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Sprint Cup
CUP: Bowyer Wins At ‘Worst’ Track
Clint Bowyer returns to championship contention with a solid win at CMS…
Clint Bowyer celebrates his victory in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Clint Bowyer calls Charlotte Motor Speedway his worst race track.
He might have to re-evaluate after Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.
Bowyer and his team spun fuel-mileage strategy to near-perfection and won the fifth race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup over the Big Three of the Chase – Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin.
In 13 previous races at CMS, Bowyer had no victories and only one top five.
The win was his first on a 1.5-mile oval.
“To be able to come here and compete and have cars capable of qualifying in the top five and racing up front, I mean, that's – man, I'm telling you, that means a lot to me,” Bowyer said. “I think it speaks volumes to our team, (crew chief) Brian Pattie, everybody that he's assembled around me from the get‑go. It makes you almost giddy. It's so much fun to come to the race track knowing you've got cars that are capable of getting the job done. You've just got to figure out how to make it work.”
And Bowyer was certainly giddy long after the end of the race as he, Pattie and team co-owner Michael Waltrip entertained reporters in a lively, comedy-filled winners’ press conference.
Near the end of the conference, Chad Knaus, crew chief for Johnson, walked past the media center and tapped on the window to give Bowyer congratulations.
“Yes! That’s Chad Knaus!” Bowyer said. “Any time you outfox that guy, you’ve done something!”
And that’s what the MWR team did, using fuel strategy over the final two pit-stop sequences to maneuver into position to finish .417 of a second in front of Hamlin. Johnson was third, and Keselowski, who gambled on fuel and lost, was 11th.
Bowyer jumped into fourth in points with the finish and trails Keselowski, who’s still the leader, by 28. It’s a daunting number, but Bowyer and Pattie said they have a shot.
“We're going for trophies,” Pattie said. “That's the only way you're going to beat the 2 (Keselowski), the 48 (Johnson) and the 11 (Hamlin). That mid‑pack fourth, fifth and sixth in points were gapped a little bit from the leaders, so you had to do something special to get back into it, and this definitely helps.”
Bowyer said he’s ready as the circuit moves on to Kansas Speedway, his home track.
“At the end of the day, we're a hell of a lot better than we were leaving Talladega,” he said. “To be back in victory lane, new life, new hope going into Kansas. There's a lot of races left. There's a couple short tracks, Kansas – nobody really knows what to expect there. It's a repave. You know these cars that are running on these mile‑and‑a‑halfs are going to be fast there, but you don't know if somebody is going to stub their toe, if somebody is going to struggle if it comes down to fuel mileage.
“You know, I looked at it last week, and going into this week, I still thought if one of those guys were to stub a toe, if Brad stubbed his toe, it really opened the door for about eight of us right back into the championship hunt. With a win here, it definitely gave us new life and new hope.”
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.
He might have to re-evaluate after Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.
Bowyer and his team spun fuel-mileage strategy to near-perfection and won the fifth race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup over the Big Three of the Chase – Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin.
In 13 previous races at CMS, Bowyer had no victories and only one top five.
The win was his first on a 1.5-mile oval.
“To be able to come here and compete and have cars capable of qualifying in the top five and racing up front, I mean, that's – man, I'm telling you, that means a lot to me,” Bowyer said. “I think it speaks volumes to our team, (crew chief) Brian Pattie, everybody that he's assembled around me from the get‑go. It makes you almost giddy. It's so much fun to come to the race track knowing you've got cars that are capable of getting the job done. You've just got to figure out how to make it work.”
And Bowyer was certainly giddy long after the end of the race as he, Pattie and team co-owner Michael Waltrip entertained reporters in a lively, comedy-filled winners’ press conference.
Near the end of the conference, Chad Knaus, crew chief for Johnson, walked past the media center and tapped on the window to give Bowyer congratulations.
“Yes! That’s Chad Knaus!” Bowyer said. “Any time you outfox that guy, you’ve done something!”
And that’s what the MWR team did, using fuel strategy over the final two pit-stop sequences to maneuver into position to finish .417 of a second in front of Hamlin. Johnson was third, and Keselowski, who gambled on fuel and lost, was 11th.
Bowyer jumped into fourth in points with the finish and trails Keselowski, who’s still the leader, by 28. It’s a daunting number, but Bowyer and Pattie said they have a shot.
“We're going for trophies,” Pattie said. “That's the only way you're going to beat the 2 (Keselowski), the 48 (Johnson) and the 11 (Hamlin). That mid‑pack fourth, fifth and sixth in points were gapped a little bit from the leaders, so you had to do something special to get back into it, and this definitely helps.”
Bowyer said he’s ready as the circuit moves on to Kansas Speedway, his home track.
“At the end of the day, we're a hell of a lot better than we were leaving Talladega,” he said. “To be back in victory lane, new life, new hope going into Kansas. There's a lot of races left. There's a couple short tracks, Kansas – nobody really knows what to expect there. It's a repave. You know these cars that are running on these mile‑and‑a‑halfs are going to be fast there, but you don't know if somebody is going to stub their toe, if somebody is going to struggle if it comes down to fuel mileage.
“You know, I looked at it last week, and going into this week, I still thought if one of those guys were to stub a toe, if Brad stubbed his toe, it really opened the door for about eight of us right back into the championship hunt. With a win here, it definitely gave us new life and new hope.”
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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