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Sprint Cup
CUP: Bowyer Smoking As Smoke Fades
Clint Bowyer saved gas and a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway...
Clint Bowyer celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
The contrast could not have been more striking.
As surprise Sylvania 300 winner Clint Bowyer performed a titanic celebratory burnout on the frontstretch at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart, the would-be winner, limped slowly on his final drops of fuel to reach the start-finish line and complete his last lap.
It was the best and worst of times there in one photo frame.
“You hate to see that for anybody,” Bowyer said of Stewart, who led 100 laps but lost fuel pressure with less than two laps to go and surrendered the win to Bowyer. “You can imagine the heartbreak of running out of gas with one lap to go. You don’t wish bad things on anybody. You’re happy to win the race, and leave it at that.
“But that’s part of racing. I’ve certainly lost races that way.”
The point swing from first, which is where Stewart appeared to be headed, to 24th, where he finished, is 94. Stewart fell five spots in the Chase to 11th. On the other side, Bowyer, who ended an 88-race winless streak, jumped from the 12th – and last – seeding to second.
Bowyer entered the Chase generally relaxed, pointing out to anybody who would listen that he felt no pressure, that no one had great expectations for him because he was 12th and he hadn’t won. He rolled under the radar.
“I had a lot of fun,” he said. “It was kind of a relaxing weekend. Now we’ve launched ourselves into the pressure cooker early. You’ve just got to be able to have as much fun as we did this weekend.”
Bowyer said four-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who had a rotten Chase start and fell from second to seventh in points, remains the favorite.
“He’s still the guy everybody’s chasing,” Bowyer said. “He’s won four in a row. He’s still going to be the guy you have to beat.”
Bowyer was that guy Sunday, however. He took the lead for the first time on lap 29 and later led chunks of consecutive laps – 13, 53, 45 and 59 – as he cruised around the track unchallenged.
But his Chevrolet developed carburetor problems in the second half of the race, limiting his power on restarts and giving Stewart the opportunity to run to the front.
Although Bowyer was a strong second over the closing miles, he was in a dilemma. He and Stewart were trying to stretch their fuel to the finish, and everybody who was in radio communication with Bowyer – team owner Richard Childress, crew chief Shane Wilson and spotter Mike Dillon – repeatedly stayed on him to save fuel. Bowyer was concerned about Denny Hamlin, who was third and advancing quickly.
“You could tell just by Shane’s voice that I needed to save fuel,” Bowyer said. “I was lifting halfway down the straightaway. I was letting it roll around [the turns] as long as I could before I hit the gas. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was going to run out. It happened during the burnout, thank God.”
Gambling on the fuel could have been costly in the bigger Chase picture, as it was for Stewart. But Bowyer said he wasn’t ready to slow down and accept a finish lower than first.
“You dominate the race. You owe it to yourself to go out there and win the race,” he said. “Those are the kinds of Chase wins you’re going to have to take to beat these guys.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
As surprise Sylvania 300 winner Clint Bowyer performed a titanic celebratory burnout on the frontstretch at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart, the would-be winner, limped slowly on his final drops of fuel to reach the start-finish line and complete his last lap.
It was the best and worst of times there in one photo frame.
“You hate to see that for anybody,” Bowyer said of Stewart, who led 100 laps but lost fuel pressure with less than two laps to go and surrendered the win to Bowyer. “You can imagine the heartbreak of running out of gas with one lap to go. You don’t wish bad things on anybody. You’re happy to win the race, and leave it at that.
“But that’s part of racing. I’ve certainly lost races that way.”
The point swing from first, which is where Stewart appeared to be headed, to 24th, where he finished, is 94. Stewart fell five spots in the Chase to 11th. On the other side, Bowyer, who ended an 88-race winless streak, jumped from the 12th – and last – seeding to second.
Bowyer entered the Chase generally relaxed, pointing out to anybody who would listen that he felt no pressure, that no one had great expectations for him because he was 12th and he hadn’t won. He rolled under the radar.
“I had a lot of fun,” he said. “It was kind of a relaxing weekend. Now we’ve launched ourselves into the pressure cooker early. You’ve just got to be able to have as much fun as we did this weekend.”
Bowyer said four-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who had a rotten Chase start and fell from second to seventh in points, remains the favorite.
“He’s still the guy everybody’s chasing,” Bowyer said. “He’s won four in a row. He’s still going to be the guy you have to beat.”
Bowyer was that guy Sunday, however. He took the lead for the first time on lap 29 and later led chunks of consecutive laps – 13, 53, 45 and 59 – as he cruised around the track unchallenged.
But his Chevrolet developed carburetor problems in the second half of the race, limiting his power on restarts and giving Stewart the opportunity to run to the front.
Although Bowyer was a strong second over the closing miles, he was in a dilemma. He and Stewart were trying to stretch their fuel to the finish, and everybody who was in radio communication with Bowyer – team owner Richard Childress, crew chief Shane Wilson and spotter Mike Dillon – repeatedly stayed on him to save fuel. Bowyer was concerned about Denny Hamlin, who was third and advancing quickly.
“You could tell just by Shane’s voice that I needed to save fuel,” Bowyer said. “I was lifting halfway down the straightaway. I was letting it roll around [the turns] as long as I could before I hit the gas. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was going to run out. It happened during the burnout, thank God.”
Gambling on the fuel could have been costly in the bigger Chase picture, as it was for Stewart. But Bowyer said he wasn’t ready to slow down and accept a finish lower than first.
“You dominate the race. You owe it to yourself to go out there and win the race,” he said. “Those are the kinds of Chase wins you’re going to have to take to beat these guys.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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