FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, August 21st, 2016

NOTES & QUOTES FROM NBC SPORTS’ NASCAR SPRINT CUP COVERAGE FROM BRISTOL ON CNBC

“To be able to do a burnout not as the driver but as the owner of the car that won, that is pretty special.” – Jeff Burton on Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart’s Post-Race Burnout

 

They are both aggressive, and don’t take anything for granted. They work very hard.” – Burton on the Similarities between Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart

 

STAMFORD, Conn. – August 21, 2016 – NBC Sports’ extended visit to Tennessee culminated with Sunday afternoon’s presentation of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Bristol Motor Speedway on CNBC. NASCAR on NBC’s lead broadcast team of Rick Allen, Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton called the race. Marty Snider, Mike Massaro, Parker Kligerman and Dave Burns reported from pit road.

 

At the conclusion of the 500 laps, which spanned across two days, Kevin Harvick secured his second Sprint Cup victory at The Last Great Colosseum. After the race, teammate and co-owner of the No. 4, Tony Stewart, joined Harvick for a victory burnout.

 

Position Driver Car #
1 Kevin Harvick 4
2 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 17
3 Denny Hamlin 11
4 Austin Dillon 3
5 Chris Buescher 34

 

The following are highlights from this afternoon’s Sprint Cup coverage from Bristol on CNBC.

 

Burton on the burnout shared between race winner Kevin Harvick and team co-owner Tony Stewart: “There is so much respect between those two drivers. They both drive very much alike. They are both aggressive, and don’t take anything for granted. They work very hard.”

 

Burton on Stewart’s final run at Bristol Motor Speedway: “Tony talked about how much this race track meant to him, that he would miss this race track. To be able to do a burnout not as the driver but as the owner of the car that won, that is pretty special.”

 

Race leader with 55 laps to go, Harvick to Burton via radio communication during the red flag: “I think getting the lead was important to get control of the restarts…I think the key is keeping control of the race and seeing where it goes from there.”

 

Austin Dillon to Burton via radio communication during the red flag: “It’s been a long weekend, but it sure would pay off to come home where we currently are (3rd) or better.”

 

Kurt Busch to Massaro on the late race crash which ended his day: “I just missed the bottom groove by a few inches. I drove the car at 101 percent, got loose and it got away from me. I should have had it at 99 percent. But that grip level on the bottom, if you don’t hit it exactly right you lose a lot of speed. I hate it for my guys. We had completed every lap this year. I put it up on edge to try and win the race and overstepped the line.”

 

Kyle Busch to Massaro after his lap 359 race-ending accident: “I was feeling something breaking, obviously. It is a shame. The last few times we have been here we have had really fast cars and we haven’t been able to finish. We have been having parts failure here. It is something we have to address and fix. I’m really tired of losing races here with parts falling apart. They will hear about it on Tuesday. The person that is the biggest moron out there is the spotter of the No. 46 and the driver of the No. 46. I’d been wrecking for half a lap and they just come on through and clean us out. That is stupid.”

 

A link of Kyle Busch’s crash is available here.

 

Letarte on the increased track speed: “To put it in perspective, four years ago the pole speed was a 15.6 second lap. Today, everyone inside the top ten has run sub that. The leaders are at 15.1, 15.2 and 15.3 seconds. They are almost a half a second faster.”

 

Burton on traffic at the half-mile track: “All day long we are going to see how slower cars impact what the lead lap cars do. You have to time the pass correctly.”

 

— NBC SPORTS GROUP —