chance a year where the car really seems to dominate. the shots take this personal, the head shots take this very personal. it's a tremendous amount of work to put these 43 cars on the grid. >> we got rained out yesterday, so this is the first time these cars have been on the racetrack and drivers have been buckled in these cars. so it's been going on longer than a day, this started yesterday. >> a little over half way through a fuel run, we're expecteding the fuel one to be around 45 to 48 laps. they won't be able to add fuel prior to that competition. if they do decide to come onto pit road. >> that's one thing we have to keep in mind. this started later than we thought. handling is going to be -- handling will be less accuracy

than you eve ever seen even if it just a few hour earlier. >> the radio just made a comment about the fans. >> i'd like to say thank you to all of these amazing fans that hung out with us here tonight. good to see you here tonight. it's pretty darn full. looks good. you guys are in for a good show tonight. >> that might have been one of the roars. a lot of fans will be able to have scanners and listen in to their favorite drivers or all of the drivers, so they'll listen in to crew chief, driver and spotter. that was nice to acknowledge the fans directly. what a great turn out it is for this race. and the fact that they're still here, it's just at 11:30 now, the bottom of the hour as we're getting ready to see the green flag, the cars rolling off of pit road right now. >> brett kezelowski having some radio issues.

he won't lose his spot, though. >> no at this point, basically, the most important thing is find what the issue is and repair the issue. but you see this at times. when you have these rain delays the rain can get down inside the radio. >> let's take a look at tonight's starting grid. >> outside row 6, jimmy johnson, three times 800 winner. >> kite busch won this race.

top-ten finishes in the last four races are here. starting 17th also a daytona 500 winner back in 2008. >> matt kenzeth also a daytona 500 winner. and this guy, jeff gordon rolls off 23rd in his final start of daytona. greg biffel. >> two team mates starting next to each other. we talk about sleepers at the beginning of show. tone any stewart won this race four times. >> that guy, 17. a good chance of winners. >> speaking of winners, our defending winner will roll off 36.

>> this race finished 19th. we had the opportunity to chat with a driver tonight, that being carl edwards. why don't we tune him in and see if we can talk to the driver of the 19th. >> how are you doing? >> i'm doing great, jeff how are you doing? >> we're doing great up here. you start in the middle of the pack. >> that's going to make it harder because the strategy is to go to the front and start in the middle anything can happen. really proud of my guys to get us through a great subway camry. to get it done that's good. so hopefully, we can put on a show here tonight and have a little bit of fun. >> every race in daytona is always different. what do you see is the biggest challenge of winning tonight's

race. >> considering how late it is and how much is going on today, i think it will be a race of miss takes. i think guys will be -- not just in the cars but on pit road. it's been a long day for everyone. there might be some mistakes. just stay focused, avoid the wreck and have a little bit of luck. >> how does the track condition look right now with all of the rain. >> it looks pretty good. those air tights are a good job. there's just a little bit of moisture up right by the fence a little by. really, it looks good. >> with the track being cooler because of the rain, ist's later at night, do you think it's going to be an issue? >> i think because of how late we're starting you know everybody is probably -- i think we'll have long replay runs. and i think the handling might come into the play. if we were going to race tomorrow it would be a completely different race.

>> i don't think the steering wheel is bad, they at least took it off. and that's something that the drivers often do. they reindex the wheel. they can hear brad, brad can hear them. it sounds good right now for the two on the radio. >> that's a good thing. he was indexing his wheel. he will get back up to speed, catch up to the pack. we're going to idride a long with a few bus drivers, one of them being eric amorolla. he'll start in the 36th position in that number 43. the jimmy johns on word. he'll start 34rd in the fourth. it looks like kevin harvick.

tony sturt has the number one. he starts first tonight. danica patrick with the coke zero on board camera. she starts 27th this evening. just heard from and saw carl edwards. he carries the subway on board. he'll start 24 thd tonight. 24 for jeff gordon. kyle larsson in the 42. coca-cola on camera, starts 16th tonight. and a great perspective at the back of the pace car is dale earnhardt, jr. that nationwide in-car camera with him. he starts first.

>> this place is narrow. if you were lucky enough to gain track position early, blocking and aggressive driving. that's the key up front. >> that's the key running up from. there are a lot of storylines we're going to follow this evening. for more let's go to pit road and marty snider. >> a lot come in under a massive amount of pressure. that is not the case for jimmy johnson. he has four wins so far this season. obviously, very comfortably so far for 2015. because of that johnson told me earlier, we're going to bring a big bat tonight and swing it very hard. a very agrezive jimmy johnson could be a fun jimmy johnson tonight.

>> it's the end of an era. over the year it was an iconic icon. >> the last time the three cars won this race back in 1993 was dale earnhardt. if he can get it tonight, it will be his first career sprint cup victory. he's off to a fantastic start. oh, by the way, you'll be starting on the front row next to dale earnhardt, jr., dave? >>

>>. >> that car has been sitting for a long time. idol is not a word you'll think of when it comes to dale earnhardt. he's got the last one on pit lane. he has a great spot to take another victory want to take a closer look. 31 degrees and banking. >> 160 laps. 400 miles, pit road speed, 55 miles per hour. the fuel window 45-48 laps.

you've got to consider their handling. even when the race track comes to grip. they say some handling issues. he's opted for a full force package. they wanted a little more drag on the cars than they could. they were not an tis pating handling be an issue at all. they thought handling was to become a big issue. i believe the guys had the advantage of the ones that didn't worry too much about their guys handling. >> take a look at this camera the asphalt really shows the speed and the closest. >> thank you so much for staying with us.

your patience has really paid off. pace car will be making a hard left turn, putting the field in the hands of dale earnhardt, jr. he got that position by being the fastz fast the fast oes in the first practice. welcome you back to nascar on nbc .

>> you see busch trying to pull up in the three lot. >> and they were four wide. jimmy had to go down below the double yellow line. he was just trying to avoid being involved in an accident. austin dillen on the hiebdndsight with the momentum. dillen wants to take the lead in daytona. the three leading in daytona. the first lap of 400. >> you can see just how who the rear of these cars are on the racetrack. that's just the force pushing down on that car.

austin dillen shoved down front. dale earnhardt, jr. clinton boyer, your top five. >> we saw last night's race the bottom of the net, even though he team meatate pushed him into the low. >> if you're not willing to block, you're not going to take the lead and you will not win this race. >> and around they go

the 42. the 32. the 26. the 38 sheet metal about to fall off the 22. coming out of turn number 4. >> there isn't room. he's cutting across bumper.

that's what happens, in these tight packs, you're spinning way up in front of the pack. it's so hard when you're only a couple feet apart. another hard impact was the 32 and the 38. when you're that close, you don't have enough room and someone gets spun out. >> you want to get behind the 88. he just doesn't have it synced up.

>> come on. come on. spin it back down. stay high. standby. keep coming. keep coming. you're all good. >> you could hear in that. roll, lift off throttle. the guys behind me we saw joey lagano. got him turned around. that's a typical daytona wreck right there. dave, you got some on the 22? >> now it's dajs control time for the daytona 500 winner. they'll put an entire right rear quarter panel behind their pit boss. they asked joey if the wheel is straight, he said that's a little off. that may be of concern.

we've seen damaged cars go back to the front here at daytona. don't know if it will be the case tonight he's already lost one lap. >> we saw the 38 of david gilleman move down trying to get in front of the 15. here's what the 15 has to say on the radio. >> i tried to check up. >> he didn't check up much, you'd have got runned over. >> that's the unpredictability of daytona. he's headed to the chase. marty?

he actually did two 360s chlts he told us he might have the clutch in. kevin told everybody, take your time fix everything you can. they don't have a lot of damage on that car. that's the good news. they came in and fixed all the flap about the tires and took on four tires. zani z danica patrick trying to get work done on her car. the 16, i wouldn't say it's insignificant damage, but they could race with it. it seems like they got dinged up on all four corners. lots of fair bond on that ma sheeb e sheen. they were able to get though down on the jack stand and try to get them back to the racetrack before losing too much track time. they're expected to come back down the last time down pit road. >> greg biffel will be making his way to pit road. danica patrick there now.

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tonight, we're going to be commercial-free for the early green flag racing. that's brought to you by our parter ins er iner ins er iner in er iner in er iner in er iner in. at smithfield foods. >> she never took a hard high. but you can see her with her left eye looking out. she was trying to see if somebody was coming from behind. >> joey lagano's penalty, he came out after the pace car had already gone passed that line on the wall and then tried to go back to the of the field, but that's a penalty.

>> yeah you have to beat the pace car to that line. is there's a >> the key is to try to stay on pit road as long as they could. they stayed there just a touch too long. >> austin diller clinton border, carl edwards, jeff gordon. yeah, that crash being so close to the front of the field, you know know, when you have an accident that far up in if front of the field, it's an easy way to gain your track position quickly:

>> riding along with tony stewart, he looks like a daunting task with all the cars in front of him as we're getting ready for the restart. everyone has a lot of cars in front of them. two-by-two, pace car, once again, this time, the race on the inside. austin dillen won the extended race last night. trying to go for the double. green flag back in the air. >> i think as this race goes on you'll see the second and fourth place car.

>> that outside line working well. we see dal,dale earnhardt, jr., working on the outside lane. dale earnhardt, jr., out in front. familiar sight here at daytona. you're going to see him do that over and over and other. .

kyle larsson looks forward at carl edwards. nascar is going to black flag the 22 the damage that they have on that car. they've decided he needs to come to pit road. so they'll have to continue to work on that. >> and i don't think this is what the feetield wanted to see. i'm not sure that they want him out front. they want to find a way to shove him back. >> it's impressive to me how much he can stay out. he stayed one or two cars in front of the five consistent. >> three wide behind him. clint boyer in the 15th.

carl edwards well in the 19th. you've seen the three-wide battles. sometimes you get stuck there. >> winding up on the high line now, following after that 88. goats a run. hangs on the left. clint boyer, that's the way it works here. you get that moe men tumt going,

man, you've got to make a move. >> he was just inches of a buffer in front of him before he made that left turn. >> that perspective got me. >> it's amazing how much in control these guys are in an out 46 of-control situation. >> we mentioned the unpredictability of daytona. we came down here one year and i won't say more since hendrix very rarely raises his voice. but he very sternly explained

it. and it's been good ever since. >> 13 wins here 23 place wins all-in-all. >> how about kyle busch in a back-up car. has to continue to be eligible for the chase. he's goirng to get into the top 30. this is the back-up car. he practiced the caution does he have to be wound up to. >> he's going to get you into a crash. the back-up situation, he needs to try to put points passed this line. he needs to go out and race the day as it falls to him. what are you hearing down there, dave? >> adam stevens told me that the race car that they have on the track tonight, that's because they spent so much time on the back-up cards here. the big ones do happen. and it happened in practice