Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. ó Clint Bowyerís season started with a chance to win the Daytona 500. A late-race wreck ended his opportunity, and set the tone for a miserable opening month.
The low point came after a blown engine at Bristol dropped Bowyer to 24th in the Sprint Cup standings, and there were few indications that his Richard Childress Racing team could climb out of the hole.
Until they did.
Bowyer goes into Saturday nightís race at Richmond International Raceway as the hottest driver in the series. Four consecutive top-10s, including back-to-back second-place finishes, has vaulted him all the way up to 10th in the standings.
ěA month ago I was worried, very much so,î Bowyer said. ěBut at the end of the day, the reality was it was still way early in the season, still is even today. … But it feels good to be able to get on a little bit of a roll here, and hopefully we can continue to ride that wave.î
Next up comes Richmond, one of Bowyerís better tracks. Heíll start third Saturday night, behind Juan Pablo Montoya and Regan Smith.
Bowyer has five top-10s in 10 career starts, and his victory in 2008 was one of the more memorable wins of his entire racing career.
Denny Hamlin led 381 of the first 382 laps until a tire issue allowed Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to sail past him for the lead with 17 remaining. Caution eventually was called for Hamlin, setting up a five-lap sprint to the finish with Earnhardt, Busch and Bowyer holding the first three spots.
Busch then made contact with Earnhardtís car, sending Earnhardt spinning into the wall ó and opening a hole for Bowyer to slide past and steal the victory.
ěThat was win was probably the most fun Iíve ever had in Victory Lane because it was a surprise,î Bowyer said. ěI knew we had a fast car, and we put ourselves up there and put ourselves in position and the right circumstances played out and we were able to win the race. You couldnít help but laugh about it.î
Bowyer is hoping he wonít need late-race fireworks to win tonight.
Heís running well enough to win races and lost to Jimmie Johnson two weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway by .002 of a second ó tying the closest finish in Cup history since implementation of electronic scoring in 1993.
But wins donít come easy ó Bowyer has made four trips to Victory Lane in his Cup career.
ěWeíve got to win races,î he said. ěIíve been saying that all the time, and itís time for myself and our race team to prove ourselves this year, and hopefully we can win some more.î