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Bowyer Back With More To Prove

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By TONY FABRIZIO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 12, 2008

LOUDON, N.H. - Clint Bowyer was a surprise qualifier for last year's Chase, and even after he made it, hardly anyone regarded him as a threat.

But Bowyer, winless in his brief Sprint Cup career at that point, won the Chase opener at New Hampshire, ran surprisingly well in some other races and finished third behind Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon in the final standings.

He's back for NASCAR's version of the playoffs, albeit as the last of 12 drivers to secure a spot. He thinks he can at least repeat last year's showing.

"We definitely come into this thing better than we did last year confidence-wise," Bowyer said. "Last year, we had all the naysayers saying 'he's the only one in the Chase who hasn't won a race.' Now, we have won a race this year, and you can't say that about us."

Bowyer, 29, will try to defend his title in the Sylvania 300 on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It's the first in a 10-race Chase schedule that includes nerve-racking stops at Talladega and Martinsville, five intermediate tracks and the finale Nov. 16 at Homestead.

Although Bowyer got his second career victory in May at Richmond, he has had a mediocre summer. His most recent top-five finish was a fourth on the road course at Sonoma, Calif., in June, and he hasn't shown anything recently to suggest he can challenge top seeds Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.

On the other hand, Bowyer was able to raise his performance in last year's Chase after a so-so summer. In addition to his victory at New Hampshire, he had second-place finishes at his home track in Kansas and at Charlotte, and he was sixth at Atlanta.

"We have struggled this summer; there's no way getting around that," Bowyer said. "We are not happy with the way we have run this summer, but in the last two or three weeks, things have been looking better."

Bowyer, also racing for the Nationwide Series championship, is joined in the Chase by Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick. RCR is one of four teams to land three drivers in the field, along with Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

Because those four teams took up all the Chase spots, such prominent organizations as Penske Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Gillett Evernham Motorsports were shut out. None of the Dodge teams got a driver in the Chase.

It's difficult to get a fix on the RCR cars. Burton was stout early in the year and held on to first or second in the standings from late March through late June. Harvick managed only two top-five finishes through the first 18 races, but he has four in the last eight races.

Bowyer figures that even though the three teammates have to compete with each other, they will still need to help each other.

"We need to lean on each other and learn as much as we can from each other week in and out," he said. "You can't do this alone. You look at Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson last year running 1 and 2; they were every bit as much teammates in the Chase as they were all season."

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