2026 Duel at Daytona International Speedway NASCAR Cup Series Extended Highlights

And that six car is trying to figure out how am I going to help my other car, Corey LaJoy, behind me in the rear view mirror. There it is, that's how you help them. It's time to get this party started in Daytona. Thursday night, under the lights, two races to set the field for the 500. Seem to see what the plan is with each manufacturer, every one of these men, somewhat of a plan. You see Corey Heimer, he's not somebody that they're used to racing with business. The entire 36 and 37 just ran their fastest lap in the wide open throttle reflects those sports at the front. Wide open all the way around this racetrack. I just saw Lugano trying to make his move to the bottom, and he was trying to let Blaney in, but Blaney didn't go. Well, the whole complexion of this race just changed when Larry said that they picked up that lap time. The whole pack closed up. They went three wide. The lap times picked up, and now we know that the businesses for real, trying to get yourself positioned to be further forward for this pit stop in the games are over. Blaney's the one that missed the Chandler Smith on the inside. And you see that that spacing that everybody has right there, and that's purely to try to get a reference to be able to not run the guy over in front of you. All the forge. Oh, mirrors back there. Turn around. Got into Noah Grayson. Could be a caution right here. Good on mirrors right back here. Casey Mirrors. Noah Gregson. Yeah, I just got in there too hot. Lock the brakes up. Tried to avoid the four car lost control of the back, and that's where the contact came from. There's the race off pit road. Priest had a bad pit stop. Looks like Bush to the point. You see priest clear back here in the back right here. Casey Mirrors car is stuck in the mud. You'd normally have to get a record roll back, but not anymore. Watch this. Oh, we go. Here we go. Teammates on the inside. Teammates on the outside. Well, it's now. It's serious. Now we're gonna see what everybody has. We're gonna see pushing. We're gonna be seeing everybody pushing shove as hard as they can. We see all those Ford stacked up at the front. Those guys that were able to pit get that caution to come out right now. I might give you the road, but you take the field because Chris Buescher and Joey Logano, those names were on pretty much everybody's lips looking at favorites for this one. You see right there. Chandler Smith. He's being aggressive, going to the middle of the pack. Smith in third. How about that? Now, as a car owner, this Keselowski and that six car is trying to figure out. How am I going to help my other car for the joy behind me? Well, I think right there. That's what you see out of Chris Buescher is trying to put. There it is. That's how you help him. You try to pass that guy, and that's exactly who they're racing. Chandler Smith traded a lot of paint. That was very aggressive on Keselowski's part, and that all started with Buescher, though. They put him in a bad spot by putting him on the outside. He went to block, and Keselowski filled the hole. Here they are as we get towards the end of this one. Bubba moved to the bottom. Here we go. Look at this run on the bottom. It's a great time move, getting into turn one, shoot to that bottom right to the lead. Good job, Bubba Wallace. Bubba Wallace was 12th on the He's wrecking. Brown goes Wallace and in the wall goes Byron Buescher and at least one other car. I think that's Chandler. I think it is Chandler Smith. It looks like some splitter damage on the bottom of that car, and that's exactly what we've been talking about. Those those moments that are not your fault, and it's just a push gone wrong right here, and it collected a few cars. Bubba Wallace making that aggressive move. Getting into one is a fantastic move, but it'll put him too far out in front of the three car here. This train comes boom right there. Turn him sideways, get sideways again, finishes him off, and Austin Dillon can see that coming. But Chris Buescher could not see the distance to the back bumper of Bubba Wallace's car, so he thinks he's doing the right thing by continuing to push. But ultimately, it doesn't let the three cars slow down enough to not hit him too hard. Green white checker to decide this first duel for Ford's up front. They're gonna control their destiny, but these guys are gonna have something to say about it in the back to who's gonna be. You might be a Ford, but you got teammates on the outside, teammates on the bottom, and it's four boards from two different teams. Roush Fedway Kozlowski on the inside. Penske team Penske on the outside. You see Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano get connected really well. The bottom did good for a little bit came disconnected, but they've since a little bit of space on the top. You see Logano right there. Looked like he drug some break, trying to get himself back to Ryan Blaney. Look at that power surge down the back stretch. Those R. F. K. Ford's have speed. We're gonna be tough to deal with on Sunday. Well, we've seen Corey Lajoie do this before. We've seen Brad Kozlowski have so many moments where he's controlled the race from the front like this. And not only is he an aggressive pusher, but he's also an aggressive blocker. Logano trying for his fourth dual win. Ryan Blaney's in twenty eighteen. Got out quite a bit here. Big surge coming on the outside. Brad Kozlowski in the sixth, a dual winner four years ago, and we always talk about the Penske teamwork. I think we'll see the same thing from that bottom row from those R. F. K. Cars, because Corey Lajoie, all he wants to do is get into this race. But that top lane is surging. Well, they're also together. Look at the chain. I talk about this all the time. Crash, and it's Lajoie. And he hits hard up into the turn three wall. Oh, no, where's Chandler Smith? Here he comes back there in the back. You can see him is out. Logano to the flag under Joey. Look, and we'll have to wait and see on the race in driver. Keep an eye on caution. Flag would end the race. Oh, my God. Who is or isn't involved? Well, we talked about Casey Mears spinning some doughnuts down there and losing a lap, but he got the lucky dog and was able to put himself position in position. But we we talked about this. You've got to be able to get to the end of this race, and you just never know when somebody else is gonna make a mistake. And unfortunately, Corey Lajoie, wrong place, wrong time. Watch this car clear back here in the back. We're out of this thing. Joy is in a clear up here. They start collecting down on the bottom and look him coming on the outside three wide and watch what happens right here. Shoots the outside. Barely Mrs Joy shoots in Suarez and off into the sunset and in to the Daytona five hundred. It can happen. And he knew it. And he knew it, Clint, because I don't know yet. He knew that he had to plow is the only car he had. Keep coming here. Keep coming. Yeah, it is. Casey Mears. He is gonna raise unbelievable. How about that? Two Toyotas ahead of two Chevys, lead them to green for dual to one hundred fifty miles. Sixty laps. Chase Briscoe way out there. And like Clint was saying, when they make that plan, the leader will pick the outside and the guy on the inside, when he's your teammate, drags break a little bit, doesn't get going as soon so that you guys could work together. And in the last race, we saw all those R. F. K. Cars get themselves position really early in the race. We see some Joe Gibbs cars up front. We see a couple of Hendrick cars right there, side by side. So it'll be interesting to see if those Gibbs cars could get themselves position and what with two to go in our window. I'm gonna have you back up to the forty seven, and we're gonna try to get a run to try to get the lead. Have the forty seven go with us. Well, good plan, because you can't get from the outside lane. No, but he's gonna try to take that forty seven with him as a plane. You're gonna back up, get to the bumper. The forty seven he's gonna push as hard as he can and push you in front of both of those cars. Not only you, but him as well. Maybe McDowell with him. I don't believe any of it. After the last I don't see how that's gonna be a tough because Briscoe and those guys on the bottom ready for it. Because here it comes. You see that lift out of McDowell had to look at the flames coming out of that thing. The third car back the eagle. He's clear. That's how right there they take it. I don't know. And this could be really unique for those guys that are not coming to run those guys over. Alfredo got to the front on that front. Here he comes. Chase. How about Chase Elliott coming with them? Wow, that's a shake up by Briscoe. This is a super broken up strategy for the nineteen eleven and Briscoe is not gonna be with him. Bad stop on Briscoe. Good point. Let's keep an eye on this other group right here. See if they come. It was a mistake. Stopped. You see him right there. He doesn't go far enough. Had quite a bit of time. All right, here are the Chevrolets. Some of them. So not Connor. She's gonna stay on track. Three different groups in this one. Didn't see that in the last duel. This is not what you want to see. I mean, obviously, Chase Briscoe, the last car on your bottom right there. Alfredo making his pit stop had positioned himself up towards the front of this pack, but there's just not very many cars on five right now. So what will happen right here is all these cars that are organized on the racetrack are gonna make way better lap time than the guys that are broken up into smaller groups. Now, those five see if this brings the rest. Not by himself. Left him out. Yeah, a lot of a lot of plans gone wrong right here. And I think as you see all these things broken up this pack right here on the racetrack, as you see, Connor Village on Pit road. This pack right here on as long as they could run, because all of the things that have happened, they are gonna make near the lap time that these cars are on the racetrack. So they're gonna make up overall time if they could get their pit stop right now. Everybody else comes nine cars. Very collected, though, to Kevin's point. Yeah, and they're still gonna have the biggest numbers when they get back out on the racetrack. You see how bad that hurt Village by himself. Freight train. Yeah, this is not gonna be as bad as I thought it was going to be. This group that got formed back up is actually gonna go by the group that was on the racetrack thing that we gotta watch on the back straightaway off of exit of turn to right here is when these cars start changing lanes to try to break up the momentum of the cars that are coming at a much faster pace of speed. And that's exactly what they'll do. They'll pull up there and block him. Are you sure you want me to do that? They're going too fast. I don't think so. The closing rate is too fast. We've seen it do it before. There's one that's gonna do it. Just need one to make a little bit of chicane so that those cars behind you start getting mixed up. That's exactly what you want to see. Very went too high. They read the needle up to the top. But now they're all gonna be together because they broke the momentum of that pack. And Eric Jones emerges at the front of this pack ahead of Chase Elliott and Michael McDowell. That is exactly what you want to do. If you're the guy that's that's put yourself at a disadvantage, those three cars in different lanes to make up serpentine like they did through those through that traffic now. Now they weren't together and broke that momentum and just made it one packing. It might work this time, Kevin, but you want me to do what you want for that car? That is a difficult situation. It's pretty dicey. Yeah, Carson. Most of our right there. One lap to go. Well, who's it gonna be? Who's gonna pull out of line? First, you see those cars with a massive push from Carson to the back bumper of that nine five gonna have an option right here. Five's gonna have an option right here. He's gonna get a run on this seventy seven car, and he chooses to be in the back bumper of Carson. Most of our money might move and McDowell might go with it, but no station. It sure seems like these guys are committed to each other to at least get off the exit and turn four with the Chevrolet Bell to the bottom. Thought better of it. Got back in from Larson to the inside. Chase Elliott crew chief Alan Gustafson grew up here in Daytona Beach. Okay, I saw Alfredo. How about him making the show? That's huge for him. You gotta love that for little beard. Motorsports out of Michigan. Second generation team. One full time employee. The crew chief for all this time, Darren Shaw, and they run a very limited schedule of a few races. They're gonna be thrilled to be in this five. I don't even know where to start with that. But take us through those last moments and how you ended up here. I mean, probably a little bit of and, uh, you know, just couldn't couldn't thank everybody enough for getting us here to begin with. But, yeah, I got, you know, I had an issue on Pit road, and I got a run around the outside, and I figured I'd just stay in the gas no matter what happened. And when I saw him spinning, I missed the first guy. I thought, Okay, good. Then I hit the night as the night that I hit square. Anyway, I hit somebody square, and I knew when I hit him flat, it didn't tear up the car too much, and I was gonna be able to get back. But I didn't know who was in front of me still, you know, whether or not we made it. And then all the guys started going nuts on the radio. So