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Sprint Cup
CUP: Bowyer Wins Fuel Scramble
Clint Bowyer held on over the closing miles to score his third win of the season...
Fuel can be cruel.
The lead teams in the race for the Sprint Cup championship played the gas game over the second half of Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the winner was none of them.
Instead, Clint Bowyer and his Michael Waltrip Racing team roared through the back door, won the race and reinserted themselves into the championship picture.
Bowyer outran Denny Hamlin by .41 of a second to score his third win of the season. Jimmie Johnson finished third, and point leader Brad Keselowski, who ran out of fuel in the final 100 miles, was 11th, one lap down.
“You’re just running the race backward, basically,” Hamlin said. “You’re seeing how slow you can go and maintain your track position. It’s tough. I’m sitting there thinking I can catch the 15 (Bowyer) any time I want, but Darian (crew chief Darian Grubb) is screaming at me to back off [to save fuel].”
In other words, Hamlin was protecting his second-place spot (and its points in the Chase race) by giving up a shot at the victory.
The final 107 laps of the race, the fifth in the Chase, were run without a caution, throwing the top teams into a nervous competition centered on their fuel tanks. Keselowski, who led 139 laps to easily lead that category for the night, tried to stretch his fuel load and ran out of gas on lap 276, and that error cost him greatly.
Instead of Keselowski winning the race and building on his point lead, the Chase race tightened significantly. Keselowski kept the lead but is in front of second-place Johnson by only seven points (14 prior to Saturday’s race). Hamlin, in third place, trails Keselowski by 15, a gain of eight.
And Bowyer moved up into fourth place, trailing the leader by 28.
The upfront teams played the fuel game for much of the second half of the race, trying to stretch gas loads to limit fuel stops over the closing miles.
The first half of the race showcased a battle at the front that matched the three point leaders – Keselowski, Johnson and Hamlin.
Over the first 167 laps (the halfway point), Johnson led 49 laps, Keselowski 44 and Hamlin 33. They ran in first, second and third much of the way.
But Bowyer was lurking. He ran within sight of the lead bunch most of the night, then took the lead for good with 25 laps to go as the fuel fighters saw their hopes dissolve.
The win was Bowyer’s first on a 1.5-mile track.
When a caution flew for debris on the track at the race’s halfway point, Hamlin had a half-second lead over Johnson, and Keselowski was three seconds back in third. Kasey Kahne was fourth and Greg Biffle fifth as Chase drivers held seven of the first 10 positions.
Regan Smith’s night in the sun turned sour quickly. He started 26th as substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and steadily advanced to 10th, but smoke showed from the rear of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 on lap 61, and Smith parked with engine trouble. He finished 38th.
Kurt Busch finished 21st in his first ride in the Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet, and AJ Allmendinger, returning to racing after being suspended by NASCAR for a drug violation, was 24th in the Phoenix Racing Chevy.
The night’s first caution involved a Chaser as Matt Kenseth, 12th in the point standings, lost control of his Ford after an apparent tire problem and slid across turn four before stopping on the inside apron of the track.
A second caution followed almost immediately on the ensuing restart as traffic stacked up on the green flag, causing several cars to slow down and sending Jeff Burton and David Ragan into spins.
The tangle also involved Chase drivers Tony Stewart and Keselowski. As the field accelerated and drivers then reacted to the slowdown, Stewart hit Keselowski’s car in the rear, causing damage to the front end of Stewart’s Chevrolet.
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.
The lead teams in the race for the Sprint Cup championship played the gas game over the second half of Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the winner was none of them.
Instead, Clint Bowyer and his Michael Waltrip Racing team roared through the back door, won the race and reinserted themselves into the championship picture.
Bowyer outran Denny Hamlin by .41 of a second to score his third win of the season. Jimmie Johnson finished third, and point leader Brad Keselowski, who ran out of fuel in the final 100 miles, was 11th, one lap down.
“You’re just running the race backward, basically,” Hamlin said. “You’re seeing how slow you can go and maintain your track position. It’s tough. I’m sitting there thinking I can catch the 15 (Bowyer) any time I want, but Darian (crew chief Darian Grubb) is screaming at me to back off [to save fuel].”
In other words, Hamlin was protecting his second-place spot (and its points in the Chase race) by giving up a shot at the victory.
The final 107 laps of the race, the fifth in the Chase, were run without a caution, throwing the top teams into a nervous competition centered on their fuel tanks. Keselowski, who led 139 laps to easily lead that category for the night, tried to stretch his fuel load and ran out of gas on lap 276, and that error cost him greatly.
Instead of Keselowski winning the race and building on his point lead, the Chase race tightened significantly. Keselowski kept the lead but is in front of second-place Johnson by only seven points (14 prior to Saturday’s race). Hamlin, in third place, trails Keselowski by 15, a gain of eight.
And Bowyer moved up into fourth place, trailing the leader by 28.
The upfront teams played the fuel game for much of the second half of the race, trying to stretch gas loads to limit fuel stops over the closing miles.
The first half of the race showcased a battle at the front that matched the three point leaders – Keselowski, Johnson and Hamlin.
Over the first 167 laps (the halfway point), Johnson led 49 laps, Keselowski 44 and Hamlin 33. They ran in first, second and third much of the way.
But Bowyer was lurking. He ran within sight of the lead bunch most of the night, then took the lead for good with 25 laps to go as the fuel fighters saw their hopes dissolve.
The win was Bowyer’s first on a 1.5-mile track.
When a caution flew for debris on the track at the race’s halfway point, Hamlin had a half-second lead over Johnson, and Keselowski was three seconds back in third. Kasey Kahne was fourth and Greg Biffle fifth as Chase drivers held seven of the first 10 positions.
Regan Smith’s night in the sun turned sour quickly. He started 26th as substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and steadily advanced to 10th, but smoke showed from the rear of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 on lap 61, and Smith parked with engine trouble. He finished 38th.
Kurt Busch finished 21st in his first ride in the Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet, and AJ Allmendinger, returning to racing after being suspended by NASCAR for a drug violation, was 24th in the Phoenix Racing Chevy.
The night’s first caution involved a Chaser as Matt Kenseth, 12th in the point standings, lost control of his Ford after an apparent tire problem and slid across turn four before stopping on the inside apron of the track.
A second caution followed almost immediately on the ensuing restart as traffic stacked up on the green flag, causing several cars to slow down and sending Jeff Burton and David Ragan into spins.
The tangle also involved Chase drivers Tony Stewart and Keselowski. As the field accelerated and drivers then reacted to the slowdown, Stewart hit Keselowski’s car in the rear, causing damage to the front end of Stewart’s Chevrolet.
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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