Relive the 2023 HighPoint.com 400 from Pocono Raceway that saw hot tempers, intense action and one driver win for a seventh time at the 'Tricky Triangle.'
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00:00 >> Again, Byron and Truex Jr. Are going to lead the field to the green. Let's go back
00:12 to the flag stand and Jr. >> Two of our championship hopefuls bringing
00:17 the field up slowly through the Geico restart zone. They tap Byron on the shoulder.
00:29 >> Just like that. They're all been running down into turn one, three and four wide.
00:37 >> Byron, the pole setter took the outside lane. Not a surprise. As the 4 of Kevin Harvick
00:42 slides a little bit in that bright orange number 4 loses a few spots.
00:46 >> Lost a little traction there in turn number one and shot him up the racetrack. But everybody
00:50 chasing after William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. One and two as they go down long pond
00:54 straightaway into the tunnel turn. Another long straightaway here as Byron trying to
01:06 separate himself. And they're starting to get a little more single file as they work
01:11 their way through three. >> Off turn four, off turn three, actually.
01:16 Here comes Byron. Got this race underway. Here comes the cars at speed.
01:20 >> Oh, got to spin. Oh, the 15 goes around. Oh, contact with the left front. That's going
01:30 to bring the caution out. >> So J.J. Yeley gets into the inside wall
01:33 and the first caution comes out. >> We saw a lot of this in qualifying. Several
01:41 cars had trouble. Track's really slick. Seems like the cars have a fair amount of grip.
01:46 When they lose a little bit of control, they spin them out really quickly.
01:57 >> There they go, fanning out, getting runs, blocking runs. It's going to get more intense
02:02 as the race goes. Those final few restarts later today will be wild.
02:05 >> The contact right there, guys, I saw the 34. I'm not sure what happened. Now Bubba
02:10 Wallace way up the racetrack. >> Mcdowell and the 34 shot down. It looked
02:16 like there was some contact made as they were getting into turn one.
02:20 >> Now there's two and three wide. They're going to have to get this sorted out. Three
02:23 wide up front. Look at this, into the tunnel. I don't think three wide was an option. But
02:28 William Byron's making it work. >> Okay.
02:33 >> All of this has allowed Logano to get clear by almost a second over Larson. Let's see
02:37 if Larson now with that second position and clean air can drive him down and take the
02:42 lead from the 22. >> Those are those moments. We talk a lot
02:45 about strategy, but it's a lot about holding serve as well. Byron had the lead. Now he's
02:49 lost it. >> He came out just a little bit behind Logano,
02:55 but was able to get back on the lead lap. That puts 35 cars on the lead lap at the end
03:02 of stage one as Joey Logano with a 1.8 second lead over martin Truex Jr. Is going to win
03:08 stage one. Already his third stage win of the year. Martin Truex Jr. Grabbing those
03:15 stage points. Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, A.J. Allmendinger.
03:18 >> Going down. He got really -- >> This is a familiar sight. William Byron
03:26 on the inside. Larson on the outside or vice versa. As we see the 24 and 5 getting the
03:34 green flag. Once again, as Kyle Penney mentioned, they're fanning out three, four, five wide
03:39 as they get ready to come into turn one. >> 22 of Logano.
03:42 >> Logano, who won the stage. >> 99.
03:46 >> Suarez in the wall. >> That is huge for Suarez. Talked about this
03:51 tight point battle. This is the problem. With starting back mid pack. Joey Logano won stage
04:01 one. Remember, think about this. Only one stage one winner has finished in the top five
04:06 two of the last eight races. Two of the last eight races, stage one winner. That's the
04:11 danger in getting those points and then getting mid pack.
04:14 >> Let's see what happens. Joey Logano in the outside lane. Goes to the bottom. Oh,
04:22 yeah, a little bit of contact from the car in front of him. He came down on him. Couldn't
04:28 quite make out who that was. >> So there it is. The 45 of Reddick is on
04:38 the outside of the 22. The 22 is getting shoved around. He has some control. When you're getting
04:44 pushed that much, Jeff, you're kind of being steered by the car behind you. You see it
04:48 steering him into the left rear quarter panel of the 45 car of Reddick. It turns him around.
04:54 >> Drivers, I always want to know, when you go down the interstate, you have these blind
04:57 spots. That's with side mirrors. How well defined is lane one, two and three?
05:02 >> Not very well. Let's watch Suarez. The bottom car, there's the contact right there.
05:07 He just was underneath some other cars. They came down on him. Just nothing he could do.
05:13 >> One of those is Bubba Wallace. We're going to ride on board with him. Look at the left
05:16 side of your screen. He hits the right rear quarter panel. He drove down into the right
05:22 rear quarter panel by another car. >> William Byron.
05:26 >> He's on the outside. Larson on the inside. We'll try it again.
05:33 >> Great pushes from both lanes. That outside looks a little more organized. Got three cars
05:37 bumper to bumper. >> Side by side into one. Larson tried to
05:47 surge ahead. Got about a half a car length there. Now Austin Dillon slides around.
05:53 >> That all started in turn one on the restart. B.J. McCloud had some trouble getting down
06:00 into one. See what happens. Way in the back. See the orange car in the back. B.J. Is on
06:06 the bottom. Blocking a little bit. Here he comes up the racetrack into the left rear
06:17 quarter panel of Austin Dillon. >> Dillon was running 26th. So back in the
06:30 pack. That means another restart. >> First it means pit road. I think we're in
06:40 a real decision maker. Let's ride on board right here.
06:47 >> That's frustrating. Didn't really do anything wrong.
06:52 >> Great job by him, though. Standing in the throttle and then lifting off the throttle
06:56 at the right time to make sure it didn't get turned left and go down to the inside.
07:01 >> We'll try again. That outside row has the 24, the 4 and the 12 all lined up as well
07:07 as the 6. Back up through the gears they go. We'll see how they do through turn one this
07:13 time. Now, cars jumping out of line. >> Chase Elliott makes a move on his teammate
07:19 out in turn one. >> Oh, and around goes a 5. Larson goes up
07:25 and tags the wall. Caution comes out again. >> Marty told us a while ago that a request
07:34 came from William Byron to his spotter. Make sure I get my tires cleaned up on the restart.
07:44 They did not have good grip driving into turn one with debris on them. Get them cleaned
07:49 up. That's something we always had trouble with. You wonder if that's what happened here.
07:55 >> Kyle Larson on the front row. >> Getting a push from Christopher Bell right
08:02 there behind him. >> Man, I think Christopher shoved him a little
08:07 bit too far into the corner. He was worried about hitting his teammate or maybe they did
08:12 make contact. But Christopher Bell had the 5 car upset right there. Way too much pushing
08:19 too late down into the transition of turn one.
08:22 >> Having your tires clean is really important. But having them all on the ground is more
08:25 important. >> Can he stretch it all the way to the end
08:29 of the stage and win a stage? Get that playoff point. It would be very important.
08:33 >> Oh, Christopher Bell around. Wow. >> Bell spins around and caution comes out.
08:40 It's the sixth one of the day. >> He was in 11th place right there when he
08:46 lost control off of turn one. >> It's going to be interesting for a few
08:53 of the cars. I'm thinking still planning on coming to pit road. Now they have to ride
08:57 around under yellow. Let's see how the 20 gets back without damaging his car. Take a
09:01 look, guys. >> All by himself right here. Just loose. Back
09:05 comes around on the corner exit of turn one. >> Christopher Bell just trying to be aggressive
09:14 in the gas. I talked to Christopher this morning. He said, look, we've got speed. We just got
09:20 to quit making mistakes. He was talking about himself and his pit crew. That was on him.
09:25 Kyle Larson coming to pit road. Caution came out. He could not get on pit road. Most likely
09:30 I couldn't see the lights. Most likely it would have been a violation because the caution
09:35 lights came on before he was on pit road. So wisely turned out.
09:40 >> Let me get back to pit road. >> Fingers crossed.
09:45 >> Fingers crossed. Kyle Larson is going to win the stage. Ty Dillon second.
09:50 >> Ty Dillon has the same number of laps on his fuel as Larson. If Larson has a problem
09:55 with fuel, so does Ty Dillon. >> Door to door, side by side. Once again,
09:59 as Blaney gets a big shove from Ty Gibbs on that outside line.
10:05 >> It pushes him out clear. But they aren't together. That inside line is. Here comes
10:10 the inside line back. Blaney is clear down in the turn. He slides up and takes the air
10:16 away from the 24 to the inside. Truex, he won't make the pass but he slots into second
10:20 place in front of Byron. Way up the racetrack here. The back of the field. Look like Cole
10:26 Custer up in the wall there. As these cars jockey from position down at Long Pond Street.
10:32 >> That was Erik Jones in the 43 that ducked way to the inside.
10:36 >> Denny Hamlin trying to use all the racetrack he can. Trying to run Harvick up a little
10:41 bit clean. Just an aggressive move off the corner. Harvick trying to squeeze the 11.
10:46 >> The 11 up the track a little bit here. Taking the line away. There's contact right
10:50 there. >> While those two are side by side, here comes
10:54 the 9 of chase Elliott. >> He chose the 4 car to push down the straightaway
10:58 rather than making it three wide. >> He pushed the 4 right past the 11 of Denny
11:04 Hamlin. >> That's so frustrating for Denny. He'll
11:08 have to go back to work. Crash! >> Into the wall hard. Austin Dillon for
11:15 the second time. Around in turn one. This time a hard contact. That wall and fire under
11:22 the hood. >> It was a hard leg. The car got turned around.
11:27 Right rear first. >> See him throwing the steering wheel. Frustrated,
11:32 disgusted with what's just happened. Take a look at what happens.
11:38 >> Three wide down into one. That's Austin on the inside. Austin's in the middle. Comes
11:45 down the racetrack. Into the 45 of Reddick. >> I can get another look at that. It almost
11:53 looked like Austin didn't know he was there. That was just a first glance at it. Here we
11:59 go. I think he's expecting maybe that Reddick is going to be lower on the racetrack.
12:07 >> That's two guys going for the same piece of asphalt. Used to be teammates at RCR.
12:16 >> Pushing hard. >> Cautions out to 14 of chase. Briscoe is
12:21 around. He came out of turn four or three. Around he went. Now there will be another
12:28 restart. We have seen chaos on restarts today. >> Pretty heavy damage to the back of that
12:33 car. >> Off the corner all the way down the straightaway.
12:36 >> Around goes the car in the back. The 48 of bowman spins and brings the caution out.
12:47 He was running in the third position and around he went.
12:53 >> That's a tough break for the 48. His last top five was all the way back in koda in March.
12:59 He has not had a top five since returning from injury. He was in position today to get
13:03 one. Let's see what happens. >> Looks like he's chasing the back of the
13:08 car and just loses it. Denny's giving him some time, trying to allow him to gather the
13:12 car up. You can see Denny's allowing other cars to get underneath him. 11 checks up,
13:17 trying to help the 48. I don't know if there was an issue with flat tire or whatever was
13:23 going on there. The 48 goes in the corner and loses it.
13:26 >> A big wreck. Hard, hard. >> That's Haley in the 31. He has turned
13:33 around. A lot of damage to the driver's side of the 31. So the caution comes out once again.
13:44 >> Rick was also up there in the top three. Great to see the window net come down for
13:48 Haley. >> This is after coming to the yellow.
13:54 >> This is after the yellow. Look at that. Wow. He is angry.
14:00 >> So we'd like to see the restart to where we can watch Denny in the middle of the corner
14:04 gets position on the 5 and just dribbles up and drives up the racetrack. We saw this before
14:11 but it was Ross Chastain on the outside last year. Again, the 5 hard into the wall. Literally
14:18 almost the same exact scenario. He comes down the racetrack trying to slow Denny down.
14:26 >> You don't mind getting run up the racetrack a little bit but when you get run up the racetrack
14:30 this much to where now there's contact and it pushes you out of the groove, you have
14:36 no choice but to lift out of the throttle and you're still going to hit the wall. So
14:39 yeah, I don't blame him. I'd be mad too. >> Truex not able to close the gap. There's
14:45 a spin. The 41 of Priest is around. >> No, he's not going to make contact with
14:52 the inside wall and no caution has come out. >> Reddick to the inside for second.
14:57 >> One lap to go. Presented by credit one bank. >> Drag race down the front straight
15:04 away for second place between Reddick and Truex. The 41 still sitting there not refired.
15:09 >> Now he gets going. Trying to get going. You see the flames coming out of the exhaust
15:19 of the 41. He can't get it refired. >> They need to throw a caution right here.
15:23 >> The caution does come out. That will put Denny Hamlin in victory lane. Win number 60.
15:33 The crowd not happy. >> That is 100% the right thing to do. You
15:39 cannot let those cars go by him sitting in the racetrack like that. You don't have a
15:44 choice. We all hate it. There's no choice right there.
15:47 >> I don't believe that's what they're booing. >> Way to go, guys.
15:50 >> I don't think that's what they're booing, buddy.
15:52 >> I hope not. >> No.
15:53 >> I mean, that was the right call. The car can't be sitting there. Somebody gets turned
15:54 around. You can hear the fans frustrated. >> I'm not going to let him get away.
15:55 >> I'm not going to let him get away. >> I'm not going to let him get away.
15:56 >> I'm not going to let him get away. >> I'm not going to let him get away.
15:57 >> I'm not going to let him get away. >> I'm not going to let him get away.