NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Bowyer Scores In Sonoma
Clint Bowyer wins Toyota/Save Mart 350 in overtime…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted June 24, 2012   Sonoma, CA
Mayhem was expected. It didn’t show.

But Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 did feature one of the best two-car standoffs of the Sprint Cup season and considerable drama near the finish.

Clint Bowyer outdueled Kurt Busch in a raging battle of hungry-to-win drivers over the closing 20 laps, emerging victorious for the first time since October.

Busch raced in Bowyer’s shadow for lap after lap over the race’s twilight laps but ultimately couldn’t challenge because of a damaged car.

The caution flew for only the second time with four laps remaining when Kyle Busch hit Paul Menard in the rear and pushed Menard into a spin. Bowyer had a 1.5-second lead over Kurt Busch at that point.

That stretched the race two laps beyond its scheduled distance of 110 laps for a green-white-checkered. Tony Stewart, third on the restart, moved around Busch for second place on the first of the final two laps as Busch struggled with a damaged car. Stewart couldn’t move into position to challenge Bowyer, who won by .82 of a second.

“To switch teams (from Richard Childress Racing) like I did was a huge risk and a chance for me and a chance for me to showcase my talents,” Bowyer said as Michael Waltrip Racing teammates joined him in victory lane.

Later, Bowyer called the race the best in NASCAR history. And said he meant it.

“To have this dirt [track] boy from Kansas in victory lane at a road course is big, trust me," Bowyer said. He marveled at his ability to pass Jeff Gordon, a five-time winner at Sonoma, early in the race.

The win was the first this year for Bowyer and his first for MWR.

“We are a place for refugees,” said team owner Michael Waltrip, referring to Bowyer, who was on the ropes at Richard Childress Racing, and crew chief Brian Pattie, who had been fired from his previous job at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

Busch was third, Brian Vickers a surprising fourth and Jimmie Johnson fifth.

In the second five were Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Marcos Ambrose, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano.

The race went caution-free until lap 83, when Tomy Drissi spun and slammed into the wall. The green-flag stretch was the longest to start a race in the track’s history, 42 straight laps to open the 1997 race the previous longest.

With only 28 laps remaining, the drivers in the front pack – Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. – stayed on the track.

Bowyer had a one-second lead on Kurt Busch when the caution flew. They were dominating the race at that point, as third-place Johnson was 16 seconds behind Bowyer.

Although road-course races in recent seasons have featured much of the bumping and thumping traditionally associated with short-track competition, Sunday’s race was virtually as calm as a church picnic.

Ambrose, the pole winner, led the race’s first 11 laps before his car began to lose grip and Gordon jumped to the front.

Gordon led 13 straight laps, then Bowyer moved into first as teams began plotting various pit-stop strategies.

Bowyer’s win boosted him two spots in the series point standings to seventh. Matt Kenseth kept the point lead and now is 11 points in front of second-place Greg Biffle. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is third.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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