I thought was unfortunate between Ricky and Kurt, that kind of sucked because it took out Bubba. But everything else about this stage gave me all the energy and all the anticipation that this is going to be a great race to the checkered flag in the Daytona 500. I believe you're right. And I see another producer here. It's kind of a funny question. Funny question. If the drivers could go back in time two weeks ago, what would they tell themselves to make it different? Well, here's what you're not taking into consideration. It's hot. I'm sweaty. Like, I have back sweat. I've got a lot going on over here. I do have a Coca-Cola, but my back sweat that I have and my pits, you know, I got a little bit going on there. Is that the pit stop for a new Daytona? So here's what you have to understand because I've raced forever. I know this. My body is reacting to this heat. So are those race cars. They're not sticking as well. They can't just go against the wall and run wide open. They have to move around. They have to try to figure out how and why. Plus, if you do what the leader does, as my friend Larry McGrinnells likes to say, you know what happens? You end up doing what the leader does. Is Larry Mackle a wise sage? Is that some profound stuff I'm delivering right now? Absolutely. I hope you're streaming at home because I'm telling you, I really don't usually go that deep. Yeah, there you have that. I know we want to take a walk down Pit Road, especially now that it's quiet. We might be able to join the teams down on Pit Road. Michael, I know you're ready to hang out with your daughter quite a little bit. Let me tell you a story. Let's hear it. Macy's going to leave in a bit. 430, she's going to Orlando. So these pit stops that are getting ready to happen could change the whole complexion of this race. And you've got great complexion, by the way. So do you. I was so noticing. You must use a lot of sunscreen. You're pale. Fair skin. You are fair. Fair skin. Yeah, I'm going to walk down Pit Road. I am. You know this. Yes, I thought you are. So I'm not. I'm a darkie. And so I'm a little bit warm. And I'm excited about these pit stops. I cannot wait to see how the running order looks after the cars leave Pit Road compared to how they entered. Yes, absolutely. Pit stops, always a game changer. Michael's getting a selfie. And I'm about to take a trip down on Pit Road. So I got my boy, Alex Mills. Yeah, thank you. It's fun that the party's starting to pick up a bit. We've got people coming by. Yeah, you walk down Pit Road. I'm going to walk Macy to the car that's going to drive her to the airport. Very good. Now, are you leaving? Are you leaving live? I always wanted to be the host. So now I'm going to act like I'm the host. So as Caitlyn Vinty makes her way toward Pit Road, I'm Michael Waldtrip reporting. Bye, Caitlyn. Bye, Michael. Are you wearing glasses? Hi. All right. So it's time to take a trip through the garage all the way out to the racetrack. And I'm going to try and direct my camera guy a little bit so that he doesn't actually run into something because that would be bad. So we're passing all different pieces of the tech inspection process that happens before the race. It can be a pretty large undertaking for these Cup Series teams getting through tech inspection. That's where all these teams kind of push the limits a little bit on things that they do on their race cars. So that's always a precarious couple hours for some of these race teams as they're trying to get through tech where the officials are checking all different types of things on the race cars to make sure that they are within the tolerances for the rulebook basically. So we've passed that. Now we're walking down the main section of the garage area. You can see all of the haulers lined up. This is how the race cars get to and from the racetrack and these haulers right behind me, beautiful. All of them decked out in the paint schemes of the race cars with their sponsor logos. So you might not know that typically all the teams have multiple hauler drivers that they use throughout the course of the season because a lot of these trips are multiple, multiple hours long trips to the racetrack. So the hauler drivers kind of rotate off driving duties. But the hauler drivers put in a lot of hours for this sport, a lot of sacrifice because oftentimes they're only home a day or two before they leave again for the next racetrack. Particularly the West Coast Swing. Hey guys, West Coast Swing is a little tough for these guys that you see back here, the hauler drivers because they're going from so many different states all the way out on the West Coast, Las Vegas, Phoenix and of course Fontana, California. So right now we're just we're cruising through the garage area. You see the fans up here as well. Hey guys, lots of people here to enjoy the Daytona 500 today, which this is a really cool garage area because it does have that upper tier that you can go and look down on the garage area. People are having fun. It's the Daytona 500, great American race, biggest race of the year. A lot of excitement circles around this event and as you are now seeing why that is, the stands, they are so full today as well. Check that out. Look at those stands. Tons of fans are here for the Daytona 500, which is a great thing to see, of course. So we are finally approaching Pit Road. It took us a while, but we're getting there. When you're a Pit Road reporter, you have your work cut out for you. You do a lot of walking and heat, all kinds of different conditions. It's a pretty tough job. So here we are, check this out. We got cars coming right down on Pit Road for a cycle of pit stops. Pit Road is about to be a busy place. And now we have made it out onto Pit Road. Check out all these pit boxes. There's Kevin Harvick, his team obviously. Kevin Harvick always very strong on the restrictor plate race tracks. And you see here this guy, Cheddar, he's pretty important to this team. He's actually the car chief for Kevin Harvick. He's been with Kevin for a number of years. Car chief obviously is kind of the second in command to the crew chief on a team. He sort of leads the road mechanics with their job. So keep your eye out for him. And we're going to keep walking here. It's a busy place on Pit Road. There's a lot happening. As you can see here is the one car of Kurt Busch. We saw him involved in an accident earlier today. So he is in the pits obviously, probably getting some repairs made to the car. And there he goes. Must have felt like they had sufficient repairs made to that one car. So we're going to keep on going a little bit. See what else we can see here. But if you can get a ticket and a hot pass to one of these races, this is the best way in my opinion to view the races is right here on Pit Road. You're up right with the teams. You can see the pit stops really easily. Here's Jimmy Johnson's pit. We've been talking about him a lot throughout the course of the show. Jimmy Johnson, obviously a past Daytona 500 winner. You see the crew here obviously, checking different things on the tires. New sponsor this season, Jimmy Johnson. We've grown accustomed to seeing a different type of paint scheme. But this year they have Ally on board. You can see Amy Wallster, his longtime PR girl. We did a segment on her last year for Women in Wheels for Race Hub. So obviously the PR people are on hand inside the pit boxes to provide updates for social media for the followers of their driver. So we're going to keep on moving. We got that second stage underway. Obviously I can hear the cars. And we see Joey Logano there, past in the field. We got two forwards up front, it looks like from my vantage point, a little bit tricky to see the exact race that's going on right now. We got officials walking by saying hello. So Pit Road is a pretty cramped place no matter what race track you're at. It is always busy. Everyone has their pit boxes set up. As you can see, the proximity pretty close on these pit boxes to one another. And we are making our way down past the Daytona 500 Club, passing some of the Ganassi pit boxes right now. One more lap and they'll wave a green and white shot. Kyle Larson's pit box. Kyle Larson was actually one of my picks for the win. Today he is in my fantasy group for the win. I'm sure there's a lot of Kyle Larson fans out there. Kyle Larson's pretty popular guy. I wasn't able to get a victory last season, but we know he will be raring to go hoping to start out his 2019 season with a victory. We got some pit equipment. Gas cans going past us. Going to let them go by. We're going to keep moving down Pit Road. There's a 43 pit box. We're coming up on that. We saw Bubba Wallace earlier today involved in an incident. And now we've made it all the way down to Alex Bowman's pit box. Obviously the Hendrick Motorsports Chevy's have always been strong over the course of the years that Speed Weeks in particular. His teammate William Byron sitting on the pole for today's race. A really good effort so far we've seen out of those Hendrick Motorsports Chevy's throughout the course of Speed Weeks. And that wasn't really to many people's surprise. Now we're coming up on Austin Dillon's pit box. If you remember, Michael talked about it earlier. Austin's win in the Daytona 500 last year. What a big moment for him throughout the week. We've been kind of documenting Austin Dillon's lead up to the Daytona 500. We gave you a behind the scenes look on Race Hub throughout the course of the week to what Austin Dillon's process was like getting ready for the Daytona 500. So our team worked very hard on that as somewhat of a behind the scenes look, a documentary type peek into his life and his wife Whitney and talking with them throughout the week to see what he does to prepare for the great American race and his hope to defend the win obviously. Here's Kyle Busch's pit box. We've been talking about him a lot throughout the course of the day because he has been so strong in the early goings of this race. You see the team, obviously the road crew here taking it in. They're actually looking up at a big screen right now watching the race as well. They're watching the race to see what's going on and how things are going for their driver. Kyle Busch, I know we talked about him earlier. He has won here at Daytona but it was in the summertime. He has never won a Daytona 500. So that is something that certainly Kyle Busch is hoping to add to the racing resume. A lot of continuity on that 18 team within the off season. They didn't make too many changes, kept a lot of the same road mechanics, same pit crew. So we saw this team was so strong last season. They kept a lot of the key personnel in the same places for this year. And loud down here I'll tell you it is a busy, busy place here on Pit Road right now. We've just arrived upon Chase Elliott's pit box. This is another driver that has always been very strong at Daytona. They made a lot of changes to this team actually last season to the road crew. Quite a few guys they changed and rotated around on the road crew. And we saw him, Chase Elliott, really have a breakout season last year. Getting that victory at Watkins Glen, beating one of the best in the business on road course races, which was Martin Truex Jr. for that victory, then went on to win two more times, had a really strong showing in the playoffs. Chase Elliott obviously hoping to continue that momentum from last season into this year. Keep your eye on driver number nine. And we are making our way, continuing down Pit Road. We are within sights of Martin Truex Jr.'s pit box. Obviously this was our 2017 champion. It was Martin Truex Jr. Let's take a look at their team. So this was one of the biggest stories in the off season was the fact that Martin was joining Joe Gibbs racing after Furniture Road racing closed shop after last year. So a lot of people kind of wondering how he would do once he came over to JGR. But the good news is they kept a lot of the same people as part of their core group. So crew chief Colpern came with the team, car chief Blake Harris, as well as an engineer, a tire specialist, their engine tuner. All those guys came back with Martin from Colorado or part of this team. So they're hoping to obviously have a really strong speed weeks that has been a pretty fast car throughout the time we've been here in Daytona. A little bit further down. I got dust in my lungs. It feels like I'm coughing. Joey Logano. Obviously this is our defending Monster Energy Cup series champion is Joey Logano. What an incredible season he had last year. Being able to cap off the season with the win at Homsen Miami Speedway and collecting the title was obviously something Joey had dreamed about for a very long time. I got to interview Joey last year after he won the championship and he was just over the moon as you can imagine that he would be kind of silencing some of the critics because he had had kind of an up and down sort of career obviously. But coming over to Penske he really proved himself over the last couple of seasons and now being able to be our current champion. And once again they also have looked very good throughout the course of speed weeks. Joey Logano obviously winning one of the dual races. So talking with his crew guys, they were saying it was exciting for them to already kind of pick up where they left off. The end of Pit Road and we have arrived upon our poll sitters pit box William Byron. One of the benefits of winning the poll is you are given the first option for your pit selection. You get the best pit that you want on Pit Road which for Daytona is pit stall number one. So that's where our poll sitter William Byron is his team is housed for right now. So we have just completed a walk down Pit Road. And it is a very very long Pit Road. So thank you guys for joining us all throughout the course of this infield party show. It's been great hanging out with you guys giving you a behind the scenes look to the Daytona 500. We're going to take a break. One more lap and they'll wave a green and white checkered flag to end stage one. And Logano is coming. Logano wants those points. He knows how hard he had to earn the way to that championship four without the points that some of the others he went up against had. 88 drove up in front of him and broke and broke his momentum. I don't know how that's going to affect him. He gets the third turn here. See where he goes. Remember all week we said you can't pass. Well let me tell you. Yes you can. Look at Kyle Larson of the 42 word. He come from Bowman on the outside gets to the rear bumper. Kyle Busch. Here we come. What's his 22. I know he wants to drop down. Don't think he's going to be able to but it's what he'd like to do to end stage one to the line. Kyle Busch. Alex Bowman. Joey Logano. Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. I read a story advancing the 500 that used words like lackluster and snoozefest. Take that paper put it in the bottom of the bird cage. Oh my god. Oh man. I went on Sunday. The party's going to go till Monday. That's going to be a big one. That's for sure because you know you're stuck here Sunday night. So you have the opportunity to make it as big as you want to make it. You know I'm definitely not going to be going out to the tattoo parlor and getting any tattoos or anything like that but I'm sure we can still have a good time and throw a really good get together. Oh man. I'm sure it'll be another epic night as a tattoo parlor. Come hang out with us. Oh yeah. We'll get it done. Yeah. Daytona 500 win party would be big. I don't know. I'm sure I'm sure we'd see the sun come up for a couple of days. But yeah. I just you know I've actually thought about it. I feel like it'd be tough to party because you get that damn breakfast. It seems like it like eight in the morning the next day. And then you got media in New York and all over the place. So I think it'd be hard to get a good party in right after but maybe the following weekend you actually get some downtime to party with your team and consume a lot of alcohol. But it'd be tough for the next few days after five. I'm just going to have you so busy. It'll probably include the traditional steak and shake dinner. I think the winner has. So strawberry milkshake in honor of my mom who turned me on to strawberry milkshakes when I was a little kid. She let me share them. So there'll probably be a strawberry milkshake along with that. There'll be a beer which will probably not be a very good combination but it's mandatory. And I'll have my wife my daughter and hopefully some of my closest friends on the team. Yeah. We won the championship last year and I'm not a part of your I'll tell you right now it's usually I go home and maybe get a pizza and maybe a drink or two and that's really it. But we had a good time in Miami. We went to South Beach and had a great time and but that's because we had a whole off season to recover. Now we still have to get ready for Atlanta if we win the 500. So I think it'll be a little more tamed. Oh hell yeah. It's going to be our weekend and I hope we party again with winning Daytona. It's surreal with the amount of people, phone calls, emotions and then just the excitement of where are we going next? What are we doing? And it was awesome to have my father-in-law here that weekend even my mom and dad were here. He brought his boat though and it was parked down at the marina so we partied pretty long on the boat caught up with all the monster executives and guests and Gronkowski down at the bar. That could have been till about 4 a.m. I had to shut it off around 3 because we had a big media day afterwards. Then the party goes not just that night. It goes all month long and you got to kind of step back out of the party and go race Atlanta. Go race Vegas. But I'll tell you that the buzz of winning Daytona lasts all year long. Second 500, you know, I really didn't get to enjoy the first one that much when I got back home simply because I was so tired from all the media and the night that I had after the Daytona 500. So I have, you know, a lot of new guys on my team this year that would enjoy that Daytona 500 experience the night after. So we'll make it exciting for sure. The party will be wild because I think Derek can definitely get down. So we will figure that out. I think that will be a natural decision to cut pretty loose after the race. We'll probably barely make it to the media tour. That's going to be great. I think it's going to be fun. I think it's going to be kid-friendly since I have a one-year-old. But we're going to have a lot of good times. My wife and I have already talked about what we're going to do in New York when we get to go on all the shows and stuff. So we're pretty excited about it. Yeah, I'm a pretty lame duck. So I got four kids and been married for 15 years, haven't drank in 10 years. So there won't be a lot of while and out, but just a lot of celebration and having fun and enjoying the moment. You know, I've been racing my entire life for this moment and especially in NASCAR going on my 12th year, it'd be great to get into Victory Lane. Oh man, if we win the Daytona 500, it'll be absolutely out of control and won in Victory Lane. And then when I got home, it's, I would be an emotional mess. But yeah, all my friends' family would be pretty out of control. So everybody would want to stay tuned for that. Yes, yes. We'll have watermelons for ever now, ready. So whenever that next one does come, because we're going to get back there, we're going to get back to Victory Lane. It's not going to be easy. But yeah, there will be a watermelons smashed on the start finish line when I get out of the car. So that's really cool to think about. Well, we'll, I'll definitely wake up Monday with a hangover and be a dad, the first and foremost though. So we'll, you know, we'll have fun for sure. We'll keep the kids up late, have a good time, and then go back to dad life Monday morning. It's going to be insane. Obviously, I feel like when I won the, the one that Daytona raced last year to open up the year and Xfinity side, we had a great time. We, we were out pretty late here in Daytona. Just end up staying through the 500 and leaving on Monday. So when the Daytona 500 on Sunday, it'll probably be a really late hungover Monday morning, Monday afternoon, potentially, when we finally get out of here. Well, if we win the 500, man, that's going to be crazy. I don't know. I don't know what the celebration is going to be like, but we're certainly doing something. I don't know. I hadn't thought about that just yet, but I'm, I'm sure we're doing something. I have no idea. Maybe you guys will be invited. Some of you come down with me. I couldn't even imagine how big the party's going to be for one. It's going to be the craziest thing ever because a car with my face on it is going to be doing donuts in the grass at Daytona. It's, it's a long shot, but you never know what's going to happen to Daytona. Call me that night. We'll find out, but it'll be a fun night. It'll be a rough morning, but that's all I know. I'm sure it'll be great. You know, I'm sure it'll be, be a lot of fun if that happens, but we got to get there first. So trying to get through 500 miles and, and 200 laps and hopefully come out on top. I don't even know. I don't, I don't really want to think about it yet. I want to think about the journey to, to get there. I feel like it's going to be a race that I will never forget. And I'm really looking forward to, to work hard and keep working with my racing to, to be able to make it happen and, and enjoy the, the journey. I don't know. I don't know. We have to, there's a lot of eyes we need to cross, dots and t's we need to cross before we get there. But man, if it happens, everybody's invited. That'd be pretty huge. We actually, one of my buddies started talking about it. He, he said, I don't, don't talk about that. That's what, that's how you're going to jinx something like that. But it'd be pretty big. I'm sure it'd be a lot of, a lot of people flying down from Michigan on Sunday night after the races for that one. So it'd be pretty fun. I'm not sure. I don't play the F game. So we'll see. When I win Sunday, the party is going to be so good that you definitely won't remember it. Yeah. If I went on Sunday, I imagine the party is going to be pretty big, you know, because I didn't come in here, you know, somewhat of an independent program. We just recently landed, rim riders as a sponsor, like today. So, you know, if we could pull off a win, it'd be huge. Obviously not being a full-time program. There'll be a lot of discussions after that. But I think the party would be, be pretty fun. That'd be a great thing to have to figure out. I'm more of a just go with a win kind of guy. So, I promise you, if you win and there's situations like that, there's plenty of people wanting to pull you a lot of different ways to make sure you have a good time. You know, I'm not much of a part here. I've got two young girls and a wife back, they'll be back in the motor home or probably hanging out in Victory Lane. But if I can win the Daytona 500, we'll probably celebrate and lights will be out. Try to get the girls some sleep. It'll be a busy week. I'm a boring guy. So you're not going to see me out on the town spending any money at the bars or tattoo parlors. So I'll be hanging out in the motor home trying to get some shut-eye. I hope we win on Sunday. I feel like we will have a good shot at it. We feel confident. So party will be big. I don't know if it could be too big because I think they keep you kind of busy that next week. So we'll have to figure out a good time for that. But no, I think everybody's party would be really big winning on Sunday for sure. I'm not a real big part here, but I'd have to say if we could win the 500 here, there would probably be a little bit of one. We have to try and get everybody rounded up. But I have so many friends in racing, it's hard to get people people together and away from where where they have to report back to work. But I feel like we could probably probably handle it for a little while and have a little bit of fun. Oh boy. I mean, I know my so I got my friends down here at New Samarna helping me for this other track. And they're staying down for the 500. But I don't think they're going home on Monday. If we win the 500, it's going to be it's going to be a heck of a party. And welcome back. We are here at the infield in Daytona. I'm glad to give Caitlin Vinci and Michael Walsh a break. I'm Alan Kobana, joined by the newest member of our Fox team, Bob Pocrus. And Bob, we've been doing this together for a long time. You know, just you and I covering races with our scanners. That's how we're that's what we're kind of doing right now. So we want to give our co-workers a minute to have a break and everything. So let's catch everybody up. We're almost halfway in the Daytona 500. What have you been listening to? What's your storyline right now going on in your ears? Well, I'm surprised of our leader, Matt DeBenedetto. Everybody's talking about how good his car is. And, you know, a lot of times people wonder who are you going to draft with during a race? And people see how strong DeBenedetto's Toyota is. And I think they're going to draft with them if they need to at the end of this race. Absolutely. And we'll look it's not a surprise to think, you know, Toyota, but we think JGR. I don't think anybody going into the weekend not to disparage Matt DeBenedetto or Levine family racing, but did you think the 95 would be leading the majority of these labs in the Daytona 500? Could you imagine Mike Wheeler wins his first race, the Daytona 500 with Denningham on a few years ago, a couple of years ago, and then could win his first race with Matt DeBenedetto today. Interesting. And this race has been a different storyline. At first we saw the Toyotas get out there and do well, and then but the different pit strategies put the Fords in front. They look dominant and then now different pit strategies again have the Toyotas out in front. We'll see the switch in a few laps with pit stops again. Who do you give the advantage to though? Man, this is like a road course race, isn't it? Like it'll be hard to figure out who has the advantage until the final stage. And you see kind of everybody on a maybe a more even strategy. I still think the Fords are going to be hard to beat. Especially when the sun goes down and things get a little cooler. Anything surprise you so far? I mean it didn't surprise me to see Joey Logano have a dominant car. What has surprised me is we're watching Toyotas and Chevy's kind of work together against the Fords. The Fords are on their own. Yeah. Whoever thought that Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs racing might actually have to work together in a race. But you've seen it kind of very well here right now. The other thing that surprised me is just hey, Kurt Busch kind of a mid on his racing radio that that wreck was his fault. And they've had to come in several times for repairs. There are a few laps down. You know, their Daytona 500 hopes are done. Yeah. And that was the debate on how the Fords was contacted to bring the Stenhouse Junior. The Fords is, they were having trouble getting together. They're a little chirping on the radio. They need to organize if they're going to beat the line of cars that are out there right now. I don't know how this is going to play out again. We're coming close to halfway. And what do you listen to when you're when you're scanning? I'm going to scan a driver. I'm listening to officials and then I have Leganos. I have had Byron. Obviously, I listened to Kurt when when they had the damage. And I've been also listening to Harvick. Yep. Yeah. Harvick is one of those Fords that really wants everyone else to get together. And earlier, they were following the 17 and the 17 wasn't the best leader of the Fords. At least it sounded like what what I was I mean, again, this is another year where Hendrick has so much speed qualifying weekend. And then at least as of right now, I mean, Alex Bowman's still up there. William Byron is there, but you don't think of them as lap leaders. You don't think of them as dominating the Daytona 500, at least in the last since Dale Jr. Yeah. I mean, here's were they the fastest in qualifying because they were more set up for qualifying than for the qualifying races. And now that they've had a few days to work on it, did they find the speed in the last couple of days? Again, I still think, you know, the Fords are going to beat, but right now, the Toyota SLAs are doing what they need to do and that is to keep the Fords from getting in a pack. All right. And look, while we watch and we'll keep an eye on this for you, but one of the one of the cool reasons to do this is to kind of be a second screen and show you other content. You've been covering this for a long time. This is what, 92? 92 is my first day Daytona 500. I wrote about teammates not working together. Some things never change. Right. We're watching it happen right now on the track. But when they talk about Daytona, one thing they always point to is 1979 and that fight between Kaleigh Albrough and Donnie Allison kind of putting NASCAR on a map on the national stage. I know you were here in 1979, but the allure of that and what it's meant to the sport, we can't escape it every time we come down here and what that meant to the sport. Absolutely. And you know, 40 years since we have since that fight, most of drivers in the field today weren't even born. Yeah. How many of them occurred? Wouldn't that happen? Jimmy? Jimmy Harvick. Well, how do you, a changing moment for NASCAR? I think so. Everybody points to that, to that race. You know, only a few channels available at the time. Big snowstorm, people stuck at home, watching a race, incredible finish with a fight. Yep. Yeah. And then to hear Allison talking about how his how his face hit somebody, hit the Gale-Gales fist. You know, it's always, it's just been a great story to hear. And I was, we've been, I was joking with a friend. I mean, Kelly Albaro is always on the receiving end of that. And we'll, he'll see that highlight for the rest of our lives, the rest of his life. At least he won some championships. It doesn't feel too bad, but he'll always be on the receiving end of that hit, which I think is pretty funny. You never want to see that, but we've got a cool piece. You know, just we asked people, how did the 1979 fight here at Daytona change in Ascar? Check it out. We'll stay monitoring the race for you and break in if something big happens. And there's a fight between Kelly Albaro and Donnie Allison. The tempers overflowing. They're angry. They know they have lost. What did it mean? It was the first, I mean, that was the show, you know, on network television. It was our first opportunity at bat. And it went down. You couldn't script it any better. You know what I mean? It was a hell of a race. Something that nobody had seen before of anything like that. And, you know, and then all of a sudden, these guys that are going at it, get out and start fighting, you know? I mean, that's, who wouldn't like that? I mean, that moment was caught on, on network television. And I'm telling you, you could never replace that for any sport, you know? I mean, that was, that was the first opportunity at bat on that stage. And for it to go down like that was unbelievable. When you say the 79 fight is 40 years ago, I'm thinking, oh boy, I was born in 80. So, I mean, you see it pretty much every year you come down here. The highlights are always going of, you know, the famous stage 100-500. Obviously, that one really put NASCAR on the map as far as popularity. So, I love it. You know, I would love to see, you know, more footage of how all that fight started. I mean, I know what, I know it's behind it. But I don't know, you know, who was the first one to give the, give the guy the show? What were they talking about face to face that, that ended up, ended up those guys fighting fist to fist. So, it's always a great highlight that you like seeing when you come down here. I actually kind of get excited about the thought that that's kind of what our sports build on and that's still alive today. Race car drivers get hot. We get heated under the collar and with a helmet on, like it restricts blood flow or something and we don't see straight. And we just want to go after somebody in this bright situation. So, I think that's, I think that's cool. Yeah, the fight here in 79 was obviously a huge page-turner for our sport and just kind of got it to that next level. I wouldn't say it was the excitement that was on the racetrack with the crash, that everything happened and then what happened and ensued afterwards with the fight was in the infield was pretty intense and interesting for sure. And I put an ask call on a map. I mean, that's basically what drew the attention and you know, made everybody then tune into what was going to come next and what all these hooligans that racing circles are all about. Well, you know, I think when you look at the 1979 Daytona 500, obviously for me, it's been 40 years since Bush got into the sport and made their debut at Daytona and what a debut it was, you know, with Kale Yarbrough and the Allisons you know, in a fistfight in the infield and seeing, you know, part of the country snowed in and just the effect, the ripple effect that it had on everything that happened to our sport from that day on because of television and the action that happened after the race just have lived for 40 years and if it lived for 40, they'll talk about it in another 40 because it's such an impactful moment. 1979, the last lap and all the action and commotion and the fight and then with everybody being snowed in on the east coast and a lot of the majority of the country was under some tough weather. What do you do when you're stuck at home? Why don't you turn the TV on and then there's this NASCAR race and then there's these guys fighting afterwards. Timing is everything in a lot of sport and I think that helped us grab another gear, you could say. And I think when it came to that race being televised and the amount of people that it watched and the controversy that it stirred up and the excitement that it stirred up it's no doubt it was one of the biggest moments in NASCAR history. And you're looking back live this is a shot from the blimp you can see that is still our leader Bob Matt DeFenedetto I think, yeah. Basically what we're involved in here is two groups of cars on different pit strategies the worlds are now colliding the 95 is still the leader but they are catching another pack it is mixing up and they've been a lot of traffic and in the middle of the big pack that you see there is the leader of Matt DeFenedetto Kyle Busch threatening but this is what you get when we have different strategies on the track. You know I'll be interested to see then what happens here at the end of the stage to, you know, will everybody pit again? Do you stay out? What exactly will you do to set yourself up for the finish? And we just saw that piece about the fight in 1979 one of the most famous, you know, moments in NASCAR history. Do we not have enough fights in NASCAR that we need more? I thought it was funny that we had Clint Boyer talking about fight because of any recent people might think of Clint Boyer and his race to the fight back in Phoenix to get to Jeff Gordon and his crew because that was, that was, that was another one of those epic moments. Yup and it looks like we have an incident caution on the speedway of some sort Casey Mears has smoke coming out the back we're going to let this play out right here while figure out what happened, Bob, because this is what we'd be doing normally when we're not joining you but this is how we, you know, figure things out. If you guys need to listen to your scanners by all means, listen to your scanners. Let's give the audience a live update. It's like Parker Kligerman, the 27 of Casey Mears involved in the incident. Yup, Casey Mears on the radio says he is, they are done for the day. 96 of Parker Kligerman, one of the best stories up to speed weeks here. We're getting a replay on Fox right now if you're watching it with us. Someone is just spinning both 96-27 just go spinning down the road. Yeah, I think if you're Mears, you were here just for this race. Yup. You're not just going to, no reason to just tape it up and try to keep running. Like maybe Kurt Busch is doing. You know, it's interesting is that once you meet minimum speed like Kurt Busch did and Bubba Wallace did earlier, you can come back down Pit Road and work on the car for 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Now of course you're limited in what you can do but you're no longer on the 6 minute clock once you meet minimum speed. And then we look in a race where there aren't many lap cars sometimes. If there are incidents, you can get those laps back. I did the truck race the other night on Fox and I think it was Grant Infaker was down two laps with six to go I think and he ends up finishing the top three because of all the cautions they had toward the end of that race. You just never know what can happen especially when you can go fix your car or truck like this. But now there's some interesting strategy because we've got what was going to happen. Green flag stops are going to have to happen before the end of this stage and now you have some strategy. I'm hearing them on the radio. Bob if you want to listen to the radio and get an idea of what may happen but these Toyotas up front the 95, Kyle Busch in the 18, Alex Bowman, William Byron again. They were working together. They have some decisions to make about when, how, how this changes everything especially with those four it's chasing them. Right and then if anybody wants to try to take a wave around if there are people who might be thinking of that thing you have to wonder who is pitting right because if one of the people in front of you doesn't pit then you can't take it as far as those on the lead lap car. So it'll be interesting here to see what people do. I'm hearing guys like Brandon go on talking about the wave around. I mean a situation like this all you have to do is be on the lead lap. I mean to have a shot. You're right with tend to go if you're on the lead lap. Maybe if you're in a fork. Yeah, well at least you're in the game still. I mean just to be on the lead lap and have a shot at the end. I mean these pit strategies, little things like going on right now are what make a difference. Yeah, and then pit road be open next time by. So that also your strategy can change. You're talking only 13 laps left in the stage. If they are they going to keep it open? How long is it going to be kept open? You know are they going to go back green with 10 to go, nine to go, eight to go. All that everybody's trying to figure out. And we're seeing the leaders pit now which should you know what they'll have what seven, eight, nine to go when we go green again. I don't know if this sacrifices them stage points and puts them in a good position for the start of stage three. But that's something that has to factor into this. We're seeing legato who was in the back of the field also pit. I mean not a lot of people taking advantage of what could have been a good position at the end of the stage. Well I'd like to think Daytona 500 you're not too worried about stage points. Maybe I think almost feel like the season starts at Atlanta and you just kind of feel like you're either so many up or so many down going into the season. I don't think anybody's going to be thinking a whole lot about points. Yeah this is the Daytona 500. Come the Daytona end of the Daytona 500 especially you know everybody's like well or they could damage the cars. Remember new Aero package at Talladega. Nobody's using these cars again. I talked to crew chiefs they're like even if it came back great and in one piece it's still getting chopped up. They're all going to museum. Yeah so you know obviously nobody wants to get hurt but I don't think anybody's too worried about saving equipment. Look at the social media question. A bowman got penalty for a crew member over too soon. Okay so 88 crew. That's going to be a it could be a tough one. That's big because I'm going to pop for you. Kenzie wants to know how does the race change after stage two. Well that's a good question and Kenzie wants to know how does the race how does it change the race strategy the finish change after stage two. Obviously it's the longest stage there'll be multiple pit stops potentially maybe in that final stage but depends on what happens here it's really setting up who's in position when the stage ends. Right I mean you're talking a pit window of what 45 laps so the final stage after a few caution laps you know NASCAR did a quick caution between the first and second stage I think with these caution laps here they'll probably do another quick caution between the second stage and the final stage. So you're talking probably 77 78 laps to go so do you split in half in 39 or do you even split it in thirds and think that there'll be another caution. You know I I think you're just going to split in half so you know as opposed to maybe working your way back at the end of a stage here where you saw drivers pitting after about 15 laps with 45 laps left in the stage I think they'll just take the whatever whenever they start the final stage their initial plan will be to pit at the halfway point between the green flag of the final stage and lap 200. Yeah and that would be a change for some of the teams I mean think of what we've seen so far the Fords the Fords have early on in this race like you said lap 13 lap 15 they were the first ones to pit in that first stage same thing happened again when they the next round of pit stops came in as soon as that fuel window opened they went into pit so if there's a difference in strategy in that last stage you will know that that's a change for them and kind of a philosophy change you know in the middle of the race for them yeah they're used to it and they're strong it's just a matter of getting that track position that's one thing Joey Logano said on the radio when we were listening to him just give me that track position and we saw when he had it we also saw he can go out there and get it himself too which is a pretty damn strong but that means something tells me that Clint Boyard threw a big old block if that same move happens again in the same scenario what we were talking about before big moments of course that the Daytona 500 brings this track one just a few years ago which we both have great memories of because it was another significant moment Brad Kizlowski and this thing his phone yeah that phone yeah not this phone okay I think the phone is in the Hall of Fame down in Charlotte North Carolina moment heard around the world the tweet around the world remember that we had the jet dryer we had this it was already a Monday night the rain had delayed everything there was an incident with a jet dryer during a caution and all of a sudden they're red flagged and Brad Kizlowski pulls out his phone in his car and tweets from his car tweets his seat before that was even a saying and shows the world what he's doing right now and it was in the middle of the Daytona 500 do you remember that car I remember thinking it was cool and wondering why you had a piece of electronics in his car because I mean you can't I mean you you're literally having a computer in your car with a phone these days and I didn't think that was allowed I think most of us either that at that moment or certainly by Monday morning we're like NASCAR what's the rule on that because you know there's so many things you could do I could I tape a phone to my car and that could where crew chief could text me information rather than rather than talk over the radio they're all sorts of things you know fuel mileage data anything like that and this was 2012 before really got before it really you know took over yeah but the guys in here are smart oh I know we have smartest engineers in the world we've got a Brad Kizlowski we asked him about this and you know at this point it was seven years ago all ready to think about it so here's what Brad said setting up a very memorable moment down in Daytona so 2012 driving the Miller light car we're in the middle of pit stop sequence and I come off a pit road and X thing turned to my spotter says whoa whoa stop stop I need you to stop right now and all the field around me stopping so I go something happened and as we're turning the car to stop it I could see like this big cloud of fire and I'm thinking oh my god has there been like a terrorist attack what's happened and my spotter radio to me at that exact time says someone hit a jet dryer and it's exploded off of turn three and I'm thinking to myself wow I hope nobody's hurt this is unbelievable you know I think everybody's okay it's a miracle blah blah blah and as you're saying I'm like well now I gotta get a picture so I had my phone and my little I had a little pocket pouch I grabbed it and I took a picture wow never gonna see that again and then I was sitting in my car going all right now what this is gonna be a while and I said yeah it's gonna be a while okay and then they told me I could get out so I got out I thought you know what this picture's pretty damn cool and next thing I knew I said well I got this Twitter app I'll post it on there posted a picture on it and about that time it just started blowing up and people saw I had my phone on me and they you know other drivers and they said what what do you got your phone on you for I said well you know why would I get rid of my phone I kind of like having my phone with me and yeah so that was that and people thought it was cool I thought it was cool had a good time and Bob speaking of Brad keselowski in the two car talk about someone we have not heard from all day you're looking at it right now from the aerial who is that white car Bob on the high side going for the lead well I think it's Brad keselowski he came from the Ford camp is where he came from but then Jesse Blaney take take the lane from him and I look a lot of a lot of people talking about Blaney and Menard as potential winners of this race today maybe some people that you wouldn't consider right off the bat but looking that they look pretty strong in the in the duals absolutely and I thought that was crazy look you know gambling is taking over America right now there's different views on it but if you look at the Vegas odds keselowski and Ludano they were the favorite at certain odds and their teammate for Ryan Blaney even though I felt they were all kind of equal you know they're all three Penske cars and Paul Menard would have paid even better if you bet on him in Vegas so if you're one of those value betters if you understand how all that works I think they were underestimating the potential of Blaney and Paul Menard Bob I think you're right Paul Menard had that thing won last week until Jimmy Johnson made his power move yeah it's uh it'll be interesting to see whether Jimmy can get get up there and uh and make another power move or when he decides to make his power move Casey Mears officially out of the race okay so not no surprise as he told him that they were done but he's officially done in this race it was good to see him back you know he looked he looked good and the victory for them was making the race yeah I mean after two years not being in the race Casey Mears made the race and that's all you really want to make Daytona 500 which is your main race seven more to go before we hit stage two make this race official Ryan Blaney in the lead Brad keselowski Eric Almerola what do they have in common bob all fours all fours yeah and I was looking to see Byron is fourth and Benedetto is six you know and then Jimmy is tenth they've got to stay in those positions yeah they you know if they want any chance they have to stay or and make sure they break up that four pack because you know if those fours get together for at the on the restart at the final stage it's going to be trouble for everybody else I think that's what makes for good racing is when we don't see all these teammates lined up together right I mean we're seeing the first real mixed crowd right now of fours the pensy fours a Toyota's the Chevy's they're all mixed in together guess what they're all right there together they're not lining up with each other they're not always getting away from each other and they're not uh they're not all playing nice with each other because they're not all teammates they don't all have similar agendas and guess what we have two lines of close racing right now as we're about to close out the stage with five more to go a minute you want to see a teammate hang another teammate out to dry right well a little bit because then you go and and check them out each time after the race and say why didn't you help your teammate we got uh careful of the camera we got a little party goer here party-crasher want a coke but I mean what they're showing right now we got the the two pensky fours out front then we have Eric Almerola another Ford and Ricky Stenhouse and then we have the Chevy's Daniel Suarez stuck there in the middle Joey Logano trying to do his thing just like he did at the end of the first stage I just like where this is going because with the points and money on the line we saw this at the end of the first stage things get cracking nobody got Suarez in nine what do you think of him I mean he's in a four does he have a shot in this he's definitely got a shot he's been aggressive he's like the I don't know it's like Ricky Stenhouse last year Ricky Stenhouse is being Ricky Stenhouse again this year but uh look you know not I think what Ricky Stenhouse said earlier this week the only thing that bothered him is that he didn't win right he doesn't no apologies necessary you got to be aggressive you got to do your thing and that's what he's doing now he's sitting there in fourth I think Daniel Suarez may take a very similar attitude why not right it's a new ride it's a new situation for him and he's got the power to do it you got to be aggressive no one's going to give him anything I've been trying to listen a little bit to him seeing how he relates to spotter Tony Reigns Tony Reigns, spotter for Kurt Busch they kept him he stayed at the 41 team working with Suarez Suarez has never worked with him before but uh obviously Tony was one of the Daytona 500 with Kurt and experienced racer himself it'll be interesting to see if he can help guide Suarez here coming into the final stage I think you were perfect just a few minutes ago you said I mean as this track gets cooler and that's what we're seeing Hensky cars are getting better it seems the Fords are up there again again there was some jumble and everything but it seems like the Fords Hensky in particular are getting better as this race goes longer man no mistakes on pit road either at the end of this stage or your one green flag stop potentially you know the final stage yeah this next stage brakes gonna be big but we'll just we'll uh we'll let this race out we're just you know I like it this is what we normally be doing just in the media center now we're live on the internet you and I talk it and it's uh fun to call it ourselves teammates so we've got Eric Elmerola stalking the two Hensky cars I don't I don't know if Brad makes a move and tries to hang his Petsky teammate Ryan Blaney out to dry but again we have a Chevy and a Toyota of William Byron and Matt DiBenedetto trying to team up and really attack these Fords and that's been the story of the race so far Fords versus everybody else I was a little surprised that the high line didn't come in for I want to say it's that Elmerola and Stenhouse there and Byron was able to pop up in in front of them and getting that now lead draft William Byron getting racy up here it may be no Chad likes to win a little bit right and then that's something we can't underestimate is who is making those calls who has been influencing him the past you know what 90 days or so that's Chad Knauss in his ear all the time here we come around third turn three to end stage two here and see what William Byron can do I don't know if Brad Kizlowski is about to help William Byron I was going to say I don't know that that William's going to get much out strong moves there that was stronger than I thought it would be for the end for William Byron there so good stage points he's already finishing up front a good start to the year for him 2019 and Ryan Blaney gets to win I don't think anybody's very surprised to see him he led the most laps in this race last year it's just setting up for setting up for the drama Bob everybody now probably and then pits once in I'd say once in the final stage I don't think you could if you put it there with nine or ten laps left in this stage I don't think you can I don't think you would try to stay out here for track position I think you're going to get your you're going to make sure you have time to replace tires and get them yep though if you did take four tires could you make do you go with only two here with as long as the stages I think that's possible because I mean tires have served to be premium this time but there's there's a long way to go still in this race you got something yeah can you listen to the teams right now are they communicating with their drivers at all they're all producers asking us just what they're saying on the radio right now and we're both scanning here so we'll give it a minute to see what they what they say and what the strategy might be before they open the pits here Ty Dillon is telling his team that the shade and turns one and two is adding grip to the track there yeah so on top of handling again you have to factor in the changing weather and that's what they've done with the Daytona 500 in recent years with the start time and everything you know starting in the hot nearly 80 degrees I think it was hotter than that and how it's going to end under the lights right here well and remember you started this race in about 80 degrees which is warmer than what it's been all week so you know they really hadn't been in those in those conditions at all not that they make a huge impact but every little bit can change the track absolutely I've got Kevin Harvick on the radio waiting to see me this should be a threat just haven't seen them yet we've seen more of the penske forts than we have of the SHR forts today so far so we'll see I think they know it's a 200 lap race so pits are going to be open here I believe yeah a lot of silence I'm getting you know one thing I hear some teams talking about is who's pitting next to them and who might be in the pit when they get in and who might be in the pit when they come out which depends on exactly where they stop and their pits all yeah one thing I mean to remember is here we go we got Ryan Blaney yeah the cars that did not pit earlier Joey Logano stays out his two 10 Petski teammates decide to come in that's varying strategies here interesting we heard before Joey Logano just wanted some clean air maybe that's what he's going for here so in terms of fuel there will be a nine lap or so difference for between the leaders between two packs of leaders in terms of their their fuel difference yeah whoever stayed out yeah use about nine laps you know I guess oh I don't know how comfortable I'd be especially if you know there's chance these races going to overtime around this place it's happening before yeah but then again that would be a late caution and does everybody have to come in for you know at least two tires anyway you know I think we'd kind of see where it goes as you get into you know the sun going down and everything got an interesting question from Jackie on YouTube it's more about what you guys do she wants to break into the NASCAR business and wants to know how and what's so great about working in the sport all right yeah thanks Jackie Jackie's asking us about how we kind of break into this sport and everyone's got a different story I think first of all whether it's television or writing and we came in at two different times but let's start with your story Bob I don't know my story is right here well almost I mean I I'm from Indiana I covered several Indy 500s during the summer as a student running quotes for people but you want to get into sports right yes I want to get into sports riding yeah well I mean if you're from Indianapolis you know there's racing and then got a job right down here in Daytona Beach and my first Daytona 500 as I said was 92 and it was just covering all sorts of sports down here when NASCAR scene magazine had opening in 2003 and all the people at NASCAR see knew who I was because they saw me in the media center and it's a pretty you know there's mutual interest that's kind of then the road as far as covering NASCAR I think you know you you just look around I always tell people if you can find a way to do some NASCAR or a local track you should get that experience and I covered a ton of races at Volusia County Speedway and now Volusia Speedway Park and that really helps and helps you understand the sport but also helps your editors know okay you had an interest in this you spent several Saturday nights there we'll send you two or three hours down the road if there's a big cup race over a weekend and again yeah it's one thing to know about racing but look Bob's primary role is a writer so be a good writer that's what I always tell the that's what I always tell the young people you want to be on television cover NASCAR that's what I wanted to do as well it was important to know about NASCAR but it was more important to be good at the television part and then work on the NASCAR thing because a lot of people know NASCAR far better than I do but I was trying to be good at the television part as well so and Bob's a great writer he didn't just specialize in racing he specialized didn't you could you cover wrestling and all sorts of stuff I've covered so much stuff everything from high school rodeo down here high school rodeo that's what I was yeah high school rodeo you know there's that's kind of big down here and but World Cup soccer too was down here back in 94 in Orlando so the Belgian team actually trained in Daytona Beach they brought the Belgian soccer team here and they were running they couldn't believe the banking and they were running up and down the banking and the coach goes okay 20 times and our work done is done for the day oh that's awesome so yeah a while a couple of weeks there when that was in town but you look at somebody like Caitlyn Vincy is doing video reports from Langley kind of just on her own in some ways and and you know she was noticed by by many people in the industry and was able to work her way up yeah so when you talk about working at you know covering some stuff at short tracks that you might say well who's you know besides a few locals who's interested it is great experience and allows you to get noticed yeah and I was the same way I wanted to get into racing and I just have to mention now that Jamie McMurray likely his last race in his career my first television job in Joplin, Missouri the home of Jamie McMurray and the reason I got to come to my first Daytona was in 2006 when Jamie McMurray moved from Ganassi to Roush I pitched the television station hey let's go cover Jamie McMurray in the Daytona 500 and they said yes and that was my first Daytona 500 so I will good salesman I try I think they sold it to like Joe's auto body they gave us a thousand bucks we got a rental car we were sponsored I'm sure I had to get sponsorship I think you know it was just like the racing biz to come cover this I had to go get sponsorship but I don't think a thousand dollars going to get you much in here no yeah got you a microphone yeah yeah yeah me here didn't say hey that that investment was that ended up working out but yeah no kudos to Jamie McMurray because without him being born in Joplin Missouri I may not be here next to you today Bob so that's good so yeah good question Jackie as we prepare for stage three here at the Daytona 500 and you know I'd like to envision everyone that you know they're at their house right now they're watching the 500 they got their second screen on us and hopefully we're adding a little value to what they're doing right now I think they're getting ready to go green up here soon and then we will be off till stage three and it'll be fun so we have one more question from Barb okay says she needs a new driver this year who should she root for oh do we know who her old driver was she didn't say I'll be there where she's from she didn't say all right bar bar but this is a dilemma though I'm getting with a lot of fans Bob let me tell you barb barb out there wants a a new driver to root for and look we want as many fans out there's possible what I'm getting at is there are a lot of Dale Jr. fans right that are looking to go somewhere else and I say who's your driver and they go I was a Dale Jr. fan I'm like we need you we need you to stay with us I need you to pick a new driver who's it going to be barb wants a new driver how do we direct her to a new driver I pick the winner of this race because you know they're in the playoffs so that you can just root for them the rest of the year that's a good that's an excellent that's a logical thought Bob because yeah why not pick a winner of this race why not go with Joey Logano who's the current champion young William Byron's on the pole today and he'll be in this sport for another 20 plus years he's a good one to kind of hook your rope to it all depends on I don't know where you're from I saw Rusty Wallace flip down the back stretch here in 1993 and I chose him as my favorite when I saw him do that and get out and he was still kicking so but I can't help you it's a very personal decision who you go with and how you pick a favorite so we'll try to give you some advice I like Bob's advice just whoever wins this race that's your guy from now on sweet one other name that we haven't talked too much about today is Austin Dillon what's up with Austin this year that is a good question last year's winner Austin Dillon where is he we haven't seen him I'm trying to look on the board right now but my question is how much did you talk about Austin Dillon in the first 120 laps last year excellent so excellent point zero somebody's telling me zero probably zero so therefore you know don't uh I don't know that he has it for today but you know look this is about the time where drivers start getting really brave and they start not thinking totally with their heads that's usually when it gets kind of crazy and kind of fun to watch oh we've got double file right now just makes you wonder who could be this year's Austin Dillon I mean Alex Bowman's in 21st Ryan Priest is 22nd you just never know who may emerge but I mean I'm a roll up front yeah if you talk about maybe a uh you know pick for some fans who uh who feel like he kind of got the raw end of the deal last year and he might be one of the sentimental picks for this race totally yeah I mean the raw end of Austin Dillon last year and remember one of the cool stories about last year was Austin Dillon won the race and we found out before the race someone giving him that lucky penny well Austin Dillon made a cool surprise this week to that fan check out what they did before this Daytona 500 it's a champion of the Daytona 500 the little girl give me a penance and you're going to win the Daytona 500 this year good luck to you but it's stuck on the dash one of the Daytona 500 good luck to her thank god for for angels and I think she is our angel here that was really special to see the smile on Jordan's face I know he's having a good time here with his family and that's what it's all about it's creating memories and moments for the kids and here at Magic Kingdom you can definitely do that so I'm proud to be here at Disney World having fun right around the corners the Daytona 500 hopefully we can win another one of those trophies and we're back such a cool story I mean for that child to help out Austin Dillon last year whatever works and then Austin Dillon kind of returned in the favor with that rig that is awesome look again we haven't really we didn't talk about Austin Dillon much last year in the race he ends up winning maybe the winner right now is someone we haven't talked about much so far yet but how do you think this plays out if I knew I'd be running to my DraftKings to to get to get in I don't know again the Forge still looks strong yes Byron's the leader but then I mean look you got Harvick Amarola and also up there in the top 10 Stenhouse Boyer others yep and look maybe it'll be another young guy this year Ryan Blaney we just saw him win Stage 2 maybe at the end of this he will be the Daytona 500 champion I look forward to finding out William Byron in the 24 our poll sitter looking around on Brad Kizlowski he's got a run on the two but holds his spot oh he's going to get to the outside I don't know but it did look like Kizlowski really fought him there I think those four tires are going to pay off here if William Byron can keep the 10 of Eric Amarola on his bumper he might get a run on Ryan Blaney here I think he's going to get boxed final lap Stage 2 everybody jostling for stage points I think right here it's Blaney's got to worry about himself he'd like to help Kizlowski but he just can't do it it might jeopardize him winning this stage so I think he's going to hold what he's got William Byron's shot was right there Blaney did a great job blocking the bottom lane on the top side Ryan Blaney brings him to the green and white checkered flag and wins Stage 2 in his Penske Ford Mike you helped you when you can you help your teammates but when it means it's going to hurt you you got to just worry about yourself Ryan Blaney with the Mustang out front with 80 laps to go in the Daytona 500 he's our Stage 2 winner oh my god oh man I went on Sunday the party's going to go till Monday that's going to be a big one that's for sure because you know you're stuck here Sunday night so you have the opportunity to make it as big as you want to make it you know I'm definitely not going to be going out to the tattoo parlor and getting any tattoos or anything like that but I'm sure we can still have a good time and throw a really good get together oh man I'm sure it'll be another epic night as a tattoo parlor come hang out with us oh yeah we'll get it done yeah Daytona 500 win party would would be big I don't know I'm sure I'm sure we'd see the sun come up for a couple of days but yeah I just you know I've actually thought about it I feel like it'd be tough to party because get that damn breakfast it looks it seems like it like eight in the morning the next day and then you got media in New York and all over the place so I think it'd be hard to get a good party in right after but maybe the following weekend you actually get some downtime to to party with your team and consume a lot of alcohol but it'd be tough for the next few days after five I'm just gonna have you so busy it'll probably include the traditional steak and shake dinner I think the winner has so strawberry milk shake in honor of my mom who turned me on to strawberry milkshakes when I was a little kid she let me share them so it'll probably be a strawberry milkshake along with that there'll be a beer which will probably not be a very good combination but it's mandatory and I'll have my wife my daughter and hopefully some of my closest friends on the team yeah we won the championship last year and I'm not a part of here I tell you right now it's it's usually I go home and maybe get a pizza and maybe a drink or two and then that's really it but we had a good time in Miami we went to to South Beach and had a great time and but that's because we had a whole off season to recover now we still have to get ready for Atlanta if we win the 500 so I think it'll be a little more tamed oh hell yeah it's going to be our weekend and I hope we party again with winning Daytona it's surreal with the amount of people phone calls emotions and then just the excitement of where we go next what are we doing and it was awesome to have my father-in-law here that weekend even my mom and dad were here he brought his boat though and it was parked down at the marina so we partied pretty long on the boat caught up with all the monster executives and guests and Gronkowski down at the bar that could have been until about four a.m. I had to shut it off around three because we had a big media day afterwards and then the party goes not just that night it goes all month long and you got to kind of step back out of the party and go race Atlanta go race Vegas but I tell you that the buzz of winning Daytona lasts all year long second 500 you know I really didn't get to enjoy the first one you know that much when I got back home simply because I was so tired from all the media and the night that I had after the Daytona 500 so I have you know a lot of new guys on my team this year that would enjoy that Daytona 500 experience the night after so we'll make it exciting for sure the party will be wild because I think Derek can definitely get down so we will figure that out I think that will that will be a natural decision to to cut pretty loose after the race we'll probably barely make it to media the media tour it's going to be great I think it's going to be fun I think it's going to be kid-friendly since I have a one-year-old but we're going to have a lot of a lot of good good times my wife and I have already talked about what we're going to do in New York when we get to go and all the shows and stuff so we're pretty excited about it yeah I'm a pretty lame duck so I got four kids and been married for 15 years haven't drank in 10 years so there won't be a lot of wild and out but just a lot of celebration and having fun and enjoying the moment you know I've been racing my entire life for this moment and especially in NASCAR going on my 12th year it'd be great to get into victory lane oh man if we win the Daytona 500 it'll be absolutely out of control won in victory lane and then when I get home it's I would be an emotional mess but yeah all my friends family would be pretty out of control so everybody would want to stay tuned for that yes yes we'll have watermelons for ever now ready so whenever that next one does come because we're going to get back there we're going to get back to victory lane it's going to be it's not going to be easy but yeah there will be a watermelon smashed on the start finish line when I get out of the car so that's that's really cool to think about well we'll I'll definitely wake up Monday with a hangover and and be a dad the first and foremost though so we'll you know we'll have fun for sure we'll keep the kids up late have a good time and then then go back to dad like Monday morning it's going to be insane obviously I feel like when I won the won the Daytona race last year to open up the year and Xfinity side we had a great time we we were out pretty late here in Daytona just end up staying through the 500 and leaving on Monday so when the Daytona 500 on Sunday it'll probably be a really late hungover Monday morning Monday afternoon potentially when we finally get out of here well if we win the 500 man that's going to be crazy I don't know I don't know what the celebration is going to be like but we're certainly doing something I don't know that I hadn't thought about that just yet but I'm sure we're doing something I have no idea maybe you guys will be invited some of you come down with me I couldn't even imagine how big the party's going to be for one it's going to be the craziest thing ever because a car with my face on it is going to be doing donuts in the grass at Daytona it's it's a long shot but you never know what's going to happen at Daytona call me that night we'll find out but it'll be a fun night it'll be a rough morning but that's all I know sure it'll be great you know I'm sure it'll be be a lot of fun if that happens but we got to get there first so trying to get through 500 miles and and 200 laps and hopefully come out on top I don't even know I don't I don't really want to think about it yet I want to think about the journey to get there I feel like obviously it's going to be a race that I will never forget and I'm really looking forward to to work hard and keep working with my racing to to be able to make it happen and and enjoy the the journey I don't know I don't know we have to there's a lot of eyes we need to dots and teas we need to cross before we get there but man if it uh if it happens everybody's invited yeah that'd be pretty huge we actually one of my buddies started talking about it he he uh I said I don't don't talk about that that's what that's how you're going to jinx something like that but it'd be pretty big I'm sure it'd be a lot of a lot of people flying down from Michigan on Sunday night after the races for that one so it'd be pretty fun I'm not sure I don't play the if game so we'll see when I win Sunday the party is going to be so good that you definitely won't remember it yeah if I win on Sunday I imagine the party's going to be pretty big you know because I didn't come in here somewhat of an independent program we just recently landed rim riders as a sponsor like today so you know if we could pull off a win it'd be huge obviously not being a full-time program there'll be a lot of discussions after that but I think the party would be be pretty fun that'd be a great thing to have to figure out I'm more of a just go with the win kind of guy so I promise you if you win and there's situations like that there's plenty of people wanting to pull you a lot of different ways to make sure you have a good time you know I'm not much of a part here I've got two young girls and a wife back they'll be back in the motorhome we're probably hanging out in victory lane but if I can win the Daytona 500 we'll probably celebrate and lights will be out try to get the girls some sleep it'll be a busy week I'm a boring guy so you're not going to see me out on on the town spending any money at the bars or tattoo parlors so I'll be I'll be hanging out in the motorhome trying to get some shut-eye I hope we win on Sunday I feel like we we will have a good shot at it we feel confident so party will be big I don't know if it could be too big because I think they keep you kind of busy that next week so we'll have to figure out a good time for that but no I think everybody this party would be really big winning on Sunday for sure I'm I'm not I'm not a real big part here but I'd have to say if we could win the 500 here there probably be a little bit of one we have to try and get everybody rounded up but I have so many friends in racing it's hard to hard to get people people together and away from where where they have to report back to work but I feel like we probably probably hand over a little while having a good fun oh boy I mean I know my so I got my friends down here at New Samaritan helping me for the other track and they're staying down for the 500 but I don't think they're going home on Monday if we win the 500 it's going to be it's going to be heck of a party hey guys welcome back to the infield party NASCAR on Fox you're looking live at Daytona International Speedway and we are joined now by our NASCAR on Fox social media producer CJ Wolliver CJ what's trending what is trending so I came from the media center to the infield party because I had to make sure that everyone had seen this clip it's all about comfort it's all about convenience and if you got your man anything other than this for Valentine's Day I'm sorry I think you kind of missed the mark but I knew a guy in high school that built one of these because he wanted his go-kart to be as comfortable as his living room I've been on one and I got to tell you it's a win so that's the clip that's trending today if you haven't seen it we have it for you on NASCAR on Fox Facebook Instagram Twitter that's where it lives go find it and that's a pretty good clip that's one of my favorites so far hey CJ yeah buddy I also understand that William Byron is trending today William Byron doesn't want to stage you know I think he did pretty good he started P1 way back in stage one and now he's leading the field in the great American race the biggest race of the year and young William Byron is out front Chad Knauss has taken that 2014 to the lead in Daytona and one thing I was thinking about that's pretty cool that got me on nostalgic and gave me the feels last year 2018 which car did we see go to victory lane legendary number three this year can we see the 24 I feel like that's a pretty good way to wrap up speed weeks when we had a documentary named Unrivaled Earnhardt versus Gordon just a few days ago so pretty good way to book in that story three and 24 going to victory lane back to back and actually during Daytona 500 media day we were hanging out with the drivers and we asked them what's your favorite Daytona 500 memory there were quite a few that said 1998 and Dale senior I got to go team Gordon because that's my boy that's who I grew up watching following and cheering for but I also loved the sport in general and everybody around it and so I was an Earnhardt fan a Jarrett fan a Labani fan a Gordon fan Wallace fan I mean I just I just loved the sport in general so it was always cool to be able to watch these guys the different personalities how they went about being able to win their races how successful they were and just what came about and being a NASCAR fan yeah I'm definitely an Earnhardt fan I mean I think Gordon give Earnhardt to run for his money and obviously earned a bunch of it but I was always an Earnhardt fan I loved watching that rivalry I grew up a Gordon fan my brother grew up an Earnhardt fan so we'd sit on the couch and harass each other during all all those times it was a great time to be a fan of racing you know if I had to favor the rivalry I would probably say Gordon simply because my dad was an Earnhardt guy and so I was always you know I was a Bill Elliott fan so you know him and Bill Elliott had their their moments where they butted heads and so anybody that was against Earnhardt I was for that guy yeah definitely you don't think I'm on the Gordon side you know growing up obviously being a huge Dale Earnhardt fan my whole family was and our weekends were based off of where Dale Earnhardt was and hoping that in that time the antagonist Jeff Gordon wasn't going to win the race and he was our rival at the time but you know what is so cool is I got to make a start in Jeff Gordon's final start and I really appreciated that moment meant a lot to me because I look up to him so much and he's an awesome guy he's done so much for our sport and guys like myself and to be a little bit a part of his history meant a lot to me he is a hero and a legend of mine and my wife was his biggest fan growing up so I think now I have such an appreciation for Jeff and that whole series is going to be a lot of fun I'm caught in between because my family we grew up rooting for the black three car but then this guy named Jeff Gordon came along and him and I share the same birthday of course Jeff's older but it was great to have August 4th as a birthday to share and his first race was one of the first times I was starting out racing as well and so I always had my rainbow warrior shirt on but it was underneath my Dale senior jacket no I mean I people are going to take us the wrong way but I mean Jeff's a friend of mine now because I've got to know him but I wasn't a fan of either one of them just from the standpoint of you know my dad was also in that mix and and yeah I didn't I didn't pull free to one of them I respected them but but I was never never really a fan by any means so I hope people don't say that the wrong way but you have to kind of look at it from my view I had family ties so you know family first man to be on it's hard not to be on Jeff's side just because he's such a good friend and and I wasn't fortunate enough to ever meet Earnhardt senior there was one time I was actually down here for the 24 hour race I believe junior and senior were running it at the same time that year and I walked by him and they were talking and I almost introduced myself and didn't quite do it but the amount of respect and what you've learned about what Earnhardt's done over the years you know there's just a level of respect with that guy that just flows through the whole NASCAR garage and and it's hard not to to you know want to be on his side as well but I think just the fact that you know Jeff and I were such good friends over the years it'd be hard not to pick him you know for me that guy growing up was Dale Earnhardt you know being from Canaver's North Carolina myself same place as him it was incredible to see what a guy just a hardworking guy that's one to provide for his family was able to you know make for himself and you know build the things he built and the legacy he built in our sport and I was five years old when I started racing and he was the guy I wanted to be and for sure without a doubt is the reason that I want to pursue what where I am at today Jeff Gordon for sure I have I have to say that but also I'd like him yeah I never had a chance to watch you know Dale really race when I was younger so definitely be on Jeff's side of it you know I've heard about all the stories and watched some of their rivalry going back and forth you know I was one of the one of the random people that was kind of unbiased I mean I watched through that era loved watching every week loved their rivalry and I wasn't really on one side or the other I just loved the passion that the two of them both had well the bad thing is I'm a little bit too young to ever have remembered Dale Earnhardt racing I was born in 96 so I was always a huge Jeff Gordon fan so I guess you know I watched the few years between himself and Dale Jr when I was a bigger deal back then but I was always a big Jeff Gordon fan I'm fortunate enough that I've been doing this a long time that I've raced against senior and Jeff Gordon and I think it's knowing the quality of the people that did it I know who did it and I think it's going to be absolutely amazing I can't wait to watch it I do have it set on the DVR so I can see it and I'm excited to see how well it turned out do I have a side no I'm just a fan I don't have sides on it I like I like the whole aspect of it and you know senior versus Jeff you know the old man versus you know the pretty boy and I mean it was I can't wait to see how they did my derasic background wants to take Jeff's side but you know Dale Earnhardt was a man and everyone knew it and he was you know everyone's he's the intimidator he literally intimidated everybody but I love the rivalry oh team I'm Gordon yeah I've been a Jeff Gordon fan and nobody else in my family was nobody none of our friends were so I've stayed strong with it and you know a couple years ago he actually recognized me in street clothes walking through walking between two garages I think at Indianapolis he just said hey Ross so that was that was really cool and I was just running Xfinity you know I just started so that was that was really neat for me that he you know recognized me I don't know I'm going to see the documentary first but I'm going to have to probably lead to or it's Jeff since he's my colleague now so I'm going to have a hard time going to get Tim I'm from Kenapolis, North Carolina so obviously I'm going to be Team Earnhardt but both of those guys did amazing things for the sport and Jeff's a great dude all right and we are back watching racing at Daytona International Speedway Caitlin Vincy joining you and Michael Walter once again and we want to say thank you to CJ Walover for for giving us that insight thanks no problem at all it was a pleasure it's our social media he's a TV person now yeah and he's a great guy too he's all in on NASCAR he understands every angle of the sport just like you yeah I've seen a little bit of it all and I really enjoy there goes Tom Norwood one of the monster energy executives behind us nice nice holy cow what just happened on the track do you see that Caitlin something on pit road yeah so anyway we're watching the race with y'all so you're watching your TV and we're we're looking up at the monitors and action's happening right now so far the race has sort of sorted out sort of sorted out sort of the race has sorted out you shouldn't say sort of sorted out it's a tongue twister yeah it has sorted out William Byron to the front but now it's time for green flag pit stops and I'm telling you Caitlin these can be game changers oh for sure all pit stops right game changers but especially at Daytona and why is that because the pack is so big and when you exit off turn four it's really difficult to get down to pit road speed okay when you're in a pack so there's needs to be a lot of communication the spotter's on the roof let me show you what that looks like they're all raising their hands I like that communication hey I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming to pit road and you need to know that and so your spotter tries to relate to you off of what other spotters are saying so right now Clint Boyer in third Ricky second William and first it's all good for them they can see pretty good but if you're back 10th or 12th in the pack these pit stops can be very very difficult and you are talking a little bit about the importance wait for those cars to go by the importance of your spotters for for pitting but why are they so important for this whole race the restrictor play races because you trust them you know if you've got a relationship like Clint Boyer say has with his spotter Brett Griffin all these drivers they believe everything those spotters say and remember there's times on this race track the spotter could be three quarters of a mile away looking over there giving you the clearance to move up or down and you're talking about a foot maybe even less than that of tolerance so while it's a great relationship it can go wrong in a hurry I believe that especially in a place like this so what do you think a William Byron up there leading the field the young willy beat there you see it and what we say wow no you just said this yeah you guys are seeing obviously what we're seeing an incident on pit road obviously for a number of competitors there's Ricky Stenhouse shooting involved hopefully there's not a lot of damage but well Tyler Reddick is is in a bad way here his car's torn out of pieces Cody Ware look like a dart without feathers a bit now why that happened I'm not sure we're gonna have to look at a replay you can see Ricky Stenhouse has made it back to his box but Cody Ware you know maybe he got hit from behind I hate to judge when I haven't seen a replay but from the live feed that we saw it looked like Cody Ware overshot the entrance and got into Tyler Reddick and then others yes so but you can see some damage to the rear of his car perhaps he got hit first let's see if we can tell what happens here look at Jimmy Johnson well out of the way I think Ware ran into the back of the 51 and then he clobbers it's just oh and Jimmy Johnson received damage and then Ricky Stenhouse it's what I was talking about earlier wow remember what I was saying hands up yes got to know what's going on you can't be in the back of the pack and cause a crack you've got to be aware pit pits are pitting is taking place and if you're not going to pit it's really important to swing high stay in the higher lane and the first contact was from Ware in the 52 and watch Jimmy Johnson he gets hit by Tyler Reddick that's significant contact on the 48 car not what these competitors wanted to see and he's still hitting cars we really haven't had a lot of incidents throughout the course of this race well look at that damage to the 48 I hope you didn't have him on your fantasy team I did actually now that you mentioned it BJ McLeod he got no you know what you did yeah I knew I I knew I I hoped you didn't I knew I did couldn't remember who we picked you know what another thing we've dissected this wreck it looked like Ware wasn't aware where was not aware that cars were pitting he hit McLeod and then he hit Reddick Reddick hit Jimmy Johnson chain reaction but here's what's happening right now we're going to have a caution obviously a delay in the race and I'm hot I've been hot all day it is but what's happening right now there's a transition going on Caitlin it's cooling off the temperatures are falling the sun is setting grip levels that's going to change the way these cars race as well that we we said it before it happened that that's unfortunate you really that was a little foreshadowing you just got through saying that I've seen it in my in my career but you just hope you know you know how that works yeah hoping strategy yeah you just hope that communication can can prevent this from taking place because I mean I don't know if his day is done or not but Jimmy Johnson's chances of winning are done and he had looked like a really strong car all throughout this race would you say that that for Cody where in experience by drivers spotter both you never know you never know you have to that's why it's not fair for us to say what happened we know what happened literally and it's where ran into the back of McLeod and you're going to see that right okay you're not going to see it no I'm not going to see it well we were watching the video we saw it earlier it's going to happen so we know that where ran into the back I don't know that's just sad because that's that and I you know you almost have to look at the the spotters as a group I talked about hands in the air saying we're coming to pit road you just wonder why everybody didn't get the signal right but with that being said in the history of NASCAR we see at Daytona and Talladega a lot of wrecks coming to pit road we have a question from a Michael who wants to know about how much does it cost when a car wrecks out of the the race how much does that cost the team in terms of financial well if if you were going to win it cost you a mill yeah if you were a potentially winning car yeah if you were going to run 10th it cost you four or five under grand if you're just talking specifically what it cost to fix a car that's kind of that's kind of an abstract question because cars probably top cars cost a couple hundred fifty grand to build maybe a hundred grand to repair that's just that sucks I'm so sad that that took place especially for Jimmy Johnson he was just doing his job getting to pit road under control 52 hit 51 he hit 31 he hit 48 when a chain reaction do I need more clarity I got it now we've seen the replay about 18 times I see our producer Kelly Hamilton why don't you Kelly Kelly yeah come here I got a question she looks very frustrated about the fact that you look like this accident really might have taken out your pick for the driver what did you see I it did take out my favorite driver I think I mean you can't come back from that look at that thing yeah he's my favorite driver and he's also my second favorite driver she has two favorites who's uh third big drugs so it doesn't really matter is it Michael yeah where did I fit in there when you were racing you I think you were like 12 out of 12 no like 14 okay well this is a definite sad blow to Jimmy Johnson's chances you know what I like Caitlin today Jimmy was in the front he was in the mix all day long and and caught a little heat about a couple of wrecks this week but he was just perfect today and then what happened you get run over but I'm an optimist I've been in wrecks before especially at Daytona and Talladega and you can repair cars enough to stay in the draft maybe Jimmy and his new crew chief Kevin Mindray can put enough tape and hope tape and hope left rear of that car to get it going again for Kelly's sake yeah who doesn't like the dream of tape and hope and you see there obviously the mechanics working on it trying to repair the damage on the 48 car Kelly what are you asking us one thing they're talking about one thing they're talking about on the radio right now for the 48 remember you need that bottom of your car see how it's riveted on there that they you can't run without it so I get they got other problems now that we're looking at but all these cars that got damaged they're talking about on the radio they can't run without that bottom part on their car okay and now they're all coming to pit road well pit stops were happening and so that's why you see such action on pit road the other competitors needed gas they needed tires it was time what about the story I want to ask you your opinion Matt DeBenedetto you just like to say his name right yeah did you see J.J. Watt and I talking to Matt on the gridwalk I did not see it but I saw some tweets about it how was it what they say he was awesome and I asked when when the Fox cameras went elsewhere I asked Matt DeBenedetto I said do you know what a guy the size of J.J. Watt could do to a guy like you and he said no I don't want to think about that I don't want to think about that no one wants to think about that my opinion is I think it's really exciting to see him get the ride he has this year obviously a team with the technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing and we talked about him earlier as crew chief Mike Wheeler remember when we discussed do I remember yes I remember okay you gave me a weird look I'm saying we discussed his new crew chief and and maybe what he can do for Matt but would it just a nice dude all around nice guy thankful dude very thankful of his opportunities yes how to race car drivers and there's a lot of them down there that know that they're cheating life a bit getting to do something that they love and getting paid to do it and I kind of feel that way about us Caitlin you know we love bringing NASCAR into folks' living room and to be able to do that the day with Fox and every day really that's a blessing for us it is it absolutely is it never gets old doing this job no it doesn't the sun setting on Daytona but hopefully the sun isn't setting on our career that would be a shame especially at our young ages what what you're saying we're the same age I'm saying we're not that old we're not no no no I can I can see by our feet the folks at home can tell the sun is setting behind us but not on us sun is setting behind us but not on us I like it so we've been you know we made some picks earlier in the day we did over here what happened some of your picks are already well you had Stenhouse and he just got damaged yep but I liked Priest and you had Jimmy and Denny yeah Mina Kyle Busch you said uh you thought he would win the race I think he's gonna win the race you still believe that okay uh we talked about Corey LaJoy a lot throughout the course of the day as well picked Kevin Harvick Joey Logano whoa look at that yeah yes this is uh now they're just recapping the events of the day so far it looks like yes what do you think the folks at home are doing right now just watching us maybe maybe but you know what they could watch maybe uh we've been talking a lot about the 500 and we I know we have a little bit of a segment with some of the other drivers talking about what their favorite Daytona 500 memory is so this is a segment we already have put together for you guys drivers talking about their favorite Daytona 500 memory take a listen I think the coolest memory was when Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 and you know got the the high fives from everybody lined up on pit road that's pretty pretty iconic moment to see him finally get that win after so many years of so many close calls and heartbreaks and then to see everybody on pit road can come congratulating him and just show the respect they had for that man was incredible Earnhardt went into 500 you know I mean so many years of trying and everything that had happened and and cut him away from those that win you know flat tires wreck and all the crazy things that happened to him for him to get Victor Lane at the racetrack he won the most ad I mean it just it was only fitting that that had to happen for our sport and it finally did all right just heard from a bunch of different drivers talking about their favorite Daytona 500 memory Michael you have a pair of victories 500 victories so what's your favorite memory do you have one well yes I have I have a few as you might guess but I guess my favorite Daytona 500 memory was the 2003 500 that we won our second there was a restart late in the race and we knew the rain was coming and I I restarted on the outside and I was like third or fourth on the outside and I needed to get to the bottom and there was like very very small opportunity to do so and I nailed my start perfectly and and I did my job perfectly and I came out the other end with the lead these races are so hard to win and when you execute and you do everything at this level perfectly you know you make a plan and you execute it I just that moment and no you know what's funny Caitlyn nobody really knows about it you know nobody really saw it or nobody made a big deal out of it and really in the scheme of things it wasn't that big of a deal but it's exactly what I had to do and I had to do it perfectly to win the Daytona 500 and so when I look back and and think about moments and things I did well that one is at the top of the list obviously you know the first win in 01 for a half hour was the best day of my whole life and that all that all kind of went crazy so there's a lot of mixed emotions and memories but but when you had to go and you needed to do it just like you thought you needed to do it and you do it and it worked and you win yeah that's a good feeling right well we also talked a little bit about when you were a young guy just being involved in racing pretty much your entire life and I know we have some segments about how it's a family aspect out here with NASCAR um tell me a little bit about how you feel like it's a very family centric sport the sport well that's you saw earlier the folks at home did my daughter here with me yes she grew up on that playground there's a playground in the infield and I remember her being two or three years old riding around in a in a on a bicycle or a tricycle or a wagon and that's why it's so important every year for me to bring her here because I can look over at the playground and remember her and now she's a 21 year old junior at the University of Michigan and so whether your whether the family is related to you being on the track uh-huh like Dave Blaney Ryan Blaney Bill Elliott Chase Elliott Dale Dale junior whether those memories or those relationships bring you to racing on the track I have all those same heartfelt memories of my little baby growing up and then returning to Daytona with us here today and right next to us we're getting ready to go green flag racing again the lineups gotten a little jumbled but yes they're trying to guy who had a crash earlier his buses parked right next to mine and he might be the nicest guy in America Jamie McMurray he was in a wreck he's getting ready to restart the Daytona 500 with the lead that's pretty exciting for our new colleague at Fox Sports Jamie McMurray there's 34 to go is this a point in the race where drivers are starting to get pretty anxious well anxious yes and angry yes we just saw on the on the feed there there was a three wide restart chase Elliott was three wide that that's not supposed to be so i'd like to see NASCAR not react to that like whatever they didn't get it right they didn't get the cars lined up don't penalize anyone just let them race because they're really no harm no foul i didn't see any foul there who's racing to the front now Chesterfield Virginia Denny Hamlin that's right and there's no way Jamie can hang with him right he was in a wreck earlier i don't know it looks like you know what happens Caitlyn at times what's that you wreck your car sometimes your crew can repair it better than it was yeah now if you ask me looking at Jamie's mcdonald's car it's not better than it was it's got a really big ugly bite taken out of that right front fender but he's pushed forward but i think the reason why he's pushed forward and it's all about a guy that i told you is going to win the race and he took him from me yep you know what i'm just gonna let you have him i'm gonna let you have him back here you go there you go he's been talking about it all throughout the show that i stole Kyle Busch pick from him so now he officially has him Kyle Busch is trying what about that move about Kyle Busch yeah there you can see your replay you know what's happening here Caitlyn i'll just tell you Jamie's slow he's got that damage to his front he's slow look what it's doing look how it's bunching the field up behind him anytime you put a slow car in front it's gonna cause issues and Jamie it's just a matter of time till he gets put three wide right oh wait he's three wide you're pretty good at this Michael this play by play you can't do what Jamie was doing it's impossible you got to give him credit though he's out there fighting it's his last Daytona 500 everything on the line for old Jamie Mack what do you make of the Toyotas in this race we're looking at the Toyota top performers obviously Denny Hamlin your close friend leading the charge well i just think that from what i saw in practice Friday and Saturday the the Kyle Busch car was the fastest and Denny was right there with him so it's no surprise to me what i think is interesting though all the talk has been about the Roush 8th horsepower and those four is getting out front we've seen William Byron lead a lot of laps we now we see the Toyotas out front so obviously the competition is pretty even yeah absolutely Alex Bowman there in the mix of Chevy for 100 motor sports started on the front row to this race 30 to go Michael 30 to go it's getting intense look how close things are oh sorry it's sticking with your sweat yeah i am sweaty you didn't even need any tape Kelly who you for now now that Jimmy's out yeah let's get a new Kelly Hamilton pick who's your pick yeah nice and he's a good personality I like working on basically I paste it off this who am I going to enjoy working with for the next week because that's who i'm gonna have to deal with that's fair that's fair do we have a question from our producer what about on the outside there in this lead pack Daniel Hemric he's battling up in the front so we have a fan question that made me laugh okay Jamie wants to know is this the time in the race where you switch from beer to the hard stuff I don't know what do you think what he said he said it at this point in the race do you switch from beer to the hard stuff I don't know what do you have in your cup I've got a Diet Coke Diet Coke but I'm all about I've been drinking a monster monster energy yeah what is at this point in the race for the driver look on your screen at home they're three wide I told you the sun was going to go down yep and when the sun goes down the grip goes up and people get more intense they get more daring we're going to see chances this is the first time we've seen these monster energy cup cars three wide all week this is awesome I want to know something obviously there's a yellow on the track this race there's a yellow on the track watching this race it's stressful just watching it what is it like for the drivers just the mental focus and sharpness you have to have throughout the course of this race it's it's it's awesome as a as a racer a guy that lived for these days my first Daytona 500 was 1986 and okay I I loved every one of them until my last one my 30th Daytona 500 was 2017 and we got a we got a top 10 finish and I was there for that I was in I was in my upper I was old he refrained from saying upper what I was in I was in my older age but and you know it's interesting the way I race that race that day for the first you know 40 or 50 laps I just I almost practiced you know I wanted to remember all the cool things I've done in this great race and I wanted to try them out yeah and then at the end it's time to roll up your sleeves and say I'm going to go try to to get as close to the front of the Daytona 500 as I can and we had a we had a car that qualified in the back and we were fortunate enough to draft it toward the front and finished eighth so that's a great from the first Daytona 500 to the last I just I just am thankful and feel blessed that I got to do it that I got to race a car and and celebrate this day that's why that's why this day is so special to me it's because it's it's it's my favorite day of the year it's Daytona day even now when I'm don't when I don't drive when I wake up on this morning it's special up today my daughter my niece my buddy we're all on my bus yeah and they're they're like oh gotta get up I said it's Daytona 500 baby let's go and I will always feel that I think there's a lot of people that feel that way we've been talking throughout the course of this show about how racing as a family sport and I know we do have a segment with different drivers talking about how racing is a family sport if you want to go ahead and have our excellent producer who's so on it right now go ahead and roll that segment for us talking about family and race you know or most every weekend especially before I could race for I was old enough and that's where we spent most of our time that's where I I enjoyed most of my time was there and I remember coming down here a lot you know for all the speed weeks and things like that and I started racing and obviously you can't go to as many of my dad's races as I wanted to but I don't know you just kind of give it a shot you know I started at eight or nine and it was really just fun you know thing to do until probably I was 13 or 14 and we started racing late models and then you kind of it's your first experience in a heavy car full-body stock car and and then we were like okay that's this is actually you might be able to make it here my race car thought started out with going to the racetrack to watch my dad so I really only wanted to do whatever my dad did um so I went to the racetrack I was my mom took me I was six weeks old obviously I don't remember that but I've been going to the racetrack to watch him um ever since I was born so my dad was always the first guy that um you know I wanted to do everything just like him yeah certainly certainly my dad too I mean he was the reason I got into it and then kind of got me started I'd say my favorite memory you know before I was a driver was probably um going to my first race at the Homestead Miami Speedway in 2003 we went with my dad and my grandpa and you know just kind of became an annual tradition for us to go to races and I just love doing that you know I grew up in a racing family my grandfather owned race cars my dad owned cars and drove cars my uncle owned a racetrack he owned teams and so I mean I grew up going to the dirt tracks on Saturday night I wanted to race as a real young kid but it really wasn't until I was probably 11 or 12 13 years old that I really fell in love with actually getting behind the wheel getting to to race something so that's the time where I thought man I I really want to do this I love doing this I like this other than sticking ball sports and my family was already a part of the short track scene in the state of Georgia I guess I grew up being a Richard Petty and a Dale Earnhardt fan I was a member of the Richard Petty fan club in 1992 but always whenever we had a chance was always watching the races you know on Sunday afternoons whenever we could my dad and I working throughout the winter working on our race cars we'd always have the TV on waiting for some kind of racing show to pop up to hear how they tone the testing was going or you know what was getting ready to happen who was moving seats and stuff like that in NASCAR so always been a NASCAR fan but always you know primarily been a Dale Earnhardt senior and a Richard Petty fan all right very cool hearing drivers talk about racing being a family sports still in her caution here at Daytona International Speedway and I got a guest hi CJ look this is my family that's my brother Darrell that's nice you got your trading cards you got another picture of my other brother Darrell where's your card um they're down there he's got one in there yeah absolutely all right CJ you are famous CJ Wallover is back with us our social guy for Fox Sports I hear you're taking my spot uh never I think I'm just filling in for a minute okay well come on thank you Caitlin Vincy so Mikey you're the best that's a good girl right there knows her NASCAR too absolutely and Caitlin's always fun to work with she's always been willing to help out and interact and retweet and post up for social so Caitlin Vincy always been a pleasure to work with on the NASCAR on Foxside so Mikey I was watching social media because you know that's what they pay me to do here at Fox Sports yeah so doing my best to keep up with these questions and we had some come through that I thought me and you could kind of take a stab at and uh see if we can get some fans to send us more if you have a question for Daytona 500 champion Michael Waldrop send them in put them in the comments we're checking them right now the first one is from Scotty and Scotty wants to know does everyone in the field still think they have an equal shot no you've got to have track position right now if you're running back in 20th you think to yourself I can get a top 10 I might even be able to squeeze out a top five if enough enough action goes down but you certainly can't win you have to be up in the top eight or ten right now if you think you're going to win the Daytona 500 nice yeah I think definitely that's why you've been protecting your spot throughout this race with 24 to go they're getting ready to go back green we've got Denny Hamlin controlling the restart as they roar by there's nothing like that sound as we watch the restart here on the Daytona 500 infield party thank you guys for watching all throughout the great American race and Denny Hamlin trying to hold off Kyle Bush and Byron we have more fan questions though Mikey as they continue to watch it here there's one from Kyle and Kyle wants to know how crazy is this going to get the last 10 laps or the last five laps I don't think that's I don't think Kyle sent that under caution so I think that's a different one but oh it's already getting crazy as I watch on the monitors but right now something interesting is happening if you're watching at home there's three Toyotas lined up on the bottom Denny Hamlin leads Kyle Bush and Eric Jones so if those three Toyotas can get clear of the field there might be a chance for us to see 15 or 20 laps of guys literally working together holding off the field what you want is a calm run toward the checkered and the way to do that is have your teammates with you but I'm telling you CJ from everything I've seen these teams these drivers these cars are getting huge runs and they're able to get Owen and while we say about Eric Jones he's falling off the base must have a flat tire so there goes that plan out the window yeah but these cars these drivers are able to get huge runs I think this is going to be far from calm heading toward the checkered so we've got 22 laps to go Denny Hamlin steal your leader and Mikey how long do you how long do you continue to play nice with your teammates you you can't I think even right now we just saw a big push from Clint Boyer you know you want to help your teammate but you can't sometimes hold off the big runs from behind so you have to have to play the game you got to maybe push when you don't want to push because of the push that you're getting from behind this is a phenomenon we haven't seen all day though if you're watching at home the cars are lined up around the top all day long they've been all over the place right now the leaders are around the top Ken Denny Hamlin Kyle Busch Clint Boyer can they dictate the pace to the checkered around the top so or does someone back around Daniel Hemrick in his first Daytona 500 Matt DeBenedetto Michael McDowell do they say we got to go we got to get a bottom line formed up all day long it's been pretty much a wash the top line the bottom line even but right now everybody's up top and all three of those drivers you just mentioned would complete a weekend sweep for NASCAR trucks the NASCAR Xfinity series and the Daytona 500 first-time winners in all three races we've got trouble caution out on the track we've got an issue for Kyle Larson in the 42 and I have to tell you as a NASCAR fan I'm happy that happened I'm a big Kyle Larson fan and so I'm sad that happened I hate that Kyle Larson's fun but I'm glad we had a caution I wish that it had been for debris and I wish Kyle Larson was racing for the win but a caution right there is something that I think we needed somehow some way the line had formed around the top so Fox Sports Analyst Michael Waldtrip is one of my favorite but driver Michael Waldtrip this caution just came out you're behind the wheel what's the position that you would want to be in for this restart I would want to be Denny Hamlin we're watching the video and unfortunately Kyle Larson just cut a tire and because he's such a talented racer he was able to take that flat tire looks like it was a left rear he was able to take that car that cut down a left rear tire and somehow keep it from causing a huge pile up he just fought it to the bottom split up the track he drove it all the way through it that that was incredible and hopefully he can get some more tires on it and you never know never know it's Daytona we don't know see his left rear if you're looking at home you can see the replay his left rear is dark there's no letters on it evidently someone rubbed him on the restart and you know Rubbins racing I know when he goes sideways right there it shows how much incredible car control Kyle Larson has and you know he's a dirt racer he was about a third of the way sideways and that's just that's just another day in the life for Kyle Larson what about the other racers the drivers that were able to avoid him watching this car spin at 180 miles an hour and make their way around that's just that's why these guys are so good and we hope you're watching on Fox along with us as well and you can see Kyle Larson's hands just furious inside that machine also we will have almost instant replays for you here on social so we'll have them for you on Twitter Facebook I know my co-worker Josh Richter working on that for you right now but it's a caution Mike you so I think a great time for another fan question and this one coming from Lane Lane wants to know what has been your favorite paint scheme of speed weeks all different races all different series which one has just really connected with Michael oh man I'm a big Jeff Borden fan so I certainly love this 24 scheme that William Byron's running but and I also want to give an honorable mention if I may to Kurt Busch with his number one monster car to me that's a beautiful car I guess my favorite though and it's not just because he won a year ago but it's because everything that Richard Childress has meant not only to NASCAR but to Daytona it's Austin Dillon's number three gold paint scheme for celebrating Richard Childress Racing's 50th year I think that's I think that's really special and I love looking at that car all right so I'm going to head back to the media center we just had a caution which means my other job kicks in pretty quick so I got to go get highlights got to make sure that you guys have everything all the information you need up to date to make sure that social keeps you informed during NASCAR races so while I go do that I'll be back I'm actually going to hand it off to one of our producers we call him Janko around here so he will be in in just a bit we're going to hang out he's still working so Mikey he'll be over in a second and I'll be right back I got to go do my social gig for a minute and I'll be right back all right look forward to it CJ thank you Mikey oh my god oh man when I went on Sunday the party's going to go till Monday oh that's going to be a big one that's for sure because you know you're stuck here Sunday night so you have the opportunity to make it as big as you want to make it you know I'm I'm definitely not going to be going out to the tattoo parlor and getting any tattoos or anything like that but I'm sure we can still have a good time and and throw a really good get together oh man I'm sure it'll be another epic night as a tattoo parlor come hang out with us oh yeah we'll get it done yeah daytona 500 win party would would be big I don't know I'm sure I'm sure we'd see the sun come up for a couple days but uh yeah I just you know you know I've actually thought about I feel like it'd be tough to party because you get that damn breakfast it looks it seems like it like eight in the morning the next day and then you got media in New York and all over the place so I think it'd be hard to get a good party in right after but um maybe the following weekend you actually get some downtime to to party with your team and and uh consume a lot of alcohol but uh it'd be tough for the next few days after five I'm just gonna have you so busy uh it'll probably uh include the traditional steak and shake dinner I think the winner has so strawberry milkshake in honor of my mom who turned around to strawberry milkshakes when I was a little kid she let me share them so it'll probably be a strawberry milkshake um along with that there'll be a beer which will probably not be a very good combination but it's mandatory and I'll have my wife my daughter and hopefully some of my closest friends on the team yeah we won the championship last year and I'm not a partier I'll tell you right now it's it's usually I go home and maybe get a pizza and maybe a drink or two and that's really it but we had a good time in Miami we went to to South Beach and had a great time and um but that's because we had a whole off season to recover now we still have to get ready for Atlanta if we win the 500 so uh I think it'll be a little more tamed oh hell yeah it's gonna be our weekend and I hope we party again with winning Daytona it's surreal with the amount of people phone calls emotions and then just the excitement of where are we going next what are we doing and it was awesome to have my father-in-law here that weekend even my mom and dad were here he brought his boat though and it was parked down at the marina so we partied pretty long on the boat caught up with all the monster executives and guests and Gronkowski down at the bar you know that could have been till about 4 a.m. I had to shut it off around 3 because we had a big media day afterwards and then the party goes not just that night it goes all month long and you gotta kind of step back out of the party and go race at night go race Vegas I'll tell you that buzz of winning Daytona lasts all year long second 500 you know I really didn't get to enjoy the first one you know that much when I got back home simply because I was so tired from all the media and the night that I had after the Daytona 500 so I have you know a lot of new guys on my team this year that would enjoy that Daytona 500 experience the night after so we'll make it exciting for sure the party will be wild because I think Derek can definitely get down so we will figure that out I think that will be a natural decision to cut pretty loose after the race we'll probably barely make it to the media tour that's gonna be great I think that's gonna be fun I think it's gonna be kid-friendly since I have a one-year-old but we're gonna have a lot of good times my wife and I have already talked about what we're gonna do in New York when we get to go and all the shows and stuff so we're pretty excited about it yeah I'm a pretty lame duck so I got four kids and been married for 15 years haven't drank in 10 years so there won't be a lot of while and out but just a lot of celebration and having fun and enjoying the moment you know I've been racing my entire life for this moment and especially in NASCAR going on my 12th year it'd be great to get into victory lane oh man if we win the Daytona 500 it'll be absolutely out of control and one in victory lane and then when I got home I would be an emotional mess but yeah all my friend's family would be pretty out of control so everybody would want to stay tuned for that yes yes we'll have watermelons for ever now ready so whenever that next one does come because we're gonna get back there we're gonna get back to victory lane it's gonna be a not gonna be easy but yeah there will be a watermelon smashed on the start finish line when I get out of the car so that's that's really cool to think about well we'll I'll definitely wake up Monday with a hangover and be a dad the first and foremost though so we'll you know we'll have fun for sure we'll keep the kids up late have a good time and then then go back to dad life Monday morning it's gonna be insane obviously I feel like when I won the won the Daytona race last year to open up the year in Xfinity side we had a great time we we were out pretty late here in Daytona just ended up staying through the 500 and leaving on Monday so when the Daytona 500 on Sunday it'll probably be a really late hangover Monday morning Monday afternoon potentially when we finally get out of here well if we win the 500 man that's gonna be crazy I don't know I don't know what the celebration is gonna be like but we're certainly doing something I don't know that I hadn't thought about that just yet but I'm sure we're doing something I have no idea maybe you guys will be invited some of you come down with me I couldn't even imagine how big the party's gonna be for one it's gonna be the craziest thing ever because a car with my face on it is gonna be doing donuts in the grass at Daytona it's it's a long shot but you never know what's gonna happen at Daytona call me that night we'll find out but it'll be a fun night it'll be a rough morning but that's all I know I'm sure it'll be great you know I'm sure it'll be be a lot of fun if that happens but we gotta get there first so trying to get through 500 miles and 200 laps and hopefully come out on top I don't even know I don't I don't really want to think about it yet I want to think about the journey to to get there I feel like obviously it's gonna be a race that I will never forget and I'm really looking forward to to work hard and keep working with my racing to to be able to make it happen and and enjoy the the journey I don't know I don't know we have to there's a lot of eyes we need to dots and tees we need to cross before we get there but man if it if it happens everybody's invited yeah that'd be pretty huge we actually one of my buddies started talking about it he I said I don't don't talk about that that's what that's how you're gonna jinx something like that but it'd be pretty big I'm sure it'd be a lot of a lot of people flying down from Michigan on Sunday night after the races for that one so it'd be pretty fun I'm not sure I don't play the if game so we'll see when I win Sunday the party is gonna be so good that you definitely won't remember it yeah if I went on Sunday I imagine the party is gonna be pretty big you know because I didn't come in here you know somewhat of an independent program we just recently landed rim riders as a sponsor today so you know if we could pull off a win it'd be huge obviously not being a full-time program there'll be a lot of discussions after that but I think the party would be be pretty fun that'd be a great thing to have to figure out I'm more of a just go with a win kind of guy so I promise you if you you win and there's situations like that there's plenty of people wanting to pull you a lot of different ways to make sure you have a good time you know I'm not much of a party or I've got two young girls and a wife back they'll be back in the motor home or probably hanging out in victory lane but if I can win the Daytona 500 we'll probably celebrate and lights will be out try to get the girls some sleep it'll be a busy week I'm a boring guy so you're not going to see me out on on the town spending any money at the bars or tattoo parlors so I'll be I'll be hanging out in the motor home trying to get some shut-eye I hope we win on Sunday um I feel like we we will have a good shot at it we feel confident so uh I think they keep you kind of busy that next week so we'll have to figure out a good time for that but no I think everybody this party would be really big winning on Sunday for sure I'm a I'm not I'm not a real big part here but I'd have to say if we could win the 500 here there probably be a little bit of one we have to try and get everybody rounded up but I have so many friends in racing it's hard to hard to get people people together and away from where where they have to report back to work but I feel like we probably probably handle it for a little while and have a little bit of fun oh boy I mean I know my so I got my friends down here at New Samaritan helping me for the other track and they're staying down for the 500 but I don't think they're going home on Monday if if we win the 500 it's going to be it's going to be heck of a party we're back at Daytona with just 10 laps to go the most important restart of the year wait the year just started maybe of Denny Hamlin's career he makes the move he gets down in front of his teammate Kyle Busch the Toyotas lined up bumper to bumper Clint Boyer on the bottom third in line and look who's up there on the outside there's Paul Menard he's pushing hard he's pushing Matt DeBenedetto J.J. Watten I talked to Matt on the grid we talked about what a upset he was going to be what a threat he would be but here comes Kyle Busch to the bottom Kyle gets to leave this oh no oh no huge crash huge crash Matt DeBenedetto taking out last year's winner Austin Dillon there's the 21 car a Paul Menard a real favorite of mine so sad Chris Buscher there's Ryan Blaney Daniel Suarez is that Matt is that yeah Martin Truex Jr golly you know how it works though it's Daytona the further you go the higher the intensity gets ratcheted up we're watching a replay right now and it's a big bump draft from Ryan Blaney to Matt DeBenedetto let's see what goes wrong ah Blaney just gets a little bit of a a little bit off center with DeBenedetto whoa what a move by Joey Logano though are you watching at home Joey Logano that could be the move that wins him the Daytona 500 and then just melee I count two four six ten twelve four maybe 14 15 cars one car sneaking by though Ty Dillon he's able to get by on the inside and then with minimal damage I see the 24 of William Byron making his way by we're going to be inside of 10 laps to go man Kyle Busch took the lead off Denny Hamlin Clint Boyer right there contending Matt DeBenedetto just the underdog Cinderella's story of the Daytona 500 we talked to him like I said a bit ago J.J. Watney on the grid about he could be your underdog and and it just all went away nothing that he could do Ryan Blaney was giving him an aggressive push Blaney's a veteran Blaney knows what he's doing I think it just goes to tell you how difficult racing these plate tracks restriction plate racing is look at that melee if you're watching at home if you're watching on our Daytona 500 100 infield party well you just sort of see all the safety vehicles that are on the scene making sure the drivers are okay we're going to zero in on Matt Tift the 36 car maybe look over at some of the other vehicles there's Matt DeBenedetto his car Daniel Suarez and that's Martin Truex I think over to the right there's Chris Buscher and Ryan Blaney I want to make it clear to folks at home the result was a wreck off the front bumper of Ryan Blaney that was certainly not the intention and that's how tough that's how tight that's how easy things can go wrong in a hurry you see how he just wasn't off he wasn't centered up on the back kind of kind of there was a gap and then he bounced back into him and look at that mess I don't hear any cars on the track if you're watching at home on Fox look at look at the 13 and William Byron William Byron 13 of Ty Dillon I think they both slipped through and remember the flat tire that Kyle Larson had earlier that had him in the back I think maybe Larson gets through but here is Austin Dillon right on the back is that David Reagan and wow nowhere to go look there's cars in the air man what an unfortunate situation I tell you I've been in the middle of these big pileups I've been able to slip through a couple of them and you know it's part of it what's true oh just look at that I don't know if you're watching home or just watching our live feed but it was a tremendous crash a lot of damage a lot of cars tore up the red flag is out the sun has set here in Daytona and the hopes of winning the Daytona 500 have set on upwards of 15 to 20 cars I've got my eye on Jimmy Johnson right now a shower of sparks just driving blind into a into a looks like a scene from tornado and Jimmy was not able to get through golly as a competitor as a racer as a guy that's been fortunate enough to win the Daytona 500 twice that that hurts it hurts bad because I know how how much each one of those competitors wanted to be a part of this story when we throw the checkered here in less than 10 laps but you also show up at Daytona knowing that you could be involved in a huge crash I see ambulances from from our broadcast position here in the garage area in Daytona I see ambulances to my right going to the infield care center to my left I hear cars rolling in to the garage area on the back of wreckers I see Paul Menard's car Matt Tiff's car tell you what I'm going to do I'm going to take a picture of this scene and show you what it looks like you can follow me on twitter you can watch this on twitter and see exactly the mess that we have here in the garage area just just such a shame such a such a great race and this is my favorite one of the favorite stories of the day just the story of Matt de Menardetto and now all of his hopes and dreams of being a Daytona 500 champion are hooked on the back of a wrecker so I'm going to twitter this right now I'm at mw 55 if you'd like to see what I'm sending out the Daytona 500 infield party is winding down I see Eric Amarola's car Ryan Blaney's car all behind me just a sad day sad day for those guys and when I say that and I talk about how sad it is there's still about 15 guys out on that race track that think that they're going to win the Daytona 500 watching a replay here in Daytona we see what goes wrong in the front and I'm going to fall along with William Byron he's in the back he sees what's happening he pulls off the track he and Ty Dillon both are able to snake their way through this carnage there's the number 12 car Ryan Blaney what a mess it is Blaney was truly one of the fastest cars on the track also see Eric Jones sliding he got a little damage but I think Eric Jones can make repairs they can fix that car and keep it going taking a few pictures here you can follow me along on Twitter to see what it looks like down in the garage area Fox Sports is on the scene we think that we think that there were upwards of 12 cars I know Paul Menard Tyler Reddick Matt Tiff Chris Busher David Reagan Daniel Suarez Kyle Larson Jimmy Johnson and Matt Domenedetto those are cars we're sure that we're involved but I saw others that were sliding and and receiving damage but but may be able to race on for example William Byron I saw him catch a piece of the the action but but made it through along with if you're a big Ty Dillon fan and I am I love Ty Dillon he made it through as well now we're starting to talk to some of the guys that did make it through if you're watching our Fox broadcast Vince Welch who works alongside me on the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Series broadcast he's talking right now with Adam Stevens Adam is Kyle Busch's crew chief and they're having a chat about Kyle and and how he feels about his car really appreciate you joining us if you can't watch the Daytona 500 we just wanted to give you another another way another channel to be able to check out the action from the great American race the grandstands are full I want you to look over my shoulder and see all the folks that are setting up there waiting and eagerly anticipating this restart we'll go back to racing here in a bit to see who wins the Daytona 500 but wow what a scene I'm going to send you a picture of the end of the grandstand on my twitter mw55 what a beautiful scene down on pit road Clint Boyer is riding third J.J. Watt and I talked to Clint on the grid he told J.J. that he was a huge Kansas City cheese fan I wouldn't have done that because J.J. Watt is a huge man he could have just taken him out right there but as I look on the track Kyle Busch Clint Boyer Denny Hamlin Michael McDowell Kevin Harvick Joey Logano Ricky Stenhouse Ryan Priest he was one of my underdog picks Alex Bowman William Byron another car that made it through so my favorite and I told everybody all week long I thought Kyle Busch would win the Daytona 500 I'm going to stick with that right now he's in a great spot so red flags out the cars are parked back here in the garage area the crews are assembling looking at their cars trying to understand exactly how they can at this point just load them up on the track you can see from the bumper of Paul Menard a round goes to Benedetto Ryan Blaney heavy into the contact Eric Amarola David Reagan there you see Daniel Suarez Austin Dillon a year ago he's celebrating in Victory Lane there's the number six Oscar Mayer Wiener's car he's around but look on the bottom the 13th Ty Dillon he slips through so you know what I love is we're getting ready to see a great battle to the finish to see who wins the Daytona 500 what I hate is there were so many cars man if you watch the video I don't even know what's left of that Smithfield Meats car Eric Amarola was smashed from both ends his car was in a terrible way the push that Menard gave just went wrong Ryan Blaney tied up in it as well you can hear behind us all the work going on and see behind us the Daytona 500 infield party certainly this isn't the party we plan this is turned into a parking lot party and the parking lot is full of wrecked cars Martin Truex's car is over there these teams will just do their best to figure out what parts and pieces they remove from these cars and then in order to be able to just to load them up and get them back to North Carolina and then when they get them back to North Carolina it's just a matter of putting them in the in the junkyard these cars are toast they're done I'm watching the live feed from Fox my buddy Ben Swelch he's interviewing Joe Gibbs and right now it's good to be Joe Gibbs both Denny Hamlin Kyle Busch right up there in the front fighting and then Clint Boyer what a start to the season spent for Boyer he's just done a nice job of positioning himself all day long and now he finds himself in a position to fight for the Daytona 500 hey Michael how about your producer how are you I'm doing well but these cars are jacked up do you want to walk around and kind of show them the fans at home about what these cars are looking like and what the teams are doing yeah can we do that let's do it you can see all the fans if you're watching the Fox feed the fans in the stands are set and still Joe Gibbs has a big smile on his face but let's try to show the folks at home exactly what it's like after a huge crash like this on the super speedway Daytona so I'm going to probably be the only one with a smile on my face because these teams have just put their heart and souls countless hours of preparation tuning tweaking to put themselves in a position to win the Daytona 500 and now you can see they just find themselves with a worthless heap of metal this chunk of metal all they're doing now all they're thinking right now Alex is how do we get this car on the truck this isn't about getting back in the race this is about putting the car on the truck and you can see how bad the 21 car of Paul Menard is torn up the team trying to get it to a little row and then right here Ryan Blaney's Menard's Ford the team working hard just to get it back on the trailer look at the carnage in that right rear wheel can't even read Menard's it's all crinkled and broken up and now look at the back of Paul Menard's Ford you can see nothing's left and and the car that took the biggest hit he was hitting the front and the back and up in the air let's check out the number 10 of Eric Amaroa that is a mess we saw the replay this car was pinned in the front up in the air in the back the team is just dissecting it taking parts and pieces off of it that will help them put it on the truck probably a $300,000 piece of machinery 30 minutes ago now it's a worthless heap of metal Martin Trex Jr thank you for your service sir Martin Trex Jr the 19 car his first ride in the 19 with Joe Gibbs Racing you can see this car is this car is done Cole Pern crew chief overseeing the the team just trying to get it to where they can load it on the truck Cole is this just all about trying to figure out how to get this damn thing on the truck yeah it's about at this point and hopefully we can make the first plane and get the hell out of here disappointing I know sorry yeah it was just that kind of day we every time we went to go make a move something didn't happen didn't go right and just uh oh well um hopefully our teammates both have a good shot at and the thing gets victory land that'd be pretty awesome I appreciate you buddy so what you do as a crew chief as a team when something like this happens and I guarantee you this is the case Cole Pern's thinking Atlanta this didn't go well this didn't work out we're going to get this car on the truck we're going to get on the plane we're going to go home and we're going to make sure they know we're in Atlanta I love that about I love that about crew chiefs crew guys that's that's who they are this is over this is done let's go forward that's NASCAR official and NASCAR Xfinity series champion David Green he's a NASCAR official he's in charge of safety and he's you see the gentleman in the white shirt that's David Green he's making sure this car held up in all the areas it's supposed to Chris there just wasn't anywhere to go buddy it's all a couple rows ahead of us and uh it's all the side of a 95 car and that was that was about it other than that just a bunch of smoke and um seven or eight hits along the way so just uh product of the race and all the cars being left out there and you know nothing uh nothing too aggressive early on it all comes down to the end so I hope that's that's it I hope it's done for this race because it is a shame we had a really good Kleenex wet wipes from Meryl I was gonna say you were running really well your car was fast yeah we did we had speed in this thing I uh I can't thank everybody enough on this JTG Gordy race team across both teams this is the best cars we've ever brought to Daytona best speedway cars I've ever driven on the cup side and uh didn't get to show them get a result to show it so it's a bummer you know I want to I don't want to bother you but I love your teammate Ryan Priest he just seems like a guy that wants to race a car and when I think of Chris Buster I think the same thing how's that relationship going so far I know this is a bad time to ask and I can't wait for Atlanta to see you there looking forward to running well but how's it going with you two yeah um way to come out of here one too it'd have been a little easier to talk but Ryan's a good dude um you know a very similar upbringing he's had to try and call his way into the sport and uh and get to this point and I think he's excited to be here we're ready to get some results this season we are we're in a better position than we've ever been at JTG so um we're gonna go get some results we're gonna go get some some great finishes try and get some wins and uh be a contender all season I really appreciate your time and then I guess these boys just trying to figure out how to get her on the truck right yeah unfortunately thank you buddy David Green like I said hanging out making sure that all the safe safety uh parts and pieces that are built into these cars held up the way they hope they would see uh see who else we can find here Fox Sports is offering us this unique opportunity to to be here and to talk with the drivers behind the scenes what about this car running up front all day long and now they're just trying to to rip it apart and get it on the truck had to be proud of where y'all ran today I mean that was that was really awesome to see up front yeah very proud of the the whole team pro core and through the we did a great effort so we're really proud of that and I uh I was on the grid before the race with JJ White and we got to talk to Matt and I said you're my underdog and I'm like damn these make me look pretty good yeah I think you prove everybody that he's not the underdog that everybody thought right so no everybody uh everybody worked hard Mike Wheeler did a really good job the whole team and we're just very proud just just sucked it does suck but I'm really happy for y'all to show what you're made of thank you Mike thank you hey what do you think about all this yeah it's really cool to be back here in this area well I just uh I wanted to say thank you again for your service and want you to know that uh when I see men and women in uniform it warms my heart because I love this country and I love that that people protect it for me and us and and I appreciate you thank you very much and I hope you are provided with great entertainment because this Daytona 500 has been crazy every day 200 500 is uh interesting to watch all right have a great night thank you very much hey uh I see Nascar on Fox Insider Bob Pocrus hey Bob I always wonder what you do what are you doing well just got back from the care center Paul Menard took the blame for that accident and he said with his mistake Matt DiBenedetto had a great day going was happy they had a fast car and said it was just a racing incident well let me ask you this I mean we've seen bump draft go wrong so can you really say as Paul Menard it was my fault did you say yes Paul it was or you're like well you know it happens well we asked Paul what his view was and he said he got into he got into Matt so he said he got a good run and got into him I mean it's the nature of restrictor plate racing right all I do is I think of the time when Tony caused that big racket Talladega I think you were in you when he cut you off right 20 something cars involved and 10 minutes after the race he's standing in the garage talking to people usually you should be hiding right I'd be hiding if I caused that big of a wreck but people just say well that's restrictor plate racing yeah and I think that's you know for me I think that's what Paul should say you know we were pushing it was late you know it's it's awesome he took blame but it's restrictor plate racing you're gonna have that yeah well maybe he felt like what he said after the wreck with Jimmy Johnson last week that maybe he felt like he had to maybe I'm gonna say fall in the sword a little bit but back pedal but yeah well it's just like look if I'm gonna if I'm gonna throw some shade I need to take the shade on me right oh I like what you said there I get it you know I mean he kind of called Jimmy out a little bit so if he causes something he's got to step up and take the take the blame let me tell you a quick story here about that wreck that Tony Stewart and I started at Talladega that day I think it was 2012 ish I was a part-time competitor and I'm going on my way running way faster than Tony Stewart to win Talladega I mean I was gonna win all I had to do was just go straight and Tony saw me coming and turned dead left when when I was on top of my game when I won two-day tone to 500s I would have never noticed Tony I would have just been on my way and I'm like heck with y'all and so that day let me tell you what happened I'm like and I saw Tony coming I went what like maybe for a tenth of a second I took my eye off the prize and I looked at Tony and when I went to get away from him it was too late I'm telling you a story just to tell you how quickly and how hard this job is and I gotta like I really appreciate Tony taking the blame that day because it really wasn't my fault but Michael Walsh from 2003 or four or five he had never been in that wreck it would have been it would have been victory lane for me and so I know what these drivers are faced with and I know how hard it is and I think it's really really really cool to hear somebody like Paul Menard say that one's on me yeah and I think everybody also knows it's plate racing and you know it could happen to anybody we've seen the best every single driver has probably caused a restrictor plate race sometime in their lifetime I want to tell you one more story real quick I like being here with the guys on the on the digital because I'm interviewing crew members that are fixing cars to put them on the trailer like I don't get to do that on Nascar on Fox I got it I'm talking about the race leaders or the winners this is this is sad but it just shows you the passion of the people in the garage you're just scouting for Dale's graveyard and telling them which ones will be the best to put in there because but look as we mentioned earlier these teams weren't going to use these cars again the plate packet or the tapered spacer package will be so different but damn you'd like to have one to take home with you well you'd like to put one in the visitor center here at the end of the night but if you want to get what you want if you want one to go to Dale Jr's house I suggest number 10 it's a mess yeah and it's interesting we were talking to David Reagan and he said that he didn't he wasn't sure who was on top of him I think it was the 10 it was the 10 and he said all of a sudden it just all got dark and then and and for just for a few seconds before you you know could realize you know exactly what was going on and from what I remember you're not supposed to go into the dark it's not a bad thing or no you're not supposed to go in the light you want to I don't think you drive through the smoke go into the smoke okay all right you come out the other end all right well I don't think there was nowhere to go for him for no there wasn't you know what Bob this is for sure and it took me a long time to learn this because I was so hard on myself most of my career some wrecks are unavoidable it doesn't matter who you are or what happened some wrecks are unavoidable if you're racing for the lead and racing for position there's going to be wrecks because if there wasn't you'd say well who's who's not pushing it far enough right you gotta it happens because you're pushing it to the limit well we saw that just now would you what's your prediction one more yeah maybe one more but uh you know they've only I don't know how many laps they'll have left I guess maybe four or five and yeah probably one more what about the Gibbs cars Denny Kyle do they win I don't know Lagana was looking good on those fresher tires so it depends how much help he has okay how are you enjoying your tenure with Fox Nascar well it's kind of a whole lot better in the last 10 minutes since I've been talking I got to talk to Michael Walter but I haven't even gotten to see you all the all two weeks because we've been around in different directions do you know Alex Mills I do know Alex he's a good dude he's a good cameraman I like him we're gonna do a podcast together all right and so I know you're a you're a immediate guy so I can't wait for you to hear my podcast and see if you think it's fun or not I'm sure it'll be fun all right I'm gonna go ask a crew member hey this is maybe the worst torn up car I've ever seen like I mean I tore up a couple pretty bad I was getting ready to say we worked on a couple of viewers remember but but he was he was into the front and jacked up in the back this car is a mess how are you gonna get on the trailer put it on put it on there and then what's your thinking right now it's gonna be fun in Atlanta yeah it's gonna be a mess put this behind us right he used to work at Michael Walter racing so I know he's seen worse torn up cars see they put this car on casters there's no way to make the front end roll so they just slid come up here Alex they slid casters in the front end that's the only way it'll go good talking to you you didn't have a lot to say yeah sure so I think man I gotta tell you I'm a big NASCAR fan I'm a big racing fan and being able to be down here behind the scenes and show the folks at home what all happened I'm supposed to be on a plane in 30 minutes that I'm gonna miss but it's pretty cool let's go back over to our to our studio right y'all were great though look at all the oil and dirt the way the side of the car is ripped out now your job's tires but when it comes to crashes you have to do everything right you're digging in helping them get this thing ready go to the trailer we got two yaps out of her she's a really sweet girl always fun to talk to on the pit breaks my heart let's head back over we're getting ready to go racing the restart's coming coming green we're gonna sprint seven laps to see who wins the Daytona 500 see the Gibbs cars to the bottom Clint Boyer packed right there and look at Michael McDowell along with Joey Logano a couple of forwards on the outside I'm telling you though McDowell's car isn't as fast as Logano's he's gonna be all over his bumper but he'll ditch him you see oh here we go again not quite as a big of a big one I think a lot of these cars will keep going well this is gonna lead to NASCAR overtime you see the Fast and All Ford Ricky Stenhouse tore all the pieces looks like Alex Bowman can keep going he grabbed second gear there let's see so McDowell gets sideways because of the huge run for Logano Logano off the gas look at that door it opened for Ricky Stenhouse he drives into a hole that was occupied by Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson look at William Byron in the 24 Brad Kozlowski Ty Dillon what a move by Ty Dillon and there goes Jamie Murray that was Ricky Ricky going for it and Ricky will but I'll tell you this if it wasn't Ricky it'd be somebody else what a move by Ryan Priest he's gonna restart inside the top 10 what a move check out Stenhouse he tries to dive right there between Harvick and Larson Larson maybe shut the door a bit Ricky got into Larson and around they went Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kyle Larson are good buddies and I'm gonna almost bet as a racer and as a friend of theirs they're not gonna have a problem with that Ricky's gonna say man I was there and Kyle said well I had to come over oh man Kevin Harvick just nowhere to go Chase Elliott as well look at Ryan Priest and William Byron Brad Kozlowski it's hitting the back by Ty Dillon but Dillon makes it through this could be a career night for Ty Dillon remember what happened a year ago his brother Austin drove to Victory Lane Jamie Murray slips by another wreck and look at the back are you watching this feed are you watching the NASCAR on Fox broadcast we got five laps to go and look at the back of William Byron's car that 24 car is messed up Jimmy Johnson's still salvaging along he's dragging his back bumper I see Landon Castle out there he's inside the top 20 lap 195 five laps to go Brad Kozlowski Kevin Harvick Chase Elliott Ty Dillon Ricky Stenhouse Jr Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman wind up in a huge crash isn't this what it's always about the Daytona 500 you want it so bad you're going to push so hard and what we've seen here tonight is people over push the limits I want to break down that move I want to talk to you at home about what happened Ricky dove to the middle there was room when he dove there Kyle blocked and they wrecked who do you want to blame that on everybody was really quick to blame Jimmy Johnson for the big crash in the clash how much different did that look racers are racers you make a move I'm going to try to block it and I think that's what we saw but the Eminem's Camry is first and it's going to be overtime NASCAR overtime Denny Hamlin is second who pushes them you got Michael McDowell in third and Joey Logano in fourth let me just tell you what's going to happen why are you walking in my camera oh because nobody knows okay let me tell you all what's going to happen I'm exactly right and you'll see how smart I am Kyle Busch will start in front of Joey Logano so what I'm saying is Kyle Busch will take the outside he won't start on the bottom where the poll center usually starts he'll put Denny Hamlin there why because Joey Logano's car is way faster than Michael McDowell's so when they come to the green you just watch and say Michael told you when they come to the green it'll be Kyle Busch on the outside Denny Hamlin on the bottom and Denny Hamlin is going to be wow look at Chase Elliott's side there Denny Hamlin is going to be cheering for Michael McDowell like he never has before and then Kyle Busch is just going to expect Joey Logano to do what Joey Logano does oh darn they didn't do that well they should have all right I'm going to change they didn't do that but that's what I would have done that's what I was supposed to say what I would do if I was Kyle Busch start on the outside in front of Joey Logano he chose not to do that he's on the bottom in front of Michael McDowell McDowell's car doesn't have the speed Logano has I like Denny Hamlin on the outside with Joey Logano behind him to me this is a mistake to me this is a mistake Kyle Busch should have taken the outside we're coming toward the green flag this won't be NASCAR over time they'll get the green flag with two to go in regulation so time will tell if we have another but I gotta tell you I don't know what Jeff DW Mike and those guys are saying but I think this is a mistake I want Joey Logano behind me he's a master did you see the movie made the other night in the duel he just went from fourth to first in one turn he's got a fast car I like Denny Hamlin right now plus poll sitter William Byron he's behind Logano what is Kyle Busch thinking why did that team take the bottom watch it home watch closely watch this restart I think Joey Logano could push Denny Hamlin to the lead here comes Logano look at Ty Dillon back in eighth oh Ty Dillon let Chase Elliott to the bottom there goes McDowell falling back big mistake by Boyer tried to get in a hole that wasn't there ah damn another huge crash now we'll go NASCAR over time and look who leads and now it's up to Denny Hamlin to make the right decision my decision was to start ahead of Joey Logano there's crew chief Chad Canals his chances of winning the Daytona 500 are gone we've seen the Oscar Meyer wiener mobiles sparking and smoking it's pretty tough though it's a tough wiener and this is the Rush Truck Center's Ford for Clint it'll look like to me now I always like to see a replay before I give my final opinion but it looked like Clint just tried to get in a hole in there look at the speed he had I talked about the 34 wasn't fast he goes down and he goes up that was a mistake that's easy to call look who slipped through again Ty Dillon and on the bottom Jimmy Johnson through and out the other side along with Eric Jones hi how you doing buddy? what do you think? I think it's awesome this is my first Daytona 500 and this is awesome you see the move watch Boyer he wanders up right there just wet and clear you gotta wonder you know I'm a veteran NASCAR racer you gotta wonder did Boyer clear himself or did spotter Brett Griffin say get up there I can't imagine there was an advantage to get up there Mike Mcnaw did nothing wrong there Clint Boyer is a great race car driver but that just simply was you weren't clear who's left? who's left to win the great American race? Denny Hamlin leads watch this Boyer if he stays on the yellow line he's gonna chase Kyle Busch to the checker instead he's runs into William Byron look at the alley car Jimmy Johnson look at all the smoke what Jimmy Johnson is looking at he bounces off Jamie McMurray and clear and look at Eric Jones look at Brendan Gaughan can Gaughan get through? no into the outside wall and BAM landing castle into the side of William Byron Jamie McMurray backwards I didn't see a lot of contact for McMurray oh Ryan Priest through again look at Jimmy Johnson how does he miss that? all the way to the bottom what great moves these racers are making Canadian DJ Kennington he's like whoa whoa whoa we gotta slow down watch Eric Jones low high low that are you watching that at home? are you seeing this? I mean that's all happening 170 80 miles an hour the same thing's getting ready to happen again we better go over to the garage area and see who's coming in now Denny Hamlin Kyle Busch Joy Logano Mike MacNow if I'm Denny Hamlin I start on the bottom right ahead of Joy Logano just like I would have done if I were Kyle Busch earlier Hamlin's moved to win the 2016 Daytona 500 maybe as good as it gets he split the middle made an awesome move y'all want to give me a mic and we'll go look around Kevin Harvick's number four it's the car to can car here comes landing castles number 00 dragging in the dirt and the mud with it after some hard contact I believe he collected William Byron this is part of Daytona you don't want to take home with you we drug the car through the mud through the grass and now the team just feverishly working to get it loadable where they can put it on the truck there's Landon's car let's take a look inside you can see the carbon fiber seat all the safety innovations that have gone into a NASCAR race car when I was a racer you basically when I started you had a seat and now they're in a cocoon they're being able to keep the driver's head restrained not only by the seat but by the Hans device an invention from Dr. Robert Hubbard who unfortunately passed away this past early February and he's his passing is sad but it's a chance to celebrate the life of a guy who who's saved many lives of racers you can see Landon has an Earnhardt Childress Engine ECR the suspension here just cranked all the way over the front end shortened up probably some three feet oil running out of the front of Kevin's car a couple of stickers here like to bring your attention to celebrating the life of Glenn Wood owner of the Wood Brothers team also the legacy of JD Gibbs and forever for passion purpose prosper perseverance these teams not only go to win races but they also go to recognize and honor others and Glenn Wood was my car owner from 1996 to 1998 we had three years together we're able to win the all-star race together and so my heart goes out to Glenn Wood here comes here comes the pole setter that's the 24 of William Byron you saw the double zero of Landon Castle I think drive right into the left side of this 24 of William Byron hey David what is what's your job here when these cars come in tour all the pieces just make sure the the structure of the car held up properly yeah and then more importantly we have an IDR that records data and then we take that out in a high-speed camera and then get any pictures just for reference with damage and whatnot so now is there any difference in the procedure whether it's a carbon fiber seat or an aluminum seat all the same all the same everything looks good and all of them thank goodness yeah that that that space where the driver sits I know it's a lot different than it was when you and I drove David and I we started racing on the same track back in Owensboro Kentucky a track called Kentucky Motor Speedway in Whitesville we started together and and David went on to win a Xfinity championship in many races and now he's a NASCAR official and his job is to make sure the driver is is safe and and he makes sure it's safe the driver is safe by by analyzing what all happened not only visually but as he said by high-speed cameras and and data impact recorders and this this this was a big hit a lot of the crew guys as you can see they've done their work they got the cars all loaded up headed back to North Carolina they'll put a fresh couple of cars on the trailer head out to Atlanta about Thursday morning and get ready to do this all over again that's our set up right over there we're at the featherlight trailer you can see the video all the audio equipment producers directors everyone that has come together so that we could give you here on Fox Sports a behind the scenes look at the Daytona 500 we knew we'd be able to show you interesting views and interesting perspectives we just didn't quite know it would be quite this deep so I know this world I've unfortunately lived this world where I've driven my car into a wall and seen all the process that went into getting it on the trailer and getting it home and maybe it gives you a better perspective or maybe a better look at all the all the work the intense work that goes into being on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series now the opposite are those cars on the track there's about 10 of them that still think they can win the Daytona 500 and what I love about that is the ones that are in contention Denny Hamlin Daytona 500 champion Kyle Bush he's won everything no Daytona 500 Joey Logano defending NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series champion and then let's talk to talk about a couple of underdogs Michael McDowell he's in there fighting and Ryan Priest Ty Dillon there's Eric Jones what about Kyle Larson how many wrecks has he been in but let me tell you what I love what I think is going to happen I mean I told you earlier Kyle was going to start on the top in front of Joey Logano well he didn't and now he's not leading so what better happen what I think is going to happen and what better happen because Denny Hamlin is my friend he's listen start on the bottom in front of Joey Logano that's how you win this race I'm not going to say you're going to win it if you do that but you'll definitely get the lead and then after that who knows what happens and the reason why I say that Joey's car is faster than Michael's we saw Joey win the duel this is kind of fun I'm enjoying myself but I'm kind of sad because I know how bad that hurts so I'm happy because I'm getting to watch the Daytona 500 and be a part of the Daytona 500 on Fox even though I'm not on Fox Fox I'm on Fox Digital am I on Fox Digital yeah I'm on Fox Digital um but I'm telling you what what what what's got to happen here what's got to happen is Denny Hamlin bottom Joey Logano behind him there you go this this is simple we're going to take some questions we got one from Mike and Hoboken what does it mean to win the Daytona 500 well Mike I've been blessed to win it twice and it's it's life changing so I won it what 18 years ago and ever since then I've been referred to as a Daytona 500 champion and this is the great American race it's NASCAR's biggest race and you don't get that very often it's very very very special I'm very honored I'm very humbled and I'm very thankful so thanks for your question are the monster energy girls gonna be in Victory Lane Dane from Chicago wants to know well heck yeah they've been here all day I think you'll see them in Victory Lane watch this move I don't know if you're watching Fox at home but watch Denny Hamlin here bam straight to the bottom he makes that move and straight to Victory Lane Denny gets to watch that video for the rest of his life of making that daring move and driving to Victory Lane I mean that's that's as special as having that Daytona 500 trophy got another question Charles from Grass Valley California Charles says thank you Michael for building up Matt Domenedetto so much in the pre race show you and JJ White were right on he was a real challenger do you think he can win this year oh I knew he'd be a contender today I don't think he'll be a contender in Atlanta and we'll just have to see after that what kind of speed they can find in that number 95 car you know I wouldn't look for him to be challenging for a win again until Talladega but let's see how he performs until then but I think that team has some making up to do some ground to make up but I really appreciate you you're chiming in and watching Fox NASCAR oh we got a question from a lady Susan from Charleston says what is your favorite dining place in Daytona that's an interesting question I've narrowly I've rarely thought about that when I was a kid we used to go to a place called Portofino but I haven't been there lately I usually just eat in my bus so I'm gonna say Hyde Park Steakhouse at the Hilton down on the beach so that's where I would go if I had you know if if you said where do you want to go and I wasn't gonna eat home that's where I would go oh look at this I love this question and this comes from Tom in Austin Texas what are they thinking right now that is awesome as you sat on the on the on the front straightaway track services is cleaning up the joint you know any moment you're gonna hear crank them up let's go I know I know what they're thinking really good because in 2003 at Talladega there was a late race caution and during that caution they threw the red I think Elliott Sadler flipped over on the back straight away and I was leading the race and there was two laps to go and this was before NASCAR overtime so with two laps to go I'm red flagged I thought I was just gonna caution my way to the win but they threw the red and I said all right what am I gonna do now so what you're doing as a driver and what Denny Hamlin is doing right now Kyle Bush Michael McDowell Joey Logano Ryan Priest what they're doing right now is they're thinking of every possible scenario in their mind of how this could play out if I'm Denny I've already looked behind me I've already talked to my crew chief my spotter I'm like I'm going on the bottom I want Logano behind me but then after that it gets a little more difficult that race in Talladega in 03 where I restarted first I had Dell Jr behind me but a couple cars back was Jeff Gordon and Jeff Gordon had a head of steam so I not only had to hold off Jeff Gordon and Dell Jr I had to make moves all over the racetrack in order to do that so if I'm Denny Hamlin this is what I think he should do he should restart on the bottom get a push from Joey and then block his butt off be so aggressive with the blocking just make sure you put that car from the top to the bottom don't give him a chance that's what I think Denny Hamlin does and I appreciate your question hi Bob he moved up what he moved up yeah I asked Boyer if he was confident that he was clear and he said nobody had to be clear if it was gonna work and he felt like he had to make the move he didn't have any help and he you know he obviously wished he was on the outside but with no help on the inside he felt like that was his only shot to win the Daytona 500 well when he watches the video I think he'll feel a little bit differently well I think he knows that he tried to make a move well he made the move the move worked he just there really wasn't any reason to make that move to the right it's trying to stay up off the yellow line right because he got right guys wheels on goes a little bit further down and he's penalized but yeah I mean I think he like I said I think he knows that you know he tried to force the issue and it came back to bite him and some others William Byron is out of the care center is he okay he's okay Chase Elliott is out of the care center and Jamie McMurray is out of the care center and Brenda Gaughan is head of the care center McMurray is like McMurray is you know obviously his last potentially his last race you know knows that it's restrictor plate racing you know and I think he said something about you know it wasn't at least it wasn't a bunch of flips like he had a Talladega let me ask you a question Bob look at this top six Kyle are Kyle Bush's second Denny Hamlin leads Joey Logano third there you see McDowell Ryan Priest Todd Dillon if you're Denny Hamlin what do you do to win this race I do what I've been doing the last few laps and just try to stay out front and block as hard as as much as you can you know I know Kyle I didn't think Kyle Bush was very happy with his car going into today but he's looked good here in the last uh last 10 or 15 laps so I don't but I don't know if he has if he has enough if uh if Hamlin gets at least a little bit of a push from someone now here's what's going to happen Bob all right then he's going to start on the bottom which is where Kyle should have started last Kyle should have started on the top so Kyle chose to start on the bottom and behind him was Michael McDowell well that put Denny on the top and behind him Joey Logano I'm going to start wherever Joey Logano is well remember last week was it last year where Denny felt like he he's picked the wrong lane on the restart late is that right is that what he's doing well here's what's getting ready to happen Denny's going to pick the bottom and if he doesn't he's I don't I don't even understand what the team's thinking because right behind him will be Joey Logano who's got a faster car Joey Michael McDowell or Joey Mcdonald Joey Logano exactly so Michael Mcdonald he's a singer he might have a fast car but he's not in this race so what's going to happen Denny's going to pick the bottom he's going to get a push from Joey Logano they're going to get ahead of Kyle Bush on the outside Michael McDowell behind him and then it's going to be up to Denny Hamlin to block his butt off well we'll see if he can do it uh well let's say they fired they fired up the cars they're getting ready to go yeah so on the last restart I told the folks at home the same thing I said you watch Kyle Bush will start on the outside in front of Logano he took the bottom that put Denny on the outside in front of Logano who's leading the race now Denny Hamlin that's right let's see what happens this time all right have you had fun is this your world always fun do you always come down here I'm always down here it's usually not a good thing if you see me during a race or after a race because I'm not in victory lane I'm the one looking to talk to people I mean some people are happy but most of the time they're not it's mass car over time Bob all right I think I'm gonna head to pit road to try to catch uh what's who's left yes all right how many's left I think there's what 14 on the lead lap is that right look at the fans up in the stands we're watching the Fox feed they're doing a 7 30 p.m version of the wave yeah after being here since probably 7 30 they were standing for a lot now they've been sitting they need to stretch their legs and I imagine they'll be standing for at least two more laps you want to bet Denny takes the bottom you want to enter out I'm not a betting man yeah I'll leave that to you golfers we are that I told someone this morning my long shots Ryan Priest riding along in fifth he's a good kid he's a great talent I know saw some folks on race hubs say McDowell was there a long shot and they're pretty they're looking pretty uh like they know what they're talking about so all right you enjoy these last two laps I'm going to try to catch some guys on pit road all right I appreciate you stopping by all right thanks Michael I've been in this position before and I was never nervous I was always I was always confident think about this we've raced for 500 miles I'm in a position to win the Daytona 500 why be nervous I'm better than everybody else that's how I got in this position let's just be confident let's make some more decisions that carry us to victory lane Denny Hamlin is behind the wheel of the FedEx Camry he's gonna have his teammate Kyle Busch to his outside one of the most fierce toughest competitors in all of Monster Energy Cup racing Joey Logano I think will be right on his bumper what does he do about that how does he combat the advances of Joey Logano I'm not no if I'm Kyle Busch or if I'm Denny Hamlin I'm not nervous I'm I'm I guess I'm anxious because I can't wait to go hi Chad would you like to sit down and join me I have a couple questions is his mic working so here's why we had to restart a bit ago we did and Kyle was leading Denny was second he was and I said Kyle is going to take the outside he didn't he's going to be behind Joey Logano is going to be right behind him he took the inside he did look who's leading now I know now I've told everybody at home we're on Facebook live Twitter we're on like all Fox's social media network fantastic what's going to happen here Denny's going to take the bottom Denny's going to take Denny's going to probably take the bottom once again and he'll get a shove by the 22 and go on and win the race now wouldn't you have taken the outside if you were Kyle Busch in front of Joey Logano I'm sure Kyle's a pretty smart race car driver he probably had a reason why he wanted to be out there all right well I'll take it on I'll go with you on that are you going to leave now sorry your car got all tore up yeah it's pretty bad here's what I want to tell you though your driver did a great job he did do well I was very proud of William he did a great job exalted Chevrolet ran great today let's quickly get to the end okay one more question what's it going to look like in Atlanta is it exalted Chevrolet or you have another paint scheme nope Liberty University ah really cool yeah love supporting those guys do you know one thing I'll tell you before you leave Macy went to high school with William did she really they were classmates and now she's graduating engineering school yeah I'm proud of her one more snuffing that can now stop him by to check on us okay if Denny Hamlin isn't on the bottom when we see the racetrack I'm going to throw my microphone it's I'm done if he could how to be kidding me Denny Hamlin's on the outside there's no way how could this be what was the thinking I would love to hear the radio communication on how Denny Hamlin and his spotter and new crew chief Chris Gabehart how did they pick the outside we just saw Kyle Busch lose the lead on the inside but it wasn't because of anything other than the pusher I mean this makes no sense to me I hope I'm wrong well I don't know yeah I hope I'm wrong because I I hope I'm wrong because I'm telling y'all the the butthole should be on the bottle and he's my friend like why are we on the top but then earlier today I picked Kyle Busch to win but how does this happen Chad Chad he took the top why why does he take the top NASCAR overtime nobody's left it worked it worked what if what if what if they decided they would be teammates what if what if that was the plan what if what if I don't know what's happening and and and Kyle Busch said that that I'll let you over maybe there's intel I don't know about I'm just telling you what what I thought would happen and I just got to tell you this 22 car is going to be a force oh wow this is going to be a great finish please get back to the white please get back to the white so maybe maybe Kyle Busch let Denny over I don't know can the FedEx car deliver holy cow look how fast the 22 is that's just that's all I was trying to say and look at Ryan Priest my long shot look at Kyle Busch here comes Kyle Denny Hamlin's holding on here comes McDowell what a great finish we're coming to the checker Joe Gibbs racing one two Denny Hamlin wins his second day tone of 500 give it to Denny Hamlin for you folks watching at home you just you just learned a valuable lesson never say what they should do just say what I would do what I would do is get ahead of Joey Logano who would have pushed me better but maybe there were team orders maybe there was an agreement between the teams Denny you start on the outside says Kyle Busch I'll let you over and we'll settle this on our own the two of us will settle it either way my friend Denny Hamlin has won the Daytona 500 his second Daytona 500 the only thing that I had over Denny Hamlin in my life was I had two Daytona 500 championships and he only has one well now we don't we both have two and what a special night for for Joe Gibbs after the passing of JD Gibbs I know that Joe is gonna is gonna celebrate tonight with JD and mine he's gonna dedicate this victory to JD Gibbs and and I think I think that's amazing I'm so thankful for Joe Gibbs I'm so thankful for JD Gibbs our friendship who he was and that's pretty special so congratulations Joe God bless you JD I know you're up in heaven celebrating and I'm thankful for for you and your family and and for this night