Clint Bowyer
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Pepsi 400 – July 1 2006
Venue: Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.
This Week’s Race Car at Daytona International Speedway … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 160 from the Richard Childress Racing stable. Built new for 2006, this is the same Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Bowyer raced to a sixth-place finish in the Daytona 500. He also raced the same car at Talladega in April but finished 40th after being consumed in a lap nine, multi-car melee.
Stats Facts … In three Busch Series races and one NEXTEL Cup start at Daytona, Bowyer hasn’t finished any worse than 12th. The Emporia, Kan., driver has earned a pair of NASCAR Busch Series top-five starts and top-five finishes. In his NEXTEL Cup Series debut at the celebrated 2.5- mile Daytona Beach track, Bowyer came from deep in the field to finish sixth in “The Great American Race.”
RCR Rocks Daytona … Dating back to 1986, RCR has won seven poles and owns 22 total victories at DIS, including 10 straight (1990-1999) Twin 125 wins with Dale Earnhardt. All totaled, RCR has won five Bud Shootouts, 13 Twin 125 qualifying races, two Pepsi 400s and one Daytona 500. Additionally, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won the February 2002 NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) race at Daytona driving a car fielded by RCR.
The Fast Way Around … While serving as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief at the 2002 Pepsi 400, Bowyer’s crew chief Gil Martin captured the pole after Harvick posted a lap of 48.638 seconds (185.041 mph).
A Toast to the Troops … For the second year in a row, the Jack Daniel’s Distillery, in cooperation with the USO, is launching its’ “Toast to the Troops” campaign. During the campaign, Jack Daniel’s and the USO collect messages of support—or “toasts”—to include in Operation USO Care Packages for service men and women serving abroad. Toasts will be collected through the Operation USO Care Package Web site (www.usocares.org), the Jack Daniel’s Web site (www.jackdaniels.com), at the Jack Daniel’s Experience during NASCAR races across the country and at selected retail outlets.
Meet the Driver … Bowyer will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer Saturday, July 1 from 3:30 p.m. - 4 p.m. Tickets for autographs will be available at the trailer the morning of the race and are limited in supply due to time constraints.
Get the Complete Experience … Immediately following his stop at the souvenir trailer, Bowyer will head to the Jack Daniel’s Experience for a 15 minute question and answer session from
4 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. The Jack Daniel’s Experience will be located outside turn four in the speedway’s display area.
Double Down Daytona Style … Once again, Bowyer returns to the seat of RCR’s No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet this weekend at Daytona as the NASCAR Busch Series invades DIS for round two at the “World Center of Racing.” Live television coverage of the Winn Dixie 250 will take the green flag Friday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on FX. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio will also broadcast the race live from coast to coast.
Up to Speed … The Pepsi 400 from Daytona International Speedway will be telecast live on FOX, Saturday, July 1, beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT and broadcast live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 17th points-paying race on 2006 NEXTEL Cup calendar will be televised live on SPEED Friday, June 30 at 4:30 p.m. EDT and broadcast live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio.
CLINT BOWYER QUOTES:
How do you feel as we head into the second half of the season?
“I’m looking forward to going to all these race tracks for the second time. We’ve got a lot of good notes to go off of. If we ran well, we have good notes outlining what we did right and if we ran poorly, we know what to do differently. I’ll be a lot more confident about some of these tracks the second time around and I think we’ll be a lot better. Going into Daytona, we ran well there in February. The Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet was fast and we played our cards right. I’m looking forward to doing that very same thing this weekend. You have to handle good at Daytona. If you can’t hold your foot to the floorboard, you’re not going to be up there when the time comes.”
In your opinion, how has the first half of the season gone?
“It’s gone by in a hurry. It’s amazing how fast it has gone by. We’ve slipped a little bit in the last month and haven’t been getting the results that our speed and performance have been showing. We have fast race cars and we’ve run up front but at the end of the day, we can’t seem to get the finish out of it that we deserve. We’ve been working on that. We took a deep breath last week and had a couple good meetings with the guys and sorted some things out that we can work on to become a better team”
How comfortable are you in restrictor plate races?
“I’m pretty comfortable. I was pretty nervous, even as recently as last year in the Busch Series, but I think I’ve run enough of them now where I’ve got a pretty good feel for them. We ran well at Daytona so that gives me a lot of confidence to go back there especially. I’ve been watching a lot of film and studying what some of the veterans do so I feel like I know a lot more about it.”
Are you happy to get those three non-companion Busch races out of the way and be able to walk across the garage area to get to either the Jack Daniel’s or the ACDelco Chevy?
“It’s nice to have the last three weeks behind me. Last week between Sonoma and Milwaukee was the toughest. It’s definitely going to be nice having both cars at the same race track and being able to bounce back and forth and have the two cars compliment each other. The idea is to be able to learn enough Saturday and use that to put forth a good effort on Sunday. That’s the way it should be.”
