captions paid for by the fox broadcasting company live from atlanta getting ready for the annual quick trip 500. fox sports from atlanta motor speedway where it rained earlier in the morning. you can see the air titan jet dryers are out. the rain has stopped for the moment. more rain in the forecast. as the radar indicates. we're trying to dance between the green and hope we have enough to get the race started and the drivers when they went to the driver meeting earlier went over the ground rules. martin truex jr., defending champ of the sport mtd last week's winner and the poll sitter for today.

we're on the scene to bring you closer to it all. the hollywood hotel track side just to get a better view. >> you only have five wins. >> together we all have eight. >> that's zero for zero there. thanks for bringing that up. it's completed it. halfway. we're scheduled for 500 miles in this. we'll keep you updated on this and they're hopeful, optimistic they can get it in. there's a much bigger challenge for drivers even though they're scheduled for this week versus last sunday. >> last week tires weren't even an issue. a lot of teams were doing gas and gos.

these tires are going to be worn down to the core. >> yeah. last week it was restricted pack racing. the cars were restricted and then you race in packs. today it's unrestricted and we're track racing because the track is probably your biggest competitor today when we start this race. >> and you control it and you always tell me drivers are creatures of habit. you have routines. nascar has the ability to move the start of a race. >> just a minute i had to eat my baloney sandwich a little bit earlier but today these guys have to eat their pasta a little bit earlier, work out, maybe ride their bike. go for a small jog. these guys are so -- their routine is so different than ours. the biggest thing be i wanted to be sure, i had my lucky uniform on. that's all i cared. >> they are turning themselves

into athletes, the way they train and the focus and competition is. to me that does change my focus. i think that some drivers when they start this race because they've been thinking since friday of when this race is going to start. since this morning they knew, yeah, it's moved up a little bit earlier but with the delay, now all of a sudden that changes everything. not just what you're eating and the foods in your body, what this track is going to be like. i think some will handle that better than others. >> we already knew the track -- the tires, the track they give up, all of that, we already knew all of that. now you throw in the track has been washed, had a pretty hard rain. washed all of the rubber off of that. how is that going to affect my car? are the tires going to wear out quicker? >> this is the third oldest track behind dover and california in terms of the surface and a lot has been said about the driving -- we might need phil swift to come out with flex seal.

i know drivers are anxious after 27 cars were involved in crashes last sunday at the daytona 500. the headline following daytona, numbers don't win races, drivers do. we attach them famously together. the 3 in victory lane was a great story but all week talked about how austin dillon did it. after further review that austin dillon deal in over time to win it wasn't clean. >> throughout the race we saw a lot of blocking towards the end of some stages. aric almirola moves to the outside. austin dillon, one moved left, one moved right. i thought this was an amazing racing incident. amazing because it's for the daytona 500 and you're going for it and i think these two were both trying to maintain their position. the 3 of austin dillon trying to get position and the 10 trying to hold that lead. >> austin dillon didn't have anything to do with that. it was the 3 car. >> blame the car. >> it's really unfortunate to

see aric almirola end up in the wall. he's won on a restrictor track before. he was in great position to get the daytona 500 win. when you see the outcome of what happened, he was obviously very devastated. >> that first move he made he moved into the lane that had the push, that had the energy. the outside lane was fast. the 3 car was there. he moves over to get that draft. >> exactly what he should have done. >> but the 3 had such momentum that he gave him the nudge. it made his car go to the right and then when the 3 touched him on the right side of the bumper, that's what spun him around. >> aric thought, i'm going to block the lane and break the momentum. i'm going to go side to side. help the 11, help the 3 and have those two side by side and he would come home free to the line. unfortunately he got a little bump before he got to the turn.

>> and in a very vulnerable position not only on the rear bumper but on the transition from the straightaway into the corner. not quite loaded up. you see the car dancing around a little bit. so any little nudge or touch right there is going to send the car around. >> this is a risk/reward business. he could have wrecked as well at that moment with that move. >> oh, sure. you never know. you take your best shot. that may not be a good way to put it but you take your best shot and hope for the best and it worked out great for austin. >> instincts are kicking in at that moment. instincts of i want to win the daytona 500. if you're the 3 of austin dillon, i've got a huge run. i have a perfect position to get alongside the 10 of aric almirola. >> i don't want to do it. >> if that's what it takes, i'm not going to regret everything that i can possibly do to try to get this win. >> hypothetical. >> i don't think he intentionally -- by the way, he did not intentionally try to wreck him. >> because of in love with the 3

car and the leg fwa si of dale earnhardt, what if it was the 18 of kyle busch and that was the car that did the move to wreck almirola and win, don't you think the outcry would have been different? >> well, i know one thing, if i was aric almirola, well, i'm probably going to get wrecked. >> he might have known it halfway down the back straightaway. i wouldn't have analyzed that any differently with the 18 but i do think the reaction from the media and the fans would have been slightly different because it's kyle busch. >> i think drivers under estimate the competition sometimes. i've got to think aric almirola looked in his mirror and said that's austin dillon in the 3 car, he's going to push me, he's going to help me. >> that's his car today, kyle busch. you're not yourself when you're hungry or running the daytona 500 in front. >> you've won the daytona 500. would you have done the same thing austin dillon did in that situation? >> yeah. i mean, because he had a great run and, you know, he moved left and eric moved left and the next

instinct is to move to the right. if he's going to block me left, i've got to move to the right. you know, and you can't lift. that's the thing, on the last lap you cannot lift and that's just restrictor plate daytona racing especially for the daytona 500. >> you do things you regret after you do them. i mean, literally, i know that austin wanted to win that race. aric wanted to win that race. first time in that 10 dar. he's got a shot at winning the race. here's austin dillon driving the famed 3 car. he couldn't have a better setup. i always think about when things like that happen, i was so happy that i won that race and at some point i think maybe i should have cut the guy a little slack or done something different. >> i don't think mark martin would have done that in that situation, do you agree? >> no. >> why is that? >> that's because he's a gentleman. there's always been gentlemen's agreements. i know i said this to -- >> holds true? >> old school. the leader always has -- you respected the leader.

you cut him a little bit of slack. he was the leader. now a darks not so much. >> well, yeah, i'm going to respect the leader right up until he blocks me left. >> right until you're the leader. >> and i've got the big run. again, when it's for the win and there's no race bigger -- you know, that -- >> it shouldn't matter which race. >> when you're racing for the win and that leader blocks left, to me you're -- you're going for it no matter what. >> no, respect just to wreck. >> well, some days these days in restrictor plate racing -- >> do you think that austin dillon would have been as classy and understanding as aric almirola was if the roles were reversed? >> i don't know if i've ever seen anybody handle that kind of a devastating loss as well as aric almirola. the entire field i don't know if anybody would have handled that the way aric did. >> i think that must have been a really hard hit when he didn't realize what had happened.

>> we plan to talk with austin dillon. coming up, the driver of the 10 car, aric almirola who handled that moment as he is headed into the hollywood hotel. we're live at atlanta. he'll join us here to talk with you in just a moment. leave the door open for him. thank you. oh, that's lovely... so graceful. the corkscrew spin, flawless... ...his signature move, the flying dutchman. poetry in motion. and there it is, the "baby bird". breathtaking. a sumo wrestler figure skating? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money heather saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. putting off vehicle maintenance? we've got you covered. the highly trained technicians at jiffy lube do more than just oil changes. we also exchange transmission fluid, rotate tires, and more, all in a jiffy.

thanks for being with us. we're on the nascar fox pre-race show live from atlanta motor speedway. you can see with rain in track and the dryers out it will be a couple of hours easy if even then with rain in the forecast

they can get this race scheduled for 500 miles in after a great doubleheader of racing yesterday. we'll update you as we roll along. the advantage of being here at the hollywood hotel with jeff gordon, darrell waltrip, i'm chris myers. we get to bring in drivers. >> man, we needed you. >> smithfield for aric almirola. thanks for being with you. classy comments after a very devastating moment that we all watched at the daytona 500. i bet you were anxious to get back in the car and race here in atlanta. give us your mind set right now how you're handling this delay. >> come on. go away, rain. i figure the quicker we race atlanta we'll have something new to talk about. it's been a tough week kind of reliving that over and over and over. it's one thing to go through it in the moment and be, you know, devastated in that moment, but then you hurry up and want to look forward but then everything else wants to still look backwards. >> we'll get out of the way as quick as possible about this

incident and the moves happening on the back straightaway last week. >> yes. >> been analyzed all week long. >> sure. >> i can't wait to get your perspective on it. i thought you did everything right, but i am curious, the first bump when you moved left and austin came and hit you in the left side of the bumper, kind of squared up maybe more left. i'm curious how in control were you at that moment? >> not much. our -- all week long you saw our cars moving around a lot when we were getting pushed and we saw a lot of big wrecks from just, you know, untimely pushes, and right there my main focus on that restart was just keeping up with the 11. i wanted to stay on his door. i felt like i did everything on the restart. i got to the lead. i blocked him right there and i got hit. i got pushed over and i couldn't hold onto the second one. but i was going for the daytona 500 win. i wasn't going to let him have it -- i would have been sick to my stomach if i would have just pulled over and let him and the

other cars drive by if i would have finished second or third or whatever and not made the effort to block, you know? i knew they were coming with a big run. i knew it. my spotter told me but if i would have just stayed on the bottom and let them drive around me, that would have been hard to live with. >> so i'm just curious, in that moment is that because it's the daytona 500 or would you do the same thing for any win? >> we can go to talladega and daytona in july. you're coming to the last lap, you're trying to win the race. i want to win. i want -- i want to get the trophy, i want to get my team to victory lane, i want to get my sponsors to victory lane. yeah, in that moment you're going to do everything you can to try to win the race. >> first time in the 10 car so you had to be thinking i'm going to be winning the biggest race of my life. >> i actually did. i regret thinking that now. i remember looking in my mirror going through one and two and seeing them side by side and side drafting each other. i kept thinking, i hope you guys do that for about 3/4 of a lap

more and we're going to win the daytona 500, but unfortunately it didn't work out. >> have you heard from austin dillon? talked to him? he texted me about 2:00 in the morning when he was probably drunk. >> feeling about it. >> drunk and celebrating and having a good time. he texted me and -- >> obvious compassionate in that moment. he was. congratulations to those guys. sometimes you can't just -- you can't fight fate. for it to be 20 years to the date that the 3 car won and all of those things adding up, it was a great day for our sport. it was a great day for that team but i was a little envious that we weren't the ones in victory lane, i can tell you that. >> it wasn't austin dillon, it was the 3 car. that car did it. >> aric, let's kind of talk about atlanta. you have a teammate that dominates this race. >> oh, gosh, he's incredible. >> what have you learned? how's your car? what do you think once we get going? >> i think our car is good. our car is not awesome. it's not the best car. i think our car is good.

i think we can be competitive and run up front. we've gotten to look at some of our notes from our teammates. i feel like the 14 and 41 are so good. kevin is so good here. he's so disciplined. he's got just a feel. he knows exactly what he's looking for and you know him. you've been that way at certain racetracks. you just show up. you go to martinsville, you know you have to race jeff gordon, doesn't matter if you have a good car or bad car, you know you have to race jeff gordon for the win. that's how kevin harvick is. he can make his car do things that i haven't figured out how to do yet. >> he's only one. >> don't worry, the rest of the field hasn't figured it out yet either. >> what does it feel like to go in all honesty like the petty team, first class, top of the line, best equipment available. what does that transition feel like? >> it's a tale of two worlds really. i went from a team that was

quite frankly a mid-tier team, didn't have all of the money and resources necessary and richard said it himself. for years and years that i was there he always told me, we're going to go, we're going to do the best we can, but we raced as a family operation there. and, you know, i think when you look back at the sport over the years, when guys like rick hendrick and roger penske and gene haas and these guys come into the sport, it changed the playing field of the entire sport. and you went from having family-run businesses to billionaire's playgrounds and so -- >> well put. >> -- talk about jeff gordon. >> so i think really when you look at it, these guys, rick hendrick, roger penske, gene haas, joe gibbs racing, they race purely for fun. this is an ego thing and they're going to spend the money it takes to have fast race cars. and it was run more like a business at rpm and i enjoyed my six years there. it was an opportunity that i'll forever be thankful for.

and it got me to where i'm at today, but, you know, when you look at the resources we have, we had 65 employees there. i walked into stewart-haas the first day, 385 employees. >> in irony, the 43, bubba wallace comes in second. he's joining us here. it still comes back all around. viewers, race fans want to know after the rough crash at kansas, you've worked your way back. you said at daytona the recovery program put you in such conditioning that you continued that after you were healthy that it's really helped you overall. >> yeah, it has. i have always enjoyed working out and trying to stay fit. i cycled for a while, then i kind of took some time off when i had kids. it was really hard to be gone four days a week and then come home and tell the wife, hey, i'm going to go off for two hours, three hours on the bike, have fun with the kids. so for a while there, you know, i took some time off from cycling but still tried to stay in shape. now that the kids are in school i have all of the free time

during the week that i've really been back at working out and riding my bike, trying to stay in shape. >> i know that was one of the first things that went through my mind when i saw you go into the wall at daytona, how is your back. we saw what a tough, devastating crash you went through last year at kansas. >> yes. >> from what i understand, that compression fracture, you're a little shorter now. >> i am. i am. >> that's just the chair adjusting. >> i am a little bit shorter now but not too short. i'm still 6 foot. >> still tall. >> yeah, the vertebrae actually compressed in half. >> wow. >> so they said if i was 60 years old or 70 years old -- >> easy. >> talking about dw now. >> or 80 or 90. >> old guy with a bad knee. >> i have gray hair. but, yeah, they said if i was older they would do something called typoplasty. they take a needle and put a balloon inside the vertebrae and blow it up.

they put something like rubber cement to make it solid again. >> wow. >> they said with me being young that that wasn't necessary, that it would heal up on its own and i would be shorter. >> you're just 33 years of age. you mentioned your kids. i know after that moment just to go back how classy you were when the microphone was in your face after the daytona 500 with our questions and comments. how were you able to hold it together and not just scream out, you said you were devastated. i know you talked about thinking about your kids, you're a father out there, let's run the interview for people that -- >> oh, come on! >> this is important because i -- and you can assess yourself how you handled this. i think we were all impressed. i don't know if many of us -- if you could have handled it this way. >> i don't know how you did it myself. >> oh, my heart is broken. so devastated. i thought i was going to win the daytona 500, vince. just disappointed. i wanted to get smithfield to victory lane, i wanted to get ford to victory lane. everybody, you know, put so much

into me and my career and with this switch over to stewart-haas racing this off season and i couldn't have thought of a better way to start off the new relationship with stewart-haas racing than to go to victory lane at the droif, baytona 500. unfortunately that wasn't the case. unfortunately i ended up in the infield care center. i'm definitely devastated but the beauty is there's always next week. we'll go to atlanta and try to go win with smithfield and ford there. >> aric almirola, so close but ends up tenth. >> we're here this weekend. >> the composure. >> well done. >> how do you hold that? >> you could have screamed and yelled like a lot of us would have. >> it's twofold. one is there was nobody with a camera at my car when i got out on the back straightaway. >> okay. >> there was a little bit more anger over there. >> so i had the ambulance ride to the infield care center to calm down. >> you were okay. >> i had the time in the infield care center to calm down.

my boss, tony stewart, came in the infield care center and gave me a big hug and told me he was proud of me. he said, when you go out here do as i say, not as i do. go out here and do the right thing. i was going to anyway, but, you know, it crossed my mind as i was walking out there to do the media, my kids are back in my motor home waiting for me to get back there. i'm sure they're watching tv. do the right thing, you know, be a good role model for them and at the same time, use this opportunity to talk about the positives. you know, we were going for the win. we were getting ready to win the daytona 500. we had a lot of corporate executives from smithfield there. obviously they -- you know, they've invested in me and making the switch over to stewart-haas racing. to have their support and the support from ford motor company, i wanted to make sure i got that in there. that's important to me. in our day and age, the sponsors and the manufacturer supports are what makes this go around.

i wanted to use that opportunity to talk about the positive and not focus on the fact that things didn't go my way. >> you have to be proud of yourself. you had to be pretty happy as a driver that you put yourself in a position to win our biggest race. >> i was. you know, i think for me, you know, when i look back on it, i've replayed that a million times in my head like what could i have done different to win that race. it's a big race for all of us. i grew up as a kid in tampa, florida, two hours away. i've been going to that race since i was a kid. to win the daytona 500 would be the ultimate. to have myself in that position and literally be a half a lap away from winning the daytona 500, i was proud of that. for it being my first race with stewart-haas racing, they took a chance on me to bring me over there to drive their race car. to be able to be that close to producing a win already felt really good. >> well, we have a clip from tony stewart that -- >> we've got lots of clips.

>> it was that time. >> figure 8 jumping -- >> i don't know which one but tony being candid, which we all love. >> logano down to block stewart. stewart trying to get through and underneath. >> tony, what angered you at the end of the race. >> what the hell do you think i was mad about. some little [ bleep ] runs us down to the infield. i'm going to bump his -- >> i knew that's exactly what he was talking about when he said do as i say, not as i do. but -- >> it was great to see the late steve byrnes there with him as well. >> that's funny. >> certainly tony driving again. you have to have some personality. you have to stay within the boundaries of what's the real you. >> yeah, absolutely. >> what is it like being with smoke? we've all competed against him. we know him and we see these interviews. what's it like when you're behind closed doors with tony

stus stewart? >> it's awesome. the thing that i love about it the most is he's a racer. he loves to race. he went and raced a sprint car race last night in the panhandle of florida. that's all he wants to do is race and he gets it. i mean, he's two years away from being in one of these cars. he knows what we're going through. he knows the challenges. he knows, you know, everything that as a driver that we're up against. so he's -- he's -- you know, he's in tune with exactly what we're talking about. >> i know that -- >> do what he does behind the wheel and just do what he says off the track. >> tony and richard, richard was telling bubba, don't wreck my car. tony stewart said, just bring back the steering wheel. >> he actually did. he told me before the race and you just actually made me remember. before the race i had already wrecked in the 150. j jimmie blue a tire.

saturday in the xfinity race we wrecked on the back straightaway. so on sunday he said, i'm not going to tell you to not wreck my car today. all i'm going to tell you is get to the end. if you get to the end do whatever you have to do to try to win this race. >> so i know that gene haas and ford are very happy with tony stewart and his role and what he's done and has helped take stewart-haas forward. glad you're part of it. thanks for spending time with us. we wish you a lot of luck. you're always welcome to drop by. >> but not when it's raining. >> i want to give you a hug. >> a half hug. >> will she give me her prayer versus now that she's not going to give them to dale jr.? >> we'll sure talk about them. >> we're going to talk with bubba wallace. >> there he is. hey, bubba. we have to give him a moment to warm up. he'll be joining us. it will be great to join us here live in atlanta in just a moment. thanks again. out things.

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