NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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IN THE COCKPIT: Clint Bowyer - Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
I had a strange feeling it was going to be our day at Talladega...
Clint Bowyer  |  Posted October 27, 2011   Welcome, NC
Clint Bowyer is all smiles in victory lane after winning Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
It was about time something went right for the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet team.

Everything has to go perfectly for you to win a restrictor-plate race, and it did perfectly last Sunday. Jeff Burton and I worked together great, but I did get a little bit worried on a restart near the end when I was leading and he was in fifth place. I thought we were done right there. I got shuffled back to 26th, but was able to let him get back in front of me.

The stars all lined up and I was able to pass him coming to the checkered flag for the win. I think it all had to do with the 100th theme throughout the weekend. When I woke up Sunday morning and thought about the fact I was driving Chevrolet’s 100th Anniversary car, and Richard was going for his 100th Cup Series win, it was just too surreal. I had a strange feeling it was going to be our day.

We didn’t luck into our finishes either. The Richard Childress Racing teams ran up front and ran the whole race. Richard didn’t want us hanging around at the back waiting for the wrecks to all be over with. It was important to him for us to race the whole day and put on a show for the fans who bought those tickets.

Plus, I think running in the front is good practice for the end of the race when everyone tries to make their charge through the field. We used to get a lot of practice time at Talladega but we don’t anymore. The teams don’t always have a good grasp of what they’ve got with the limited on-track time prior to the race nowadays. And when we do have that time, everybody is scared about tearing up their car, so they go about practice a bit timidly.

But if you’ve been racing at the front most of the day and slicing and dicing, you’re ready when the time comes in the closing laps. You’ve also got much better track position. I am not sure if it’s due to the rule changes or not, but it seemed harder to get that run from the back to position yourself when the time came toward the end of the race. It’s just better to be up there from the beginning.

But it was even better to be there when the checkered flag waved. It was so awesome for me to get another win with the RCR and No. 33 guys. I’ve had a great career at RCR and made a lot of good friends, and it was pretty cool to share another Victory Lane with them. Wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series are hard to come by and you never know when your next one will be. But for me with only four races left with those guys, those wins mean even more now.

Now it’s time to head to the “paperclip.” We had a good run at Martinsville back in the spring, leading 91 laps and finishing in the ninth spot, so we’ve got something to build on with the No. 33 American Ethanol Chevrolet this weekend.

As hectic and stressful as Talladega was, Martinsville is in its own way, too. Racing at Martinsville feels like you’re always stuck in a 70-mile-per-hour traffic jam that never ends. It’s a very demanding and difficult track to get around.

It’s kind of funny – when I was a rookie in the Cup Series, I went in thinking that my short track background would give me an edge at Martinsville and Darlington. I thought I would adapt the quickest to those two tracks. Well, I was sadly mistaken. It took me two or three years to get comfortable and to begin running well at both of them.

Maybe, just maybe, we can sneak out of there with a win. I can’t tell you how cool it would be to bring home a grandfather clock Sunday afternoon. So, we’ll go there and try to give them hell and see where we all shake out.

Clint Bowyer returns to the seat of the No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet Impala for Richard Childress Racing for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Bowyer has qualified for the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup in three of the last four years, finishing 10th in 2010 with two wins, seven top-five and a career-high 18 top-10 finishes. He finished the 2007 season third in points and the 2008 season fifth, and won the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship for RCR. The 31-year-old was named driver of the No. 07 Chevrolet for RCR in 2006 and finished runner-up in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings on the strength of four top-five and 11 top-10 finishes. The Kansas native caught the eye of Richard Childress after leading 47 laps en route to a runner-up finish in his ARCA Racing Series debut at Nashville Superspeedway in 2003. Bowyer won the 2002 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Midwest Region championship and two NASCAR Dodge Weekly track titles in 2002. He also fields a full-time dirt late model team under the Clint Bowyer Racing banner with drivers Dale McDowell and Jared Landers. For more information on Bowyer or his RCR team, please visit the following; Twitter account: @RCR33CBowyer,
http://www.rcrracing.com, http://www.cheeriosracing.com, http://www.clintbowyer.com.
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